Local investment projects from the Beaufoy sale announced!

Last year your Labour councillors won a commitment from Lambeth Council that £200,000 of the profits from the sale of the Beaufoy Institute on Black Prince Road would be spent locally, with the decision made by local councillors after a consultation of local people.

Last November we consulted every home in Prince's ward, and received over 100 responses. Since then we've been working closely with council officers to draw up the priorities for the money to spent on. We've also put the money from the Beaufoy Institute together with the developer's contributions from the development at Old Lilian Baylis School.

Here's what we've decided the money should be spent on:

Item	Beaufoy	Old Lilian Baylis	Total
10% administration costs (this is a standard amount applied to all projects to cover the costs of officers' time)	£20,000		£20,000
Computers at the Durning Library	£7,000	£19,000	£26,000
Lollard Street Adventure Playground	£113,000	£37,411	£150,411
Traffic study to investigate the greening of Tyers Street	£10,000		£10,000
Relandscaping ‘the pit’ outside Coverley Point	£30,000	£10,000	£40,000
10% Contingency Funds	£20,000		£20,000
Totals	£200,000	£66,411	£266,411

*Plus funding has been agreed from Lambeth Living to refurbish Mountain House playground

Durning Library
The largest number of people responding to our consultation wanted to see investment in the Durning Library, and we agreed that this crucial community resource should benefit. However, Lambeth Council has announced a massive £800,000 investment into the building at the Durning, so we wanted to see this extra money invested in a specific project which wouldn't otherwise benefit the Library. Lambeth Libraries officers, in consultation with the Friends of Durning Library, have advised on a need for improved IT equipment in order to deliver IT training and allow for privacy for users of the computers. So we have chosen to spend £26,000 on providing a further eight computers in the adult lending area, reconfiguring the space so it can be used for IT classes, purchasing new computer desks with dividers, and providing a ‘lap-top bar’ with wifi. 

Lollard Street Adventure Playground
Lambeth Council recently handed Lollard Street Adventure Playground over to the Kennington Association, who have exciting plans to increase the usage of the facilities. The playground is in a serious state of disrepair and in need of capital investment. The Kennington Association, having taken possession of the site have assessed that a full refurbishment would cost around £200,000. The KA are to progress this in four stages, refurbishing four zones of the area in succession. So we have decided to spend £150,411 towards funding the refurbishment of the first three zones of Lollard Street Adventure Playground, to help create a top quality, modern, free, supervised play facility for our area's young people.

Traffic study to investigate the greening of Tyers Street

The Vauxhall Gardens Estate Residents and Tenants' Association (VGERTA) have been investigating the idea of greening over Tyers Street - currently a wide, empty and featureless street through the estate - and creating a linear park, linking Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens with smaller parks further north. More recently similar proposals to green Vauxhall Walk have been put forward by business group Vauxhall One. The next step needed is a proper investigation into how these changes might affect traffic and access to homes and businesses. So we are proposing to allocate £10,000 towards a transport modelling study for the closure of Tyers Street and Vauxhall Walk. 

Relandscaping ‘the pit’ outside Coverley Point

Coverley Point and Haymans Point are two 1960s towers on Vauxhall Walk, which are part of the Vauxhall Gardens Estate. They are designed with large sunken concrete areas around the base of the towers. 'The pit' outside Coverley Point has suffered badly from antisocial behaviour - particularly from large groups of 'freerunners' congregating and disturbing residents. Lambeth Living and representatives of VGERTA are keen to pursue a scheme to ‘green’ the sunken area facing Vauxhall Walk, reducing antisocial behaviour and greatly improving the attractiveness of the local environment. So we have chosen to spend £40,000 on relandscaping 'the pit' to VGERTA and Lambeth Living's plans.

There was also strong support for refurbishing the playground between Mountain House and Sullivan House - Lambeth Living have confirmed that they have funds to carry out this work, so this will be taking place as well.

Councillors Lorna Campbell, Mark Harrison and Stephen Morgan said:

'We're really excited that these five fantastic projects are going to be funded, and we're proud that we've insisted on local people having a say in how money from big developments is spent. We hope this consultation will be a model for future local involvement in decisions about how money from big developments gets allocated.'

Lollard Street Adventure Playground open afternoon

The Kennington Association is inviting everyone to an Open Afternoon, 3pm till 6pm at Lollard Street Adventure Playground, to mark its reopening on the 28 October. The project will open from 10am till 4pm during half term and will then open for Thursdays and Fridays after school from 3.30pm to 6.30pm.

Lollard Street Adventure Playground back in business!

The Kennington Association are delighted to announce that Lollard Street Adventure Playground will be reopening its doors this Friday, for the first time in a year.


Free Friday hands on crafts playdays

Every Friday in August, starting 9 August

10am- 3pm

8-13 year olds, younger children welcome with their parents/ carers

Mosaic making, painting, sign making for the new adventure playground

Call Sylvia for more information: 07890 987586


Lambeth Council is in the process of handing over the running of the Adventure Playground to a community committee, backed by local community group the Kennington Association. They will be funded by the Council to provide two after school play sessions a week, but plan to open the site up to new youth, community and voluntary uses.

Kennington Association members have been joined by parents, play providers, and local councillor Mark Harrison on the steering committee. If you're interested in getting involved, just email Mark.
 
 

New play area for Lambeth Walk Doorstep Green

 Last year the Council carried out a consultation on creating new play areas at Lambeth Walk Doorstep Green (between Fitzalan Street and Lollard Street).

Originally three play areas were proposed, but budget constraints mean that the Council is now proposing to go ahead with only one of the play areas for the time being. It will be aimed for under 6 year olds, and located in what is currently a dark corner of the park, behind the Adventure Playground building and up against the Adventure Playground's ball court. The Veolia Environmental Trust will contribute £17000 towards the project. Construction is likely to begin in April and be completed by June.

Results of the consultation


Support for the play areas was nearly unanimous. News of the upcoming play area construction was welcomed by 76 responses, with 2 firm objections noted. The objections were due to:

• Keeping the open space in a ‘quiet’, green condition.
• Not agreeing with the separation of the older and younger children’s play areas.

Comments included:

• Opening the sports pitch to unrestricted use to widen the opportunity for play.
• The play area needs to be robust to minimise vandalism.
• Clear out shrubbery around the proposed 2-6 play area for better safety and security.
• Seating with back rests or picnic tables needs to be provided.
• Dog proof fencing is important.
• Swings, slides and climbing equipment were favoured most.
• The idea of a landscaped play area was well received with the inclusion of traditional equipment.

Who should run Lollard Street Adventure Playground?

We want local communities to decide which organisations are going to take over the running of the youth and play sites from the Council.  There will be a meeting at Lollard Street Adventure Playground for organisations to present their plans to the community.  Light refreshments will be provided.


You will have a chance to score the presentations. Your scores will count for 30% of the overall score for that organisation and will help decide who will run this site.


The meeting takes place this Friday 15 June at:


Lollard Street Adventure Playground, Lollard Street, SE11 6PX


6 – 7:30pm

Your local play and youth services – come and have your say!

Over the last year Lambeth Council has been reviewing the way we do things. The Co-operative Council means that we want to work with the community to develop new ways to run our Adventure Playgrounds, Youth Centres and Stay and Play One O’clock Clubs.

To find out what is in it for you, get involved and learn more please drop in to our open session

at: Lollard Adventure Playground, Lollard Street, SE11

on: 18 August 2011, between 6.45 – 8.00 pm (drop in anytime)


If you can’t get there but want to be involved please:

Email: cooperativecouncil@lambeth.gov.uk

or Write to:

Co-operative council
Freepost RLSK-SSJL-KXKK
Room 113A
Lambeth Town Hall
London
SW2 1RW

Future of Lollard Street Adventure Playground

Yesterday Cllr Pete Robbins, Lambeth Cabinet Member for Children & Young People, attended a meeting at Lollard Street Adventure Playground where he heard from children and parents who rely on the service it provides.

Pete was there to explain the Council's plans for the adventure playground service. Lambeth has more adventure playgrounds than any other borough. Currently seven are run directly by the Council, and eight are run by the voluntary sector. Voluntary sector-run adventure playgrounds are much cheaper to run. The Council is proposing to transfer the management of Council-run adventure playgrounds like Lollard Street to the voluntary sector.

This means the next few months will be challenging, as the adventure playground will have to adjust to new management and reduced funding. (Current opening hours and funding are guaranteed till the end of the summer.) However, Pete is confident that a good service can be preserved after September.

It was clear from the meeting that parents and children most value the after school provision which the adventure playground provides, as it helps parents who work and aren't available to look after their children after school. The challenge is to make the new management model work and ensure we preserve the current opening hours as much as we can.

Future of the adventure playground service

Dear young people, parents and carers,

Lambeth is proud of our strong commitment to children’s play. The council provides funding to fifteen adventure playgrounds (APGs), more than any other borough in London, because we know that they are a much-loved and important resource.

Seven of the APGs in Lambeth are run directly by the council – these are Tulse Hill, Lollard Street, Loughborough, Willington, Kennington, Max Roach & Streatham Vale. These APGs are excellent facilities, but they are quite expensive to run. Because the Government is cutting Lambeth’s funding by a third, we are being forced to reduce their budgets, which means that they will not be as open as much as they are now.

We know that the summer holidays are the busiest time for our adventure playgrounds, so we are not going to make any changes until September 2011 - the adventure playground service will continue to be open as usual until the end of the holidays. But from September we will need to reduce the opening hours, but will also work with local people to identify different ways of running these APGs.

We think that there are better ways of running APGs. For instance, Lambeth provides the funding for eight adventure playgrounds that are run independently by community groups or local charities – they offer very good value, so we don’t need to reduce their funding at all.

We think that by involving local communities, parents, and users in making decisions, and working more closely with the independent APGs, we can design a modern and sustainable play service that is protected from government cuts. I’m very pleased to say that we are working together with the independent Lambeth Play Association, who have been championing play in Lambeth for many years.

As users of adventure playgrounds we want to work with you as we shape the future of the service, which will be in keeping with the vision for the Cooperative Council programme. We are beginning the consultation programme in June and will confirm a date for the first meeting in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, my deputy, Cllr Adedamola Aminu and myself are more than happy to come and meet parents and children to talk about the future of their adventure playground. We want to hear from you so please just contact me using the details below if you would like one of us to come and visit and explain how we can work together to protect play in Lambeth.

Kind regards,

Cllr Pete Robbins
Cabinet Member for Children and Young People
probbins@lambeth.gov.uk