• SINCE the start of the new year street works have been ongoing in Royal College Street, Camden Town, between Baynes Street and Randolph Street, and in Randolph Street too.

This is not related to the plans for Baynes Street but that madcap scheme rolls on, over a year now, but these current works do affect Baynes Street.

Early on, no one locally knew what was going on but that has become more evident with the passage of time.

It appears that the layout of this section of Royal College Street, as it approaches the junction with Camden Road, is being changed so that the road – the A5202 – is made single-lane and the footpath widened and the cycle path changed and, perhaps, widened.

No one was consulted, no notices have been placed on lamp-posts to explain what is going on, and traders and residents are angry.

Camden Council is the epitome of the nanny state, they know best and can’t be bothered to ask local people, buying in to locals’ years of experience of living and working in the area.

Camden has your money, our money, and spends it as it wishes, sometimes on madcap schemes like this one – the Town Hall is arrogant, sometimes seemingly on a different planet (yet, despite wasting money like this, the council frequently claims it wants more money from Whitehall).

The footfall along this part of Royal College Street does not warrant a wider footpath but that seems to be what we’re getting.

The number of cyclists using the cycle paths does not warrant any change either but, as we know, local authorities are in thrall to the cycling lobby.

The bus stop for the 46 and 274 will be moved a little, it seems, and buses, when stopping at the bus stop, will no longer be in a sort of lay-by, allowing other traffic to pass by, but will block the traffic flow, and vehicles will back up along Royal College Street and in local streets like Baynes Street.

The post office van will block traffic when emptying the pillar box and goodness knows for how long the bin men’s lorry will block traffic on its visits.

Local shops, including a pizza restaurant, a small supermarket and a carpet shop, will find it even more difficult to have deliveries made, let alone business waste removed.

Traffic along Royal College Street will move even more slowly than it does now. The 46 bus sometimes takes 20 minutes or more just to travel the length of Royal College Street. It’ll take longer now. Yet the authorities want us to use public transport more.

Emergency vehicles, trades vehicles and other vehicles essential to our lives, including those carrying the infirm, will spend longer stuck in traffic; black cabs have long hated the one-way streets of Camden Town.

The council officers responsible seem not to care, for most of them presumably don’t live locally. Councillors are too busy fighting each other and, so, it’s the wild west out there and it’s local people who suffer and pay.

No one was consulted about this work. None of this work is necessary and it must be costing ratepayers tens of thousands of pounds.

It is an utter disgrace and just one small example of the madness that goes on day by day – common sense has long been a commodity forgotten by the council.

Yet, no doubt, with local elections this May, those men and women in the Town Hall will be elected whatever they do in your name, in our name. They spend millions of our money without being properly held to account.

Time to look at the property pages and think about moving to somewhere that’s run sensibly.

ALEX GAMEZ, PENNY GAMEZ, LESTER MAY, KALIN MIHAYLOV, MARGARET MOORE & SUSAN WATLING, NW1