Kennington Cross (minor update re. 216 Kennington Road and a new project?)

I've lost count of the number of people who have emailed, left comments on the blog and sent Tweets with questions and info about what's happening at 216 Kennington Road.  All that any of us know is that white lines have been painted, sections of the kerb have been dug up and a new loading bay has been installed at the side of the development.  I'm presuming that this is in anticipation of the yet-to-be-confirmed Tesco, but I'm also presuming that it might help with the construction work required for the new flats in the development (which I think are part of the same planning consent as the alleged supermarket).  No more info. I'm afraid, but thanks to those who've been asking and those that intially notified me about the works.

Also, I've noticed an intriguing new project, "Pathways at Kennington Cross" which looks related to the old St Anselm Project, whose website seems to have disappeared offline and into oblivion.  Does anybody have any news on that project and is it still in the pipeline?  "Pathways" states that it's:

...an exciting new programme which looks to create a variety of sustainable businesses, run by ex-offenders, based at St Anselm’s church.  The programme will include an 80 cover bistro and restaurant (inspired by our success at The Clink, the first commercial restaurant operating in a prison: the aim is to provide employment, skills training and links to accommodation for ex-offenders and local young people...

In other words, it sounds similar to the St Anselm Project... I'm wondering whether they've just recreated their website?

Roots and Shoots Spring Open Day - Sounds Alive for Spring

It's that time of year again...  The daffodils and crocuses are out, and Spring always seems to come slightly earlier in Kennington.  (According to members of the Kennington Gardens Society, Kennington has its own unique climate, allowing warm termperate plants that might not grow in other parts of London to flourish here).  Anyhow, the arrival of Spring heralds another open day at Roots and Shoots.

This coming Sunday, from 11am-4pm, Roots and Shoots are holding "Sounds Alive for Spring", where they'll be specially celebrating Spring noises such as croaking frogs, dawn choruses etc.  They'll have a story-teller-in-residence telling tales from Lambeth Walk and all sorts of other fun things to do for the family.  More info at the Roots and Shoots website. 

I've lost count of the number of Roots and Shoots events that I've attended, and they're always great fun and a fantastic chance to go and have a look around the Roots and Shoots Garden in Walnut Tree Walk.  (It really is possible to find a tranquil haven and escape from the traffic noise in SE11).

Green Things: Climate Week film in Bonnington Square and Peter Tatchell at Oval House Theatre

Next week is Climate Week.  Vauxhall will be fortunate in gaining its very own newly minted Green Champion in April or May (more on that in a later post, I hope).  As a result, there will be a film screening of "The Yes Men Fix the World" on Wednesday 23rd March at 8:15pm on the top floor of the Bonnington Square centre.

If you're unable to attend on Wednesday, there will be a repeat of "The Yes Men Fix the World" (5pm) and also a screening of "The Age of Stupid" (7:30pm) on Sunday 27th March at The Priory Arms, Lansdowne Way, Stockwell.  

Finally, I've thought quite hard about mentioning the following on account of not wishing to promote party political events.  I've made a bit of an exception for the following on account of the fact that it's Peter Tatchell and should be quite interesting aside from the fact that it's a Green Party fund raiser.  The local Green Party are holding an evening with Peter Tatchell (a green party member) who will be interviewed by Claire Armistead (literary editor of The Guardian)  on Tuesday 5th April at Oval House Theatre at 7:45pm.  Tatchell will speak about his thirty years of environmental and human rights campaigning.  From 6:30pm, Oval House will offer a vegetarian menu.  The evening can be booked for £10 (£3 concessions) direct with Oval House Theatre.

Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park and Vauxhall Park to lose Park Rangers

Last week, Tradescant blog noted that due to the inevitable Lambeth Council cuts, Vauxhall Park will be losing the services of its two full-time gardeners and all of its Park Rangers.  There's an "ipetition", left by a reader on a comment some months ago that you can sign electronically to make your voice heard about the Lambeth Park Ranger service.  They've 466 signatures so far. 

This week, it's Southwark Council's turn.  I've been notified by the Friends of Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park (GMHP) that Southwark plan to remove the full-time Park Ranger/Gardener service from the GMH Park and replace it with a rotating part-time team.  The Friends of GMHP are holding a public meeting on 28th March (7pm-9pm) at St Jude's Community Association, The Crypt, St George's Road, London, SE1 6EZ at which they will ask Southwark Council to be answerable to the community about how the park will be run in the absence of the Ranger Service.

The Friends' group have also written to Southwark to advise them on the following points:

• Based on an updated estimate from a 2002 Mori poll, it's likely that in excess of 2.5 million people use the Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park each year.  This is likely to be increased in 2012 due to the Olympic Games. 
• The park is only 5.9 hectares in size.  This makes the footfall it receives per person per hectare comparable to St James' Park.  Given the intense pressures upon it, it needs constant care rather than seasonal attention.  Maintenance at a lower lever will have a negative impact on overseas visitors to the Imperial War Museum.
• The Ranger Gardeners deal politely and sensitively on a daily basis with 5-10 rough sleepers (and their bedding and excrement) and ensure that the playground is free from unsavoury characters.  In the past, the Parks Liaison Officers have not demonstrated effective interpersonal skills in this regard, and they'd be shared with 2 other parks, which (in view of the size of GMHP) would likely negatively impact the other parks
• The presence of Rangers at different times of the day has reduced vandalism, increased security and nearly eliminated drug-dealing.  Ocacsional patrols would not provide a continued presence capable of maintaining the character of the park.
• The plans that Southwark Council have presented do not make savings at higher grades.  New proposals introduce a Director position which cuts the budget for Ranger/Gardeners (who are good value for money).  Southwark's plans may benefit larger parks, but the GMHP would lose out.

Do attend the above meeting if the GMHP is your local park and you're worried that reduction in the Ranger Service might make it a less attractive place to be.  The park is across the border in SE1, but it's a local park for many Kennington folk...

Travelodge granted planning permission for hotel at Vauxhall bus station

Travelodge have received consent from Lambeth Council to build a new hotel at Vauxhall Bus Station that is expected to open by September 2012 (in time for the Paralympics, at least).  I wrote a post last year giving more details of the planned 148 bedroom Travelodge in Vauxhall.  I was quite positive about the development, considering that retail outlets on the ground floor would offer additional possibilities for commuters and locals on what is essentially at present a concrete island containing a lone Starbucks.  However, the Vauxhall Society objected on the basis that the application didn't come with an environmental assessment...  It seems Lambeth thought the positives outweighed the negatives.

Salmon Developments (the developers) have a few shots of how they expect the hotel to look.  It's worth noting that the six-storey building is to be constructed after the destruction of the current building on site, so that might cause a little mess for a year or so!

The formal address of the hotel is likely to be 1-9 Bondway, but hotel residents will (at least on one side) look on to the magnificent Vauxhall transport hub as they rub their bleary eyes in the morning.   Still, according to Property Week, the Travelodge central London development manager noted:

"There is no better location for a hotel in Vauxhall than this..."

I'm not so sure!  I'd have thought that the river views of the Albert Embankment might be more attractive.  But it's a central location, offers budget to medium-range accommodation and is likely to benefit commuters and local people who desire a more diverse range of shops/restaurants in the area.

Proposed 44-storey tower scheme on Newington Butts revived and Cycling on Southern Elephant Roundabout?

London-SE1 is reporting that the planned 44-storey tower on 80 Newington Butts (site of the former London Park Hotel) has been revived.  In its former incarnation, it was named by the developer First Base as "London 360" and recognisable by the unusual "fins" planned for the the top of the tower.  Southwark Council approved the site for the development of a 44 storey (mostly) residential tower back in 2007, but the scheme failed to complete due to the Homes and Communities Agency deciding it no longer represented good value for money.   The Homes and Community's Agency apparently intend to appoint a new developer to continue with the old scheme (which somewhat fails to make sense of the "not good value for money" point).

You can take a look at the most recent planning application for the site (transport related proposals) on Southwark's Planning site at 11/AP/0406.  Note that the postcode is wrong on the Southwark Planning Portal; it should be SE11 4QU. 

On a geograpically related note... Last July, Kennington People on Bikes wrote to Transport for London to check whether Toucan crossings (which allow pedestrian/cyclist use) were being installed at the junction that replaced the old Southern Elephant roundabout.  TFL confirmed that they'd install a toucan crossing, but KPOB has noticed they're installing pelicans... Naughty...

130 - 138 Newington Butts - Planning Exhibition for Affordable housing from Dolphin Square Foundation

(Image (c)Google 2010 and taken from Google Streetview)

I've received notification of a Planning Exhibition to be held by the Dolphin Square Foundation on the possibility of building (mostly social housing) on 130-138 Newington Butts, a sadly neglected commercial building squeezed between Jewson Building Yard and student accommodation.  Back in 2008, a company applied for permission to build a mixed-use development (08/02352/FUL), but withdrew the application before it had been heard.  Dolphin Square Foundation (a charity) hope to place 49 affordable homes, 30 low-rent homes and 4 private flats on the site.  The flats/houses will range from 5 storeys to 8 storeys across the site.

The exhibition about the development is to be held on Saturday 12th March at from 10:30-15:30 on site at 130-138 Newington Butts, SE11 4QU.  See posters below (click to enlarge) for more details.

Developing this piece of land is, in my view, a great idea. The site's current building has been dilapidated for years and is a real eye-sore.  There are two matters that should probably receive further consideration...  Low-rent housing is often rented through housing associations by members with children.  Newington Butts is an extremely busy intersection which receives traffic from both Kennington Lane and Kennington Park Road, and is likely to have very high levels of noise.  I'm presuming that noise could be dealt with by triple glazing, but living on a main road can be hazardous and I'd hope that play space, away from the road, was planned for children.

Commments?

Sainsbury's (Nine Elms) Exhibition (redirect)

This is just a quick bookmark post to note that when I tried to attend the Sainsbury's planning exhibition last Friday at about 19:45, it was closed (I must have got the time wrong).  I did also request at PDF of slides shown at the Waterloo Community Development Group (which I presume would be similar to what was on display at the exhibition) from Jonathan Rawnsley, the Sainsbury's Development partner, but I haven't received those either.

Consequently, I'm going to point you to Tradescant Road blog post on the most recent Sainsbury's exhibition. Tradescant attended on Saturday and has posted some sketches of what might possibly be the ugliest cluster of square buildings I have ever seen (other than possibly the Bondway).  Tradescant also notes that the original plans have been amended since the last consultation...  You can read the updates at the Sainsbury's Nine Elms website here (although many of the picture links appear to be broken).

I will continue to point out that despite promises of a public square (won't we already have one of those over at CLS's Vauxhall Square?), there is no additional public green space in the proposal.  There is a cleverly worded piece on the Sainsbury's website which reads as follows:

"We have listened to the feedback that we have received. One of the important messages that we heard was that people valued open space when new homes are provided. Therefore we have removed one residential block since our first exhibition and increased the level of green space for the enjoyment of residents."

It is extremely important to note that in their feedback to the first consultation, people requested and valued "open" space. Yet, Sainsbury's are providing green space that will only be available for the enjoyment of residents in their new blocks.  Bearing in mind the rumours of the shrinking size of the Nine Elms linear park, and the dearth of green space beteween Vauxhall Park and Battersea Park and the Bondway being refused on grounds of lack of green space, it seems immensly foolish to me to attempt a planning proposal that contains no green space for the enjoyment of both new and current residents.  At the KOV meeting last month, I bumped into somebody who mentioned performing social work with residents on the Wandsworth Road, and noted that people are unaware of the high levels of deprivation and poverty in that area.  Providing a "residents only" roof garden (in spite of other provisions for a learning centre) is not a positive commitment to the area from a developer with a "responsible" reputation such as Sainsbury's.  Enough said.

New scarecrows for Cottington Community Garden

Back in February, there was a furore on Twitter, as Cottington Community Garden Centre declared that it's scarecrow, J-Lo had been stolen.  Despite plenty of folk putting the word around, she was never recovered, so they've had to obtain two new scarecrows. (What's the plural of scarecrow?).

If you wish to attend the unveiling of the two new "royal residents" (that provides a big clue), there will be a scarecrow unveiling and a greenhouse launch on Saturday 2nd April at 12pm at Cottington Community Garden (Opal Street, SE11).  More info here.

New Covent Garden Market Exhibition (photos all viewable from booklet)

(Image taken from p23&24 of The Garden at New Covent Garden Market Public Exhibition March 2011 Booklet )

Just a quick note to say that I dropped into the New Covent Garden Market exhibition in Nine Elms / Battersea today.  Had I known that all of the exhibition boards (including photos) were available from this booklet online, I might not have made the trek!  However, if you want to see the photos in their huge blown-up form, it might be worth a trip.  I was also given a very useful introduction to the exhibition by one of the Market's representatives on site, who noted that their plans are only in outline, and that if all goes to schedule the proposals will be submitted to Wandsworth Council this summer (2011) and decided at a Planning Committee to be held at the end of 2011.  (Clearly, that's a big "if", but maybe Wandsworth are very proactive).  If the development went ahead, building works would likely start some time in 2013.

I might add further comments on the New Covent Garden plans at some stage.  Most controversially, they're selling off the Flower Market, currently sited at Vauxhall to pay for a new combined wholesale and flower market on the Nine Elms site.  On the old flower market, there are plans for two very tall towers, billed as the "gateway" to the linear park (which is interesting, considering I vaguely thought that Vauxhall Square (CLS) was billed in the same way.  Considering that we're doomed to end up with all of these towers, a few more won't make any difference, right?

Folk from the Vauxhall end may be disappointed that many of the outlines in their book didn't contain any of the towers that are currently proposed eg. Vauxhall Tower (CLS) or Vauxhall Island site (Kylun) or Bondway.  Their diagrams only show the buildings that have been agreed, so it's tricky to imagine from the images how it might look if all of the proposed developments were present.

A musical interlude - Evensong at St Peter's

A Lurking about SE11 reader has emailed details of Choral Services at St Peter's Vauxhall, sung by the St Peter's Singers.  They're currently held on the 4th Sunday of each month at 6:30pm. 

Our correspondent notes that members of the public do not have to be religious to attend Evensong.  It is open to all, free of charge and wine is served afterwards.  The organisers hope to offers a quiet reflective opportunity for participants to listen to a beautiful choir.  The standard is apparently very high.

See more details on the poster below:

The ever onward march of Tesco - application for expansion at main Kennington store

Tesco continue their ongoing march towards world domination with a request for planning permission to expand their ground floor at their largest SE11 store on Kennington Lane.  See
11/00263/FUL.  You have until 10th March to comment.  The site would need a new pedestrian crossing and pick up point, but the expansion would cause the loss of 41 car parking spaces.  It's an interesting move because it looks as though they're either presuming that much custom will move online or come from people who live within walking distance of the store... or...?

Well, the other possibility is that they'll expand on the currently empty piece of land opposite their site, and located next to the Beefeater distillery.  I can't remember whether they own the land next to the distillery, but I think they might.  There's a 1999 planning application that was withdrawn prior to submission,  99/02207/FUL, which shows the street record for Gasholder Place (an original name for a street) with an application submitted by Tesco.  I wonder whether there's a possibility they'll decrease the size of the car park, increase the size of the current store and then claim that there isn't enough parking, so look to expand on the empty land on the other side of Gasholder place?  It's a heavily residential area so I doubt residents would support additional parking, but if my guesswork is close, it's potentially a clever way of expanding the Tescopoly.

Also, I mentioned a while ago that Tesco have plans to open a new metro store in Kennington Park Business Centre and Caldwell Street (opposite Vassall Road).  One local resident asked that I publicise a petition requesting that the Council refuses permission for future expansion.  If you don't support the continued expansion, you might want to sign here. 

Robbery on Kennington Park Road on 27th February - appeal for witnesses

Lambeth Police are appealing for witnesses to a robbery that occurred last Sunday (27 February) at 1am on Kennington Park Road. 

A white man in his thirties (6'2" in height, bald head, large build, wearing a navy blue top) attacked a couple who were on their way home from a glam rock fancy dress party.  The female member of the couple was knocked to the ground, and her male partner fought off the attacker who fled the area.

At that point, the couple were confronted by four black men (in their twenties) who demanded a mobile phone.  The male victim defended himself again and fought with one of the men who he managed to chase away.  At the same time, another one of the attackers took the bag of the female victim which had fallen to the floor in the earlier attack.

Anyone with information is encouraged to call DC Michael Quinlan of Lambeth Borough police who is investigating this case on 020 8649 2478. Alternatively you can report information anonymously to Crime stoppers on 0800 555 111. 

The police appeal can be found here.

Child stabbed outside Manley House in Kennington

I've received reports that at approximately 8:20pm this evening, a male child was stabbed outside Manley House, Black Prince Road in Kennington.  Police were called and and the child was taken to hospital by ambulance.

Reminder: KOV meeting tonight with accompanying agenda

I'm just issuing a quick reminder that there's a Kennington Oval Vauxhall (KOV) forum meeting at 7pm (or 6.30pm for 7pm) at St Anne's Settlement Centre, Harleyford Road, (entrance in Vauxhall
Grove) SW8 1TD.  

The Sainsbury's Towers and Vauxhall Square 'twin towers' development are both on the agenda so feel free to read the history so far.  The rest of the agenda appears below:

1. Welcome, introductions and apologies

2. Minutes of previous Meeting (1 November 2010)

3. Vauxhall Square - Richard Trice of CLS Holdings - For more info, visit www.vauxhallsquare.co.uk

4. Proposals for Sainsbury's store, Nine Elms

5. Vauxhall Opportunity Area and community involvement - Cllr Sally Prentice

6. Vauxhall Opportunity Area Planning Framework – Amendments to Section 106 Funding Chapter

7. Chair’s Report

8. Board and Forum members’ updates

9. AOB

10. Date of next scheduled meeting: 7 April 2011