Crossrail Moorgate Shaft Open Day

From the Crossrail people ... (& see the link to the information sheet at the bottom)

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I am delighted to confirm an open day exclusively for Barbican residents at the Crossrail Moorgate ticket hall site on Saturday, 8 August.

We propose to offer seven tours of around 45 minutes each starting on the hour from 10.00. The last tour will be at 16.00.

Visitors will receive a briefing and update in the Laing O'Rourke site offices on the Moorgate Highwalk before entering the site at the entrance on the Highwalk opposite the former City Boot pub. We have designated the route from the gate to the viewing gallery as personal protective wear free but we do recommend sturdy shoes or trainers and no opened toed footwear.

All tours have to be booked in advance and each tour will have a maximum of 20 people on it. Representatives from Crossrail, Laing O’Rourke and BBMV will be on hand throughout the day to answer questions and talk about the project.

Click image for complete notice

LFS Building Works - Respite Space

When the building works start on the London Film School beneath Ben Jonson House it will be very noisy.  During these works it has been suggested (by City officers) that there be a 'respite space', somewhere residents can go to avoid the noise.  'Enabling works' are due to start in the Autumn with dates for the heavy construction work to be announced

The recent survey we ran asking how you used your flat during the working day received 60 responses (31%) of whom 29 are retired and 31 work from home.

Sounds like we might need quite a large respite space!

Let's see what the City has to say.

LFS Planning Meeting Audio Recording and Minutes

An audio recording of the planning meeting is here.  The first representation of  the minutes of the committee meeting are here.  The LFS items are 6.2 and 6.3.

Key times in the meeting recording:

• 00:40 Chief Planning Officer presentation
• 12:40 John Whitehead, Chair of Breton House Group
• 15:50 Bruce Badger, Chair of Ben Jonson House Group
• 19:50 Jane Roscoe, Director of the London Film School
• 23:30 JamesTaylor, Architect
• 26:00 Comments on the vents on the highwalk. "Discharge air ... water laden perhaps ... 90 degrees perpendicular to Ben Jonson House ... 6m away & 3.6m below the nearest opening windows.  Polluting air discharged into Golden Lane ..."
• 27:20 Q Regarding coffee bar licensing: "There are no plans to license"
• 27:50 Q Why not have ventilation below podium? "Not feasible."  Why? "Not feasible to get the accommodation to work within the building and given the terms of the lease and constraints."
• 28:50 Chair of the meeting "Will not accept discussion about change of use..."
• 29:30 Comments from the committee:  Some discussion of the noise conditions and how they might work in practice.
• The very end of the meeting is truncated.  All that's missing is the chair agreeing with the last point and then the vote, which in which the application was unopposed. ... I do have the full recording and with upload that soon.

The state of the Beech Street Tunnel

The Beech Street Tunnel is looking rather sad and unloved.  Residents of the Barbican have sent a number of messages to the City showing just how bad it is.  A number of the panels in the tunnel have been kicked in, and the City appears to have tried to mask the damage using just hardboard and sticking tape.

How it was applied

Peeling off

Just leaning

Barbican Estate Resident Survey July 2015

From the BEO:

Suggestion:  You might like to suggest that the BEO run their own blog like this one, but estate wide.  This has been suggested in the past, but the BEO won't do it unless there is good demand.

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Dear Residents

The 2015 Residents Survey has been emailed to over 1300 residents, and is ready for you to give your feedback on the services that the Barbican Estate Office provide. 

The deadline for responses is Sunday 26 July. 

Please spare a few minutes to fill this in by clicking on the link below, as the comments we receive help us improve services. 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/barbicanresidentsurvey2015 

If you would prefer a paper copy, or know someone who wants one, please let your House Officer know and they will  arrange delivery.

With regards

Barbican Estate Office

LFS Planning Application 100% approved

Last Tuesday the London Film School planning application came before the planning committee of the City of London and was passed without any conditions being applied.

The Chair of Breton and Ben Jonson house groups spoke at the meeting but to no observable effect.

City consultation on a new primary academy school

From the Barbican Association:

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Dear All

The City is currently consulting on a new primary academy in Islington. The consultation is open till 17 August
https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/services/education-learning/schools/Pages/City-of-London-Primary-Academy-Islington.aspx

The parents in your houses/towers might like to know about it.

best wishes
Jane

Jane Smith

Chair, Barbican Association

Police: Hang Up on Fraud

From the City of London Police

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Dear Residents

Our Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Card Unit (DCPCU) are organising a campaign on Monday 13^th July in the morning to increase awareness of fraud from telephone calls. 

Community Engagement Officers with DCPCU will visit some flats and talk to residents on Barbican Estate as part of the campaign and BBC London News will be filming the event to get the message out to a larger audience.  They will also being filming an interview with a Barbican resident who has been the victim of one of these type of frauds.

Given the logistics of Barbican Estate I would be grateful to hear from any residents who would be able to assist by allowing us to chat to them on their doorsteps or communal areas about telephone fraud for filming purposes.

I know that its short notice but would be grateful if you could ask for names to be passed on by yourself or a message on one of the numbers below that I can pick up on Monday morning.

Many thanks.

Christine Phillips
Residential Community Engagement
Barbican Police Office
0207 601 2456
07736 952395

Planned closure of lakeside walkway

From the BEO:

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Dear residents

The City of London School for Girls is planning to redecorate the rear elevation of the Main School Building overlooking the Barbican Lake this summer. They will be using the same method which has been used in the past i.e. temporary electric cradles with a scaffold platform for the cradles to rest on cantilevered over the lake next to the walkway along the edge of the lake. This leaves the walkway clear for use while the work is in progress.

The school will need to close the walkway between the school and the lake for 3-4 days while the scaffolding is put up and when it is taken down. The programme date to start putting the scaffold up is 21.7.15 and to start removing the scaffold 24.8.15. Once the scaffold is in place the walkway will be open for residents use.

With regards

Barbican Estate Office

Plinths: Mitred or Curved

The retiled Beech Gardens plinths have mitred corners.  Existing plinths beneath Ben Jonson House have rounded corners, and rounded corners are more common throughout the estate.

When the Ben Jonson Highwalk plinths, now waterproof but naked, get their new tiles will they be in keeping with the current listed setting, or will they use the new mitred look?

Let the BEO know your views.

Mitred new-style Beech Gardens look

Current listed rounded look

Plan Ahead - Free sessions on pensions, wills ...

The City would like us to know that they, Age UK and Camden Council have arranged what look like drop-in sessions where you can find out more about pensions, writing a will, power of attorney, inheritance tax, and planning for long term care.

There are a number of meetings, with the first one being this Wednesday.

See the notice for details.

Click image for more size

More Shadows

It's not just the barrel vaulted ceilings with shadows, it seems.  Here are some shadows in a 3rd floor flat:

Click for larger image

The resident who sent this image thinks the shadows are caused by strips of the ceiling being cooler than the rest of the ceiling, and the cool strips attracting moisture which in turn attracts dust, which in turn leaves the darker areas.

I'll ask the BEO if this shadow problem is common across the block and estate, and if so what they think is the cause and what they recommend to deal with it.

Decision(?) from City re Film School

I have received a letter from the City, apparently in response to the 'objection' submitted by the house group, though the City letter addresses none of the points which were raised.

The City letter seems to be missing some key bits of information:

Click image for the full letter

"A decision has been taken to" do what exactly?

The web address www.planning2.cityoflondon.gov.uk in the City letter points to the general City planning search page.  If you follow the link and then search for "15/00203/FULL" you'll reach this page which says "Pending Decision":

Click image to see bigger version

The City letter is signed by Ted Rayment but asks that any questions go to Jeff Sadler.  I'll send an email to Jeff linking him to this blog item asking him what's going on.  I wonder if he knows?

~~~

I heard back indirectly that the above message was a mistake.  The City had intended to send out a message that the LFS application was going before committee on Tue 14 with officers recommending that the application be approved as is, i.e. no changes at all in response to residents comments.

Your wake up call this morning

Your wake up call this morning at 08:30 was brought to you by the City, Amey and UBS.

The pavement in front of the UBS building is regularly cleaned by the City.  Normally they start doing this in the middle of the morning on a Saturday, but today the Amey crew started at 08:30.

At 08:45 when I spoke to the team of two Amey workers they claimed to not know that they should not start until after 09:00.  They turned off their machine ... but turned it back on again once I'd left, and still before 09:00.  It would seem that it makes no difference to them if they know the times or not.

When environmental services were called they said there was nothing they could do as it was almost 9 already. ... though I later heard that an officer did visit the scene and talk to the Amey workers.

I measured the sound levels in my bedroom and on the street near their machine.  When the the machine was running sound levels in my bedroom were 68dB and on the street over 100dB.  Perhaps in addition to permitted times there should be permitted maximum sound levels.

... and penalties for those who knowingly break the rules,

Sorry, my boss told me to do it

Standard Chartered Great City Race - 9 July 2015

Notice from the BEO below.  Click the image to see the whole road closure leaflet.

Click image for the leaflet

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Dear Residents,

The Standard Chartered Great City Race will take place next Thursday 9 July at 19:15.

Road closures will be in place on the route from 18:30 until 20:30.

The route of the Standard Chartered Great City Race will be the same as last year taking in several City of London landmarks including Tower 42 and the Bank of England. Attached is a road closure leaflet including a map of the route.

For more event information please visit www.cityrace.co.uk

It is recommended that any residents wanting to use their cars during this period transfer to either Bunyan or Breton Car Parks allowing plenty of time before the closures. Please make sure that you notify the concierge there first – Thank you

Bunyan Court Car Park

Fann Street

EC2Y 8DH

02070293940

Breton House Car Park

Golden Lane

EC2Y 8DQ

02070293938

With regards

Barbican Estate Office

Ghosts or Shadows on your barrel ceiling?

Residents have seen ghosting or shadow marks appear on the ceilings of rooms with barrel vaulted roofs.  I have been sent photos (below) of one example.  I understand this is not an isolated case, and that others have reported seeing this too.

There are a number of theories about the cause and what to do about it, but if you see this in your flat contact the BEO for advice.

If you have had this problem in your flat and have fixed it, please let me know how you did it so I can put the information here on the blog for others.

Click the image for a larger view

Reminder about consultation on Barbican area

From the Barbican Association:

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Dear Resident

This is a reminder that the consultation on the Barbican and Gold Lane Area Strategy closes on 8 July.

We urge all residents to respond to this strategy, because it includes a wide ranging set of proposals and will influence our environment for the next couple of decades.

You should have received a green A3 leaflet about the strategy in your letterbox, and the key documents (and how to respond) are here: http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/barbicanarea

Best wishes