With the recent passing of Pele (Edson Arantes do Nascimento), like many of the boys l grew up with, in the neighbourhood immediately remembered the day, the king of the beautiful football came to Paddington. 

For most of the 1970’s when young boys were kicking a ball around in the school yard and playing fields of London, we were all doing a “Pele” involving either his many assortments of flicks and dummies or samba dancing on the ball. So when we heard he was in town to visit the local Boys Clubs, we did not hesitate to race over to the venues. This was of course all done by word of mouth, rather than via social media as one would today, and amazingly it managed to get all the boys out in the locality and further afield. 

His first stop was of course the Stowe Boys Club, on the Harrow Rd, W2 just off Westbourne Green and not too far from Royal Oak tube station.  Here he performed some small miracles. With a double breasted suit and tie on, he was still able to do his assortment of flicks and samba dancing on the ball! While we were still struggling in our shorts….. It came with ease to him certainly while he kept us all fully enthralled.  He then made his way to the North Paddington Boys Club on Lanark Rd,W9 where people like Sal Khan still remember how he spoke to them with a strong Brazilian accent still. 

The Paddington Boys clubs had also themselves produced a few football stars as well, like John Barnes, who went on to play for Liverpool & England. During the late 1970s he would have been tuning his fine first touch at Stowe Boys Club before joining his first club in Watford. Iconically he could not play football at his school, Marylebone Grammar School. As it played rugby not football, and he joined Stowe Boys Club to not only marshall his skills but fondness for football.   

We were of course accustomed to our footballing heroes being seen around and about Paddington, after all the Football Association (FA) was for many years based in Lancaster Gate before moving to Soho and then eventually Wembley.  A location we frequently went to for autographs of our stars. I once got one of George Best there! Little did we realize it was more often than not our footballing heroes  who were going up to the disciplinary Committees of the FA. But that did not take away from the prize of their autographs on old programmes or football tops. 

But Pele was in a completely different league, having won three World Cup winners medals, he was truly a legend. A global superstar who even in the late seventies and early eighties after the peak of his career in the 1970 World Cup final in Mexico City could still pull a huge audience. Critically he played a key role in the creation of a national identity in the country of immigrants, indigenous people and descendants of slaves, which Brazil happily exported to us all. 

May he rest in peace now after giving so many of us such joy in our youth. It was a day many of us have not forgotten for sure as every boy in Paddington was there and beyond #RIPPele 

The piece as it appeared in the Westminster Extra below in the week beginning the 6th of January 2023

It was good to commemorate those that made the ultimate sacrifice in the liberation of Bangladesh, the unfinished business of partition in 1947,  just over 50 years ago.

I have written before how the liberation of Bangladesh was the unfinished business of partition in 1947 of the Indian sub-continent. More over London unique contribution to the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971 with a walking tour around a number of main sites in London. And thus an important occasion for the Bangladeshi community aboard. 

These victory celebration at least service the purpose of not forgetting them when we know we will not get justice – lest we forget. 

Thankfully the rerouting of the 205 was saved in the recent prospective cuts to bus routes in Central London, permitting integrated transport links to be maintained between bus, rail and tube all along the Euston & Marylebone Road and in particular maintaining a bus service between Kings Cross, Marylebone and Paddington. 

 

We were less successful on the North South link between Victoria and the Edgware Rd within the City of Westminster as the 16 bus is withdrawn from that service whilst the 332 maintained its service between Paddington and Kilburn but funnily enough now called the 16 bus route! The N16 is lost completely. 

 

This while the 414 bus route from Marble Arch through W9 was withdrawn only last year, which meant we had lost a service along the Edgware Rd at the beginning of the calendar year.  

 

So you can see the Edgware Rd took one of the biggest hits in the review of Central London bus routes though it could have been worse. 

 

https://www.westminsterextra.co.uk/article/think-again-on-bus-cuts-mayor-told

With the ethnic make up results of the Census in 2021 now available, we can now look at the figures for the size of the Bangladeshi community in England & Wales.

The Bangladeshi community stands at 622,000 in 2021, that is 0.3 per cent bigger as a share of national population in 2011 moving from 0.8 to 1.1 per cent. In 2011 its stood at 475,000 in total.

Geographically over 50 per cent live in Greater London, that is 322,052 in Greater London with over 100,000 in Tower Hamlets and over 50,000 in Newham.   

One of the notable trends is the growing community of Bangladeshis who have now moved to East London boroughs like Newham, Redbridge and Barking & Dagenham since 2011 census from Tower Hamlets. Suggesting a similar flight to Essex by previous generations of immigrates except that the community appears to have grown in Tower Hamlets as well by some 20 per cent! 

This latter influx of Bangladeshis from aboard also appear not to have come from the Bangladeshi itself from mainland Europe and countries like Italy. Maybe there were trying to beat the Brexit closer of the UK? This is probably worthy of study itself! 

So which parliamentary seat would you like to be in with Brent or Camden?  Its a question many residents in Little Venice, Maida Vale and Church St in the City of Westminster will be asking themselves giving the differing positions made by the Boundary Commission of England Review (BCE Review) between their initial suggestion of Camden Town & St Johns Wood below and the revised one of Queens Park and Little Venice above.

The critical thing is that the initial proposals puts the Paddington & Marylebone parts of Westminster North in with Camden Town while the revised proposal puts them into Brent that is Kilburn and Harlesden. That is quite a dramatic change of direction going from North to West for the residents of the remaining Ward parts part of Westminster North like Little Venice, Maida Vale and Church St.  It would be interesting to hear how the BCE Review came to such a major change of orientation for the old Westminster North CLP. 

It would be interesting to know what the residents in these wards feel, prefer being in a parliamentary seat with parts of Brent or Camden? Thats a open question which maybe we could do a poll on and see the Review will take it on board on their final 

At the risk of sounding like a tree hugger, l have noticed a number of fully matured trees which have been chopped down in W9, particularly in Little Venice. The above one is on the corner of Clifton Rd & Randolph Avenue and last week l noticed the one in front of 192 Sutherland Avenue had been completed taken out including its roots!  In previous years we have seen a number of trees along Warwick Ave taken down as well. 

The one that use to be on Clifton Rd,W9 appears to show nothing wrong with the roots of this tree and if it was just the branches, surely some pollarding would have done !  These trees take decades to grow and offer the shade and cooling to nearby buildings like Melcombe Court, so these decision to just chop them down should not be taken lightly. They also give light relief to the urban heat effect that the streets of Westminster suffer from.

Indeed there is an argument that local residents should be involved in all these chopping down tree decisions on trees we take for granted till they are felled. Or at least be notified, in a similar manner as planning matters.  

I feel the council needs to hold the officers to account on their decisions and would welcome a scrutiny on the matter. Clearly being too risk averse has meant officers taking out trees far too often certainly in Little Venice, W9 recently. And l am not sure whether it is happening in other parts of the City of Westminster but a scrutiny could establish this as well. 

Enforcing the 20 mph speed limit Westminster

After attempting unsuccessfully to get information during the Spring about the number of fines made since the council put a 20 mph speed limit on the streets of Westminster, l come to realise the legalities of it all today. I was just trying to see how the 20 mph enforcement was going in the City. This was after the last administration in the Council put in place speeding limits of 20 mph on the council roads in the borough hoping to reduce the rates of causalities and fatalities on the streets of Central London. 

In order to successfully prosecute speeding drivers or where the registered keeper of the vehicle withholds information on the driver, Local Authorities need to have authorisation from the Police to act as “Public Prosecutor” as well as having the appropriate internal processes.

This will need to come from the Criminal Justice Act 2003 Section 29 which sets out the procedures as follows. Under the first point under Section 29, gives a public prosecutor the means to institute criminal proceedings against a person by issuing a document that is a “written charge” which charges the person with an offence.  While in fifth point in Section 29, defines a public prosecutor as the police force or a person authorised by a police force to institute criminal proceedings. 

This while at the same time the Local Government Act 1972 gives Local Authorities powers to prosecute or defend legal proceedings as “private prosecutor” This power being granted to promote the interests of the Local Authority’s residents provided that appropriate authorisation is recorded. 

And of course, where further proof is required, such as speed camera records, vehicle registration details or driver identification, the police will need to authorise under Section 20 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 for speeding and Section 172 (2) on the Road Traffic Act about driver identity. 

So the legalisation provides the scope for Local Authorities to institute criminal proceedings for offences such as speeding. As well as bringing private prosecutions, where they wish to protect the interests of their residents, Local Authorities can also act as a “Public Prosecutor’, if the authorised by the police.  It would also be interesting to know whether the same procedures etc are required with noisy vehicles as well. 

So Met police when are you going to hand over these responsibilities to our London local authorities and get this responsibility off your hands?  

Crazy parking off pavement but in the middle of the road in front of a tube station!

I have issued a number of twitters of the incredible parking of hire bike riders on the streets of Central London, with out to much thought of pedestrians and on going traffic.

Whilst we want to encourage more cycling etc on the streets of London, the playing of cycling hire schemes is somewhat wanting. I myself has made this switch using Santander hire bikes in Central London, where l have to park them at docking stations at the end of my journeys. This clearly does not happen with hire bike users like Lime, where there appear to be encouraged to park their hire bikes anywhere! 

Now as a fellow cyclist, it does not really bother me but it certainly does with other users of the pavement, so l have been advocating the bikes be at least parked off the pavements on the street but this also presents it problems as well. As the photo above illustrates very well. 

So maybe London Councils with lead councils like Westminster in particular, should seat down the the bike hire firms and sort out some bike parking spaces on the streets of London. It should be no different from parking spaces for cars administrated by the councils with the costs etc borne by the bike hire firms. 

In the old family house which was grade II listed, we found it incredible difficult to make the family home more energy efficient for our use, in the City of Westminster where as much as 80 per cent of housing stock is in conservation areas. This whilst we have some 40 per cent of CO2 emission also coming from our buildings, makes it imperative that we deal with planning system which clearly hinders making our homes much more energy efficient.  

So it is good to hear one local authority making some effort to reduce the planning bureaucracy next door in Royal Borough of Kensington Chelsea. Here heritage rules were blocking energy efficiency and renewables for historic UK homes and they have loosen their restrictions binding residents who want to better insulate their homes. 

So with heat pumps, planning requirements are to be 1 metre off the surface of the building will considerable restrict the numbers that call replace all the boilers in the homes of our City. Given it was a response primarily due to noise concerns and that these have now been dealt with in the design of heat pumps, the Council needs to make it much easier than now to get the consent to put them up, in response to the climate emergency. 

Similar issues also apply to the Office blocks in the City, which may of course strand these assets so its a good reason for the managers of these assets to a dress these issues. 

So whilst there is much emphasis on the supply side of the energy markets, we also need some time thinking about what needs to be done to reduce the demand for energy in the first case, particularly in the housing stock of Central London. 

Having visited Westminster Councils Energy Saving Show Home at Bravington Road, W9 during last summer it shows well all the measures you can undertake – wall & underfloor insulation; window and door improvements; heat pumps & new radiators; solar panels & battery storage; waste water heat recovery systems and finally electric cookers – with the likely costs, energy savings and carbon savings as well. In these cost of living crisis it was well worth having a look around.  

Finally, if you want to check your homes energy efficient please check this ft link for a quick analysis. https://ig.ft.com/uk-energy-efficiency-gap/

ONS figures for energy in homes make up in the City of Westminster.

There has been a lot of developments in this bit of the Edgware Rd where the old Hero of Maida pub use to be with the Parson House car park site developed into Venice Court and the petrol station site development otherwise known as Lyons Place as well which has improved the physical environment a lot along this part of the Edgware Rd. 

A further nice touch would if the residential developers of 435-437 Edgware Rd now repair the old pub sign outside the building. Thankfully it is still there. It use to be an old land mark for Maida Vale and it would be great if it was brought back to its former glory. All it really needs is a new board with the head of the Duke of Maida, some repairs done and a lick of paint at the end of the works on 435-437 Edgware Rd.