Green Flag for Kennington Park!

The Friends of Kennington Park have revealed the exciting news that the park has won the coveted Green Flag award!

Only a handful of Lambeth’s 60 parks have achieved Green Flag status it to date. It recognises a park that is welcoming, safe and well-maintained.

This achievement is a tribute to the hard work and dedication of the Friends and the staff who mantain the park. You can join the Friends on their website: www.kenningtonpark.org.

Pictured: Friends Chair Gordon Johnson with Kate Hoey MP at the opening of the park's new playground in 2009.

Val and councillors push TfL to sort out flooding by Kennington tube

The recent frequent rain will have drawn many residents' attention to the flooding problem on Kennington Park Road, close to Kennington underground station.

Local councillors and Lambeth's London Assembly Member Val Shawcross have highlighted the problem to TfL and urged something to be done about it.

TfL believe there are serious underlying problems with the drainage in the area and are working with their contractors to identify a solution.

We'll be keeping up the pressure on TfL to find a long-term solution to this problem.

Safer Neighbourhood Team meeting

Thursday saw the quarterly meeting of the Prince's ward Safer Neighbourhood Team Panel, at the Riverbank Park Plaza Hotel (pictured).

The meeting came only two days after this week's shooting on Black Prince Road, and Sergeant Bob Lockyear began by giving the Panel an update. Thankfully the victim is expected to recover, and several arrests have been made.

The majority of the meeting focused on serious problems with street drinkers around Glyn Street and Auckland Street, next to Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. The police made a commitment to focus their resources on this area , whilst councillors and council officers will work to try to tackle the problem of alcohol being sold to street drinkers by the off licenses in the area.

The next SNT Panel meeting is on 27 October at 6:30pm. All are welcome, and all residents' associations should consider sending somebody along.

The local police do regular surgeries and street briefings around the area:

What: Street briefing, When: 25/07/2011 - 15:00 - 16:00, Where: Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens

What: Street briefing, When: 04/08/2011 - 19:00 - 20:00, Where: Lambeth High Street Recreation Ground - Lambeth High Street

What: Street briefing, When: 21/08/2011 - 15:00 - 17:00, Where: Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens

What: Street briefing, When: 06/09/2011 - 10:00 - 11:00, Where: Durning Libary - Kennington Lane SE11

What: Crime Prevention Stall, When: 19/09/2011 - 10:00 - 11:00, Where: Lambeth High Street Recreation Ground - Lambeth High Street

What: Street briefing, When: 30/09/2011 - 10:00 - 11:00, Where: Lambeth High Street Recreation Ground - Lambeth High Street

What: Street briefing, When: 07/10/2011 - 10:00 - 11:00, Where: Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens

What: Drop-in surgery, When: 15/10/2011 - 10:00 - 11:00, Where: Durning Libary - Kennington Lane SE11

What: Street briefing, When: 04/11/2011 - 10:00 - 11:00, Where: Lambeth High Street Recreation Ground - Lambeth High Street

What: Street briefing, When: 18/11/2011 - 15:00 - 16:00, Where: Tyers Street juntion with Kennington Lane SE11

What: Crime Prevention Stall, When: 02/12/2011 - 15:00 - 16:00, Where: Lambeth High Street Recreation Ground - Lambeth High Street

Information about your local police is here

You can contact them directly on: Princes.snt@met.police.uk /07920 233835, though they don't work all of the time.

At other times call the police non-emergency number: 101.

In an emergency call 999.

Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens entrance completed!

This week the new entrance to Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens opened.

The striking new columns and clean open entrance to the park are the latest phase of the masterplan for the park to be completed.

An official opening ceremony for the entrance, held when the columns can be properly lit up, will be held later in the year.

Kennington fete

Sunday saw another highly successful Kennington fete, organised by the Kennington Association and opened by Kate Hoey MP.

Prince's councillor Stephen Morgan went along and spoke to residents about issues of concern, including the Northern line extension, St Anselm's Church's planning application, the Council's plans to sell the Shelley site, and 'free school' proposals for the area.

St Anselm's Church planning application submitted

St Anselm's Church have submitted their planning application to transform the existing church into a thriving centre for community and youth projects.

The details of the application are:

Change of use of part of the ground floor of St Anselm's Church to a restaurant/cafe/delicatessen (Use Class A3), relocation of the church use to a new second floor, demolition of vestry and part of transepts, together with other minor external alterations within the site. Demolition of Havilland House and garages and redevelopment of the site to provide a new community hall (Use Class D1), educational facilities (Use Class D1), two work units (Use Class B1), and 17 residential units (Town Planning and Conservation Area Consent Applications received).

You can view the plans by visiting the following page and then clicking on the associated documents link: http://planning.lambeth.gov.uk/publicaccess/tdc/DcApplication/application_detailview.aspx?caseno=LM2CI9BO0AY00

Once you have looked at the plans you can support or object to them by clicking on the submit comments button.

You can find out more about the project at http://www.pathwaysse11.com/

Local councillors will be supporting the application, which gained the support of 98% of 600 residents who attended a consultation event held at the church.

Spruced up garages at Arden House

Residents of Arden House have worked alongside Lambeth Living's garages team to transform their garages by installing green roofs and new doors. The plants have only just started growing, but when complete, the roof will be carpeted with wild flowers and greenery. The roof has also saved Lambeth Living £6000! The garages team will be interested to hear from other TRAs who might be interested in this idea.

Lambeth Living have also replaced the deteriorating metal doors with smart new painted wooden doors (above).

Since the Central Garage Team was set up four years ago they have also reduced voids from around 60% to 5%, increasing the income from the garages from around £250,000 per year to well over a million. As the repairs are almost all done in-house they have been able to have extremely quick turn around times and saved money on day to day repairs and planned maintenance. Rent arrears have also been reduced from over £130,000 to £30,000.

Whilst the general picture for Lambeth Living's garages is looking really positive, local councillors have pointed out that serious problems remain at the garages underneath the Ethelred Towers. Cllr Mark Harrison has asked the team to give its full focus to getting the issues there resolved as soon as possible, and offered any assistance that councillors can provide.

Glasshouse Walk play area consultation event

VGERTA would like to invite you to the Glasshouse Walk Playground Consultation Event, where we will showcase the three options for the playground regeneration.

These plans were produced after the two community consultation campaigns organised by VGERTA.

We would like to hear your views before we proceed to the funding stage to make this dream come true for our area.

The event is on 30 July, and starts at 12pm and ends at 2pm. There will be music, cakes and refreshments.

Last but not least we would like to thank Lambeth Living and Groundwork for assisting VGERTA to make this consultation event possible through their services including the production of the three options that we will present on the day.

We hope to see you all on the 30th.

Watch VGERTA's case for refurbishing the playground here.

Conversion of John Bull pub into new flat- planning application

A planning application has been made to convert most of the shop/ community unit in the old John Bull pub at 64 Tyers Street into a new flat.

You can view the plans and design statement, and leave your views using the link above.

Spring Mews public exhibition

Spring Mews is a proposed new mixed-use scheme including student accommodation with retail, hotel, and a new community centre and cafe. The proposed new development is sited on land bounded by Tinworth Street to the North, Vauxhall Walk to the east, Glasshouse Walk to the south and the railway line to the west.

The proposals have been developed in discussions with Lambeth Council and in liaison with the Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre.


Public exhibition:

Thursday 14 July 5.30pm to 8.30pm

Saturday 16 July 11am to 2pm

Exhibition venue Westminster Tower, 3 Albert Embankment, SE1 7SL


About the existing site and proposals

The site is underutilised at present and has been identified for redevelopment in Lambeth Council’s Local Plan for some considerable period of time. The community centre is tired and the overall run-down site only provides around 20 jobs with most of the site used for coach parking.

CLS's proposals provide for a modern community centre to be built in the same location and the provision of over 80 jobs on the site with new commercial uses. In addition, by providing student accommodation CLS is supporting the delivery of the Council’s affordable housing provision by reducing the demand on the private rented sector that would otherwise be available for family housing. New retail and a public mews will also add to the local amenity and setting with better pedestrian links through to local green spaces and architecture sensitive to the area’s heritage.

CLS Holdings plc (CLS) is both the largest property company in Lambeth and is based in Vauxhall.

Riverwalk House public exhibition

Developers will be holding a public exhibition next week to consult on plans to redevelop Riverwalk House on Millbank into 121 residential apartments on 17 floors, with a restaurant and art gallery at street level.

The exhibition will be on site on Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 July, from 4pm to 8pm.