West Hampstead

Meet your 2010 West Hampstead Ward Candidates...

Virginia Berridge

Virginia Berridge has lived in West Hampstead first as a student and then moved back and brought up her family there. She has been active in local organisations, including local schools Beckford as chair of governors and Hampstead in the Home School Association.

She currently chairs WHAT (West Hampstead Amenity and Transport), a very successful local pressure group, which campaigns on transport, environmental matters and on the local scene. She’s played a leading role in getting local transport improvements, including the agreement to put the Oyster in place on Thameslink and the long awaited bus stops outside the stations.

In her day job, Virginia is an historian at London University.

She says, “West Hampstead is a great place to live and there’s a mixed local community.
Through my work for WHAT I know what concerns local people about the environment,
waste and transport. We need to keep developers in check and to make sure there is affordable housing here for young people just starting out. West Hampstead doesn’t have much by way of open space so we must safeguard and improve what we have. And I’d like to see better
community facilities developing through a new Community Association.”

Miles Seaman

Miles Seaman has lived in West Hampstead for over 35 years so he is very familiar with the changes that have taken place to the area. He is now semi retired but has worked in the past as a professional engineering adviser with a particular interest in the Environment and Health and Safety issues. These days he looks forward to radical changes to reduce the impact of the greenhouse gases.

On a local scale, he has been involved to many years in the impact of transport (particularly local buses, traffic management and parking) on local amenities through membership of WHAT (West Hampstead Amenity and Transport group) which campaigns on behalf of the local community. He has also taken a keen interest in community safety and security and is a member of his local Safer Neighbourhoods team and a director of the Camden Community and Police Consultative Group (CCPCG) which is liaises with the Police and the Community Safety Partnership.

Certain aspects of community cohesiveness are strong in West Hampstead but this needs to be protected and strengthened particularly in the younger age groups and for people who are at a disadvantage. Making sure that all of our diverse ethnic groups are fully integrated into the community is a key priority. As a member of the steering group for the Community Association for West Hampstead (a new initiative to create a community centre) he wants to ensure that all members of the community are engaged.

Carol Thomas