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This is a community website for the Friends (and others) of The Lambeth Walk Open Space. The Friends welcome new members whatever their financial or residence status, but local people who use, look at or enjoy our park regularly will get most out of our organisation. Anyone who would like to contribute to the Friends or this blog, please get in touch via the email link (at right, below). We are currently spending nearly £200,000 on the important basics like fence, hedge, play area and path works

Saturday, August 14, 2004



This is the latest ground plan for the Doorstep Green project as drawn up by our landscape consultant, Adam Thomas.

It shows the re-landscaping planned, plus the new planting we envisage putting in to start with this year.

You can see where the main user improvements will go as well (like the reshaped paths and entrances, the new childrens' play areas, the new seating area near Denby Court and several new waste and dog bin locations),

It also shows the structural improvements to be made to the hard-standing areas and accesses around the Adventure Playground and the electricity sub-station.

All these works are scheduled to go ahead in late September and October of this year, while the park is still dry enough to work on, but most of our users and locals have decided that its pretty cold to be running about in it much. . .

And by next spring the whole thing should be bedding down well and ready to burst into blossom - as well as provide a robust platform for us all to build a better and better park on.

Click here to give us your feedback and suggestions, and here to see a larger version of the plan.


Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Brilliant feedback in July from the Countryside Agency after their hosting this year of the international "Great Cities - Great Parks" conference in London.

FoLWOS was asked to receive a delegation from the conference and offer a tour of the Lambeth Walk Doorstep Green to illustrate the kind of local work the CA and the Doorstep Greens are helping, and we were delighted to oblige.

Good relationships are crucial to continued support and the CA has been both generous and patient with FoLWOS as we got up to speed with their programme from pretty much Ground Zero in 2002. Michael Ball (Vice Chair) - who took the pictures - also gave a presentation on the history of the site and the subsequent planning issues. FoLWOS member Ian Nicolson accepted the suggestion earlier in 2004, but, because he now lives in Australia, current FoLWOS chair Diana Braithwaite hosted the tour with Cllr Charles Anglin.

The day went really well, and I am sure that the scale of what is needed and what we are trying to achieve on a very tight budget will have impressed delegates used to dealing in larger sums for smaller projects.

The delegates were:
Cllr Margaret Crooks
(Belfast City Council),
Ron Fleming
(President, Townscape Institute, North America),
Mark Blaxwell
(BTCV, Waltham Forest)
and Maria Teresa (architect, Holland).




FoLWOS Officers Doorstep Green Update,
July 2004
:

1. Certificate of Lawful use:
There is now a consensus that LBL will not need to consult on this application, as the land has been used as an open space for some time. This is good news as now the Report on Title can be issued to the CA shortly after the application has been approved, which means the Countryside Agency (CA) will finally be able to agree to
release our major grant.

2. Match Funding:
Greening Vauxhall will be writing to the CA to confirm that the DG will receive £60k over the next year towards the project. In addition, the LWOS DG has been nominated, but not yet approved as a project to receive £20-25k of funding from the North Lambeth Area Committee. We have also been advised to submit a bid for new fencing and a proper gate for the Community Garden to a new pot of money for environmental improvements (up to £5k) from the North Lambeth Area Committee.

3. Fencing:
The new fencing is still an on-going issue... Jonathan Meares (North
Lambeth Parks Officer) is back from leave and says that the rest of the Fitzalan section of metal fence will be installed from the 18th or 19th of August. LBL have agreed to pay the additional costs incurred due to the changes in the specification. This also means that when it comes to the rest of the perimeter fence (paid for by the DG grant) we will still be within budget.

4. Kennington Road Frontage:
In the second draft of the UDP it is agreed that the frontage will come back to the Open Space. LBL's solicitors are currently in discussions with L&Q Housing Trust (the current leaseholders) about how to return the land to LBL housing and then eventually to Environment.

5. Lollard Street Adventure Playground:
As the adventure playground are our neighbours and will be celebrating their 50th year here (Lollard Street Adventure Playground - 50th Anniversary Event - 27.08.04
) we have agreed to support them with this event. More news as it comes to hand.

6. Beech saplings for hedge:
I'm not sure if you will recollect that back in March at our last event local school children planted saplings for our new hedge into some pots. The plants are at WTW Primary School. The Adventure Playground and Roots & Shoots have now bothagreed to take the plants for the summer and look after them until we are ready to plant them. We just need to get access to the school!

7. DG implementation:
The contracts for commencement of the DG improvements are scheduled to go to tender in August/September with a view to start on site in Oct/Nov. We will provide more detail when Adam Thomas (FoLWOS Landscape Architect) is back from leave.

8. Newsletter:
We intend to send a newsletter to all FoLWOS members during the next few weeks and inform them of the recent improvements (new lights, fence, Great Parks, Great Cities etc.).


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