Kennington News: KA Newsletter Summer 2011

SUMMER 2011

Dear Neighbours

As usual during the summer months, the KA will appear to be quiet – but behind the scenes we will be busy working on our Annual Charity Auction in September, AGM in October and our November Bazaar! Big thanks especially to Winkworth for stepping forward to underwrite our Auction.

As we move into the autumn, the work and donations of volunteers and local businesses is going to become even more important. In September, we’ll begin to see the full effect of Council funding cuts as well as cuts in government support to families. As I’m sure you’re aware, some of our neighbours are in for difficult times.

And we on the KA Committee would like to hear from you on which direction you think our organisation should head – where you think we should try to step in and make a difference, and where you are prepared to help. Our AGM is planned this year for Monday evening, 10^th October at the Durning Library, another stalwart of our community that is itself under threat. We will have a meet-and-greet chance to talk to each other starting at 6:30 and the meeting proper will begin at 7 pm.

Next April, KA will be ten years old! So please come to the AGM and help us set a course of action for the next decade.

Anna Tapsell

NEWS

Kennington Village Fête

The date is set for this year's Fête in Cleaver Square: Sunday, 10^th July. We'll have our usual bookstall inviting donations for new but not in perfect condition books contributed by The Kennington Bookshop. All funds raised go to 'Secret Santa' and 'Grey Power'.

Charity Auction

We have a sponsor!!! Huge thanks to Winkworth Estate Agents at Kennington Cross for sponsoring our annual Charity Auction to the tune of £1000!! This year’s Auction is planned to be even more fun than last year!! Brasserie Toulouse–Lautrec on Newington Butts is going to cater for us and we are looking into getting some music as well.

As last year, it will be held at the City & Guilds of London Art School on Kennington Park Road. The Auction date is Thursday, 22^nd September at 7pm with a preview the evening before. This year, we are looking for paintings, small sculptures, figurines etc. that will bring in at least £20 each. We also are most anxious to receive vouchers from local businesses for restaurant meals, or food or wine or services – anything from baking a special-occasion cake to cleaning a patio!

We are already taking donations – artworks can be dropped off at the Countryside Alliance, The Old Town Hall, 367 Kennington Road SE11 4PT. Just phone Sarah Lee on 020 7840 9253 before you turn up. Note: It’s essential you fill out a donation form (enclosed) and attach it to the work of art. Vouchers for pledges can be sent to KA at the above address.

Also, we still need a volunteer to coordinate volunteers! This mostly entails phoning around to get people to help out sorting, cleaning and moving items for the Auction. We have a checklist of tasks – you’ll just be asked to match up names with the job! You’ll also be asked to attend a few meetings of the Auction subcommittee to coordinate your activities with the other workers – we have nearly a dozen so far so you’ll meet new people and have fun as well.

March Bazaar Hits New High

Many people must have done their spring cleaning before our March Bazaar because we seemed to have a record number of donations! Books, clothes and bric-a-brac was piled so high our courageous volunteers sometimes felt swamped! We all felt it was well worth the work, however, when we counted the proceeds. After our expenses were deducted and we collected an extra hundred pounds from Chris Carey’s Collections, we raised a clear £815. As reported in our Winter Newsletter, the money will go to fund Tai Chi classes, free to all our community!

Once again, thanks to all our volunteers who collected donations and managed the stalls and the kitchen. Special thanks to Gisella who so brilliantly organized the day and donations. The next Bazaar is scheduled for 26^th November, but we are hoping to clear our garage and make space to receive donations by the end of July. So save that winter coat a little longer and you can donate it to the next KA Bazaar!

Traffic Island at Brixton Road/Camberwell New Road

Have you been driven to distraction by the new lane changes between buses and cars at this intersection? KA committee members met at the site, along with Val Shawcross, our representative on the London Assembly. Although Val agreed with some of the problems caused, Transport for London, responsible for all the bus routes and roads they run on, does not seem amenable to making changes, in spite of our strongly worded protest letter. The next move will be for concerned individuals to write to Valerie Shawcross CBE, Member for Lambeth & Southwark, London Assembly, City Hall, The Queen's Walk SE1 2AA or valerie.shawcross@london.gov.uk as a stack of protest letters may be more effective than one letter representing a group.

KA will continue to monitor the situation along with the evergreen problems of police and ambulance noise!

Lilian Baylis Old School

The Sports Action Zone has been granted £2 million to upgrade its Old Lilian Baylis building and has formed the Black Prince Trust to lease the land from the Council for this purpose. Good news for our community as the sports facilities, training and skill building SAZ provides to local young people will become ever more important as other locations may be forced to close.

In addition, it’s become clear that a new educational establishment named Michaela Community School in the Lilian Baylis Old School is being proposed by Katharine Birbalsingh, who has featured in the news lately. The school would be one of the proposed ‘free schools’ that the government is encouraging parents to support in lieu of sending their children to a state school. The question for all of us is "what impact will a free school have on local funding of our existing secondary schools and on their makeup?" The KA Committee is going to monitor this proposal and try to learn more that we will pass on to our members.

Committee Matters

We’ve had a few changes to the KA Committee since our last newsletter.

First, we have a new treasurer. Matina Gialama resigned recently because work, home and school commitments made it impossible for her to continue. We are very, very grateful to Lucy Wells for stepping forward to take on this critical role. Lucy moved to Kennington last autumn and decided to get involved in her new community by joining KA. We are delighted to have her on board!

We are also very happy to announce we have a new publicity coordinator, Andrea Steinlechner. She’ll be looking for lots of help in the coming months, so please contact kapublicitycoordinator@gmail.com if you’re interested in working on the team. Andrea has set up a list of specific tasks for which folk might easily volunteer without feeling they are making an endless commitment! She also needs help understanding how people want to get information. To help her, we are asking all members to respond to a very short questionnaire at http://svy.mk/KASurvey.

On the minus side, Dan Love has moved to Cornwall and resigned as corporate liaison. This job involves communicating with our larger corporate neighbours on matters we think affect the quality of life in our community such as noise and traffic. This position remains open. If interested, send a note to KenningtonAssociation@gmail.com or come to our Annual General Meeting and put yourself forward.

Membership Renewals – New Date, 1 October

Up until now, the KA has run a membership year based on when people join. As we’ve grown, this system has made it difficult to monitor membership and send out renewal notices during the proper month. Now we’re changing to make all memberships run from 1^st October each year. So if your membership has expired, be sure to get your cheque for £5 in to the above address now! All renewal payments made this summer count as paid up until 1 October 2012. Please write membership on the back of the cheque. If your membership is paid up by 1 October, you will be able to vote on issues raised at our AGM.

UPDATES

Tai Chi

Our Tai Chi classes are thriving and making good use of our dry, sunny weather to meet in Kennington Park. And we had some good news on the funding front – a successful bid by Jide Ashimi of Leo Vocational Service resulted in a grant of £750 from South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. This funded our instructor for 15 sessions. But money is still a major problem and likely to continue as funds for community programmes get tighter. In spite of the tremendous work done by Christine Eames-Jones in filling out long, detailed applications for grants, we still have no new long-term sponsor. Because these classes bring together so many people of different ages and backgrounds in our community, the KA is stepping in to make sure these classes can meet while we continue to pursue new sources of funding. Please feel free to join us on Thursdays at 2pm and Saturdays at 11am in Kennington Park near the Cafe. Beginners are always welcome. There’s nothing strenuous about Tai Chi, but people of all ages who attend are amazed at the strength they build up over the weeks and months.

For children, the introduction to Tai Chi is through Karate and last summer KA sponsored six weeks of Karate classes for kids at Lollard Street Adventure Playground. We plan to do the same this summer and use volunteers from the Tai Chi classes to come along and help the instructor, Michael Jacques, so more children have individual attention.
Friends of Lollard Street Adventure Playground

At the February meeting of Lambeth Council, over 200 people demonstrated to protest cuts, including children who spoke at the meeting to say how important the borough’s Adventure Playgrounds are to them. Unfortunately, in spite of these protests, Lambeth Council is continuing to move ahead with plans to get rid of any responsibility for running or funding playgrounds. All playgrounds are to be turned over to a co–operative council – yet to be formed – which will take over the responsibility the Council is abdicating. A private organization called the Lambeth Play Association will try to raise money from somewhere to run all adventure playgrounds on a very limited basis. As it stands, all Adventure Playgrounds in the borough will be open during the summer, but will be cut back to one day a week beginning in September. Once again, thanks to Chris Eames-Jones who has been leading FOLSAP in its fight to keep the Playground open.

Planning

The views of the KA Planning Forum under the chairmanship of David Boardman (see http://kaplanning.blogspot.com /) are being clearly acknowledged.

A councillor told Kennington Oval Vauxhall Forum in April that the Council had found KAPF's representation on the infrastructure study for Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea (VNEB) very useful.

Victory at Bondway: KAPF, with others, made strong representations at the Planning Enquiry into the proposed high-rise development on Bondway in Vauxhall. The developer lost, then appealed, but was refused.

Sainsbury’s requested two meetings with KAPF to present their proposals for developing the site of their existing Nine Elms store on Wandsworth Road.

KAPF is also continuing to monitor proposed local developments including the planned extension to the Northern Line and to voice local needs and concerns with councillors and council officers. Local community groups continue to approach KAPF for advice.

Big thanks to all our volunteers, anonymous donors and the following organisations for all their help and support:

· Brasserie Toulouse–Lautrec

· Chris Carey’s Collections

· City & Guilds of London Art School

· Countryside Alliance

· Leo Vocational Service

· Kennington Chiropractic

· South London Pacific

· The Kennington Bookshop

· The Pelican Nursery

· Winkworth Estate Agents

· White Hall Clothiers Camberwell Ltd