Beaufoy Building sold to Diamond Way Buddhism and Bellway Homes

Lambeth Council announced yesterday that a charity named Diamond Way Buddhism have exchanged contracts (not completed) with The Beaufoy Trust to purchase the Beaufoy Building and the land surrounding it on Black Prince Road.  Interestingly, at the KOV meeting yesterday, Diamond Way implied that they'd only recently been involved in the purchase and weren't involved in the earlier bidding process...  That might be worth digging deeper on.

Lambeth Council also owned the car park surrounding the Beaufoy, and contracts on this have been exchanged with Bellway Homes with plans for a residential development. 

Completion on both pieces of land will take place once planning permission has been obtained for both planned schemes.  The sale of the entire site is said to have generated £9 million, of which £7.5 will be awarded to Lambeth Council and £1.5 million to the Beaufoy Trust.  £200,000 has been earmarked for the local community, and the three ward councillors, with community input, will apparently be making the decisions about what the money should be spent on.

Diamond Way Buddhism plan to use the Beaufoy as a community facility, place of meditation/education (though not as a school) and residential accommodation. Ordinarily, they would run meditation sessions most evenings and sometimes debates.  Diamond plan a non commercial cafe for the building.  They will move in and begin work on the building and plan to open the building for tours as soon as it is safely possible.

At last night's KOV meeting, Diamond Way acknowledged that their centre would bring the total Buddhist centres in the area to three (the others are Jamyang on Renfrew Road and Kagyu Samye Dzong on Manor Place), which will make Kennington and surrounds a potential Buddhist hub.  Diamond are apparently similar to Jamyang, but differ in that Diamond are a lay organisation.  They've about 150 members in the UK, but are more popular abroad.  As soon as the news was announced, I received an email with a link through to here asking whether Diamond Way Buddhism was a cult...  Slightly worrying, but if you're concerned you can read one person's blog on the matter here and I found a somewhat wider debate over here which may not mean anything to people unless they've some idea of how Buddhism operates.

Bellway Homes plan to build 79 flats in the car park area, down from an originally proposed 89.  40% of the Bellway flats will be affordable housing, which entirely meets Lambeth's target.  As per last night's KOV meeting, they're also hoping to invest in a nearby playground.

Take a look at the diagrams from last night's meeting, if you didn't manage to make it there yourself. 

Please note that on the plan below, the grey building referred to as "Lilian Baylis Secondary School" is actually the Beaufoy!

The following are the plans and sketches from the Buddhist centre:

I've had lots of kind emails asking whether I've disappeared, so just to clarify... This is one of an occasional post that I hope to make on Lurking about SE11.  I'm not planning to blog in the same detail that I was before, but neither am I inclined to close the blog.  I've stepped back from Lurking because I feel that part of the reason that I set up the blog (to try and encourage online conversations to move offline) has not been entirely successful.  I plan to remain involved in local organisations and stay in touch with some of the fantastic people I've met, but I think it's vital to spend more time offline than online and to work on the other projects.

Campaign to remove Vauxhall gyratory and Lambeth commits to 40% social housing in Vauxhall Nine Elms Area (Part 1)

The main part of the April KOV meeting concerned the future of the Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea Opportunity Area and plans for a Community Forum to work with Lambeth Council and other VNEB partners.

Cllr Mark Harrison (Princes Ward) spoke first by announcing his appointment on the VNEB Strategy Board to represent Lambeth Councillors. Cllr Harrison remarked positively, “We don't have a choice in the matter [of VNEB]; it will happen whether we like it or not”. The Strategy Board consists Wandsworth Council, Lambeth Council, the Mayor, TFL and the various landowners in Vauxhall, Nine Elms and Battersea.

For ease of reading, I've divided Cllr Harrison's remarks into several sub-headings, so you can just read the parts you're interested in...

New Lambeth Officers for VNEB

Cllr Harrison reflected that, for the last few years, Lambeth Council had neglected VNEB and left it to Planning Officers. Lambeth have now appointed an executive director (Sue Foster) and a new officer (Sandra Roebuck) to focus on VNEB issues. The project, Cllr Harrison noted, should now gain strategic direction and focus upon Lambeth's regeneration.

Community Forum

Back in January 2011, local residents were invited to an initial meeting on establishing a VNEB Community Forum for Lambeth. Since then, Cllr Harrison noted that there had been a lull at Lambeth as the project was transferred from Planning to Regeneration. Lambeth Council hope that Kennington, Oval, Vauxhall (KOV) forum and Stockwell Partnership will work with Lambeth on community engagement. Indeed, the Community Forum will meet again in May [it was unclear whether this is high level members from KOV/Stockwell or all residents] to discuss a community engagement proposal from the Stockwell partnership, and be provided with an update from the Strategy Board.

VNEB Consultations Soon to Launch

Consultations are about to begin, one from TFL on the Northern Line Extension (9^th May), and one by Lambeth Council on the finalisation of Vauxhall's Supplementary Planning document.

VNEB Strategy Board transparency

Cllr Harrison remarked that he had persuaded the Strategy Board to publish all of their papers online (very good news!) so that residents can access information and the discussions will not exclude them.

Northern Line Extension Funding Paper

Cllr Harrison observed that the Northern Line Extension is pushing forward... An audience member interjected that the NLE represented a disadvantageous “split” on account of having to change lines, rather than an “extension”. [Actually, most trains on the Charing Cross branch seem to effectively terminate at Kennington at present any way.] Cllr Mark Harrison argued valiantly that the NLE was an advantage on the basis of increased train frequency, and reiterated, “It will happen whether we like it or not”. According to Cllr Harrison, a NLE paper has been commissioned on alternative funding options to Section 106 contributions. One idea is for tax incremental funding so that future business rates in Wandsworth could be used to pay for the NLE.

VNEB rebranding
More controversially (KOV audience members were in uproar), a branding exercise for the area has been commissioned at the behest of Wandsworth landowners. The Vauxhall Nine Elms Opportunity Area is felt to be a terrible phrase, so they want a better way of describing the area. Lambeth Council have made it that they will not be tied into its recommendations. Cllr Harrison felt that any branding produced would need to be acceptable to existing communities, which already have strong identities and histories, and cannot just be rebranded.

Social housing

Since the last strategy board, the Homes and Communities agency (social/affordable housing) has become involved in the scheme. The HCA will work out what government policy will mean for VNEB and enable Lambeth to deliver social and affordable housing. Cllr Harrison stated forcefully, “Lambeth is fully committed to 40% affordable housing target in all developments.” [The DIFs study says Lambeth is committed to 15%, but more of that in a future post.]

Future of Vauxhall Gyratory and Public Realm

Finally, the public realm working group chaired by Lambeth is under way. It will focus on improving Vauxhall Cross and “hopefully” removing the gyratory system as well as ensuring the Linear Park is a decent width and size. Lambeth Councillors have met separately about options for Vauxhall Cross gyratory. Cllr Harrison stated 3 options; “do nothing”, “do something”, and “remove the gyratory all together”. TFL have apparently put together a “do something” proposal [not one that residents are privy to, so that's something to request]. The councillors found it “quite impressive”, with plans to narrow roads, widen pavements, add pedestrian crossings, and improve public realm with trees etc. Cllr Harrison slightly hedged his bets saying that he thought [the TFL plan] “would make a big difference,” but then noted, “we're still going to push hard for removing the gyratory altogether.” The local councillors think that there will need to be a fundamental shift from Vauxhall being a motor vehicle junction to being a public space that prioritises people, bikes and buses. Cllr Harrison then admitted, “The Northern Line Extension doesn't particularly benefit Lambeth so at the Strategy Board level, we need to say, “you're [Wandsworth] getting your Northern line, we need Vauxhall Cross transformed”.

I hope to get Part 2 of this post written this evening; an update from Maureen Johnson (KOV Chair) and questions from the floor.

Also, there's a lot more local news to publish, but I'm currently on a short break so it will happen a little more gradually than usual!

Sainsbury's Towers Consultation

I popped along to the Waterloo Community Development Group meeting about the proposed Sainsbury's Towers this evening.  I'm not sure I learned very much other than what was already made public at the previous exhibition last November.

My only new piece of information is that unfortunately, the main bit of green space in the development will not be public, and will only be accessible to residents.  So, we're looking at more concrete, and space for a market.  It probably needs more thought in light of the Bondway decision, but this is just a quick post to alert you to the next consultation to be held on the 4th and 5th of March.  I don't have time or place yet, but will update when I do.

Nine Elms Sainsbury's Towers Exhibition Debrief - photos, diagrams and comments

Righty ho.  Here's what you've all been waiting for...  The Sainsbury's Towers exhibition was held quite prominently in the car park, and I've had a look at their plans, and am quite keen on the proposals (except for  the probably inevitable high rise towers).

The plan is to demolish the current (rather ugly) Sainsburys, so that instead of floating in the middle of nowhere, it will front on to the Wandsworth Road.  The new building will be glass fronted and the size of the floor plan will be increased so that it will be the largest Sainsbury's in London, at 80,000 square feet (from its current 45,000 square feet).  The store will presumably become an uber-large Sainsbury's Extra Extra and will thus be able to stock a wider range of goods.

This is part of a project that would see the creation of 800 new flats that would be developed on top of the new Sainsbury's building and across the entire site, with three tall towers (18 metres, 25 metres and 35 metres) on the triangular corners of the edges.

In the meantime, whilst the demolition is undertaken, a temporary store will be erected upon the site of the petrol station.  Oval News have quoted this as being 15,000 square feet, but I was told that the temporary store would be 20,000 feet.  Whilst it won't be tiny, it's only going to be about a third of the size of the existing store.  If you don't do your shopping online, now is the time to start!  (Unless, of course, you wish to subject yourself to the dire Kennington Tesco.)  It's alleged to have been improved, but, well, never mind.  I'm getting off topic.

The petrol station will no longer be on site, but Sainsbury's are hoping to house it in the now disused Esso station at 54 Wandsworth Road.

At present, there is a 300 space car park on site, but the new Sainsburys should have approx. 400 spaces (all subject to agreement with Lambeth etc.) because of the increased capacity of the store.  The car park will go underground (a great idea, since it's a waste of land), and there will be some bike parking too (numbers of bike stands unknown).  At least, that's what I was told.  The Sainsbury's website states that there are currently 450 car parking spaces on site and since the chaps definitely hoped to increase the size of the car park, I can only think a mistake has been made somewhere!

Sainsbury's hope to submit their planning application to Lambeth in March 2011, with the completed store (if application is accepted) to be opened by 2014.  The residential property (all to be built on top of the new store) will follow on in the five years after 2014.  The Sainsbury's redevelopment is /not/ dependent on the new Nine Elms tube eg. there's thought to still be capacity at Vauxhall, despite the size of this development.

The exhibition comprised the following 7 boards:

The "out of town" style Nine Elms Sainsbury's will be modified and other shops and businesses will share the site:

Additional retail space will create 150 new jobs.  On the top left of this board, you can see the proposed Nine Elms tube station.  Also, this site will open up Wandsworth Road as far back as the railway arch, and make it easier for pedestrians to access the river.  This would be a considerable improvement, since currently, the Sainsbury's just appears to float in the middle of a piece of wasteland.  It seems likely that the footpaths will be improved to access New Covent Garden market, although the boards don't quite go that far.

The proposal for an "explore learning" centre for the use of children, over and above school education, is imaginative, although I did hear one older person complaining that nothing is put in place for older people in the borough.

Sainsbury's say that they are "open" to having the "Nine Elms" tube station placed on their land (ambitious, considering the £280 million funding shortfall for the Northern line extension), but will only allow this if their redevelopment plans are approved by Lambeth.  Considering the redevelopment to take place in the rest of the area, I can't quite see why this aggressive stance needs to be taken.  The Sainsbury's plans would actually help link retail, small businesses and residential land, whilst considerably opening up the area for pedestrians:

This board might be a subtle way of hinting  that, despite the creation of a new public square, the new flats will not have any green space except for huge roof gardens above the store (about 6 storeys up).  I wondered whether these would be suitable for children, but I was told that the edges would be protected.  I'm not too sure what the large purple blobs on the upper right diagram here represent, so would be delighted to hear from anybody that asked:

The new Sainsbury's store itself will mostly be on the first floor, so that the ground floor is opened for new businesses.  There will also be a mezzanine level which will contain a cafe and non-food items.  I actually think that the proposed mockup of the store here is inoffensive, but rather bland and non-descript.  I'm told that these are the initial drawings, and that further detail will be available at the time of a second consultation in February 2011 (or thereabouts).  I hope that the next drawings might be a little more imaginative than to depict a large glass front with giant grey boxes on the top!  Still, nearly anything would be an improvement on the current design!:

750 - 800 new flats will be constructed, ranging from 1 bedroom to 3 bedroom properties.  The amount of affordable housing has still to be negotiated with Lambeth Council who will set targets.  I asked whether that info. would be available by the second consultation, but apparently, that bit comes much later.  The number of affordable flats are only specified once the Council have analysed the plans and calculated the square footage/value of the properties.  Once that has happened, a formula is followed which tells the developers the targets they have to meet and once the targets have been given, the negotiation takes place:  

On this diagram, I've zoomed in to one of the boards and drawn on the heights of the proposed buildings (which are still, in the eloquent words of the PR company, "up for grabs") and also shown Vauxhall Sky Gardens in the bottom right corner:

I like this board.  I think it might be my favourite planning board of all time.  Here we see that Sainsbury's really don't want to build very high, but are merely following the will of Lambeth council and the GLA, who have requested "intensification".  Lambeth, we're told, simply wouldn't support the development if Sainsbury's didn't propose building really really high!  Ha!  Consequently, the tallest Sainsbury's tower comes in at only 35 floors, whereas Vauxhall Sky Gardens (permission already granted by Lambeth) is a whopping one floor higher (36 floors).  I'm not sure that suggesting it will be shorter than Vauxhall Sky Gardens is any great boast!  By comparison, Strata (Elephant and Castle) is 43 storeys:

This board is a summary of the above:

You can submit your comments by email to sainsburysnineelms@fourcommunications.com or telephone 0870 066 8734 or just visit their website and submit the form on this page.  The Sainsbury's Nine Elms website is now live and displays some of the diagrams from the boards above.

Other than the 35 storey tower, which I'm not impressed by (you all know that I dislike tall buildings), I think the Sainsbury's plan is exciting.  I like the idea of developing the site so that there's space for additional retail units.  It would be great if these could be low-rent and accessible to small independent businesses, but that may be too much to hope for. Also, I favour using the site to open up the railway arches from Wandsworth Road to the river.  I'm hoping that the Sainsbury's might offer a gateway through to the New Covent Garden market as well.

Number of Lambeth residents affected by government's new housing cap

Back in June, I asked how many Lambeth residents would be affected by the rate cap introduced by George Osborne in the June 2010 budget.  I speculated that Lambeth would likely be affected by additional accommodation-seeking in-comers who could no longer afford Westerminster or Kensington and Chelsea.  I predicted that there would not be a mass exodus of families who received benefit over and above the new housing caps, but I was unsure, so I submitted a Freedom of Information request here.

And now the data is in... In Week 15 of 2010/2011, Lambeth were renting 24,378 properties to members of the public.  This figure does not include properties rented by tenants from private landlords paid for with housing benefits.

The number of Lambeth council households who are renting property from Lambeth Council or an affiliated Housing association or who are private tenants who claim Housing benefit over the amount of the George Osborne cap are as follows:

94 properties for 0-1 bedrooms where rent over £230
12 properties for 2 bedrooms where rent over £290
5 properties for 3 bedrooms over £340
39 properties for 4 bedrooms where rent over £400

That totals 150 households. Unfortunately, I can't provide a percentage of total Lambeth households affected because the figures for the rent exceeding the new cap include households renting privately from non-Lambeth landlords, but Lambeth haven't provided me with the number of households renting privately, only those who rent public housing. In any case, presuming that the 150 includes everybody renting privately (which has been confirmed to me in correspondence following the Freedom of Information request), it seems that the numbers of Lambeth residents affected by the cap are extremely low, which is good news. (I'm assuming that some of the people that receive more than the cap will be on the cusp eg. receiving £235 per week for a 0-1 bedroom property).

The Budget 2010 by George Osborne (Will Lambeth face an influx of house hunters?)

I was going to write a post two days ago about the budget, and how it would affect folks in SE11.  And then I realised, it wouldn't, at least not in the way I had first envisaged.  The effects of certain changes are likely to be very subtle.

Obviously, we'll all be hit by the rise in VAT to 20%.  Although it's worth noting that the charity, Save the Children, say "Poor families currently spend more of their disposable income on VAT than richer families, with the poorest 10% spending 14% versus 5% for the richest." so we won't all be hit in the same way.  But in general, the cost of household goods will rise.

My real concern was related to social housing in Lambeth.  The Local Housing Allowance is due to be capped (from 2011) so that those who rent one bedroom properties can claim a maxiumum of £230 per week and those that rent four (or more) bedroom properties can claim a maximum of £400.  I wondered whether there'd by a mass exodus from Lambeth as single people and families could not afford to rent subsidised housing whilst claiming housing benefit.  I was going to write an article on how it would effectively push people out of Lambeth, but then I realised it probably wouldn't.

The scandal is that very few local authorities are able to build social housing to keep up with the demand.  Of course, that I describe it as a "scandal" is already to state a political view.  The question of social housing is one that will inevitably become more greatly politicised due to shortages, with many people asking why some families should receive council / housing authority subsidised housing, whilst others have to pay market rates.  But historically Lambeth has always had and built a huge amount of social housing.  It seems (I think) that the current problem relates to demand (ie. the council list currently stands at 20,000) and not the cost of housing.

A little research of the Lambeth properties on the council list (for those with enough points to be able to bid for them) reveals that even the larger properties in Brixton (4 beds) and Oval (5 beds) are only marketed by the council at £120.92 per week and £174.29 per week respectively.  Oval is in a more northern section of Lambeth (and I'm presuming that the northernmost properties will be more expensive than those elsewhere), so whilst I accept that the Guardian's Jenny Jones may be correct when she asserts "Lambeth families can get up to £430pw", I really do have to wonder whether they're not perhaps living in 9 bedroom houses somewhere.  I doubt there are that many of them in any case.  I also looked into one bedroom properties to see if the £230 cap would present a problem for local people, but even there, it seems it's possible to rent a 1 bedroom property in Lambeth, from the council, at between £90 per week and £137 per week.  Obviously, I might be missing something.  Perhaps the properties currently available are really cheap flats in a bad state of repair, but the website showed a geographical spread of 1 bedroom properties, so I doubt that that is genuinely the case. 

What I perhaps have not accounted for is the number of private landlords who let propeties at high rents whose tenants then claim their money back in housing benefit.  But many many landlords will not rent properties to housing benefit claimants (try telephoning a letting agent in Kennington and asking if they'll accept DSS) so I don't know how many landlords would fit into this bracket. In addition, the landlords who let through Lettings First (Lambeth Council's partnership with private landlords) are warned to expect significantly less rent than they'd receive on the private market.  But the question still stands.  Does private housing paid for by housing benefit represent a higher cost to the government than housing benefit to council tenants?  If so, by how much?  Mightn't there be a case for building more social housing in the first place?
The Guardian is suggesting that the government are trying to "export poverty" to the outer boroughs of London, but the political consequences of such a move are rather unknown.  It's alleged that Boris Johnson came to power as a result of voters in the outer boroughs being mobilised.  What would happen if traditional Labour supporters end up being cast out of inner London into the outer darkness of the outer boroughs (which are traditionally more blue)?  Nobody knows.

What is undoubtedly the case, and where I'm in greater agreement with the Guardian, is that there are other boroughs in London that do have people living in properties who likely claim housing benefit at above the new threshold limit.  (I'm guessing that there must be quite a number of such claimants in Westminster).  So the question arises about whether Lambeth won't in fact experience a mass exodus (the Guardian says people will be forced to outer and more eastern boroughs), but will experience something of an influx of house hunters?  I don't know how easy it is to swap a local authority property in one area (or move from a local authority housing waiting list) for a local authority property / housng waiting list in another area, but I'm sure we'll soon find out.

Housing Demo on May 30th

A few days ago, I made mention of a leaseholder demonstration, that was due to take place outside Brixton town hall on Saturday 30th May. I was sadly unable to attend (I'm not a leaseholder, and I was on a three line whip for household chores). However, one of my regular readers has kindly forwarded me a photograph taken at the event (many thanks!) so you can see what the SE11 (and other) protestors were up to.

Update 3/6/2009: There is an article and another photo (rather blurry) of the demonstration in the Streatham Guardian which does not feature the Lib Dem candidate so prominently.

I'd be grateful for any more photos in which participants don't all sport yellow ribbons.

Protest against Lambeth Council housing sell-off and service cuts

Having been made aware (from the vocal protests at recent hustings) of the ongoing injustice felt by many local residents on matters of social housing eg. cuts in service, rent rises, non-functioning CCTV and outrageous bills from contractors, one campaigner has forwarded me details of two local events that people living on the housing estates in SE11 might wish to attend, which I've posted below.

In addition, I hope to publish a guest post from somebody present at the John Bull Centre hustings who wishes to provide their own take about the goings on. If anybody else is interested in making a guest post, please let me know. I don't want to publish anything directly from candidates themselves, as this blog attempts to be critical, but non-party political. However, if you're involved locally in any way (or have been present at an event of note), and want to make your voice heard, drop me an email: lurkingaboutse11@googlemail.com and we can discuss the possibility of a guest post.

PROTEST MARCH
North Lambeth protesters - Meet at the bus stop outside Fantasy Laundrette in Kennington at 10.30am and we can travel together.

Protest against further cuts in services and the selling off of empty flats.
Saturday, May 30th, 2009
11am Brixton Town Hall


LEASEHOLDERS REPAYMENT OPTIONS FOR SERVICE CHARGES - NORTH LAMBETH AND STOCKWELL & VASSAL MEETING
7pm June 10th, 2009 Pedlars Acre Hall, Opal St, SE11 (behind the North
Lambeth Housing Office)

For matters concerning the extraordinary meeting of the North Lambeth
Leaseholders Forum to discuss the proposed repayment options, please
contact the North Lambeth Area Housing office and ask for Frank
Tamplin or Liam Kelly who can give you details of the meeting and
provide copies of the papers.

Question 1: Name three main policies for Princes Ward

Nine days ago (before we even knew who all the candidates in the Princes Ward by-election would be), I sent out a series of questions, to be answered by all Princes Ward Council candidates. The questions and answers are intended to help SE11 voters choose who to vote for by ensuring the candidates speak about their policies, rather than focusing on name calling campaigns.

I now have nearly all responses (English Democrat has promised his are to come) and now intend to publish the results one question at a time. Anything in square brackets or in bold, I've added to standarise the format of responses across the parties or as summaries. I've not changed any of the text that I was sent by email, but I've had to move certain answers across to different questions in order to keep the answers similar (I've indicated in all cases where I've made any adjustments, so tell me if you object). I'll probably save my personal comments for a post at a later stage as I want these questions to represent the candidates as best possible. I've put responses in alphabetical order, depending on the name of the party, and I've colour coded them for your ease:

Conservative = Michael Poole-Wilson = Blue
English Democrats = Janus Polenceus = Purple
Green Party = Joseph Healy = Green
Labour = Mark Harrison = Red
Lib Dem = John Roberts = Orange

Question 1:
Name the three main policies that you will make your platform for election in Prince's Ward, eg. crime/transport/street care/environment etc. and highlight the strategies that you intend to undertake to implement the policies. Do not mention any of the opposing political parties in your answer.

Michael Poole-Wilson:
A. [Housing] I will campaign for a reduction in social housing rents and better repair services, which can be achieved if housing is managed more efficiently, including contract management.

B. [Council Spending] I will campaign for a reduction in wasteful spending at the council. For example, I will fight to stop production of the propaganda paper "Lambeth Life" and seek to end 6 figure salaries and unjustified bonuses for council staff.

C. [Parking] I will oppose over-zealous parking enforcement and am in favour of a freeze on the cost of parking permits.


Janus Polenceus:
A. [Crime / anti-social behaviour] To tackle street crime we should look at putting more police on foot or even on bicycle on every street especially through out the night, as a kind of night watch. In my opinion CCTV cameras are not much help to our public's safety.

To avoid youngsters being encouraged to get involved into street crime there needs to be much more discipline in local schools to educate our young ones why things such as crime, violence, discrimination & bullying is wrong. If a teenager is proven of committing a crime or behaving wrong then the local authority has to have a closer disciplinary act on the teenager's parents. Bad behaviour often originates from bad parenting.

Anti-Social Behaviour: Often especially on Sunday afternoons in Spring Gardens at the back of the Royal Vauxhall Tavern pub there is a large number of homosexual couples that are lying on the grass and enjoying themselves in broad daylight. This is not a good example/view for our children and not everyone wants to watch such activity in public. These couples should learn to be discreet and do such flirtations/activities inside the gay bars in Vauxhall or at least out from the public eye.

B. [Environment] The should be more bins placed on each street to encourage people to drop their litter into a litter bin.

To make life easier for people who have dogs there should be more Dog Areas created on our greens such as in Spring Gardens, Pedlar's Park, Lambeth High Street Recreation Ground and Lambeth Walk Doorstep Green;

Also in these parks there should be more playground attractions for children and more sports exercise facilities for adults.

C. [Heritage] The English Democrats Party believe that there should be more focus on promoting local history, heritage & culture. For example in our ward there is what use to be our famous 'Lambeth Walk', there is even a famous song about this place. Now for the last few decades the Lambeth Walk has been more or less like a ghost town or simply just a regular neighbourhood housing estate. For The Lambeth Walk not to be forgotten what it once was there should be some sort of memorial museum on the street itself for the people to learn what was so special about this place/area that use to be a busy shopping high street filled with entertainment. The Lambeth Walk was famous for its Music Hall, shopping malls, pearly kings & queens and famous local people such as Charlie Chaplin who shopped and also lived inside the ward. There should also be events & walks to keep the spirit of The Lambeth Walk going, such as the music of the time and costumes like the pearly kings & queens outfits that people wore in them days. This should be researched by our local schools.
The Lambeth Walk is part of English & Lambethean heritage, history & culture.

Also we should acknowledge the fact that South London was in-fact Surrey County until 1963 before it was recognised as part of what is called Greater London, also as part of local history study. Local history is very important especially for the young ones to know more about where they come from and live.


Joseph Healy:
A. [Housing/Homeless] I am opposed to the privatisation of First Call emergency repairs service, concierge service and North Lambeth Cleaning to even though existing contractors do an unsatisfactory job for the Housing Dept. I want radical action on empty properties so that they can be used to house people as soon as possible.

B. [Schools /Hospitals] I also support free school meals for children and a push by the Local Authority committees and Lambeth NHS to ensure that the quality of food in local hospitals is improved and is locally sourced if possible and nutritious. The current quality of much hospital food is appalling and militates against a speedy recovery.

Mark Harrison:
A. [Crime] Tackling crime and anti-social behaviour
* Compulsory tagging for dangerous dogs on estates - there needs to be a focus from housing officers on this issue to ensure that all dogs being kept on estates are monitored and fitted with microchips to aid identification. I will press for greater resources for Lambeth's dog warden services, and continuing attention from the police on the issue.

* Guaranteed funding to get CCTV working again - With the Ethelred TMO Board I've been campaigning over the past year for the Council to pay the contractor to come back on site and get the system up and running. Pressure on Lambeth Living has resulted in the Chief Executive meeting the TMO and negotiations are ongoing. We're hopeful that continuing pressure will pay off. Other estates with CCTV that is broken should have its repair prioritised.

* Hit drug dealers and buyers with ASBOs that ban them from SE11 - it's totally within the Council's powers to issue ASBOs to individuals who are causing a nuisance by dealing or buying drugs. Labour is committed to using ASBOs as a useful tool for tackling anti-social behaviour.

* Support Labour's Safer Neighbourhood Police Team - Labour is committed to the Safer Neighbourhoods Teams because we set them up. A Labour Council will do everything in its power to support the Teams. As a ward councillor I will attend the meetings and ensure officers are fully aware of all the issues in the ward.#

B. [Youth / Community] Youth and community services
* Commitment to securing the old Lilian Baylis School site as a permanent community hub, with continued support for the Sports Action Zone and other community facilitiies.##

* Support for Labour's increased funding for youth services, luncheon clubs, street cleaning, trees, streets, children's services, and domestic violence prevention.

C. [Housing] Housing
* Work with Kate Hoey and councillors to lobby government to help reduce this year's rent increase
* Continue extensive work with residents' associations across the ward to help them in their battles to improve services from Lambeth Housing
* Campaign to radically improve customer service from Lambeth Housing
* Help the Vauxhall Five Estate win its new windows and balconies
* Help get the Ethelred's CCTV and security doors working

The # and ## symbols indicate footnotes in which Mark responded to previous comments that I've made in this blog and elsewhere. I'll try to publish his comments in a later post since I've sought to avoid mention of opposing parties in this question.

John Roberts:
A. [Crime] If elected, I will continue to work hard to get more funding to tackle crime locally and I already have the links to get this moving. This would include holding advice surgeries with the police, to link the work of the police and the council – something some other Lib Dem Councillors already do. As an estate resident, I am concerned that recent cuts to funding on estates – including cuts to Tenant Management Organisations (TMOs) will encourage crime and anti-social behaviour; if elected I will fight to reverse recent funding cuts

B. [Housing] The council has just implemented a 17% rent rise at a time of economic hardship. The government recently launched an initiative to reduce the rent rise nationally from 6.2% to 3.1%. Like many others on the Ethelred and other Princes ward estates my service charge jumped from £210 to over £600, in two years. If elected I will be backing the Lib Dem Group’s call for a lower rent rise. [Edited this to remove mention of other parties.]

C. [Environment / Community] On the local environment and community resources
* I want Kennington Cross to be more than just a junction and am supporting plans from the Kennington Association like the Tree of Hope and the ‘Arts Lav’ to improve the pavement area outside the Dog House pub and St Anselms Church. We should be looking to support more local shops rather than yet more estate agents! I will continue to support our local parks and green open spaces. I am proud that the Lib Dems have consistently fought to protect our green open spaces like Lambeth Walk Open Space and Spring Gardens from development – in an inner city area like Lambeth, where few people are lucky enough to have gardens, green open spaces are vital for all members of the community to enjoy.

* With regard to the Old Lilian Baylis site, I fully support the Ethelred Nursery and the Sports Action Zone using the site – it was Lib Dem Councillors who helped launch the Sports Action Zone there in 2005. But the future of the site is still hopelessly uncertain at the moment. Lambeth’s latest plans would also see a new church developed on the site. It is not at all clear how the Sports Action Zone and the Nursery will be able to share the site with the church. Residents do not seem to have been given the chance to be involved with the plan. We need to know why established local community groups have not been included. We need to know what the governance arrangements will be. And we need to have evidence that the council is getting best value for local people if it does hand the site over to a third party.

* I will ask Lambeth Street Care officers to carry out regular walkabouts with me around local “grot spots” so we can deal with these issues BEFORE they become serious problems. I also look forward to working with residents groups to tackle such problems in their local area.

[Lib Dems answered this question with info about what the candidate had already achieved. That information fits better in second question so I've moved it.]

LEAKED copy of Lambeth Council ALMO Draft Inspection Report

An anonymous contributor has leaked to me part of the Lambeth Arms Length Management Draft Inspection Report, which I referred to in my post two days ago here. The document is an inspection of Lambeth Living, Lambeth Council's social housing management wing, and is confidential, and, as far as I know, has not been released on account of it being so critical of the council's service.

The document is dated April 2009 and indeed alleges (amongst other things) that the complaint system within Lambeth Living has broken down and that the organisation is is bad at rent collection and the collection of service charges. Most alarmingly, the number of properties without Gas Safety Certificates is high. Anybody who knows anything about property management (and I know a little) might be aware that if a house blows up on account of faulty gas equipment (and indeed has no valid Gas Safety Certificate), and anybody is killed, the people within a company responsible for arranging the certificate might be charged with Corporate Manslaughter. There's a RICS report here to such end, should there be any interested landlords reading. It's a very serious alleged failing of a landlord duty.

The report (I'm presuming the copy I've received is genuine) does also say some good things. I wouldn't want anybody to think that Lurking about SE11 is unfair in its reporting, so it's worth recording that estate management is considered to be delivered effectively with "reasonable" standard of ground maintenance and cleaning, and that some improvements are beginning to emerge from the service overall.

However, the report is incredibly damning. There is no escaping the fact that major reform will have to be carried out. I suppose the main question will be; is there money to carry out the reforms of the department, necessary to drag it up from its weak position?

I actually do have a suggestion on the matter. In my view, property management is all about systems, and software systems in particular. With the implementation of excellent software, staff trained to follow procedure and use the software, and good relationships with maintenance teams, it's possible to turn around a management service relatively quickly. The report seems to suggest that Lambeth Living only manage 34,000ish properties, which isn't that many in the grand scheme of things. Let's hope that change for the better happens quickly since so many Labour residents are being let down.

Personally, I find it very interesting that this report should have been leaked so close to the Princes ward by-election. I doubt it has been leaked for precisely that reason (since the inspections took place in February, and relate to the entirety of Lambeth and not just SE11), but it's not going to help the local Labour team in their campaign efforts.

Ed: Actually, I think I'm going to change my mind about the fact that I said 34k properties aren't a lot to manage in the grand scheme of things. There's a recently published housing strategy by Lambeth Council (2009 - 2013) which suggests that Lambeth Living is the largest ALMO in London, which would imply they have a huge number of properties to manage. On reflection, perhaps that might be the problem.

Lambeth Housing Audit - Conservatives drop bombshell

Personally, I'm not convinced that there's as much Conservative support in Princes ward as the number of blue/green boards in Kennington Road would have you believe. I think that the residents are highly likely to be local Tory MPs who have their London residences in the road. However, if the boards are representative, then Labour, Lib Dems and Green are going to have to work their socks off in the election to compete, as I've not seen as much visible signage anywhere else! Has anybody got reports of Labour/Lib Dem/Green signs up anywhere?

In the meantime, somebody from the Lambeth Tories has, according to Twitter, managed to get hold of a report from the Audit Commission, damning Lambeth Living (the organisation that manages Lambeth's Social Housing). It's an Arms Length Management Organisation, for those who like the lingo. Apparently, the Audit Commission has said that every single area audited within the Lambeth Living organisation is "weak". More information about this matter is on the Lambeth Conservative website.

And what's more, due to the fact that the Auditor's report is currently being witheld, the Tories say they're prepared to publish the document on the Lambeth Conservative website for everyone to read... Looks like red hot stuff to me. I hope they have good lawyers!