Local news

Residents have asked if the  CCTV camera in the vicinity of the junction of Aldridge Road Villas and Westbourne Park Road is being used to tackle their 20-year old outstanding request for CCTV to deter prostitution and drug dealing at the this location. Or is it, as many suspect, being used by the Council purely for parking enforcement and income-raising.

Many flats on Harford House have had failing central heating and hot water recently. Although the tenant management organization is well-run, the heating system is still run through City West Homes and the estate office at Sunderland House. We are taking this problem up with the estate office.

Local Labour Councillors have asked the Council to investigate a range of environmental issues in Marylands Road, including rubbish on the street/dumping, noise levels from nearby mini-cabs waiting for calls at unearthly hours and early morning noise from council sweepers.

Residents in Woodfield Road have asked Local Labour Councillors to look into traffic problems in the Harrow Road/Great Western Road area. As one resident told us:

“Woodfield Road is a small side street used as a rat run because there is no turning into Great Western Road off the Harrow Road.  Its cobbled surface is unsuitable for heavy traffic, the noise is louder and the vibrations more intense - a heavy truck going down the street shakes the buildings violently, creating ripples in a cup of coffee. Satnav is part of the problem - if you google directions from Maida Vale tube station to Westbourne Park tube - a straight run down Elgin Avenue into Great Western Road - traffic is directed via Chippenham Road, Harrow Rd  and into Woodfield Road.  This is clearly mad!  It means we get traffic going from both the East and North."

Local Labour Councillors have asked City West Homes to bring forward urgent plans to improve conditions in Westbourne Ward after receiving the following report;

”The "communal garden" is little more than a dog toilet and the stink in hot weather makes the adjacent private gardens unusable. The boundary fence has collapsed. Each Carnival, fencing has to be erected; it would be cheaper in the long run to install proper fencing which would also solve the intermittent problem of prostitutes and drug-users/dealers using the gardens. The internal and external paintwork is shabby. The bin doors are devoid of paint and show signs of previous (bodged) repairs.”

Following our representations City West Homes has now agreed to consult residents on the long overdue and necessary improvements which will include;

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Non-resident youths are regularly getting in to Tolchurch House on Wessex Gardens, sometimes by climbing up disused cabling left by NTL. We are in touch with the Council and the police to try to get them to step up patrols, as well as pursuing the Council to get the redundant cabling removed.