KOV meeting fall out re. Boris and the Nine Elms plan

The last Kennington Oval and Vauxhall forum meeting I was present for was attended by about 20 people. Last night's meeting was closer to 200, and the entire agenda was derailed. Why? A small (heh) 174 page document from the Mayor, dated "November 2009" with the catchy title "Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea Opportunity Area Planning Framework" (or OAPF) was presented by some people from the Mayor's office.

The OAPF is a major document from the Mayor about the future of a huge span of the river, detailing opportunities for the "intensification" of the area from Lambeth Palace to Battersea Power Station, and thus encompassing both the London Borough of Lambeth and the London Borough of Wandsworth. I am going to try and summarise that document over the next few days, and the Kennington Oval Vauxhall forum (KOV) have agreed to put on another meeting for local residents, in order to give people a chance to read the document. If you want to read the document without navigating the Mayor's site, click here.

Suffice to say, rather large numbers of people at last night's meeting were very cross. People felt that there had been little publicity about the documents or the consultation. The Mayor's office had not brought copies of the document with them to show people. The Mayor's office could not show views of the proposed buildings, as they would look from Stockwell or Vauxhall itself. The Mayor, it seems is in favour of tall buildings of up to 150m in Vauxhall itself. How tall is that exactly? Well, Strata (the big razor shaped on in Elephant and Castle) comes in at 147m, so that should give you an idea. Various questions were raised about family housing. How exactly are children meant to play, when they live on the 39th floor, you might wonder? The helpful man from the Mayor's office thinks this could be sorted by providing large gardens at the bottom of the flats, designing a new park, and possibly through the use of roof terraces! One lady was concerned about the increased traffic congestion. This is not a problem, the Mayor's office stated last night, because very little car parking is expected, so traffic shouldn't increase too much (contrary to what the document itself seems to say). This lead to questions about transport (the document is rather scathing about the fact that there is no currently viable finance scheme for public transport), so the audience were concerned to note that buildings should not be erected prior to public transport being in place. (And who funds the public transport...? That would be the private developers.) So, somebody asked, how will the transport infrastructure be in place before planning permission is granted for the new buildings? Sadly, being the Mayor's office, and not Lambeth/Wandsworth Council, they couldn't really answer because (as somebody else noted), buildings such as 81 Black Prince Road have been granted planning permission already, on the basis that there is plenty of accessible public transport. The Lady from the Mayor's office did state that public finance initiatives (rather than just the developers) would be investigated re. funding public transport. One lady was concerned that she couldn't get on the trains at Vauxhall underground station at the moment, so how was it really going to be possible to do so when the 20,000 - 25,000 proposed jobs had been added to the area? A local vicar wanted to know whether there any thought had been given for small shops in the Opportunity Area? Another man wanted to know how the "green link" would work, and which bridge the Cycle Superhighway would cross. The best explosion came from a lady from one of the Vauxhall Tenants Associations who demanded to know why nobody had been informed with letters through their door and other information etc. about the project. Well, quite. A very good question. One gentleman was very upset about the American Embassy getting to dictate the terms of their presence in the area, and generally turning the road into a "no through zone". And finally, a young man who somebody thought might be a candidate at the next election was very cross on behalf of everybody in the room, that nobody had been consulted, and that everybody was rather angry. Lots of people clapped. Somehow, I doubt that this will lead to a series of Lambeth Tory victories, but one never knows...

Many of the questions asked are actually answered in the document, but they are couched in strange planning jargon. "Intensification" means, for example, "how to cram more people into a small place". But as I mentioned above, I will try and do a summary of the document so that you know what the Mayor is proposing.

There was lots of shouting, and protests, and objections at the meeting until eventually I felt rather sorry for the Mayor's representatives. Somebody seemed to remember that Boris did once oppose tall buildings, but nobody was quite sure that they had remembered correctly. The main problem is that the Mayor's office just sent people to do the presentation (the kind of people who get excited about anaerobic digestion opportunities at the new market), and everybody at the meeting wanted to know how to pause the plan in its tracks in order to consult everybody. It's quite clear the area will be redeveloped in some ways, but since it's Lambeth/Wandsworth that grants the planning permission, and the developers that have the money, everything generally continues at their pace, and not the pace of the residents.

I am very excited that the proposals might lead to a united group of Londoners getting together to talk sensibly about common good and transport infrastructure and town planning. But I am afraid that it will probably just result in the kind of frustration and disquiet that has taken place in Elephant and Castle.

Leave some comments if you were present at last night's meeting.

Elephant and Hippo and squatting and Olive Morris

A year or so ago, I noticed that 1 Bowling Green Street (Elephant and Hippo pub) was mentioned in various legal news articles re. the question of regaining possession of the property. I didn't mention it at the time, and the case really only came to any attention because it involved a point of law (whether /any/ court could grant a stay of execution re. gaining possession of a property). The eventual ruling was that any court may indeed grant a stay of execution, but I'm afraid I have failed to figure out who exactly has possession at the moment. I presume that eventually the claimant (Admiral Taverns (Cygnet) Ltd) did win the possession back, (irrespective of how the case went re. the point of law), but I suppose that the question of possession might have had to wait for the Appeal court ruling, and if that's the case, the defendant still has possession.

The pub has theoretically been boarded up for the last year or so. I only noticed because the fabulous elephant and hippo 3D model seemed to disappear from the front. But even before that, it looked rather quiet deserted. In any case, I have heard on the grapevine that the pub is currently squatted. Can anybody advise whether there are plans to turn it into one of those squats that offers community services, in the same vein as The Library House in Camberwell? It seems the Library House have a day in court tomorrow (Jan 18th) and their blog indicates they have asked for supporters to attend an 8am breakfast, if anybody feels like going along... Anyhow, I have often wondered whether the other old pub (the pink one) (formerly The Cricketers) on one side of the Oval is squatted too as have seen movements that might indicate so. If there's lots of squats in SE11, it's all good news, as [notice the badly designed plug], Olive Morris would have agreed.

Who was Olive Morris I hear you asking? (Some people try to answer that question here). She was an amazing, right on lady from Lambeth! She was a campaigner who was well ahead of her time, promoting groups for black women in Lambeth (Brixton specifically) and at the forefront of the Black Panthers and black rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Central to her life at one period was the squat at 121 Railton Road she started occupying in 1972 (and which was occupied by squatters until 1999)! If you want to find out more, why not pop into the Gasworks art exhibition named, "Do you remember Olive Morris?" or check out the Remembering Olive Collective blog, from which I've drawn the above information. The Gas Works gallery is open from Wednesday - Sunday. I went today, and it's great to see that this very important woman is not being forgotten, but it made me wonder how many other brave women from this Borough are waiting to be rediscovered. I know that Olive Morris has a whole administrative building to her name, but I wonder whether she has a blue plaque anywhere...

Cllr Mark Harrison refutes Lambeth Leaseholder Service Charge Increases

Cllr Mark Harrison has asked me to publish a comment below from him, in order to avoid the Lurking About SE11 blog being used as "a mouthpiece for Lib Dem distortions". It seems to me that he is seeking to refute the views contained in the post I made earlier, entitled Proposed Service Charge Increases for Lambeth Leaseholders.

I'd certainly be interested in getting to the bottom of the matter. It would be very useful to be able to see the minutes, taken at the Labour Councillors Meeting on Monday evening, since those should clear up the matter of whether service charges were raised. It would also be interesting to see comments on this post from anybody with any further information about what took place at the meeting. I do not want this blog used as a mouthpiece for any political party, but I do wish to promote quality discussion about community issues. Cllr Harrison's statement follows:

"The Chair of the North Lambeth Leaseholders' Forum (a prominent Liberal Democrat activist) has put out a misleading statement about rents and service charges which we need to correct.

At Monday's meeting of the Labour Group of councillors the Cabinet member for Housing explained what officers have recommended as a rent and service charge rise for tenants (there was no discussion about leaseholder charges).

A rent rise of around £4.13 on average (5%) has been floated as possible; and an average of 83p (8%) service charge increase for tenants.

This is the very first stage in the rent setting process. At the moment, all figures are estimates, because the government has not yet confirmed what Lambeth's final financial settlement will be. The next step in the rent setting process is a series of scrutiny meetings and Tenants' Council.

Lambeth's Labour councillors will be looking to keep this year's rent rise as low as possible. We are looking for savings from Lambeth Living and Lambeth Council as well as greater investment in areas such as repairs which needs more money. However, councillors have a legal duty to balance the Housing Revenue Account, so our room for manouevre is limited.

To be absolutely clear: no decisions about the level of rent have been taken. And there was no discussion of charges to leaseholders at Monday's meeting. Leaseholder charges are set precisely according to the contracts between leaseholders and the Council.

Labour councillors are working tirelssly to try to achieve value for money, decent homes, good robust management and action on ineffective staff and processes. Transforming Lambeth's housing services takes time. Setting a fair, affordable rent which covers the cost of the service is part of that process.

Your Labour councillors in Prince's ward

Contact Mark Harrison: mharrison@lambeth.gov.uk"

Goodbye Cafe Van Gogh and Welcome to Sirenas Restaurant

I heard on the grapevine recently that Cafe Van Gogh (based out of Christ Church at the top of Brixton Rd in SW9) has closed. I know it's not strictly in SE11, but it seems a number of Kennington locals venture out in this direction quite often, and say that it will be sad to see it go.

On the other hand, apparently Sirena's (a popular Italian restaurant, with a branch in Black Prince Road) have opened a new branch in the Kennington Park Business Centre. The Business Centre is at 1-3 Brixton Road, London SW9 6DE. I believe Sirenas is only open Monday - Friday (8am - 5pm), making it rather tricky for me to drop in and sample the fare. No doubt some of you will do it for me...

It occurs to me quite regularly that if you're fortunate enough to be Lurking about SE11 during the day, it is a very different experience from Lurking About at the weekend and in the evenings. A different set of people live and move and have their being. One could almost go as far as saying that the area becomes an entirely different place. If you've observed anything noteworthy that occurs during the day that you'd like to see mentioned, drop me a line, because I probably don't know it's going on.

Proposed service charge increases for Lambeth leaseholders

I've received some interesting news which suggests that Lambeth Councillors held a meeting (it's not quite clear to me what group was represented) on Monday night in which they voted to increase management charges for Lambeth leaseholders. It seems that this is not a Lambeth executive decision, but just a vote by certain councillors in favour of increases in rent and service charge. A motion would still need to be voted on by the Council, but perhaps some residents might want to take action before the proposed increases take place.

Proposed service charges for leaseholders would be set to move from the current 10% to 18%, and for those who rent, a 5% rent increase is on the cards. These increases are proposed at a time (as many of you are aware) in which the standard of service provided by Lambeth Living to residents has been despicable.

Those of you who are affected might like to email your local councillors to ask for a transcript from the meeting or to protest the rises. SE11 comprises Princes, Oval or Bishops wards, but you can just enter your postcode here to check who your councillors are. Alternatively, you could email your MP, Kate Hoey, (who I hear is very sympathetic to Leaseholder concerns) at hoeyk@parliament.uk

Keep an eye out for this week's article in the South London Press which might contain further information...

[Please also look at the post entitled Cllr Mark Harrison refutes Lambeth Leaseholder Service Charge Increases. Mark Harrison (one of the Princes Ward councillors) has provided his view of what was stated at the meeting which took place on Monday, as he does not think that any rise in Leaseholder charges was discussed. It would be good to see some reasoned debate taking place about how we appear to have two divergent views on what took place at that meeting.]

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.

Bendy bus accident at Vauxhall station

I was travelling home on a bus last night that passed through Vauxhall, but did not use the bus station.  The Twittersphere had rumours that this was due to a bendy bus having an accident with a bollard.  See here and here, but I can't find any reports from non-Twitter sources.

Does anybody have any more information about this accident in Vauxhall, SE11?  Was anybody on the bendy bus that crashed into the bollard?  Or was the bus impaled on a bollard?  Did it delay your journey? 

Kennington scaffolding and Kennington Tandoori

One (or several) commentators have asked whether I know why various shops/flats on Kennington Road are covered in scaffolding.  I've made a few enquiries amongst local people in the know, and the answer seems to be that the shops/flats on Kennington Road are having external decoration renewed (paintwork and parapets).  Nothing more exciting than that. 

Also, I've noticed that Kennington Tandoori are gutting the restaurant for a refurbishment.  I haven't had a chance to look at the notice to see how long that will take, but the rumour-mill suggets that they have exciting plans to develop "outside eating" (hopefully not in November!!).  And excitingly, a week ago, I saw workmen in the now-defunct Franklins.  It would be great to hear what the plans are for that location (and whether it's true that the KT emporium will expand there), if anybody has more info.

81 Black Prince Road and other tall building updates

Sorry for abandoning you all for a while, but it sometimes gets exhausting and then overwhelming to keep up with the volume of local news at the same time as being involved in various local projects. I'm going to try and do a catchup.

In the meantime, there are a few big building updates that you should know about. You might remember that I posted a summary of these back in June. Here is an update:

1. 8 Albert Embankment - This is actually a series of buildings on 3 different sites and would involve the redevelopment of the London Firebrigade HQ. There was a consultation that I reported back in late June here (along with photos of the exhibition). There has recently been a second exhibition/consultation that I was unable to attend. One person that I know did attend, but said it was very much a repeat of the first exhibition. If readers have further information, I'd be delighted to receive it. Rumour has it that part of the site is due to receive a 29 storey building, which won't be popular with residents who are beginning to feel that they are being pushed away from the river, but I've not got the height confirmed in writing. Since both consultations have been performed, I imagine that we're waiting for planning permission to be submitted. There's nothing in the Lambeth planning database at present.  Ed:  Fortunately, London-SE1 seem to have been present at the second consultation and they have an article here.

2. 69-71 Bondway - I've checked the Viva Vauxhall website and the latest update is here. They report that Lambeth Planning Committee will meet twice (which is unusual) to decide whether the basic design of the tower is acceptable for the officers to make a decision about whether they think the building is proceedable. Amusingly, they note that a police station might be included as part of the building, which would undoubtedly make the siren problem worse (yes, the one that made Hazel Blears move house). I have little info. on 69-71 Bondway as it's further down in SE11 than I am and is covered very well by Viva Vauxhall, but leave comments if I've missed anything.

3. 38-46 Albert Embankment - This one is on the site of the Texaco garage, not far from Vauxhall itself. It was refused by the councilors, but the developers appealed to the Planning Inspectorate. However, interestingly, the appeal was withdrawn before there was a chance to hold a public hearing. Consequently, the proposed building will not proceed.

4.  81 Black Prince Road - Even if you only half heartedly keep up with local Planning news, you must have heard by now that on the 15th September, the Planning Inspectorate overturned the council's objections to building 81 Black Prince Road.  This is very bad news for those of us who were at all concerned by very tall buildings on the river as it will be 23 storeys high.  Sadly, it appears that the Salamanca Tower must have set a precedent.  Unfortunately, it's likely that 81 Black Prince Road will set a precedent for 8 Albert Embankment (see above) and the unattractive and tall buildings will continue to abound. 

The Prince's Ward Labour blog wrote a post to indicate that they do not agree with the Inspectorate, but as far as I'm concerned, the Council has not set out a sensible plan re. tall buildings in Vauxhall (especially considering that the Vauxhall Supplementary Planning document cannot be approved until the Mayor comes back with his own revised plan for London).  Various tall buildings are being pushed through in the interim before we have an SPD for Vauxhall that can be used to even set a sensible plan for the area.  I am somewhat at a loss to know how local residents can, with local councillors, strengthen their voices against the continual encroachment and "pushing back" of Vauxhall and Kennington residents from the river.  However, in order not to burst blood vessels of frustation, I merely content myself with making sarcastic blog posts on the matter.

Battersea Power Station and the tube...

Well, the news and outlook are not good for the much publicised tube station.

Indeed, to be fair, prospects are not good for the redevelopment of the Battersea Power Station either. The Guardian is reporting that Real Estate Opportunities, the financier of the project, is suffering from a huge debt of £1.6bn. Their auditors say that there are "material uncertainties" about the future of the business. It's all down, apparently, to the failure of the Irish property market.

It's probably too early to sound the death toll on the Battersea project yet, but the outlook doesn't appear to be bright, and the article acknowledges that the previous owners of the site have not made much headway. Don't look forward too much to the Battersea/Kennington Northern line connection until the economy improves, and even then, another firm might buy the site and change the plans entirely.