• ON Monday evening Network Rail and its contractor BAM held an online meeting for residents about the imminent reconstruction of the bridge over the railway at the north end of Kentish Town Road.

What was advertised as an interactive Teams meeting turned out to be a webinar with no audience participation, very poorly attended, significantly with no councillors present, with the contractor reading out from the screen what was going to happen, like it or not.

What is going to happen, now that we have become dependent on the 15- or 30-minute interval Thameslink trains and the bus services, is that the Thameslink station will be closed for a considerable number of weekends over the winter, the northbound side of Kentish Town Road / Fortess Road will be narrowed to one lane, the pavement on that side of the road will be closed completely, and access to bus stop KF (the northbound stop) will be circuitous and impractical.

Kentish Town Road north of the bridge will be closed in both directions for three days at Christmas. Disruption will continue well into the spring.

Given the traffic disruption that relatively minor roadworks have caused in recent times in Kentish Town Road, if you live in north Kentish Town or Highgate you might want to stay at home this winter. And poor air quality will be off the scale.

SIMON PEARSON
Bartholomew Villas, NW5