Advanced notice - KOV Co-op Council Discussion & Thames Tunnel Consultation and

This is just a quick post giving advanced notice of three community gatherings.

Firstly, in view of the announcements of the Government's Spending Review, and the speculation that Lambeth Council will lose £70 million, some notion of Labour's Co-operative Council will soon become a reality in Lambeth.  Local public sector job cuts are likely (but we probably won't know the detail for a few months) and whether you call it Big Society or Co-operative Council, the result will be fewer services spread over the same (or greater) number of people.  According to Local London, considerations about pooling services such as road repairs, social care, rubbish collection, libaries and adult education between Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark Councils are under way.  I've no idea what any of this might look like, but there will be opportunites to ask questions at the next KOV meeting on 1 November at 6:30 for 7pm.  The venue is to be the Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre, 100 Vauxhall Walk, SE11 5EL.  Also announced at the KOV meeting with be "interesting news" about the future of the former Lilian Baylis school site (not sure how that will fare with all of the cuts) and apparently, some discussion of improvements planned for Vauxhall overground station.  It seems to be a rather full agenda so expect the meeting to run late.

Secondly, thanks to the good Cllr Harrison, a consultation will take place re. the Vauxhall Thames Tideway Tunnel ventiliation shaft etc. on the Albert Embankment in Vauxhall.  The consultation will be held on 6th November from 10am-4pm at Park Plaza Hotel, 18 Albert Embankment.  For more information about the tunnel, see my article "What is the Tideway Tunnel is, and how does it affect Vauxhall?".

Lastly, thanks to a commentator earlier in the week, some of you might be interested to know that former MP and local resident, Chris Mullin will be speaking at the Durning Library on Thursday 21st (tomorrow) at 6.45pm.  £2 is requested as a donation for refreshments.  The Times' Rod Liddle noted that Mullin's recently published diaries (A View from The Foothills) were "The most valuable set of diaries to emanate from the now interred corpse of new Labour; the most revelatory and also…the most entertaining."  Make of that what you will.

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.]

MPs in Vauxhall, Oval and Kennington?

I'd really like to know how many MPs live in Kennington, Oval and Vauxhall, in and around SE11. Estimates on Twitter vary between 30 and 90, but we're just throwing figures around. If you include Vauxhall/Stockwell and head down into SW8 or SW9, MP figures could be even higher... I never seem to see any of these MPs, but then I probably wouldn't know what most of them looked like. I'm fairly sure that most of them don't shop in the Biggest Gay Tesco in the UK, but then their allowances probably mean they can afford Ocado deliveries or hike over to the Biggest Gay Sainsburys in the UK (unless they're permanently eating out in Ghandis).

I presume that there's a list of MP second addresses somewhere. I'm not really interested in breaching their privacy and knowing what their exact addresses are. That would be rather unfair. However, I would like the figures for MPs with houses and flats in the area. Is that info in the public domain? Does anybody know?

So far, currently definitely resident:

Oliver Letwin
Jack Straw
Charles Kennedy
Phil Willis

Previously resident:

Hazel Blears used to live around here, but didn't like the sirens, so sold the flat.
Alistair Darling has a flat in Kennington, but rents it out
Geoff Hoon (sold his Kennington flat)

We know that there are many more and I commented on the Conservative boards in Kennington Road here. It seems I'm not the only blogger to notice. There's a Labour blogger on a Blog From The Back Room who also wonders why the Tories want to advertise their four storey houses in Kennington Road.

I'd appreciate comments from readers who definitely know of MPs living in and around Kennington, Oval or Vauxhall so that I can them to my MP-ometer.