With the Mayor of London’s new “air quality” audit to protect thousands of school kids, l trust he will be focused on the primary schools in City of Westminster. As 6 out of 10 of the primary schools most affected by air pollution in London are in the City of Westminster. 

The above graph shows the extent of the problem for all schools in the City of Westminster using data from 2013 particularly in the North along the Marylebone Road. Primary schools like Christ Church on Cosway St, NW1 have only just had their extension opened, So l hope it sets new standards for schools to avoid air pollution when near major roads like Marylebone Rd. 

Enforcement of lets under 90 days can already be found in West End Quay

The FT are right to highlight the tax advantage to Airbnb rent properties in your in comparison to Hotels in your editorial of the 4th January 2017 (Airbnb is a boon to consumers and needs no special treatment ) but as residential properties are being let out as holiday homes on a near-industrial scale, changing the historic make-up of central ­London neighbourhoods, we see ­settled community being replaced by an endless stream of people with suitcases coming and going. You only need go to Churchill Estate in Pimlico.

So its important that London Councils regulate Airbnb properties better along the lines adopted by City of Westminster council with sub-letting generally on developments like West End Quay which happened before emergence of Airbnb as Councils already have regulatory powers on lets under 90 days, to make for a level playing field in comparison to hotels.

But in the above example the responsibility solely falls on the rentier and their agents when the owners of the flats clearly have some responsibilities. If you are renting out your home as a business, surely you should have to pay business rates and have a health & safety certificate as well to cover responsibilities of making facilities accessible and risk free from fires?

So let’s see London Councils use their regulatory powers like City of Westminster has with rentiers of properties of less than 90 days apply their powers to the owners of the properties as well, making for a level playing field for hotels competing for the same market. Quite honestly that is more likely to happen sooner than any tax reforms!!!

The Traffic Order consultation which leaves out impact on Lisson Grove & Seymour Place, altogether.

The Baker Street and Gloucester Place gyratory is unlike any other one in London, as it has a substantial residential population in and around it, where tenants and residents are very much a part of the local community. Indeed we feel it operates much like the road grids in Manhattan, New York, where the through traffic can pass through very quickly on the Avenues and much of the local street life exists off them. This is very much in keeping with what we have in Marylebone, with traffic along Baker Street taking you into the West End swiftly, while Gloucester Place can get the traffic out of the West End, and streets off them and parallel, where local residents live, like Melcombe Street, north of the Marylebone Road and York Street & Paddington Street, as well as Lisson Grove and Seymour Place.

Coming from this position, we do not see any improvements to the public realm in the final Traffic Order consultation undertaken by City of Westminster & TfL to increase accessibility along Seymour Place or Lisson Grove, where it is likely to be needed the most. We anticipate increased road traffic along Seymour Place and Lisson Grove, from traffic displaced from both Baker Street and Gloucester Rd, moving more slowly than the traffic does on the present one way system.

Furthermore, we anticipate increased traffic noise and public nuisance for our residents, particularly along Seymour Place. The Baker Street two way proposal, now in its third consultation, has yet to address these well held fears and concerns. Even the proposal to stop any right turns from Park Road onto Rossmore Rd at the very North of the gyratory have not taken up to stop road traffic getting through to Lisson Grove  ( & Harewood Avenue as well ) and Seymour Place in the first place.

Neither has an impact study of the implications to poor air quality been done of the proposal given it will cut through major hot stops for air pollution along the Marylebone Road. You would think that TfL and Westminster City Council would have done this already given their statutory obligations. 

The whole consultation has addressed neither these well founded issues, nor the concerns of tenants and residents of Lisson Grove and Seymour Place. Its also extraordinary that TfL are proposing to contribute £ 10 million to this locally disputed road change at a time when its having to find major savings in their budgets to deliver the Mayors fares freeze whilst the government has cut its annual grants. 

So happy new year and lets see the end to these proposals early in the new year. 

“there is something smelly around here!”

I can not disagree more with the sentiments of FT editorial of the 20th of December that the IMF has good reason to stick with Lagarde. Christine Lagarde is part of an untouchable globe elite who keep their job despite convictions, making the IMF look like FIFA under Blatter.

Lets not also forget the lecture she gave to the British public on BREXIT in the lead up to the referendum in support of her pals Osborne and Cameron. I for one am convinced her input along with Obama did not help the case of staying in the EU one bit and if anything helped swing it against staying in the EU. 

It is bad enough that the IMF in 70 odd years of existence has never had a non-European as its helm and with its first women head it allows IMF to be the first banking organisation to have a convicted felon as their chief rather than typical alleged fraudsters. It is exactly this sort of thing, which reeks of establishment stitch-up, that fuels disenchantment with politics.

She should do the decent thing and simply stand down as other Central Bankers have in recent time in similar situations. For example, the resignation of Central Banker of the Year in Asia-Pacific of 2015 and the Governor of Bangladesh Bank, Atiur Rahman after the $100 m cyber-heist between New York & Dhaka at the beginning of the year comes to mind even though he was not convicted of anything at all.

So is there any surprise we have a backlash against globalisation when institutions like the IMF act in this manner.

Beehive Pub along Crawford Street, W1

Recently l was asked whether l knew that the Beehive pub in Marylebone was closing on twitter?  The one l know well was to the best of my knowledge being refurbished, so l decided to investigate next time l was up on Baker Street. 

So when l did go up on Baker Street on the Crawford Street, W1 junction l could clearly see the Beehive was still being refurbished over the Christmas period. But on my way home to the other side of Marylebone,north of the Marylebone Road l saw another Beehive pub on Homer Street, E1 which was being worked on more extensively by building contractors. This must be the one that people mention as the pub that’s been lost to residential use in Marylebone. Its certainly more tacked away and thus must of had a very local customer base. Probably quite different customer base than the one in Crawford St which would have had more tourists, as its not far off Baker Street and visible at the junction with Crawford St. Which probably explains the fate of the two Beehive public houses in Marylebone quite well.  

The Beehive on Homer Street has been closed since 2014 and can be found on registers of pubs closed in the last few years. Its fate been sealed by the loss of its local customer based as Londoners have been priced out of their homes in Central London ironically into residential use at prices that only those with suitcases full of money can afford in Marylebone now as their bolt hole from another country. 

This said the Beehive on Crawford St having having more tourists and office workers probably survived because of this ( plus some local customers of course ) and and will probable do so after it opens in the new year after the refurbishment. This is all apart from the tough conditions the pub industry has already faced in the past few years anyway. 

Beehive pub along Homer Street, W1

As part of Punk.London, the year-long festival commemorating forty years of punk in London, Seymour Housing Co-op Ltd unveiled a plaque last week on one of its properties, 33 Daventry Street NW1, the squatting location where Joe Strummer lived during a pinnacle creative period between 1978-79.

So it was fitting to hear Don Lett’s, Film Director, DJ & Musician saying “Strummer didn’t need nor did he seek society’s blessing – this comes live and direct from the people!”  A message which was further reinforced by Joe’s wive, Lucinda message on the day of the unveiling in an interview with the local paper, the West End Extra  that “….Joe would have be overwhelmed to have this recognition, and just so happy that the spirit of squatting is still alive via the Co-op….” 

Where the 101ers and The Clash musician, wordsmith and punk icon was honoured with a permanent testament in an area on and off Bell Street, NW1, should also now be acknowledged also as an epicentre of London’s punk scene. 

Everyone knows Kings Road was the fashion Hub of punks forty years ago but what is less known is how the Bell Street NW1 area was the punk HQ of the UK scene. This claim for being London’s punk ground zero has been firmly established by my neighbour Robert Gordon McHarg III excellent research aided by access to Joe’s Strummers archives, in his capacity as their curator.  

In 1976 Malcolm McLaren was living at 93 Bell St with his art school friend Helen Wellington-Lloyd, the “Helen of Troy” character in Julian Temple’s film The Great Rock’n Roll Swindle. The first Sex Pistols press release bears 93 Bell St as the official address. Steve Jones and Paul Cook also lived in Bell Street. The Damned’s Captain Sensible recalled how the band used to rehearse in a church in Bell St. NW1.  43 Daventry Street, off Bell St. was where The Slits hung out and rehearsed, something Viv Albertine mentions in her 2014 book “Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys.” Julian Temple filmed Sid Vicious’s “C’mon everybody” and “Something Else” videos in 33 Daventry St. where Joe Strummer squatted from late ’78 until mid-1979. The Clash used the Edgware Road Ice Cream parlour as their office and were interviewed there by then local student Gary Crowley. The infamous story of Mick and Paul spotting Joe in the Dole office, took place in Lisson Grove Jobcentre (still there to this day).  I am sure we will hear more punk rock stories from Gordon’s research in the years to come 

Its incredible to know that one of the icons of Punk Rock – Joe Strummer – lived in a squat along my street when he and the Clash were holding high gigs in the UK, Europe and the US. I’m really proud to see the acknowledgement of how this enclave of Marylebone ( Bell Street ) was a sanctuary to punk rock when it needed space to flourish, showing the importance of providing creative spaces still in Central London. 

Today we see for the first time in my life time certainly and something unheard of on the rail system, competition between two of London’s rail terminals for the lucrative commuter lines to Oxford. Its not only competition between two of London’s rail terminals but also two rail franchises, Great Western Rail (GWR) at Paddington while we have Chiltern Railways at Marylebone. You can see the aggressive competition by the adverts placed by GWR all along the tube escalator at Marylebone Tube station!!!

From Marylebone you can get to Oxford via Bicester Village and Oxford Parkway and Oxford station in 60 minutes, twice an hour in fast spacious trains. 

Its not only highly competition going on the rails to Oxford now but also on road by coaches by services like Oxford Tube , X90, Megabus as well as National Express! So its no doubt that commuters are getting value for money as we have not only have road vs road options and road vs rail options but now rail vs rail options.  

So well done Chiltern Railways and best of luck in offering up this competition on going to Oxford by rail between Paddington & Marylebone. It is certainly much more enjoyable experience going through Marylebone station and as a terminus it is  a lot more centrally located in London than Paddington and all the other connections that will facilitate for passengers. 

As reported in the West End Extra, a blue plaque is being put up at the epicentre of punk where Joe Strummer of the Clash once squatted on this coming wednesday the 7th of December at 12.45pm.

The plaque will be unveiled by members of Joe Strummer’s family and you also hear how this enclave of Marylebone, on and off Bell Street NW1, was ground zero for punk rock.

So come along, if you can.

As England tour of Bangladesh begins with the first ODI today, on the 7th of October, l’m watching the stands in Mirpur stadium, Dhaka as much as the play on the square. To see if any of the barmy army has turned up for this tour at all ,after all the warnings! As security concerns dominated the build up both the players and fans on the tour rather than the cricket contest. 

It appears the barmy army have not turned up. So the barmy army isn’t as barmy as they make out!!! 

While Justine Thornton QC ( Why Brexit poses a serious threat to the health of our children – 6th September 2016 ) may argue for a new Clear Air Act in light of our BREXIT to deal with the silent killer of air pollution in London, a much quicker and better method would be a diesel tax hike to cut air pollution.  

The Royal College of Physicians earlier this year found air pollution killed 40,000 people prematurely in the UK every year, blaming the early deaths on popularity of diesel cars which were encouraged by government as a way to reduce carbon emissions. 

Tests by the Department for Transport found that diesel vehicles sold in the UK churned out six times more than the legal limits for nitrogen oxide more than the legal limit for nitrogen oxide under real world driving conditions. So much for EURO standards! 

Gordon Brown, the former chancellor, cut low-sulphur diesel duty by 3 p in 2001 Budget in a bid to cut carbon emissions by encouraging motorists to drive diesel cars. 

Figures also show that sales of diesel cars in the UK rose 138 per cent in under ten years, increasing harmful levels of chemicals associated with the fuel thanks to Mr Brown’s decision to cut tax.

So beware false idols when cutting cutting carbon emissions while perversely increasing other harmful chemicals associated with diesel.