No to Nine Elms Bridge - We Hope
Angela, Nick and Peter been fighting the imposition of this bridge into Pimlico Gardens since 2012. It was with great relief to hear that the Mayor of London agrees with us too and has said that Westminster City Council would have to agree to any such bridge. As you know Westminster’s Leader Cllr Philippa Roe (newly ennobled as Baroness Couttie) has supported us, your Tachbrook and other Pimlico Councillors, in our campaign against the bridge. So great news…….and we’ll be keeping a watchful eye for any further developments.
The Night Time Tube
We hope the new Night Time Tube on Friday and Saturdays is helping you and your families get home safely in the small hours. Nick and Angela both sit on Licensing and, with other Licensing colleagues, are concerned that a small number of other people using the all-night tube may cause some problems locally, in terms of noise, and other anti-social behaviour. We need your help to find out if our fears are groundless so please let us know if people coming to and from Pimlico Tube Station are troubling you at all. Thanks. You may remember that to stop earlier episodes of anti-social behaviour a few years ago we bought with our Ward Budget the free-of-charge new public toilet with urinals on the junction of Tachbrook/Lupus/Rampayne streets, just outside the tube station. It worked, and people are using the loo/urinals 24 hours a day!
Rusty Pavements - Courtesy of UK Power Networks (UKPN)
Angela (and probably you too) spotted large unsightly rust marks over some of our pavements so she got onto the Council to find out what had happened to our clean streets. UKPN has been carrying out important safety work to stop the chance of electricity cables exploding (you may have seen footage of one going up in the Pimlico Road a couple of years ago) and have been cleaning their under-pavement manholes and putting sand down. However, they haven’t been protecting our pavements. Our street cleaners have done their best by pressure jetting the marks but the marks won’t shift. So Angela has got a commitment that UKPN will come back and clean up and make sure that no more mess will be made. If you see any newly rust-marked pavements please let us know. And just in case UKPN miss any of the current marks and they are still there in a month’s time, please give us a call.
Racist Graffiti
What we were able to erase within a couple of hours was the completely unacceptable racist graffiti which was daubed onto the toilet block at Tachbrook Street early one Saturday morning. Pimlico people shopping in Tachbrook Market were very upset by the two words, and the Council sprang into action and got the graffiti removed very speedily. Westminster is home to people from all over the world and we recently launched our Community Cohesion Commission. We are incredibly proud of our diversity and consider it one of the city's key strengths. But we know there are still important challenges we need to address to make sure Westminster remains a place where everyone feels they belong and are safe. If you’d like to read more about the Commission please check out the weblink:https://www.westminster.gov.uk/community-cohesion-commission
Dolphin Square supporting Macmillan Cancer Support World’s Biggest Coffee Morning
Angela was delighted to be invited to join lots of people raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support at Dolphin Square’s very own contribution to the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning. People came from Dolphin Square and further afield to raise money while having fun with friends and neighbours. Lots of people made donations, and others offered super prizes for the raffle. Perhaps the star of the raffle show was the fabulous cake made by Mr Patel, Dolphin Square newsagent, iced in Macmillan’s green on white featuring coffee pot, cups and sauces, and cake! £2,370 was raised for this charity close to many people’s hearts and minds – well done everyone!!
Improvements to Pavements, Drainage and Gullies
Angela has finally got agreement that the north side of Lupus Street from Denbigh Street to St George’s Square, will be repaved by April 2017. It’s had lots of small repairs over the years but now is time, she said, for a complete refurbishment.
Nick has been pushing to find a solution to the flash flood problems in St George’s Square. So we’re all very pleased that the Council will be doing surface level drainage works in St George’s Square and Chichester Street, and at the Charlwood Street junction with Charlwood Place. There will also be a major drainage improvement programme for Moreton Street.
Other work to be done before April 2017 will include making street gullies more cyclist friendly (i.e. smoothing out the dips) and in Rampayne Street 7 gullies will get the treatment, as will 6 gullies in Bessborough Street and Drummond Gate will have four.