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.

Blue Plaque Competition!

I've been a bit neglectful of late in updating the map, so I've vowed to try and return to adding one or two markers a day.

I am just about to finish the estate agents. I found quite a good description of Kennington on the Atkinson Mcleod website from the point of view of somebody looking to rent, buy or live in the area. Obviously, from an estate agent, it focuses on SE11's strengths, but it's worth a read and can be found here:
Atkinson Mcleod Kennington area guide

I've also added the Kurdish Cultural Centre on Stannary St. I'd like to be able to say more - I know it provides a home for some of the Kurdish Community in London - but unfortunately, I think the organisation's official website has gone down. You'll see more information if I can find it anywhere.

Finally, tonight's updates include all of the Blue Plaques in SE11. Disappointingly, there are only three, and two of those are for Charlie Chaplin. However, three is a start! This I discovered from the helpful site:
Blue plaque site which is great from the point of view that you can type the beginning of a postcode into it, and get out all of the plaques in the area. Reassuringly, SE17 only has four plaques, and SE1 only has eight. I think South of the river might be rather neglected from the blue plaque point of view, considering that NW3 has (at least according to the site) forty five, and SW1, an astounding seventy two. Anyway... The other SE11 plaque is dedicated to Viscount Bernard Law Montgomery. By my reckoning (I've not seen it yet, it must be on the same site as the Oval House theatre).