Swiss Cottage Courier – monthly news from your ward councillors
January 2014
Councillors Don Williams, Roger Freeman, Andrew Marshall (Conservative)
See www.swisscottagecourier.blogspot.com for updates, or follow us on Twitter at @AndrewIMarshall, @DonSwissCottage and @RogerJFreeman
This e-newsletter has been sent out since 2008 and now goes to over 1,500 homes in the area.
IN THIS ISSUE
- Local crime - some arrests
- Camden private rented sector survey
- Finchley Rd congestion
- NWC Club
- HS2
- Planning
- Recycling contract performance: complaints and monitoring
- Other matters
- Councillor advice surgeries
Local Crime
Good news from the Police: the gang who mugged the lady in Aberdare Gardens in late November - and which we understand were responsible for similar attacks - are in custody.We have not received news of any further muggings in the last month. Note: the Swiss Cottage Safer Neighbourhood Team will he holding Street Briefings outside Station House, Swiss Terrace at the following times: Jan 30th and Feb 5th between 20 and 21 hours and Feb 19th between 18 and 19 hrs.
Camden private rented survey
With over a third of homes in Camden privately rented, the Council wants people to tell it about their experiences of the private rented sector through an online survey, it we can look for ways to make improvements. This includes private landlords and tenants, partners and people who live or work near privately rented homes. While it is easy to be cynical about the direct impact of such a survey, we would encourage people to respond - you need to visit www.camden.gov.uk/privaterenting. The survey closes on 14 February. Council officers are also conducting face to face surveys at 700 homes across the borough as part of the survey.
Finchley Rd congestion
This has been very bad around Swiss Cottage, and we’ve asked council officers for an update.It is possible that the congestion is as a result of the gas main works occurring on the south bound lane of Avenue Rd just outside the car hire firm opposite the library.
The restriction was lifted yesterday and it will be interesting to see if this eases the congestion. Finchley Rd southbound was restricted to two lanes as the traffic enters the gyratory system with the result that the queue backs right up. We have asked why the road was restricted through the lights since the excavation is some distance from the junction. We would have thought that three lanes could be allowed through the junction and the traffic allowed to percolate past the excavation.
NWC Club
Following the very unpleasant disturbances at this club (ex Legacy) just before Christmas, the Police have called for its license to be reviewed. We have urged that the opening hours (at present up to 4am on the weekends) be drastically curtailed. Roger Freeman plans to attend the Review meeting on Jan 23rd and will report back. We’ve also got the Council to remove a large amount of unsightly rubbish bags that the club appears to have fly-tipped outside (ie not paying for trade refuse). But now there seems to be more fly-tipping…
HS2 - Public meeting on January 23rd
Roger Freeman will be attending a meeting on Jan 20th to focus in specifically on the impact the construction of the Alexandra Place Ventilation Shaft will bring to the Loudoun Road area; he will report back.
Also note that on Jan 23rd at 8.15pm there will be a Public Meeting on the impact on the whole of Camden. Speakers ranging from Stanley Johnson to Frank Dobson. 8.15 at Cecil Sharp House.2 Regents Park Road.
As per HS2's own Environmental Statement the implications for Alexandra Road and Loudoun Road over a five year period will be severe. The gyratory will also affected as will St Johns Wood Park. Further after Page 134 of this Environmental Statement http://bit.ly/1kpyljn . The deadline for the main consultation is January 24th. The email is [email protected]
Planning matters
100 Avenue Road: Camden Officers tell us they have had no contact with the developer following the Public Exhibition in November. Details of the proposals can be found on the developers site: http://100avenueroad.com/local-benefits/
2013/5581/P (Rear of 15 Elsworthy Terrace NW3 3BT) - the amendments to the original application were approved by the Development Control Committee last week.
Wheelie Bins and recycling - Veolia performance and Monitoring
Given the scale of the problems over recent months, we have pursued various issues around the Veolia contract and performance levels with council managers, and include some of this in detail below.
In 2010, as part of the extension of Camden’s contract with Veolia Environmental Services, the Council signed a Partnership Agreement with Veolia within which both parties agreed “to work with each other cooperatively in partnership”. This joint working approach - which is now very common in major contracts - is intended to encourage the Council and Veolia to work together to deliver the contract, and to rectify any failures in a constructive manner, with both Camden and Veolia staff expected to constructively address service failures through corrective and/or preventive actions.
Camden’s contract with Veolia however, does contain a default clause, which penalises the contractor for work not done, or not done to standard. Essentially when there is a problem, the Council issues a rectification notice, which requires the contractor to provide or re-provide the relevant activity. If the activity is still not carried out or done inadequately then a default notice is served. Points on a scale are awarded against any default each month, and this is charged to the contractor. Over the last four years this process has resulted in Veolia being penalised around £75,000 in total.
Recycling/waste Performance and Complaints
There was a peak in recycling complaints around the July 2013 service change (figure 1 below) but they have since dropped considerably. On average 94% of these complaints relate to missed collections, with ‘bins not returned’ accounting for 3% of complaints. The peak experienced in July and August 2013 seems to be reducing to levels experienced prior to the service change. In the week beginning 29/11/13, complaints dropped below 100 per week for the first time since June, and have remained below this level since. For context, borough-wide around 100,000 households are serviced with every round of collections.
Figure 1: Borough-wide Recycling Complaints (April 2011 – December 2013)
Of course, we know many people choose not to complain, but there seem to some grounds for cautious optimism in recent weeks. We will keep a close eye on this.
Over the last year, 6% of total recycling collection complaints were recorded in Swiss Cottage ward. Figure 2 below illustrates that of these complaints 91% comprised missed collections and 6% were for bins not returned (mostly reported in August 2013).
Figure 2: Swiss Cottage Recycling Complaints – (Dec 2012 – Dec 2013)
Monitoring of Veolia performance
The Borough Monitoring Team, part of the Council’s Environment Service, has been working very closely with Veolia managers to drive up standards in the collection service. In August Veolia deployed their ‘collection audit’ service to the ‘Gardens’ area of Swiss Cottage to study the presentation of wheelie bins and the picture after collections. This illustrative audit was used in further crew training to illustrate the impact of not returning wheelie bins to properties and the need to return bins back to properties.
Random monitoring of collections (before and after) has occasionally identified poor standards, including wheelie bins not being returned properly by crew members, resulting in penalties being served. Crew members are given reprimands and further management instruction on the correct way to return wheelie bins to properties. Collection crews are also regularly issued with management memos (copies of which they sign), and undertake ‘toolbox’ training sessions (where the collection team is engaged in discussion at the truck side) both of which are recorded so that disciplinary action can be taken if necessary.
To also further improve service performance and tackle the problem of bins not being returned the Council is investigating the possibility of marking the wheelie bin with house numbers, that way making it easier to relocate the bins to the correct properties. It will be talking to residents group CRASH about this work.
Veolia have also recently taken on additional managers on the recycling service who will be supervising collection services. Council managers say that Camden Area Monitoring Officers will be in the Gardens area every Tuesday morning (collection day) for the next 6-8 weeks to closely monitor the recycling crews.
Other matters:
The poor sweeping in Woodchurch may have been due to parked cars and operatives have been given a swish broom to get around this problem.
The Swiss Cottage station ventilation building at the top of St Johns Wood Park is heavily littered and we are attempting to get this fixed.
We are also still trying to resolve the - rather complicated - issues around rubbish in Winchester Mews. We're meeting council managers on this shortly.
While we support the new borough wide 20mph limit (other than red routes), there needs to be sensible signposting of this, from both an amenity and driver information perspective. The roundel in Elsworthy Rise was not a good example of this, and we hope it will be removed along with some other daftly placed signage that has gone up.
Councillor advice surgeries:
Monday 3rd February, 7-8pm at the Crossfields Centre, 8 Fairhazel Gardens
Saturday 15th February, 10-11am at the Community Centre
As always, we’re also happy to come around and arrange to meet residents at other times.
Cllr Roger Freeman (Conservative)
0208 348 7626
Cllr Don Williams (Conservative)
[email protected]
0207 372 8428
Cllr Andrew Marshall (Conservative)
07808 579563