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Mylandscapes

Based in Camden Town, Mylandscapes design a wide range of contemporary outdoor spaces. Principal designer Amir Schlezinger was born in Tel-Aviv in 1969 and has lived in London since 1993.

Of Mylandscapes, Amir says: "Our trademarks include water, Mediterranean, oriental, city, family and country gardens, with an attention to low maintenance. We believe in an open dialogue between the design team. For us, planting design is of great importance because that is at the heart of every garden space."

Amir lives in Camden's Castle Road and is a big fan of the neighbourhood. "I like the pie and mash shop on Royal College Street and Compendium is my favourite bookshop. As a garden designer I couldn't live without Regents Park it's often been an inspiration to me."

He was a professional drummer but says he is retired now - though he still does the occasional pub gig with his three-piece rock funk band in Camden.

Click here to visit the Mylandscapes site.

Windfall for Camden homebuyers - 28/11/01

Camden home-buyers are in for a windfall courtesy of Chancellor Gordon Brown. The pre-budget statement announced that for 2,000 selected areas, house buyers will no longer have to pay stamp duty on homes worth between £60,000 and £150,000. With stamp duty currently at 1% of purchase price, this will produce savings of between £600 and £1,500.

Speaking to the Evening Standard, Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors spokesman Jeremy Leaf said that areas like King's Cross which were already regenerating and had large numbers of council estates and small private flats would get the most benefit. But he added that this measure would likely have less effect on the property market than the recent spate of interest rate cuts.

The idea behind the Chancellors measure is to boost deprived areas and twelve of Camden's 26 wards are to benefit from this. The wards are: Camden; Castlehaven; Caversham; Gospel Oak; Grafton; Holborn; Kilburn; Kings Cross; Priory; Regent's Park; St Pancras; Somers Town.

If you're not sure of Ward boundaries, go to the Camden Council website to find out.

Camden Council take action over empty homes - 22/10/01

Houses that have stood empty for years could be used as homes under a wide ranging scheme to be implemented in a cross-borough initiative. Camden Council is one of five London authorities in the new Central London Empty Property Officers Forum.

The Forum will share knowledge and expertise on solutions to empty properties, including compulsory purchase, grants programmes, leasing schemes and partnerships with housing associations.

It is estimated there are more than 4,500 privately owned properties standing empty in Camden and officers already run a programme of renovation grants and rental advice. "These homes are unoccupied for a whole host of reasons and sometimes it is difficult to trace the owner," said a Camden spokesman. "We are trying to draw up a register of empty homes, identify the owner and get them back into use."

West Hampstead Housing Association collapses - 17/10/01

West Hampstead Housing Association has collapsed with debts of as much as £8 million. The association, which is based in Grangeway, NW6, provides subsidised rented housing to 190 households in Camden, 440 in Brent and a further 460 in Haringey.

Camden Council has been forced to give the association £300,000 to keep it running and to avoid tenants being made homeless. Dozens of homes that Camden sold to WHHA at reduced rates and which were then refurbished with public money will now have to be sold at auction to raise cash.

WHHA has been in trouble since at least September 2000 when it failed to produce its annual accounts. The Housing Corporation, a quango which oversees housing associations put the association under supervision and nominated four people to the board. They than effectively took over the running of WHHA but have been unable to stop it collapsing.

Director and founder ANN Bowman, who has strong new Labour links, was forced out of her £65,000 a year post in December. Since then another association, Paddington Churches, have been managing WHHA properties but they have refused to take over the stock permanently. This leaves Camden looking for another association to take over WHHA's responsibilities.