Queen’s Crescent bereft of people

• YET more lack of transparency and absence of democracy by the council, this time over the decision to impose permanent traffic restrictions in Gospel Oak.

This is supposedly to enable public realm improvements. Sadly no effort was made to communicate to local people the date of the decision or the existence of the 76-page report.

Those of us who had been tipped off scoured the Camden website in vain with neither the search engine nor the “Common Place” website (the main tool for community involvement) coming up with the information.

When eventually located (via a section-by-section study of the website) the document was found to contain a process whereby one councillor, Adam Harrison, was to ratify the decision within six days.

While it is possible to take a delegation to a single-member’s decision meeting, this is difficult if the very existence of the document is not known and six days is too short to get organised.

One wonders if Cllr Harrison has ever visited the area to see the effects of his proposals of those who live and work here. This picture, above, of Queen’s Crescent, bereft of people, was taken earlier this week.

Seemingly the role of councillors is increasingly to rubber-stamp the ideas of officers and highly-paid consultants. Oh, and vote themselves increased allowances for so doing.

Perhaps the by-election result in Hampstead, where the Labour vote was halved and the party even came behind the Conservatives, might lead to some thought.

MICK FARRANT, NW5