Funding awarded to Lady Margaret Hall Settlement and Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre

Well done to Lady Margaret Hall Settlement (north Lambeth charity, currently based at Mowll Street in SW9) and Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre who have been granted monies from Capital Community Foundation to run various projects in the area. Take a look at the news section of their blog for more info.

LMHS won their monies to run a business training course for their All Sewn Up students to enable them to set up their own businesses. They'll also be running ESOL food/hygiene courses in conjunction with the currently centre-less Portuguese Community Centre.

Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre have won a grant to enable them to run a Memories Project in the area, aimed at older people. I look forward to being able to link to their findings.

Readers might also might like to know about the following LMHS courses running this term (all cost £125). If you're not personally interested, you might consider forwarding these to members of the local community whom you think might benefit:

Clothes Making courses:
6.45pm - 9.15pm (Monday evenings) beginning 19th September and running for 11 weeks
10.00am - 12.30pm (Friday mornings) beginning 23rd September and running for 11 weeks

Soft Furnishing courses:
10.00am -12.30pm (Thursday mornings) beginning 22nd September and running for 11 weeks
1.00pm - 3.30pm (Thursday afternoons) beginning 22nd September and running for 11 weeks
6.45pm - 9.15pm (Thursday evenings) beginning 22nd September and running for 11 weeks

For further information on any of the courses, call 020 7793 1110 or email mailto:admin@lmhs.org.ukwho are based at Unit 1, 11 Mowll Street, SW9 6BG. Nearest tube Oval.

Spring 2011 Lady Margaret Hall Settlement newsletter and call for Committee Members

The Lady Margaret Hall Settlement has a long history within the SE11 area and was set up in a house in Kennington Road back in 1897, with the intention of being an organisation that would "help bridge the gap between rich and poor and the parochial and other organisations operating in North Lambeth and the Vauxhall area".  At the moment, they're based a little further south, working from the Co-op centre in Mowll Street and particularly focused on an adult education programme, All Sewn Up.  This year, they also helped complete the sale of Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre at 100 Vauxhall Walk.

They're currently recruiting for new Council of Management members, so if you're interested in supporting local projects (meetings are reported to be about once a month) and helping a local organisation, there are several that you might consider.  Lady Margaret Hall Settlement is one of them.  They're asking for anybody "with passion who cares about South London" to give them a call on 0207 7931110.  (To be completely fair, I should note that there are at least 3 local organisations that could use committee members, so I'm happy to promote others too.  Just ask!)

In the meantime, do draw the organisation to the attention of Lady Margaret Hall graduates, and take a look at their new Spring 2011 newsletter.

Nine Elms Parkside - new development planned for site of Royal Mail Sorting Office

As you'll know, I've still got one more post to make containing displays from the last VNEB exhibition.  The ink has barely dried, but I've received notice of yet another Nine Elms planning consultation, this time for a development named Nine Elms Parkside. Once again, it's over the border in SW8, but I've not seen anybody systematically collecting details for these different Nine Elms proposals so just consider us to be temporarily Lurking around the borders of SE11 too.

This exhbition ought to prove contentious.  About a month ago, I received an email from RCDT/LMHS, suggesting that Royal Mail might sell their Nine Elms sorting office site.  This particular site is home to 1150 workers.  Londonist also noted that an East London sorting station is under threat too.  Greg Charles, the Branch Secretary for the London South West Postal Branch of the Communication Workers Union commented;

"Closing Mail Centres in London will lead to a poorer service and will hit Business and homes alike at a time when it can ill afford it. We will fight these ridiculous plans of closure to ensure not only jobs are protected for our members but business & people across London are protected with essential services they require."

The Wandsworth Guardian quote Mr Charles accusing Royal Mail of attempting to make "a fast buck" through selling the site.  Obviously, a sale would make sound commercial sense, but Mr Charles is concerned that service and jobs will be affected by the closure and relocation of the sorting office.  Before everybody jumps in with the likely comments that the internet has resulted in a decline of post etc and that sorting office closures are inevitable, do read the complaints of SE1 residents, who are served by alternative sorting stations.  (Comments are here, here and here).  Also, remember that the VNEB opportunity area will contain the same number of residents as Welwyn Garden City, and imagine how this would stretch the Royal Mail capabilities in the local area.

If the Royal Mail sorting office will be sold as a result of the Nine Elms area being a new Opportunity Zone, one is obligated to keep asking "for whom is this an opportunity?".  I do not deny that the area requires regeneration (indeed, I favour a sensible re-development of VNEB), or that Royal Mail might need to make job cuts in the current climate, but talks between Royal Mail and the Unions are still ongoing.  Consequently, it seems rather churlish to consult over a new development on the Sorting Office site prior to the end of those talks...

Nonetheless, news of a consultation re. Nine Elms Parkside appeared in my inbox yesterday and they have a lovely shiny new Nine Elms Parkside website, proudly sporting the Royal Mail logo.  Without needing to look too carefully, you'll see that the development area shown on the photo in the literature below /is/ the Sorting Office (look at all of the red Royal Mail vehicles at the top left of the photo).  Of course, the unions may be prematurely concerned.  Perhaps the site will be redeveloped to allow for a Royal Mail facility on the land, alongside new residential property.  Who knows?

Consultation will take place on Thursday 11th November 13:00 - 20:00, Friday 12th November 13:00 - 18:00 and Saturday 13th November 13:00 - 18:00 at Batterssea Studios, 80 Silverthorne Road, SW8 3HE.

Change of use due to expire on 216 Kennington Road, preventing possible Tesco arrival

The new Tesco planned for Kennington Park Road has been developed relatively quickly, and permission has been requested to install air conditioning, fridges and lighting.  All of the posts on the matter can be found under the 38-40 Kennington Park Road tag.  I'd guess that the Tesco will be up and running before the end of 2010.

But today, it's heads up to Sean Creighton (known locally for his useful and detailed newsletters) from RCDT/LMHS who has informed us that the original planning permission (obtained back in 2007) to change 216 Kennington Road from D2 (assembly and leisure usage) to A2/B1a (services and business use) has nearly expired.  The original 2007 application is  07/01817/FUL. (It's due to expire on 17/1/2011).  The use of this building as a supermarket (allegedly Tesco) has been contentious from the start, on account of the fact that it was originally set aside under Section 106 for community use, but was missed off the Council's list, and the usage expired.  One interesting point that I've heard reiterated by several locals is that there were a number of nearby community organisations who hoped to use the building.  Whenever anybody telephoned the agents (I tried myself on several occasions), the caller is always told that a tenant has been found and the building is "being held".  Nothing much has happened in the intervening three years, other than numerous alterations of planning applications re. times of shopping delivery by lorry and the numbers of flats that may be built.

If local people from a variety of organistions were to object to the 216 Kennington Road Tesco being re-granted a change of use, and the Council were to agree (tricky, since they granted the permission above ), then there's a chance that local organisations might get a look in again.  The new application for change of use can be found under 10/03318/FUL on the Lambeth Planning database.

I used to be rather vociferously against the use of the site for a Tesco on account of the fact it was intended for community use.  More lately I've pondered that it would be better to be occupied than for it to remain empty.  But sitting on an empty building for three years and failing to develop it means that an organised community campaign (on the basis the building was always intended for the community, and Lambeth Council messed up) might well release the building for locals again.  The key question of course, is whether any local organisation has the money to lease it?

Riverside Community Development Trust and Lady Margaret Hall Settlement (LMHS) to form joint board

I know that Lurking about SE11 can sometimes appear rather whingy, so I've decided to share some interesting local news.  The RCDT (Riverside Community Development Trust) and LMHS (Lady Margaret Hall Settlement) have formed a joint committee for the running of their operations.  This looks to be a positive development as it allows them to share buildings, resources and expertise.  Whilst the two organisations will remain separate on paper, they will share the same board members.  The LMHS appear to have rewritten their website, and in a nod of gratitude towards our forebears, (as with the Vauxhall Civic Society website), we'll receive additional access to history and imagery from the LMHS archives in the months to come.

So, what are they up to at the moment?  20 Newburn Street has been leased to Real World UK for the provision of free computer training.  This is a an important project, and (for those with long memories) is how the centre was used when it first opened back in 2003.  I'm a firm believer in digital literacy because without being online, a great many people in our society are simply cut off from information about services (benefits information, train/tube times, community initiatives, bus route changes, holiday deals, money saving deals, council services etc).  The aim of this project is to open the world of employment and training to people who are not confident using the internet or computers.  Once I find out a little more about when they'll be up and running, I'll post the times of the free classes here.

I fear that we're about to enter a challenging time in the UK's history, but I hope we've developed local friendships that might see us through.  We've the Kennington Oval Vauxhall forum to form an umbrella which should feed views from all local organisations to Lambeth Council.  There's the new Vauxhall Civic Society (who cover the entire Vauxhall constituency down to Brixton and Clapham), the stalwart Kennington Association (open to anybody who might claim to living anywhere near Kennington), the combined RCDT/LMHS, more friends groups than you could wave a stick at eg. Friends of Kennington Cross, Friends of Kennington Park etc.  I've counted 11 local "friends of" groups.  See if you can identify anybody that I've missed (I've updated a "friends of" post made in September 2008).  Additionally, there's the Kennington Gardens Society (now with a new section on their site so that you can ask them questions), the Onion Shed folk, intent on greening North Lambeth, the Kennington People on Bikes (KPOB) keeping an eye out on cycling and safety in the area...  What more could we want? 

I have a theory that people committed to the community attract more people committed to the community.  That we've so many local groups demonstrates the commitment of south east Londoners to look out for one another.  Such networking and community spirit will be essential over the next few years (and are arguably at the root of maintaining anything that might be described as "civic" society). There is (as far as I know) nothing in the rest of the London blogosphere comparable with the network forged by bloggers in South East London.  Last night's Battle of the Blogs being one such demonstration).  The world will look considerably different after PE (Public Expenditure?  Physical Education? Punishing England?) Day on the 20th October.  That's the day the government will outline their cuts. I think we'll need all of our community groups (and more) to coalesce to ensure that the vulnerable on all of our patches still receive some semblance of service.  If the Big Society / Co-Op vision ever comes to fruition, we'll need our friends and neighbours more than ever, because I don't see the State popping in to visit us when we're sick or ensure that our bins are emptied regularly or that we maintain a commitment to recycling and re-use.

Kennington, Oval and Vauxhall are all great areas to move to if you're looking to be involved locally, be that in committee work, gardening, bike projects or Tai Chi.  I often complain that central London can be an isolating place, but the people that runs the committees, hold the meetings and get their hands dirty all help to build the links we need to make us a community and not just another Zone 2 location.