Groundhog Day Reminisces in Belsize Park!

One of the most pressing concerns for local Belsize residents is and continues to be the shambolic HS2 botched plans for carving up Camden and especially the wild scale destruction and disruption to leafy Belsize for at least a decade, which could start from as early as post general election in 2016-17.

Despite what the political parties of the current sitting councillors for Belsize sending out communications by email and letters suggesting that that HS2 will not affect Camden that is only one half of the bigger story. Whilst it is true that the HS1-HS2 Link through Camden Town which would have decimated large parts of Camden Town and the iconic Camden Lock and have caused disruption to the residents there on a scale approaching what many of the oldest in our community there to be reminiscent of the aftermath of WWII blitz, in terms of construction working. Thankfully the boss of HS2 saw the light and cancelled that part of the project as being sub-standard so yes Camden Town is safe.

But that has not changed the "air shaft" in Adelaide Road nor the HS2 tunnel construction through Belsize.

Are you aware that if the proposed route of HS2 goes forward that three large tunnels each larger than the size of a London double decker bus will pass under Fellows Road and that is despite the recent mis-messages from your local Tory councillors and the misleading "fake" HS2 petition from Tory PPC Simon Marcus, which was nothing more that a name, email address and voter intention gathering intel op.

Most concerning is the close proximity of the three HS2 tunnels being constructed under the foundations of the large 22 storey old 1967 concrete towers with mostly unknown and undocumented foundation features with concrete in a declining state of repair in the lower basement areas. 

I have on record from a HS2 surveyor/engineer that the Chalcot "towers" will sink slightly (settle) and can lean over by several degrees over the proposed tunnels and that surface cracking in the structures is a possibility.

I have yet to obtain a more definitive statement from HS2 Limited on this key question concerning the safety and lives of more than 2,500 residents of the Chalcots.

HS2 Limited assures us that all planning permissions have considered these facts.

Do we trust them!

Illustration by (c) Gail Gibbons. My Daughter has approved this illustration for use here!

Attempted Robbery in Belsize

Last night around 8pm whilst out on the Belsize campaign. My agent fell victim to an attempted iPhone "snatch" robbery by a would be thief riding a Barclays "Boris" bike, fortunately she being a New Yorker and well aware of her surroundings she prevented the robbery. The would be assailant made off at high peddling speed on the Barclays "Boris" bike in the direction along Belsize Park towards Swiss Cottage. I come down steps of a large Victorian style house to see what turned out to be the iPhone "snatch" thief peddling passed.

The Police was called and we had a very excellent turn out response from the Kentish Town team, who went initially on pursuit with such a good description to go on. Details exchanged and we discussed briefly about this situation which sadly is very common in London.

I my self have heard multiple times about the high incidence of iPhone theft whilst attending Belsize SNT panel meetings over the many years where I am the vice chair.

The principle advice that the Belsize SNT team have made is always be well aware of your surroundings whilst out on your own and especially when using mobile phones or getting money from ATM's. Especially off the Haverstock Hill Road at night. This advice which clearly my agent knew from living in a large city like New York paid off.

Naturally, we called it an evening after that experience and went for a relaxing Earl Grey!

Belsize Hit by explosion on Sunday morning

An explosion followed by large fire occured off Elsworthy Road / Elliot Square in Belsize ward early Sunday morning. Dark bellowing acrid smoke quickly filled a sleepy Belsize skyline.

A resident informed me that they heard an explosion and could see a large fire, I quickly went over to a nearby window with iPhone in hand to take this first photo and attempt to estimate as best I could the response time for fire attendance crew to attend which turned out to be around 10 to 15 mins from first fire smoke sighting by resident. The call out time may have been longer due to resident not actually seeing the fire for some minutes. But this appears a very good estimate.

I noticed that the first fire engine arrived from West Hampstead direction. There are now since the closure of Belsize Fire Station only three Fire Stations in Camden which are Euston Road, Kentish Town and West Hampstead. So clearly this call-out had come from West Hampstead. 

A second Fire engine also from West Hampstead direction arrived several minutes later.

The fire was hosed down with white smoke emanating, in total around 20 mins  from first sighting of fire / smoke.

Later in the afternoon after the police had cleared the road closure and vacated the area I went to talk to the affected local residents to determine what they thought of the response time from the Fire Services. Naturally, they were all very concerned as to what happened, it appears from what I was told that a gas cylinder feeding a BBQ had exploded for some reason apparently blowing in a large patio window and setting garden hoardings attached to two houses alight. For privacy reasons I did not take any photos of the damage that I witnessed, as I am sure the affected residents would rather that be done by insurance assessors.

It was reported to me that a large explosion quickly followed by heavy smoke engulfed the immediate area. It was estimated from local residents that around 15 mins from hearing the explosion to seeing the police and first fire crew.

The general feeling was that the police and fire crews did a very professional job, the police set up a cordon to prevent immediate access to Elsworthy Rd / Elliott Sq. The whole incident dealt with very quickly. The police removing the cordons about two hours later. when all was considered safe. Thankfully, no one was reported as being injured in this blast, but clearly that was a very close call.

Conclusions

I asked the local people that I had meet how they felt about the response time now that Belsize Fire station has been closed. They all thought that it appeared to be around 15 mins which seemed reasonable. But most were concerned about increased response times had this incident occurred during the week when very heavy traffic are affecting the Euston Road or Finchley Road area, since West Hampstead, Euston Road and Kentish Town Fire Stations in Camden are not exactly very close.

The response time for this incident this Sunday appear in line with what I had been informed at fire briefing post closure of Belsize Fire Station. But and this is the BIG but this was on a early Sunday morning when road traffic was at its absolute quietest. This would have been very different had this fire occurred mid-week around busy traffic times and or had the fire crew been dealing with another fire at the time.

This incident shows that a fire attendance to Belsize on a Sunday morning is around the average guidelines but it also serves to demonstrate that response times are indeed longer than had the response been from Belsize Fire Station 4 streets away.

One must not forget the poor folks today who was affected by this calamity in Belsize this weekend. Lets hope that all damage can be repaired as swiftly as possible.

The Virtual Community Network of Belsize!

I come to another vital question that I have for you in my community of Belsize.

Naturally, as an Independent I bear the whole cost of campaign costs to deliver my message out to you, unlike the party machines of the political parties who have big donations and large national volunteer network (like all self perpetuating bodies).

For local elections such as this here London in May'14 there is a cap on expenditure that is £600 plus 5p per registered elector. So here in Belsize ward that is around £1000 that represents the maximum that is permitted under law for each candidate on campaign related costs.

Naturally as your nominated Independent candidate I must compete at same level as all the political parties to have a winning chance.

With this in mind I ask all who wish to support me to help in any one of these ways.

The most direct way is to forward all my Twitter feeds, Blog links and "tell" all your friends and associates in Belsize. I call this the virtual community network (zero cost!) I love this method best because it is free to all, saves on CO2 and land-fill sites and keeps your letter boxes empty!

However, I recognise that not all in our wonderful leafy Belsize community has or wants access to Social Media or the Internet (yes I have canvassed many who do not have a home computer!)
For these folks that wish to support me to become your first "Independent" councillor for Belsize ward on 22nd May I make another suggestion of the help that I need.

Direct hands-to-deliver your street or for the super-fit, streets! It could just be your building (there are a large number of buildings with population sizes that of a street!

Naturally, I will be through my agent be meeting all expenses and making sure that I keep well within the legal campaign expenses limit. So if any more of you wishing to help me get elected wish to make donations in the classic way, that would be also fantastic too. Running a campaign like this is expensive.

This can be either helping with money donations towards these costs or material donations in providing printing facility to me (In this case I would ask that you estimate a cost of providing such materials so that information can be used later by my agent in completing the expenses declaration).

Again in what ever way you are able to help in my campaign to become the first Independent councillor in Belsize would be very welcome.

Even if you only just want to drop by and say hi to me in one of the local cafe shops in our Belsize and offer good luck that is a big help.

See you on the campaign, apologies in advance when I call at your home and push your door bell just as you are about to have dinner, jump in or out of the bath or put the kids to bed, yes I know having an 8 soon to be 9 year old daughter how inconvenient canvassing and campaigning can be to people!

It is an honour to have been nominated as your prospective councillor for Belsize

People may wonder why I have decided to use a photo of me and Boris. Especially since I am an Independent, well I wish to make the point that love or hate him, Boris is very much an independent and has done a great deal of good for London.

However, this is where I must end the high accolade and turn to the darker side of Boris Johnson as Mayor.

Since 2012 Boris has systematically made aggressive cuts to essential services that have had a "dire" consequence to Camden and specifically Belsize ward where I live and am a very active voice for my local community.

We have lost our local Police Station at Hampstead only a short walk away from Belsize, closed and gone forever and sold to private developers to turn into luxury homes (there was a "joke" rumour that it would become the new McDonalds in Hampstead!) and then we come to the most recent and tragic of losing forever our local Belsize Fire Station, literally opposite my home.

I went to the local meetings to meet (and argue the case for Belsize) the Borough Fire Chief to ask directly in his words what the consequences of this closure would mean to the residents and local businesses would mean.

He openly said that with the closure of Belsize Fire Station that Belsize being at the heart of having a Fire Station would be at the epicentre of lowest response times in Camden due to the closure and being placed so much further from alternate Fire Stations.

He did however attempt to reassure that residents in Belsize would receive turn out times in line with national recommendations, but he openly admitted that Belsize would change from an excellent turn out response times to one of the lowest in Camden due to the much longer travel times for fire engines to come from the Euston Road area, through traffic jams at peak hours.

So it is with much sadness that the man "Boris" whom I had admired as being almost an enigma and somewhat of an Independent within the Tory party has been so draconian in his position as Mayor.

It was over these reasons that I resigned from the Conservative Party, where in 2010 I was your prospective councillor and candidate for Belsize and almost won only being beaten by the Lib Dems by a hair whisker of 52 votes.

As a protest to the outrage of losing vital services in Camden I did "join" with the Labour Party of Camden and was asked and agreed to go on the "Stop The Cuts" Rally through central London back in 2012.

So with my anger quashed and my spirits lifted by making a "public" stand I announced that I would re-double my efforts to bring about change for good in Camden but as an "Independent" not linked to any party political machines. Free to follow with my experience gained over all these years in party politics to follow my conscience of what I believe to be true and right.

With this hopefully brief summary of where I am now and why I have put my self forward as your prospective councillor and candidate for Belsize ward.

Over the next month I will be attempting to make as much face to face contact and engagement as possible with you all.

Please check in here and on Twitter @nigelrumble often to see how this campaign is going.