Comment on Henley Homes' plans for Old Lilian Baylis

Henley Homes' planning application for the northern part of the Old Lilian Baylis site is now open for comments.

They plan to convert most of the old school buildings into residential properties, with a couple of new infill buildings. Several buildings to the west of the site will be demolished and replaced with new medium-rise blocks. These will not overshadow existing flats on Gibson Road like in previous plans. There will be a terrace of houses along Lollard Street. 40% of homes in the development will be affordable.

You can see all of the plans and comment on the application here.

Improvements to the Ethelred Estate underway

Improvements to the Ethelred Estate and surrounding area's roads and pavements are continuing.

The work is part of the Better Neighbourhoods Programme. This has been set up by Labour to improve areas in Lambeth which were previously neglected.

The extra money has been made available because Labour has managed Lambeth Council’s finances prudently. Reserves have been built up, and now there are extra resources which we have chosen to spend on environmental improvements.

The Ethelred Estate and its surroundings is one of six areas chosen to receive intensive work under the scheme. Too often in the past the Estate has been overlooked and neglected, and local councillors wanted to change this.

The improvements include
-new pavements for Black Prince Road, Lollard Street, and Old Paradise Street
-resurfacing of Gibson Road (pictured)
-resurfacing of the car parks outside Malam House and Michelson House
-resurfaced pavements around the estate
-10 new trees planted
-repaired walls around trees

Councillors are keeping a close eye on the work, have undertaken a walkabout of the estate with the contract manager, and have asked that some refinements to the work be made. Please do let us know if you have any concerns or suggestions about the work, or if you have suggestions for where the new trees should be planted.

Labour plans investment in estate roads

Mark pushes for road repairs

Mark Harrison, Labour's candidate for the Prince's ward by-election, has written to residents of several streets to explain how he is supporting plans to repair potholes and resurface streets.

Bowden Street (pictured) has a narrow pavement and the road surface is in a poor state. Mark is campaigning for the street to be redesigned and resurfaced.

Chester Way and Stannary Street both have appalling potholes, which are making driving a bumpy experience. Mark is arguing that these streets should be prioritised for resurfacing.

Finally, streets on the Ethelred Estate have been neglected for many years. Gibson Road and Marylee Way are in a particularly bad way. Mark wants to see investment from the Council in these estate roads.

The good news is that Labour has more than DOUBLED the council budget for road replacement. Labour can invest this money because it has fixed the financial mess that the Lib Dems left when they were booted out in 2006.

Mark commented 'this increased investment from Labour should help us fix our streets that have been neglected for so long'.

Do you want a road or pavement resurfaced?

Lambeth Council are currently preparing the next financial year’s list of roads and pavements to be resurfaced.

Despite strict inclusion rules, sometimes roads and pavements in need of attention are overlooked. This is usually if they are heavily used and have, therefore, deteriorated more quickly than expected on the basis of survey information.

As a result of this Councillor Steve Morgan is asking residents to nominate roads and pavements. He will then ensure that any hot spots the council has not picked up are given due consideration.

Please nominate roads and pavements for inclusion in the new programme by emailing Steve before 30 January 2009. Please note that not all roads and pavements nominated will automatically be included in the programme – all inclusions will be decided by an engineer’s assessment. Steve will circulate the final list of roads at the beginning of March 2009.

Prince's Labour Action Team have already nominated Gibson Road (pictured) which is in a terrible state - if you know of a road or pavement in a similar mess then get in touch!