Let’s make West Norwood a living wage town centre

Soon, Costa will be opening its doors to its newest coffee shop, here in West Norwood.

Whether you want to continue shopping at our local independent cafes or you are looking forward to a new Costa coffee shop coming to town, we can all agree that West Norwood is a place to be proud of. Our town centre is vibrant and inclusive thanks to its active local community and supportive businesses, and we want to keep it that way.

We worry that pressure on wages and the high cost of living mean that some in our community will not be paid enough to continue living, working and supporting their families here. We value the variety that small local businesses bring, and we are concerned about the pressure that national chains like Costa might put them under. We also worry that centralised supply chains for national brands will take local pounds spent out of the local economy.

Because of these concerns, we have been corresponding with the Managing Director of Costa, Christopher Rogers, to ask if he can –

Employ local residents
Pay them the London Living Wage
Ensure a local supply chain wherever possible to support local independent businesses

Costa’s parent company, Whitbread, says that – “a company needs to do more than just make profits and we are committed to being a force for good in all of the communities in which we operate”. We hope to see these values put into practice in West Norwood.

If you agree with our suggestions, you can sign here and share with your friends and neighbours.

We hope that eventually all businesses can pay the London Living Wage, and will be writing to the national brands in Thurlow Park asking that they commit to paying a decent wage.

Lambeth Council became a Living Wage employer in 2012 and asks its suppliers and contractors to pay the London Living wage.

Raising Quietways concerns with Andrew Gilligan

Cllr Anna Birley recently met with Andrew Gilligan to raise the questions and concerns that many of you have sent us regarding Quietways.

We asked –

Governance and decision making
Timings – can these be more flexible or are they politically driven
Choice of route – why was there no consultation and was it influenced unfairly by the Dulwich Estate?
Why has engagement been so poor?
Interventions – what is on and off the table?
Aspirations for the programme – it appears like a lot of money will be spent on a small increase in cycling, so how will success be measured?
What happens if changes to Rosendale Road are insufficient to deal with priorities highlighted by residents – speeding and safety?

Anna’s feedback is –

“Andrew said he agrees that the programme has not gone as well as intended and acknowledged residents’ concerns about poor engagement. While it may not be of comfort to Thurlow Park residents, I believe that by learning from our experience the delivery of other Quietway routes in the future will be much better.

“He assured me that the Dulwich Estate did not exert undue influence and that a route through Dulwich Village had its own challenges when it reached some difficult junctions at the South Circular. I expressed our disappointment that there had been no consultation about this at the time.

“I wasn’t very satisfied with his reply to my questions about a lot of money being spent to make minor changes – while I’m pleased to see investment in Rosendale Road, it has been pointed out by residents that a 10-20% increase in cycling isn’t in practice very many additional cyclists on the route. He said that in the context of significant TfL budgets being spent on large projects like Tulse Hill, this was not a big sum.

“He suggested that we could look at phasing the changes – we could make very minor changes now as phase one, and plan to make more significant ones later if there is demand for this locally. Currently this is not the plan, and anything we want to do must be done in the current scheme, but I would be interested in residents’ feedback on whether we should be pushing for anything additional as a phase two.

“I explained that the priorities of many local residents were to reduce speeding, make the road safer and tackle ratrunning traffic on neighbouring roads like Dalmore and Eastmearn. He is committed to investing in a route rather than a group of trees so any changes to neighbouring roads would need to demonstrate why they make the route safer. With the issues that residents have raised about the Dalmore and Eastmearn, we perhaps need to focus on why ratrunning traffic makes the Eastmearn junction with Rosendale Road, by the shops, so dangerous. That in turn will hopefully mean we can look at including Dalmore, providing a plan is put on the table that residents like.

“Regarding speeding, I shared the desire for better speed cameras and proper enforcement. He didn’t give the impression that this could be included in the Quietways funding but I have followed up by email to underline the strength of feeling held by many that this is key to tackling speeding.”

Many thanks to Val Shawcross, Assembly Member for Lambeth and Southwark, who organised and facilitated the meeting.

Housing Bill update

Cllr Matthew Bennett, Cabinet Member for Housing, has shared his opinions on the recent Conservative Governments Housing Bill and we thought you might find it interesting.

See here for the link – http://www.lambeth-labour.org.uk/tory_housing_bill_of_horrors

Surveyors doing a topographical survey of Rosendale Road for Quietways

There was some concern about SV Surveyors doing some work on Rosendale Road, following conversations they had with residents.

We have confirmed with Lambeth and with Sustrans that they have no plans to remove trees along Rosendale Road. Only designs which come from ideas and suggestions during co-design events, meetings with businesses and residents’ associations will be put forward at the design showcases on 6th and 9th December.

We have been very clear that communication needs to be regular and transparent, and that we would not support the removal of Rosendale Road’s trees.

Lambeth Parking Study

Many of you highlighted parking, and a review of controlled parking zones, as a key priority for your street. We have consistently been pushing for a review to make sure areas of stress were identified, tackle commuters leaving their cars near stations, look at the gaps left by existing zones and assess hours of current CPZs.

We’re really pleased that a study is being conducted to analyse existing on-street parking demands across the borough, to see where and how extra controls are needed.

For full information, please see here on the Lambeth website.

PM council cuts hypocrisy

You may have seen in the news that David Cameron criticised his own local council in Oxfordshire for making cuts to frontnline services. The Conservative Leader of Oxfordshire rejected Cameron’s assertions on funding and points out that his council has already cut its back office functions, 40% senior staff and 2800 jobs, as well as selling all available property – all while taking on new responsibilities and managing increased demand for services.

In Lambeth we have lost over 56% of our funding since 2010 – much more than Conservative councils like Oxfordshire – which means unavoidable decisions about what services we can deliver, and how. David Cameron seems to think that there are easy decisions that councils can take, and offered Oxfordshire a meeting with his policy advisers. This kind of special treatment is a breach of the ministerial code so Cllr Lib Peck, Leader of Lambeth, has written to the Prime Minister requesting the same meeting so that she can make very clear to his advisers the reality of local government cuts in Lambeth.

Tackling flytipping in Thurlow Park

The Council’s temporary Environmental Enforcement team has been active in Thurlow Park, investigating and labelling dumped residential waste and domestic flytipping. They’ve been taking action – issuing fixed penalty notices.

The following locations in the ward were patrolled – Thurlow Hill, Norwood Road, Birkbeck Hill, Peabody Hill, Rosendale Road, Turney Road, Dalkeith Road, Deronda Road, Romola Road, Deerbrook Road, Berwyn Road, Brockwell Park Gardens, St Faith’s Road, Avenue Park Road, Elmcourt Road, Maley Avenue, Lancaster Avenue, Tulsemere Road, Towton Road, Hexham Road, Lavengro Road, Dalmore Road, Carson Road, Eastmearn Road, Croxted Road, Ebury Mews, Thurlow Park Road, Lovelace Road and Ardlui Road.

Seven fixed penalty notices were issued between Monday 2nd to Saturday 7th November.

If you have any suggestions of problematic locations for waste, please get in touch or report it online here – www.lambeth.gov.uk/rubbish-and-recycling/report-rubbish/report-dumped-rubbish-in-a-ppublic-place

A hundred fly-tippers have been hit with fines in a single month, as Lambeth steps up its assault on illegal dumping.

Lambeth residents are infuriated by fly tipping– bulky objects like old furniture and excess rubbish bags dumped in their streets – and are helping catch those responsible by providing information and evidence through Lambeth’s online reporting system – https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/forms/report-dumped-rubbish-form?utm_source=Sign-Up.to&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=17118-299932-theBALANCE+Issue+12%3A+October+2015

Lambeth recently launched a Not on our streets campaign, warning residents that anti-social behaviour such as fly tipping is completely unacceptable in Lambeth and would be met with instant fines.

But the message that illegal dumping is totally unacceptable has been backed up by a new team of enforcement officers who began work at the start of September. They are tasked specifically with investigating residential fly tips in the borough and fining those responsible. By October 3, the enforcement officers had gathered evidence to hand out 103 Fixed Penalty Notices of £80 (reduced to £50 if paid within 10 days).

Cabinet member for Environment & Sustainability, Cllr Jennifer Brathwaite, said: “These people are dumping rubbish where they shouldn’t be – ruining our environment and infuriating residents. We will simply not tolerate their behaviour.

“A bulky waste collection service is available from the council. Residents should not simply leave old furniture out on the street; that is fly tipping and they will be fined.”

West Norwood cinema ready to roll

West Norwood’s new four screen cinema and library complex has moved a step closer after plans were approved by Lambeth Council’s planning committee.

The cinema, bar and café will be run by Picturehouse Cinemas Ltd in the Old Nettlefold Hall and Library building, and leased from Lambeth Council.

Cllr Jane Edbrooke, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, said: “It’s been a long time coming, but we really can see the prize at the end now.

“The cinema and library, following on from the new health and leisure centre will really help West Norwood realise its potential as a lively Lambeth town centre.”

Quietways – update from the first workshop

Last week Sustrans held the first of a series of workshop sessions to discuss traffic in Rosendale Road.

This is the start of a programme of community engagement and co-design to look at the possibility of making improvements in the Rosendale Road area. The initiative is part of a wider programme of creating a network Quietway cycle routes.

We, like many of you, were alarmed at initial proposals to close Rosendale Road to through traffic – these plans from TfL had not been consulted on locally and there had been no opportunity for local councillors, businesses and residents to have their say.

We believe that it is important for local people to lead any change to their neighbourhood and have successfully got the road closure plans scrapped.

We have subsequently worked closely with Sustrans to organise a series of co-design workshops which will give local communities the chance to take part in the design and decision making, before any formal consultation even begins.

The timeline is –

Information gathering drop in – between 225 and 250 people attended on 30^th September at All Saints Church. This session was so that Sustrans could gather your feedback on living, walking, working, cycling and driving in the local area so that any new plans are based on local experience
Second and third workshops on 10^th October at 10.30-1pm and 14^th October at 5-7.30pm both at All Saints Church – These two events will be the same, so residents only need to come to one. Space is limited, so please RSVP here. If more people want to take part than there is space for, we will be requesting an additional session be organised. These sessions are more hands-on – people can get involved in creating designs. There will be large scale maps, traffic engineers, tools and data to hand to help you. And as there is currently no plan on the table you can discuss any issue from zebra crossings to street planting.
Following the co-design workshops, engineers will work up a number of feasible concept designs. These may vary in terms of scope, scale and cost as they will be completely shaped on the feedback and ideas gathered at the co-design events.
Workshop 4 will be a “feedback concept showcase” on 24^th October between 10.30 and 2.30pm at All Saints Church. This will be more of a drop in so that you can see the variety of designs drawn up from the previous sessions and choose a favourite. Don’t worry if you can’t make this date – your voice will still count as we will be putting the plans online and sending them out by email for your feedback. There is still scope at this stage for adjustments to be made if your preferred design still has room for improvement.
Formal consultation – the design which the majority of local people and businesses choose will then be put forward for formal consultation. This will begin on 17^th November

We will work to make sure community expectations and questions are met. We have had mixed feedback following the first workshop and wanted to share what information we have to try and address some of those concerns.

Availability of traffic data – this is available online here. We anticipate there being more data available to share shortly and we have created a page on our website here to upload everything we can. Do keep checking for updates.
Quality of survey – we have met with Sustrans to feed back this concern and they will take it on board as the codesign process continues. You can feed your ideas into the process without using the survey by emailing us or Ruth on rosendalefeedback@sustrans.org.uk – and we will make endeavour to sure that the formal consultation after 17^th November is vigorous
Were resident’s points taken on board? We have requested that feedback from the last workshop is shared to attendees and others locally who couldn’t make it in a comprehensive and transparent way. If, once this has been compiled, you are concerned that your points aren’t included, please do just let us know.
Some streets missed out on the communications – the map showing where leaflets and invitations were delivered is here. If you are worried that you’re not receiving the information then please let us know and we will double check you are added to the mailing list.
The format (post-it notes and maps) wasn’t the best way to discuss – we’ve fed this back to Sustrans and the next workshops will be much more hands on. While there will definitely still be maps, and probably still be post-it notes, we hope that the hands on format will be more conducive to in depth discussions on the areas that you’re most passionate about.
The scheme doesn’t join up with other changes happening locally – as local councillors we are involved in all major schemes in the area and will be working to make sure these join up. We have briefed Sustrans on the work happening at StreetWorks on Norwood Road and have spoken to TfL officers about the importance of these projects complementing each other.
There is no opportunity to comment on the Quietways route or discuss whether any intervention is needed in the first place – we agree that there should have been proper public engagement when the routes for Quietways were being drawn up. The decision on the routes was made at City Hall by the Mayor of London’s team, and with our local Assembly Member, we will be meeting with that team to discuss why this didn’t happen and to interrogate the process followed.

If you wish to be kept informed please contact Sustrans at rosendalefeedback@sustrans.org.uk to be added to their email update list. Otherwise, you can always email us with your points or concerns and we will be sure to keep you in the loop.

And don’t forget to RSVP for the 10^th October or 14^th October workshops