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Your Winter 2024 Lambeth Talk features young people at one of Lambeth’s new Barbershop safe spaces on the front cover.

Your Winter Lambeth Talk news and features include:

An introduction from Cllr Claire Holland, Leader of Lambeth Council, about the new Government’s first budget; welcoming the change to a government willing to work with local authorities but warning that public funding shortages are likely to mean difficult decisions at council level.

The council’s Cabinet will consider dimming streetlights during the middle of the night, renting out space in council offices, increasing income from services like parking and events in parks and consulting on reducing the number of children’s centres in a bid to save £50million.

Cllr David Amos said: “This is the worst funding crisis that the council has ever faced, and we need to be open with residents that saving this amount isn’t possible without having a major impact on the services people rely on.

This World AIDS Day, Sunday 1 December, the London-wide, Lambeth-led HIV Prevention Programme Do It London focuses on health inequalities, highlighting the needs of Black heritage communities disproportionately affected by HIV.

World AIDS Day serves as an important reminder of the progress made in addressing stigma and improving care. It also highlights the ongoing work needed to make sure everyone has equal access to testing and care

Tackling health inequalities

Vital expenses including extra help to pay household bills, and school meals during the holidays, can now be supported over the next six months through the borough’s £2.7m Household Support Fund (HSF) allocation, confirmed by the Government.

The funding will enable Lambeth to continue essential support for low-income families at a time of significant financial pressure, due to unprecedented demand for front-line services, particularly temporary accommodation.

Central to the improvements is a significant upgrade to the local streets and space for local businesses around the shops on Amesbury Avenue, which will help to create a new focal point for the neighbourhood and boost local businesses.

Amesbury Avenue will be upgraded with new widened footways to improve accessibility, as well as three new pedestrian crossing points, a bike hangar, and six cycle stands to promote walking and cycling. The council will plant five new trees on Amesbury Avenue to provide shade and shelter and make a stronger connection with Hillside Park.

Lambeth has become the first London local authority landlord to receive a C2 grading from the regulator. The RSH issues gradings from C4 where it has serious concerns about failings, through to C1 where all standards are met.

The inspection, which took place in August this year, also found that further improvements are needed, but the regulator was assured that Lambeth has good plans in place to achieve them.

The plan includes a major upgrade for the local centre on Elm Park and permanent upgrades to traffic filters throughout the neighbourhood. The improvements on Elm Park were made possible by the 73 per cent drop in traffic on the road brought about by the area’s low traffic neighbourhood.

Cllr Rezina Chowdhury, cabinet member for Sustainable Lambeth and Clean Air, said: “We are determined to make our neighbourhoods safe and pleasant. With these changes to the Tulse Hill LTN scheme, I’m confident that the area will be a great demonstration of our vision in practice.

The project will create five new green buildouts along Hercules Road, in Waterloo, and will replace parking area with new green spaces, cycle parking, more seating and space for people.

More than a dozen new street trees will also be planted to provide extra canopy cover, as well as adding more greenery to the neighbourhood.

Rezina Chowdhury, Cabinet Member for Sustainable Transport and Clean Air, Lambeth Council, said: “We are delighted to transform Hercules Road into a greener place where residents love to live and visitors love to spend time.

Faiths Together in Lambeth invited every community to promote peace and harmony with a Peace Walk visiting faith venues from the south to the north of the borough.

Celebrating Interfaith week

“The aim of the Faiths Together in Lambeth Peace Walk is to show our solidarity to the work of promoting Peace in our community. We do the Peace Walk as part of the Interfaith week which happens each year, usually in the first and second week of November. Our members look forward to doing this every year!” Said Lydia Taiwah of Faiths Together.

Word from the Cabinet

Lambeth Libraries teams up with Brixton Brewery as pub reading grows in popularity.

The Brewery’s latest research finds that Londoners are reading more, and enjoying books in places including pubs and bars. Over half the Londoners asked agreed they’d be interested in dedicated pub reading spaces.

Books on tap