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Architecture and the Estate

As some of you may know, I am an architect and my love of Kennington Park Estate is with both my fellow residents and the lovely architecture itself. The architecture profession is very slowly beginning to become more vocal about the issues facing housing estates, and the Housing Bill.  Here is one of my new favourite articles on the subject from around the web: http://www.architecturefoundation.org.uk/the-month-in-architecture-condemnation-for-the-housing-bill More to follow over the next few days…

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Visitors’ Parking Permits – Piloting a New Scheme

The Tenants Association has successfully negotiated a pilot scheme to test a new system of issuing visitors’ parking permits in the Alverstone/Lockwood/Blades courtyard. You will be able to buy up to five weeks’ worth of tickets (ie. 10) which you can use on any one day up until the end of 2016. This means you can have one handy for those unannounced visits by relatives or maintenance engineers, particularly at weekends. The pilot will run from 15 February to 15 April. Let us know if you think it’s working or if you want to suggest changes. Here is Hyde’s letter about it:   To All Residents Alverstone House, Blades House, Lockwood House Dear residents, Re:  Visitor Parking Permit Pilot for Alverstone, Blades and Lockwood House.  We are writing to inform you that we are working with the Kennington Park Estate Tenants and Residents Association to pilot a new scheme for visitor’s parking permits for Alverstone,…

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Hyde Plus Activities at Stockwell Centre

GETTING ONLINE FREE WORKSHOPS – Social Media for Beginners at the Stockwell Community Centre Looking to learn a new skill in the new year? We will shortly be running workshops in social media basics at the Stockwell Community Centre. Workshops will run from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. The following introductory courses will be delivered by our volunteer social media experts  Helen and Sergio; Tuesday 16th February – Introduction Tuesday 23rd February – Facebook for Beginners Tuesday 1st March – Twitter for Beginners Tuesday 8th March – LinkedIn for Beginners Part 1 Tuesday 15th – LinkedIn for Beginners Part 2 (Anyone interested in the LinkedIn workshops must be able to commit to attending both parts and should bring their CV along with them for the 1st workshop!) There will be light refreshments provided at the session, and those who attend 3 separate sessions will receive a Love2Shop voucher! In addition all attendees will receive a certificate. Residents can book a place…

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More on the Housing and Planning Bill

Kennington Park Estate TRA has joined with other TRAs in Stockwell to write to the Board of the Hyde Group calling on them not to implement the Pay to Stay proposals in the Bill. Our letter and the Hyde Group’s reply are here. Detailed briefings on the contents of the Bill by our Chair, Joan, and the ‘Kill the Housing Bill’ campaign can be found by clicking here and here.  

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Housing & Planning Bill – demonstrate on 5 January

The Housing & Planning Bill gets its third reading at the beginning of January.   A protest lobby and meeting in Parliament on Tuesday 5 January is being organised by the ‘Kill the Housing Bill – Secure Homes for All’ campaign and will mark the next stage of the fight against the Housing Bill. Come to rally outside Parliament at Old Palace Yard SW1A 0AA from 2pm, joined by MPs and other speakers against the Government’s latest onslaught on truly affordable and secure homes. A protest meeting inside Parliament 5-7pm (allow 30 minutes to get in due to security checks) will hear tenants, trade unions, councillors and MPs explain the case against the Housing Bill and for investment in council housing and other secure and really-affordable homes. Last week, ministers managed to sneak in last minute amendments to the Bill to remove secure lifetime council tenancies. Invite and Lobby your Councillors…

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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…

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Local traffic and transport plans and work

We receive frequent updates on the various work being carried out around our Estate, particularly the Northern Line Extension and the highways work around the Oval. The latest bulletins are about work on the Northern Line Extension at Kennington Green closing down for the holiday season (sighs of relief from the neighbours!) and upgrade work that’s starting at Waterloo Station. They (and future such bulletins) can now be found here.

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