Disturbances hit West Norwood

Tessa Jowell outside damaged Money Shop

Ward councillors and local MP Tessa Jowell visited West Norwood businesses following the disturbances on night of  Monday 8th August. Everyone is keen to get back to business as usual.

Attempts made to break into  several  shop premises in Norwood Road and the door of  The Money Shop was broken down. The break in was recorded on CCTV and  the police have posted pictures of suspects: 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/metropolitanpolice/6025500434/in/set-72157627267892973/
. What  happened in West Norwood was  opportunistic attempts to rob a few shops, rather than the overwhelming looting seen elsewhere.

The police are now making hundreds of arrests of people involved in looting across London and courts are sitting for long hours to process the cases quickly.   To get up to date advice and information directly from official police sources you can subscribe to the Community safe web site and choose  the information alerts for the areas you are interested in.
http://www.communitysafe.gov.uk.

The good news is that following the widespread recent public disorders of this week  there has been a fantastic response from Lambeth residents offering  to come &  help clean up. The council is now co-ordinating a Volunteering Speed Dating event next week. If you have been inspired by the recent community responses or you have always just wanted to volunteer then come along talk to like minded people. Just drop in between 6pm to 8pm on Wednesday 17th August at The Assembly Hall in Acre Lane  SW2 1RW (between  the Town Hall & Tesco). For details see:
http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/News/2011/120811VolunteeringSpeedDating.htm

Holderness Way Action Day Success

Mike Smith on the Activity Bus

A fun day was had by all at the Community Action Day event on 30th October  held on  Holderness Way.  Residents, supported by local Labour councillors and Lambeth Living, organised the Action Day.  It was a chance for neighbours to get to know each other and to get people involved in tacking local issues.  With the rain holding off (for most of the day) families enjoyed activities ranging from tug-o-war and five aside football to face painting, bulb planting,  a bouncy castle and computer activity bus.  A live DJ entertained people while free food was available for all those who came along.  Local MP Tessa Jowell and the London Assembly Member for Lambeth and Southwark, Val Shawcross, attended the Action Day and chatted with residents and those organising the event.

Following the success of the community day, a meeting will be held to set-up a Tenants and Residents Association (TRA) on the estate.   The TRA will give residents a greater ‘voice’ on issues affecting the lives of people on the estate and the area as a whole.  If you would like to be involved in the Residents Association please contact Knights Hill Councillor, Mike Smith, at msmith10@lambeth.gov.uk.

Election Result

Labour's Tessa Jowell - Winning Dulwich and West Norwood

Tessa Jowell has been re-elected as the Labour MP for Dulwich and West Norwood on May 6th 2010. Tessa’s majority over the runner-up has increased to 9,365.

Result:

Labour 22,461
Lib Dem 13,096
Conservative 10,684
Green 1,266
UKIP 707

For more information on Tessa Jowell  see:

http://www.tessajowell.net

The BBC web site has lots more information on the general election results:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/election2010/results/constituency/b45.stm

Swimming Pool for West Norwood!

Campaigners celebrating with Jackie Meldrum and Tessa Jowell

Its official! The swimming pool for West Norwood is going ahead!

Last month NHS Lambeth and Lambeth council launched the joint leisure and health centre project at  Norwood Hall. The leisure centre will have a 25m swimming pool, 100 station gym & dance studio. One of our local GPs will move into the  health centre with local dentists and clinics.

With £14.2 million agreed from the Labour government Lambeth can now get started on the project to build a brand new joint leisure and health centre on the Norwood Hall site opposite West Norwood Station. Soil samples have been taken recently  as part of getting  the designs  ready for a planning application when local people will have another  chance to comment on the scheme. Building work could start by the end of 2010 and be finished before the Olympics in 2012!

A  leisure centre will give West Norwood the boost it so desperately needs. For the last two years the West Norwood Labour Action team has  been campaigning with Tessa Jowell, our MP, for a swimming pool for the area. Without the support from hundreds of local people the campaign would have got nowhere.

Only last month Lambeth Conservative and Lib Dem councillors voted against the leisure centre. The Tories and Lib Dems did nothing for our area when they ran Lambeth. Now West Norwood is finally getting the investment it needs – thanks to Labour.

LABOUR DELIVER MORE PRIMARY SCHOOL PLACES FOR WEST NORWOOD

Paul McGlone at a Lambeth school

Labour led Lambeth Council and local MP Tessa Jowell are pleased  to announce plans to  expand popular local primary school Julians into a four form entry school.

For the school year starting in September 2010  Kingswood School will have 2 extra reception classes. The extra good news is that Julians school  has also agreed  to open another reception class for this September’s intake.  Please pass this information on to any local parents who are applying for reception places for the new school year starting in September – the deadline for applications is in a week’s time on Monday, 1st February.  More information here.

Last week, Julians  school governors agreed  in principle to run the new primary school that Lambeth  will be building in central West  Norwood . The plans are at an early stage and propose that the new two form entry primary school  would be called  Julians West Norwood  and  take reception children on its new site by September 2011.  Subject to government funding, St Julians would then move to the new site to allow the old school, Julians Streatham, to be rebuilt as a two form entry school. This would make Julians a four form entry school split over two sites with  two  different ‘ admission  points of entry’. Lambeth Council is currently in confidential negotiations to acquire a site in the area around  West Norwood station.

West Norwood has become very popular with families in the last 2 or 3 years and so there has been a rapidly growing demand for school places. Cllr Paul McGlone and  Cllr Jackie Meldrum  have been working hard with Tessa Jowell MP to make sure there are enough local primary school places .

Tessa & Paul  successfully lobbied the Labour government to help fund a new school for West Norwood .This £9m extra government funding, together with money provided by Lambeth and the agreement of St Julian’s School, means we can now go ahead with a brand new primary school in West Norwood.

A big thank you to all the parents who have taken the time to meet, email, petition or write to Tessa and councillors. Community support has had a real impact on government and council funding decisions.

For more information please contact Cllr Paul McGlone pmcglone@lambeth.gov.uk or Cllr Jackie Meldrum jmeldrum@lambeth.gov.uk

Good news on new West Norwood primary school

Tessa Jowell visits school

The government has just announced an extra £9m for Lambeth to help fund new primary school places. West Norwood is an increasingly popular place for families to live and  the demand for primary school places is growing so fast that a new school is needed.

The  council is currently looking at  several alternative options for  a site for a new primary school in  West Norwood but needed extra funding to build the school.  This funding announcement is therefore both very timely and excellent  news for local families.

Local MP Tessa Jowell is working with West Norwood  parents to make the new school a reality: More here

Latest consultation on Norwood Hall project

The plans to replace Norwood Hall with a new health centre, customer centre and a leisure centre which will include a swimming pool, gym & dance studio are moving ahead and will be soon be at the planning application stage.

To see  the latest plans for the  swimming pool  just drop in to West Norwood Library on Thursday 10 December 10am to 8pm  or Saturday 12 December 10am to 4pm .

For more details of the project see the council’s Future Norwood web pages.

Local people often say West Norwood is a neglected part of Lambeth. For the last two years , with the support of hundreds of local people, Tessa Jowell and local councillor Jackie Meldrum  have been campaigning for a community swimming pool for  the area. A new leisure health and customer centre will provide great local services and give the West Norwood local economy a real boost.

Norwood Hall is on Devane Way opposite West Norwood station. [Map]

Shopping In West Norwood – Video Questionnaire

Kahvah Update

Kahvah serves very nice coffee and can now open as a restaurant

We are delighted to let you know, that following spoken contributions last night from Malik Sheraz, Dr David Hall, Jane Pickard and local councillors Jackie Meldrum and Clare Whelan, with support from local MP Tessa Jowell,  the 5 members of Lambeth’s  Planning Committee agreed unamimously to grant planning permission for A3 use at 521 Norwood Road –  so that Kahvah can now open as a restaurant.

Swimming in West Norwood

The project to replace the derelict Norwood Hall with a £35m joint Leisure Centre, Health Centre and Customer Centre is going forward to the next stage following agreement to the funding last month. Tessa Jowell MP  and local councillors have campaigned hard for the last couple of years to get the project this far.

Architects are working on plans for a 25m swimming pool, 100 station gym, dance studio and community meeting rooms and are working closely with a  group of local people on the design. A public consultation event is being planned for December before the outline planning application is submitted early in 2010.

One of the local GP surgeries and local dentists are keen to move into the  brand new Health Centre. Some clinics that take place in hospitals will also move to the Norwood Hall Centre which is likely to have for example its own blood test clinic.

The Customer Centre will be a smaller version of the one at Olive Morris House on Brixton Hill. So West Norwood people can have a local place to go for a wide range of Lambeth services.

The plans for Norwood Hall  were developed as part of the Norwood masterplan and involved hundreds of local residents .If you want to know more contact the team directly :

futurelambeth@lambeth.gov.uk

Norwood Hall is located on Devane  Way,  opposite West Norwood station. It is difficult to say exactly when the Centre will be open but it should be ready by the Olympics in  2012.