Lambeth Leaseholders vs Netball...

...a little tip-off...

Lambeth Leaseholders will be delighted to guess which Chief Executive (hint: the one paid over £100k to make sure Lambeth Living hits government targets to obtain Decent Homes money) considers playing a game of netball to be more important than /staying/ for an entire meeting to hear the views of Lambeth residents views (and ensure their participation, which will help guarantee the money).

Go on... have a guess or three!

[Also, I have another huge Lambeth Council screwup to be released, but I'm waiting for a few details to be confirmed prior to putting it on the blog... Keep an eye out!]

Kurdish Community Centre - request for licence

It's quite useful to see the local Princes Ward planning requests on Labour's SE11 Action team blog since some of these would otherwise be missed.  The alert system I was using seems to have disbanded, making planning requests harder to track.

I normally wouldn't cover individual licensing planning applications because they're so small eg. Samsun Kebab shop requested one recently, and there are quite a few applications for tree pruning in the area, which don't have much impact and are rather dull to post about. However, one of my readers has asked me to comment further on the following (and I ought to declare an interest, since I don't live far away) .

It transpires that the Kurdish Cultural Centre on Stannary Street have requested a 7 day a week licence from 12 noon - 12 midnight for various functions eg. live music.  See here for more information. 

Were this building being used responsibly as a Community Centre, primarily by the Kurdish Centre, I might be tempted not to see any issue.  However, I'm told it's often used by loud church groups (on Sundays) as well as a whole variety of people in the evenings for various private parties, which often spill out into Stannary Street, and cause parking problems.  Many of the users would appear to be from the non SE11 community.

I don't know how much the Kurdish community would be using it at all, and I might ask whether it will exist primarily as a revenue stream, causing disturbance for local Stannary Street (and other) residents.  The Kurdish Communtiy Centre used to have a website, which I am now unable to locate (I believe it expired), and last time I had reason to make an enquiry there, I was informed that there had been a large internal dispute.  I'd be delighted to hear from anybody working for or at the Community Centre about the services they currently provide.

I am curious about whether the Kurdish Centre requires an alcohol licence when Wikipedia suggests that the majority of Kurds are Sunni Muslims.  It's legitimate, certainly to want to hire the hall out to other groups even if one personally does not drink.  But to request a 7 day a week alcohol licence until midnight every day seems questionable in a somewhat residential area.  I think that maybe a Friday - Sunday licence from 12:00 to 22:00 would cause less disturbance and would mean the hall could still be hired out to a variety of patrons.

Are there any local residents groups who might take this up?  I think there is a Heart of Kennington friends group, but if anybody knows who is on it, perhaps it might be flagged up.

Tree of Hope - Turning on Ceremony

Tonight, the Tree of Hope (just outside St Anselm's Church) will be officially switched on by Kate Hoey from 6.30pm and there will be food and entertainment.  You might have seen the Tree of Hope already in Kennington Cross (it has small blue lights).  


The Tree of Hope project has been spearheaded by the Kennington Association and funds have been raised from various Association events over the past few years.   Alex Mulumba's violent death in 2006 prompted the idea for the Tree of Hope, but it has taken some time and the overcoming of practical difficulties to raise funds and install the lights!


Well Done to everybody involved, and hopefully, there'll be many locals present tonight!

216 Kennington Road (again)

Sorry everyone, but yet again, there is another planning application on 216 Kennington Road, SE11...

In August and September, I blogged that the application to change the use of the basement portion of 216 Kennington Road (old cinema) from D1 to commercial was refused. Prior to that, in May, I blogged that I oppose a bid by a large commercial retailer. Many residents heard on the grapevine that Gallagher are representing Tesco, who are behind the request. So, you'll be unsurprised to learn, if you've not already read it somewhere else, that another planning request has been made.

The planning request is on Lambeth Planning Database here where you can submit comments.

There are a various local voices that say that since the ground floor of the building was originally set aside for community use (this was sadly a missed opportunity), it should be used for such. The problem is that no tenant has been found (but then, I think it has been "off the market" for some time now, due to the Gallagher/Tesco planning application bombardment.

There is another body of people who have suggested it would be better to have a retailer occupy the space than nobody at all, but I do wonder why it has to be Tesco. For my very long blog moan about our local Tesco, see my post from June (and photos of empty shelves) at Trouble at the Big Gay Tesco in Kennington. The page is still getting large numbers of hits, and regular comments, and indeed a defence from somebody who (presumably) works there, alleging staff cuts. With such poor service from the brand at the moment, I hardly think we should be encouraged to support another store in the vicinity.

It all raises the question of how often any company can continually submit planning applications to the local authority, without the authority opening a debate about change of use of buildings (or new developments) to local residents.

Lambeth Mental Health and Well Being

I've received an email from the Kennington Oval Vauxhall forum re. various events taking place in Lambeth to mark good mental health and well being.

If you're interested, here are the dates and times:

1) Launch of 'Wellbeing and Happiness in Lambeth'

5-7pm, Friday, 13 November

Lambeth First will be launching “Wellbeing and happiness in Lambeth: The Lambeth Mental Wellbeing Programme 2009 -12” at Lambeth Academy, Elms Road, SW4 9ET (near Clapham Common tube station). Rsvp by November 6th to Patricia Sauer on 020 8769 2041 or email patricia@sauerfamily.com


2) Brixton Reel Film Festival

Wednesday 11 November - Thursday 12 November

A free movie celebration of wellbeing presented by NHS Lambeth and Fanon Southside Partnership in support of the Time to Change campaign. Screenings of 'The Soloist' and 'Burning an Illusion' followed by Q and A with director Menelik Shabazz.


3) Springforward Spectacular

1-6pm, Saturday, 14 November

At Lambeth Academy. A free afternoon of creative performances and workshops to promote the benefits of arts and creativity on wellbeing.

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I'm afraid I'm a bit late with the first one, but you could always email to see if there are any spaces left. As usual, none of the events are in Kennington, but it's not too far down to Brixton or Clapham on the Northern line or by bus.

Shooting in Kennington, SE17 of Daniel Duke

There was a shooting on November 2nd in Kennington in Alberta Street / Ambergate Street

London-SE1 has little more info, and names the man as Daniel Duke.

Just returned home from sunny trip away to discover the sad news :(

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Edit 7/11/2009: Stockwell News links to a BBC report that says a man has been arrested re. the above murder.