Clapham Town Councillors – New Surgery times and location

The local surgery for Clapham town’s three Labour councillors has just changed. Although the time is the same – noon every Saturday – the surgery will now be at Clapham’s Methodist church, just off the High Street on Nelson Road.

To get access to the building you need to round the side of the church, down Nelson’s road, and ring the bell – someone will answer! The only time the surgery wont run is on bank holiday weekends.

If you can’t make it down then feel free to email anyone of your councillors at the below addresses:

Helen O’Malley – homalley@lambeth.gov.uk

Nigel Halesden – nhalesden@lambeth.gov.uk

Christopher Wellebelove – cwellebelove@lambeth.gov.uk

Leisure centre changes – interview with Lambeth Labour

The changes to Lambeth leisure centre have been in the news a lot locally following the council’s decision to redevelop the site. It closed on the 15th January for major work that will include the building of a new swimming pool.

Local Clapham Town counsellor Nigel Halesden gives an interview with local Clapham blogger Jason Cobb, which was uploaded on the 19th January (for those searching through his back catalogue). It is a tough interview in which Nigel talks about the scope of the project and when it will be finished, as well as answers some of the questions about how the redevelopment has been conducted.

Have a listen to the interview and give us your feedback on what you have heard.

Information about where classes at the leisure centre have been moved to are available at this page.

Lambeth Noise Control

There aren’t many things that are more downright annoying than a neighbour sending you up the wall with noise. To tackle this, back in November, Lambeth council expanded its  noise patrol service so that it now operates much longer hours than before.

As the Lambeth website outlines, excessive noise is defined as a disturbance that impacts on any resident’s quality of life. Specifically this can be:

loud music, TV or radio

persistent shouting, banging or other unreasonable domestic noise

parties or other entertainment

pubs, clubs and entertainment venues

building and DIY work at unreasonable times of the day

constant dog barking

car and burglar alarms.

If you’re being upset by any of these problems, then you can call the 9am to 5pm service on 020 7926 6111 or the rapid response service which is open at the below times:

Monday to Thursday evenings: 5pm to 3am

Friday evenings: 5pm to 5am

Saturday: 2pm to 5am

Sunday: 2pm to 3am

Lambeth primary schools – 48hrs to sign e-petition!

As we mentioned at the tail end of last year, Lambeth council is running an e-petition as part of a lobbying process aimed at getting more money for extra primary school places in the borough.

The petition close on Wednesday, so if you havent already signed the petition please put your name on the site and forward a link onto your friends and family. Its vital we get this funding to meet the unexpected surge in demand for primary school places in Lambeth – it sounds like a cliche, but your voice really will count!

Lambeth grit

Firstly, apologies for the lame headline, but it’s been a long day …

The Streatham Guardian has just put up a decent write up about the council’s gritting effort across Lambeth and has the reassuring message that we aren’t about to run out of that all important grit as the council has enough resources to see us through the cold snap. This is thankfully coming to end very soon, but if you want updates from the local area have a look at our page from the weekend.

Remember if you have any comments about how services have operated during the cold weather or suggestions on how things could be improved, please contact your Clapham Town councillors below.

Helen O’Malley – homalley@lambeth.gov.uk

Nigel Halesden – NHaselden@lambeth.gov.uk

Christopher Wellbelove – CWellbelove@lambeth.gov.uk

Clapham and Lambeth snow update

A lot of you have been logging on to our snow updates, so here is a further update on how everything is looking out there in Lambeth and Clapham.

The council’s website has once again been updated with news on services across the borough – this link outlines the state of play yesterday, but is still fairly accurate. Keep monitoring the main page for further updates as well as TFL’s main site for news about the transport network across the captial – it also has a handy five day weather forecast. The BBC, as ever, is also running a pretty effective weather and news page on the big freeze, which alas is predicting some sharp icy winds and snow over the next 48 hours.

If you have any comment or views on how services are working – or any urgent issues – please contact your local Clapham Town Labour councillors:

Helen O’Malley – homalley@lambeth.gov.uk

Nigel Halesden – NHaselden@lambeth.gov.uk

Christopher Wellbelove – CWellbelove@lambeth.gov.uk

David Cameron – Because he’s worth it …

As anyone pulling into Vauxhall bus station will tell you, it is a frightening sight – David Cameron staring out at you from a billboard.  Doesnt anyone think about the children these days?

However, its not quite as scary as the Tory leader scrambling around yesterday trying to figure out whether the Tories were in favour of some kind of ill defined tax break for married couples or not. One moment Dave was promising it to the nation, then several spin filled melodramas later his advisors were rapidly packing him into a cupboard and pretending the whole thing had never happened. Apparently Cameron – according to one Tory source -  ended up blaming his people for HIS foul up, screaming about briefing papers until the men in the white coats came to calm him down.

While all this was going on one sharp photo-shopper came up with a far more appealing version of that creepy poster. Unlike the slogan on the orignal, the words on this are true…  

Lambeth snow update

If the weathermen are to be believed more ice, cold and potentially snow is on the way tonight and tomorrow morning.

The council has updated its snow page with news about what services – buildings, schools – are up and running.

UPDATE! – READ THIS PAGE FOR LATEST NEWS

Tories hit poorest in fare hike

As many of you may have noticed on your trip into work this  week, buses and tubes going through Clapham have got more expensive once again.

The mayor hiked up fares for those without season tickets – commonly people from low income backgrounds – late last year, with the hit being delivered from the start of this year.

A full run down of the prices, borrowed from a summary on Liberal Conspiracy, is below: 

 -A single bus journey by Oyster up 20% to £1.20

- A weekly oyster bus pass up 20% to £16.60

- Six-zone peak single Tube fare by Oyster up 10.5% to £4.20

- A five-zone off-peak single Tube fare (outside zone 1) up 18.2% to £1.30

- Most Oyster pay-as-you-go Tube fares up by 20p per trip.

- Overall tube fares will rise 3.9% and overall bus fares up by 12.7%.

This is obviously not good for anyone, especially as the mayor continues to take the approach of cutting key services, like policing, while jetting off to Europe to beg for super rich hedge fund bosses to be let off from more scrutiny. Or, as he has done today, whining about those poor old bankers and their desire to leave the country (dont suppose they need any help packing?)

Surprisingly, Clapham Tories haven’t uttered a word about these rises and their impact on residents – nothing on their Parliamentary candidate’s website for Vauxhall or on that of the Lambeth Tories.

How about helping to find out what they think by contacting them asking for their view on whether they back yet more of Boris’ far rises – you can contact their candidate here and your local Tory candidates here. Let us know your feedback by contacting your Labour councillors as well on this page.

We believe that hitting people hard, especially those on low incomes, is not what Clapham needs. These prices could have been avoided had the mayor not already mismanaged the capital’s budget. The question is, do Clapham Tories back their Mayor’s fare rises?

Clapham Town councillors – get in touch in the New Year

2009 was an eventful year for Clapham Town – consultations, e-petitions, music festivals, squatters and the odd firework thrown in.

Next year is likely to be just as eventful for residents – and if you have any kind of problem don’t hesitate to get in touch with your Clapham Old Town councillors. Each is there to help you with your complaints as well as represent your issues to the council. Besides regular surgeries (email us for details) you can contact them direct at the following addresses:

Helen O’Malley – homalley@lambeth.gov.uk

Nigel Halesden – NHaselden@lambeth.gov.uk

Christopher Wellbelove – CWellbelove@lambeth.gov.uk

And if you have any other news or issues you’d like us to pursue on this blog, feel free to leave a comment for us to look into. Don’t forget that you can also follow us on Twitter, either through the Clapham Town Ward account or by following Christopher, the current mayor of Lambeth.

Happy New Year!