Opposite Premier nr 2

Updates

• Dear All I have had cause to write to Camden Council more than a few times over the last five years about the state of the streets surrounding our offices/studios in Bucknall Street. Premier provides communications services to the international entertainment, arts and culture industries from its base in Bucknall Street. We have been established for almost 25 years and have been at this address since 2014. We employ over 160 people and contribute in many ways to the local as well as the UK economy. Ever since we have occupied this building the condition of the adjacent streets has been a disgrace. Most mornings we return to piles of litter, discarded drugs paraphernalia and human excrement, abandoned bottles, gas containers and items of clothing. Often these streets are populated with drugs and alcohol addicts and occasional street sleepers. Often there are people running up and down the street screaming expletives. Even during the day we see people dropping their trousers to self-inject or defecate. A week or so ago we arrived in the morning to find areas closed off as a crime scene following a stabbing. To add to all of this, a local business habitually dumps its rubbish for collection on the pavement outside our offices – never outside their own establishment on new Oxford Street. We are now also the dumping ground for huge numbers of undocked hire bicycles which block the pavement and make it impossible to reach our place of work except by walking on the road which for much of the day is blocked by illegally parked delivery vehicles and cars which ignore the parking tickets. The no-parking bay immediately outside our entrance invariably has a vehicle parked – thereby blocking our principal fire exit. Our employees quite rightly regularly complain about having to navigate through fifth and congestion and intimidating people on their way to and from work, especially at night. Our clients, who include major international arts celebrities, now rarely visit. This reflects very badly on London and Camden in particular. For the first half of our company’s history we were based in Soho and never had to complain to City of Westminster. Our neighbours in Central St Giles only seem to care about their island site, our new neighbours GSK, with who I have discussed these issues share our concerns. I stress that the problems do not only reflect the fact that the street has been a construction site for several years - Skanska for Royal London and Overbury for GSK keep the street meticulously clean in front of their works. We are a socially conscious company, a caring organisation with a charitable ethos, and we wish to help the street sleepers. We have regularly reached out to the Community Safety Team. We are very aware of the Council’s new plans for the layout and design of Bucknall Street. We have supported and commented constructively on those plans and been supported by the CDA BID. This long-neglected enclave needs to be given more attention by our local authority. The new developments may help but in the meantime there needs to be: • Twice daily street sweeping, refuse collection and hygienic cleansing. • Graffiti needs to be removed before it begets even more. • The local business which dumps its rubbish in Bucknall Street needs to be confronted and warned. • Parking offences need to be enforced effectively. • The contractors who do not collect excess numbers of bikes need to be heavily penalised. • The concept that the junction of Dyott and Bucknall streets is an acceptable drug dealing and using venue needs to be dispelled. Last week I attended Centre for London’s conference on “Reducing Street Clutter in Central London” which addressed some of these issues. The room was full of people talking around the subject and sharing their photos of rubbish in the street. The only person attending who had anything useful to add was Mr Ramesh Depala, who I think said he was from Camden Street Enforcement. He said we don’t need new policies, new laws, new regulations, the powers were all there and there just needed to be an allocation of resources so that the job could be done. Please react with actions, not platitudes. Yours sincerely JOHN REISS Executive Chairman 2-4 Bucknall Street, London WC2H 8LA T: +44 20 7292 8330 M: +44 7860 883 652 [email protected]

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  Posted anonymously at 13:00, Thursday 8 February 2024