Colindale: it has a tube station, and flats for sale - er, that's it

I've been wondering what sort of a write-up estate agents might give Colindale as they strain to flog the many new flats being built in the area. I could only imagine that it would be something like this - if you live in Colindale or nearby, you will guffaw at the prose. Here's a sample:

There are plenty of excellent pubs and restaurants in Colindale, especially in the bustling surroundings of Edgware Road, while the generally friendly atmosphere makes for a pleasant shopping experience.

Nearby attractions include the Royal Air Force Museum London, which boasts an historical aircraft collection and an extensive film library.

Admission is to the museum is free and events take place there all year round.

Watling Market, which takes place weekly in Burnt Oak station car park, is also well worth a look, especially for those with an eye for a bargain.

Now, I don't think Colindale's all bad, but it is, more than any place I know, a work-in-progress. I think the best thing that you can say for it in its current condition is that it's accessible. Yes, you can get on a tube station and get out of there for your entertainment, fine dining, views, nature walks, etc.

I think a truer description of Colindale would be: it has a tube station; if you buy one of our flats, you can sleep there.

Seeing this story about how Barnet council want to decant the Orion school from Lanacre Avenue onto a bigger site currently occupied by a sports and social club, shows the problem they have. They are packing in the new flats, but there is sod all in the way of infrastructure or facilities for all the new residents.

In providing a school for the rising number of children, they simultaneously take away one of the few leisure venues in the area.

Colindale - can you feel the rhythm? Or do you need someone to take your pulse?

These figures are taken from Barnet council's "State of the Borough report":

Already London’s most populous borough, with 349,800 residents in 2011 ...The Barnet population is projected to grow by 5.5 per cent over next five years – an increase of 19,400 people.

And they are all going to live in Colindale.*

Below are pictures of a few of the major building sites springing up around Colindale ward. It's all tremendously exciting, I can tell you. My questions are what will the newcomers do in the area of a weekend - I'm at a loss - and how am I going to get a seat on the tube in future?

New Hendon Village, private flats for sale, built on the former Grahame Park open space

New Hendon Village, private flats for sale, built on the former Grahame Park open space

What's in the regeneration for the tenants of Grahame Park?

Demolition of Grahame Park continues apace...

...to make way for more of New Hendon Village. In the background you can also see the massive development at Beaufort Park

Colindale tube station is in there somewhere

Colindale: yes, it fair pulsates; development on Colindale Avenue on the old Colindale Hospital site

Another Fairview development close to the Pulse. This one has rhythm...

* This is a slight exaggeration, for comic effect, but only slight. These are the figures: Colindale (+10,900), Golders Green (+7,300), Mill Hill (+2,000) and West Hendon (+1,900).

Barnet's tiny flats to be outlawed?

Well, not quite, but there was an interesting article in the Evening Standard on Friday 9 April by someone visiting the Beaufort Park development in Colindale, being built by St George.

Apparently, many of the flats there would be "too small for human habitation", according to possible new guidelines of 500 sq ft per flat, to be set by the Homes and Communities Agency. This body is already subsidising 42% of the flats at Beaufort Park.

"We need to offer something starting at about £150,000," says St George managing director Tony Carey. "If we have to build a 500 sq ft flat the market value would be £250,000. That excludes those on a limited budget. The capital will simply get fewer new homes if these rules are brought in."

There must be a case for having big enough homes for everyone - it just might be that we cannot rely on the private sector to provide them. Bring back council housing!

Thanks to J for sending me the article (though he might not like the use I put it to!).

Adopt-a-pothole week

It's been fashionable in the last few years to drive around town in a 4x4 (I think they're called). If you don't have one, it's been fashionable to sneer at people who do.

After driving back to Burnt Oak from North Finchley last night, dodging the pot holes, I can suddenly see the point of an off roader. Me and my driver talked the whole way, so I was only half-concentrating, but it dawned on me near the end of our journey that he had spent the entire time steering around potholes. Some of them are complete craters!

Which is your "favourite" pothole? Mine is the trench where Golders Green Crescent joins Golders Green Road. There's also a small, but very annoying one on Colindale Avenue between Colindale tube and Booth Road. Annoying because it fills up with rain and every vehicle that passes sends dirty spray up onto the pavement.

Barnet council's "FixMyStreet" website, where residents can report potholes and other street repairs needed, only seems to work where people feel they have ownership of a pothole because it is close to their house. Holes in more public places seem to be going unreported and unrepaired. Sometimes these are the biggest holes!

Perhaps we should start an adopt a pothole scheme. Tonight I am going to take charge of the two potholes mentioned in my blog and report them to FixMyStreet. I'll let you know how things go.

Redwing regrets choosing UK for winter break

From the RSPB website (I'll take my own picture if he comes back!)

For the past few days a biggish, reddish bird has been flying around the neighbourhood. I have at last identified this as a redwing, a small thrush. These birds live in large numbers in northern parts, including Iceland, Scandanavia and Russia, and fly south for the winter. Hundreds of thousands usually winter in the UK. They must be regretting their choice this year.

They live out in the countryside, and only come into town gardens when there is snow lying on the fields. That explains my recent visitor. He will only get a drink of water and a bath here, I'm afraid. I keep the birdbath going all year round, but I don't feed the birds.

To feed birds properly is a responsible job, and I've read that you have to be reliable, or birds waste precious energy turning up for a meal when there is nothing being served. Any visitors here are welcome to scratch around in the leaves for insects - I leave the garden messy until the spring.

I do like my birds, I have to admit. I am not a fanatical twitcher, but I have identified 22 species in the garden. (The redwing made it 22.) This is not a bad haul, I think, given it's Colindale/Burnt Oak. I hope we don't lose any more green space around here, though, or it will soon not be worth our winter visitors' journey.

Doing a ton

I shall be 45 in December. This has prompted me to make some macabre calculations.

Assuming that I live three score years and ten plus five for advances in modern medicine I will be 75 in 2039. Should I live to the current average of my grandparents' ages, about 87, I will die around the year 2051. If I make it to 100 (my maternal grandmother is nearing this milestone but I haven't had her advantage of a calorie restricted diet in youth) I might see in 2065!

Doing these sums helps me to to think about who will be on the throne when I am old (assuming my campaign for a republic is unsuccessful), who will send me my telegram!

I can calculate roughly how meagre my state pension will be; just how crowded Colindale will be by then; and even begin to imagine, based on how much culture/technology, etc, have changed in the time I have already lived, what sort of music people will be listening to, how few clothes the singers will be wearing, what vehicles we might be travelling around in, and what fuel they will run on... that's assuming we are all still here.

I find thinking about these things oddly comforting - or it could just be the Seasonal Affective Disorder kicking in. Anyway, it makes a welcome distraction from my other labours.