Vauxhall Children's Centre officially open!

This afternoon Mayor of Lambeth Christopher Wellbelove and Kate Hoey MP officially opened the Vauxhall Children's Centre at Vauxhall Primary School.

It was a fantastic afternoon, with singing from Year Five pupils, music, cake and celebration.

The Centre has actually been up and running since 2008, providing a wealth of services to pre-school children, and crucially their parents and families.

The Centre is the 30th to open in Lambeth, and is one of more than 3000 centres opened since the Labour government came to power. The Tories have indicated they will slash the service and means-test SureStart so only the poorest will benefit from its services.

In her speech at the opening ceremony Kate Hoey said 'this government will go down in history for setting up children's centres'.

If you support SureStart Children's Centres you can join the 'Shout out for a SureStart campaign'.

Planning consultations

Three planning consultations are currently open for the area's residents.

An exhibition of proposals for the redevelopment of New Covent Garden Market at Nine Elms will take place between 4 and 7 November.

The Mayor of London's draft Planning Framework for Vauxhall is now available for consultation. The closing date for responses is 29 January. The KOV Forum will be hosting a public presentation on this, date to be announced shortly.

Finally, Lambeth Council is currently undertaking consultation on the Kennington conservation area. There will be a public meeting at 6pm on Monday 9 November, at Alford House, Aveline Street.

A new mayor for Lambeth: Christopher Wellbelove

Lambeth has elected a new civic Mayor for 2009/10, Cllr Christopher Wellbelove, Labour councillor for Clapham Town ward.

Mayoral duties include representing the borough at official functions, meeting and greeting dignitaries and helping to raise cash for local charities.

The new Mayor plans to use websites like Twitter and Facebook to let people know what he is doing, and hopes that by embracing technology he will be able to give more people an insight into the role.

Councillor Wellbelove said: "I have thoroughly enjoyed being deputy mayor, which has been excellent grounding to prepare me for becoming Mayor. However I am really looking forward to taking the full role. By using some of the free services available on the internet I hope to extend the reach of the Mayoral role to people who otherwise would not come into contact with the mayor or know about the work that the mayor does in the borough. I hope that this will demonstrate that this very traditional role can be modernised whilst retaining some of the traditional aspects which many people value."

The move to embrace modern communication packages has seen a new website created especially for the mayor: http://www.mayoroflambeth.com/ and you can also follow the Mayor through Twitter at www.twitter.com/mayoroflambeth