Kings Cross Local Environment

Kings Cross Local MPs' expenses

Amidst all the national controversy about MPs expenses it can be hard to work out what is going on locally.  So I thought I would assemble here some links to relevant material and let people make their own minds up.  There is an handy article in the Islington Gazette here where they go through the receipts of Emily Thornberry MP and Jeremy Corbyn MP.  The Tribune  letters page here also has some relevant letters. 

There is a good Guardian article here, one of the best I have seen for a while on what MPs actually get up to where someone shadows Emily Thornberry during the expenses scandal.  If you are the sort that wants to go through the redacted receipts yourself then you can find them here on the Guardian- but be warned it mainly is Banner stationery and very dull.  The handy They Work For You website has a computer generated piece on Emily Thornberry's  voting record on transparency. 

On the others side of the tracks in Camden and Frank Dobson MP's constituency there is a Camden Gazette piece here on his expenses, the redacted forms themselves here, a computer generated voting record here.

It is nice to be able to say that the most exciting thing about our local MPs expenses is a tin of shortbread, apparently given as a gift by a supplier and left on an invoice.

We try not to do party politics on this site, because most people I speak to find it a real turn off.  So if you want to comment on this piece please avoid getting into partisan behaviour, i just won't approve the comments - there are lots of other websites you can go to and express your views about one Party over another or indeed whether there should be a plague on all politicians houses.

The Guardian’s local impact

New neighbours in the King’s Cross area, Guardian News Media (GNM), have been working with our community in many ways since they moved into their new home at King’s Place.

GNM has organised two fundraising concerts at New Horizons Youth Centre in Somers Town, with performances from the Guardian's Angels choir, young people from New Horizons, and Jon Snow & Alan Rusbridger. GNM has donated laptops and staff helped develop New Horizon’s website and fundraising strategy.

GNM is running a series of conservation days at Camley Street Natural Park where staff will be undertaking a number of projects including building a green roof or reed bed pontoon.

GNM donated Mac computers to the all new Copenhagen Youth Project venue, CYP Culture.

GNM staff are assisting with reading in our local schools, particularly the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School and are running a chess club at the Winton School.

Working with Pentonville prisoners to produce the regular newsletter "Voice of the Ville”. Guardian staff are supporting inmates with literacy, communication and 

media skills. They plan to help the prison develop its new media centre

And all this in addition to GNM’s HR team working with residents and ground staff on the Bemerton Estate (pictured). The team painted and removed graffiti, planted flower beds, edged and reseeded the lawn and built a picnic table and benches. This continued the work they started in November when they transformed an outdoor area by building planters, clearing up and removing rubbish.

We hope to keep you up to date with The Guardian's local activities on this site.

Charity appeal - WheelPower

Dan Collins a neighbour at the Guardian has got in touch with a charity appeal:

'I am working on the Wheel Appeal project for WheelPower and we are going to be having a mini-Guardian wheelchair basketball competition... to raise some funds to buy them a couple of wheelchairs.  I think personally it's a superb charity, and one that I'm proud to be helping.  There's a Just Giving page here.'

Dan also reports that Guardian staffers are about to get involved in a range of charity projects across the Kings Cross area.  It would be good to see a big local business get stuck in - more on that soon.

TolpuddleKX April 2009 all events published!

A week long celebration of people coming together to stand up for their rights in memory of the great demonstration supporting the Tolpuddle Martyrs will kick off at the Mitre pub on Saturday 18 April.

The festival ends with TolpuddleKX Goes Live at Edward Square with Billy Bragg and many more on Saturday 25 April.

John Hegley

Copenhagen School

Copenhagen Youth Project 

will all perform during a fun filled week.

Click on the map (right) for a larger version.

The TolpuddleKX 2009 website has all the details!

Ryan Kemp - well-known and respected community leader passes away

     

 

In Memorium
 Ryan Kemp
 16 Aug 1949 - 3 Feb 2009

The Community Bulletin Board just received the following message from Sue Cartwright. the partner of long-time, well-know community activist Ryan Kemp.

It is my sad task to announce that Ryan Kemp, my partner of 24 years, died of renal cancer peacefully at home on 3 February 2009. 

Ryan had lived in the Caledonian area for over thirty years and was well known as a community activist.  For many years he was the Chair of the successful Cally Forum, the last neighbourhood forum to survive in Islington, which sadly had to closed in 2002 when Islington neighbourhood forums were disbanded.  Ryan was proud that the Cally Forum was an inclusive organisation and people from both sides of the Caledonian Road participated together to make our area a better place.  Although it closed, many of the people involved went on to support other activities and organisations which sprung up in our locality.

Always fighting for improvements in the local community, Ryan strongly believed that residents should have a say in what went on in their area.  He was therefore a community representative on many local organisations such as Team Cally, Islington Community Network, Kings Cross Development Forum, Caledonian Ward Safer Neighbourhood Panel and the Friends of Regent’s Canal.  He also regularly attended the public meetings of West Area Committee and West Area Planning Committee.  In 1996/7 Ryan was instrumental in lobbying for the building and funding of the Killick Street Health Centre and worked with the Kings Cross Partnership for the funding of a community health worker to be employed there. Ryan was a very active participant at meetings, frequently challenging information and often wanting to add relevant points.  He often had extensive knowledge of the background to matters at hand which, as many Chairs will know to their cost, he just had to share with everyone.  He always tried to attend every meeting and frequently turned up late trying to fit in two in at the same time.

Ryan spent his childhood in Brighton, coming to London for his first degree at UCL, then an MSc at Birkbeck and then spent some time doing part-time teaching at Oxford Poly.  He started a PhD in very large databases at UCL in 1978 but unfortunately got sidetracked and never completed it. He worked as a lecturer, then senior lecturer at South Bank University from 1983 until he was made redundant in 2006. There he joined Natfhe, now UCU, and became an active member. Over the years Ryan was Branch Chair, Secretary, member of his branch’s coordinating committee, local negotiator, membership secretary and delegate to Regional Council.  He was also, until his illness, Regional Treasurer of Natfhe Inner London and then London Regions.

Always interested in all types of politics, Ryan joined the Labour Party in the eighties and has since been a staunch member including holding the Chair of Caledonian branch for many years. 

Ryan was fun to be with; he had a sunny disposition and an upbeat optimistic outlook.  He never bore grudges, had an endless curiosity about everything and a boundless enthusiasm for life.  He greatly enjoyed attending all types of events, festivals, music gigs, (usually rock bands), exhibitions as well as being interested in history and architecture. As his many albums and thousands of digital photos testify, he was an ardent photographer.  He loved to travel and to explore other countries.  Until he was prevented from driving due to illness, Ryan could be seen tearing round Islington and beyond in his much loved car.  He had very quick reactions and never caused an accident but enjoyed driving fast and I was sure that this would be the end of him.

Ryan was diagnosed in August 2007 and for almost the first year he was able to enjoy his life. Things gradually changed especially of course during the past month but we have had good doctors at the Royal Marsden, excellent support from our GPs at Click Street and a wonderful palliative care team who not only effectively controlled his pain but who really got to know us both and who have been incredibly supportive. I can’t praise them enough.

I would like to thank all our kind friends and neighbours as well as Ryan’s family, especially his brother Fraser, who have been and continue to be so supportive.
 
Ryan was very special. He was bright, open, affectionate and enduringly positive. It’s hard for me to imagine how life will be without him; certainly it will be a sadder and duller place. I and his brother and family will always miss him terribly but I am comforted in the knowledge that my loss is shared by many others in the Cally area.

Everyone is of course welcome to attend the cremation which will be held at East Finchley crematorium in the next couple of weeks, date to be announced shortly.

Sue Cartwright

Should you wish to make a donation in Ryan's memory, please contact one of the following charities: MacMillan Cancer Support www.macmillan.org.uk  or Kidney Cancer UK. www.kcuk.org

Postscript from Sue:

I'd like to thank everyone for their comments about Ryan on the website and for their letters, emails, cards and phone calls. A lot of people will smile at and share in the anecdotes about Ryan and it's wonderful to know that he will be fondly remembered by so many.

Thanks also to more than a hundred people who came to the cremation ceremony and reception and made it a real celebration of Ryan's life. As someone wrote recently "You are never dead while you are remembered with love."

I think Ryan will not be forgotten for a very long time.
 
Sue Cartwright

Please feel free to record your memories of Ryan below in the "comments" section as a tribute to his dedicated community service over the years.

A celebration of the life of Phil Jeffries

    In Memoriam

Phil Jeffries
22 February 1953 – 14 December 2008

A memorial to celebrate the life of Phil Jeffries will be held on Saturday, 28 February. It is not in a public place and so must be by invitation only.

If you would like to attend, please contact phil.memorial@btinternet.com by 8 February.

Phil’s partner, Diana Shelley, will do her best to respond, but please be patient!

Phil played a very active role in the King's Cross Community.  Please go to the original Memoral Page for more information and to record any comments for history - original memorial page. 

Phil Jeffries - Well Known Local Campaigner Passes Away

In Memoriam

Phil Jeffries
1953-2008

The Community Bulletin Board is saddened to announce the passing of another well-known and respected local campaigner Phil Jeffries.  The following was received from his long time partner Diana Shelley.

I am very sad to announce that my partner of 32 years, Phil Jeffries, died of cancer on 14 December.

Many local people will know Phil as a committed campaigner for the King’s Cross community. He was a founder member of the King’s Cross Railway Lands Group in 1987 and served as chair on three separate occasions during its 21 years. His particular skill was for parliamentary and paralegal work, leading the case against the original Channel Tunnel Rail Link which would have demolished large swathes of King’s Cross.

Later, when the route changed to St Pancras in 1993, he helped found the Cally Rail Group, not to campaign against the rail link but to ensure it disrupted the local community in West Islington as little as possible. He led preparation of our case to Parliament to adopt a scheme which would avoid digging up the Cally Road for several years, and in 1995 the House of Commons agreed the current route to avoid that disruption.

In 2001, when the CTRL was about to start on site and the engineers had ‘forgotten’ Parliament’s aim not to disrupt the Cally, it was Phil who wrote our referral to the Secretary of State and led negotiations with the Department of Transport when we finally got them to take us seriously. It was too late to avoid disruptive work to the utilities in 2002, but Phil gained what the Council had not thought to demand—a special compensation scheme for traders who lost passing trade (vital for our small traders who operate on such tight margins)—and the Government paid out some £100,000.

Phil’s knowledge of construction impacts was put to good use when CTRL wanted round the clock noisy working at St Pancras. He worked with local people to convince Camden council to oppose the application and then helped prepare evidence for the resulting planning inquiry. The Planning Inspector rejected CTRL’s appeal in February 2004 and, when regular meetings were set up between CTRL, Camden officers and residents to agree construction methods, Phil continued to advise.

In 2004 Cally Rail Group widened its brief to campaign for a better development on the King’s Cross Railway Lands. We had welcomed CTRL in principle because we hoped for real regeneration which would benefit local people. As part of the King’s Cross Think Again campaign, Phil was at the forefront in preparing the unsuccessful case for judicial review against Camden’s acceptance of the inadequate Argent scheme. Earlier this year, after Islington rejected the scheme for the Triangle site and Argent appealed, Phil acted at the planning inquiry as advocate for Cally Rail and KX Railway Lands groups, arguing unsuccessfully to have environmental problems on the site taken seriously and for more affordable housing.

He helped set up King’s Cross Voices, our local oral history project. When its parent organisation, King’s Cross Community Development Project, went bankrupt because of mismanagement, Phil worked tirelessly to rescue the project, support the staff and secure its future with Camden council.

Phil was born in Darlington in 1953 and came to London to study physiology. He did not finish his degree but became involved in the squatting movement, which is how I met him in 1976. He was for many years active in the peace movement, helping to found the Peace Movement Legal Support Group which advised activists on the law and supported people arrested on demos. Together we edited A Legal Advice Pack for Nuclear Disarmers (published by CND in 1984), which explained the law affecting non-violent actions.

Phil held various jobs until, in 1985, as a result of his work in the Nuclear-Free Zones Movement, he went to work for the Greater London Council. After abolition he became PA to the Labour leader of the Fire and Civil Defence Authority, and in recent years he was the London Fire Brigade’s statistician. This year he and two colleagues won a special award for their work tracking down someone who made 885 hoax calls in 45 days: by analysing the pattern of calls from various public call boxes Phil predicted which the hoaxer would use next, leading to his arrest.

Phil was a trade unionist and (sometimes critical) Labour Party member. Alongside other political and community campaigns too numerous to list, he loved cooking, music, birdwatching and history. Until the illness overtook him he struggled to continue research on a history project which engaged him for many years.

On a personal note, Phil and I were in a relationship for 15 years before we took the plunge in 1991 and went to live together. We wondered immediately why we had missed out for so long on the delights of living as well as campaigning together.

He was diagnosed with lung cancer, with brain secondaries, on August Bank Holiday this year, exactly 17 years after we moved into Gifford Street. Phil faced the knowledge that he would die with courage and grace: ‘don’t talk statistics to a statistician’, he said, ‘I may live another twenty years’. Despite palliative treatment in UCH, the disease progressed shockingly fast. Staff in St Joseph’s Hospice in Hackney, where he went on 5 December, managed to control his pain and did everything they could for us both. I was with him when he died, supported by his brother, Steve.

His final act, as a scientist dedicated to improving life for everyone, was to leave his body to the London teaching hospitals. This means there will be no funeral, but details of an event to celebrate his life will be posted here when available. Thank you to all our wonderful friends and neighbours, as well as Phil’s brother, sister in law Val, and niece Anna, for all the support we both had, and I continue to have now.

The struggle for a just and peaceful world continues, but without one of its most dedicated campaigners.

Diana Shelley
____________________________________________________________

Will Perrin previously interviewed Phil during the one of the battles relating to the Islington Triangle Site - you can watch that interview here - Click to view the interview

____________________________________________________________

We hope that those of you who knew Phil will use the comment section below to record your thoughts about his life and work in the area.

Aflorum - Our Local Florist Goes Even Greener

Our local florist on Caledonian Road (across from Tescos), Aflorum has just made a major new purchase to help with their ever expanding business - a new electric delivery vehicle.

Keeping to the spirit of going green, this new vehicle is exactly what local neighbourhood merchants need:  Zero emissions, charges for pennies, goes 40 miles on a charge, is easy to park, enjoys a the benefit of NO CONGESTION CHARGES and it was subsidised by a grant from Islington's Climate Change Fund.  What more could you ask for.

Florist Wichet, has taken the lead and this might spur other local merchants to take a look at the economic benefits on offer.  If interested you can get in touch via the Aflorum's website or give him a call at the shop at (020) 7837-4000.

Oh yes, and the flowers and floral arrangements on offer are also something to behold as many of our neighbours have already discovered.

 

 

 

 

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Lisa Pontecorvo Memorial

This page will be devoted to the memory of Lisa Pontecorvo, our friend and a tireless community activist in the Caledonian Ward, Islington and Camden.

You may wish to join many others of Lisa's friends and colleagues who have left a Tribute to Lisa in the Comments section at the bottom of this posting.

Lisa Pontecorvo joins the Tolpuddle Martyrs and continues to keep an eye on Edward Square....

Lisa Tang, Ed Davey and Alastair Murray, who sent in this picture have drawn my attention to the touching inclusion of Lisa Pontecorvo in the Tolpuddle Martyrs mural near the entrance to Edward Square off Copenhagen Street. 

It seems so natural to immortalise this wonderful local campaigner in a depiction of one of the great London campaigns.  Great work from Karen the artist. 

The outpouring of tribute on this site, over at Bridget Fox's site and the recent Guardian obituary have moved me deeply.