The birthday ‘celebrations’ in West Hampstead

OUTRAGED residents fed up with a “cliff edge” pavement have held a mock birthday to mark a year since the slope appeared.

A candle was lit on a cake outside 156 West End Lane, West Hampstead, on Monday as people told of how they had seen too many trip over. The pavement is outside the Amazon Fresh supermarket and Five Guys burger restaurant and questions were being asked this week over how the angular walkway had been approved and signed off. Among those who have been hurt is Loulou, an elderly woman who lives nearby.

She said: “I tripped. I’ve got a hip and knee replacement, and I tripped. It’s very, very dangerous.”

Cold Feet actress Jacey Salles said the high street has become over­crowded. “You’re forced to walk on the road,” she said. “In rush-hour, it’s absolutely packed. This used to be wider – now kids are being forced onto an actual road.” Residents say delivery vans and e-bikes regularly mount the pavement, while uneven gradients make it treacherous for people with mobility issues.

Writer Simon Inglis, who has back problems, called it “a symbol of bad planning, of a lack of communication, and above all a complete disregard for the needs of pedestrians”.

He added: “This single pavement sums it all up; it’s a disgrace. The change of gradient, and having to look down all the time, and when it’s very busy, do you look down, do you look up, where do you go, which route do you plot?”

Lib Dem ward councillor Janet Grauberg, who has lived in the area for 35 years, said the council and BT are still at a stalemate over who should act.

“For the first six months the council said that they were waiting for designs from the Highways Team. Then it went quiet,” she said.  “The council’s response to my most recent enquiry is that under the sloping pavement, where the planters are, is some BT apparatus which has to be adjusted for the slope to be addressed. The council and BT have agreed a plan but there’s no date for implementation. The council has no powers to insist BT make the adjustments to any timeframe.”

She added: “I’ve asked if rectifying the ‘cliff edge’ section can be done separately, as my understanding is that it isn’t dependent on BT.” Twelve months later, campaigners say little has changed, and residents say they’ve run out of patience.

The sharp angle on the pavement

Ian Ferrie, of campaign group Save West Hampstead, said the pavement’s design defies logic.  “You can’t decipher which is the road and which is the pavement,” he said. “I’m constantly being pushed to one side.”

He added in a letter to the council: “We dread to think how wheelchairs, prams, elderly people etc are supposed to navigate the current lack of pavement and/or this slope and how dangerous this is and will be in winter when there will be frost and ice.”

A Camden Council spokesperson said: “The work to the pavement was carried out by the developer without permission. With agreement from local groups, the planter was placed on the footway to better mark out the sloping pavement for pedestrians while we work to rectify the issue.

“We are moving forward with plans to upgrade the footway and we apologise for the inconvenience caused.”