The Belsize Village “Streatery” scheme

• THE Belize Village Streatery was licensed to start operating in July.

Its ostensible purpose was to help restaurants whose business had been damaged by Covid-19 by providing outdoor space for their tables on pavements and in the village “square.”

In September the licence was renewed until January, apparently because the council considered the scheme a great success, although they won’t tell us what the grounds for that claim are.

Did the restaurants make a fortune? Or are the council simply concerned to cover their backs for having supported the scheme to the tune of £51,000 of public money?

Not a single meal has been served in the square since that renewal. So far so good.

But what concerns me, and others who live here, is the high-handed manner in which the scheme has been managed. The licence seems to have been interpreted as placing the whole of Belsize village under the authority of the licensee.

CCTV cameras have been installed to survey the square, one above the greengrocers and the other on Roni’s café. Bollards and street furniture are festooned with notices about filth and smoking.

But the reality of the new rubbish collection deal is evident. Was it, many of us would like to know, part of the council’s intention to license this kind of regime?

We know a well-known film actor refused to be photographed with her children when she visited the streatery in the summer. Why should CCTV records of what goes on in the village be regarded as any less of an intrusion?

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