Who we are and what we're doing

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BRAG’s mission statement is, very simply, that "Residents' Matter".

 

Why BRAG was set up

 

BRAG was founded by a group of Judd and Sandwich Street residents in May 2016, due to a growing concern that decision-makers in Camden and TfL seemed unaware of (or didn’t care about) the tens of thousands of people who live permanently in streets south of the Euston Road. South Camden is regularly defined as a 'commercial and entertainment district', when is it is in fact a mixed-use but predominantly residential area - a reflection of its original character as London expanded northwards towards the Euston Road in the late 18th/early 19th century. The presence of a transient population of students and tourists does not negate the fact that residents need a Council that will listen to their concerns and actually do something which correlates with the purpose of listening.

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BRAG wants:

• A culture where residents are respected and listened to

• Meaningful consultations to involve residents at an early stage 

• Consultation should be open to difference and debate, not a way to endorse what has already been decided behind closed doors

• Refusal of planning approval for developments which cause indirect and direct harm to residents’ health and wellbeing 

• Heritage assets and their setting to be properly respected – once it’s gone, it’s gone

• Particular care for people with disabilities and special needs for transport

• The management and maintenance of social housing needs to be efficient and reliable 

• Crime prevention to be given higher priority – more CCTV on the streets and an appropriate response from police officers. ​

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How BRAG operates

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BRAG is an informal unincorporated group run on a volunteer basis by a small Committee of residents who live in the wards of Kings Cross, Bloomsbury and Holborn & Covent Garden.  We manage the BRAG website, send out occasional newsletters and provide support to the community of south Camden. Committee members are all involved in other local groups, such as the Bloomsbury Conservation Area Advisory Committee (BCAAC), Friends of Russell Square and Friends of St George’s Gardens. We work hard behind the scenes to encourage and reinforce community spirit and quality of life for those who live in the neighbourhood. When requested, we support residents who are objecting to planning applications that will impact negatively on residential amenity. 

 

Our mailing list is comprised of people who have “joined” BRAG via the website or through networking and previous campaigns.  There is no joining fee, and we self-fund the cost of maintaining the website. We endeavour to pass on news and relevant information about consultations and other matters via the BRAG website and occasional newsletters. 

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BRAG is a member of several Community Liaison and Working Groups which have been set up by Camden to ensure residents have a voice during the construction of large developments in the south of the Borough. These currently include the re-development of 105 Judd Street (where we are lobbying for proper ‘toxic free’ air quality management once the biochemical laboratories are in operation) and the large construction at One Museum Street. Here, we are also managing an Art Project which will see the creative work of local children and teenagers on the hoardings surrounding the building site on High Holborn and Museum Street. We have regular meetings with the management of the refurbished Camden Town Hall, to ensure there are no breaches of Licensing Conditions and have just assisted a residents’ group with repairs to prevent unwanted ASB intrusion.​

 

The importance of working together

 

There are many Community, Amenity, Tenants & Residents Associations and Friends groups within South Camden that care about historic squares, local neighbourhoods and specific housing blocks. BRAG feels that links between these individual groups is beneficial as residents tend to share similar concerns about crime, getting around, traffic & housing management, noise nuisance, over-development and other issues. To that end, we work closely with the Bloomsbury Association and the Covent Garden Community Association and have links with both the Bloomsbury and Kings Cross Safer Neighbourhood Panels. We welcome our new affiliation with the Hillview Residents’ Association, off Cromer Street in Kings Cross.

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An example of the unity of community purpose resulted in the decision by the Evening Standard in 2019 not to progress their proposal for (in our view) a far too large / too long Festival of Culture in Russell Square, the historic and well used open space that lies at the heart of our important residential area.​

 

Following extensive research and analysis of crime statistics, we have been working with other local groups, such as the Bloomsbury Association, to campaign for more police resources in the three wards of South Camden.  The pressure resulted in additional police resources being allocated to Bloomsbury and Holborn & Covent Garden wards, but these are now being reduced. We are working with other community groups and organisations to campaign for the current situation to be reversed. A letter has been formally sent to Keir Starmer MP. To have Abstractions from our local police resulting in there being almost no PCs available in Bloomsbury is a dangerous position for an area with high crimes. 

 

We are connected with both the Bloomsbury and Kings Cross Safer Neighbourhood Panels and have been lobbying TfL (in association with Camden) for financial support through the Safer Streets Fund 2021. A properly monitored network of CCTV on the streets could reduce the very high level of crime against the person that takes place in Bloomsbury,   We are nevertheless concerned that a lack of reporting (due to apathy or a feeling of ‘will it make any difference’) might affect the crime figures released for the South Camden wards. We therefore encourage anybody unfortunate enough to be a victim of crime or witness an incident to report it to the police.​​

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BRAG campaigns for developments that do not undermine residents' quality of life.