As part of our continued efforts to make it easier for people living in Clapham Town to meet and talk to their local councillors on Saturday 25th October the three councillors for Clapham Town held four surgeries over seven hours.

Councillor O’Malley started with the regular surgery at Clapham Leisure Centre. Councillors Haselden and Wellbelove then held the first ever surgery at the Clapham Community Project in Venn Street where we were visited by several local people with a wide variety of issues for us to help with.

Councillors then moved onto the Virgin Active gym in North Street, another first, where residents from Bobbin Close came to discuss concerns about dumped rubbish and graffiti which have now been reported and will be followed up on by councillors to ensure they are resolved.

Finally Councillor Wellbelove visited Heather Close sheltered housing where he met several residents, many who had concerns over increasing bills and ensuring that their payments were up to date.

This evening Councillor O’Malley and I attended a meeting at Lambeth Town Hall with Debbie Hunter, head of Lambeth’s regeneration team and with Councillor Haselden, joining us via a telephone conference call.

Debbie was giving us an update on progress with the plans for the new leisure centre in Clapham Manor Street. It was clear that a huge amount of work has been done firming up the project and putting into place temporary leisure provision whilst Clapham Leisure Centre is rebuilt.

More news will be coming to you soon and I shall see if I can get a copy placed here. The latest update includes details of facilities that we are making available during the project, to make sure that as many people as possible can continue to use our leisure service.

The developer will soon be seeking planning permission for the new buildings. In the meantime the team continue to discuss any concerns held by local people, including residents on Voltaire and Edgeley Roads who will be most affected by the development.

Importantly, local groups such as the Clapham Society remain engaged and changes have been made following their input. We are still campaigning for the whole of the existing library building to be made available to the local community, rather than the original plan, which included selling part of the building to pay for improvements. We are very hopeful that our concerns have been listened to.

As Lambeth’s Design Champion, Cllr Haselden has been able to contribute to the scheme since its early days. The champion role helps us to continually emphasise the value that we put on good design, to channel the ideas and expectations of local people into the project – particularly in the sessions with schools and the drop-in workshops – and to contribute to the shortlisting of design teams and the ‘competitive dialogue’ part of Future Clapham, where the final three design teams worked up their proposals in more detail, before Cathedral was chosen as our preferred developer.

Please visit the Future Clapham Newsletter (June 2008)

Please visit the Clapham Leisure Centre survey on the Lambeth website.

Contact the Future Clapham team

Freephone 0800 052 6336 

Email futurelambeth@lambeth.gov.uk

www.lambeth.gov.uk/futureclapham

Councillor Wellbelove with residents at the Heath Road surgery

Clapham Town Labour councillors have for many years held sugeries, where people can come and talk to their councillors, for many years. The surgeries are held at Clapham Leisure Centre every Saturday from 11:00 – midday (except Bank Holidays) and being in the same place every week are useful for people to know where to find their councillors on a regular basis.

However there are some people who find getting to the leisure centre difficult and to help ensure that we reach as many people as possible Clapham Town councillors have embarked on a series of localised surgeries.

This weekend we embarked on our biggest ever series of surgeries covering Heath Road, Westbury, Willard and William Bonney estates together with Heather Close Sheltered Housing.

The day was a huge success, Councillor Helen O’Malley started the day with the regular surgery at Clapham Manor Lesiure Centre and then joined Cllr Haselden and I at Westbury Estate.

Our busiest surgery of the day was at Heath Road where many residents came to discuss issues such as cleaning on the estate, repairs and parking enforcement.

We moved on to William Bonney estate where we spoke to residents about noise and anti-social behaviour issues caused by a local venue together with more discussion around parking enforcement on the estate.

All three of us are now taking the various issues back to officers at Lambeth Living. I have written directly to the housing manager regarding concerns over standards of cleaning.

Along with continuing the regular surgery at Clapham Leisure Centre we are now organising a repeat of the event for next month and looking for new venues throughout the local community.