The new library is dealt with as item 13 on the meeting agenda. The background information (item 13: page 181) relating to this makes a good case for the new library showing how it will save money and create new community facilities to the benefit of Camberwell.

Council leader Peter John in the forward to the agenda item writes “This council is committed to the regeneration and renewal of Camberwell. One of the most visible signs of that regeneration will be the creation of a vibrant ‘town centre’ at Camberwell Green. We are working to bring forward plans which will deal with some of the transport and retail opportunities necessary to achieve that ‘town centre’ ambition, but believe that one of the roles which the council can play is the provision of a library which meets the aspirations of local residents in the 21st century.” Let us hope that by its actions the Council ensures that these sentiments are more than words.

The two transport strategies contain interesting information on transport locally and the challenges faced.

The Southwark strategy acknowledges that transport facilities in Camberwell could be improved and pledges the council’s continuing support for bringing the Bakerloo line to Camberwell as well as the role of sustainable transport such as cycling and walking in the borough.

The Lambeth strategy covers similar transport issues with several mentions of the decline in services on the Denmark Hill train line as well as the aspiration of creating better neighbourhoods less dominated by motor transport.

Both strategies acknowledge the similarlity of the two boroughs where there is low levels of car ownership, high levels of deprivation, comparatively high levels of cycling and walking. They also acknowledge the problems faced by local town centres such as Camberwell which must fulfill a conflicting role as both local shopping areas and as major routes into London.

Whilst they provide very interesting reading on the local transport situation and issues in themselves their main purpose is as consultation documents. If you would like to take part in shaping the future of transport locally please send back a consultation response saying how you feel transport should be improved locally.

I’m sure most of us would broadly agree on transport priorities for Camberwell: from the aspirational: reopening of the railway station, future Camberwell tube station and inclusion of Camberwell in any future tram scheme to the more mundane (but achievable): taming of the multi-lane roads that dominate the town centre, improvements to bus services and inclusion of Camberwell in the Mayor’s Cycle Hire scheme.

Both boroughs allow local residents to send in their responses online — fill in the Lambeth online form and/or the Southwark online survey — for both the deadline is approaching so do it soon!

If we start telling the policy makers what we want now the planning can start for future transport improvements and we can judge developments according to the aspirations set out in the strategies.

First and most obviously there’s to be a by-election in Brunswick Park ward
after councillor John Friary resigned over some quite disturbing allegations. Allegations which the local Lib Dems seized on shamelessly, distributing a quite nasty attack leaflet which they obviously knew would be contentious as their name appeared on it only in the tiniest lettering possible. I think it should be borne in mind that Mr Friary is innocent until proven guilty, and capitalising on the allegations is quite revolting. Kate Heywood definitely won’t be getting my vote.

Lots going on in terms of regeneration. NickW has put together this fantastic map of developments in SE5 in the next five years, which is great work. I didn’t know about many things, but the big project over in Myatt’s Fields was a real surprise. The plans to develop Burgess Park have been approved, and there’s more good news as Camberwell Baths are due to reopen on February 28th.

As some of you have already seen, Southwark Council have proposed relocating an 8,000 square foot prefabricated building, currently in Bermondsey, to the plaza in front of the Magistrates Court. This would involve removing some of the trees and part of the orchard that’s down there. The Camberwell Society have responded, saying that the idea is good but the building far too large for the available space.

Their full response is in the latest Camberwell Quarterly, which also has a nice article on the fire that all-but destroyed Denmark Hill station 30 years ago, and another on the Camberwell House Asylum (which later became the registry office, and is soon to become student accommodation).

On the subject of history, I bought myself a copy of the new book Camberwell Through Time, which shows historical photos of local spots compared to their modern-day appearances. Really interesting, and I recommend you pick a copy up yourselves.

I could write more, but I won’t. Don’t forget, volunteers are very welcome.

In brief (and as previously described) the council intends to maintain council assembly meetings at the town hall in Camberwell (approximately 8 times a year) but shift virtually everything else to the new offices in Tooley St.

The council is looking to get a “public sector partner” to take over the town hall as its offices. Its not clear if it has anything in mind but this could be Veolia or other contractor or something exciting like the ballet which would bring real benefits to the area.

An exciting development for Camberwell would be the proposal to develop a new pavillion near the Magistrates’ Court on Camberwell Green — this would house a new library, community facilities and some customer facing council services.

The cabinet report suggests that this new building (or possibly shifting the existing pavillion building located currently next to Bermondsey town hall) could be used as a way of regenerating the local area, opening up Camberwell Green and creating a focus for Camberwell town centre. This plan however is at an early stage.

These plans would offer much for Camberwell making the Green a central point again. In an ideal world this area could be further enhanced by reopening Camberwell railway station/ building a dreamed of Camberwell tube station to offer real improvements and to bring a sense of place to Camberwell Green. At the very least they could work with Transport for London to make it less dominated by the big four/ six lane roads. However dont hold your breath — any plans passed this year are likely to take several years to implement and station options are on no to-do lists of which I know.

These proposals are set to be discussed at the Cabinet on 23 November 2010 — further information can be found in the Cabinet papers (agenda item 10, page 106 onwards)

We live in hope!

The situation of having three town halls arose in 1965 when the current London Borough of Southwark was created bringing together the former metropolitan boroughs of Bermondsey, Camberwell and Southwark. The Council is now considering selling the town halls off as none are fit for purpose, all requiring substantial investment which, in the current spending squeeze, the resources for which the council does not have.

According to the News the Council will publish its decision on 23 November when it has been finalised by the Cabinet. The story seemed to suggest that the Camberwell town hall could be retained for some council functions such as the main council meetings dependent upon uses being found for the other accommodation on the site.

So what does this mean for Camberwell?
I see a threat to camberwell as well as an opportunity.

This could be bad for Camberwell — the loss of Council employees and their spending will be detrimental to local Camberwell shops, bars and restaurants. Worse thing would be conversion to flats or other private use.

Or it could be beneficial for Camberwell — a real opportunity. If the town hall building could be given over for community/ arts use it could really improve the area bringing something of benefit to local people. Retaining the council assembly function in Camberwell is also to my mind essential for Camberwell.

So what can we do?
I suggest that readers of this blog in Southwark engage their councillors (list of email addresses on Southwark site) to ask what they as individuals think of the proposals and suggest that the impact of any proposal for the future of the town hall on Camberwell must be looked at and community / arts use prioritised.

This is a quick new post. Basically, we have had a fantastic response so far and we have had about 600 people sign a petition to object to the change of use of the Bingo Hall to a church within a week. Most of these people come from Camberwell and most people are upset that there has been little or no consultation with people from Camberwell, and also that there is are no guarantees that the building will be available in any meaningful way for the community. There is a lot of rhetoric in the planning application about serving the community but it doesn’t amount to a “hill of beans” as some wise chap once said (Humphrey Bogart I think). In other words, it’s hot air and there are no guarantees that they will help or facilitate access for community activities.

On top of this the plans allow for a seating arrangement for 1500 people, with around 450 cars being used, if the place is at capacity, to bring them here. This most certainly is against planning regulations.

Add to this the loss to the local economy since there are no guarantees that the money generated by the church will stay here, and the fact that a lot of the potential congregation will not be local and you start to see that there is no way that this planning application should be allowed.

The Camberwell Village Hall Campaign has written its objections which you can see here. There are three parts, with parts one and two below. They are long, but there is much to object to!

http://bit.ly/objectionletterpart1

http://bit.ly/objectionletterpart2

So what can you do?

In theory, the consultation period has ended, but according to the head of planning at Southwark and the planning officer, it is still possible to send your representations to them. Here is a link to the Camberwell Village Hall campaign. In it you will find all the documents and information you need to make more objections to the change of use and letters you can send to planning. The quicker you do it the better and the more of you who do so the better too.

http://bit.ly/CVHletter2

There is also a petition you can sign which is at

http//:bit.ly/camberwellvillagehallpetition

Thank you everyone who has helped so far. I think we have a very strong case and hopefully soon we will have a building that the whole community can use.

The full cabinet has also been announced including several Camberwell Councillors.

See the Southwark website for full details

Also see the website for details of Camberwell Community Council

How this vision translates on the ground in Camberwell remains to be seen…

Update by Peter: For reference, here’s the Labour party Vision For Camberwell by Cllr. Wingfield as well.

The final results are 
Southwark
Labour: 35 Councillors (+7)
Liberal Democrats: 25 (-3)
Conservatives: 3 (-3)
Greens: 0 (-1)
Full results on the Southwark website

Lambeth
Labour: 44 Councillors (+5)
Liberal Democrats: 15 (-2)
Conservatives: 4 (-2)
Greens: 0 (-1)
See the Lambeth website for full results

So whatever happens at the national level we are still Labour.

Reasons to be cheerful

• The Labour result on Southwark will bring benefits for Camberwell as the new administration will be more concerned about bits of the borough such as Camberwell and Peckham which are Labour areas.
• The new administration (unlike the previous Lib Dem/ Conservative coalition) has a solid majority and so will not be having to make concessions to make different interests happy to secure their votes .
• The likely leader of Southwark Peter Johns is a Camberwell Councillor.
• Local Camberwell Councillors will be more accountable as they will no longer be able to blame the administration for lack of action  as they will be part of the administration. 
• The Camberwell Party has done great work in raising Camberwell issues and shown that the area cant be taken for granted
• There will hopefully be more joint working between Lambeth and Southwark as they are both of the same party and both councils face similar issues.
• With the Labour Party out of power at a national level local MP Harriet Harman will have more time for constituency duties (?)

As I say these are all reasons to be cheerful and hopeful for the future of Camberwell — we must now be active to ensure that the politicians deliver on their promises and direct investment, regeneration funding and attention to the area.

A good place to start is the Southwark Labour Party manifesto and the Lambeth Labour Party manifesto

This year on 6 May 2010 we will have a chance to vote twice – first for our Member of Parliament and then for our local borough Council. I intend to cover the local elections in a post later this week but today will look at the General Election.

The electoral situation in Camberwell like so many things is complicated – if we take Camberwell to be the SE5 postcode area rather than purely Camberwell town centre then we are covered by three constituencies: Camberwell and Peckham (the main part of Camberwell town centre), a part of Dulwich and West Norwood (the area either side of and South of Coldharbour Lane and around Ruskin Park towards Herne Hill) and a part of Vauxhall (South of Camberwell New Road until the border with Southwark on Flodden Road – includes roads such as Paulet Road and the area around Myatts Fields Park).

All three of these constituencies are represented by Labour MPs all of whom had fairly safe majorities at the 2005 election. The Electoral Commission  has redrawn the boundaries slightly since the last General Election but not generally enough to shift the balance of power significantly.

The demographic profile of the area (or certainly Camberwell and Peckham, Vauxhall and the Camberwell part of Dulwich and West Norwood) is that of poor inner city (over 50% of people living in council/housing association housing, consequent low rates of home ownership, very low rates of car ownership, high levels of poverty etc etc) with pockets of wealth so you would expect Labour to be dominant.

The results at the last election show that in Vauxhall and Camberwell and Peckham Labour took over 50% of the vote (and in Camberwell and Peckham Harriet Harman received over 65% of all votes cast) and so it would be virtually impossible for Labour to lose in either of these constituencies. (Stranger things have happened but only where there has been a scandal/other event which has distorted the picture.) Dulwich and West  Norwood is more marginal – here Tessa Jowell at the last election gained 45% of the vote with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats gaining just over 20% of the votes each.

My personal feeling is that the situation is unlikely to change significantly in any of the constituencies as the Labour vote may diminish slightly but is likely to to remain generally firm. Any increase in the Conservative vote is likely to be at the expense of the Liberal Democrat vote (just look at the results of the London Mayor election in 2008 when the Lib Dems were squeezed in the main Boris/Ken race). Of course the whole matter could be distorted by low turnout but assuming levels of turnout similar to the 2005 election I dont expect any of our MPs to change. 

So who are the candidates locally?
The UK Polling report website or the Guardian website   are good (generally unbiased) sources of information and no doubt you will receive leaflets and other literature over the next few weeks telling you who to vote for. Here I identify the current MP and the main players (especially those who have Camberwell connections)

Camberwell and Peckham constituency (see Guardian profile)
Harriet Harman (Labour) – incumbent MP since 1982, Leader of the Commons and deputy leader of the Labour Party. Website
Columba Blango (Lib Dem) – Southwark Councillor (Rotherhithe), former Olympic athlete. Website
Jenny Jones (Green) – Southwark Councillor (South Camberwell), Londonwide Member of the London Assembly (elected on the party list). Website 
Andy Stranack (Conservative) – Community worker, lives in Peckham. Website   

Vauxhall constituency (Guardian profile)
Kate Hoey (Labour) – incumbent MP since 1989, known for ‘independent’ stance on many issues. Website 
Glyn Chambers (Conservative) – lives in Vauxhall. Website
Joseph Healy (Green) – Has been involved in Southwark campaigns. Website
Caroline Pidgeon (Lib Dem) – Londonwide Member of the London Assembly (elected on the party list) and Southwark Councillor (Newington), lives in Camberwell. Website

Dulwich and West Norwood constituency (Guardian profile)
Tessa Jowell (Labour) – incumbent MP since 1992, Olympics Minister. Website
Kemi Adegoke (Conservative) – lives in Herne Hill, Systems Analyst for RBS. Website 
Shane Collins (Green) – lives in Lambeth. Website
Jonathan Mitchell (Lib Dem) – lives in Dulwich, Southwark Councillor (East Dulwich), stood last time. Website 

(These are the Camberwell connections/ information/ website I could find — if you know of anything else please add)

So will you vote? What will these candidates do for Cambwerwell?

Hello there, and yet another post by another guest poster. Apologies for the very long post but just couldn’t get it any shorter.

As many of you will no doubt have heard by now the former cinema and bingo hall has been bought by Merinbrand (whoever they are) on behalf of (we assume) the Redeemed Christian Church of God or RCCG for short. We believe that contracts have been exchanged but completion is not due to take place until the beginning of March. The chances of us stopping the sale are slim, but I do not think that should prevent us from trying.

We started a campaign this Monday to try and get more information and transparency over the sale of the building by Gala Bingo. Last week I was told that the information was confidential and that I would have to wait until the sale had gone through. I think it is safe to assume that they were a little surprised at how quickly we managed to gather the troops, and very soon after our photo in front of the cinema today we had the head of PR sending out emails absolving themselves of all responsibility and hanging the new (potential) owners out to dry.

This is thanks to people like Victor, a.k.a. Eusebiovic, who set up a Facebook page which has nearly 200 fans already and is growing by the second. Also thanks go to Copeywolf (James), Liliana of PROS,Melanie Rimmer of Camberwell Arts and last but not least Mark Dodds and Barbara Pattinson from the SE5 forum for all their help. I have created a website (www.CamberwellCommunityCinema.webs.com) for the campaign to keep the cinema for the community and I have no idea where all you people are coming from but the response has been (almost) unanimous against having RCCG move in.

I think this is a real chance for Camberwell to come together as a community. And I don’t just mean those who use the internet. I mean all those who loved the bingo and now have to go to Surrey Quays (because that’s convienient). I mean all those for whom Christianity is not their religion. I mean all the artists looking for a space. I mean something to stop Time Out banging out yet another edition about the “great” East End. I mean all those who want Camberwell to have a focal point we can be proud of.

RCCG will have to change the commercial use from D2 (Cinema, music and concert halls) to D1 (Places of worship and Church Halls). This is where we as a community come in. We cannot let this happen. There are so many reasons why this should not be allowed. So, write to your MP, write to your councillors. Tell the press, tell Boris. Shout it out. Email your friends. Join the facebook page. Tell your friends to join the facebook page. Write to famous Camberwellians. Make people notice. MAKE A FUSS!

To be fair I think most councillors are firmly behind us and John Friary has been helping already to ask questions. There is a Camberwell Community Council meeting next Wednesday 3^rd March at 7pm at Southwark Town Hall. Please go. We need to let Southwark Council know that Camberwell matters. We need them to stop palming us off with disjointed plans which come to nothing. On top of that, there is an election coming up. That should concentrate the mind wonderfully!

We will be getting some posters to put around Camberwell. I will put them on the website for you to download and print off. Stick them on windows of shops. Talk to your neighbours.

MAKE A FUSS!

Camberwell deserves better.

Tom.

a.k.a. Monkeycat.