• I WONDER whether any Transport for London board members and Camden councillors live, like me, in the south of the borough.

It is a privilege, I know, but it is also becoming difficult to sustain, as a direct result of some of their policies.

It is now extremely hard to get builders and plumbers to come to do simple jobs. I recently persuaded an electrician to agree to do some rewiring and other small bits of work.

It took him nearly four hours to drive his van from his home in east London and back each day because of TfL’s policy of funnelling traffic onto a few major routes – and its persistent failure to make sure roadworks and closures last as short a time as possible.

All this travelling time was reflected in his bill, as was the daily congestion charge and exorbitant cost of parking.

As part of Camden’s utopian vision, expensive planters were placed on small roads round Tottenham Court Road which have been blocked off to traffic.

Those in Capper Street and, especially, at the top of Huntley Street are now full of weeds, mounds of rubbish and cigarette ends.

The smell of urine, and sometimes worse, is often overpowering, perhaps because they are convenient for the inhabitants of the many tents which permanently line the side of UCLH’s Grafton Building.

As ever, the bold vision of planners is often a nightmare for those who have to live the plan.

JEREMY WALKER, WC1