| Wardour Street
Cllr Patrick Lilley met residents of Wardour House and Soho to hear
their worries around issues of noise, repairs and security.
Dufours Place Soho
Cllr Fisher has been successful in his attempts to get Soho Housing
Association to install a new boiler at Dufours Place. It is hoped that this
will address overheating at the site which has been ongoing since at
least 2019 (long before Labour took control of the Council). These works
were undertaken at Cllr Fisher’s insistence and following his demands
for further monitoring at the property (involving several apartments)
which identified that the hazard had not been resolved. It remains to be
seen whether these works address the overheating but further
monitoring works will be undertaken in early 2024 to make sure SHA and
the council are doing all they can to address the problem.
Noisy Deliveries Across The West End Ward
Council Officers are working with residents in North Mayfair and West
End’s Ward Councillors following up on concerns about ongoing anti-
social noise from deliveries and servicing especially at the West One
shopping centre. We have reminded the shopping centre owners and
tenants that there should be no noisy deliveries outside of the core
hours of 7am -11pm.
Rough Sleeping and ASB in Cavendish Square
West End Cllr Jessica Toale hosted two meetings between local
residents, the council and local police officers to address concerns about
rough sleeping and anti-social behaviour. Actions have been taken in
conjunction with immigration with arrests being made an at least one
person deported.
Pedicab Prosecutions
West End Councillors and long-suffering residents are still waiting for
Government legislation to regulate pedicabs in Westminster but huge
thank you to joint operations with the Met Police and Westminster City
Inspectors over the last 3 months (Nov-Jan 2024) we have successfully
brought 19 Cases against nuisance riders who had to pay a total
£8,807.00 in fines +costs.
Queues Blocking Pavements
Residents have said that poorly managed queues are cluttering Soho’s
narrow streets. Customers have routinely blocked pavements forcing
passers-by into the road. Peter Street is of particular concern where
some of those waiting also engage in anti-social behaviours including
dumping litter, making nuisance noise and worse. Following a number
of meetings with businesses and residents we believe that businesses
have signed up for better management of the street. Councillors will
keep vigilant to ensure that agreements are maintained.
Dunraven Street Protests
Residents will be aware that Cllr Paul Fisher has been working hard with
local residents on Dunraven Street alongside the Met and the Council to
address ongoing disturbances caused by the presence of former
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Cllr Fisher is pleased to report
that these disturbances have calmed down since the return of Mr Sharif
to Pakistan last year, but is keen to stress that the situation will continue
to be monitored.
Meeting With Soho Business Alliance About Rubbish and Crime
Cllr Patrick Lilley also met with members of the Soho Business
Alliance to hear their concerns about crime in Soho and the return of
poor behaviour by some businesses and residents around rubbish being
put on streets at the wrong times. Archer Street was flagged up at a hot
spot for rubbish and Bateman, Frith and Greek Street for crime and ASB.
Westminster’s new dedicated officer for rubbish in Soho will be looking
into better education and enforcement. It was good to hear that the
number of different waste operators who collect from businesses in Soho
had reduced as this reduces confusion and means passers-by have few
temptations to casually drop litter on top of commercial waste awaiting
collection.
Other Planning Decisions
Your West End councillors continue to work closely with local residents
to ensure that their views are considered in planning and licensing
decisions. Objections made by councillors helped ensure that Simmons
Bar was stopped from expanding its premises on Bateman Street. And
Cllr Jessica Toale has worked closely with residents on Bourdon Street
to ensure that plans for a new art gallery do create additional noise
nuisance, particularly late at night, in the area.
Cllrs Paul Fisher, Patrick Lilley and Jessica Toale attended the Soho
Society Christmas Party along with Rev Simon Buckley alongside many
Soho community activists, residents and businesses.
Rubbish In Fitzrovia
Fitzrovia Rubbish Action Committee (a subcommittee of Fitzrovia
Neighbourhood Forum) met with officers of Westminster Council.
Councillors and officers learned from residents that the way signage is
used to inform residents could be improved. In particular we welcomed a
resident suggestion to focus on the actual times that bags can be put out
rather than the broad times of collections. We have taken up residents'
suggestions for this to be rolled out more widely in the ward and that the
Council website be updated as soon as possible to reflect this change.
Trees
We would like to thank residents who have championed tree planting in
Fitzrovia and welcome several new baby trees on Foley Street planted
by Westminster Council.
Curzon Mayfair
The fight to save Curzon Mayfair is far from over!
We understand that the next court case is set for June 2025 as the landlord plans to turn
this iconic cinema into an event space; with a later licence (opposed by
many residents) cannot proceed before then!
Mount Street Gardens
Cllr’s Fisher and Toale have successfully obtained a commitment from
CBRE to address the long standing and unsightly water stains on
buildings in Mount Street Gardens. It is understood that the works will be
commenced by the end of January 2024.
Dockless Bikes
Councillors met local Soho residents and the City of Westminster acting
Head of Highways expressing residents’ concerns about the poor
management of dockless bikes’ bays in the West End by the operators
and compounded by careless way many riders “dump” bikes outside of
the approved dockless parking bay boundaries.
Following urgent requests three badly monitored dockless bays have
now been removed from operator’s apps.
Old Compton Street, Meard Street in Soho and South Street in Mayfair.
We are looking for them to revert permanently back to their previous
designation. We will continue to work with operators to promote
sustainable travel but will insist that dockless bike customers and
operators behave more responsibly.
If you see any badly parked bikes please email the operators
directly.
• Lime: london-ops@li.me
• TIER: support@tier.app
• Forest: cs@humanforest.co.uk
• Voi: Voi Scooters – https://report.voi.com/
• Dott: ops.uk@ridedott.com
Budget Scrutiny Task Group (“BSTG”)
Cllr Fisher has been busy chairing the BSTG meetings in the last quarter
of 2023, through which the council budget for 2024/25 and the medium
term financial plan (over a 5-year period) is scrutinised. A further (and
final) meeting will be held on 25th January 2024 at City Hall and online.
All are welcome to attend. It is a good opportunity to see how budget
scrutiny works at the Council. |
