Cloudesley Association – November 2020 Update

1. A DATE FOR YOUR DIARIES: Cloudesley Association Meeting - 7 December 2020

Further to our October update, we are delighted that Rowena Champion has kindly agreed to join us for questions at our next residents meeting, which will be taking place via Zoom on:

7 December 2020
6.30-7.30pm (ish!)
Zoom meeting invite details and the proposed agenda to be circulated nearer the time.

2. Friends of Barnard Park - Annual General Meeting

The Friends of Barnard Park will be holding its Annual General Meeting on next Thursday November 19 at 7:30pm. The meeting will also be held via Zoom.

Everyone is welcome. To attend the meeting, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. They will then send you an invitation with the AGM Zoom link.

There will be a slide show covering 10 years of community gardening in Barnard Park. Bhupesh Thapa, central parks manager, will also be on hand to answer questions about what happens day to day in the park.

3. Crime Update: Cloudesley Square - Burglary

Please see above a note from the police that was put through letterboxes of houses on Cloudesley Square. We think it is important that other streets in the area are aware of this. Please do be very careful about securing your windows and doors.

4. Tube Noise

We haven’t mentioned this in our updates for a while but there has been quite a lot going on of late.

Please see below a note from Tfl Customer Service which contains details of a meeting which was held on 22nd October, in which TfL made a commitment to grinding of the rails every 6 months as well as a "meeting" with Heidi Alexander every 6 months to monitor the situation:

***************
Ref: 14990972
12 November 2020

Dear Mr Smith

Please find below the notes from the meeting which you attended on 22 October with the Deputy Mayor and other elected representatives regarding the noise from the Victoria line:

Victoria line Tube noise meeting notes – 22 October 2020

Present:
Heidi Alexander – Deputy Mayor of London for Transport
Jennette Arnold OBE – London Assembly Member
Ed Baird – Greater London Authority
Cllr Rowena Champion - Islington Council
Robert Faux – Transport for London
Antoinette Kwegan – Greater London Authority
Daniel O’Sullivan – Islington Council
Caroline Russell – London Assembly Member
Frances Simmons – Emily Thornberry MP’s constituency office
Duncan Weir – Transport for London
2 local residents also attended call

Introduction
• HA thanked everyone for joining the call and outlined the context to the meeting. The meeting was a follow up to meetings held in July 2019, April 2020 and July 2020 to discuss Tube noise between Highbury & Islington and King's Cross St. Pancras stations.
Rail grinding
• DW confirmed that grinding in the area would take place between 3 to 18 November over eight separate shifts in area.
• Going forwards, DW noted that TfL had found capacity to grind twice per year on the Victoria line, and planned to continue grinding this area twice a year.
• DW explained that the number of passes carried out by the grinding machine is determined on requirement and is not something TfL can commit to in advance.
• TfL is in the process of modelling the effect more regular grinding will have on the lifespan of the rail.

Discussion
• Since the previous meeting, TfL had completed a number of works to address concerns raised by a local resident regarding the impulsive noise experienced at his property. This included intensive hand-grinding, checking the condition of all sleepers in the area and investigating the condition of the conductor rail and track fastenings. The impacted local resident had noticed an improvement but noted that he continued to experience high levels of noise and that levels had been increasing.
• TfL’s position on Deep Tube Reconditioning (DTR) remained unchanged. Covid-19 has significantly changed the environment in which TfL operates and there is currently no funding available for the DTR work in this area.
• Alternative engineering solutions were fully explored by TfL. Respacing the sleepers was found to have a similar labour cost as carrying out DTR work, as it involves breaking out the sleepers, which are set in concrete, breaking new holes, and then resetting the sleepers.
• As a result of London being moved into Tier 2, TfL temporarily suspended its residential noise monitoring programme. TfL’s automatic track measurement system continues to provide data on the condition of track which can help inform interventions.
• Given the need to operate as many services as possible to enable social distancing, any speed restrictions would be very difficult to introduce. Even in normal times, speed restrictions have significant logistical challenges.
• An improvement in communication and openness over recent months was noted. HA and TfL committed to continuing an open dialogue and keeping residents and representatives regularly updated.
• It was agreed to hold a follow up meeting in six months to update on any developments.

Kind regards
Derek Wilson
Customer Services
Transport for London Customer Services
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Just a reminder that if you would like to be on the distribution list for the Victoria Line Noise group, led by Neil Smith (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and Joseph Jebelli (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), or need some help/advice on this topic, please email Neil or Joseph directly. It is also important to contact TfL directly if you are impacted, as the more people who contact them, the more likely they are to act swiftly to reduce noise levels.

5. Holy Trinity Church (newly renamed the Cloudesley Centre)

You may already have noticed that the scaffolding has finally been taken down and the fine turrets at the west end of Holy Trinity have been revealed again in all their glory (with the smart new stainless steel wrapping that can hopefully be removed at a later stage in the restoration). Please read all about it in the Breaking News section of our website. www.cloudesleyassociation.org 

6. Barons of Beef - Historical Info

If you are interested in the history of the Cloudesley Estate, you will love this story about a great family who had a big impact on the area.

https://www.cloudesleyassociation.org/cloudesley-history/people/269-barons-of-beef-the-dixon-dynasty

If you are aware of any event, consultation or news item that you would like us to include in our next newsletter, please let us know.

As ever, if you know of any neighbour who is not on the Cloudesley Association email distribution list, please pass this email on and/or ask them to provide us with their contact details (to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) so that they can be kept in the loop.

Amanda and Nick
On behalf of
The Cloudesley Association
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.cloudesleyassociation.org