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They look like the ideal neighbours - a wealthy, well-connected, law-abiding middle class couple with four children, not given to drinking heavily or holding wild parties, whose mere presence reduces the risk of street crime by drawing extra police to the area.
But even before Tony and Cherie Blair have moved into their new home in Connaught Square, near Marble Arch, relations with other residents are promising to be difficult.
Officially, tomorrow is the day that they will leave the flat above 11 Downing Street, which has been their main home for 10 years.
An army of builders, electricians, plasterers and security counsellors is putting the finishing touches to the elegant new Blair residence.
The mews house at the back, which the Blairs have also bought, is surrounded by scaffolding covered in tarpaulins.
What has alarmed the residents of the square is the extraordinary precautions being taken to ensure that the former Prime Minister and his wife are protected from anyone who may be contemplating revenge for the war in Iraq or some other grievance.
If the Blairs are really that much in danger, the neighbours say, someone should tell them for their own sake that it is not a good idea to be living in a crowded part of central London.
But if the risk is low, life in Connaught Square is being disrupted for no good reason.
A petition has been passed around the Square seeking help from the Westminster City Council.
It says: "It has been suggested that to protect the Blairs it may be necessary to prevent vehicles and unauthorised pedestrians entering the west side of the square, turn part of the square into a gated community policed by armed guards, prune or cut down some of our magnificent old plane trees and have a police helicopter hovering above the square."
The police say they plan to meet residents in the hope of allaying some of their concerns. A Westminster council spokesman said: "Once we have received the petition we will put it through the due process, which is to contact the ward councillors and ask them to bring it forward to the full council."
The Westminster council also has to make a judgment on a separate dispute about whether the alterations planned by the Blairs to their Georgian home, including a roof garden and solar panels, will spoil the look and the general environment of the square.
Property developer John Larkey, who lives next door, claims noise from the children's bedrooms on the upper floors of the five-storey house will be "disruptive" and that if the couple hold barbecues in their roof garden, the smell will be a nuisance.
Residents have also objected to the proposed solar panels, which they called a "fashion accessory" and to the closed circuit TV cameras.
Tony Blair's successor, Gordon Brown, has told the Blairs they can continue to use Chequers, the Prime Minister's state-owned second home in Buckinghamshire until the builders have finished.
The family bought the property for £3.6 million ($9.4 million at today's exchange rates) in 2004, and have been renting it out - although for less than the £4000 a week they had been hoping to get. The mews house at the rear cost them £800,000.
- INDEPENDENT
