You can dispose of up to 5 items free, but you must bring some identification to prove you live in the area (your driving licence or council tax bill.) There will also be a caged lorry to take furniture or electricals away that have life left in them /are working. These will then be able to be reused by others in need who need furniture for their home. Please see the flyer for more details and come early, as once the skip is full no more waste can be put in the skip.
QPARA has written to members asking for their views and feedback on Experimental Traffic Order TO/30/019 NP Queen’s Park Area.
We were dismayed to learn at September’s monthly meeting last Thursday that Brent planned to block certain streets in our area without prior consultation in pursuit of a TfL Healthy Streets initiative. QPARA supports initiatives which promote healthy lifestyles, but these plans, which would reconfigure many road traffic flows locally, are rushed and most have already caused considerable local concern. We have long been in favour of a traffic management plan for the area produced following due process and consultation.
We have produced a position paper and our Chair has written an email to Councillor Shama Tatler, the lead Brent councillor for this scheme, asking for an immediate meeting or an assurance of enough time for a proper consultation.
Brent’s maps of the proposed changes are reproduced below.
To give QPARA your feedback, please email qparamail@gmail.com saying if you agree or disagree with the action so far, as outlined in the position paper. This is a fast moving situation and we want to make sure that we represent the views of our membership as closely as possible. We recognise that members affected by morning rush hour rat runs, e.g. in Summerfield Avenue and Dudley Road, see an advantage in the proposals, but as our paper explains there are very serious disadvantages to weigh against the package as whole.
The petition on change.org against the scheme which has already gained over 1,000 supporters is not a QPARA initiative but is in line with our response to the Council to date.
From 14 September Kempe Road (from Peploe to Chamberlayne) will be designated a “School Street”. It will be one of 30 such Streets in Brent, brought in as a response to the opportunities for improving air quality and road safety as a result of the Covid-19 Pandemic. TfL are behind the plan.
The aim is to make the street motor vehicle free (with limited exemptions) during the hours of 8.15 to 9.15am and 2.30 to 4pm Monday to Friday during term time. These are the normal drop off and pick up times for parents of children at Ark Franklin school who use their cars to deliver and collect them.
Important exemptions from the rules are emergency and residents’ vehicles (including bona fide visitors and deliveries). However the scheme will work best if movements by exempted vehicles are kept to a minimum.
Brent have made emergency orders under the Road Traffic Regulation Act, which do not require prior consultation. Despite this QPARA has established a dialogue with the Brent team about details of the scheme since the relevant road signs were spotted by an eagle-eyed Street Rep in August.
You can find all the details available to the general public at this link on Brent’s website: https://consultation.brent.gov.uk/highways-and-infrastructure/ark-franklin-emergency-schools-streets-zone/ . This includes the letter sent to individual residents. It will be for the school staff to operate the temporary barriers across the street during the restricted hours.
There will be a running consultation on the scheme during the next 6 months, but QPARA plans to see how it goes before formulating conclusions. Meanwhile we wish the school and the residents well. For a number of years we have been working to see the end of pick up/drop off by car at primary schools in the area for safety and air quality reasons. This scheme has some loose ends, but that is inevitable considering the speed of its introduction.
More generally we want to support all our local schools as they manage the return of pupils after the lockdown. This is by far the most challenging aspect of the next phase of living with the pandemic given the constraints and the numbers involved.
QPARA Streetscape Group
Our high quality bags, mugs and Oyster card holders are all still available. Jubilee mugs are £10 each, all other items are £5 each.
To purchase, please email Andrea at qpmembership@gmail.com
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