Being on the up side or the down side of a controversial debate

It’s probably inevitable that at some point an elected councillor is going to end up on what some residents will feel is the wrong side of a particular debate. In our case it’s the thorny question of traffic flows on College Crescent.

The Belsize Residents Association and the Heath & Hampstead Society maintain that the Phoenix School in College Crescent demanded the traffic flow be made one way down to suit out-of-borough parents who drive their children to school. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Before the 2006 local election a deal was struck between Camden Council and the Phoenix School to install safety measures at the top and bottom of what is a very unsafe road for children to cross. This is not just about the Phoenix School; it’s also about safety for pupils from South Hampstead School for Girls and other schools in the area.

Camden’s highway engineers told the Phoenix they could only have the safety measures if the road was made one way. The engineers then suggested one way down as being the safest option because it would eliminate 80% of the traffic on College Crescent. The school were also required to sign up to an extremely tough green transport plan, which they did.

We backed that original plan rather than the one Cllr Mike Greene proposed after the election (one way UP) because we felt that in cases like this we should start to favour children, pedestrians and cyclists over motorists.

However it seems to us to be a giant leap of the imagination for Helen Marcus of the Heath + Hampstead Society to conclude that we – the Belsize councillors - are therefore in breach of our fiduciary duties as councillors, or are in some way not working for our constituents. Sometimes, as adults, you just have to agree to disagree on a particular issue and then move on.

The Belsize Councillors – Cllr Alexis Rowell, Cllr Arthur Graves, Cllr Chris Basson

Audit Commission says Camden is a four star, strongly improving council

I'm delighted to tell you that Camden has been rated as a four-star authority, which is improving strongly in the latest national annual Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) ratings. This is the highest possible rating, and only ten councils in the country scored this highly.

In determining the CPA ratings, the Audit Commission measures how local authorities are performing in four key areas: what progress the council has made in the last year; how well we manage our finances and provide value for money; how our main services perform and how well the council is run.

In the summary of Camden's performance, the Audit Commission wrote: "Most of Camden's services are high quality, continue to improve further and provide value for money". It praised the "sustained improvement in services and delivery against community priorities" that Camden has made in the last 12 months, which "has further improved outcomes for local people, particularly children and young people, and adults with social care needs."

The Audit Commission particularly praised Camden's strong performance in environmental services coupled with further reductions in crime levels for helping to increase our residents' satisfaction. Other areas where the Commission believed the Council had made progress were: widening access to services, for example through extra leisure provision and online accessibility; increasing participation in drug treatment programmes, boosting educational attainment, and improving the condition of the housing stock.

In addition, the Audit Commission praised Camden's Better and Cheaper efficiency programme, saying that this was "essential for resourcing medium term priorities, balancing the budget, delivering improved value for money and sustaining strong improvement."