Substantial Reshaping of Brixton

[Gramsci]

How do you think the consultation should be done?

As I see it the Council is in many ways like dealing with this like a business/employer.Also the policies that local Councils pursue have to be seen in relation to the State and the power of Capital on a larger level.

Seems to me when looking at these Council documents that the commonsense notion is now that private Capital is all powerful.The 500million inward investment is private capital.The new Rec will be a PPP scheme.Im not saying this is all the Councils fault but local planning/regeneration policies cannot IMO be scene outside the framework of politics and recent history.The Thatcherite reign has left a seemingly indelible mark on UK politics and economics.Their is an intrusion of private capital into areas formerly seen as public.

I agree with a lot of what Newbie and Brixton Hatter have posted.My concerns on consultation are that:

1)Only a few people are going to read complex officers reports.If they are simplified down to make them more accessible then the danger is the Council will use it as a marketing exercise for its preferred option(the one agreed by the Exec on the 28th as laid down in the officers report).

2)The Council preferred option is going to be "sold" to local residents.Putting money into the BAF will IMO be to produce glossy pamphlets about how good its all going to be not a real summary of what agreed at Exec level.

3)I am going to start a new thread about "Charettes" later so wont detail it here.Some residents on a local estate are so pissed off with "consultation" exercises that they are involved with a new kind of planning called "Charrettes"-they want to do one in Brixton.See here:
www.charretteinstitute.org/charrette.html
The Centre for European Urbanism have taken up the Charrette idea:
www.ceunet.de/

Im not involved in it as such but am interested.

4)The bottom line for me,which is an ideological one,is that given the nature of Capitalism peoples needs are not going to be met.Doesnt stop one opposing or sometimes making compromises.

5)Given all this and the fact that the present administration have agreed this strategy what I would like to see is some openness.Those who oppose this strategy or parts of it should be given the same support from,from example, Brixton Town Centre mge as those who do.Reading the reports it would be interesting as a consultation exercise to get in a consultant to take it apart.Im only a layman on figures but even i can see the financial assumptions the reports are based on can be challenged.So in the spirit of openness would the Council get a financial expert in to challenge the economic basis of its plan?

What Im saying is that the Council could (as BH/Newbie suggest) have more than one option.

Apart from that Im glad you have come and posted up on the U75 bearpit Cllr .

 

[lang rabbie]

3)I am going to start a new thread about "Charettes" later so wont detail it here.Some residents on a local estate are so pissed off with "consultation" exercises that they are involved with a new kind of planning called "Charrettes"-they want to do one in Brixton.See here:
www.charretteinstitute.org/charrette.html
The Centre for European Urbanism have taken up the Charrette idea:
www.ceunet.de/

Im not involved in it as such but am interested.

IMHO "charette" is an ugly bit of architectural profession jargon for what can be a very useful process. I much prefer to call them "design workshops"

Design workshops described on Community Planning site
- however the time commitment involved can often be too much for voluntary sector partners/people with childcare commitments etc.

There are other techniques such as Planning for Real

CommunityPlanning.net is a useful UK based website for tenants/residesnts groups wanting more involvement in planning decisions:
http://www.communityplanning.net/index.htm

 

[Gramsci]

Thanks for those links LR-I will start a short thread on this soon

 

[lang rabbie]

Attention Lambeth documentation junkies

The minutes of the Executive meeting that discussed all this are now available here.

The final page is the paper tabled by the Labour Group with their reservations, which the Leader of the Council asked should be included as part of the record.

The Leader of the Council then MOVED each batch of recommendations, and it was: RESOLVED:
...
(26) That Members note the particular importance attached by the
local community to the Brixton Recreation Centre; and instruct the
Director of Environment to explore options for redeveloping the
existing leisure facilities in Clapham and Brixton as a strand of the
overarching consultations authorised in the paper Securing the
Development of Strategic Sites in Lambeth with the objective of (a)
providing equivalent or improved facilities in each case; whilst (b)
ensuring that any additional funding requirements are minimised,
and (c) ensuring that the community is fully consulted
...
(30) That the consultation and decision-making on options for
reproviding leisure assets at Clapham and Brixton is taken forward
as part of the wider consultation, financial considerations and
decisions on those town centres.
...
Regeneration in Brixton

(38) That consultation with the community and stakeholders is
progressed on options for the redevelopment of sites and services in
Brixton to ensure that local needs are properly understood, bearing
in mind the possible options set out in the papers on Major
Development Sites and the Delivery of Leisure in Lambeth.

(39) That further work is undertaken to explore (a) the scope and
planning constraints which might apply to any specific options for the
redevelopment of the sites in Brixton; (b) the opportunities
redevelopment could bring to support the aspirations of the
community, and (c) how local people can best help shape local
planning briefs.

(40) That Social Services are instructed to bring forward proposals for
the relocation of their services from Somerleyton Road, following
consultation by June 2005.

 

[IntoStella]

That rather begs the question: why waste taxpayer's cash to produce something that won't do its job effectively?

A poor site is actually worse than no site at all.

[brownnose] cllr, the Editor would be far and away the best person to do it. [/brownnose ]

It's true, badly designed sites make people angry, frustrated and derisive. Most people haven't got a clue how to design a site that is easy to navigate and locate what they want on. As anyone who has tried to use the Lambeth site will attest.

I tried in vain for ages to find the details of the (then upcomig) BAF on there the other day. In the end I gave up and phoned a friend.

 

[cllr]

[brownnose] I tried in vain for ages to find the details of the (then upcomig) BAF on there the other day. In the end I gave up and phoned a friend.

From the front page - meetings and events diary
Pick Events search from the list
type Brixton into the box
check the period you want to search
press search
up come all the different meetings

Or am I missing something?

 

[IntoStella]

From the front page - meetings and events diary
Pick Events search from the list
type Brixton into the box
check the period you want to search
press search
up come all the different meetings

Or am I missing something?

Yes, but you've been initiated into the arcane arts of finding your way round the site.

I'm hardly the only person who finds it un-navigable. It seems only you and lang rabbie know how to use it.

 

[lang rabbie]

From the front page - meetings and events diary
Pick Events search from the list
type Brixton into the box
check the period you want to search
press search
up come all the different meetings

Or am I missing something?

Try accessing it from many corporate or educational networks that have tightened up their web security (like that in my office) and you will get "This File Type is Restricted" as the events database calls up an executable file:
http://213.130.50.58/clients/lbl/cediary/cgi-bin/cediaryeve.exe

There is the same problem with the search for services function.

 

[cllr]

Try accessing it from many corporate or educational networks that have tightened up their web security (like that in my office) and you will get "This File Type is Restricted"

That's a bit of bad luck. I'll have a word with the web people and see if they've any ideas about that.

As a work-around can you use the documents search? Typing "Brixton Area Fourm" into the full text search brings up things like agendas and so on.

In the longer term it will be better to have the town centre pages have mini-diaries of the forthcoming meetings.

 

[hatboy]

There are local people more likely to attend meetings than use the internet as well as the other way round. Many people neither have easy access or much interest in the internet.... or council meetings.

People don't think voicing an opinion has an effect on what the council do. Sadly this is often borne out so the situation worsens. Or people are simply too stressed/busy in their own lives to take on extra worries about the neighbourhood.

That's what's so sad about Lambeth Council (and wider government). We should all feel secure that they look out for the interests of the whole community. That they are fighting for all people's rights, starting with the poorest and most vulnerable first and working up. Instead the council generally puts asset sales, political in-fighting and their own grand (impovorished?) schemes first and has to be constantly forced to care about poorer ordinary (and extraordinary!) citizens.

Look at the Shakespeare school site. Having located that site, the attitude from Lambeth should be "we're going to make this the very best we can for Brixton kids, the rubbish trucks must be moved at any cost". Their attitude is that the rubbish trucks and kids are of equal value.

Look at the black museum idea - Brixton is rightly and widely percieved as a centre of black British experience. Yeah, the museum is progressing - very, very slowly. But the council had to be won over to the idea and disuaded from selling the building off. Again the initial council attitude should have been "a museum of black history in Brixton, what a great idea, we should do all we can to support that". But again they have to be pushed.

Why?

You don't even need any local knowledge to see the right decision in the above two examples. You just need to care about social justice.

The council have to work to do better on this.

 

[Bob]

Well Hatboy it takes less than 1,000 votes to get elected to the council in Coldharbour - and you've got about 18 months to find them - at 2 votes per day you can get yourself elected at start changing things from the inside...

 

[editor]

From the front page - meetings and events diary
Pick Events search from the list
type Brixton into the box
check the period you want to search
press search
up come all the different meetings

Or am I missing something?

You shouldn't have to type in words and faff about with parameters to find something as basic as an upcoming event. And the actual event detail pages are poorly designed too: this one - the first I looked at - is a whole page of nothing and appallingly laid out.

 

[editor]

There are local people more likely to attend meetings than use the internet as well as the other way round.

Really?

I'd say a well managed, well designed, interactive website with proper council involvement would easily reach out to more people than the handful of people who attend meetings (not that I'm suggesting replacing the meetings - I'm advocating that a proper site would be a cost-effective means of getting more involvement from some parts of the Lambeth community and prove a vital resource for the future)

How many people attend an average planning meeting?

 

[IntoStella]

How many people attend an average planning meeting?

You should have seen the Assembly Rooms last night at the Secondary Schools Campaign meeting. Hundreds of angry mums (and dads) are a force to be reckoned with, and that is an understatement. I didn't think Saint Bottrall was going to get out alive. I'll stick up a report later.

It was an amazing meeting. The atmosphere was electric. You can't do that on the internet. If people are angry and fired up they have to get together and organise in the real world.

 

[editor]

You should have seen the Assembly Rooms last night at the Secondary Schools Campaign meeting. Hundreds of angry mums are a force to be reckoned with, and that is an understatement. I didn't think Saint Bottrall was going to get out alive. I'll stick up a report later.

Oh I know that on the big, well publicised issues there can be a good crowd, but for local planning issues is seems difficult to find out what's going on or get involved if I'm not around for the meeting (if I get to hear about it and can physically attend).

An online discussion forum would be a fabulous way for peeps like me to find out more about local issues and interact with the proposals.

Looking forward to your 'Mums' report!

 

[aurora green]

An online discussion forum would be a fabulous way for peeps like me to find out more about local issues and interact with the proposals.

yeah, totally agree.

 

[hatboy]

Well Hatboy it takes less than 1,000 votes to get elected to the council in Coldharbour - and you've got about 18 months to find them - at 2 votes per day you can get yourself elected at start changing things from the inside...

Not if the Labour candidates get 8000 each. I had a go at standing as a councillor before (Greens - we came after Labour, but before the Tories and Lib Dems).

I'm not convinced its the best means to be able to speak my mind on stuff, be effective, or that it would be fulfilling for me.

 

[hatboy]

An online discussion forum would be a fabulous way for peeps like me to find out more about local issues and interact with the proposals.

Yes, it would be good.... for people like you.

 

[editor]

Yes, it would be good.... for people like you.

Yes, that's right. People like me with internet access. Or people who use the library. Or people who are interested in having a say in the planning process but don't fancy attending meetings. Or people who feel uncomfortable expressing themselves in public meetings.

I'd imagine that's potentially quite a lot of people.

So what's wrong with reaching out to people who, unlike you, don't have the luxury of spare time to attend council meetings?

An interactive web forum would give people with demanding jobs, kids to bring up, shift workers etc etc an opportunity to get involved at a time that suits them for a comparatively small cost to the public.

And that's a good thing, surely?

 

[hatboy]

Yes it is a good thing. But there's still lots of people who just don't communicate in this way. The net attracts certain people and not others.

As I said further up, whatever the means, alot of people don't engage with the process of consulting with the council or goverment (voting?) because they beleive that nothing will change and that they won't be listened to or don't count to "those people". They are sadly, often proved right.

This is about the authorities genuinely reaching out to alienated people as well as choosing a means of communication.

 

[IntoStella]

I like getting out and meeting people. It’s exciting. It’s heartwarming. It’s fun.

I met an absolute diamond woman last night. When she isn’t running a central Brixton playground (unpaid, with various local politicians trying to take credit for her work) or performing in her band, she doesn’t time to chew the fat on the internet. Her boyfriend’s co-op is to be closed and sold by Lambeth next March. She wants to use what little free time she has to get campaigning groups and individuals working together, get out there and make things happen. She wants to DO it, not talk about it.

Having seen the way dissenting voices are silenced at Brixton Area Forum (and gramsci has his own experiences of this), I am more than a little bemused by the idea of a council-run discussion board. My god. Anyone who criticised the council would unexpectedly find they had been banned or their posts mysteriously altered to a more on-message message. Who would edit/moderate it? Rachel Heywood?

As things stand, Lambeth doesn’t *want* free debate on its performance because there would be an avalanche of criticism there for all the world to see.

 

[editor]

I met an absolute diamond woman last night. When she isn’t running a central Brixton playground (unpaid, with various local politicians trying to take credit for her work) or performing in her band, she doesn’t time to chew the fat on the internet.

Would that be my old mucker, Sarah?!

I did a web page for her earlier this year: http://urban75.org/brixtonarts/

(PS spot the familiar face in the photos!)

 

[IntoStella]

Would that be my old mucker, Sarah?!

No, someone else.

I did a web page for her earlier this year: http://urban75.org/brixtonarts/

(PS spot the familiar face in the photos!)

Who's that fool?!

 

[Mrs Magpie]

A friend's kid in there too (top right).

 

[editor]

No, someone else.

Blimey! How many more people are there running central Brixton playgrounds (unpaid, with various local politicians trying to take credit for their work)?!!

 

[IntoStella]

Blimey! How many more people are there running central Brixton playgrounds (unpaid, with various local politicians trying to take credit for their work)?!!

At least one, evidently.

 

[hatboy]

No, someone else.Who's that fool?!

LOL....

 

[lang rabbie]

Something quite uncannily like this edited down version of post 90 from this thread is Letter of the Week in this morning's South London Press

We should all feel secure that they look out for the interests of the whole community. That they are fighting for all people's rights, starting with the poorest and most vulnerable first and working up. Instead the council generally puts asset sales, political in-fighting and their own grand (impovorished?) schemes first and has to be constantly forced to care about poorer ordinary (and extraordinary!) citizens.

Look at the Shakespeare school site. Having located that site, the attitude from Lambeth should be "we're going to make this the very best we can for Brixton kids, the rubbish trucks must be moved at any cost". Their attitude is that the rubbish trucks and kids are of equal value.

Look at the black museum idea - Brixton is rightly and widely percieved as a centre of black British experience. Yeah, the museum is progressing - very, very slowly. But the council had to be won over to the idea and disuaded from selling the building off. Again the initial council attitude should have been "a museum of black history in Brixton, what a great idea, we should do all we can to support that". But again they have to be pushed.

Why?

You don't even need any local knowledge to see the right decision in the above two examples. You just need to care about social justice.

The council have to work to do better on this.

Enjoy your "stylish pen", Hatboy

 

[Gramsci]

Does that make Hatboy the second person on U75 to win a pen?

 

[IntoStella]

Something quite uncannily like this edited down version of post 90 from this thread is Letter of the Week in this morning's South London Press

Enjoy your "stylish pen", Hatboy

EXCELLENT!! Well done HB.