Roupell Park Residents Fun Day – Saturday 6 June 2009

Roupell Park Residents Fun Day

United Residents Housing will be hosing a family fun day with Roupell Park Residents Management Committee on Saturday 6 June from 12.30-4.30pm

Roupell Park estate is one of the resident management organisations in Brixton Hill ward, steering the delivery of quality housing, services and improvements on the estates. Residents from the estate make up the 15 strong board members and meet regularly with local councillors to discuss issues.

If you live on the Roupell Park Estate, please come along on Saturday to meet your local board members, local councillors and other residents and to get more involved in the estate. There will be a range of fun activities for all the family, food, information about the repairs and improvements on the estate.

Disabled kids left terrified after Lib Dem smear

Local people were shocked to see Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Chris Nicholson putting out false information about the Livity special needs school in his recent political leaflet.

Nicholson comes from Surrey and has made a fortune working as a consultant to the global war industry. He is using his wealth to pump out propaganda in the hope of buying the parliamentary seat due to be vacated by Labour’s Keith Hill at the next General Election.

Nicholson claimed, untruthfully, that Labour has secret plans to sell off the Livity School site in Brixton Hill for housing. He claims I announced this at a meeting on the neighbouring Blenheim Gardens Estate where he was sitting at the back of the room after being made to sit down by the jeering audience after he attempted to make some rather crude political comments. No one else remembers me saying any such thing – and that's because I never said it. This was nothing more than a scare story this power-hungry Lib Dem invented for political reasons. He didn’t care how distressed his story would leave parents, teachers and children at the school. In fact, he knows nothing about the school – whereas I’ve been working with them for nearly ten years to improve support for the disabled children who go there.

The school itself has written an open letter to Nicholson taking him to task for his unprincipled political game-playing. The chair of governors of the school tells Nicholson in no uncertain terms: “The governors and head teacher were outraged to read the article on our school in your recent political leaflet. It is a great pity you did not care to step inside the gates and learn the facts from the head teacher or myself.

“The governors do not want the Livity School used as a political football. But I must point out to you that it was the Liberal Democrat-led council in the run-up to the last council elections which abruptly withdrew the site identified and previously offered to us by the director of education. As a result, the project to provide state-of-the-art education for the children in our community who need it most was set back by at least three years.”

I am still working with our Labour councillors to help the school find a new, bigger home, and we hope to see the present site used for a new and much-needed primary school in time.

I hope Mr Nicholson will now apologise publicly for making up stories that have terrified some highly vulnerable local children and their families. However desperate the Lib Dems are to fool people into voting for them, making up stories and using children as political footballs is surely wrong even by their low standards.

First published on www.stevereed.org.uk.

A New Mayor for Lambeth - Cllr Christopher Wellbelove

Brixton Hill councillors are delighted that Lambeth has elected a new civic Mayor for 2009/10, Cllr Christopher Wellbelove, Labour councillor for Clapham Town ward.

Mayoral duties include representing the borough at official functions, meeting and greeting dignitaries and helping to raise cash for local charities.

The new Mayor plans to use websites like Twitter and Facebook to let people know what he is doing, and hopes that by embracing technology he will be able to give more people an insight into the role.

Councillor Wellbelove said: "I have thoroughly enjoyed being deputy mayor, which has been excellent grounding to prepare me for becoming Mayor. However I am really looking forward to taking the full role. By using some of the free services available on the internet I hope to extend the reach of the Mayoral role to people who otherwise would not come into contact with the mayor or know about the work that the mayor does in the borough. I hope that this will demonstrate that this very traditional role can be modernised whilst retaining some of the traditional aspects which many people value."

The move to embrace modern communication packages has seen a new website created especially for the mayor: http://www.mayoroflambeth.com/ and you can also follow the Mayor through Twitter at www.twitter.com/mayoroflambeth

Frozen Council Tax

This weekend many people in Brixton Hill recieved their letters from local councillors, Steve Reed, Florence Nosegbe and Betty Evans-Jacas about the Council's decision to freeze Council Tax for 2 years.

Lambeth Youth Mayor & UK Youth Parliament Representative elections 2009

When Labour took up office in May 2006 one of our main manifesto pledges was to give Lambeth’s children and young people a voice by holding the borough’s first ever Youth Mayor elections. This was the first time that a Youth Mayor was elected in Lambeth.

The campaign is aimed at young people aged between 11-21 living, working or studying in Lambeth and the second election will be held on Thursday 26 February 2009.

Lambeth's Youth Mayor and UK Youth Parliament programmes are central elements of the boroughs youth participation agenda and an important way of providing Lambeth's young people with an effective sense of involvement with council services. It will also enable young people to share their views on priorities for change within the borough.

A record number 34 young people stood for the election last year and the winner was 15 year old Satya Panigrahi, who topped the poll with over 700 votes.

There are 15 candidates standing for election this year and you can read about their priorities and ideas at Youth Mayor 4 Lambeth

Voting will take place across Lambeth Schools, online and at selected Youth Centres on Thursday 26 February 2009 - if you are between the ages of 11 -21, make your voice heard and be sure to vote.

Free Theatre tickets to under 26-year olds

Young people across the UK will be given free theatre tickets in a new £2.5 million government- funded scheme.
Living in London we have a range of different theatres and lots of young and upcoming talent in the world of the Arts and it is only right that young people have access to explore this. The scheme will encourage young people to experience live theatre shows and discover the wonderful world of the arts and culture.

This is great news for all young people in Lambeth with theatres including the Young Vic and the National Theatre, both situated in Lambeth taking part in the programme.

Other theatres across London participating include the Almeida in Islington, the Greenwich Theatre House, the Soho Theatre and Battersea Arts Centre.

With the half term week due to start next week (16 -20 Feb) this would be a great opportunity for young people in Lambeth to visit one of the many theatres participating in the scheme. The scheme offers thousand of theatre tickets to a whole range of events including comedy, musical theatres, dance, modern mine plays and many more.

It is really easy to apply for the tickets – all you need to do is type in your postcode, find a theatre near you and book. For more information and a full list of participating theatres log onto A Night Less Ordinary

Councillor clears the snow

by Brixton Hill Councillor, Steve Reed:

What a shock to wake up to a London buried deep under the snow this morning! It may have looked pretty, but the snow has meant many public services are closed or running a reduced service because of staff shortages. With the buses, trains and most tube lines closed, many people had trouble getting into work this morning.

Lambeth did a good job in keeping the main roads open to traffic. Our gritters were out from late last night making sure all priority roads were treated. Thanks to that effort, all the main roads – including bus routes – were passable this morning. With the main roads properly gritted, attention then moved to the side streets and pavements. The street sweepers have been instructed to move to gritting footways and pavements and that work’s carrying on right now – with more snow expected overnight. Their first priority is town centres, stations and bus stops where there are more people. I went out with a team of gritters this afternoon, seeing the good work they’re doing outside in the freezing cold and lending a hand myself.

Nevertheless, many pavements – even along main roads – are still covered in compact snow. People are advised to take great care walking along them as they can be extremely slippy.
Because of the public transport problems, many services have been left understaffed as employees were unable to get into work or had to stay at home to look after children whose schools were closed. For instance, Lambeth’s call centre is extremely short staffed today and callers are finding it difficult to get through. I asked for a full explanation to be recorded for people calling in so they know what’s going on and when to call back if they can’t get through.

Despite all the difficulties caused by the snow – the heaviest seen in London for 18 years – there’s a really positive spirit out on the streets. I was really struck by how many people were talking to complete strangers as I made my way along the snow-covered pavements to the town hall this morning. I spotted quite a few adults reliving their childhood days hurling snowballs at their friends and colleagues out on the streets.

While many people found it difficult to get into work today, I’d like to offer my thanks to those employees at the council and throughout the public services in our borough who braved the snow and came into work to keep our services running despite the very difficult conditions.

Originally posted: http://stevereed.org.uk/?PageId=7fcb8d7a-5b75-dc84-1104-884678d10fa1