Give and Take day - 7th Jan

The next Give and Take day will be on the 7th Jan, held at St. Giles Cripplegate.  If you'd like to give then drop off your bits between 10:00 and 12:00.  You can browse and perhaps do some taking between 13:00 and 15:00.

Here is the flyer from the City:

Click to enlarge

Is the future woody?

Timber buildings are the future according to an article on the BBC, and as an example of the bad-old-ways of using concrete we are shown a picture of the Barbican :-/

Could wood really be better than this?

Bernard Morgan House - new planning application!

Taylor Wimpey have submitted a new planning application for the demolition and replacement of Bernard Morgan House.

I understand there are only a few changes, but they must have been significant from Taylor Wimpey's point of view.  There will be a slight reduction in the number of flats in the building, a balcony or two will be removed, but otherwise it's just the same as the last application.

I heard that the reduction in the number of flats was to get below some threshold where more money would have to be given towards social housing.  The removed balcony may be related to light surveys taken from nearby flats in the Cobalt Building.

I understand that any objections received for the last application will be rolled forward to the new one, but if you want to be sure you could email the planning people with your objection again.  I'll be writing to remind them of the house group objection.

Here is the notice (sorry for the delay in posting this)
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Click to read the whole letter

Collect your parcels promptly

A message from the BEO about our CPA elves drowning in parcels ...

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Due to an increase in parcels received around the Christmas period, concierge offices begin to get very full. If you could please try to collect your parcels as soon as you receive your pink cards, this would be most appreciated. Thank you very much for your cooperation.

Tailgating

From the BEO:
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Tailgating

While the blocks are very secure, we need residents to take some responsibility and not hold the door open for anyone without a key. If someone does try to follow you in and you are not comfortable challenging them, you should call either your Car Park Concierge/Lobby Porter or the Police when it is safe and reasonable to do so, making a note of where you came in.
Reminder, the Police Non-Emergency number is 101.

Reporting Faulty Locks or Doors
If you discover a faulty lock or door please do not assume someone has already reported it. For the sake of security, a quick phone call or email to the Property Services desk 0207 029 3909 or barbicanrepairs@cityoflondon.gov.uk or your Car Park Concierge/Porter will mean it will be rectified as soon as possible.

Thank you for on-going assistance with these matters.
Barbican Estate Office

Minutes of the 2016 House Group AGM

Here are the minutes from the AGM meeting.  The smart PDF version is here.  The text of the minutes is below.

Please let me know if you see any errors or omissions in the minutes.

~~~~

The Ben Jonson House Group

AGM

19:00 on Tuesday 6th December 2016

The residents meeting room (Lilac Room)

Minutes of the meeting

• Opening and Welcome
• We are a Recognised Tenants Association (RTA) under the Landlord and Tenant act 1988 (as amended).  This is the AGM we’re obliged to have each year.
• We have 100ish members as at 5th Dec.  To be quorate we need 15% of members present, which is 14.25 people.  31 residents attended so we were quorate.
• Apologies:
• Fiona Lean

• Minutes of the previous general meeting
• - http://bjhg-blog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/house-group-agm-on-9th-dec-2015-minutes.html
• Acceptance of the minutes proposed by Tony 339 and seconded by Mary 507
• The meeting accepted the previous minutes

• Treasurer’s report
• The treasurer report was read from the house group rolling agenda and minutes.  The only expenditure has been on Staff Christmas presents for 2015.
• Balance at 21st September was  £1,483.90.
• The meeting agreed to ask the treasurer to once again dispense Christmas Cheer to the staff who give such excellent support to residents throughout the year.

• House Officer’s Report
• Following the formal part of the AGM our house officer provided insights and details regarding the current matters on the house group committee rolling agenda.  Any actions arising appear in the rolling agenda.

• Election of the committee  & seeking new committee members
• The following committee members agreed to stand again:
• Helen Hulson
• Fiona Lean
• John Dilger
• Wendy Spurry
• Bruce Badger
• The following residents agreed to stand this year:
• John Murch
• Dave King
• Kevin Bond
• The meeting accepted all those standing as committee members

• Any Other Business
• There was no other business for the formal part of the AGM

• The meeting was closed

Xmas Gathering & AGM - Tue 6th Dec 19:00

Ben Jonson House residents are invited to Wine, nibbles, and hopefully a quick-quiet AGM.

19:00 on Tuesday 6th December in the Lilac Room.  See here for directions to the Lilac Room.  The agenda for the AGM is here.

Actually the AGM part of this is quite important.  We need 15% of members to be present to have a very quick AGM (10 minutes of admin). The committee is hoping that the lure of wine and mince pies will draw enough people along.

The house group must have an AGM every year (or else!). Please do just pop in for a short while.

And please do sign up as a member!

House Group - Please be a member

Please sign up as a member of the house group.  Without enough members the house group can not continue as an RTA.  All residents are welcome, but we need at least 50% of long leaseholders (owners of flats) to be members to qualify.

There is no cost for membership, other than the time it takes you take to sign up.

Please either use the new membership system (https://membermojo.co.uk/bjhg) as explained here.  Or, if you prefer paper you can use the same form we used the last time here.

Also, please do come along to the AGM each year.

Click here to visit the membership system

Xmas meeting & AGM 6th Dec 19:00

The house group Christmas meeting and AGM will be held on Tuesday 6th December 2016 from 19:00 to 22:00 in the Lilac Room.

As last year, there will be wine and mince pies to keep you busy while we conduct the AGM.

If you have not already done so, please sign up as a member of the house group using our new system here.

Cripplegate Ward Meeting 30th Nov

From the BEO:

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Cripplegate Ward Residents' Meeting

Dear Residents

All residents of Cripplegate Ward are invited to a meeting with your elected members on 30 November at 19:30. The meeting will be held in the Lilac Meeting Room at level 02 below Seddon House.

The meeting will be your opportunity to raise issues of concern with your elected Members for the Ward.

Bulb Planting Day - tomorrow!

Tomorrow, Sunday 6th November, is bulb planting day in the Barbican Wildlife Garden.  Green fingered people are invited to join in between 10:00 and 13:00.

Here is the flyer:

Click to enlarge

Rattle Hall canned?

It seem the the project to replace the current Museum of London buildings with a new concert hall, backed by Sir Simon Rattle, has been killed.   An item on Barbican Talk points to a Guardian article on the subject.

He looks surprised

Visit the Southwark Waste Recycling Facility 21 Nov 10am

From the chair of the BA sustainability committee here is a chance to visit the Veolia recycling facility in Southwark.  If you do want to go along please see the the notices from Veolia explaining how to get to the site and the rules for being on the site (sorry about the formatting of the latter document - thank Microsoft).

___

Here is another opportunity to visit the recycling facility where our dry recyclables are processed. It is a fascinating trip and comes highly recommended by the residents who visited in July.

Veolia can accommodate up to 20 visitors - so if you would be interested in joining the trip please let me know.

10.00 – Welcome with refreshments – presentation on the site/ H & S briefing
10.20 - Don Personal Protection Equipment (PPE)
10.30 - Tour the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF)
11.00 - Tour the Mechanical and Biological Treatment (MBT)
11.20 - Tour the Recycling Discovery Centre (RDC)
11.35 - Remove PPE
11.40 - Q&A
12.00 - Depart

The site is easily reached by public transport - either via the Northern Line to Elephant and then a 172, 453 or 53 bus - or a 172 bus from Little Britain or a 21 from Finsbury Square and it takes about an hour to get there.

The site visit is not suitable for anyone fitted with a pacemaker nor, unfortunately, for wheelchair users or those needing with walking aids.

Hope you can come.

Taylor Wimpey: a noisy spelling mistake

Taylor Wimpey must be feeling pretty confident that their Bernard Morgan House planning application will be approved because they put up a sign announcing the new development on the site they acquired.

... but they spelled acquired incorrectly:

Subject to spelling

Taylor Wimpey realised the blunder and sent a team to remove the signs ... at 05:30 on Friday morning, very noisily.

Sign removal under way

Thanks to the chair of the Breton House Group for the information and photos.

New L7 Ladder Cages

There are ladders on the roof of Ben Jonson House which give access to plant rooms on the 7th floor.  New cages have been added to the upper parts of these ladders for health and safety reasons.  Here is how they look:

Harder to fall off?

Gnewt car park plans on hold

From the BEO, an update on the plans for Gnewt to run a distribution centre from the Breton/Ben Jonson car park.  Plans on hold until February:

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Gnewt Cargo Consolidation Centre pilot – Breton House Car Park

Thank you to all those residents that attended the pre-planning application meeting earlier in October, and provided comments with regard to the proposals for the Gnewt Cargo Consolidation Centre pilot at Breton House Car Park.

The planning application, pilot and updated information are all currently on hold whilst Gnewt Cargo review their business plans. We anticipate further discussions with Gnewt Cargo regarding their plans in February 2017, when we should be in a position to update you.

School Floodlights Circular

A resident has posted a two page circular to the flats which could be directly affected by the proposed Prior Weston floodlights.

The circular ends by pointing out that the deadline for objections is the 27th October (this Thursday), so if you want to comment on the application be quick (follow the link above to see how to comment).

Click to read the whole circular

Suggestion Box

The house group committee has decided to try having a suggestion box.  The box is silver and located directly in front of the CPAs office.  There are blank forms behind the box.

Suggestions welcome

City Councillor Elections 2017

The City of London election of common councillors will be held in March next year.  The City has set up a web page with information of how to register, and even how to stand if you would like to be a common councillor.

Click to read the saved City page

Asbestos inspections

The common area will be checked for asbestos on 20th October:

Click to read the notice

Hole dug into carpark roof

A hole has been made in the roof of the car park beneath Ben Jonson House by the people doing road works directly above the car park on Beech Street.

Structural engineers will be assessing the damage next week.

There's a hole in my car park

Building Insurance

The City have sent out notice that they are planning to use Royal Sun Alliance (RSA Insurance Group PLC) for buildings insurance from the Barbican for three years from 25th December 2016 with an option to extend for two more years.

The proposed expenditure for Ben Jonson House flats is between £46.10 and £92.20.

We may make written "observations" which must be sent to the City within 35 days of the date of the letter.  The deadline for observations is 22th November.  See the letter below for the address.

Click to read the whole letter

Wake up call - an emergency?

Our 07:25 wake up call this morning came from Riney.  The people installing the temporary tarmac ramp said they had been told to start at 07:30 and that it was OK because this was an emergency.  It was an emergency because pedestrians needed a ramp while water works in the tunnel were happening.

They could not explain why it was an emergency at 07:25 this morning rather than over the last few days during which the state of the works has remained unchanged.

An "emergency" ramp being installed.

Balcony Fire Escape Inspections

Our balconies are fire escapes  We get to enjoy them when there is no fire, but if there ever is a fire it's really important that people are able escape, so every year the BEO check the escape routes ...

It really is important

Primary School Registrations

To register a child for primary school next year contact fyi@cityoflondon.gov.uk or call +44 207 332 1750 before 15th January ...

Time flies.  Apply now.

School Floodlight Objections

If you feel you may be affected by the addition of floodlights on the Prior Weston school play area (see location here) the deadline for letting Islington council know is 27th October.

For a list of valid reasons to object to planning applications see here.

To submit an objection to this application visit the Islington Planning Portal. Click here for details of how to do this.

The Barbican Association, Ben Jonson House Group and Breton House Group will be raising objections, but it is important that individuals submit their own objections.  If there are only a few objections Islington officers may approve the application using delegated powers rather than allowing the application to go before the planning committee.

Clearly is this important to people, which explains why colour notices have popped up in the lifts.  If you do wish to post a notice then please link to this blog (and this article) as there is much more more information here.

Please remember to add a link to the blog

... and if you have a colour printer and wish to look after the notice boards please do let me know.  Your help with that would be most welcome.

Waste in corridors: Avoid

The BEO have sent out a notice asking that residents avoid placing bags of rubbish in the corridors.  Please try to use your service cupboard for rubbish if you can.

Click to read the whole letter

FAQ about the Waitrose refurbishment

Waitrose sent a FAQ of sorts about the closure and refurbishment to the BA which the BEO sent out by email:

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Waitrose refurbishment

Following concern from some residents about the imminent refurbishment of the local Waitrose, the BA spoke to the manager and project manager to find out more and seek some reassurances. They said the following:

1. Both residents and office workers are important customers to them and they intend to continue to cater for both groups (and any other category of customer).
2. Waitrose currently sell 23,000 lines and the refurbishment will not lower this number of lines stocked;"the number of lines stocked will increase following the refurbishment. Customers will still be able to complete a full shop, as they did before the refurbishment."
3. They do plan to close the patisserie and the delicatessen counters. This is because these counters are used by a very small proportion of their customers and produce relatively few sales (less than it costs them to run the counters).
4. Most of the items currently sold on those counters will continue to be sold in packs of varying sizes, as they are currently.
5. They are enlarging their stocks of breads and cakes, even though they are shutting the patisserie counter.
6. They are introducing a service counter selling prepared foods (not just sushi).
7. They are building a customer toilet, following customer feedback since opening.
8. The Barbican Waitrose is the first store to offer a number of new concepts from Waitrose, which will be rolled out throughout the UK.
9. They are making the changes because people's shopping habits – and what they want – have changed. They also pointed out that the store has not had any refurbishment since Waitrose took it over 10 years ago, and it needs bringing up to date.
10. The opening hours will remain the same; the prices will stay in line with other Waitrose stores across the country, and will not change because of the refurbishment.
11. The manager apologises for the disruption caused by the closures and hopes to welcome his regular customers back on 17 November. There is always a duty manager in the store for customers to talk to if they have questions or issues.

A noise too early

This morning we had another cleaning team in action.  This work was nowhere near as noisy at the recent UBS pavement cleaning, but they started much earlier than they should have.

This crew started work at 07:55 and were done shortly after 08:15.  They claimed to have obtained permission to do the work from the City but said they had not been told that they should start after 09:00.

Not so noisy, but far too early.

Digging up a bit of Beech Street

The noise from 08:00 this morning came from Riney workers digging up the road at the junction of Beech St and Golden Lane.  I don't know what they are working on, but it is very noisy:

Wake up call

Waitrose refurbishment flyer

Waitrose was closed for two days earlier this week and will be closed again from 29th October to 16th November.  The store will reopen on the 17th November.

Here is a flyer explaining what the newly refurbished store will look like:

Click to read the flyer

Water off this evening?

I saw a notice stuck to a notice board in the lifts.  It says:

WATER.  I have spoken to the men sorting the water on Beech Street.  The water will go off at midnight & come on in the am, no time given.

It could be true!

School floodlighting planning application is in

The Prior Weston school has submitted a planning application for their proposed floodlights. The application is now validated and visible on the Islington planning portal (search for P2016/1803/FUL).

The school clearly decided they didn't want to discuss this further with residents nor run a test installation to give residents an idea of how what they had in mind would look in practice before submitting the application.

Copies of the documents which form part of the application are here.

According to the planning application details on the Islington site (copy here), comments may be made until 27th October.  You may wish to review the valid reasons for objections, but the main considerations here are likely to be light pollution and the possibility of noise later in a floodlit evening.  The school tell us that the reason for the lighting is to allow the use of outdoor spaces in the winter, with no extension in usage beyond the times we experience in the summer.  Planning conditions need to be in place to ensure this, so do write in if this will affect you.

It looks like comments must be submitted via the Islington planning portal:

Click to visit the portal. Search for P2016/1803/FUL

Here is a snip of the light spillage document in the application (copy here):

Click to zoom in.  Use links above to view original documents.

Draft 2017 Licensing Policy

The City have been working on a new licensing policy document which would come into effect in 2017.  Policy documents like these frame the work of the respective committee, so this document guides the licensing committee when they are considering a license application.

The consultation period for this document ended on Thursday which surprised me because I didn't even know it had started.  I understand that they will still accept comments, I have no idea for how long.

Click to read the whole draft policy

Waitrose Closing ... for a little while

Waitrose Barbican will be closing twice for refurbishment.  The first closure will just be for two days on the 11th and 12th of October.  The second closure is for almost three weeks from Saturday 29th of October to Thursday 17th of November.

The dates are on the house group calendar.

Here is the letter from Waitrose:

Click to read the whole letter

An example Barbican flat lease

The City of London owns the Barbican Estate and all the flats within it.  For many years these flats were rented out directly by the City as council flats, but the 1980 Housing act changed all that by introducing the right to buy.  While some flats, a very small number, are still are rented directly from the City, most barbican flats have been 'bought'.

... BUT what has been bought is not the flat itself but rather a lease.  This is why the 'owners' of Barbican flats are formally referred to as long leaseholders.  The few remaining council tenants are short leaseholders.

The lease is the deal between the 'owner' and the City, and it defines all kinds of obligations upon both parties; quiet hours, cleaning rules, floor coverings, television services ... the lease is long.  In theory, if a long leaseholder breaches the terms of the lease they can lose their flat (though I've never heard of this actually happening, and the estate office warns if it thinks rules are being broken), so it's worth knowing what the lease actually says:

Click to read the whole example lease

Banging the drums - noise from the school

A number of residents in Ben Jonson House and in Breton House are being disturbed by what seems to be a new outdoor music play and teaching area at the Prior Weston school on the Golden Lane Campus.  This has been discussed on Barbican Talk.

Here are the words of one resident.

Persistent Percussion Problems from Prior Weston 

The noises emanating from Prior Weston School over the last few weeks might have led BJH residents to conclude that the new 'Centre for Music' was already up and running. 

In fact, the recurrent (some would say constant!) percussion sounds are not attributable to the LSO but to very young children who are being given access to drums, chimes, bells, tambourines, and cymbals in the out-of-doors covered play area at street level.   

Unsurprisingly, the instruments have been beaten with considerable gusto between 9 am and mid afternoon ever since the first day of the new school year on 8 September. 

For at least some residents in earshot who are at home during the day, the loud noises have been distracting, distressing and even maddening, judging from comments on Barbican Talk. The crashing cymbals are especially nerve-shattering, but the rhythmic drum beats and jangling bells are equally hard to ignore. 

Contact was made with the School by a couple of residents early on, but to no avail. Islington Council was also alerted, and the result was a 'noise diary' kept over two weeks at the request of the Council which (along with some recordings) provided evidence of how frequent and disruptive the percussion sounds can be.  

A meeting between the School, BJH and Breton reps, the chair of the Barbican Association, and affected residents will take place on Tuesday 4 October, and the need to keep musical instruments indoors and out of the hearing range of local residents will be emphasised.

The 4th October meeting mentioned above will be held at the school and will be attended by representatives of the school, representatives of the house groups and a number of directly affected residents.  There is one remaining slot for a resident affected by this noise in Ben Jonson House.  Let me know (ben.jonson.hg at gmail.com) if you would like to attend.

Membership Renewal Time

From time to time we have to confirm our membership to the satisfaction of the City.  That time has come around again.

Please join the house group here:  https://membermojo.co.uk/bjhg.   You can join the house group if you live in Ben Jonson House and/or if you are a long leaseholder of a flat in Ben Jonson House.  There are currently no membership fees.

This time we are trying out a membership management system.  Just press the big orange button on the right.  Please note that as we are adopting this new system, everyone is 'joining' rather than 'renewing'.

Please Join

UBS Pavement Cleaning Noise

From time to time the City cleans the pavement in front of the UBS building on Golden Lane.  To do this the cleansing team break out the noisiest high pressure water jet machine in the whole wide world.  Just to be sure we get the maximum noise the operators lift the soundproofing lid over the engine.

Getting ready to unleash the beast

Lid-Up. Max-Noise. Thanks guys.

At least they waited until after 09:00 before starting this morning.  It took until well into the afternoon for them to finish though :-(

---
Update on 2016-09-29. The City responds:

Sorry for any inconvenience caused with regards to the cleaning of Golden Lane as described below.

I have asked our contractor for an update on concerns raised below and can confirm the following;

• Amey the City contractor will look at quieter (or electric) machines when they are due for replacement, I am led to believe that there may be a service issue with the machine and they are having it serviced and this may reduce the smoke and allow for the lid to be lowered to reduce noise in the future, they have a couple of other machines that I will take a look at to see if they are any quieter.
• The City schedule the work at weekends due to foot fall and the reason this area is scheduled every 13 weeks to be washed is due to algae that settles on the paving and makes it slippery, so all of the public benefit from the area being clean and safe. We believe that this is the best time to carry this work out when there is less traffic and people in the area, thus making the operation safer to carry out.
• The contractor are aware of the times that they are allowed to carry out noisy work and we have to share the schedule with markets and consumer protection noise team stating where and when we will carried out noisy work.
• The next scheduled clean is due approx., 17/12/16.

As stated I have discussed with our contractor and will make sure that points raised are adhered to.

Gnewt Distribution Business in Breton Car Park?

Meeting in the Lilac Room at 18:30 on 4th October will be held to discuss ...

The City are always looking to make more money from the car parks.  Money raised in this way is used to help fund the CPAs we all rely on so much.

The proposal is that Gnewt Cargo UK will use the Beton House / Ben Jonson House car park as a redistribution centre.  An HGV would bulk deliver to the car park once per day, and a team of 20 people would then deliver individual parcels using electric vehicles.

Vehicles like this?

Gnewt and the City have discussed this idea in the past, but it was dropped.  I thought this was because there was not enough power available in the car park to charge the electric vehicles, but I could be wrong there.

At the meeting we will be able to ask about timings, noise, how many parking spots will be taken for Gnewt and how many will be left for residents and visitors ... and anything else you can think of.

The BEO gave me a FAQ and sent the following:

___

Dear residents

Gnewt Consolidation Centre Proposal

The Barbican Estate Office would like to invite you to a presentation meeting regarding a car park proposal at the Barbican Estate. The details regarding this meeting are below:

18:30 - Tuesday 4 October
Residents' Meeting Room (Lilac Room)
Barbican Estate Office

Discussions have taken place with Gnewt Cargo Limited regarding a trial consolidation centre within the Breton/Ben Jonson House Car Park. This particular car park currently has 146 vacant bays (occupancy 39%) and this project looks at the possibility of letting 35 of bays.

Gnewt provide an efficient and environmentally friendly service for the 'last mile' distribution of parcels and packages. A location at Breton/Ben Jonson House Car Park would enable them to make short distance deliveries to city addresses using electrical vehicles, bicycles and pedestrian staff.

The City of London's Low Emission Neighbourhood team has also been working with us on this project as Gnewt are totally green, with a fully electric fleet.

We welcome your comments/questions regarding this potential trial with Gnewt, and this will form a 'Question and Answer' sheet which we will provide to those that attend the meeting – however if you cannot attend the meeting we will gladly forward this and the presentation onto you for your information.
Please send these questions and requests to:- barry.ashton@cityoflondon.gov.uk

This pre-planning consultation meeting and the feedback we receive will form part of the Planning Application. It will also be a good trial for possible future income generation for the car parks as part of the City's Service Based Review.

Estate CCTV cameras will not now happen

This is just a proposal, but it seems likely that this will come to pass ...

The City Police are no longer proposing to put CCTV cameras around the Barbican Estate.

Because the level of crime is so low, data protection requirements mean they cannot be justified:  “The overwhelming conclusion fed into the Privacy Impact Assessment is that there is not sufficient justification of a ‘problem that needs addressing’ in order to comply with the SCC and Information Commissioner’s guidance on the introduction of surveillance systems.” See:

http://democracy.cityoflondon.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=142&MId=17764&Ver=4

(that link now seems to be blocked)

Golden Lane Estate/Barbican Conservation Area

There is a change.org campaign to establish a conservation area.  The campaign was started by residents of the Golden Lane Estate.  The Barbican Association back this too.  Even the Ben Jonson House Group committee think this is a rather good idea ...

See, and sign, the petition here:

Click image to visit the Change.org page

The URL:

https://www.change.org/p/city-of-london-planning-department-golden-lane-estate-barbican-conservation-area?recruiter=599529446&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=share_email_responsive

Tackling social isolation for older people

At 10:00 - 12:30 on Tuesday 27th September the City is holding an event to discuss the issue of social isolation for older people:

Click to read the whole agenda

Air Quality Volunteers Wanted

The City is looking for more residents to volunteer to take part in the Stop Engine Idling campaign.

The campaign aims to reduce localised air pollution and improve air quality by raising awareness and changing behaviours. Barbican residents have already been taking part in the City's engine idling action days.  Residents found it a rewarding and positive experience - as in general drivers are interested in the message and receptive to change.

Why is this an important issue? Researchers at Kings College London estimate that 10,000 people die early in London each year as a result of long term exposure to poor air quality; so action to tackle the source of air pollution is key.

What is involved?
• Working as a team for 2 hours a month in a series of action days in the City
• Attending a training session

Residents interested in volunteering should register their interest using this online form http://tinyurl.com/z72n7yh and will be sent further details soon.

2015/16 Actual Service Charges

After the debacle of the 2014/15 service charges (which is still not resolved), the actual figures for 2015/16 are much closer to the estimates:

Click to read the whole letter

BMH: Before and After views

While having another look at the 3D model of the proposed replacement for Bernard Morgan House I found out how to make reasonable before and after images (sorry about the lighting - I haven't worked that bit out yet):

Before

After

City of London 2015 Local Plan

A number of the objections to the Bernard Morgan House proposals have made reference to the 2015 City of London Local Plan document.  Here is a copy:

Click to read (or download)

BA objection to Bernard Morgan House development

The deadline  is 30th August for submissions regarding planning application 16/00590/FULL, the demolition and redevelopment of Bernard Morgan House.

The Barbican Association have submitted their response:

Click to read the whole document