Local news and opportunities to get involved from your local Labour and Co-operative councillors in Thurlow Park.
Many of you told us that speeding was your top priority for Thurlow Park ward – so as part of the Our Streets project we secured funding for speed reduction measures on some of the streets with the biggest speeding problems.
We’re really excited that new 20mph banners have been installed as part of this project! They’re up on Lancaster Avenue, Robson Road and Norwood Road. You’ll also see new 20mph signs and road markings installed over the next few months
Since being launched yesterday afternoon, our petition against the closure of the last bank in West Norwood has hit 400. Can you help get it over 500 before the end of the day?
Sign here and share with your friends and neighbours:
Local councillors Anna, Fred and Peter, with Cllr Jane Pickard from Knights Hill and West Norwood activists were outside Barclays with the petition today, talking to people about what the closure could mean locally for traders and customers.
If you want to get involved in our campaign, get in touch!
West Norwood library and Picture House won the Edge award in Edinburgh last night – in particular they were praised for the new building’s physical appearance and for making excellent use of community space.
A big congratulations!!
Each summer sees applications from event organisations to hold festivals, sports events or other activities in Brockwell Park. In the last few years, some of these have been of particular concern to the local community because of anxiety about noise, antisocial behaviour or the impact on the park. Many of you have also been in touch about the long term financial sustainability of the park, as it’s an invaluable local asset.
Last year, we worked very hard to mitigate these concerns with regards to Love Box and Field Day applying to come. We held a public meeting and knocked on many of your doors to listen to your concerns. We developed some red lines and put these across strongly to colleagues, officers and licensing committee. Some concessions were won, and we will continue to do this with the application from Mighty Hoopla this summer too.
However, there were some issues raised which couldn’t be dealt with via individual event applications because they were reflections on the wider framework policy for events in parks. We committed to campaigning for a review of the events strategy and to giving you an opportunity to input into this.
With that in mind, we are holding a public meeting on reviewing the events policy and the future of Brockwell Park on 11 March at 6.30-8.30pm at Rosendale Primary School.
One of the things we love about Thurlow Park is the strong sense of community – and nothing says community like the many street parties that you organise across the ward each year.
The council is happy to support street parties, but you have to make sure your application gets in in good time as road closures are reviewed in batches each month. The deadline for street parties in April is coming up – get your applications in by 6th March .
Lambeth defines a street party as an event which…
The road closure should be free, but there may be costs if you need the council’s contractors to bring over signs and barriers. Do get in touch if this is an issue – our details are on our contact page.
Calling all private renters in Thurlow Park and beyond – you have until 3rd March to have your say on renting and the kind of support you’d like from the council to improve the sector and help you resolve issues with your landlord!
It doesn’t take long – there’s a short online survey which you can fill out here. If this is a topic you’re passionate about, you can contact Cllr Anna Birley who as well as being a Thurlow Park councillor is also the Lambeth policy lead on private renting, on abirley@lambeth.gov.uk, or you can sign up to our Facebook group for private renters in the local area.
In a consultation last April, residents in West Norwood said that there should be more play equipment installed on the grounds of the West Norwood Health & Leisure Centre to provide more for the growing numbers of children using the outdoor area.
Having listened to views, the council has drawn up some proposals on new equipment that they hope to progress soon. These include:
The council hopes to go ahead with all of these suggestions, however, officers would be interested in the level of popularity each item receives, as it is possible final space planning may mean the need to exclude an item or two from the proposals at the final stages.
The consultation is open until 1st March and you can respond online here. You can also express interest in being part of a ‘friends’ group – a community group of users who help to protect and champion the facility.
Mighty Hoopla and Cross the Tracks have applied to come to Brockwell Park for a festival on the 8th and 9th of June 2019. This will be smaller than last year with fewer festival goers – on present information neither event is set to exceed 20, 000 – and with a considerably smaller amount of the park than was taken up by the Field Day festival last year. We have set out all of the details here – including what the implications will be for the park and more details about how we can move towards more sustainable funding models.
Overall this application represents an improvement on the situation from last year, but there are some concerns about how the festivals will be managed and the clear up afterwards. For full details of the application you can see the official form here.
One of the most important aspects of the approval process is the grant of a license to the festival – this allows them to play live music and sell alcohol and is subject to a very tight legal process, run by the Council’s Licensing Committee. Last year when Field Day and Mighty Hoopla were applying a for a license many residents wrote in commenting on the process and, consequently, a large number of restrictions were placed on the festivals’ operations, relating to noise and security. This had the positive effect of significantly reducing any anti-social behaviour and limiting noise complaints to a handful of cases.
Our view is that the conditions on Field Day’s license last year represent the bare minimum for a festival in Brockwell park and we would ask that any license for Mighty Hoopla and Cross the Tracks should at least match these terms, and go further in some key areas. We want restrictions on closing times in line with the updated licensing policy for the area and enhanced noise restrictions.
It would also be really helpful if residents made their views known to the licensing authority. All it takes is an email to licensing@lambeth.gov.uk with the subject line ‘Mighty Hoopla Representation’.
For all licensing applications please bear in mind that the committee can only take into account applications dealing with the four objectives under the 2003 Licensing Act:
Any other matter, such as the repair of the ground or bio-diversity cannot be taken into account by the Licensing Committee.
Further event consultations are taking place this week run by the organisers, and if you have any questions about licensing policy or process, do get in touch with Cllr Fred Cowell on fcowell@lambeth.gov.uk.
As we blogged recently, Mighty Hoopla and a new funk, soul and jazz festival called Cross the Tracks have applied to hold events in Brockwell Park this June.
A reminder that they are holding a community drop-in session this week on Wednesday 27th February. They have two times you can visit, during the day and in the evening:
There will be an additional community engagement session on Wednesday 13th March 5-8pm at Jubilee Community Hill, Tulse Hill Estate, London SW2 2LY.
If you can’t make either but would like to ask the organisers a questions, they say residents, businesses and community groups are welcome to email them at community@mightyhoopla.com
Thurlow Park News 