Our meeting on 10th January included an update from the Fight the Tower Campaign on the Hondo Tower proposals, which have been in the Mayor’s pending tray for 15 months now. We also shared what we know about other prospective developments, like the Pop Brixton site and the future of International House, and agreed some actions on pursuing these concerns. More to follow.
More local events this month
Advice sessions in person on local Council Estates Lambeth closed its Housing Office during Covid, expecting residents to access all services on-line through its Housing Portal. The Council have finally realised that tenants don’t all have Internet access or skills, so a series of resident drop-in surgeries have begun on local estates. Sessions should provide face-to-face access to staff from housing management, maintenance and rent services teams, and a chance to discuss any issues affecting you in your home. However, these live sessions are only once a month – for more information, call Lambeth Housing Services on (020) 7209 2660.
Edmundsbury Estate: Edmundsbury Community Hall, Ferndale Road SW9 8FQ – Second Friday of each month, 10 am to 1 pm.
St. Matthew’s Estate: St. Matthew’s Hall, 10 St. Matthew’s Road SW2 1NH – Third Thursday of each month, 10 am to 1 pm.
Tulse Hill Estate: Jubilee Community Hall, SW2 2LY – First Wednesday of each month, 2 – 4 pm.
Reducing Energy Bills in SE24
The Herne Hill Forum, to the east of our patch, are organising a series of briefing sessions to help residents with energy-saving ideas, from simple house-keeping hacks to organising major retro-fits for your home. Dates and venues will be:
Wednesday 18 January, 7 pm at Herne Hill Baptist Church, Half Moon Lane, SE24: why this matters and general energy-saving tips.
Monday 23 January, 7 pm at Carnegie Library, Herne Hill Road SE24: getting approvals from planners, landlords and building inspectors.
Sunday 29 January, 1 pm at Brockwell Barn, Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses, SE24: sources of heat and solar power.
Thursday 2 February, 6-30 pm at the Club House, Herne Hill Velodrome, Burbage Road SE24: retrofitting older properties and insulation do’s and don’ts.
For more information and booking, see https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/reduce-energy-bills-and-carbon-footprint-1464349
Events at Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses
- They start the year with a range of workshops and activities, including:
- Fermentation afternoon workshop on Saturday 14 January or 4 February.
- Mindfulness workshop with Deepti on Sunday 22 January.Introduction to Knitting – a beginners workshop on Saturday 11 February.
- Also, Saturday Yoga sessions resume from 7 January.
For more details and bookings, see their website, https://www.brockwellgreenhouses.org.uk/events
Creative Courses at Art4Space
Two special courses are being offered this term, at the Art4Space Learning Hub, 31 Jeffreys Road SW4 6QU. In both cases, there is no charge, but only 12 spaces are available for each course.:
Creative Community Champions will create a collective mixed-media textiles project, with the finished work to be presented to a local community project. This will run on Tuesdays for 10 weeks from 17 January, 10 am to 12-30 pm, in a LGBTQ+ friendly environment. Enquiries to info@art4space.co.uk
Creative Remedies is a mosaic-making course for women in need of a creative well-being boost. This will run on Wednesdays for 10 weeks from 18 January, 10 am to 12-30 pm. Enquiries to jewels@art4space.co.uk
Other News
Honour for Forum Chair
We are pleased to hear that our Chair, Ken Floyde, has been awarded a British Empire Medal in recognition of his years of work with the Brixton BMX Club, which now has an impressive track within Brockwell Park.
In addition, MBEs were awarded to Elizabeth Maytom, Project Manager of the Norwood & Brixton Food Bank, and to Dr Stephen Mowle of the Hetherington Group Practice, who is also Hon. Treasurer of the Royal College of General Practitioners.
Brixton Hill Low Traffic Neighbourhood
Lambeth Council is currently consulting on initial designs for a LTN covering the area bounded by Brixton Hill, Acre Lane, King’s Avenue and the South Circular Road. The northern half already has some long-standing access restrictions which have worked well, but may change, while new restrictions are proposed for streets west and south of Brixton Prison. No obvious benefits offered for cyclists or pedestrians this time, just some nonsense about flood prevention measures – for the highest part of Brixton! More details on the Lambeth website (consultation pages) – Closing date for comments is 22 January, to lowtrafficneighbourhoods@lambeth.gov.uk
Workspace in Beehive Place
Work is getting underway to convert disused space below the swimming pools of the Brixton Rec into space for manufacturing businesses and training projects. Access will be from Beehive Place, off Brixton Station Road. This will be followed in the Spring by shopfront improvements for the shops below the Rec, together with works to its external lighting and concourse. For an overview, see https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/revitalising-brixtons-rec-quarter
Reporting Water Leaks
For years we have ignored most leaking water mains as only a problem for Thames Water shareholders, but this year the early freeze and pre-Christmas thaw resulted in so many leaks that many people have been reporting loss of water pressure. If you spot a leak that Thames Water have not responded to yet, you can report it to them on 0800 714 614, or via their website, https://thameswater.co.uk/leak
New Chair at Friends of Loughborough Park
At the on-line AGM in November, Jon Bromwich was elected as Chair of the Friends, in succession to Lydia Stone, who had moved away from the area. This little park is continuing to recover from years of neglect, benefitting from some recent investment by Lambeth Parks and some hands-on help from local residents. Monthly litter-picks are continuing, co-ordinated by Anthea Masey, the next being on Sunday 29 January at 11 am. Jon can be contacted via the Friends’ e-mail account at friendsofloughboroughpark@gmail.com as before.
Milling & Baking at Brixton Windmill
Friends of Windmill Gardens are offering a unique full-day experience, making flour and then bread with their volunteer millers and bakers. This will be on Sunday 26 February, 10-30 to 4-30 pm at the Windmill and Education Centre. Maximum of 6 places, £70 per person including lunch. See their website for more details and booking, www.brixtonwindmill.org
Incidentally, if you were thinking about having a go at the Great British Bake Off, casting is underway for the next series, so please contact Jake Stoodley, researcher at Love Productions, phone 0117 456 8530 or e-mail to jake.stoodley@loveproductions.co.uk
Health and Social Care
User involvement at King’s College Hospital
There are several opportunities for patient input into how hospital services are provided, including: King’s Cancer Voices for patients with experience of using cancer care services; King’s Accessibility Advisory Group for both voluntary groups and individuals with access or communication needs; King’s Mental Health Advisory Group is a new forum to improve patients’ mental health care within the hospital; King’s Young People is a forum for 11-16 year-olds who use the hospital services, aiming to make the services more user-friendly for younger users.
If you are interested in joining any of these, or other groups, please contact the Patient & Public Involvement Team at kch-tr.KingsPPI@nhs.net or phone (020) 3299 3682.
Space at Akerman Health Centre
If your group has an interest in health issues, the Akerman Health Centre is offering free use of a room for meetings or events. Rooms available are on the ground floor and accommodate between 8 and 30 people. The downsides are that it’s only for weekdays between 9 am and 6 pm, and it’s a remote location on the NE fringe of Brixton. If interested, please contact either: – Juliet Amoa at Lambeth, jamoa@lambeth.gov.uk – Isabella Painting at SE London Integrated Care, isabella.painting@selondonics.nhs.uk
Polio booster clinics for Children under 9 These are still available, but for latest locations and opening times, see bit.ly/poliovaxSEL
Talking Therapies
Lambeth Talking Therapies offers free and confidential support to adults who are registered with a Lambeth GP. They can help with a range of problems, including depression, stress, sleeplessness, coping with traumatic experiences and specific anxieties. Types of support include group or individual talking therapy, on-line therapy and support with employment difficulties. You can speak to your GP about a referral, or you can self-refer, via their website www.lambethtalkingtherapies.nhs.uk or phone (020) 32286747 or by e-mail to lambeththiaptadministrators@slam.nhs.uk
Dry January
Expect various promotional efforts and publicity from Health sources this month, to encourage people to reduce or even stop their regular use of alcohol-based drinks. Here’s a weblink that came to us from an American alcohol rehab group, this time about stomach pain rather than liver damage: https://alcoholrehabhelp.org/blog/stomach-pain-after-drinking/
Funding, Training and support
Grants reminders
Once again, we remind you of deadlines for grant offers previously circulated by Integrate. If you missed the original alerts, contact eoin.heffernan@integrateagency.co.uk
Climate, Health and Community Fund, and particularly supporting diverse-led community organisations, up to £40,000 for a project or up to £10,000 for developing your organisation. Closing date 5 pm on Tuesday 10 January.
The Fishmongers Company – grants up to £90,000 over 3 years, particularly for projects dealing with Food & Nutrition, Mental Health, or Education in Prisons. Deadline 13 January.
Lambeth Wellbeing Fund – grants between £1,000 and £5,000 for community projects working with adults in Lambeth. More details at www.londoncf.org.uk but closing date is midday Tuesday 31 January.
News of this one came to us via Locality so please use Google to search for more details: Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust – Sustainable Future Fund offers up to £100,000 for a project addressing climate change, particularly if giving a voice to young activists or marginalised groups – deadline 28 March.
Training opportunities
Fund-raising training: The next clutch of free Zoom briefing sessions from Ecosystem Coldharbour will cover the Walcot Foundation, and take you through the whole application process so you can make a worthy application to them. Sessions will be on Tuesdays 24 and 31 January and 7 February, from 6-30 to 8-30 pm. To register, phone 07 958 622 171 or on-line at https://forms.gle/n7ioVRDHJ4Cb9EtC7
Getting the best from LinkedIn: The Wintrade Global Women in Business Network held an on-line masterclass a couple of months ago, and you can now check out the video recording of the event at https://lnkd.in/eNpGgFBz For their future events, see https://bit.ly/wintrade-zoom-events-landing-page
Enterprise
Kickstart your business with a professional London business address! Impact Brixton is offering entrepreneurs from Lambeth, Wandsworth and Southwark their first year free, or for those from further afield, their first month free, using the promo code BUSINESS25 but the offer expires on 1st February. When you sign up to their Virtual Office, you can use their location as your business address, rather than show your home address on Companies House records. You might just be in time to join the Virtual Office launch event on Friday 6 January – enquiries to team@impactbrixton.com
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Something to share with us?
If you are doing something around the Brixton area, why not use these bulletins to tell other Forum members about your activities, or your next event?Perhaps you would like to present your work at a Forum meeting, or raise a concern for discussion?
Please send items for future bulletins to the Forum Secretary at apiperbrix@aol.com – ideally by the 5th of the month so we can publish by the 10th. Also use this contact if you want to include something on the agenda for a Forum meeting.