Welcome to Nancy Jirira

We thought it would be a good night, but we never expected Thursday to be quite so good.

Nancy Jirira was elected as the new councillor for Fortune Green with a whopping 51% of the vote and a majority of over 600 votes.

The Tories threw absolutely everything at this election, lots of Labour canvassers (though few Labour Camden councillors in evidence on the doorsteps!) and Nancy still won through.

Good luck to Nancy - she's a strong community champion, she joins Russell Eagling and Flick Rea on the team and will really stand up for Fortune Green's residents.

Well done, best wishes.

It's so good when you have an amazing candidate

The Fortune Green by-election has been set for Thursday 21st February and the Lib Dem candidate will be Nancy Jirira. Nancy works in health care, know the local area really well, lives in Sarre Road in the middle of the ward and is just really enthusiastic to work with the community.

I can genuinely say that Nancy would be a superb councillor for the local area - she know the patch, she get's on really well with Flick Rea and Russell Eagling (the other two ward councillors) and anyone meeting her will sense her charm and energy.

More to follow, but hey - I'm really pleased and excited...

Twelfth Night or 2nd February?

In former times people would leave their decorations up until 40 days after Jesus's birth - i.e. 2nd Feb.

It was the Victorian traditions that settled on 12th Night as the definitive end of christmas decor.

Tradition now says twelfth day is the last day for decorations to be taken down. It thought bad luck to take decorations down after this date, though decorations may be kept up until the next Christmas to avoid this bad luck.

Those who forget to take down their decorations before the twelfth day never keep them up all year round.

I spent a slightly sad night taking down our decorations tonight - having a real tree with the lights and baubles has been really good - I realised tonight just how much I love the Christmas celebrations and when the weather is as bright, crisp and clear as it was this morning I realised how much I love the season itself.

To ease the taking down of decorations and in line with the green agenda here in Camden we have places around the borough where you can take your old christmas tree - one such much used and appreciated in on Fortune Green in West Hampstead (pic above left).

It's pretty busy on twelfth night and councillors Russell Eagling (pic left) and Flick Rea are pretty proud of the service...

Kilburn State Cinema - end of year developments

I have earlier posted about the future of the Kilburn State cinema venue on the Kilburn High Road [http://474towin.blogspot.com/2007/11/kilburn-state-final-closing-days.html] - two major developments have since occurred.

The first is the emergence of a group of residents up for pushing forward a positive agenda for the venue - mindful of its historical and architectural significance to the High Road and locality - but also wanting to see the building back in use and accessible to the public.

To that end we held a vigil on the 70th anniversary of the building being opening on 20th December 1937 - just in time for Christmas.

The was held at short notice but was brilliantly well supported.

Thanks to Councillors Anthony Dunn, Derek Jackson, Janet Grauberg, James King, David Abrahams and Russell Eagling for attending and helping.

A special thanks to Oliver Curry who set up http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savethekilburnstate/ and who sent round an email highlighting the vigil. Also heartfelt thanks to the residents and traders who came along - it was cold and windy!

After some discussion we have now resolved to formalise a group of residents and traders passionate about the buildings significance to establish a clear vision for the future.

The next major development however, is the news that the Kilburn State has been sold by Rank Mecca to the Ruach Inspirational Church of God - based in the UK in Brixton. The good news of this is that it isn't a property developer determined to make proft through exploitation of the site, but it raises a whole load of additional questions.

We will be working with Brent and Camden Councils to try and get a real meaningful dialogue with the new owners and secure some good access for the community - there are lots of ideas - we just now need to get the talking going and the action identified...