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.

Business Improvement District progress

The West Norwood Business Association are working together with us and the consultancy group the Means to form a Business Improvement District (BID). 

A BID is an area where businesses work together in a community and pay a levy that can then be used to invest in the area, making a real difference to the community. The prospective BID area encompasses the wider area of West Norwood including Tulse Hill. 

Lambeth has successful BID’s in Streatham, Brixton and Clapham and we are hoping to make West Norwood as successful as these areas. Already many local shops and businesses have participated in forming the steering group and the BID is set to launch later on this year.

Tackling burglaries in Thurlow Park

Burglary is a terrible crime that has affected many residents in the ward. We made a manifesto commitment in May 2014 to help residents at risk of burglary with new locks and advice on prevention. As a result of this support, we have seen a 25% reduction in burglary across the borough.

However, we need to continue to reduce burglaries, particularly here where we still have one of the highest burglary rates in Lambeth. Indeed, SE21, SE24 and SE27 have been highlighted as some of the worst affected areas in the country. 

That’s why we’re supporting our local Safer neighbourhoods Team in promoting MetTrace – free, traceable liquid property marketing kits which let residents mark their possessions with a unique invisible forensic code and put a warning sticker in the window to deter burglars. The code can be used by the police to trace any items should they be stolen. 

5500 packs are being made available across Lambeth. Because we’ve itentified burglary as a particular problem in Thurlow Park, 2000 of these packs will be available for residents in our ward. We’d encourage you to use a kit – if you haven’t received one then please get in touch.

Golden ticket recycling scheme – the more you recycle, the greater your chances of winning

You should have received your Golden Tickets – hrough the door of in Lambeth Talk magazine. To be in with a chance of winning £250, all you need to do is fill out your details on the tickets and place them along with your clean, dry recycling into your recycling sack or bin for collection. You can enter a ticket each time you fill a recycling sack or use your shared recycling bin.

So the more you recycle, the more chance you have of winning!

If you haven’t received your tickets, or if you would like more, you can download them from the Western Riverside Waste Authority website.

Your clear recycling sacks are collected from the pavement outside the boundary of your property. You should put your recycling out by 6am on your collection day. Please make sure your recycling does not obstruct the footpath and that it is not put out before 8pm on the night before your collection.

Community prize draw

Estate residents’ associations and community groups can also enter the Community Prize Draw. Apply here for a grant of up to £2,500 to fund your project to improve recycling in your neighbourhood.

If you have a great idea for improving recycling or reducing waste, we’d love to hear it. Perhaps you would like to organise regular children’s clothes swaps, or set up a series of workshops to teach people how to mend clothes, electrical items or how to cook with leftovers? Whatever your idea, we’re waiting to hear from you.

Lambeth’s budget 2016/17

Since 2010 Lambeth
has had its
budget reduced by 56% – that’s more than £200 million
– which has had a
devastating effect on the borough’s finances, especially as the majority of Lambeth’s budget doesn’t come from council tax. 

Lambeth’s budget for 2016/17 follows
another round of national cuts from central government. 

The council
also confirmed that in order to support existing services, it will be raising Council Tax by 1.99%,
along with the additional 2% Government precept for Adult Social Care.

Cllr Peck, the
leader of Lambeth Labour, writing
in her blog has said that: “This is undoubtedly the most
difficult economic situation the council has ever faced with the current
government imposing cut after cut. The idea that local authorities such as Lambeth can
keep finding new things to cut is farcical. But we are determined to get through it, protecting the
most vulnerable and finding new ways to provide the basic services which keep
our communities thriving. We
all have to work together and do our bit through these difficult times and I’m
confident the people of Lambeth can rise to this challenge.”

In practical terms, this changes mean
the council will be reducing its size with fewer staff employed – reductions
will have to be made in most areas, including the cultural services budget. We’re having to drive more efficiencies with our partners in areas like public health and social care, doing all we can protect frontline adult and children social care services as much as possible, protecting our important work around Violence Against Women and Girls, continuing to support those affected by Government welfare reforms and spending more on Council Tax support for those who can’t afford to pay.

In such harsh financial
circumstances, as your three Labour councillors, we will continue to work hard for residents’ needs. 

The next full council meeting will be when we vote on our budget, so we wanted to share some information on context and changes ahead. If anyone has questions about the budget, please get in touch.

Poetry in West Norwood

There’s a great new project in West Norwood kicking off called Poetry Slabs, who aim to create and install poetry throughout West Norwood. They want to work with local projects, community groups, businesses and artists to celebrate poetry and the local neighbourhood. 

Their first collaboration is in the pipeline, with an exciting new project with the Urban Bzz Garage, and we hope to see many more. Also watch out for a poetry-themed FEAST in the not too distant future.

In the meantime, keep checking poetryslabs.org for news!

^ proposed installation at the Bzz Garage

Quietways update – public consultation

Since last summer, there have been a number of workshops and public meetings regarding Quietway Route 7, which includes part of Rosendale Road.

While many of you are unhappy about the choice of route, this was decided a number of years ago before we were elected councillors. However, since this was raised with us, we have done all we can to give residents a say over what this section of Quietway looks like. We have raised your concerns right to the top – having met with Andrew Gilligan, who is responsible London-wide for the Quietways programme, plus regular contact with Lambeth, TfL, the cabinet member, the leader of the council, the MP and Sustrans.

The proposals for public consultation are being completed and this will begin later this month. We’ll post links here on how to feedback online, and you’ll also receive a letter informing you the consultation dates and how to get involved if you live near the route. The project has been handed back to Lambeth officers to deliver on behalf of TfL from Sustrans, who were hired by TfL to help with hosting workshops and public engagement events.

In the meantime, please do continue to contact us with your thoughts and questions.