Council tax - good news

I've been a bit lax of late, about updating this blog. There are a number of local events taking place, and much information is available elsewhere through, for example, the Kennington Association news blog, and also on Stockwell News, but I'll keep trying to highlight events from time to time as well...

One of the first things worth commenting on this year is the council tax freeze. I think it's worth saying "yay" about the fact that Lambeth council have frozen council tax for the next two years. Info gained from the Labour Councillors' Princes Ward blog, SE11 Action team, here.

On the other hand, are we impressed by the scale or depth of detail re. the consultation over 81 Black Prince (I went into further detail about this in my last post here)? No. We're not the slightest bit impressed to receive only two days notice that there is to be a meeting with the developers about 81 Black Prince Road, organised by the Council. Whilst it appears that their blog was updated on January 22nd to inform the public about the meeting, it appears that many of the interested parties did not receive an email until January 27th.

So... The meeting about 81 Black Prince Road is tonight from 5pm to 8pm at the 81 Black Prince Road site. The postcode for the site is SE1 7SZ.

Fog - Coffee morning - nasty tall building

Everything seems rather quiet at the moment in SE11. A long, dark fog descended last night making views towards the river disappear. The Tesco in Vauxhall / Kennington still appears to contain a large amount of unbought Christmas food. Quite a number of formerly occupied shops in Kennington Road are sadly empty. The dark evenings have prevented me from taking interesting photographs of the area, which was part of the intention for this blog. When I get home in the evening, it's already dark! Bring on the summer...

Oh yes, and looming large and long on the horizon is a nasty planning application for a building on 81 Black Prince Road. Now I really am not opposed to new developments. I'm actively in favour of new houses, flats, commercial property when built in an appropriate style. What I really dislike though is huge buildings, of no particular merit that do not fit the surrounds, which in all respects describes the proposed development on Black Prince Road. Quite why anybody thinks a 23 storey building appropriate for that location is a mystery to me. If you want to see the planning application, click here. I do have a vested interest, in that I might lose some views from where I currently as a result of the building (I could just move!), but I'm not too keen on the new 43 storey Strata building in Elephant and Castle either. I just do not like very tall buildings in locations other than Canary Wharf. Anyhow, if you might be affected by 81 Black Prince Road, and want to object, you can do so online using the link above.

I'm going to try and attend the Prince's Ward Councillors coffee morning on 17th January in case there are some interesting SE11 people or issues to discuss, and I'll report back on Prince's Ward news. I think it's quite novel, trying to meet people In Real Life (IRL), rather than doing an internet thing. But then people are always reminding me that not everybody that needs to access a councillor either owns a computer or would be capable of using one.