GETTING THINGS DONE IN HYDE PARK WARD
Over the past four years, your Hyde Park Labour Councillors – Judith Southern, Md Shamsed Chowdhury and Paul Dimoldenberg, assisted by Nigel Medforth – have worked tirelessly on your behalf.
As well, as getting things done quickly and efficiently on the day-to-day issues raised by you and other residents, here are examples of what we have been doing to improve life for residents.
We know there is still much more to do,
OUR PLEDGES FOR THE NEXT FOUR YEARS
- Improving safety and security by installing more new CCTV cameras and putting additional police on the streets
- Keeping our local environment in good condition by taking speedy action on cracked pavements, potholes, defective streetlights and graffiti and planting more trees.
- Maintaining regular street sweeping and waste collection services for general waste, recycling and food waste recycling.
- Action against illegal Airbnb lettings by increasing the size of the Short-Term Lettings Team so that more suspect properties can be inspected
- Keeping the second lowest Council tax in the UK for another four years.
Please let us know your priorities for action at hplabour@gmail.com
NEW CCTV CAMERAS
After the previous Conservative administration scrapped the Council’s CCTV cameras, we have improved safety and security by installing new CCTV cameras at
- Burwood Place
- Praed Street/South Wharf Road
- Connaught Street
- Connaught Village Green
- Connaught Place
- Norfolk Crescent
- Spring Street/Conduit Place
- Norfolk Place/Norfolk Square
- Southwick Street
- Sussex Gardens/London Street
- Star Street/Sale Place
The cameras are monitored 24/7 and the footage is available to the police to identify those responsible for crime and anti-social behaviour. Already, arrests have been made and those responsible for crimes have been apprehended. In addition, the police have installed CCTV cameras at Marble Arch and on Edgware Road.
Please let us know which other locations would benefit from a CCTV camera hplabour@gmail.com
IMPROVED ROADS and PAVEMENTS
We have arranged the following improvements:
- Connaught Village Green completed
- New pavements along Star Street, Stanhope Place, Southwick Street and Old Marylebone Road
- Two new pedestrian crossing points along Hyde Park Crescent
- Three new zebra crossings at Transept Street and Cabbell Street
- New road surfaces along Porchester Place, Kendal Street, North Wharf Road, Chapel Street, Connaught Street, Somers Crescent, Cambridge Square, Bathurst Street, Praed Street, Star Street, Norfolk Square and Hyde Park Crescent.
- New bollards and regular enforcement by the City Inspectors keeping clear the pavement in front of the Car Wash in Kendal Street.
In addition, we regularly report cracked pavements, potholes, defective streetlights and graffiti for action daily. Keeping the basics in good order is an essential part of our practical, common-sense approach.
REGULAR STREET SWEEPING, WASTE COLLECTION AND RECYCLING
We have maintained regular daily street sweeping and twice-weekly waste collection services across the ward, for general waste, recycling and food waste recycling.
Residents regularly say ‘thank you’ to our superb team of street sweepers and bin men – as we do, too. Also,
- We asked for more litter bins where they are needed and relocated some litter bins which were attracting fly-tipping.
- We started food waste recycling for the first time in Hyde Park Ward.
- We introduced food waste recycling and electrical items recycling facilities at Bouverie Place.
- We organised a Community Mobile Recycling Centre event at Norfolk Crescent Gardens attended by hundreds of residents.
- Edgware Road and Praed Street are given a hot water wash every three months – the previous Conservative Council did it just once a year.
- We regularly remove weeds from the cobbles in the mews in the Ward.
- New planters have been located at former dumping ‘hot spots’ in Transept Street and Bathurst Street.
- Fines are regularly issued to people and businesses who dump rubbish on the street.
NEW TREES AND GREEN INITIATIVES
New trees have been planted in Kendal Street, Norfolk Crescent, Park West Place, Connaught Square and Cambridge Square. Please let us know where you would like new trees planted
New planters have been located at former dumping ‘hot spots’ in Transept Street and Bathurst Street.
TfL has installed new ‘rain gardens’ to protect the area from flooding along Edgware Road, at the junction with Sussex Gardens, and at the Harrow Road/Edgware Road junction, at the site of the former underpass.
TfL has relocated the planters from Burwood Place to Old Marylebone Road.
We have installed 38 more Electric Vehicle charging sockets in Hyde Park Ward, for residents’ use alongside residents parking bays. We have also installed 16 more ‘fast’ EV charging sockets, for use by all, across 8 double-bay sites in the ward.
Half the Council’s refuse collection fleet is now all-electric, with new all-electric vehicles on order for the rest of the fleet. This saves money on expensive diesel and eliminates harmful emissions.
A new ‘last mile’ walking delivery system will cut the number of vehicles on local roads.
A new ‘Walking Map’ of Westminster is available online and from libraries, with walks along ‘green routes’.
SUPPORTING HOUSING ASSOCIATION & COUNCIL TENANTS
We have given regular support to housing association and Council tenants on repairs, major works, defective heating and hot water systems, security and other issues at:
- Montgomery House
- Sheldon Square
- Dudley House
- 38-47 Chapel Street
- Star Street
- St Michael’s Street
- 5 Harbet Road
- 2 Hermitage Street
- Aster House
- Edna House
ACTION ON ILLEGAL SHORT-TERM LETTINGS
Action from the Council’s Short Term Lettings Team is being taken against illegal Airbnb lettings at
- West End Quay
- Cambridge Court
- The Water Gardens
- Devonport
- 25 Porchester Place
- Dahlia House
- Park West
- Hyde Park Mansions
- Oxford & Cambridge Mansions
- Star Street
- The Quadrangle
- 38-47 Chapel Street
We have doubled the size of the Short-Term Lettings Team so that more suspect Airbnb properties can be inspected and action taken.
SUPPORTING RESIDENTS ON PLANNING PROPOSALS
- Supported residents’ objections to the Church Commissioners’ plans for two houses in the Devonport gardens.
- Supported residents in Radnor Mews opposed to hotel extension plans in Sussex Gardens.
- Supported residents opposed to student hostel plans for the Travis Perkins site.
- Supported Church Commissioners’ revised plans for Portsea Mews.
- Supported residents opposed to plans for a hotel at the corner of Chapel Street and Old Marylebone Road to replace the Chapel pub
- Supported residents opposed to revised proposals to add three floors to each block at Southacre and Castleacre.
- Supported The Bear public house in Spring Street in their battle to keep their external signs.
- Supported residents opposed to the loss of the Ross Nye Stables in Bathurst Mews
PETITIONS
We have supported residents’ concerns at every opportunity and organised petitions on the following
- To keep Praed Street Post Office open
- To keep the 7 and 94 bus routes running to Piccadilly
- To extend crossing times at pedestrian crossings
- To keep Lancaster Gate Station open
- To keep the 205-bus route to Paddington Station
IMPROVED CYCLING FACILITIES
We have supported improved cycling facilities:
- Tulip wands have been installed along Sussex Gardens.
- The C43 route from Hyde Park to Marylebone is well underway
- New bike hangars have been installed in Star Street, Transept Street, Portsea Place, Cambridge Square, Oxford Square, Park West Place and London Street to enable residents to park their bikes safely and securely.
- More bike hangars are planned for Spring Street, Sussex Square, Connaught Square and Norfolk Crescent
- New bike racks have been located Park West Place, Connaught Street, Kendal Street
- Additional ‘wands’ have been installed in Praed Street to protect the cycle lane from taxis in front of the Paddington Metropole Hotel.
- A new protected cycle lane in Brook Street
- E-bike parking areas have been designated across the ward to stop e-bikes being dumped at random on the pavement.
- The Council has issued over 1,000 on-the-spot fines of £100 to Lime and Forest for badly parked e-bikes, which the companies are paying. Council staff report seeing more e-bike company staff on the ground to remove badly parked bikes.
- Free cycle training is open to anyone who lives, works or studies in Westminster. Over 4,000 people have benefitted from this over the past two years.
REMOVING TENT ENCAMPMENTS
- Tent encampments have been removed from under the Westway at the Harrow Road/Edgeware Road junction, the Bishop’s Bridge roundabout, under the Water Gardens canopy on Edgware Road, in Norfolk Square, in Hyde Park and along Park Lane.
- Rough sleepers have been offered alternative places to sleep safely
- Areas under the Westway and the Bishop’s Bridge roundabout have been fenced off to prevent further encampments
REGULAR ADVICE SESSIONS
We have held almost 50 regular advice surgeries at St John’s Parish Hall, Hyde Park Crescent, on the first Thursday of every month from 6pm-7pm. The previous Conservative Councillors did not hold regular monthly surgeries.
In addition, we have held regular meetings where residents can raise issues with us, the police and Council officers.
We are regularly out and about, talking to residents in the street and taking up local issues.
KEEPING YOU IN TOUCH
Every month we send out our regular email Action Report with details of the issues raised by you and the action we have taken to improve life for everyone in the area. If you or your neighbours want to receive a copy, please sign up here https://mailchi.mp/westminsterlabour.org/signup
We have sent out over 50 regular Action Reports, inviting your comments and reporting back to you on what we are doing.
KEEPING YOUR COUNCIL TAX LOW
We have maintained the second lowest Council tax in the UK for four successive years.
Despite the ‘scare stories’ from other political parties, you continue to have the cleanest streets and the most regular bin collections in the country, as well as many other first-class services, at a lower cost than almost anywhere else.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
In May you will have the opportunity to vote for who you want to represent you for the next 4 years.
Other political parties will make you promises they cannot deliver. But we have shown that that we get things done in a practical and efficient way.
Don’t go back to the bad old days when the Conservatives took you for granted and wasted £6 million on the disasterous Marble Arch Mound.
No matter who you are or where you live, we work for YOU and we get things done.
Other political parties will ask for your vote based on your thoughts on national and international issues. But May’s Council elections are about LOCAL issues.
We have done a lot, but there’s still a lot more to do. Don’t let the Conservatives ruin things.
Paul is standing down after 37 years as a Councillor. Local resident Nigel Medforth is taking Paul’s place, alongside Judith and Shamsed.
If you believe we are doing a good job in Hyde Park Ward, and you want us to continue the good work, please vote Labour on 7th May.
Yours sincerely
Judith, Shamsed, Paul and Nigel
COUNCILLORS JUDITH SOUTHERN, Md SHAMSED CHOWDHURY and PAUL DIMOLDENBERG & NIGEL MEDFORTH
Your Hyde Park Labour Team
We get things done!
WHAT RESIDENTS SAY
“Labour has focused on the important ‘micro politics’ of getting things done for the community, from street improvements to reducing street dumping and increased security, through additional CCTV. Meeting peoples’ needs is their priority.”
Jim Hill, St George’s Fields, Albion Street
“Thank you for your support, responsiveness, and dedication to resolving local issues. Your monthly action report commitment greatly benefits our community. We appreciate your efforts.”
Shubhangi Gandhi, Oxford & Cambridge Mansions, Cabbell Street
“The Labour-led Westminster City Council has made clear improvements to the Hyde Park Estate, with a strong focus on greener, safer streets. Traffic measures have cut congestion and pollution, making the area calmer and more pleasant to move around. Upgrades like Connaught Village Green and better public spaces have created more room for community life and local activity. I’ve personally noticed the difference day to day, with quieter streets, cleaner surroundings, and a much more welcoming feel across the area.”
Chris Cliffe, Chelwood House, Gloucester Square.
“I am delighted with the achievements of our Labour Councillors. They are responsive, truly listen to residents and work tirelessly to find practical solutions. I am sure they will continue with their dedication and ability to bring people together which is exactly what we need on the council.”
Ms Sawsan Al-Amily, 25 Porchester Place.
“I am immensely grateful to the Hyde Park Councillors for resolving my housing disrepair problems in my darkest time. As a new resident of Malaysian origin, they made me welcome to this community and I support the three Labour candidates’ campaign.”
Su Koe, Park West, Edgware Road
Promoted by Jonathan Charles on behalf of Labour’s Hyde Park Ward Candidates, all at 4g Shirland Mews, London W9 3DY