May 2007

Planning

Negotiations with Multiplex still drag on for "Tesco Towers". Your local councillors believe that it is vital to have community facilities, and not just built a tower with 1 and 2 bedroom “units” such an unattractive word and just shows what developers think of people and their lives and needs.

People need homes, communities, local facilities, local shops and local amenities. I met the Councillor in charge of planning in Hammersmith the other day and she speaks so fervently on this matter. As you know this site borders on Hammersmith and we have been working with the local councillors and residents there on our objections.

Southwark Council turned down another Multiplex scheme for a tower building in their midst, but we don't seem to have the same qualms in Kensington & Chelsea

Odeon Site - although many of us object to any changes in our local cinema on Kensington High Street, which is being redeveloped by Northacre, their attitude to local residents is very different and they have held several meetings and modified their plans to try and accommodate residents concerns. I shall certainly miss the cinema during the construction stage, and wish to keep its full size, but I fear that is not to be.

Your three local Councillors met Mr David Prout, the new Director of Planning at Kensington & Chelsea Council and we walked up Warwick Road and showed him our concerns. We do not want this road turned even more into a canyon of tall impersonal buildings. Michael French is retiring after many years with the Royal Borough.

Waste Disposal

Councillors from Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham went on a tour of the site for the new Belvedere waste plant, in Bexley, courtesy of Cory.

Most of the waste will come in on barges and be unloaded at a deep water jetty, where it will then be transported across to the main plant. However the gantries and road system to transport the waste from the river to the plant have to raised to avoid the Thames Path - the footpath alongside the Thames. It will be a massive construction project.

This facility will operate 24 hours a day. The bulk of the ash is recycled to be used in building materials and the contaminated ash is stored in containers and then taken by road to hazardous landfill sites elsewhere.

This will be a vital facility as landfill becomes more expensive and we all need somewhere to dispose of our rubbish, but I can certainly understand why the local residents objected as it is going to be a vast operation.

Like the Olympics site the land is contaminated with cadmium, borax and other unpleasant chemicals and waste, so it is better that this site will be used for the benefit of Londoners, than residential. The residential is currently so far away that the heat generated from this heat and power plant cannot practically be used, however technology continues to develop, so we shall see how this project develops.

In the afternoon the tour continued to the Grosvenor plant in Crayford, to see their impressive recycling facilities. This is an expensive operation “materials recovery” as they call recycling. Having gone through all this processing the material is then returned to China …. As this is the main market for these materials.

Local Police

I thought you would be interested to read the local police report, if you are interested in attending any of the local meetings, please let me know.

POLICE AND COMMUNITY WORKING GROUP

(KENSINGTON SECTOR)

SECTOR INSPECTOR'S REPORT FOR 9th May 2007

Final figures for the Metropolitan Police Service released show that the Royal Borough has achieved reductions in 9 of its 10 notifiable offences. The only exception being motor vehicle crime. This is a fantastic result bearing in mind that this is the third year of sustained reductions in Burglary and Street Robbery. From a sector perspective I can report that we have worked well towards all of these reductions and are now setting our plans out for tackling the same problems for the forthcoming 12 months.

Sector Crime figures 1st April 2006 - 31st March 2007

Whilst we haven't reached our set 10% reduction in Burglary I believe bearing in mind the residential nature of the sector and the previous three years reductions we have produced a good result. This also takes into account the level of target hardening work that has been concentrated on the north of the Borough. This April I was able to secure direct financial support for crime prevention work for the Sector and we will be concentrating over the coming months around the Redcliffe ward. Our one area of concern was always around motor vehicle crime and the theft of sat navigation systems. Our final position was certainly better than we were in June & July last year ( 40% increase ). All our proactive work over the last six months has clearly had an effect and we will continue with this at the present.

One other pleasing aspect to these figures is the reduction in violent assault and I strongly believe that this is a direct result of the sector's development of the Pubwatch scheme. We will now be working even harder to address the other areas of disorder around licensed premises. We will also be endorsing a new scheme during the coming year by the licensing department called Best Bar None.

Sector Initiatives

Majority of our effort during the last two months has been centred around motor vehicle crime. Working with other Borough units we have undertaken proactive operations on the sector and also a wide range of crime prevention initiatives.

We have also undertaken two separate operations working alongside the revenue inspectors at Earls Court Underground Station, the second of which also involved the Borough's first use of a recently purchased knife arch. Two further operations are now also planned over the coming weeks as part of a concentrated operation to reduce knife crime.

The sector continues to suffer from the plague of sex worker carding in phone boxes. We continue to work towards these problems from a number of different angles and a recent court case saw the first conviction of a prostitute for the offence of aiding and abetting the offence of the carder. We now hope to build on this success and advertise future successes in order to deter future carding.

On Saturday 19th May the sector will be supporting the Borough's Neighbourhood Watch day by setting up the Courtfield stand in the Gloucester Arcade throughout the day. Times will be advertised separately.

Our move to Kenway Road continues with apace and everything is on target for a mid June occupancy.

www.met.police.uk
Kensington & Chelsea Borough

Steve Martin
Kensington Sector Inspector
Tel: 020 8246 0668

Local issues

These still concern rubbish collection, and "fly tipping" and of course the long delayed rebuild of Lexham Mews arch, I walked around there again the other day, and it is a very sad sight. There have been a number of security issues with Chesterton Square, but I am hoping that these are in the process of being resolved with the TMO.

Please contact your local councillors: cllr.borwick@rbkc.gov.uk; cllr.gardner@rbkc.gov.uk; cllr.husband@rbkc.gov.uk; if we can help. It is usually better to contact us early with a problem, as sometimes that can help get a faster resolution

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