October 2009 Archives

BERNAYS Hall in Stanmore has officially opened 18 years after restoration began.
The long-awaited ceremony was carried out yesterday evening at the property in The Broadway that was designed by architect JT Barker and built in 1871. It was constructed by Leopold Bernays, rector of St John's Church, in memory of his son, Ernest, who died aged 22 on August 31 1870.
As it happens, the restoration works - including reusing existing roof slates, selecting locally produced bricks which perfectly match the originals and salvaging dado rails grilles and mouldings - finished exactly 139 years later to the day.
At the ceremony, trustee Rex Holmes told onlookers: "Over the past 18 years the Bernays management committee has worked hard to raise the funds to enable the restoration to be carried out.
"The trustees considered it most important that the impending refurbishment and restoration was in keeping with the original design.
"Our strategy was to employ traditional craftsmen and methods and to re-use original materials, only to replace if absolutely necessary with their equivalent. Our watchword was, therefore, conservation."
Mr Holmes said the building work finished both on time and on budget, and the result is an airy, more open, and more economically friendly, hall.
"I think you will agree that the overall effect is stunning and is a credit to all those involved," he said.
"The Bernays will now enter a new phase and will continue to be a valuable part of the Stanmore community."

TWO bosses of the Edgware Safety Depository where a police raid uncovered drugs, cash and guns will appear in front of a judge early next year along with an ex-colleague.
Milton Woolf, 53, of West Heath Drive, Golders Green, north London, Jacqueline Swan, 45, of Hexham Road, Barnet, north London, and Leslie Sief, 61, of Ranulf Road, West Hampton, north west London, were charged with various offences following Operation Rize.
That was where the Metropolitan Police swooped on the secure storage warehouse in High Steet, Edgware, on June 3 last year and came across not only £19.3 million but handguns, ammunition, fraudulent passports, credit cards, cheque books and narcotics such cannabis, crack cocaine and opiates, and three paintings by 17th-century Dutch artists.
Woolf and Swan, two current directors of Safe Deposit Centres, the company that ran Edgware Safe Depository, Hampstead Safe Depository and Park Lane Safe Depository, and ex-director Sief were charged by police following an inquiry lasting 15 months.
The trio have had their court cases committed to Southwark Crown Court in south-east London where a plea and case management hearing will take place on January 6 next year.
Woolf is accused of:
n possessing ammunition without a firearm certificate or authority;
n doing an act tending and intending to pervert the course of justice;
n having custody or control of a c-ounterfeit of a currency note with intent;
n conspiracy to fail to disclose to a nominated officer or authorised person;
n failure to disclose;
n concealing criminal property;
n having a false instrument;
n possessing false identity documents;
n possessing articles for use in fraud;
n possessing a prohibited firearm.
Swan faces:
n concealing criminal property;
n having a false instrument;
n possessing false identity documents;
n possessing of articles for use in fraud;
n conspiracy to fail to disclose to a nominated officer or authorised person;
n failure to disclose;
Sief faces a single charge of having custody or control of a counterfeit of a currency note with intent.

AN ELDERLY driver had to be taken to hospital following a car crash in Stanmore yesterday evening.
Two vehicles, one a black Renault Clio and the other a blue Nissan Primera, collided at just before 6pm at the junction of Honeypot Lane and Wemborough Road.
"Staff treated one patient - an elderly woman - who was taken to Northwick Park Hospital," a spokeswoman for London Ambulance Service said.
The lady suffered minor injuries, according to police.

CANONS Park Residents' Association seeks a new editor for its quarterly newsletter - ideally someone with local knowledge who is looking for a project to undertake.
Anyone who is interested should contact committee member Shirley Sackwild on shirey@capra.org.uk

ANTI-social behaviour in Canons Park could increase if proposals to relocate community police squads out of the ward become reality, residents in Edgware believe.
Harrow Police confirmed that it is looking at moving the Canons Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) from its base besides Canons Park in Donnefield Avenue, Edgware, to a new SNT base in a mile and a quarter away in Church Road, Stanmore, to be shared with the Stanmore Park SNT.
The Canons Park base would instead be occupied by the Edgware and Belmont SNTs.
Shirley Sackwild, secretary of Canons Park Residents' Association, said shuffling the officers "made no sense whatsoever" and was "an absolutely farce".
She said: "We have seen the problems there have been with vandalism and youths in the park.
"We are put out if our team is being moved out and another team is being moved in because the park isn't strictly speaking their [Belmont's] responsibility and they are not going to be aware of what's going on in the park.
"The explanation given is that the fact that Canons ward is long and thin and being based in Stanmore would make it easier to reach the north of the ward nearer the border with Elstree.
"But the population in the north is much sparser and the bulk of the population is in the south."
Association members are also unhappy at the way the possible relocation of SNTs was disclosed to local residents.
Mrs Sackwild said the plan was raised only under the 'Any Other Business' section of the most recent Canons SNT ward panel meeting by an inspector as if it was a throwaway, inconsequential news item.
Community representatives on the panel believe it should have an agenda item in its own right so they could have a full debate about the proposals and the possible impact on policing.
Mrs Sackwild said: "For something of this importance for the ward panel, it felt as the police were treating the ward panel with contempt.
"To add insult to injury, apparently there was a public meeting of the Stanmore Society on the same night and they were discussing it quite publicly when our ward panel hadn't even had the courtesy of being informed.
"We have now lobbied our MP and want a meeting with the police."
A Harrow Police spokesman said: "We will shortly taking ownership of a new Safer Neighbourhoods base located in Church Road, Stanmore.
"We propose that this will house the Stanmore Park and Canons Safer Neighbourhoods Teams.
"The Lodge in Canons Park would then be used by the Edgware and Belmont Teams.
"We believe that this will benefit the operational policing of these wards and the borough as a whole. We await formal ratification of these moves."
n Only in July did the Observer run a similar story about residents' concern over the relocation of Harrow on the Hill SNT from West Street Police Station in West Street, Harrow on the Hill, to a new base at Kirkland House in Peterborough Road, Harrow.

HEALTH watchdogs said the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust is performing better than at any point over the last four years - gaining top marks in public health, management and standards of care.
For the past three years, the trust, which runs the hospital in Brockley Hill, Stanmore, was judged to be 'weak' - the worst of four categories possible - in its financial management and the same level, or only one grade higher, 'fair', in the quality of services it provides.
Twelve months on, and the Care Quality Commission has bumped up the trust's rating one level to 'fair' in both areas after saying the trust "performed adequately".
Under 'quality of services', the trust satisfied all but four of the 44 nationally set benchmarks.
It failed to:
n comply with statutory guidelines to protect children;
n properly obtain consent for contacting patients and to use confidential patient information;
n provide a safe and secure surroundings, and
n have a clean and well designed environment.
When the commission's inspectors compared the trust's performance against long-standing Department of Health targets, they found only one problem - there were too many cancelled operations and too few patient being admitted within a 28-day time frame.
Meanwhile, the trust met six of eight national priorities, underachieving on the 18 week referral-to-treatment target and the four-week cancer diagnosis-to-treatment target.
Trust chief executive Rob Hurd said: "It's important to acknowledge the dedication, hard work and commitment of the staff, which has undoubtedly led to this overall improvement of our scores.
"The trust has managed to maintain the low infection rates that it is renowned for.
"The lack of a decision on whether the Stanmore site will be redeveloped has meant that the trust was unable to meet required standards on estates which has affected our overall rating."

FAMILIES can take part in a free 'Feed The Birds Day' at Canons Park in a little over 10 days' time - ideal for twitchers and nature lovers alike.
The open space is one of a number of local sites across the UK where the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RPSB) will set up a stall to educate visitors about the winged species they spot in the area - and provide advice on how to help ensure our feathered friends have enough food for the winter.
Members of Mill Hill RSPB are going to be on hand at Canons Park on Sunday, October 25, between 2pm and 4pm, with the support of the Friends of Canons Park.
The group are especially looking forward to visits from the resident green ring-necked parakeets - one of the reasons the park was chosen for the event by the RSPB - as well as a stunning variety of native birds, such as great spotted woodpeckers, waxwings, common buzzards, sparrow hawks, nuthatches, coal tits, herring gulls and goldfinches.
Those who wish to go should enter the park via its Donnefield Avenue entrance, off Whitchurch Lane, Edgware

A WATER leak that "caused chaos" during the morning rush hour in Edgware was fixed the same day, a utility company said.