OUR COMMUNITY CENTRE IS UNDER THREAT! SAVE OUR COMMUNITY CENTRE!

At the heart of Kennington Park Estate in Oval is our Community Centre which is well used and loved. Hyde Housing now plans to get rid of our Community Centre. In its place Hyde wants to build expensive flats for private sale. ***** UPDATE – Hyde has extended the deadline for its consultation on the future of our Community Centre. We now have until 5pm on Friday 6 January 2017 to tell them we oppose their plans to demolish our Centre. You can do so here  https://www.hyde-housing.co.uk/tenants/resident-/community-centres-review/ And keep signing and sharing our petition here https://www.change.org/p/save-oval-s-kennington-park-community-centre ***** The TA has responded to Hyde’s Review of Community Centres, expressing our opposition to their plans for Kennington Park Community Centre. This is what we have said in our conclusion: “This is a manifestly flawed, fraudulent Consultation. We believe that the words “existing plan” are being used as a smokescreen for Hyde’s true intention…

Continue reading

Hyde’s proposed development of our Community Centre and Harleyford Road site – an update

Back in March 2015 we reported on Hyde’s plans to redevelop the Harleyford Street and Community Centre site on the Estate. Their plans involved nine flats for sale, a replacement community centre with outdoor space and either offices or a small retail space on the ground floor facing the main road. Those plans can be found here. Hyde’s Saba Choudhury (New Business Project Director, Group Business Development) wrote to the TA recently as follows: “Sainsbury’s has told us that TfL has given them feedback on their application for the Harleyford Street loading bay, but not a final decision.  The feedback is that TfL are very unlikely to allow a peak time use of the loading bay but will almost certainly allow off peak use of a bay on Harleyford Street which is a positive step forward.  Consequently Sainsbury’s are revising their application to request a loading bay for off peak…

Continue reading

Newsletter July 2015 – next TA meeting 15 July

Kennington Park Estate Tenants’ Association News JULY 2015 ******************************************* Join us at the next KPETA meeting at 7.00 pm on Wednesday 15 July 2015 at the Kennington Park Estate Community Centre Come at 6.30 pm for refreshments and chat. TA officers will be there to discuss individual problems/issues  The agenda for this meeting and the minutes of the last meeting are here   ******************************************* Are you experiencing damp, condensation or mould growth? If your flat is affected by damp, condensation and/or mould, do come to the TA meeting on 15 July and tell us about it.  We want to assess the extent of the problem so we can discuss possible remedies with our housing managers.  If you’re not attending the TA meeting, you can email your information about damp, condensation and mould to kpetamail@gmail.com. The TA is seeking technical advice and information in order to gain some understanding of the causes…

Continue reading

Roadworks, roadworks – all around us! And then they’re going to tunnel underneath …..

Kennington Park Estate is currently an island of tranquillity surrounded by traffic chaos and lots of traffic cones, heavy machinery and people in hard hats and hi-vis jackets. Whether that tranquillity will last when tunnelling for the Northern Line Extension starts, or if Hyde’s redevelopment of the Community Centre site goes ahead, remains to be seen.   The Northern Line Extension   A shaft and head house are being constructed at Kennington Green. The work here has just started and it is anticipated that it will be a worksite for at least three years. Lots of information can be found here http://www.tfl.gov.uk/northern-line-extension.   Oval Triangle Transport for London is making a lot of changes to the roads, junctions, traffic lights, crossings and cycle superhighways all round the Oval Triangle, Harleyford Street, Kennington Park Road and Kennington Road.   The roadworks here are likely to last a year… More information at:…

Continue reading

Revised proposals for redevelopment on the Estate

The Hyde Group has put forward revised plans for their proposed redevelopment of the Harleyford Street and Community Centre site on the Estate. Their plans are now for a smaller building than before, nine flats for sale, a replacement community centre with outdoor space and either offices or a small retail space on the ground floor facing the main road. Pictures of Hyde’s revised plans can be found here. Hyde’s information pack is here, including a Questions and Answers section. Their ideas for the Community Centre are here. Comments on Hyde’s proposals can be sent to: consult@hyde-housing.co.uk or to: the Hyde Group’s Oval office at Alverstone House, Magee Street, SE11 5TS, or Head Office at 30 Park Street, London SE1 9EQ.

Continue reading

News and Information from the Tenants Association – March 2015

Those Service Charges   Our rents and service charges are going up from 6 April. As we warned in our last newsletter and at the Tenants Association meeting, Hyde’s service charge increases are outrageous. Residents in some blocks are being asked to pay double! Particularly outrageous are the continuing irrational charges we are being levied for communal electricity (the external and staircase lights), which the TA has been complaining about for over three years now, and new charges for fire safety and legionella (a waterborne disease which can spread from communal water tanks) which have been introduced without any consultation or explanation. And the standard of the cleaning and gardening work carried out on the Estate most certainly does not justify any increase. A number of residents have complained to us about the service charges and it is important that you voice those complaints to Hyde at customerservices@hyde-housing.co.uk or by writing…

Continue reading

Developing the Harleyford Road and Community Centre site? – new proposals

The Hyde Group has revised its proposals to build on the Harleyford Road/Community Centre site, which we reported in October (see here), and is exhibiting a new version for consultation on 16 March between 6-8 pm.  

Continue reading

New buildings on the Estate?

Proposed development of Harleyford Road and Kennington Park Community Centre   The Hyde Group is proposing to replace our Community Centre and the office building at 8a Harleyford Street between Blades and Lockwood Houses with a five-storey block of 13 flats for sale, a small supermarket and a new, smaller Community Centre. Those residents who attended a consultation meeting in September, particularly those living nearest the site, did not welcome the plans. Amongst the concerns expressed was the overlarge size of the proposed development, the loss of daylight to neighbouring flats, the loss of the community centre’s outdoor space, the location of the retail unit’s delivery bay right next to people’s homes, traffic management both in respect of parking and an increased number of large delivery vehicles using the Estate’s narrow roads, and the fact that the proposed flats would solely be for sale rather than available to house local…

Continue reading