Improvements to our local smaller parks

Pedlars' Acre
(between Opal Street and Cottington Street)

The older children’s playground at Pedlars' Acre has been refurbished and there is some funding available to replace some of the play equipment in the younger children’s play area. A consultation document has been put on the fencing to Pedlars' Acre and in the reception area of the housing office at 91 Kennington Lane. If you have any questions about the proposed works please contact Caroline Fraser Landscape Architect Programme Manager on 020 7926 4266.

Lambeth Walk Doorstep Green

Final consultation is going on about installing children's play equipment at Lambeth Walk Doorstep Green. The plans are for three play areas - one in the corner adjacent to the Adventure Playground building, one adjacent to Fitzalan Street opposite the stables, and one adjacent to Lollard Street and the Ethelred Youth Club building, opposite the steps to the nursery. We can email you the plans, or for more information contact Callum Brown.

Lambeth High Street Recreation Ground (Old Paradise Gardens)

We're disappointed that the plans for the refurbishment of the park which were agreed more than a year ago have been delayed yet again. We've made it clear to officers that these continuing delays are unacceptable. The plans include a brand new water feature, improved entrances and sight lines. A meeting of the Friends of the park had been scheduled for the Wednesday 19 September.

Tyers Street Linear Park

Secretary of the Vauxhall Gardens Estate Residents & Tenants Association Chrys has been working hard on early plans for a linear park along Tyers Street. The steering group has started consultation, set up a website, commissioned early ideas, and created a video. We're now working to incorporate the plans into the overall masterplan for Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens.

Cotton Gardens 


The current ball game area, flanked by the Cotton Gardens Estate is to get a major facelift to transform it from a run down ball area, into a new safe and modern multi-sports space. It will benefit from new surfacing and multi purpose football and basketball goals and new fencing.


Additional adjacent space has also been earmarked for development into an environmentally friendly, green and sustainable playground haven for younger children. Newly installed play equipment and play features will be built using natural products. This was approved at the Planning Committee on 31 January.


Ballcourt next to Ward Point, Ethelred Estate

At the same time, work will also take place to raise the height of the fencing around the ball court next to Ward Point - an issue councillors have been raising since the ballcourt was installed a couple of years' ago.

Northern Line Extension Update

Transport for London have updated us on plans for the extension of the Northern Line, from Kennington to Battersea.

The main benefit of the NLE is that it will provide the necessary transport capacity for Battersea Power Station to be fully redeveloped. It will also provide a new station at Nine Elms (next to Sainsbury) which will take pressure off Vauxhall tube station.

The developer of Battersea Power Station had been leading the NLE project, but they went into administration at the end of last year, so TfL confirmed its intention to take forward the Northern line extension project to Transport Works Act Order (TWAO) stage. This is the legislation needed to start work on a major transport project.

A preferred bidder has been chosen for the development of the Battersea Power station site and TfL will be working with them to take forward plans for a proposed extension of the Northern Line.

The wider work necessary in advance of submitting a TWAO continues and this week TfL are updating residents and stakeholders on the progress of their plans. Over 40,000 households and businesses along the route of the proposed extension will receive a leaflet. This will be followed by further local consultations to refine some of the details of the scheme over the coming months with a final consultation on proposals planned for the Autumn.

To construct the NLE there will need to be a temporary construction shaft in the Radcot/ Stannary Street area, and permanent ventilation shafts on Kennington Green and Kennington Park. You can find out more, and view a detailed map of the plans, on TfL's website.

Updated: Licensing applications

There is a lot of licensing activity in our ward at the moment so we have updated our story from a couple of weeks' ago.

Full details of current alcohol and sex licence applications are on Lambeth's website.

Please read our guide to licensing before making a representation. If you'd like advice from your councillors, please don't hesitate to email us.


Superway Express - Shop 344 Kennington Lane London

Trading Standard request for review of the licence due to
- underage sales
- selling of single cans, risking encouraging street drinking
- employing staff illegally
- confusion over identity of designated premises superviser

Representations will be disregarded if they are deemed to be vexatious, frivolous, or irrelevant, or if they are received later than the 25 July 2012

Please direct any queries in respect of this application to the following case officer:
Pamela Riley
Telephone: 020 7926 6164
Email: PRiley@lambeth.gov.uk

UK Black Pride
Kennington Park
18 August 2012

Activities/times requested for this event:

Live Music
Saturday 14:00 - 20:00

Recorded Music
Saturday 12:30 - 20:30

Performances of Dance
Saturday 17:00 - 18:00

Provision of Facilities for Dancing
Saturday 12:30 - 18:30

Supply of Alcohol
Saturday 12:30 - 20:00

Representations will be disregarded if they are deemed to be vexatious, frivolous, or irrelevant, or if they are received later than the 16 July 2012

Please direct any queries in respect of this application to the following case officer:
Esther Jones
Telephone: 020 7926 6144
Email: EFJones@lambeth.gov.uk


Nigerian Carnival UK
Kennington Park
20 October 2012

Activities/times requested:

Films
Saturday 12:00 - 17:00

Live Music
Saturday 12:00 - 18:00

Recorded Music
Saturday 12:00 - 18:00

Performances of Dance
Saturday 12:00 - 18:00

Entertainment Similar to Music/Dance
Saturday 12:00 - 18:00

Provision of Facilities for Dancing
Saturday 12:00 - 18:00

Representations will be disregarded if they are deemed to be vexatious, frivolous, or irrelevant, or if they are received later than the 26 July 2012

Please direct any queries in respect of this application to the following case officer:
Esther Jones
Telephone: 020 7926 6144
Email: EFJones@lambeth.gov.uk


Sex Establishment Licences in Vauxhall

The Government changed the law two years ago to create a new sexual entertainment licence, that was separate from the previous licence regime. Lambeth did a consultation on the matter and has since adopted these rules. As a result any venue offering such entertainment needs to apply for a new licence.

Most of the press on this subject relates to men paying women to strip, but this is not what is going to happen in Vauxhall. In fact, the position will be that the activities in the clubs will continue as they always have done. They do not intend pay people to strip. We have included some explanations from the clubs concerned.


Bar Code, Arch 69, Goding Street, London, SE11 5AW

New activities/times requested:

Sex Cinema
Monday - Sunday 00:00 - 00:00

Sexual Entertainment Venue
Monday - Sunday 00:00 - 00:00

Sex Shop
Monday - Sunday 00:00 - 00:00

Representations will be disregarded if they are received later than the 15 July 2012.

Please direct any queries in respect of this application to the following case officer:
Esther Jones
Telephone: 020 7926 6144 

Email: EFJones@lambeth.gov.uk

From the owner of Barcode:

The position is that we are not applying for anything new as what we are requesting was already a part of our licence until it was separated out by the local authority.

We are not a going to be offering any new or different entertainment because of this licence. This application is being made to keep our licences concurrent and so we can, if we wish form time to time have male Go-Go dancers performing without having to make special applications for such shows as well as being able to possibly host an amateur strip event from time to time.

There will be no exploitation of performers nor will anyone 'paid to strip'.


Covert, Arch 65, Goding Street, London, SE11 5AW

New activities/times requested:

Sex Cinema
Monday - Sunday 00:00 - 00:00

Sexual Entertainment Venue
Monday - Sunday 00:00 - 00:00

Sex Shop
Monday - Sunday 00:00 - 00:00

Representations will be disregarded if they are received later than the 15 July 2012.

Please direct any queries in respect of this application to the following case officer:
Esther Jones
Telephone: 020 7926 6144
Email: EFJones@lambeth.gov.uk


From the owner of Covert:

HRH Clubs Limited, the owners and operators of Fire Nightclub, Area Nightclub and Covert Nightclub, pride themselves on offering their customers an enjoyable, safe and well managed entertainment service. We value our customer input and also value the views of the local community. For this reason we wish to clarify the reasons that we have applied for the Sexual Establishment Licences.

New legislation was passed by Parliament meaning that any venue that wished to provide nude or striptease entertainment require a Sex Establishment Licence. Premises also showing adult R18 films also require a Licence. The regime provides numerous safeguards to ensure this type of entertainment is provided in a safe, proper, legitimate and controlled manner. We have historically provided ancillary entertainment at our venues that falls into these categories and have done so without complaint.

As a result of the new legislation, we are required to apply for the licences in order to continue to provide the entertainment that we offer at some of our events. The type of relevant entertainment we provide includes GoGo dancers, R18 or special shows. All this type of entertainment is ancillary to the primary nightclub use. There will be no change whatsoever to our current operation, we will not be opening a lap dancing club or similar, we simply wish to maintain the status quo and legitimately continue the ancillary entertainment we have previously provided for many years.


In Oval Ward Fire and the Eagle have also applied for Sex Establishment Licences.

Beaufoy Institute planning approval unlocks investment for our area

On Tuesday evening Lambeth's Planning Committee approved two applications for the Beaufoy Institute site, between Black Prince Road and Sancroft Street.

The first application was from Diamond Way Buddhism, who plan to restore the historic building and use it as a Buddhist community centre with accommodation, a cafe and a contemplation garden.

The second application was from Bellway Homes, who plan to build a residential building of 75 homes on the car park to the rear of the Beaufoy Institute site.

The approval of the schemes completes a agreement made with the Council which releases a disused site for development, provides £7.5 million to the Council to invest in vital capital works (schools, housing and pavements), provides £1.5 million to Beaufoy Trust so it can fund work to help young people get into work, and provides 75 much needed homes, 40% of which will be affordable.

Local councillors have also negotiated a £200 000 'community pot' for our area, funded by this sale and development. We'll be consulting with residents over the coming weeks to decide how the money should be spent for maximum benefit.

Councillor Stephen Morgan spoke in favour of the applications at the planning meeting, and all three ward councillors supported the project as the best deal possible for our area. The site has sat empty for years, and we are delighted that the Beaufoy is finally going to be brought back into use.

Brook Drive spared years of construction lorry misery

At a public meeting on Wednesday, attended by Councillor Mark Harrison, developers of the Elephant & Castle Leisure Centre site confirmed that they were no longer planning to send construction traffic down Brook Drive during the three year development.

Residents had been horrified to learn that dozens of lorries a day were to be routed down Brook Drive - a narrow residential street with parking on both sides, width restrictions, and Victorian housing which has suffered serious problems with subsidence. The proposals would have caused serious disruption to Cycle Super Highway 7.

The developers have now relented and proposed other options, which mostly involve routing traffic down Oswin Street, over the border in Southwark.

London Assembly Member Val Shawcross has promised to explore further options with the developers and Transport for London to see what can be done to avoid construction traffic going down any residential streets in the area.