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| Up early to protest |
Residents in Chandos Road were out early this morning to catch the
council and contractors before they started pulling up the paving stones and
chopping down some of the lovely old trees that line this Edwardian street.
People had chalked the pavements and decorated the trees expressing their
disgust at the council's refusal to listen to those who live there.
The Council are replacing paving stones with black tarmac.* Local people say it would be cheaper and more environmentally friendly just to replace the broken slabs. The trees, some of which residents paid for are a beautiful asset they don't want to lose.
As you can see above residents made an excellent case to Council officials to no avail.
The Council are replacing paving stones with black tarmac.* Local people say it would be cheaper and more environmentally friendly just to replace the broken slabs. The trees, some of which residents paid for are a beautiful asset they don't want to lose.
As you can see above residents made an excellent case to Council officials to no avail.
Support the residents on RAT Resistance Against Tarmac Facebook LINK
* On roads where houses have driveways the tarmac is broken up by block paving on the drop kerbs but on terraced streets with little or no front garden and thus no driveway the tarmac is continuous. Block paving is far more intricate and time consuming to lay.
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| Block paving on Mallard Way, Kingsbury |
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| Mallard Way today |
8 comments:
Asphalt is a better option, and the colour will fade as it ages. Then you won't notice it.
Storm in a middle-class tea cup.
Asphalt is a poor long term option for narrow pavements on tree-lined London streets such as Chandos. It will need resurfacing every few years and will buckle and scar. It's also detrimental to the environment. But the real issue here is the lack of democracy. There was no consultation on this issue. It's a vast waste of resources as the walkway was not in need of change. It's unclear why this street was on the chosen list, but it's a total waste of local government funding. £129,000 wasted funds.
Appreciating your surroundings is not exclusive to the middle classes. It's insulting to the working class to insinuate we do care about our neighbourhood or should be expected to blindly obey our transitional working class political masters in Brent Labour.
On what grounds is asphalt is better option and that assertion made? Why would you want to remove perfectly good stone slab paving? You won't notice it? Such a comment is impervious to the notion that we should be protective of both the natural and built environment. We assure you that 95% of over 200 residents, of many and varied cultural origins objected. Class has little to do with it -good ordinary people have the right to enjoy quality public amenity which doesn't cost the earth. It is more expensive to do what Brent are doing than to repair a few broken stone slabs. Brent are wasting an estimated £129,000 of our money simply to save face and roll out a programme which is not necessary in this instance. Millions of pounds will be wasted - it is no 'storm in a teacup'.
I'd welcome any new fotpath surface on my road. It's broken concrete which hasn't been renewed in well over forty years, and is badly split and uplifted with major trip hazards all over the place.
But then, we're not in a trendy conservaation area, just a mixed residential road in a ward with hig deprivation levels. I'm increasingly exasperated by Brent's total focus on either Shopping Mall and Village Wembley Park, or on the presumably mouthy conservation areas. The rest of Brent is ignored and sidelined.
22:46 is spot on. Caring about your environment isn't the sole preserve of the well off. Indeed, much of the feedback I get is about potholes, footpaths, fly tips and general mess. One local said to me that he'd come from a third worls country and didn't want to live in one again.
Having said that, I totally agree that asphalt is a nonsense. It's not as hard wearing, the surface run off is far worse and it isn't reusable.
I assume the first commenter has never been to Chandos Road and met the "middle class" protesters - I recognised a couple of them from the video, and they don't answer to that description. But even if they were, so what? they'd still have the right to protest about the trashing of the environment literally on their doorstep and the total lack of democratic accountability and responsiveness of those reesponsible. As others have pointed out, Brent Council is spending far more on making things worse (£129,000 on Chandos Road, £147,000 on nearby Geary Road) than replacing a few broken paving slabs would have cost. I'm fairly sure what's happened is that the council has signed a contract with the private contactor, so has to pay up come what may, regardless of local opinion and that it makes things worse rather than better.
Alison Chandos Road isn't in the conservation and isnt' 'trendy', just a street of ordinary folk who care there's nothing special about us over and above anyone else - I moved in 30 odd years ago but that is by the bye. Your points about the state of your public amenity are important so get "mouthy" like we had to, it's good that you feel passionate about your environment whatever cultural description you want to give yourselves - its your money that's being spent. Stand up now! RAT Resistance against Tarmac is for the whole country so that everyone can come together in opposition to ridiculous council directives.
The first commentator (myself) lives on Chandos road has met all the protestors and agrees with them 100%, I am as concerned and disappointed as my neighbours. I would not identify myself as middle class for various reasons. I do not think it is important who is or is not what class. It is patronising to assume only middle class people care about these issues, that working class people lack an interest in their surroundings or that the concerns that people have are of less worth if they can be labeled middle class.
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