LRRA is an organisation dedicated to representing the community living in Lymington Road, including the Lymington Road Estate. We have a committee made up of volunteers meeting every two or three months in person in the community hall. The Association's AGM is once a year usually in July.
In the past LRRA has organised such events as Christmas parties, talent competitions and street parties. We fund and organise the beautiful hanging baskets, replaced every year and watered with miraculous regularity - first proposed by Derek Disson, a former LRRA committee member and Lymington Road resident.
Our recent achievments include collaboration with the council in the resurfacing of the much-used basketball court and we are currently trying to organise better signage to remind residents not to walk their dog on the court as this is gradually destroying the surface. We also remind residents that dogs are prohbited from entering the adjacent playground.
A group of gardening residents, led by Basia Forrest, Elena Brady and Jane Feinmann, is currently clearing the neglected wilderness area adjacent to the basketball ground, and about to be turned into a conservation area open to all Lymington Road residents.
We are also lobbying the council to put a table tennis table in the children's playground and green gym equipment in the grass plot opposite the playground. And there are further plans to turn any spare bits of ground in the estate into mini- wildlife meadows. Please join us.
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Lymington Road Residents Association
Annual General Meeting
The Association's AGM is held every year in the Residents' Hall in Dresden Close, usually in July. It's a chance for the community to gather together, make plans and policies and attempt to hold the authorities to account.
You'll find posters advertising the AGM in notice boards at both ends of the estate, on bin-room doors, and flyers will be delivered to your doors. Please look out for them and make the effort to attend. You may even want to volunteer to join the LRRA Committee.
AGM minutes 2025...
...and scroll down for AGM minutes 2024
July 2025.
July 29 2025, 6 30pm
-LYMINGTON ROAD RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION
Annual General Meeting
Tuesday July 29 2025 @ 6.30pm
1, DRESDEN CLOSE, LONDON NW6 1XP
email: lrracommittee@gmail.com
Minutes
Present guests: Sharon Hardwick, councillor.
LRRA Committee; Nikolay Petkov (Chair), Jane Feinmann (Secretary), Janis Smart (Treasurer, DMC rep), Janet Hall (Hall Management), Elena Brady (Community Garden coordinator), Basia Forrest (Publicity),
Apologies: Angela Fernando, Mona Seebaran, Shayda Kashef.
Minutes approved and signed by for AGM of June 27th 2024.
Matters arising
Heating and hot water.
JF summarised a recent response from Camden’s mechanical manager John Brooks on the situation regarding the estate’s heat network – with three temporary boilers currently providing heating and hot water for the estate. Meanwhile five permanent boilers, installed in December 24, remain unused as defects were identified during the installation process which are still being rectified.
Residents recalled being without heating during very cold weather in December.
SH said she would ensure that Camden was aware of the need to have the permanent boilers working properly before the temporary boilers are turned off.
Antisocial Behavior
A number of Estate residents complained of anti-social behaviour
Including one locality where noise from a single household was disrupting the lives of several neighbouring households with a lack of clarity over what action could be taken.
JF reported Camden’s response to an earlier enquiry she had made on behalf of residents on this issue with the help of SH. This included advice to report antisocial behaviour via: www.camden.gov.uk/antisocial-behaviour-form, entirely anonymously if wished.
Update: Residents report that the single household noise is no longer a problem following an intervention by the Estate Manager.
Community Garden
BF and EB reported on the progress with the community garden which will be accessible to all residents of Lymington Road once it’s opened. There is still a lot of work to be carried out and there is no date for an opening agreed as yet. Once it’s open, residents will be asked to sign an agreement based on Camden’s agreement with allotment holders, currently being agreed, in order to gain entry.
Action: Awaiting further work on the garden including approval of Distict Management Team funding of trellises, planters, soil, plants and a mural for the far wall . Updates will be provided to residents with information published on the www.lymingtonroad.com website.
A resident whose property includes a wall adjacent to the community garden said she had been unable to get the council to paint the wall.
Illegal Parking
Lymington Rd Estate is due to be included in the imminent next stage
of TMO (Traffic Management Order) , a system that has successfully
ended illegal parking on Camden’s Siding Estate.
We await update.
Treasurers Update:
JS presented the report.
Residents queried what is happening with hanging baskets on Lymington Road lamp posts that have been funded by LRRA for several years and are currently not there. JS said the bill for the hanging baskets has increased.
A ‘large number’ of households on the Estate have been reimbursed up to £200 for entertainment, travel or sports events under a scheme by which all households in Lymington Road Estate are entitled to claim this benefit annually. JS was asked if she could provide further details of the reimbursements. Residents said there is also a need for estate residents to have better information on the rules for claiming the reimbursement and how to go about it.
Action: JS to provide further details of reimbursements.
Residents suggested there is a need to raise the profile of the scheme, to be discussed.
Fences: residents said that ageing fences need to be replaced.
AOB
Residents expressed concern about the fact that popular MUGA basketball remains locked during repairs into the school holidays. SH to investigate urgently.
Update: following an intervention by SH, the work was carried out and the pitch is now open.
Elections:
Chair: Nick Petkov: proposed by JS, seconded by BF
Secretary: Jane Feinmann – proposed by BF, seconded by JS.
Treasurer: Janis Smart, proposed by BF, seconded by JH
Deputy Treasurer: Isaac Mackenzie, proposed by JF, seconded by JSa.
Publicity Secretary: Basia Forrest, proposed by NP, seconded by JF
DMC rep: Bridget Dunne: proposed by JH, seconded by JF
Deputy DMC rep: Janis Smart. Proposed by JH. seconded by JF.
New Committee members: Bridget Dunne (BD), Jacey Salles (JSa).
2024
-LYMINGTON ROAD RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION
Annual General Meeting
Tuesday July 9 2024 @ 6.30pm
1, DRESDEN CLOSE, LONDON NW6 1XP
email: lrracommittee@gmail.com
Minutes
Present guests: Andrew Bennett (Camden Repairs Manager), Susan O’Hara (Camden Estate Management), John Brooks (Camden Mechanical Manager), Daniel Johnson (Estate Manager)
LRRA Committee; Nikolay Petkov (Chair), Jane Feinmann (Secretary), Janis Smart (Treasurer, DMC rep), Janet Hall (Hall Management), Elena Brady (Conservation area coordinator), Basia Forrest (Publicity), Mona Seebaran (LRRA member)
Apologies for absence: Sharon Hardwick (Labour councillor), Angela Fernando (LRRA member)
Minutes approved and signed by for AGM of June 27th 2023.
Matters arising
JF reported:
Heat meters: In September LRRA wrote to Matthew Finnin, Energy Efficiency Officer at Camden about installation of heat meters on the estate. Heat meters enable the council to accurately calculate heating and hot water charges instead of estimated heat scale charge that effectively requires leaseholders – who are required to be part of a communal heating service - to pay for heating and hot water as though it was fully turned on 24 hours, 7 days a week. With tripling or even quadrupling of heating and water charges to leaseholders in the last financial year, this is now a major cause for concern.
On September 21, Mr Finnin wrote to say that the Council was only required to install heat meters in ‘viable’ blocks and was only progressing in 26-48 Minton Mews, shown to be viable and cost effective. He said this situation would be reviewed ‘as we have had significant interest for heat meters from residents in the borough’.
Illegal parking: Andy Foster, head of parking, has told us that only a TMO (Traffic Management Order), would allow Camden to enforce parking fines on the estate. These are being introduced throughout Camden with phase 1 due to be completed in October. LR Estate is in Phase 2 of the roll out with no date as yet to start.
SO’H said a security gate had been dismissed as impractical.
Heating and hot water: In December, LRRA made an official complaint about prolonged and repeated heating and hot water system failures, in particular a week long failure that ended when the Council installed two temporary boilers on the roadside outside the boiler house. Camden Complaints partially accepted the complaint in January. LRRA asked for this ‘inadequate’ response to be reviewed – and in February, a second tier complaint was again partially accepted and once again not accepted by LRRA as it amounted to little more than an apology ‘for this inconvenience’ - with no acknowledgement of an ongoing problem or how it can be solved. Now a group complaint is being taken to the Housing Ombudsman.
JB said:
* The communal boilers were ageing also obsolete, with parts no
longer made for them. Additionally the underground
pipes were ‘unmapped’ with multiple leaks reported by residents causing
huge problems.
*The short-term solution was to keep two ageing boilers with two
additional temporary boilers, with ‘a robust maintenance regime’
(involving visiting the boiler room at least once a week) carried out by
subcontracted firm, GEM.
*Camden Council was fully responsible for the problems with the boilers.
‘I have GEM in my office three times a week’, He said Camden Repairs
made the assumption that the problem was ‘a boiler house issue’ only
when it received more than five calls by residents.
*GEM is on a contract with London Borough of Camden until 2026 with
residents able to take part in re-commissioning process. Companies
large enough to pitch for such contracts often had particular
characteristics.
*A long-term solution would need investigation by the capital finance
Team (check name!). The future of the communal boilers on the estate
has not yet been referred to this team and will take ‘at least a year’ once
the team begins an investigation.
*This long-term solution is likely to include ‘optional appraisal’ which
might involve an option to close down the under-floor piping either
entirely or partially and offer residents the opportunity to have their own
boilers - although this option is seen as bad for the environment with the
communal boiler system seen as ‘green’ at least theoretically.
Residents told the AGM:
*They had been without hot water or heating for up to three years with GEM attending repeated appointments but frequently failing to provide adequate repairs.
*Leaks in underground pipes causing huge problem.
*Hailed a single GEM employee, named as James Barr, as the ‘only’ GEM employee who understands the communal boiler system. One resident called for him to be hired to train the rest of the ‘frequently incompetent’ GEM workforce. Residents reported occasions when GEM employees caused major damage to properties through incompetent ‘repairs’ of hot water system.
JB said he knows James Barr and recognizes his competence.
* Complained of long waits to get through to Camden Repairs and GEM, frequently only getting through to a call center where staff are only able to pass on messages to GEM, with GEM then routinely failing to respond. Residents said the ‘horror’ involved in reporting heating and hot water problems meant that many do not engage and prefer to tolerate lack of heating and hot water even in winter.
*A further issue is that GEM will not respond to ongoing repairs if residents do not have a reference number. Residents report that they are often not given a reference number when they first report the problem to Camden Repairs.
Signage and padlocks: LRRA wrote to DJ in March 2024for help:
< >To get padlocks and signage to enable the basketball pitch, which is currently left open all night, to be closed at a suitable time in the evening. To arrange for Camden to provide street signage throughout the estate. It is already in place in a couple of mews but is urgently needed not least with the increasing use of delivery vans and bikes. To replace ‘clean up mess’ notices for Lymington Road where dog faeces are a daily problem. In May, LRRA wrote to DJ attaching quotes for five benches for the Conservation Site. www.lymingtonroad.com
Conservation Site: EB, conservation area coordinator, reported that the clearing of the space is going well with volunteer gardeners encouraged to turn out to help second Saturday of the month, 10.00 to 12.00
SO’H said a current proposal was to close the bin rooms and instead install bins on Dresden Close at the back of the estate. This would make the caretaker’s
job much easier, prevent the use of bin rooms for drugs with bin rooms
used for bicycle storage or other use.
New boilers mess: residents complained about the unsightly mess around the boilers visible through the net fence.
AOB
Feral ants: Residents complained the council pest control will not respond to serious feral ants infestation.
Bin rooms: Residents complained of people using bin rooms to use drugs. Residents said the bin rooms should be kept locked with keys supplied.
SO’H said a current proposal was to close the bin rooms and instead install bins on Dresden Close at the back of the estate. This would make the caretaker’s
job much easier, prevent the use of bin rooms for drugs with bin rooms
used for bicycle storage or other use.
New boilers mess: residents complained about the unsightly and
Garages: At least 50 garages are empty on the estate yet residents are routinely told there are none available. JB said Camden ‘is missing a trick on garage spaces’.
Estate Housing Officer: Residents complained that neither Daniel Johnson, London Borough of Camden’s Housing Officer for Lymington Road Estate, nor his boss reply to phone calls or emails. One resident said that a complaint about the failure to respond to calls had been made by a councilor but that DJ had failed to respond.
Plan for ‘church’ on Finchley Road: Residents warned that planning permission for a church on Finchley Road close to the Lymington Road turn off would cause huge problems with parking on the estate and on Lymington Road itself – making it impossible for residents to find a parking space.
Elections:
Chair: Nick Petkov - proposed by Janet Hall
Treasurer: Janis Smart - Proposed by Mona Seebaran
Secretary: Jane Feinmann - proposed by Basia Forrest
DMC rep: Janis Smart - proposed by Jane Feinmann
Publicity: Basia Forrest – proposed by Janet Hall
