Local trees being chopped down, inadequate recycling and extension of Kelly's pub licensing hours

Over the last week, I've received a number of emails from readers on a variety of hyper-local topics that don't quite warrant posts of their own, so here's a quick summary:

Firstly, one resident has noted that Lambeth Council are being rather heavy handed in their removal of trees in SE11.  I've been informed that two trees have already been culled from Chester Street / Denny Street.  I could only find one of them (or its remains, at any rate).  What a mess!







Alarmingly, another two trees are scheduled for removal shortly, and yet all of the trees that have been chopped (or are facing the chop) look healthy.  Here are the two concerned (left on Denny Street and right on Chester Street):





The resident in question has contacted the council, but wanted me to publicise the danger that the trigger-happy council pose to the trees.  A visit this evening yielded more info on  the tree on Chester Way and it seems that some of the residents are protesting the cull:






















The poster on the left points out that it would take two decades to grow another cherry tree, and adds that the tree is being destroyed on the basis that the trees roots are exposed and it therefore may form a danger.  Is this not a "Health & Safety gone mad" blooper of the year?  The poster designer has instead suggested that it would be better to raise the pavement than destroy the tree.  Hear, hear!

This is probably a question for the Princes Ward councillors, but it would be good to receive clarification about the reasons for the tree removal. Perhaps additional residents need to act to prevent the removal of established trees if the only reason for cutting them down is exposed roots.  The tree on Denny Street doesn't contain an explanation about why it's facing the chop:

This issue probably should  be drawn to the attention of the Kennington Association, as there may well be other local trees that Lambeth wish to cut down, and residents deserve some prior warning or explanation in order to protest if necessary.

Secondly, one reader has noted that I've previously praised Lambeth Council's recycling procedures and good performance in the area of recycling.  The correspondent begs to differ and is unhappy with the frequency which which the one bin on his block is emptied.  (Recycling collections generally take place weekly in Lambeth).  The reader has attempted to get his block's bin emptied more frequently, but has had no success.  Cllr Jack Hopkins (so I'm assuming this refers to Oval Ward) did respond to one email from the correspondent, but subsequent emails on the matter have not received a response.  Does anybody else on local estates in the area suffer from the same issue?  I know that many estates suffer from people using recycling bins as rubbish bins (I'm unclear if this is lack of understanding of policy or willful misuse), but are there a dearth of recycling bins in the Borough, particularly given the size of some local estates?  It would be good to draw this to the attention of the Council if it's a wider problem.

Lastly, one reader wanted to highlight their objection to a request made by Kelly's Pub (in Clapham Road) to extend their opening hours to 5am from Thursday to Sunday.  I don't intend to go into detail here (suffice to say that the request seems wholly unreasonable), since Jason Cobb has covered that patch of SW8 adequately on his Onionbag blog in a post here and another here.  Do remember to submit objections since the Council won't hear residents' voices otherwise.

Olympic swimming pool opens in Kennington

Ha ha!

Thanks to Mr Onionbag for flagging to my attention the fact that because Lambeth doesn't currently offer any indoor swimming pool facilities (other than Brixton), the Council have decided to open one in Kennington. I hear you excitedly clammering and exclaiming "where, where?". You'll want to don your swimming gear and head for the former Lilian Baylis School, and go for a dip. All of those people who google this blog for keywords like kennington gym, gay gym and swimming pool in Kennington will now finally be satisfied. It is /such/ good news indeed that it has made it on to the front page of Lambeth Life, right alongside the clamp down on prostitution...

[I ought probably to mention that the pool is only 12m long. This will be a relief for those who have yet to earn their 10m swimming badge. But it's only fair of me to warn you before you get your swimming trunks on... Just make sure there's nobody else in there first :) ]

See, this is another reason why SE11 is a fabulous and spiffy place to live. It seems we have our own swimming pool.

Mr Onion Bag goes into the red

Congratulations to Mr Onion Bag, on his employment by Lambeth Council. The OBB displays a slightly scary legal warning, requesting that people remove any links on their blogs that might have linked to any views on his blog in which he might have mentioned Lambeth Council. He has self-censored all of his prior views about Lambeth Council (which is a shame) and now, presumably, will only continue to report on sport or local matters not relating to the council. It does beg the question about what happens if somebody has blogged about his former views on the Council, but has since died or can't be contacted to remove reference to the views. Also, I'm not sure what happens to the Way Back Machine web archive, or the archive that is now being kept by The British Library, but I presume one can force deleted pages not to appear. What more can I say about the quieting of this local blogger? Kudos to Lambeth council for employing their public relations nuisance most vocal local tweeter. What would anybody do in today's economic climate were they Mr Onion Bag? I guess we all have to eat.

Since I don't work for Lambeth/Southwark councils or any political party related to the current administration (or any political party) and don't plan on standing as a councillor in any election any time soon, I can say whatever I like about the council (presumably, within reason). Interestingly, if I say anything inaccurate about the Council, I might face censure (or worse) by Mr Onion Bag in his new role as Lambeth Council Web Policeman.

I will, however, continue to stick to the facts and post about the Council (only because it's still relatively entertaining). On a related note, I have sadly not received a response from Lambeth Council's new Green Community Champion Co-ordinator since I emailed her on 26/3/2009 about wormeries, composters and becoming a local green champion. I suppose she might not have settled into her role yet (or the email might have been eaten by Lambeth Council's computer system), so I'll give it a few more days.

In the meantime, I'm going to keep blogging about Lambeth Council in the hope I'm offered a job ;)