Full Council Meeting: 7 October 2019
There was a meeting of Camden Council on Monday, 7th October. As part of my accountability to residents, below are the actions I took at the meeting. I spoke on the themed debate on the climate crisis by noting that Camden was only rated as the top Inner London borough for climate change because Hampstead Heath’s trees. Without the work of residents 153 years ago to save Hampstead Heath, Camden would actually have been fourth, not first – and I thus implored people to think of the consequences of their actions 153 years hence....
read moreNow really is the time to scrap HS2 – and everyone needs to be pulling towards that goal
I’ve been fighting to stop HS2 since it was first announced in 2009. I grew two miles from its tracks, and have seen the heart torn out of countless communities by its bulldozers. First and foremost of those communities is right here in Camden. Large parts of Euston and Regents Park have been bulldozed. Works further up the track have hurt Primrose Hill, Belsize, and Kilburn. And yet despite the decimation, the Camden Conservatives are almost alone in continuing to argue in our borough for the scheme to be scrapped. I have written to...
read moreOliver writes to endorse renewal of Hampstead and RedFrog fora
I’ve written to Camden to back the redesignation of the Hampstead Neighbourhood Forum and its sibling to the west, the Redington Frognal Neighbourhood Forum. By law, neighbourhood fora must be ‘redesignated’ every five years to ensure they retain support and relevance. You can read my submission here. Neighbourhood fora are responsible for Neighbourhood Plans, which are phenomenally helpful tools to help preserve the best of the character of a local community. They outline what local communities themselves want to see happen...
read moreAmbedkar Museum saved by Government after write-in campaign
I’m delighted that the Government has overturned Camden’s decision to order the Ambedkar Museum in Primrose Hill to close down. I wrote to the Secretary of State Robert Jenrick last week to express my deepest concerns about this and ask him to use his power to ‘call in’ the decision. You can read my letter here. The Ambedkar Museum is an internationally-renowned memorial to Dr B.R. Ambedkar, who wrote India’s constitution and is revered especially by the marginalised groups (especially the Dalits, or...
read moreDon’t sideline or ignore residents’ work
Below is an op-ed that I have written for the Ham & High in light of the defeat of the CIP policy: Last Tuesday, something very rare happened in a grey conference room in Camden’s temporary town hall. For the first time since Labour took power in Camden in 2010, the administration had a decision formally overturned. I had challenged the council’s decision to commit £3m to draw up a property development scheme on Camley Street, east of Camden Town. So far, so what? Well, this proposal – part of Camden’s crumbling,...
read moreOliver forces first defeat of administration policy in Camden in a generation over CIP
Camden’s Culture & Environment Scrutiny Committee last night voted to overturn the administration’s decision to allocate £3m to scope out a site in Camley Street for development – despite the opposition of local residents. I formally challenged the decision through a ‘call in’, which is the only way that such a decision can be blocked under the (somewhat anti-democratic) ‘strong Leader and Cabinet’ model. And for the first time since Labour took charge of the borough in 2010, the committee agreed...
read moreFull Council Meeting: 8 July 2019
There was a meeting of Camden Council on Monday, 8th July. As part of my accountability to residents, below are the actions I took at the meeting. I paid tribute to Martin Morton, the most recent Conservative to lead Camden Council (1970-71): noting not just his achievements as a councillor and as Leader, but the support he gave me in understanding long-term issues affecting the borough and his humble and self-effacing approach.I was not called in the themed debate on supporting and championing Camden’s LGBT community, but I wanted to...
read moreFull Council Meeting: 8 April 2019
There was a meeting of Camden Council on Monday, 8th April. As part of my accountability to residents, below are the actions I took at the meeting. In the themed debate on Health Inequalities, I raised two specific issues: regarding the incredibly low vaccination rates in Camden and (again) the incredibly low take-up rate of free school meals. A third of all children in Camden do not receive their MMR: three times as many as nationally. Meanwhile, almost half of all Camden secondary school pupils that claim free school meals don’t...
read moreCamden’s Clean Air Plan misses wood for the trees
The Camden New Journal has this week published the below letter from me about the woeful performance of Camden’s trees department. I was astonished to read the revisions to Camden’s Clean Air Plan, including the gratuitous addition of a whole page arguing that trees are bad for air quality.Yes, that’s right. Trees. Bad. For air quality.In writing this new section, Camden’s administration outsourced its entire thinking to a single study, which it then proceeded to misquote.Although it is true the study says that trees can...
read moreOliver writes ACV letter to help re-open Magdala
I’ve written a letter on behalf of the three Hampstead Town councillors to support re-listing the Magdala pub on South Hill Park as an Asset of Community Value. The pub’s listing, which I fought for alongside former councillor Tom Currie, was vital to Camden’s refusal of the application to convert the first floor to flats. The Council found that the conversion of the first floor would ‘compromise the long-term viability and future of the pub’ as a whole. As with the Old White Bear on New End, this listing was due...
read more