Clapham Park Festival

The weather held out, after a very wet Friday, for the Clapham Park Festival at Agnes Riley Gardens, Poynders Road. The festival included music and live performances including local youngsters from local primary schools and Lambeth Performing Arts who took to the stage to show off the singing and dancing.

Along with the entertainment on stage their were activities including football, basketball, netnball, facepainting, badge making and other arts and crafts. There were free health checks and other health advice on several stalls and I saw Councillor Lib Peck having her blood pressure taken.

We visited the Time Bank stall. This is a fantastic initiative where you give your time to others and in return others can then help you. For every hour you give you earn an hours time credit, you can exchange this for an hours help from other members of the time bank for any of the services they have to offer.

Several councillors and local MP Keith Hill joined the local people that had turned out to enjoy the day. I was pleased to meet again Donna C Henry, chair of Clapham Park Project and Joe Moll, Chair of Clapham Park Homes.

A very successful and fun day, in particular I was impressed by the talent of the children who confidentially took the stage and were enjoyed by all.

Balfour Beatty London Youth Games

Every year over 20,000 young Londoners from the 32 London Boroughs and the City of London, compete in over 30 different sports competitions that comprise the Games. I attended the 2008 games, with Deputy Mayoress Emita Griffith, in Crystal Palace.

Whilst at the games we attended a reception where we heard speeches from London Youth Games Limited, Sports England and sponsor Balfour Beatty.

Following the reception we toured the games visiting some of the teams proudly representing Lambeth. Watching them play you could really see their passion and commitment.

We also visited the Archery team where we spent time hearing about the sport. It was clear that this sport demanded huge discipline, however cost of equipment and traveling to a limited number of places where you could practice means not all who could benefit from partaking in this sport are able to.

We were extremely impressed by all the young people in the Lambeth teams and all the officers and volunteers that work with the teams working for success, not just at the games, but towards a healthy sporting future.

New Park Road Baptist Church fun day

I was pleased to open the New Park Road Baptist Church fun day. The event, totally free for members of the local community, there was a large mix of foods, entertainment and even a stall with free childrens clothes. All the food and drink was free, donated by local people.

The purose of the annual community fun day is to welcome the churchs neighbours, giving them the opportunity to meet those involved in the church, learn more about the many things they do and of course enjoy themselves.

The congregation is made up from a wide ethnic backgroud, including a large French-language congregation (largely West African) with a pastor originally from Congo. Weekly activities run by church members include a toddlers’ and carers’ morning, a senior citizens’ afternoon meeting, and an after-school club.

Along with being shown around the church and the event I was given a free blood pressure test which I am thankfully told is OK

B5 Launch event at Clapham Park

The event was to celebrate the commencement of works on the first block to be built as part of the Clapham Park master plan and significant progress on one of Lambeth’s biggest development schemes.

Attendees included Rt. Hon Keith Hill MP, the member of parliament for Streatham; John Campion, the managing director for Inspace partnerships; Mark Doyle, Operations Manager; Owen Thompson, Managing Director for Clapham Park Homes; Joe Moll, Chair of Clapham Park Homes; Councillor Lib Peck, Cabinet member for housing; Councillor Jeremy Clyne, opposition spokesperson for housing among other councillors, board members, senior staff and the consultant team.

 

The Clapham Park estate covers an area of 61.4 hectares on a site between Brixton, Streatham, Balham and Clapham. After several decades of decline the area was awarded £56 million under the New Deal for Communities programme.

The design of the Clapham Park master plan was community led and culminated in proposals for the exisiting housin stock to be transferred from the London Borough of Lambeth to a resident social landord. The resident led housing association Clapham Park Homes was created and took transfer of the exisiting estate in June 2006.

The scheme will see the refurbishment of 975 units and the demolition of 1,037. In its place a mixed used scheme will be built provising 783 affordable units, 175 shared ownership, 1465 for sale and a 50 extra care unit stand alone scheme.

There will also be a site for a new primary school; community centre / building; 2 nurseries; a healthy living centre; a new park and commercial space. The works will take until 2017 to complete.

B5 represents a new start for residents, and the first steps towards a renewed Clapham Park.

Passing out parade at Hendon

Friday 13 June 2008

Today I attended a passing out parade at the Police Constable Foundation Training Centre in Hendon. This was for an occasion following police students completing a 29 week intensive training course.

I was joined at the event by Councillor Imogen Walker, who is chair of Environment and community safety sub-committee. We were were attending to see the passing out of constables who will be serving across Lambeth.

At the event I met Mayors from other boroughs including Councillor John Marshall, who had not had to come far as he is Mayor of Barnet (where Hendon is situated), who made us very welcome to his borough.

It was a wonderful day; the parade was excellent with the students clearly proud of their achievement as were their families. Sir Ian Blair was the reviewing officer, who gave a brilliant, emotional and inspiring speech which gripped the audience.

We spoke to Sir Ian prior to the presentation ceremony about policing in Lambeth together with the challenges that officers faced policing in different parts of London. Sir Ian spoke with passion about the importance of marking the completion of the training with such an event, which he had been personally instrumental in ensuring the ceremony continued.

I really enjoyed meeting the new Police constables who would be coming to Lambeth. We were introduced to them by Chief Inspector Rob Harper from Streatham where some of the recruits had spent time training.

The Peel centre at Hendon is the largest and most comprehensive police training school in the world.