Author: thurlowparklabour

Thurlow Park's Labour councillors sharing news and ways to get involved in the local area - including West Norwood, Herne Hill, Tulse Hill and West Dulwich.

Lambeth Labour part of council delegation to visit Calais with Citizens UK

Lambeth Deputy Leader, Paul McGlone, is part of a delegation of senior councillors to visit Calais with Citizens UK, calling on government to do more for child refugees.

image
image

Lambeth Labour has committed to support refugees, and has let the government know that we are ready to help children coming from conflicts across the world. In April, Lambeth Leader Lib Peck welcomed the first family settling here from Syria.

We have thrown our support behind the Liberty and Help Refugees campaign to Protect Refugee Children, calling on government to urgently play its part. In May 2016, the Government committed to working with councils across the UK to resettle an unspecified number of children. Three months later and no action has been taken to deliver on this promise, despite support from Lambeth and other councils across the country. You can see more on the campaign and the pledge that Lambeth has signed here.

Norwood Foodbank needs supplies – can you help?

Norwood Foodbank is experiencing a busy summer and has low stocks – we need you to donate. Next time you go shopping, could you pick up UHT rice pudding, custard, toilet rolls and biscuits. They also urgently need nappies in sizes 4plus, 5 and 6.

As the school term approaches, the foodbank also needs donations of school uniform appropriate for schools in Norwood and Streatham – no logos and all sizes!

Take a dip for charity?

Come down to the Brockwell Lido on 8th October to support the swimmers braving the autumnal cold to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support – or better still join them!

There is still time to register and train for the event – participants swim 2km or 5km, and under 18s can swim 1.5km. Alternatively, enter with a team of friends and family to swim a relay.

For information and to register, check out www.macmillan.org.uk/alloutswimbrockwell

Helen Hayes MP writes about homelessness

Helen Hayes, MP for Dulwich and West Norwood explains why she is supporting a private members bill which calls for measures to reduce homelessness.

Helen has been doing a lot of work on housing, through casework at her regular surgeries with residents and through her role on the Communities and Local Government Committee. It is a huge issue here in Lambeth – every week residents come to us and to Helen for help as they are threatened with homelessness or have experienced it.

While the council is doing all it can to build new council homes and support vulnerable residents, more needs to be done to ensure that people who are in desperate housing need are not turned away. The Housing (Homeless Persons) Act of 1977 went a long way to ensure homeless people with priority needs are housed – Helen’s work with her colleagues on the Select Committee will, almost 40 years later, seek to build on this reform.

You can read Helen’s article here –

Labour MPs must unite in support of the Homelessness Reduction Bill

Update on Quietways next steps – changes we’re pushing for

Last Autumn a surprise announcement of an experimental road closure on Rosendale Road mobilised the community. As your local councillors, we worked with businesses, residents and community groups to oppose the closure and successfully got it taken off the table. We organised a series of codesign workshops to make sure that TfL, Lambeth and Sustrans listened to residents’ concerns and ideas. We have consistently said that we are keen to encourage and enable cycling, but that this should be done collaboratively with local communities, not in a way which creates conflict between cyclists, local residents and local businesses.

Once the feedback from workshops was brought together, the designs went to public consultation – advertised online as well as in letters which went to 4,200 addresses in Thurlow Park. Over 250 residents responded to the consultation, and many got in touch with us too.

Residents who contacted us were also keen to understand the next steps, and we’re aware that there has been a long period with no updates on progress. The mayoral election caused some delay, but mostly the volume of responses meant it has taken officers a long time to process everything. Their published report will provide a detailed response to every query raised by you in the consultation.

Timeline:
September – The report with answers to queries raised in the consultation and a breakdown of people’s answers will be published
September-October – New proposals will be published and put to formal consultation
January – If the new proposals are agreed from the second consultation, work will take place

From talking and corresponding with many of you, we’re aware that there is still a lot of unhappiness with the proposals. We have been pushing for changes to the proposals ahead of any new designs being put forward. We’ve met with the cabinet member and officers in Lambeth, and highlighted the changes we need to see in any new designs for the scheme to be acceptable to local residents as well as improving cycling.

In particular, we are working on:

  • Significantly reducing the number of parking spaces lost
  • Ensuring good access to the allotments
  • Greening at the junction of Rosendale and Turney Roads
  • Tackling rat running on Dalmore Road and Carson Road
  • Preventing any changes to the junction of Rosendale and Parkhall Roads which make traffic worse

Events Strategy for Brockwell park

Thurlow Park Councillors have been working with the Cabinet leadership and the Brockwell Park Community Partners to develop a new events strategy to help manage events in the park for the benefit of the community. Brockwell Park is at the heart of the local community and needs to be well cared for so Everyone can enjoy the space for many years to come. 

Events, of all sorts, are part of park life and many people in the local community and from afar have enjoyed everything from open-air theatre to house music at Brockwell Park. There has been some considerable concern with the way events have been conducted and managed in Brockwell Park over July, especially over the level of noise and the problems associated with clearing up after the events.

To help manage events better for the community a new strategy is coming into place from the Autumn onwards. This will allow greater scrutiny and control over events, which will be devolved from the town hall to the community. The outline of the new events framework is as follows;

• The Brockwell Park Community Partners in conjunction with us will lead in defining the conditions for new events
• The decision to veto events taking place will rest with the community groups and the local Cllrs. Previously the decision was taken centrally by events team staff.
• When the council reviews the event plans to see if it complies with health and safety standards, they will also be reviewed for their impact on the community. This will assess whether the clean up plans are adequate and they have given due care and attention to the impact event will have on the wider neighbourhood.
• There will be an increase in revenue from each event going directly back into Brockwell Park that the Brockwell Community Park Community Partners will allocate.
• There will be community feedback sought after each event to gather views about how run the event more effectively in the future.

We are committed to minimising the negative impact that events can have on the park by not permitting events to be run on consecutive weekends and by imposing tight conditions on the duration of sound levels. Please do write to us further about any issues you have with the park in the future. 

Library of Things

Why buy when you can borrow?!

A Library of Things is a space where you can; borrow useful items like DIY tools, gardening things, kitchenware, camping kit and events equipment; learn how to use items in 1-to-1 sessions /workshops and get to know your neighbours at regular open nights. 

How does it work?

1. Become a member for free. Go to their home in West Norwood, show them some photo ID (like a drivers’ license) and sign the borrowing policy.

2. Browse the Library. All the items are listed in the online catalogue so you can see what’s available.

3. Borrow items. You can borrow up to 5 things for up to 1 week. You pay a small amount – between £0.50 and £10 depending on the item. It’s always much cheaper to borrow than to buy. Concessions available too.

4. Attend a workshop. They run workshops in making, baking and DIY so you can learn new things and take home something lovely.

When are they open?

They are open 3 days a week at our first library home: 

Community Shop, Vale Street, West Norwood, SE27 9PA

Tuesdays, Thursdays 12pm-7pm; Saturdays 10am-4pm

Launch press release – http://www.libraryofthings.co.uk/blog/2016/7/26/londons-first-borrowing-shop-open

Library of Things

West Norwood businesses say YES

We are delighted to share that yesterday the businesses in West Norwood and Tulse Hill voted to form a Business Improvement District (BID). The vote was 76% in favour of the Station to Station project which encompasses over 300 businesses.

A BID is a not-for-profit collective of local businesses, enabling business to come together and collectively lobby for improvements, contribute to and spend a shared fund as well as take the lead in shaping the community to allow local businesses to thrive.

There are currently over 47 BIDs in London and in Lambeth there are BIDs in Vauxhall, Brixton, Streatham and Clapham. Improving the business community is a priority for us as your local Labour councillors. We campaigned for investment in local businesses and for the development of a BID as candidates in 2014 and have been working hard on delivering it since.

Cllr Fred Cowell as the West Norwood Neighbourhood Lead has been working really hard with local businesses and the Means consultancy, along with many other hard working volunteers from the business community, to make this happen. It has been hugely valuable to have a local neighbourhood lead councillor to drive this forward and ensure momentum. For example, in April the BID steering group were able to launch a fashion show in at the Portico Gallery, showcasing designs made in Norwood.

We are looking forward to working with the BID when it starts in work in September and hope to see many more successes in the future.

Having been successfully elected Florence Eshalomi AM follows up Lancaster Ave resident association walkabout about the Thurlow Park rd bridge with question to Mayor. 

As local residents ill be well aware the railway bridge over the South Circular is hit by HGVs more than any other railway bridge in the UK. Every time a lorry drives into the bridge, trains to and from central London are delayed and traffic is redirected down residential streets. In the meantime, large vehicles are indiscriminately redirected down Lancaster Avenue.  It is disruptive and dangerous, and we have been working with residents, TfL, and now our new Assembly Member as we want to do something to solve the problem.

‘TfL has invested in a number of measures such as clearly signing an alternative route, installing larger bridge height restriction signs on the bridge itself.  In collaboration with Network Rail, it has painted black and yellow chevrons on the bridge to highlight the maximum height available to vehicles and added large “Low Bridge” signs to the structure. In addition, new electronic over-height warning systems were successfully commissioned on Friday 15 July 2016, which use infra-red beams and a sensor in the carriageway to detect when a tall vehicle approaches the bridge, triggering a warning message on a nearby sign to advise them to divert’.

Please find Florence Eshalomi AMs question to the Mayor of London and the response here – http://questions.london.gov.uk/QuestionSearch/searchclient/questions/question_288872