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West Area Committee - Monday 24th February, 2025 7.00 pm
February 24, 2025 View on council website Watch video of meetingTranscript
Transcript
Now, so we are going to start the meeting. Can you all hear me? Good evening. I'm Councillor Nargis Naranthira, Chair of the West Area Committee. Thank you for attending the committee meeting this evening. Please note that meetings may be recorded and broadcast by the Council or by people present. Please note that we are currently in the pre-election period in advance of the Finchley Church and by-election on the 6th of March, 2025. During this time, ordinary council business can continue, but members are reminded not to refer to candidates or parties in relation to the upcoming election. Thank you for your support in ensuring that these principles are respected at all times. Can I please remind members and officers to use the microphone when speaking by pressing the middle speaker icon. Agenda item number one, minutes of the previous meeting, that's on page 5 to 8. So I just want to see whether we approve the minutes of the previous meeting. Thank you. So then item on the agenda is absence of members. Apologies received from Councillor Rambe, who is substituted by Councillor Chakrabarty. Is he coming up? Apologies received from the clerk, who is substituted by Councillor Schneiderman. Declaration of members' interests. Anyone has got any interest to declare? If not, he'll move on. Dispensation granted by the monitoring officer, none. Petitions, none. No. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This is none. Petitions, none. Welcome Councillor Chakrabarty. And, issues, item number six. The first issue is by Mr. Levy, planning enforcement regarding unconsenters aspects of dorms, and to leave it here. Yes, so you've got three minutes. So come to the front, please. And when you're ready, press the button, the middle button, and you've got three minutes and after two minutes you'll be warned. Thank you. Yes, good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the committee. With regard to issue one, I'd just like to ask, would officers please actually answer the question, would the respective officers please actually answer the question that's been put? And it's not especially for my sake, it's the ratio of all the loft extensions that might be being built elsewhere around the borough. What sort of enforcement action is likely in those potential cases? With regard to the second issue, the second question, the respective officers have refused to answer it on grounds of confidentiality. Confidentiality, in what respect? Because all I was asking for, all I was asking for was a number. And I'll have to say on, in regard to all the respective issues. Yes, so, as I said, with regard to the second issue, the matter of, lead to the question, officers are saying it's confidential. Why is that information confidential? I don't see anything. Anything else to add, or is that it? Do you want to add anything else about the other issues? Nothing else to add. Nothing to add? No, nothing to add. Okay. Thank you very much. Any questions again about any of the issues from the members? If not, thank you very much for coming today. Okay, so, what we are actually saying here is, right, issues third and fourth third is broken glass. And fourth one is water pooling by the junction of Woodstock Avenue and Broadus Green Road. So, what would you like to do after the actions? What will you, I think broken glass is already, according to the answer, is already resolved. And the water pooling is, the residents will get a letter within seven days when the works are being started. Is that right? Can you please, sir? Yeah, the works are scheduled to take place within our planned works program. So, residents within the extents of the work stories take place within the community. Are you, members, are you happy with that? So, that will be resolved that way. So, we will move on. So, any other questions to officers about any of these issues? No. Okay. Shall we move on? I'll say hi. I'll say hi. Yeah. So, have you, you've got three minutes, sir. If you'll take the, yeah. All right. So, he will be coming when they have finished speaking. So, you, you, you introduce yourself. And you have got, all together between you three, you've got nine minutes. So, we're going to pull the nine minutes. So, we're going to pull the nine minutes. And when you're finished, you can get the, um, uh, the person to speak on the, um, uh, I just want to share my screen. Uh, so you guys can, um, with teams, I mean, in teams, there, I'm Arthur Goldberg. I'm not sure. Turn me down. I'll just share my screen. The technology's working. Don't worry. I've tested it. It's just, um, someone needs to let me in. There you go. Technology's working. Okay. Thank you, ladies. And thank you, councillors and officers for seeing us today before. In fact, let me just take my time out, because I know this three minutes is like more than. Um, I'd just like to introduce, uh, Adam Malouf, uh, who's one of the members of the Wentworth, uh, group. And myself, I'm Arthur Goldberg. Um, I'm head, the joint head. In fact, I'm the head of the neighborhood watch group of the area, Wentworth Road, Templars Avenue, and Ravenscroft Avenue. Um, I represent both groups, as does Adam. Um, and we have to speak about, you know, speeding best down in Scroft Avenue. So we appreciate the time. Um, I just want to ask the members in the audience who's here from that group. There's, I don't know, eight other people in the audience, and you guys should have received about 15 emails from residents this afternoon. So this is a significant matter. We're not dealing here with, uh, rubbish on the pavement and dog doo-doo left lying around. We're dealing here with life and death. And I want you guys to understand that. Um, someone's gonna die if you don't do something. I'll start my timeline now. Um, what we're talking about here is the cut-through road that people use between Ravenscroft Avenue that runs between Finchley Road and Golders Green Road. And they use this cut-through to avoid Hoop Lane. Uh, the traffic light at the top of Hoop Lane and the traffic light at the bottom of Hoop Lane. And the fact that people are using this as a cut-through means they're speeding. And that speeding is impacting residents all along Ravenscroft Avenue as well as Templars Avenue and Wentworth Avenue. Um, I'll just play you a quick video of what it's like to actually drive down this road. I'm turning from Finchley Road onto Templars Avenue. Okay. I'm driving. My fiance's actually filming. You'll see I nearly knocked someone over. There you go. This is what it's like driving down that road. You were doing speed surveys at the time we formed it. The speed surveys are useless because cars have to slow down. I nearly took out a post van and I nearly took out a van there. That's what we're talking about. Um, we're talking about accidents. There have been 12 accidents in this area in the last 12 months. Six of which have happened on the junction of Ravenscroft and Templars Avenue. One happened on New Year's Eve on, in Wentworth Road, just off Ravenscroft Avenue. And no one happened on the other side of Wentworth Road. So we're not here to debate dog doo doo. We're here to debate life and death. This is an accident that happened less than four weeks ago. This is Templars Avenue on Ravenscroft Avenue. What you can see here is a car, the white car, tried to get across Templars Avenue. Didn't have enough time. The black car turning from Pinchley Road, hit it so hard that it mounted the pavement, knocked over the junction bay. I don't care. I'm speaking. Okay. We've got nine minutes in total and I'm going to speak. Yes, we combine. Okay. Um, it took out the fence and it went into the garden. If someone was standing on this pavement, they would be dead. That was four weeks ago. Never mind three minutes. We're talking about lives here. And these, this is the visuals from, uh, this is from Templars Avenue on to Ravenscroft. Uh, I'll go back and then there's a visual from the other side. Okay. What are our proposals which we have been asking for for the last three years? This matter started in March 2022 with Councillor Dean Cohen. Nothing's been done other than 12 accidents. Um, we would like this to be made a stop street. So it's a yield currently. Please make it a stop street. We'd like mirrors to be placed on the road so that you can see cars coming down the road at the junction. We'd like double yellow lines around all the corners because you can see that white car, it's parked on the corner and it blocks the junction. This is coming from the other side of Ravenscroft. You can see there are no signs. We'd like some traffic signs, stop signs and double yellow lines. You can see where these cars are parked, double yellow lines here. Lastly, as a long shot, because it seems like everything with this council is a long shot, we'd like a mini roundabout to be put on the junction of Ravenscroft and Templars. That would slow cars down tremendously and would make everything safe. Councilors, this is not a new, this is not a new subject. You can see here this, this subject started in 2022. When I sent Councillor Dean Cohen a letter from all the residents of the area. Okay, we have a speed survey was done in 2022, which showed that 10% of vehicles exceed the speed limit down this road. Okay, the data you have been given by your officers is wrong. The speed survey showed 10% of vehicles exceed the speed limit down this road. Works have been proposed, authorized and budgeted. So we're not talking about something new here. This has already been done. But nothing has been done physically other than in the middle of the night, four weeks ago, after a major accident, someone sent some people to paint some lines. All that's been done is lines were painted. Lives are at stake here and you guys paint lines. Okay, the issues that we've encountered. Okay, Councillor Dean Cohen, I started this in March. He's been totally silent. I've never heard from him. He's never called me. He's never contacted me. I think it's a disgrace. Okay, we have had four serious collisions since this started. Okay, the Council has repeatedly missed statutory deadlines. Okay, I put in a Freedom of Information request that took me writing to my MP and complaining to the ICO to get a response. The response was inconsistent with the other response from another resident. So the Council has actually committed a criminal offence by breaching the data protection regulations. Okay, the information is variant. There's missing documentation. We haven't provided all the documentation in Freedom of Information request. Yeah, there's a lot of prevarication and just ducking and diving. There's now another speed so they're being asked for. I don't know, I can carry on, but I won't. I think you can see from our tone and body language how dissatisfied we are. I'm now going to hand over to Adam, who will take over from the rest. There's just been a car accident on Ravenscroft Avenue. Unfortunately, hearing this sentence has become all too familiar. If the Council don't act now, we will hear a lot worse. My name is Adam Malouf and I've been a resident of Wentworth Road for over nine years. My property is on the corner of the junction of Wentworth Road and Ravenscroft. With the current road layout, it's an extremely dangerous junction. Whichever of the four directions cars approach from, there is an accident waiting to happen. There are blind spots and reduced visibility from all sides, caused by the natural curve of both roads and cars consistently speeding up and down Ravenscroft. Cars are turning into or driving across blind corners at speeds, creating a serious need for traffic calming measures. As Arthur said, Ravenscroft Avenue is a very popular cut through between Golders Green Road and Finchley Road. With vehicles looking to avoid the traffic lights at Hoop Lane and Golders Green Junction. As I live on the corner, I am a regular user of the road, both as a driver and a pedestrian. Every time I leave my house walking or driving across the junction, I'm concerned for my safety and the safety of others, including the many families and children in the area. There are many examples in this presentation of the accidents that have occurred. Accidents aren't just waiting to happen, they are happening now. And I asked the council to act now, before it's too late, before a more serious road traffic accident occurs. I can read on his behalf, I've got his message if that's helpful. OK, there's not, there's two minutes and you've now delayed us by 30 seconds. So we've got three minutes. I've got, I've got, I can read on his behalf. So this is from Rabbi Dov Cowan. I'm here, I'm here. Hello. Hi Rabbi, there you go. Sorry. Yep. Yep, ready? My name is Rabbi Dov Cowan. I'm a rabbi and a senior educator at Jewish Learning Exchange. It's a synagogue community center with a central hub for approximately 500 young professionals and students visiting our center every week. Now, some there the council will know, Councillor Nagas Narinthia, who's the mayor of Barnet at the time, she visited our center in 2023 to address our community after the October 7th attack. And we also have the pleasure of welcoming Councillor Polba, Councillor Clarke, Councillor Schneider into the jail where they saw firsthand what we do and how vital our community work is. I'm a Golden Screen resident and a father of five, and more importantly, I'm a regular user of these roads and intersections that we have come here this evening to discuss. I'm speaking tonight because I know firsthand how important it is that we understand the current dangers and the proposed solutions. My friends, I know the reason you all decided to dedicate your time to public service as councillors on it is because you all believe passionately in making a difference. And the proposal to which we come to this evening is a proposal being worked on so hard by Arthur Goldberg and Adam Luth with a lot of help from Councillor Polba. It's a proposal that isn't just about making a difference, my friends. It's about saving lives. I implore you, please, to listen to Arthur, listen to Adam, and they represent a vast number of local residents. Please turn over what they're presenting this evening. As I said, I'm a regular user of these roads, and there are especially so many children, including my own, that walk there. So please, I implore you, listen carefully to what they have to say. This is a matter of lives that we're dealing with. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. So thank you very much. Members, have you got any questions for the speakers? Council Perlberg. Good evening. Thank you so much to the speakers for coming in and thank you for the presentation. Obviously this falls within my wards. My colleagues are actually here in the audience. It's really important to note that this actual issue has actually come to a committee before. it wasn't west area committee it came to east area committee as arthur mentioned um councillor dean cohen which is golders green ward it came to that committee and the basis for that is that we actually share these roads with golders green ravenscroft avenue is jointly shared with golders green so that's where um they've actually had funding it's mentioned in their presentation they've had 40 000 pounds funding um and they're kind of looking at when that's going to be allocated essentially but also what decision is going to be coming out of this um but i just wanted to say thank you so much to the speakers thank you to the rabbi um and you know i can see that this these are really serious things that you've mentioned today uh myself and my colleague nigel we were and my other colleague julia we were at a canvas yesterday and we actually spoke to residents on the doorstep and we also first hand the issues on the roads even crossing the road which was extremely dangerous yet alone driving on it so no i just wanted to say thank you so much for coming in today thank you councillor perler but councillor schneiderman thank you yeah no thank you for coming along today i think we all do you know appreciate the seriousness of the you know the issues um um and you know your presentation you've helpfully set out lots you know what what you're actually asking for um how much of what was previously agreed accepting that it hasn't been done yet how far did that go to meet what's needed what was actually previously agreed at the so what's been previously agreed is up on the screen in front of you um what's been what has been suggested is a um island on ravenscroft to slow people down ravenscroft wentworth junction um as well as double yellow lines on um on the corners uh at ravens templates they've suggested double yellow lines as well and removing some parkings to make the junctions uh safer our feeling though is that this is not enough um this is not going to slow the problem is cars speed up once they turn from finchley road into ravenscroft to putting an island between golders green road and on from golders green road on ravenscroft by the wentworth junction is enough for that side of the country but it's not going to stop cars speeding down from finchley road templars avenue where this accident occurred now this accident that happened if someone was on the pavement here they would have been killed okay this was at pace both cars were written off okay and i was there the drivers were extremely shaken ambulance and police were called okay now this was four weeks ago um what i didn't mention and which you guys don't seem to be able to correlate this is an application for the girls school to move to the central hotel and one of the big things in that application is that no no it's not a parking issue because all the girls walk to school now where do they walk from they walk up templars avenue they cross ravenscroft road to get to the central hotel now there are 100 young girls at that school you're going to be walking those roads daily now the speed survey which was done reflected 10 of cars speed on ravenscroft now they're more than 500 cars a day on ravenscroft that's 50 cars a day speeding okay during normal hours that's more than five an hour now it doesn't take five cars to create a major accident so what's been suggested here is a great start and we would appreciate if it even if this was done i mean this hasn't been done this is three years later i mean there's another prevarication here in 2020 at january 2025 the designs were to be reviewed again now this started in december 23 i mean guys is this is this if this is the rate that we build the uk god help us okay we'll all be dead before anything gets done because we'll all be killed by speeding cars thank you i just wanted to understand whether you thought as you said that this would be a good start i understand that you think this would be this would be a great start like i say the budget's been approved the the the the the works have been approved but nothing's been done other than again i mean i've got the pictures but i can show you is two nights after this accident at 12 o'clock at night uh there was a road crew painting these lines because these lines have been repainted that's all that's been done and that was only after this accident so maybe if someone dies they'll start building the island the speakers if not thank you very much for coming today and um the can i ask the offices thank you very much your time is over but you can go and sit in the gallery please and you can the offices there are already um answers given there so do you want to confirm that please yeah short update please yeah thank you good evening um there is currently a scheme in the pipeline um that has been to consultation um the head of communications and member liaison played provided an update to both ward members for gold is green and child's hill on the 24th of january um so phase one of the road safety proposals um which is the double yellow lines which is the double yellow lines and the islands that is scheduled to commence um around the 6th of march that includes the island including the island are we including the island yes i believe sir no i don't think that's correct i don't think you're stating the facts correct um i will double check that and then come back to you though um so phase one sorry phase one is the introduction double yellow lines and the junction um for sightline visibility and refreshing of white line markings um in respect to what you were saying that happened a few weeks ago i did respond to a member inquiry to councillor pearlberg that was a separate issue and not to do with the road safety and parking scheme um further speed surveys were agreed to be conducted those have been completed and the results have been received today um officers are going to be reviewing those surveys and um see if additional measures are required um so can note that survey result please be provided as part of the the foi that we put in but it wasn't the foi that you put in we didn't have the results of the secondary speed so i'm asking here in front of the councillors and minute please can it be provided according to the foi you you you can have those as part of the response if members vote for a 20 working day response we'll put it within that for you okay um just to summarize they don't identify a speeding issue at the location okay so the last that was your comment after the last speed survey but what the speed survey did indicate is that 10 of vehicles speed in zone two which is ravens cropped and wentworth okay now i'm not sure about you but would you be happy to let your child play on the pavement where 50 cars a day are speeding it's not a question and answer thing sorry about that so the officer is updating yeah and then you will um receive up we will actually look at the actions and the members will vote what action we are going to take regarding this so i'm sorry about that so my apology yeah that that is my update oh thank you so any any questions for members any questions to the officer we've literally just received the speed survey results today so the officer will review those she has conducted a site visit um at the location and she'll look at those results and see if further recommendations are needed so that will probably be part i can request there is a list for phase two and three i'm sorry i'm sorry i am speaking because the questions are not being answered but the questions are not being answered there is phase two and phase three she can't give it to you it's documented it's available and it's documented she's not answering the question excuse me please there's a meeting going on then there's some procedures but can we have that discussion outside the meeting if you have to say something uh i'm not answering the question okay i will address the officer's question i can't tell you the time scout for phase two okay the speed surveys were only received today okay okay okay yeah thank you i mean when we talk about phase one and phase two in relation to the original works that were agreed is that split between the different phases as you're saying now phase two was that agreed within the original team when that came to committee previously so colleagues um colleagues were on holiday and i responded to some emails that was received from residents and that additional information was that there had been further accidents at the location our response to that was to conduct a further site visit and to offer secondary speed surveys and then that's when we said we'll implement what we've agreed already and we'll look at if phase two is required okay so you saying so phase two is not part of the original phase two is not being agreed as part of that original committee application that's correct yes um can i just ask about in relation to the speed surveys um the resident was talking about 10 percent going above the speed but what what percentage going above the speed would you consider uh to be a speeding problem speeds so yeah the mean speeds and then they look at the 85th percentile um so everything was under 30 miles per hour from the two sets of data that i've seen i can get that explained to you in more detail from an engineer's perspective i'm not an engineer no no thank you i'm not sure if you know residents are aware of how these we are we are we are the facts are not clearly the facts are not it's again why i'm sitting here and interrupting because you're not given the fact okay the 85th percentile means nothing when 50 cars a day are speeding down a road with kids walking um again i'm sorry because this is the discussion between the members and the officers but the members are not actually given the members are not being given the facts i'm sorry if you won't give the members the facts someone needs to give them because there's a lot of prevaricating from the office this is this is not the way that this meeting i'm sure it's not the way but it but what's happened since march 20 22 is not the way outside the meeting sorry about that when someone dies what's going to happen when someone dies yes that's why we are taking these measures and the officers are giving their report and the information they have got but the officers are not giving the facts we will decide what we are going to do with this in a minute okay after someone dies or before can you not be rude please um any other questions please council birth per birth um sorry i'll just finish off um so there was initial speed consultation that appears to have been made on in december 2023 i just want to check so that's the first consultation is that right and then and there was obviously a design in place um there's the speed consultation in january um i think from what i can see on the emails as well it says apparently these speed surveys were done on the weekend specifically on on the saturday which is a so i just wanted to check exactly when were these speed surveys actually undertaken bear with me i'll get you excited so councillor um mearing smith i think i'd like to support uh councillor pelberg i think three years has taken and we still haven't actually done nothing and it's awfully confusing for me to understand quite why but at this stage and nothing has actually been achieved for the residents just just to address councillor pelberg's question first um the original speed surveys ran from the third degree 2025 okay sorry just one more point um from the initial speeds content or speed survey let's say um was it ever you know even thought of to potentially just implement a 20 mile per hour limit because if it was then the second speed survey would probably show that there was an excessive speed um and because the data i've looked at the obviously the consultations and the data that you provided you know that there's a nine percent which is i think above 30 and then there's a few percents below 35 i'm not entirely sure what what's the percentage between 20 and 30 in terms of vehicles uh driving i'd appreciate just that data if you've got it the data that was provided in the chief officer's decision reports um that that's the data from the first step survey design manager can can answer those for you thank you thank you for your answers um um and now we have got three options for our for that we are going to vote vote for note the matter and take no action or instruct that an appropriate named officer contact the citizen within 20 working days to provide an additional response and that this response be published in the documents available on the website or third one is instruct the ward members are notified of the matters and obviously ward members are aware of it and decide that a road safety and parking issue be referred to the director of highways so so do you want to work which option do you want to vote for anyone supporting number one can you raise your hands if you're supporting number two that instruct an appropriate named officer to um uh reply within 20 working days with additional response raise your hands if that's what the uh um actually yeah just to clarify regarding the third option the issues getting referred to the director of highways it doesn't mean that you know nothing's going to happen doesn't mean that nothing's going to happen or the residents are not going to get response sorry councillors nothing's going to happen you you need to vote that there's action not that we're sorry excuse me i'm not having a discussion i have to ask you to go and sit in the gallery please if you keep um disrupting the meeting i need to sort of close the meeting now because we have to follow a procedure i'm asking the councillors to take action i think i think we're all well i think we're all agreed on the need to take action i think we're just discussing which which way we are going to take action within the uh constitution enables the best best way to get the action okay if it's so if this matter is referred to the director of highways the residents still be able to get a response about about what action is going to be taken so you're proposing that we decide to sort of um that road safety and parking should be referred to the director of highways is that what you are suggesting i think it should be referred to the director of highways who can then make an assessment about what what further action is needed and the response can then go back to the residents okay so yeah okay so if members were supporting that can you please raise your hands okay over so thank you so that will be dealt with thank you very much for coming to the meeting right so now the next item is significant negative impacts on rn development and the presentation on behalf of freddie canter all right mr canter are you online are you going to make a presentation you can start now you've got three minutes hi sorry can everyone i'm just about to share my screen um can everyone see that can can we be quiet please when you're leaving thank you so so there is lots of dust damage and there's been an ongoing nuisance my family home so background can you speak up please we can hear you that well look can you hear me is that better yeah that's now better so the red red marked square is the orange development and my family home is the there's a cat while you speak and we cannot hear you uh we can't we can't hear you now are you sorry mr canter i think you have two accounts open if you could just use the one account and can you hear me now are you able to hear me now yes okay so sorry let me uh let me start from the beginning sorry so so in my family home is the yellow and that's directly next door to the orange which is which is the red so in as a planning permission that that was given that was given that was given that was given to the orange they submitted a construction environmental management plan barnet council and it has typically titled the control of dust emissions so essentially the kind of dust control procedures kind of that were recommended rather not implemented properly at all they were inadequate and that is evidenced by the fact that you can see there's the before photos which were taken by the orange in February 2022 which shows the white painted areas of our property as very clean and very bright and then shortly after construction kind of recommence you can see there's a very high amount of dust and dirt dirt that has covered our kind of our property and it isn't simply a case that it can be washed away it has stained our property and it needs to be professionally redecorated and which involves scaffolding and kind of the quotes that we've received for this in and around 15 000 pounds so uh kind of i've tried speaking to the orange who ignore me contacted barnet council senior planning officer who's in charge of the development sam adofo owemoko and kind of he either it kind of ignores my emails or i will kind of receive a kind of vague response with no solution so for example on in september kind of 2024 i was told that an investigation was taking place to and kind of the issue would be treated as if it was a statutory nuisance and i haven't heard anything kind of ever since and i've even followed up kind of with some support showing from a legal perspective that it should be considered a statutory nuisance so i just feel that kind of you can see the kind of the first email has been going back kind of since the beginning of kind of january and as that's coming out we've now been kind of over a year and there's been kind of no meaningful engagement at all so i think kind of from my correspondence with area committee kind of they've said that the environment kind of the environmental health office has advised that for us to be considered a nuisance it must have an unreasonable and large impact on the instrument of our home so i can provide support which proves this uh and essentially i think kind of what i kind of would like is for barnet to provide the direct contact details of a senior person who will be reviewing the kind of evidence making the decision and they kind of review that evidence and support and then if barnet are in agreement kind of with the evidence support that's provided they will then issue an enforcement or abatement notice against the oran which can then be withdrawn following receipt payment of the required remediation but then if you and they aren't in agreement with the evidence i'd like them to kind of precisely explain kind of in detail and kind of and shortly thereafter kind of why they don't consider the oran alive or so we can kind of like kind of share each other's point of view and i just kind of want to know kind of this is kind of realistic um and kind of a route forward that kind of you see is reasonable thank you mr canter thank you okay any questions from the members to mr canter councillor pearlberg uh thanks so much freddy for joining on teams um i unfortunately when you were speaking it wasn't very concise with the pages that you were referring to however you've sent me a separate documents i've managed to actually read through everything um i think what freddy is raising is that there is currently a construction environmental management plan which is cmp sorry freddy if you could just put your um laptop on mute yeah um so it's called see i don't know if you could just share that page is that is that his presentation anyway so it's called a construction environmental management plan and all developers to abide by some form of plan and this is the cmp plan um it shows that in this uh particular matter they it says dust control procedures will be implemented to avoid as far as is reasonable practical the emission of dust and other particulates that would adversely affect the air quality specific measures would include and then it lists all the measures that would be included um so i think really the the issue here is that that it doesn't look like it's really followed through the photos themselves he mentioned to me over the phone that the photos which is in the presentation before february 2022 those were taken by the surveyors from the developers they weren't taken by him the ones february 2022 were taken by the surveyors and the one afterwards were taken by himself and he just wants to show you the um transition essentially from how clean it was before the developers started the work and then after the results afterwards and he's obviously got separate quotes so um i just wanted to follow on from his points because you couldn't really hear him and we couldn't really see the pages either so anyway thank you so much freddie for um presenting okay thank you mr canter for attending on our teams um that's the only one okay now we will go to the actions that we need to take officers would you like to make any comment on this okay okay we'll take up go straight to the actions so um councillor um am i i'd just like to understand the response that's been given by the officers as i understand the response that what what they're saying is that regardless of what mr cantor might think the damage to his house is not such that would warrant the councils in this process so presumably the only remedy for him is to sue the developers or have i misunderstood this response that's right um can i comment on that please the officers are answering the question and can you speak again yeah okay mr canter yes yeah yeah so so so so barnet have not said that they don't consider it a nuisance they've just said to to be able to consider acting on this issue it must be a nuisance they haven't said it isn't and i can provide support to prove that it is that it's a nuisance and then if it is it is kind of considered a nuisance then therefore is in barnet's remit to act on it and i just think that it should be in barnet's remit to act on it because if there's a policy in place which says you you kind of admit excessive dust and someone does admit it admit excessive dust if it if it's all kind of what the onus is on the person to to act on it what's the point of barnet having a policy saying that you can't do it so is the correct approach for us to refer this to enforcement is that what you're saying i couldn't quite hear what you said would be able to see that response i think it would be helpful to the committee to understand what the enforcement people are in fact saying so we are going to vote on so obviously there should be a detailed response given to mr canter if he has not received one so shall we go on to vote for instruct that an appropriate named officer contact the citizen within 20 working days to provide yeah it's the additional response and that this response is published in the mail that's what sorry just just adding to that could i request that the response is given because a senior decision maker and that i have the kind of ability to respond directly to them so i if i have any questions it's not a case where i can get trapped in the system and have to kind of email a general email address and i get kind of one response kind of every 30 days so it will be for you because you you will be getting the response from the officer second is that okay yeah yeah that that's great about i mean so long it's kind of let's say provided by email so if i want to respond i can respond to them as opposed to kind of it being let's say a response on a piece of paper where i've got no kind of method of following up if there's something that is kind of has been missed or i'd like to add any more information sorry just to interrupt i think what freddie's trying to say is that he doesn't want it to be sent to him and then it's like a no reply email address you know he's wondering whether he can respond to the email and whether they'll follow up because on the presentation it says that he's been dealing with this officer and there's been um next to no responses to his emails so he's just wondering or there's been very delayed responses and understand that you know officers are very busy um but he's wondering firstly who would be responding would it be a position of management or would it be the officer he's currently dealing with and whether he'd get response quickly i think that's what he's trying to address and thank you councilor don't mind me responding um so i i think that's a fair and reasonable um question and and and request we'll definitely make sure that that's in thank you thank you for your responses waters so um so we will vote for a response to with a call a contact email for mr canter within 20 working days um if you agree to that please raise your hands that's all thank you so the next item is um uh thank you thank you thank you mr canter so neighborhood security and flight tipping so um so um and can you come to the front please and also maureen kendall so each one has got three minutes uh you're combined so six you've got six minutes between them sorry you've got three minutes between here thank you thank you thank you for agreeing to listen to our tale um i am a resident on gold is green crescent as is maureen and we are both quite active um i'm currently a member of the community action panel in charles hill and maureen was prior to me and she's on the gold is green town team um security um we're talking particularly about the q bridge which is um on gold is green crescent towards the hoop lane end and we have had a history of drug dealing anti-social behavior and fly tipping um on the street and particularly under the bridge that we are interested in seeing the illumination improved um just to give a very brief history of where where we're at um in summer 2023 um you see devora who then was the binet town center investment manager um led a walk around the gold is green town area which included gold is green crescent and at that time suggested that looking into increased lighting under the bridge would be a good idea to offset antisocial antisocial behavior and uh in uh in just looking at the statistics in november uh we've had one incident reported to the police there um uh men with dogs who deal in drugs and have been continual problem threatened to kill a woman on the street the police were called we also have had gangs hang out just beyond the bridge um heading off towards through plain and broadwalk lane which backs on to beechcroft court which is uh you know 100 yards away has also been a site of a lot of problems um i've got a copy of my presentation which i'll hand in to people after the presentation okay um advice from the met to resident um has been to look at increasing illumination um residents have done that in front of their properties manor house uh the big apartment building on the street has introduced five extra external lights we also have footage of the gangs now bypassing that part of the street and heading off under the bridge maureen's going to talk very briefly about the drug problem and then we have a few recommendations um hello um so in addition um we understand that um the the council's advice was that the private properties around there should improve their lighting um is it possible for bonnet council to somehow approach schneider hall court to advise and work with them to improve their lighting security but just completely finish your sentence given that the drug addicts and dealers are regularly using this um area adjacent to the bridge thank you so any questions members to their speakers thank you thank you maureen you were talking about light the issue of lighting there did you want to say something more about what you thought the lighting farms were or problems were in that area i'm not sure what the question your question is so you were talking about lighting just when we cut did you had you finish what you wanted to say about lighting yes there isn't adequate lighting and we understand that when there was a measure of lighting under the bridge it fulfilled some legal obligation but it's relatively less light under the bridge so that the drug gangs go there in terms of its relative lighting to the rest of the lighting that has now been put by many private like the manor house for example measure hall court doesn't have very good lighting so the the drug dealers are going where there's less lighting so i know i understand from your report from the council's report the lighting is adequate but it doesn't stop the drug dealers going into that lighting that dimly lit bridge area can i just ask a follow-up question um i know the police are aware of these issues have you you you presumably we are in constant dialogue with the police with local counselors um and residents we have a very active residence committee the fact is as maureen has just said that um everyone is very sympathetic and i know that the lighting people from barnet have said that they that the lighting either side of the bridge meets basic requirements but as maureen has just said um barnet initially and the police have all recommended that the lighting be increased um and we have we have done that as residents the apartment building has done it the entrance to the garages which are also a bridge uh under the bridge um have done it but this particular area directly under the bridge is relatively as maureen said poorly illuminated and is proving to be a magnet for gangs and fly tipping and i mean there was an additional point that um two orthodox women coming out of the mikvah were attacked but they didn't want to report that to the police because they were worried about anti-semitic reprisals so we've got people that are being attacked there but it's not coming up in the statistics just please to the speakers thank you very much for coming today um so um now obviously would you would like to say something about this oh the rest the response is there so i'm sure you have read the response that was provided so in addition do we have to say something more okay so um so the response there are you happy with the response we would we would like to see the lighting improved we have been successful through counselor intervention in achieving cameras at the other end of the street and we feel that given that the drug activity is at both ends so we should have comparable lighting cameras at the hoop lane end which tends to focus around under the bridge so yes at goldie's green and goldie's green road end there is i we believe adequate camera and lighting but it's the other end that is the problem now okay so we will um um so what action action um the office to write to them right to them 20 okay so um mr waters kindly agrees to have a conversation with your side and then the response from officers within 20 minutes if the committee agrees i'm asking the committee shall we recommend that um write to the residents with additional information from the officers within 20 working days councillor murray smith can we also ask the officers to address the specific question of can we just turn up the strength of the lighting as requested by the residents yeah we can that's the conversation uh mr waters will have our outside this center meeting and ask we we can ask for that so to the community safety team to just to just assess whether there is anything more that can be done so as i understand the issue is that the lighting either side of the bridge is sufficient but obviously it's a bit darker under the bridge i just wondered if it could be referred to the community safety safety team for for an assessment whether there is safety yeah counselor they have had sight of the query so they are aware of it and one of the senior managers of time which we've used in other areas of the borough as well for similar problems well i mean excellent and they might be um if that's included in the reply to the residents but they might i'm not sure if they're fully aware of anything that's been done sorry can i can i say something so um we have a history of in that on in gold's queen crescent of of residents being extremely proactive in reporting to the police on 999 um you know the one zero one and also emailing the local community police because sometimes that um communication between the different police um teams are not as they should be um and we have had a history of many reports today we had an incident with the same local drug gang in the street there were three or four people phoning up the police and coming onto the street um to meet the two police cars that came this is a known situation and the residents are really active so we really want response from the council in to recognize that we are really concerned and this is an ongoing problem so we are actually sort of asking the officers for extra information to um yeah okay thank you so thank you very much for coming and then we will get more information i'm sure that we will be able to do something okay thanks so so that brings to the end of um your the um items of uh and number seven are we are we uh members members number seven is deputations none public comments and questions none so number nine is members items um none and the number 10 area committee funding and seal and road safety and parking funding update um so if you know 15 to 20 the best area committee you can note those reports appendix one has got seal budget and scheme updates and appendix two um road safety and parking budget and uh scheme updates as that all be known councillor schneiderman as i'm here substituting um um chair i just wonder if it's possible to have an update we have had some updates but um just to be noted on the claremont road triangle issue would be good if we could have a have another update on that bit it says under the commentary no update and i know i have received some updates as councillor clark has but we'd just appreciate um a supplement update of course if you'd like uh thank you councillor um thank you thank you um so um so it's all all these reports any other questions on the on these um reports updates if not have you all noted that noted yeah okay so we'll move on to item number 11 members items applications for seal fund and seal funding so the first one is community food growing um so is there anybody there to speak on that councillor conway hi good evening everyone i'm literally going to take two seconds and then hand over to wendy um i'm really delighted to introduce this project for the west of the borough uh the food growing is a really important project that brings together communities in our areas it enables people to have connection uh it improves public health and they're wonderful i was out in the parks at the weekend listening to people about this actually um and also thank you very much is that clear enough um so i i think you've seen from your papers that there are four gardens as part of this project and today we are asking for someone to the two in the west of the borough and it's at basing hill on montrose park we had the four gardens around last year and we trained people to be community food growers and we're asking for money to try and continue that again this year the two of the area committees have already gone through and we have got slightly different things happening in each of the parks in montrose and basing hill so at montrose we're going to be providing drop-in sessions up to three times a week and include evenings and weekends for people to be able to come and fit in the community connections when they're available and in basing hill we're going to have drop-in and also have training sessions for people to as we did last year to train to be community food gardeners that's what i'm doing up in church farm open space so we want to provide the service across the borough to map what is happening in the north and in the south and then we also have a at freehold community center a group of gardeners are carrying on and other volunteers are welcome to attend we did some statistics last year on how the project went and i think the my favorite is the as sarah said is connecting connected connectedness to local community and at the beginning of the survey we asked people how connected they were to their local community and they the average score was 15.7 percent at the end of the project it went up to 63.7 percent where people said four or five so community gardening is community and gardening and we happen to be growing food to get the added bonus of eating the food as well it connects you with nature it connects you with biodiversity it connects you with your community you're eating more healthily you're learning where your food comes from it has environmental benefits it really is obviously i'm a huge advocate but it's it really is a great project to be able to provide to the community and we're really hoping that we can provide it across the borough um what have i not covered we we will also be running events because we're working in conjunction with with harriet the biodiversity officer and cat from public health so we thank you we what so we are going to be running bio blitzes in in the space so as well as having people doing drop in and having the training courses in the different spaces we're all going to be running the same event hopefully across the borough where people are invited to come and members of the public are invited to come and we monitor the wildlife in the space but it's going to connect people to to nature in that way as well we're also in planning mode for other events we're going to have such as connecting to the food waste bins that are going to come back in next year so talking about composting and we're open to ideas we're looking at how else we can bring people into the space to enjoy their parks have some nice food to eat and connect with our community harriet do you want to add anything in that final few seconds no i'll end there if anyone has any questions and was there any questions for the speakers i was trying to think of a question but actually i just think it's a great project because it connects community engagement the sustainability angle to it and the public health angle i've heard good things from you know the feedback from where it's already been operating so i just also with this like people are going to food banks and things and if you can grow their own food that will help and also public health for health it's really good to sort of grow vegetables so that's really good project thank you anybody else wants to make any comments yeah council further i would also like to agree with my colleagues i think it's a great idea um i just had a question in regards to the vegetable fruit that are being grown um will they be like secured in some way it's just because obviously this is a public open space in a park and um i'm just concerned that there might be people taking the produce essentially yeah and it's a very common belief with community gardening that there will be vandalism and there will be food taken but it very rarely happens i don't think we have that at all last year in the growing space i've grown on the on a street in new barnet for my in my other project incredible edible barnet for eight years and i actually do actively invite people to pick that food and they don't so people it's it's much people are much more polite than we give them give them credit for i think um so what what happens in the project last year and what if we're hoping to expand both basing hill and montrose we're going to be able to grow more food the participants to the program will get some of the food but we will also take extra to the food banks if we have it and we there really hasn't been any vandalism but i think also i i'm personally of the belief if it's someone takes the food maybe they need it if not um thank you very much for coming to us today so um so we need to decide whether to award the funding defer the funding and so um so the funding is asked for is um 63 480 pounds and thank you very much for actually because we could not it went over so thank you for looking at it again and change the reducing the amount so uh shall we um award the funding raise your hands if you want to award the funding that's all so thank you very much thanks thanks so the next item is greening and neighborhood green shield all same school there was for 67 000 pounds 717 pounds council jacenty and adrian so when you're ready you can start so council jacenty you have got three minutes and between you two you have got three minutes thank you i'm glad we got that one um thank you chair i just wanted to quickly pass on apologies from ingrid posen who's chair of the green our neighborhood group and also holly skinner who's the head of all saints primary school neither of them could be here today they wanted to be here but the time the dates changed that's why they're not here um i'll keep this brief because i've everything is in the application and then i'll hand over to adrian now who's designer and group member of the green our neighborhood and leslie peach is the deputy head at all saints primary school um so i've been supporting this group over the last two years i've seen all the brilliant work that they've done since receiving siege funding from this committee in 2023 this has included extensive community engagement work with five primary schools in charles hill as well as joining forces with clean air barnet and middlesex university to capture vital air quality data in and around schools this project is the creation of green shield around all saints primary school and represents the culmination of this work the group have decided to focus on all saints primary school which sits on the cricklewood lane and it's in one of the most polluted areas of the borough and we know that hedging can absorb particulate particulate matter by up to 50 percent by planting 30 meter squares of hedging outside the perimeter of the school the group want to create their first green shield and to protect children from air pollution we um we see this very much as a pilot project if data shows us that the hedging is having a positive impact on air quality on biodiversity net gain and community community well-being the group would like to work with the council to roll out further green shields across the borough following a bit in the footsteps of land of the council who created green screens outside a large number of their schools to protect children from harmful effects of nitrogen dioxide and pm 2.5 but this project is more than just a hedge adrienne has designed a playful interactive inspirational green entrance to all saints school in their air quality toolkit for schools ground works state that a green gateway has the potential to increase public awareness of air quality issues and influence behavior we've seen this happening already in the all saints community and we have no doubt that the beautifully designed hedge installation will create a sense of uplift and become a green focal point in an otherwise concrete landscape in a time which sees the pressing need in a time is the pressing need for new housing and urban growth the need for urban greening and the creation of green corridors has never been more prescient both in terms of improving air quality creating pathways for pollinators flood prevention as well as enhancing our general well-being this project which sees us replacing concrete with hedges takes a small but important step in this direction and i'll pass you on to adrian thank you thank you thank you um i think there are a couple of slides that we submitted um about the design um so the main hedging area while screening pollution um frames the school entrance with vibrant reading where children parents and school staff can enjoy every day it is also in the public realm where members of the public from the wider community can enjoy as well the design has gone through the process of road and street safety checks and has been coordinated with by violent council officers permanent and robust furniture features are interspersed within the hedges that provides an uplifting civic environment with nature education and well-being opportunities the feature includes student children's size interactive elements seating for adults a bookcase outside the child's hill library and spaces for biodiversity habitats which school pupils can participate in creating additionally the school fence will be planted with vertical climbers as you can see on the screen will be planted with vertical climbers such as a variety of ivies honeysuckles and climatis offering another green another green privacy barrier for the school playground the engagement generated by the project has had a very positive impact i'll now hand over to leslie the assistant head teacher of all saints primary school thank you um i'm lucky to on the pupils at all saints school the initiative has been more about just planning for balance it has inspired our young people to take pride in their community work together care for their environment in meaningful ways play an active role in transforming their surroundings which gives them a sense of responsibility and achievement they now understand that even small actions can bring about real change green our neighborhood has also introduced the children monitoring air quality helping them learn firsthand how pollution affects their environment and how green spaces can improve the air that we breathe this hands-on experience has been invaluable in making making them more aware of the world around them this is just the beginning we are delighted to be part of the plans mentioned by my colleagues here one of the most exciting proposals to create stimulating and welcoming entrance for children attending the school walk by a space filled with vibrant plants creative displays and natural features that will make every school day start with inspiration this project this project will not only improve our neighborhood it will enable our pupils to become agents of change and shade characters the pupils of all things school could grow into the next generation of environmental stewards who will make a lasting difference so members any questions to the speakers please council pervert sorry it's not really a question just a comment i just wanted to say that i i think this is an amazing uh proposal um it's a shame that we don't have this across other wards too i i think it's great to obviously obviously it's very concrete this area there's a lot of pollution we've got the henlon way and there are trees currently in place or in situ um but the hedging will definitely have a boundary or border for the pollution or the pollutants um coming into the area so i think it's a great proposal and thank you so much for speaking ansel schneiderman thank you i mean look yeah it does as well as being you know adding to biodiversity sustainability it does it looks really exciting as well i was just going to ask particularly about the seats i know there's reference to you can put the seats in and they might need to be taken out i just wondered how much consideration have been given to that whether that was an area where people might actually want to sit because it is just quite close to the road yeah it's close to the road but it is also um next to the school entrance so what we've observed is that everyday parents would just the 10 15 minutes window would actually hang out a lot in in that area and it's not meant to be for like long time loitering it's more for that momentary a little practical question it said the underground survey were to be carried out in march but i thought have they have those surveys not already been carried out to see where there was a desktop survey carried out by um bonnet council officers and that has given us a good indication of where we could plant into the ground but then as we get into construction the contract the council's contract we'll have to do a proper questions if not thank you very much for coming today and now we will love so and also i'd like to thank you to for revising your bid to reduce it so that we can fit within the budget so um so sure raise your hands if you want to award um 57 717 pounds for this project that's all thank you thank you very much for coming today and the next item is um the gold park they've asked for 64 965 and councillor young good evening everyone and thank you very much for the opportunity to address you and this is a bid about the goldish hill park which is a district park uh within the charles hill ward uh it provides a borough wide facility uh space for community events a small zoo and as you can see from the typo it is a deer park but it is also a deer park uh tennis courts play area and cafe as well as important local facilities uh this project is proposed as a partnership between london borough of barnet and the city of london corporation um and it would enable uh the the delivery and redevelopment and improvement of goldish hill park play area and critically the sandpit it would enable the play area to become wheelchair accessible with pathways and play features um and it would provide a large sample from messy play and learning for children which is becoming an increasingly facility in barnet and in other local authorities due to management issues um the renewed play area would however fall under the management of the hampstead heath charity uh that run the park uh and the project would be delivered and managed by that charity for the city of london corporation and it would become a significant asset continue to be a significant asset for the wider community and the local community of the west area the proposed layout and examples of equipment are set out in appendices one and two um the existing sample was closed in november 2023 but rather than permanently close the facility the corporation have sought some grant funding to match fund their own money uh to uh to reopen uh the sandpit so that it can be it can retain be retained as a valuable uh community asset um the hamster heath is owned and managed as a charity by the city of london corporation at no cost to the community that it serves uh thank you uh due to the financial constraints however the charity does not have the sufficient funding to make the necessary repairs to the sandpit or make additional improvements to the playground and it is seeking a partnership with the council to rebuild the sandpit and to make additional improvements including new accessible play equipment and additional seating uh to the playground through the ensil bid this would reopen this well-used asset public use and provide improved more accessible play facility for local children and their families the city of london corporation is able to make an over 50 percent in contribution um and will project manage and deliver the project internally we'd therefore be able to secure this renewed asset at a much reduced cost to the council thank you um thank you councilor young obviously it's not a barnet park it's it's run by the city of london corporation and they're match funding it in terms are they fully covering all the ongoing maintenance this is the issue that often comes up with sand pits about the to regularly maintain them so will the city of london be picking up all of that maintenance costs going forwards they will um and they've got uh their their staff i mean they have a number of staff that work in the park as people will be aware um and they will they will monitor the play uh the sandpit uh at the beginning of the day in the evening but also through through the day and they've been trained and they're rospa qualified uh in terms of making sure that the sandpit is maintained to a safe uh standard uh so yeah all of the maintenance uh of the play area will come under uh the the child the questions members if not thank you very much uh council young so to award this summer 64 965 pounds uh can you please raise your hands all so you've got it thank you and the next item is uh um manual center and uh that's hundred for hundred thousand pounds count to me and also speaker richard hindley who wants you want to speak first i will speak first chair okay thank you thank you chair thank you fellow councillors i'm delighted to have the opportunity to bring forward this submission to our uh committee because the emmanuel center is a substantial building in the center of edgeware we have relatively limited community resources available in edgeware and this building has been brought to a difficult situation because of the structures which the church wishes to address wishes to expand they do many many activities that are crucial to the community and to the wider community in the whole area and they are very keen on being able to ask barnet for help with this but a substantial proportion of the money will be coming from the members of the church and the community we were hoping initially for 50 50 funding this phase of the activity obviously we have budget constraints and they have agreed to limit the initial request to a hundred thousand pounds which means they will be raising 250 000 pounds of matching funding to complete this first stage of the project but i would like to introduce richard hindley who will take us through the detail on this can you turn the microphone off thank you yeah okay so i'll start again reset my time here on behalf of the emmanuel center supporters behind me so we're a large community uh use building in central edgeware as councilman mary smith has said we actually started or the building started in 1978 as a jewish community center a youth center the brady mackabee center it was sold in 2009 and became a technical college and then it was sold again in 2015 which is when we bought the building we are an independent church we have a mother church in westminster we work very closely with the other edgeware churches as part of the edgeware district churches initiative and we host a lot of activities within our church for the local community including a weekly play group as a knitting club there's a table tennis club twice weekly which is very popular with our chinese community particularly our retired members and we hold health talks um we also at the building house as well we've had bar mitzvahs within the building as well people identifying with the jewish heritage of the building and many of the social events as well which have happened um over the last few years and ongoing sadly in the summer of 2023 we discovered that we have rack concrete within the building and this is a time expired concrete we had the building surveyed by a structural engineer who advised that the smaller meeting hall must be vacated we can't continue to use it so that is cordoned off and we decided how to move forward with this problem we have decided as a church we want to keep this building we want to renovate this building we want to enhance this building we want to open it up for greater community years because there is a lot of space in this building and we're not able to use it all ourselves as a church and um so we have quite a lot of ideas we've been engaging with the barnet council um officers about how we can get more activities and building what the gaps are and the provision in central edgeware and as councillor uh mary smith said there is a lack of community provision actually in central edgeware so um the uh phase one is to replace the rack roof in the smaller of the two meeting halls and to address some issues with the uh classroom block which is adjacent to it so that we can get that space back into use and uh get back to using it hosting the events we hosted before and more as well we're looking to improve the environmental footprint of the building as well do rain water catch against solar panels up on the roof to contribute towards the net zero target for barnet and we're very keen to start this project very quickly with a phase one and phase two and three in later years to renovate the whole of this building and to recover it all and enhance it as well we want to put a balcony level into the main meeting hall and in future we create a very big auditorium in central edgeware which can be used by the community so thank you very much for your support thank you the members any questions for councillor murray smith or richard henry hindley please councillor pereberg thank you so much for coming in to speak to us today um my question is how many members are currently at um this church and how many members have you worked out how many members might likely join as a result of the development or the recent development that's taking place yeah so the church has been going for a number of years we previously actually met at the old post office on station road uh in edgeware so we have a history in uh edgeware uh typically on sundays we get about up to 100 people now to our sunday services uh our mother church in westminster um has around um 200 people on sunday so combined two churches westminster and edgeware uh we have around 300 uh members and uh obviously our mother church in westminster is injecting funding into this as well and we want to very much uh develop this and see our church expand as well within uh edgeware and see other community uses of the building as well yeah i was interested to hear you were holding for misbehs in a church that's really pretty good um can i just ask about are you given that the amount that you're opposing from the committee has been reduced are you confident that you can raise the rest in order to allow the works to go ahead and do you need do you need to raise the rest of that before any of the works can actually start so i've had a discussion with our trustees already and we're confident that we can find ways of financing that 75 000 pound gap if we're awarded 100 000 from this meeting and but that was part match funding you're going to match fund that with another 175 000 yeah so the church had already committed to providing 175 000 we're confident we can actually find the additional 75 to get going with this phase one of the project this summer thank you can i clarify the other part of mr councillor schneidman's question i am right in thinking you wouldn't start the project until it's fully funded would you yeah correct the phase one thank you again for um accepting the request and reducing the um ask for hundred thousand pounds so to please raise your hands if you have no more questions um to um to award 100 000 pounds to this project can you raise your hand thank you that's all thank you thank you very much so the final one for tonight is grand park sports program for 20 000 pounds is councillor ionidis i'm happy to introduce center of excellence center of excellence is a small charity in grand park they were established only three years ago and in the last three years they have done a fantastic job to help help people from the bain community and i'm really really really please i'll pass you i'll pass you i'll pass you i'll pass you some paper for you to see what they're doing and i'm more than happy to introduce center of excellence talk more about the application okay um thanks for coming and you have three minutes when you're ready press the middle button and you can start speaking hi everyone my name is how i'm one of the directors for the excellence and thank you for having me today here we are we have um we are community center but we've established a football club for the community in grand park it has been gone on for two years last two years now we have over 80 kids coming to the center for every friday and then on the summer time as well we have more than 85 because there's the big field and this has been very accomplishing things that we've did during the time that we've been as an organization this has been helping many kids to have a social value place to be in also make a friend and also as we know grand park is very divided so we have now safe place for them to come to every week and every friday they're looking forward to now we made it so also we have other other communities not only somali communities but the opme community coming to the place now also we have girls session that we do as well every tuesday tuesday and friday today we do football now we have such a good coaches that we actually have trained them as well to get level one on level two and that will be from the community to the community that that way they could actually be established and be coaching in a small small amount of money that they're not going to take as much as the other other coaches the charges and that has also been giving them opportunity to get a job as well as getting the confidence to do something for the community as well thank you any questions for our police members how how have you been funded in the last few years and whether parents will be paying for this we've been funded we've been funded by nothing hill genesis for the last two years and also saracens foundation and funding has also been given us last year for us they also reduced the rate for the space they get 10 percent off for the the hourly rate so they have been very helpful this time it's always struggle to get funding and beyond that we can't the parents to contribute because they're already struggling with the cost of living thank you any other questions if not can we vote to award 20 000 pounds to this project please raise your hands that's all thank you thank you very much thank you very much for your time so um that's the end of the all the um applications so we have got so how much have we spent now yeah 316 000 pounds 162 pounds we have spent and we have got because kindly you have reduced your asks we have actually got 82 000 pounds in the kitty but this is the last best area committee meeting um because all area committees are not meeting anymore they're we have they're not having that as a system so that will go into the general pot and then that the new in the new system you'll be able to apply for uh funds for your more projects like this this and members the public also so thank you and thank you of all you have been very supportive members of this committee and supporting me um through the process and we will see in the future in the full council meeting and the offices for your help and support as well well i was just going to say we should probably um thank you uh for chairing the meeting i've only been here a couple of times but you chair it really efficiently and very uh and unable to get unanimous decisions i think on on most of the decisions so thank you very much great like and to add my thanks to all the officers thank you especially today because i think there are some very difficult questions thank you second that all right yeah so it has been well really nice doing this but then obviously things have to change so things will be done in the same way maybe in the um
Summary
The committee awarded funding to several projects in the area, including community food growing, a green shield
around All Saints School, playground improvements in Golders Hill Park, repairs to the Emmanuel Centre, and a sports programme in Grahame Park. The committee also discussed several issues raised by members of the public, including road safety issues, building works noise and dust, and a request for improved lighting under a railway bridge to deter antisocial behaviour.
Road safety on Ravenscroft Avenue
A group of residents attended the meeting to express their concerns about road safety on Ravenscroft Avenue. They were concerned that Ravenscroft Avenue is being used as a cut-through between Finchley Road and Golders Green Road to avoid the traffic lights on Hoop Lane. This results in speeding, which has contributed to several accidents. They called for several traffic calming measures, including a mini-roundabout on the junction of Ravenscroft Avenue and Templars Avenue, but said that these had not been implemented despite being proposed and budgeted for.
Councillor Perlberg stated that a scheme to install an island and double yellow lines to address visibility issues on the junction of Ravenscroft Avenue and Wentworth Road was previously agreed at the East Area Committee, and that funding for it was allocated.
Officers stated that the previously agreed scheme will be implemented in two phases, with the first phase, consisting of the introduction of double yellow lines on the junctions and the refreshing of white line markings, scheduled to begin on 6 March. A further speed survey was conducted, and officers were reviewing the results to determine if the remaining measures from the previously agreed scheme were required, and whether additional measures should be included in a second phase.
The committee voted to refer the issue to the Director of Highways.
Building works on West Heath Road
Mr Freddy Cantor addressed the committee by video link to complain about dust and debris from a building site at 114-120 West Heath Road. He said that he had been trying to resolve the issue with the developer, The Oren, and with officers, but to no avail. He requested that the council issue The Oren with an Enforcement or Abatement Notice, and that they provide him with the contact details of a senior officer.
The committee voted to instruct an appropriate officer to contact Mr Cantor within 20 working days, with the officer's response being published on the council website.
Security and fly-tipping on Golders Green Crescent
Mr Searle Kochberg and Ms Maureen Kendall spoke on behalf of residents on Golders Green Crescent about an issue with drug dealing and fly-tipping under the railway bridge at the Hoop Lane end of the road. They stated that poor lighting in the area was contributing to the issue, and that their requests for improved lighting had not been acted on, despite police advice to this effect.
Officers stated that the lighting levels meet statutory requirements.
The committee voted to instruct an appropriate officer to contact the residents within 20 working days, with the officer's response being published on the council website.
Community food growing
Councillor Sara Conway requested funding for a community food growing project in Childs Hill and Burnt Oak wards. She proposed a budget of £69,240 to continue a successful pilot project, and explained that the money would be used to double the growing space at existing sites in Montrose Park and Basing Hill Park, and to provide training for residents in community food growing.
The committee voted to award the funding.
Greening the Neighbourhood – All Saints School
Councillor Giulia Innocenti requested £88,882 of funding to create a green shield
of hedging and a green wall along the perimeter of All Saints School on Cricklewood Lane. The proposal was part of a wider project by the Green Our Neighbourhood (GON) group to improve air quality around schools in the area. The proposed hedge at All Saints School would also have interactive elements such as seating and a bookshelf incorporated into it. Councillor Innocenti stated that GON would raise £10,000 to contribute to the project.
The committee voted to award £57,717.
Golders Hill Park
Councillor Nigel Young requested £64,965 to redevelop and improve the play area and sandpit at Golders Hill Park. He explained that Golders Hill Park is owned and managed by the City of London Corporation, and that they had pledged £65,000 of match funding. He also stated that they would cover the ongoing maintenance costs for the park.
The committee voted to award the funding.
Emmanuel Centre
Councillor Nick Mearing-Smith requested £175,000 for the Emmanuel Centre in Edgware. He explained that a structural survey of the building revealed that the roof of one of the halls contained reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC). This meant that the hall had to be taken out of use until the roof was replaced. He explained that the building is used for a wide range of community activities, including table tennis, a play group and a knitting club, and that the church is seeking to make it more widely available for community use. The church has pledged to provide £175,000 of match funding for the works.
The committee voted to award £100,000.
Grahame Park sports programme
Councillor Andreas Ioannidis requested £20,000 for a sports programme run by the Centre of Excellence in Grahame Park. He explained that the programme would offer sport, coaching qualifications, and mentoring for young people, with a particular focus on young people from BAME backgrounds.
The committee voted to award the funding.
Claremont Road Triangle update
Councillor Schneiderman, attending as a substitute for the absent clerk, requested an update on the Claremont Road Triangle project, which is listed as having no update in the CIL Budget and Scheme Updates appendix.
Councillor Narenthira said that an update would be provided outside the meeting.
Unspent budget
The committee noted that it had spent £316,162 of its allocated budget, leaving £82,165 remaining. It was noted that this was the final meeting of the West Area Committee, and that the remaining money would be returned to a general pot.
Attendees
Meeting Documents
Additional Documents