Barnhill - Residents Association Newsletter

Since the beginning of the New Year, there have, to the best of my knowledge, been three power cuts on the Barn Hill Estate, two in January and one on Sunday 9th March.  I have reported this to Brent Council, as our street lighting was not working for some hours on the last occasion.  This problem has not affected all properties consistently across the Hill;  some have suffered full power cuts , while others have experienced reduced voltage.  This is highly unusual and leads me to suspect that there may be an ongoing problem at the local sub-station.    I have today written to the CEO of UK Power Networks, who own and maintain the electricity cables in this area, alerting him to the problems and asking him to investigate the underlying cause and to remedy it.

John Woods       Chairman

BURGLARIES:  There theft have been a number of incidents recently involving the or attempted theft of cars.  In the last Newsletter, I reported that a house in Preston Road had been targeted.  It was broken into twice with the sole purpose of stealing the keys to the Mercedes parked outside.  On the second occasion the thief was successful in finding the keys and stealing the car.

In another incident, this time in Uxendon Hill, a youth drove a motorcycle into a driveway and attempted to break into a car.  The owner, who was at home, tried to apprehend the thief, who fled, abandoning the bike, which the police later established had itself been stolen.

Please take care to secure your vehicle at all times and do not leave your car keys where they are visible or vulnerable to theft.

NEW POLICE SERGEANT : Suzanne Hopper can be contacted on 020 8721 2966 or 07920 233755. Email address is BrentBarnhill.snt@met.police.uk

TRAFFIC CAMERA IN FORTY AVENUE / BRIDGE ROAD:   The new Traffic Enforcement company, Serco, who took the contract over from Apcoa in November 2013, appears to have cut down on parking wardens and CCTV camera cars, in favour of using  static cameras to enforce parking regulations. A large number of residents have contacted me to tell me of parking notices issued as a result of monitoring by the static cameras mounted above traffic signals at the above junction.  These cameras survey only a limited  area, outside of which there is often traffic chaos further along the road caused by parents dropping and collecting children at the Ark Academy. These cameras have been in place for years, for the purpose of monitoring the flow of traffic on Wembley Stadium Event Days, and residents feel that their change of use is just a money raising exercise by Brent Council and does not address the overall problem of illegal parking.

I have taken this matter up with Brent Council's Parking Department and I am not happy with their response.  I have therefore written to the Secretary of State for Local Government, Eric Pickles, to highlight the problem.

SCAMS:  Please beware if you are asked to call back any so-called business with a number prefixed by 0809, 0284 or 0876.  This is a scam and you may be charged £1,500 per minute.

OUR LOCAL COUNCILLOR:  Councillor Shafique Choudhary can be contacted on 07962 356570, email cllr.Shafique.Choudhary@brent.gov.uk