Garden Inspection

A small team of residents have inspected the gardens on the highwalks around Breton and Ben Jonson Houses, and have produced a "state of the gardens" report.

Click to read the report

Why residents are paying for concrete repairs

A resident asked why we residents are required to pay for the concrete repairs.

This is a reasonable question.  The City own the buildings and we just lease the flats within the structure (if you own your flat you are a "long lease holder"), so surely the City are responsible for the outer concrete fabric of the estate.

Take the following with a small pinch of salt ...

The Barbican Association (BA) certainly felt that the City should be paying for the concrete repairs and said so to the City.  The City replied that they felt residents should pay.  The BA then hired legal help, and the City engaged their lawyers.  After the BA had spent ~£20,000 of what could be thought of as resident's money, and the City had spent an unknown amount of what could be thought of as resident's money, the BA decided not to throw many more money into the fight.  In the end, the City were willing to spend more of our money than the BA on making us spend our money on fixing the concrete.  Clear?

Electric Vehicle Survey & Pilot

From the BEO:
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Resident survey for electric vehicle charging across the Barbican Estate

There is an exciting opportunity to be part of an air quality initiative on the Barbican estate, and a chance to win £50 Waitrose voucher – please take part in this survey:  https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/BarbicanEV

The LEN project is funding a pilot scheme to roll out EV charging points in Barbican Estate and Golden Lane car parks, with a view to determine the best strategy for the wider roll-out of EV charging points in City of London Corporation managed car parks. Charging points are being installed in 30 parking bays across 5 car parks on the Barbican Estate, and 2 parking bays on the Golden Lane estate.

From February to July 2018, a 6-month trial will take place, monitoring usage and engaging with residents. This survey will establish the current and near-future interest in and demand for electric vehicle charging points, which will be used as an information base on which the 6-month trial will build.

If you are a resident in the Barbican Estate, currently have an electric or hybrid vehicle and would like to be included in the pilot scheme, please contact us for more information. LEN@cityoflondon.gov.uk

The City would like you to be healthy

From the BEO
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Exercise on Referral
The City LivingWise Exercise on Referral programme is restarting for 2018. Initial Assessments are now being conducted to get you started on our 12 week programme. Each session within the programme lasts 1 hour and is suited for individuals with physical health problems that pose a barrier to participating in physical activity. Our qualified staff create a fun and friendly group learning environment and will provide you with safe exercises to suit your needs. 

To join the programme, you will need to live within the City of London, meet our criteria and be referred via your GP. 

To find out more speak to your GP, email city@livingwise.org.uk or call 020 7616 2338. For information on our adult weight management sessions and health checks, visit www.livingwise.org.uk

Click here for details about a City Living Wise event in the Lilac Room, 12 February 2018

Helping Rough Sleepers

Rough sleepers don't have addresses and it can be hard to give an exact location for someone needing help.  If you need to give an accurate location, you might try this.

From the BEO:

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Tackling rough sleeping and homelessness in the Square Mile

The City of London Corporation has a longstanding commitment in taking preventative measures to address rough sleeping and homelessness in the City and to support those it affects throughout the year.

To help spread the word, we’re running an awareness-raising campaign this winter to highlight:
how people can make referrals and donations to support services
the difference between begging and rough sleeping.

The poster campaign is running in multiple high footfall areas across the Square Mile including Liverpool Street, Cannon Street, Blackfriars and Fenchurch Street stations as well as Cheapside and Bishopsgate.

To make a referral to StreetLink, you can:

download the Streetlink app
visit the StreetLink website
call the 24 hour national helpline: 0300 500 0914.

If you would like to find out more about:
our homelessness and housing services, please email Will Norman
the 2017 winter awareness campaign, please email Rachel Morrison.

Locating those tricky places

It's not always easy to let people know how to find a point in the Barbican.  The UK post code system is really good, and many services rely on it, but it is not accurate enough to locate the door were the buzzer to our flat is, or even where the ambulance access point is for Breton and Ben Jonson.

What3Words is a service which names each 3x3 meter square on the surface of the earth with three concatenated words.  For example "flops.glee.race" is the Breton and Ben Jonson ambulance access point:

Click to see this on What3Words

What3Words is also handy if you happen to be ...
... on a raft in the pacific (obtuse.causal.abolish)
... a bar in Sydney (flame.speeds.wipes)
... or the Waitrose sushi counter (funny.juror.music)

City’s first Lighting Strategy

From the BEO:
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Dear Residents Groups and Associations,

Click to read the flyer

City of London would like to invite residents to submit comments on the City’s first Lighting Strategy.

The strategy, developed with Lighting Designer Speirs and Major, seeks to deliver a holistic, creative, and smart approach in which light and darkness are better balanced to meet both the functional and aesthetic needs of the Square Mile. The objective is to provide the City with the necessary functional lighting it requires and to improve the quality of life for its residents and workers, by avoiding unnecessary light pollution, over-lighting, excessive glare and inconsistencies in lighting design.

The public consultation for the City Lighting Strategy will be running for 6 weeks from the Monday 22nd of January to Friday 2nd March 2018.

The strategy will be available to download from the City website, where an on-line survey can also be completed.

Postcards to submit comments can also be found in Guildhall receptions and we can provide more copies at Resident Estate receptions upon request.

Officers will be available to answer any questions in a series of drop in sessions in various locations around the City. Evening sessions will be followed by night walking tours, led by City of London officers, which explore current challenges and opportunities of the City of London lighting. Please see A4 poster attached with details on the locations and timings.

For more information on the strategy or to provide any comments, please visit www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/citylightingstrategy or email citylightingstrategy@cityoflondon.gov.uk.

More Tunnel Activity

It seems that beyond the March concert which we already know will (probably) be happening in the tunnel, other tunnel events are planned.

Rumour has it that some people in the Arts Centre of the City would like to see Beech Street permanently closed to traffic so it could be used as a grand entrance to the centre (perhaps though the current car park entrance) as well as a venue for performances.

Here is another proposed tunnel event (taken the Culture Mile website, I'm told):

Click to read the whole document (look for the red boxes)

At risk: The Barbican Wildlife Garden

One of the areas explicitly excluded from the proposed Barbican / Golden Lane conservation area is the Barbican Wildlife Garden.

If you would like to see the gardens included in the conservation area you have until 12th February to make your views known. The City consultation page is here. Respond to localplan@cityoflondon.gov.uk.

Here is a flyer on the topic:

Click to read the flyer

If you would like to respond to the consultation, please have a look at item 7a of the 14th November 2017 meeting of the Planning and Transportation Committee.  The Barbican and Golden Lane Proposed Conservation Area proposals are described in a report (archived copy).  Look particularly at the points from page 16 which list criteria against which the application will be judged.  For the greatest effect, please do review the items which officers have said NO and think about whether you agree.  The groups fighting for the gardens would love all the NOs to be changes to YESs.  In your comments, use the terminology in the report to make your points.

Respond to localplan@cityoflondon.gov.uk or write to:

Historic Environment Team
Department of the Built Environment
City of London
PO Box 270
London
EC2P 2EJ

City appointing asbestos contractors

The City plans to enter into a long term agreement with a contractor who will be responsible for checking asbestos around the estate:

Click to read the whole letter

Concrete Repair Estimates

The City has obtained quotes to repair the concrete of Ben Jonson House.  The guestimate I was given last year (along with the proposed schedule) was ~£140 per flat, but even having selected the cheapest quote the cost per flat ranges from £197.20 for flats of type F2C to £364.07 for flats of type M4A.

Click to read the whole letter

Fire Risk Assessments

From the BEO:
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Fire Risk Assessments

Thank you to all the residents who kindly let us access their flats with the Fire Risk Assessor. We are grateful for your assistance.

Please be reminded that it is strongly advised that all Leaseholders have smoke detectors in their properties.

If you haven't already done so, you can contact the London Fire Brigade via the link below to arrange a Home Fire Safety Visit.

http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/HomeFireSafetyVisit.asp

Beech St. Tunnel Performance 16th-18th March

More details are coming out about the proposed Barbican Centre event in the Beech St. tunnel on Fri 16th - Sun 18 March.

The house group has raised the issues of fire safety and noise monitoring.  The arts center say everything will be fine (I paraphrase).

The arts centre say:

The piece of music that will be used was performed by the BBC SO at the Barbican in December so you may interested in listening to it via the link below (n.b. it’s very quiet at the start): 

Esa-Pekka Salonen: Karawane (listen at 1:18:00)
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09kk1ds

Click to visit the BBC site to hear the music

Fire Risk Assessments – access to flats requested

BEO looking for volunteers to have their flats inspected as part of a fire safety survey.  For Ben Jonson House the inspections will be on 16th January.

To volunteer contact Sheila Delaney: Sheila.delaney@cityoflondon.gov.uk 020 7029 3911.

Click to read the whole letter

Garden Waste Service Trial

If you are a producer of garden waste you may be interested in the City's proposed new service, which they are trialing.  Email recycling@cityoflondon.gov.uk by 26th Jan if you would like to take part in the trial or find out more.

Click to read the whole notice

City proposal to use a broker to buy power

The City, in the form of the BEO, are proposing to appoint a broker to buy energy (gas & electricity) for the City.  If you wish to make "observations" you may do so up to 35 days from the date of the letter, which is 8th Jan so I reckon you have until February 12th.

Click to read the whole notice