Minutes:
The chair started the community announcements by expressing congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridgeshire on their recent wedding.
Public Spaces research
The chair invited David Yeates to tell the meeting about some research he was conducting into public space in Walworth. David explained that he was from the University of Kent and was conducting a study of public space in South London. He was interested in speaking to people who had lived in the area for a long and collecting their stories. David explained the aim of the research was to inform government and organisation to help them build better spaces in the area. David committed to feedback quarterly as he conducted his research. He asked people interested in taking part to speak to him at the break.
Council Assembly Themed Debates
Councillor Mohamed, cabinet member for equalities and community engagement, explained that the next themed debate at council assembly would be held in July on Sport and Young people. The July meeting will also be the first time a council assembly meeting had been held outside of the town hall. The chair encouraged people to keep an eye on the website to find out more information.
Community council fund launch
This item was scheduled at item 8 but the chair explained he would take the item as a community announcement. The community council fund will be open for application from 4 May and the closing date for applications is 16 June.
Application packs were available and residents could speak to the Neighbourhood Co-ordinator in the break about how to apply.
The chair asked Melanie from Cooltan Arts to explain how they used their community council fund grant. Cooltan Arts, is a charity which provides mental health support through the arts. They had arranged an open day which included an art exhibition, a poetry reading, and taster workshops. The event had been part funded by the community council grant.
Residential Design Standards
The chair invited Kate Johnson from planning policy to tell the meeting about a consultation on an update to the residential design standards. The update includes additional guidance on new minimum dwelling sizes. The proposed update would mean that the minimum size for new dwellings would increase, so larger units for new houses would be built.
The consultation is open until Thursday 2 June, consultation forms can be completed online.
Carter Place Appeal
Rob Bristow from the planning department attended to explain an administrative error which had occurred at the inspector’s site visit on 13 April. The planning case officer had arrived late as he had been given the wrong date due to an administrative error. Rob apologised for the officer arriving late and stated that this would not undermine the council’s case in anyway as the case would be judged by written submissions alone and verbal submission at the site visit were not allowed.
Elephant Amenity
Celia from elephant amenity announced that they would be holding a visioning event on Saturday 4 June from 11am-4pm at Crossways church on the New Kent Road. The event would consist of workshops where people could talk about what they wanted for the area, the event was open to everyone. More information was available at www.elephantamenity.wordpress.com
Walworth Road Update
Nicky Costin from the environment department updated the meeting on repairs to the Walworth Road. He explained that there were three main issues:
1) When utility companies need to dig the road up to make repairs they don't always reinstate the road to an adequate standard. The council was seeking to take enforcement action against the utility companies for particular failures in this area.
2) Some maintenance fixes haven’t proved adequate. The council was seeking different technical fixes to ensure this didn’t happen again.
3) Difficulties with the road levels, it was anticipated that the work needed to remedy these issues would be completed before the autumn, but this would take time as the work would require new surveys and new design work.
Nicky advised that any remedial works in relation to 3 will be paid for from existing Walworth Road budget as some monies had been retained in case remedial works were needed.