Norwood Planning Assembly – local input in planning

The Norwood Planning Assembly (NPA) was established by the Norwood Forum and the Norwood Action Group. It is hope that such an assembly will allow local people to decide where future shops, houses, community and workspaces should be and what they look like, and press for property to be more affordable too.

Cllr Fred Cowell has been working with the above group as well as with other residents to help enable local people and businesses to have a greater say in planning development in our local area.

Having received an update towards the end of January 2017 at the NPA public meeting about the bid for designation, ratification of the NPA constitution and the election of officers, plus the creation of a volunteer led sub-groups to develop aspects of the neighbourhood plan, the NPA is now going to public consultation.

It is expected that the decision on whether to formally designate the NPA will be made by the Council’s Cabinet in July 2017.

The map of the area covered is available here – https://www.norwoodplanning.org/the-neighbourhood-boundary

You can support the application whether you live in the area of the NPA or not. The more support that can be demonstrate in and around the area, the more representative we can be of our community. Please respond by 15 May 2017.

You can send your views by email or respond by post:

Email: localplan@lambeth.gov.uk

Post: Planning Strategy and Policy Team, London Borough of Lambeth, 1st Floor, Phoenix House, 10 Wandsworth Road, London SW8 2LL

Details of the application can be found on the Lambeth website – https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/consultations/norwood-planning-assembly-neighbourhood-forum-and-neighbourhood-area-application

Printed copies of the application are also available for inspection at West Norwood library during their normal opening hours and at the Council’s office at Ground Floor, Phoenix House, 10 Wandsworth Road, London, SW8 2LL from 9am-5pm Monday to Friday.

More information can be found on the Norwood Planning Assembly website – https://www.norwoodplanning.org/

The Regeneris report on Norwood, produced after extensive consultation, which includes the Commonplace map can be found here – https://www.norwoodplanning.org/consultation-activity

Recent Streetworks co-creation workshops at City Heights and the Salvation Army Hall focused on the Tulse Hill Gyratory and saw over 90 people attend.

As well as a general update on the project so far there was further information given about an initially popular co-design idea of the partial closure of the Norwood Road with access only for pedestrians, buses and cyclists as seen in the first image, while there was also the launch of the design competition for the new diagonal crossing as seen in the second image.

StreetWorks is a community-led project to improve Norwood and Tulse Hill. The project is funded by Transport for London and supported by officers at Lambeth Council.

The Norwood Forum, the Tulse Hill Forum, local councillors and community groups are working together with residents, businesses, schools and road users to design a better space, remove the one-way system at Tulse Hill and provide training and support for future local projects.

If you’d like any further information or want to get involved in the Streetworks project please visit – http://www.streetworks.london/

Below is a copy of the Norwood Forum Chair’s report

This report covers the period from our last AGM held on 16 July 2014 and a very eventful year it has been.

I should like to take this opportunity to thank Lynda Hayward for her unfailing help and attendance at Forum events and committee meetings. Unfortunately, she has decided to step down from the committee and will be greatly missed. I should also like to thank Lesley Duff, our hardworking administrator, who had to step down because of family commitments in Scotland. We had since appointed Tim Stephens as administrator and Georgina Wilson.

During the year we helped to fund: A summer youth project at Emmanuel Church, The Norwood Pensioners Christmas Party, a Warm and Well event, The Norwood Park Dog Show and Falconry exhibition.

This year the committee decided that the best people to allocate our meagre funds were our members, so we organised a community funding event in which x no of organisations pitched for 6 pots of £400
Members of the public were then invited to vote for their choice and the following groups were successful : Norwood Community Group (418 points), Friends of Norwood Park (338 points), Rommany Road Playing Out (332 points), Norwood Pensioners Group (332 points)
Portico Wednesday events (328 points), And a draw between Emmanuel Youth activities (296 points) and the Norwood Feast (296 points) meant that they each received £200 each.
The other participating groups were so impressive, that it was decided to allocate more funds for the event and a further £100 were Improve UR Self (295 points), 4All Community Choir (278 points),and Woodvale TRA (212 points)

The Forum also had a regular presence at the Norwood Feast and the 4ALL Summer Fair.

Earlier this year we organised a Question Time for all the candidates standing in our parliamentary constituency. It was very well attended occasion at which residents were able to question prospective parliamentary candidates on issues of importance.

Currently we are engaged in a number of major project: the Norwood Road and Tulse Hill Gyratory Project, the formation of a Planning Forum for Norwood, and the introduction of a market at Station Rise.

The Norwood Road Improvements are being funded to the tune of 2 million pounds by TfL . and there is a further sum of 5 million pounds available for the re-design of the Tulse Hill Gyratory. Lambeth Council in the person of Abu Barkatoolah successfully bid for these sums and exceptionally, were able to convince TfL that the project should be community driven. The Norwood Forum and the Tulse Hill Forum will be collaborating on these projects which have been branded as StreetWorks – Norwood2TulseHill. Full details of the project are on our website, www.norwoodforum.org. The Norwood Forum will be leading on the Norwood Road improvements and the Tulse Hill Forum will lead on the re-design of the one-way-system. We are currently in the process of engaging the community in trying to explore what people would like. The Norwood Road project is scheduled to take two years, and following that the redesign of the Tulse Hill Gyratory will start.

The Norwood Planning Assembly has been set up jointly between the Forum and the Norwood Action Group. The Assembly was launched by our new Member of Parliament, Helen Hayes. A Constitution and Officers were agreed and we are now in negotiation with neighbouring areas over the exact boundaries of the planning area. All of this notwithstanding, the Forum has been exercising its right as a statutory consultee in vetting development within its boundaries and, together with NAG has recorded several objections to unsuitable planning proposals.

You may remember that the forum conducted a survey some months ago to determine what sort of market was needed and where. Tree Shepherd, the organisation that helps start-up businesses, is piloting a once-a-month market starting in September. The venture is crowd funded and if you would like to support the idea, please go to their website
http://treeshepherd.org.uk/twist-popup-market-on-station-rise-tulse-hill/
and promise some money. Every little helps.

You will know that we have Holly Smallman from Picturehouses to talk about progress on the Library/cinema project. We are generally in support of the project and will pursue both parties, the Council and Picturehouses, to proceed as rapidly as possible so that we have a wonderful recreational facility and the return of our town centre library.

Lastly I would like to thank all members of the committee for their hard work and dedication.
We need more people to help improve Norwood. Any volunteers will be welcomed with gratitude.

Noshir Patel
Chair 2014-2015

West Norwood Library /Cinema update

At this evenings Norwood Forum AGM there was a brief presentation and update from the PictureHouse Cinemas group and Lambeth Council regarding the project. During the discussion it became clear that the planning application is due to be put before planning in roughly two weeks time.

There will then be an 8 week period of engagement before the steering group committee come to form its own conclusion in October 2015. This in turn would lead to a 5-6 month period of more detailed design work. Building on the site would therefore not really begin until around May 2016 and will take roughly a year to build.

We’ll look to keep you updated but if you hear anything please do not hesitate to contact us.

Local Neighbourhood plans

The 2011 Localism Act allows communities to develop and pass ‘Neighbourhood Plans’ – these are legally binding documents that allow the local community to control the development of a particular area. They put a duty on the Local Council to follow the residents wishes when it comes to granting planning permission and can help shape the future of an area. We are very pleased to see that across Thurlow Park local groups are looking to take up these powers and give the local community even more of a chance to shape their area.

The Tulse Hill Forum undertook a local consultation for the Tulse Hill area in February /March 2015, while a joint meeting of the Norwood Action Group and the Norwood Forum last week created a joint steering group – called the Norwood Planning Assembly. In Herne Hill steps are also underway to investigate the development of a neighbourhood plan.

These initiatives are locally driven, and are not being run by Lambeth Council, the Mayor’s office or central government.

Inclusivity must be at the heart of the entire consultation process and the development of any plan, and we will work to help as many people from as many different backgrounds as possible become involved in process.

Thurlow Park has a number of overlapping neighbourhoods – for example, residents in the north may associate themselves with Herne Hill where as residents in the south with West Norwood – we will work very carefully with all forums and local residents to ensure that your street is included in the plan that is best for you.

All of these processes are fully open to the public and people should get involved as this would make a real difference to their local area in years to come. If you want to know more about the development of local plans just contact any of three local forums –

Herne Hill – info@hernehillforum.org.uk

Norwood Forum – chair@norwoodforum.org

Tusle Hill Forum – enquiries@tulsehillforum.org.uk