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.

Photos from the Cottington Community Garden

These photos were taken a couple of weeks ago in the Cottington Community Garden, which is going from strength to strength. They will be having further open days over the summer so keep an eye out and get involved if you can!

Cottington Community Garden orchard planting

The residents behind the Cottington Community Garden will be planting an orchard on Sunday 23 January 2011 from 10.30am.

All are welcome!

Open Day at the Cottington Community Garden

Residents of the Cottington Close Estate have been working hard over the past year to create a community garden on their estate.

Why not go along to their open day on Saturday 25 September, 11am-4pm?

There will be stalls and activities, and teh chance to get involved in what is a fantastic project.

Cottington Community Garden big tidy up!

Residents of the Cottington Close Estate will be leading a second day of work on their new community garden - tidying, weeding, pruning, planting and painting.

Lambeth Council is lending a hand as part of Labour's 'Community Freshview' scheme, where community groups are given the tools and assistance they need to lead a clean-up themselves.

Come and help out from 10am on Saturday 19 June!

Strawberry planting

Children, parents, and grandparents are invited to a special strawberry planting session, taking place in the Lambeth High Street park.

The session is organised by the Garden Museum and the Whitgift residents association.

It will take on 30 March, from 2pm to 4pm.

Community garden for Sugden boiler site?

A group of local residents have begun investigating the possibility of setting up a community garden on a derelict site at the corner of Lambeth Walk and Old Paradise Street.

The site has been empty since the demolition of Sugden House nearly a decade ago. The awkwardly shaped site surrounds the main boiler for the Ethelred Estate, making development difficult. Two applications for housing development have been turned down in previous years, being too large and unsuitable for the site.

Now local residents Trevor, Rachael and Mark have begun to investigate whether a community garden can be set up, at least temporarily. An initial survey of neighbouring residents shows that reaction was overwhelmingly positive. The process may take some time, but hopefully the transformation of this neglected site may be a bit closer!

If you'd like to offer your support for the project, or get involved, please email boilerhouseproject@metronet.co.uk