Oval Labour Councillors back local residents

Residents were last night disappointed that Lambeth's Licensing Committee granted a late night licence to a night club pub in a residential area on South Lambeth Road.

Local residents and the local Labour Councillors came to the committee to complain that the Wheatsheaf pub, previously well run, was applying to turn itself into a live music venue with a 3am finish!

Before 2 petitions from local residents had been submitted they had been asking for 5am!

Local residents and Cllr Jack Hopkins spoke against the late finish, arguing that the noise and nuisance created would directly impact on the residents of Walton Close, Henry, James and Leslie Houses, not to mention the parade of houses next door.

However the committee decided instead to simply 'condition' the bar - they will have to have a security guard and not allow people in or out past midnight, or to drink and eat in the garden past midnight.

They will still be allowed to play live music until all hours, great on Clapham High Street. Not so great if you live behind or next to the night club.

Whether the new night club can keep to these arrangements remains to be seen. Labour Councillors and local residents will keep an eye on it but if you are a local resident and feel that the noise and nuisance is too much in the early hours then you can ring the Noise Nuisance Team:

Night-time telephone:
020 7926 5999
Day-time telephone:
020 7926 6111

If you have a troublesome pub or club making your life a misery then let us know and we will take some action at ovallabour@gmail.com

Representing local residents

34 Clapham Road is applying for a license to play music from 7am to 11pm at night. Residents have approached us to represent their concerns on the proposed hours for the playing of music to the licensing committee.

We've set up an online petition and will also be out speaking to residents around Clapham Road.

http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/34claphamroad

On this winters night charity event

Tonight I had the pleasure of going to St John The Divine Church in Kennington to a fund-raising concert in the name of local charity Robes.

This beautiful local church provided fantastic acoustics for an inspiring concert with music from www.sonantensemble.com as well as a few carols for residents to join in on.

The Robes Project provides emergency accommodation for homeless people during the coldest months of the winter every year. They operate for 5 months a year, from November - March.

For more information see www.robes.org.uk

Oval Safer Neighbourhood Team

At the Safer Neighbourhood Team Panel on the 7th December there were a number of topics discussed:
1) Attacks and mugging on the midnight walk path through Kennington Park
2) Ward priorities
3) Operation Hannah, the Police's proposals to support local policing

With the Friends of Kennington Path invited we discussed the spate of serious attacks on residents in the early hours using the Kennington Night path cut through. Nearly 30 attacks, some exceedingly serious, have occurred and the geography and inability to police the path 24 hours a day has led gangs of young people to see this as easy pickings.

Oval Labour is pushing for it to be closed immediately until a solution can be found which will guarantee the safety of the general public. However a number of local residents are campaigning to keep it open, threatening legal challenge if it is closed.

It is not clear that most people are aware of the attacks and signage highlighting the dangers of the park are being put in as soon as possible, even if this damages the hard won reputation of the park.

We will continue to push for the pathway to be closed at the same time as the park, but until then we seriously advise people to add an extra 5 minutes to their journey home and use safer main roads around the side of the park.

To this end Kennington Night Path discussions are ongoing and it is going to be added to the 3 ward priorities.

Also a priority is drug dealing and ASB at the base of Bannerman House and on Ashmole Estate generally. The third priority is Vauxhall Street Population issues .

We also heard about Operation Hannah, a pilot to restructure the Police and strengthen safer neighbourhood Teams. Oval's Labour Councillors welcome extra local Police officers as long as they are actually gong to be supporting our local SNT, that the SNT will be remaining in the ward not moved near Waterloo and that the terms and conditions being proposed by the Police do not mean that we lose our existing team.

Thanks as always goes to representatives from various residents groups; IMPACT, Fentiman Road Residents Association; Graham House; Oval Partnership and of course colleagues from Community Safety and the local
Police.

If you want a representative from your local group to be invited or wish for your Labour Councillors to raise anything on your behalf anonymously then please email on Oval@labour.org.uk or call 0207 091 9010