Contracts exchanged on the Beaufoy site

We can today announce that Lambeth Council has exchanged contracts to sell the Beaufoy Building and surrounding land.

As you may know the council owns the car park which is being sold to Bellway Homes. The Beaufoy Building and space around it is owned by the Beaufoy Trust and that will be sold to the Tibetan Buddhist Charity, Diamond Way Buddhism.

The sale of both sites will generate around £9 million. Around £7.5m will go to the council and will contribute towards the Council's Capital Programme that is used to fund housing, roads, schools, leisure centres etc. About £1.5m will go to the Beaufoy Trust. After years of having all their money tied up in an unused building and, therefore, not actually helping anyone they will finally have the money to fulfill their objectives;

“The object of the [Beaufoy Trust] charity is the promotion of the education for the public benefit of persons under the age of 25 who are in need of financial assistance and resident in the area of benefit, with a preference for the promotion of vocational training.”

On top of this 40% of all the homes that Bellway will build on the site will be affordable.

Finally, a sum of £200,000 has been ring fenced and will be spent in Kennington on local projects. Your three councillors will be making the decision on what to spend the money on and we shall be back in touch with everyone in the near future in order to get ideas of what to spend the money on.

Buddhist Centre Scheme

The Beaufoy is an iconic local building and a lot of residents will want to know what plans there are for its future. The scheme proposes a mixed-use building which has three predominant functions:

1) Community facility
2) Place for meditation and education
3) Residential accommodation

The building would be occupied by Diamond Way Buddhism, a registered charity centred on Buddhist philosophy in the Tibetan tradition. They intend to offer a facility which would primarily be used by the Buddhist community but would also seek to engage with and benefit local communities.

At the heart of the building, largely within the historic Grade II listed section, the facility would offer a large meditation/teaching space within the existing lecture/assembly hall. There would also be a library, exhibition space, seminar room, meeting rooms, offices and a general welcome area. These areas and rooms would all be at ground and first floor levels and would form the primary location for the charity's work in terms of its public activity.

The refurbished buildings and the proposed extensions would also provide various types of residential accommodation at ground, first and second floor levels of the building which would support a community of permanent residents and guests.

Public Meetings

As you may be keen to meet the prospective new owners and find out more about who they are and what there plans are, public meetings are planned with Diamond Way Buddhism and Bellway Homes.

This will be where the planning application will be presented and discussed so that the local community will be able to give their views on what is proposed. Both Bellway and Diamond Way are introducing themselves at tonight’s KOV meeting.

Diamond Way Buddhism is holding a drop-in session 6pm-9pm, next Thursday 2 February at the Tea House Theatre, 139 Vauxhall Walk, SE11 5HL. This is in advance of their submitting their planning application as they seek your contribution and input to the renovation of the Beaufoy Institute whilst the project is still in its early stages.

The Future

At this stage we have exchanged contracts with the two groups. We will not complete the sale until they have both received planning permission for their schemes.

Everyone will have an opportunity to view the plans and comment on them when they are submitted to the planning department.

If, and when, planning permission is granted, we shall be in touch with all residents and community groups to discuss what projects you would like to spend our £200,000 windfall on.

We hope to see you at the meetings.

Replacement of Old Paradise Street railway bridge

Residents might have already noticed that Old Paradise Street and Newport Street are now closed to traffic for the next five months. This is to enable the replacement of part of the railway bridge over Old Paradise Street.

Local councillors have been campaigning for the bridge to be upgraded for many years. The bridge has a terrible problem with pigeons roosting in its rafters, causing an unpleasant and dangerous mess on the pavement below. Network Rail have assured us that the replacement bridge will have nowhere for pigeons to roost and cause a nuisance.

Residents in the area should have received a letter from Network Rail explaining the disruption which will be caused by the work. Unfortunately there will need to be overnight work between 31 March and 16 April, and noise disruption is likely. If there are any problems with the work please contact Network Rail on 08457 114141.

Councillors will be keeping a close eye on the works to ensure they have the maximim benefit for local residents. We're excited that once completed there will be further money available from new developments to improve the area around the bridge. With a new art gallery and housing being constructed the junction of Old Paradise Street and Newport Street is going to be completely transformed for the better.

2012 Labour Calendar and Coffee Morning

Over the coming days volunteers will be delivering the 2012 Prince's Labour calendar. It has contact details for all your local Labour representatives.

Alongside you should receive an invitation to our annual coffee morning. This year it's being held on Saturday 4 February, at 11am at the usual venue of St Anselm's Church Hall. All residents are invited to enjoy a tea or coffee and a chat with their Labour representatives.

Councillors will be joined by Kate Hoey MP, London Assembly Member Val Shawcross, and Leader of the Council Steve Reed.

Questionnaire from the Friends of the Durning Library

'The Durning Library is an important part of our local community. Lambeth Council is currently considering the future organisation of its library service. We know that there are to be severe budget cuts and if the community does not step in, our library may not survive.

'As the library’s Friends, we need your help to decide how best to plan for its future, and so we need to hear your views, whether or not you use the library. Please complete this short survey – it will not take long and it is important that as many local people as possible have their say. Paper copies are available at the Durning library if needed, or you can download a PDF version from the website. Please complete the survey by 30 January. And please forward it to anyone else you think might be interested.

'We shall be holding a public meeting at the Durning Library on Monday 27 February to enable everyone to give us their views and the results of the survey will contribute to this discussion. So, PLEASE complete this questionnaire, either on paper or on-line, and return it to us by Monday 30 January.

Thank you in advance,
Priscilla Baines
Chairman, Friends of the Durning Library

(Our brand new website www.durninglibraryfriends.org.uk is now live – visit it to complete the questionnaire and to find out what is going on at the Durning library).'

Help Lambeth set its Housing Standard

Lambeth Council and its management agent Lambeth Living are working with residents to set a new standard to which all council homes can be developed and maintained.

The Government is providing Lambeth with some money to invest in our homes over the coming years, though it is not nearly enough for all that we would like to do. Because of this, choices need to be made about what work residents want to prioritise.

If you are a Lambeth tenant or leaseholder please fill in the online survey.

You can also attend a meeting this Thursday at 7pm at Pedlars Acre Hall, Opal Street/ Kennington Lane.

Already, Lambeth Housing have received around 5000 responses from residents - some of the bags of mail received are pictured. We want to ensure everybody has their say.

Prince's councillors have already made the case for the following works:

- new windows for the blocks on the Cottington Close Estate which are still outstanding

- new windows for the blocks on the Vauxhall Gardens Estate which are still outstanding (Aveline Street, Brangton Road)

- new windows for Denby Court

- investment in street properties which is required

- security doors for Cottington Close and Broadgates Court

- new intercom and lifts for Cotton Gardens

- new lifts for various blocks on the Vauxhall Gardens Estate

- new kitchens and bathrooms, with those in the worst condition being prioritised

> Please let us know if there are other priorities you would like us to campaign for!

Sweeping schedule for Prince's ward

Many residents ask how frequently their street is supposed to be cleaned by the Council. We thought the map above might be of interest.

The street cleaning team say:

All roads are litter-picked on Monday, Wednesday and Friday apart from the ones that are swept every day. None of the roads are swept on weekends. Please note that these schedules do not apply during the leafing season where we attempted to sweep roads more frequently and litter-picked less frequently.

Major crackdown underway to drive out housing cheats

Lambeth Council is launching a major crackdown against illegal sub-letting across the borough.

Fraud investigators will knock on the doors of hundreds of properties over the coming months to uncover tenants who illegally sub-let, and will take legal proceedings to boot them out.

The action, in partnership with Lambeth Living, will free up desperately needed homes for people who genuinely need them.

Illegal subletting is where the registered tenant does not live at the property but rents it out for profit on the private market, and deprives people on the council’s housing waiting list, and in genuine need, of a permanent home.

Around 60 properties were recovered last year from illegal sub-letters in Lambeth, but the practice is believed to be more widespread, so the council and Lambeth Living aim to double that amount this year by carrying out more visits and investigations, and better intelligence sharing.
The initiative follows a successful pilot undertaken during September and October on the Springfield and Briant estates, in the north of the borough where around four per cent of the properties were found to be illegally sub-let.

Checks at the two estates have to date uncovered fifteen suspected fraudulent tenancies. In three of these cases the properties have been handed back to the council - voluntarily. Five of the outstanding cases have already been put in the hands of the council’s lawyers to take legal action, and investigations continue on the remaining seven cases.

The penalty for anyone subletting their home is severe and final. Tenants who sublet their property will lose their tenancy and the illegal tenants will be evicted.

Councillor Lib Peck, Lambeth Council cabinet member for housing and member of the Lambeth Living board said: 'This is not a victimless crime - housing tenancy fraud costs Lambeth dearly. It deprives people on the housing waiting list and who are in genuine need of housing, of a permanent and safe roof over their head. It means that people are leap-frogging the waiting list and tying up badly needed homes, and we will put a stop to that'.

Deputy cabinet member for housing, Cllr. Christopher Wellbelove commented: 'I know from my casework on local estates that illegal subletting is a problem that genuine tenants want tackled, as well as families who are weary of being on the waiting list for a permanent home. Council housing is a precious resource – and these homes should be available for people who really need them'.

If anyone knows of a property they suspect is being illegally sub-let, they should call the Fraud Hotline on 0207 926 1111. All calls will be handled in the strictest confidence

Cabinet Gallery planning application for Lord Clyde site

The people behind the Cabinet Gallery proposal have just submitted their planning application for the Lord Clyde site on Tyers Street/Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. They plan to create a pavilion-type building housing a modern art gallery, and have gone to great efforts to consult with local groups like the Friends of Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. Do take a look at their letter and application and comment if you would like to.

Dear Friend,

We would like to take this opportunity to update you on exciting progress with our proposal for a new gallery at Spring Gardens. It is our wish to come home to Lambeth and re-establish the Cabinet Gallery in the borough at Tyers Street, Vauxhall. Over the past 18 months we have undertaken a comprehensive amount of work, aimed at producing a building to accommodate Cabinet’s activities and sit comfortably with the local environment. The building will be located on the northeast corner of Spring Gardens, Tyers Street, opposite Vauxhall City Farm. The gallery will be arranged over the ground and first floors with three private residential apartments above. There will also be accommodation for artists.

Having consulted widely, and secured the support of local representatives and local community members, as well as the Friends of Spring Gardens, we recently submitted our formal planning application to Lambeth Council. For the application to be successful it will require a clear demonstration of support from local people and we would be extremely grateful if you would write a short email about this by clicking - http://planning.lambeth.gov.uk/publicaccess/tdc/DcApplication/application_detailview.aspx?caseno=LSNETOBO0AY00 For information, the council’s consultation on our application is targeted to end on 26th December.

We are delighted to have the opportunity of establishing our gallery in Vauxhall and want to move ahead as soon as possible. All being well, we hope to have been granted planning permission by early in 2012, commence a ten-month construction next Spring and open the new gallery in Autumn 2013.

We would greatly appreciate you giving your support and would of course be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Yours sincerely,

Charles Asprey

Andrew Wheatley

Martin McGeown

Nominate a road or pavement for renewal

It is that time of year when the council is putting together the list of roads and pavements that will be renewed/repaired in the coming financial year. With this in mind local Labour councillors are asking whether you think any road/pavement in the borough should be included.

The Council will then send round an engineer to score the road/pavement and will add it to the list of roads/pavements to be repaired. As with previous years it will only be the roads/pavements that score the worst that will be included in the programme. Whatever the outcome for our area we will send you the full list of roads/pavements that make the shortlist once it is announced next year so you can see what the council will be doing with your money.

Please send Cllr Steve Morgan your suggestions by 8 December and he will ensure that they are looked at.

Transport for London is responsible for the big roads in the area such as Kennington Road, Kennington Lane, Kennington Park Road and Albert Embankment. If you wish to nominate one of these roads then feel free, but it will be up to TfL to repir them and not Lambeth Council.

Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea Open Days

Come and find out more about the largest area of central riverside redevelopment in London:

At Market Towers, 1 Nine Elms Lane, Vauxhall, SW8 5NQ

On Thursday 24 November 2011, 3pm to 8pm and Friday 25 November 2011, 8am to 6pm


What to expect:

· The latest information about the Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea (VNEB) redevelopments.

· An update on the Northern line extension that will link the whole area to the tube network.

· A chance to know more about proposed improvements for pedestrians, cyclists and local public transport users.

· Information about planned improvements to existing streets and a new linear park.

· A 3D model of the whole VNEB area.

· An opportunity to discuss proposals with the VNEB strategy board.


For more information visit: www.lambeth.gov.uk/vneb or www.wandsworth.gov.uk/nineelms

Remembrance Sunday in Kennington

Hundreds of people took part in Kennington's annual Remembrance Sunday commemoration today.

After parading down Kennington Park Road, members of the Royal British Legion, servicemen, local councillors and residents took part in a service at Kennington Park War Memorial, where wreaths were laid. Councillor Sally Prentice laid a wreath on behalf of Lambeth Council.

This year the War Memorial has been cleaned by the Friends of Kennington Park, and it looked fantastic in the autumn sunshine.

Ethelred tenants vote yes to Watmos

Tenants living on the Ethelred Estate have voted yes to transfer their homes to Watmos, a tenant-owned social landlord.

51% of tenants voted yes to transfer on an impressive 68.5% turnout.

Councillor Mark Harrison lives on the Ethelred Estate and campaigned for a yes vote. He said: 'this is great news for the Estate which secures its future for decades to come'.

'This will unlock millions of pounds of investment into the estate, preserve tenants' rights, keep rents affordable, and enhance tenant management'.

Mark spoke about the stock transfer at Lambeth Council's meeting on Wednesday, where he praised Watmos' 'unique model of housing ownership which fits in neatly with Lambeth's Cooperative Council agenda.'