West End Letters: environment | fight recession | P Baver S Pandit C Stephens

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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 20 March 2009

Build the environment and fight recession

• LONDON mayor Boris Johnson’s “Great Spaces” scheme to improve open spaces, including lesser-known streets and “hidden treasures,” is welcome.
Regular readers of the West End Extra will know all too well of the Candy & Candy shambles on the site of the former Middlesex Hospital which is currently blighting lower Cleveland Street.
As this folly of an application was being passed by the Conservatives of Westminster City Council, residents (both Camden and Westminster) around northern Cleveland Street were putting together draft proposals to tie-in improvements to northern Fitzrovia to Camden Council/ English Heritage’s “upgrade” of Fitzroy Square and to British Land’s ideas for the Euston Boulevard.
Bypassing sectional interests for the benefit of our community as a whole, we looked at the design of attractive green open spaces with appreciative vistas of the rich historical architecture, together with a revival of small businesses supporting one another by bringing “footfall” as well as meeting the needs of locals.
To her utmost credit, Bloomsbury councillor Rebecca Hossack has been immensely supportive but, strangely, the Marylebone Conservatives have been very, very quiet.
Why is a Neighbourhood Watch getting involved? Previous recessions have seen crime levels increase as reflected in a deterioration of the urban realm.
As Tony Travers of the London School of Economics puts it: “London needs to think small to stave off the neighbourhood consequences of the recession. If the capital’s residents and businesses came to associate the recession with a concerted effort to improve the quality of the environment, any benefits would be multiplied.”
P Baver
S Pandit
C Stephens
Howard House and
Cleveland St (north)
Neighbourhood Watch

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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