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Brixton Rec/central Brixton consultation and the 'Rec Quarter' proposals


Report on last meeting.

On the leaks. Clearly the ongoing leaks which have taken years to rectify caused extensive damage to internal areas of the Rec. The Council have only now got around to dealing with them.

The lifts. Council are trying to blame GLL/ Better for lift breakdowns. The escalator has been out of action for a long time now. I think that this is unfair. Like a lot of the plant in Rec its now very old and needs replacing. This imo is not Better responsibility.

The Nine million to refurbish Rec was agreed a long time ago. In wake of public protest about officers trying to demolish Rec and replace it with smaller one on pop site. Leaving the large rec site available for "redevelopment".

The refurbishment program has gone in fits and starts. Stopping during the pandemic.

In last year with transition to Council taking back in-house the management the works have re started.

It looks like about 6million has been spent.

Outstanding issues related to phase two works are lifts and heating/ ventilation.

As users will know the changing rooms are very cold in winter. The heating in them failed years ago. Surveyors report say the heating and ventilation system reached the end of its useful life years ago. It needs replacing.

So far I see no Council time table to do this. It needs redesigning and replacing throughout the building.

The ongoing saga with the social room. This was lost to GLL/ Better years back when a senior officer agreed with GLL it could be converted into their London area office. Without consulting users of Rec. It's been a sore point for years now.
 

I'm a bit confused here. Not your fault.

I was at a meeting where Mutual gain put forward the consultation they would be doing. I will see if have time to post more on that

The confusion here is that there are two separate projects.

1) The development of the old Pop site and refurbishment of International house

This will be done by London Square. The developer who the Council are selling these sites to. Preferred Council language is that London Square are "partner" with Lambeth. That, in words of my local Cllr, Council aren't "selling" the site but selling a very long lease. Which imo is still selling it.

So this is a commercial development where Council try to ensure there are good outcomes like affordable housing.

Though one of my Cllrs got upset when I said it was commercial.

2) The other project is the Good Growth project funded by Mayor/ GLA.

This is improving the public realm in Brixton station road and putting in workspace in the unused part of Rec by Beehive place.

GLA/ Mayor expect good social outcomes from this

It's not a commercial development. Scheme is being administered by Council.

Includes new lighting etc.

My confusion is that the Council mix these two very differently funded and developed projects together.

I may be wrong but ideologically they look like they are running the two projects together as example of good public private project.


As far as I understand Mutual Gain are being paid by London Square.

Though given this is Lambeth trying idea of " partnering" with a developer I'm not clear where the different lines of responsibility are.

Which to my mind is storing up problems for the future when a developer starts saying that "viability" means the social outcomes need trimming.
 
So it's two projects:

Revitalising Brixton Rec Quarter

Growing Brixton Rec Quarter

Unless one is following it closely its confusing.

Lambeth aren't making a clear it is two separate projects.
 
This is notes of meeting I attended with Mutual Gain recently

There are three strands to the consultation.

1] consultation on an "inclusive public space"

2] Wider community consultation in March on initial designs.

3] Earlier meetings with key stakeholders- Pop and International House tenants.



Here is link to join up the consultation on the "inclusive public space". The person from Mutual Gain asked people present to circulate this to anyone who is interested. Was told to pass this to any local who might be interested.

Microsoft Forms

Here is link to London Square the developer/ partner

Development partner agreed for Growing Brixton Rec Quarter

Mutual Gain lead the consultation.

Love Lambeth





Afterwards I did wonder what exactly this consultation for an inclusive public space was for. It, from what Mutual Gain said, requires a lot of commitment.

Its not really about bread and butter issues like design , affordable housing etc.

From what I understand the wider community consultation will look at design of buildings. As the planning application is to put in later this year I would have thought design principles would be set by March.


But I'm still not clear on how this fragmented consultation process will work.

TBF I'm wondering if the consultation on a public realm is way to get fulfill community engagement and leave the rest of the more fundamental issues to Council and London Square.

At meeting Mutual Gain said that this consultation ( on public realm) is "an appreciative enquiry process"

Its about developing a vision of Brixton, what is working well in it now.

There is a budget of 250 000 pounds to spend on public realm design

A random selection of residents will be made.

This could also mean employment opportunities. A community curator and community researchers for example.

How being paid and being independent works is not clear to me.

Volunteering to be part of the "appreciative enquiry" involves a lot of commitment.

As well as attending consultation events one will be expected to go out and talk to other members of community and report back.

The aim is to build trust in design and inform development. Build social capital and resilience. There will be day of training and community led discovery process. Taking place in March. "Co designing the public realm space".

Well that was the explanation by Mutual Gain.

As I said this is about the pubic realm not the whole development.

What I did not ask , in hindsight, is what area this public realm covers. She did have slides but I was having problems with my zoom connection. So did not get ot see all the slides in depth.

I also was not keen on this idea of consultation solely being about the public realm.

After her talk she said people could ask questions.

I asked about how the relationship with Lambeth and London Square worked.

At meeting there was a Lambeth Regeneration manager and someone from London Square.

I asked as the person from Mutual Gain had talked in terms of London Square.

I did not get much of an answer to this. Other than Lambeth had chosen London Square.

I then asked about affordable housing. As imo a major issue is affordability of any retail units built and the affordable housing. As people in area feel developments are pushing them out of the area due to high costs.

Lambeth and London Square said that 50% of housing would be affordable. I asked about viability assessment later on reducing that. Had the Council got cast iron guarantee on this.

After much talk from the Lambeth officer and the London square person it seems no. It is in words of the London Square person a commitment

"Where we stand today commitment,"

Which is "today" and not necessarily tomorrow. I take this 50% can be classified as an aspiration only.

It was pointed out this happens a lot in schemes. At first a lot is promised then several years done the line its watered down. That developers can apply to revise affordable housing by viability even after a planning application has been approved.

After meeting I must say I'm not confident about affordable housing.

Issue of affordable retail was replied to by saying any retail space would be the new E class which gives maximum flexibility in use. Restaurants/ offices/ takeaways/

That part of the brief from Council was to "animate" the ground level use.

Then there was discussion on the existing planning guidelines for the area. The Brixton Masterplan and Brixton SPD.

The Regeneration officer seemed unaware of these documents. Saying the Masterplan was out of date. That the Brixton SPD had never been agreed.

After looked this up. Looks like the original Brixton SPD was agreed but some time later it was revised and updated. The revised version was never finished by officers. So not agreed by Cabinet.

Anyway I went and looked at the Cabinet meeting when the original one was agreed and sent it to Mutual Gain to pass onto the officers

To be fair to the officer she said all this was before her time and she therefore did not now much about it.

IMO Lambeth should get new officers up to speed on planning guidelines for Town Centre sites like Brixton.

The short of it is the only guidelines for development will be in the Local Plan.

I have not checked that yet.

Of course we all know that planners ignored guidelines when it came down to Hondo Tower.

This does not promote confidence in future developments imo.

I also asked about Lambeth Zero Carbon aspirations. Is it going to be Passiv Haus development.

Was told it was to be BREEAM excellent. That any shortfalls in Zero Carbon development would be meant by monetary payment as a Carbon offset.

The London Square person also said that keeping International House and refurbishing it rather than demolishing it. Which means embodied carbon will not be released. Which is correct.
 
I wanted to let you know about the start of our public engagement process which is called an appreciative inquiry. This involves local people working on behalf of residents, and residents themselves participating in a process that takes place over three workshops during March: all will be held in the evenings. It is not the only way to share your views - there will be other opportunities in more traditional ways - drop ins etc over the forthcoming months, but I thought you may be interested in this one.

The inquiry question we have to answer is:
How could the people, places and activities you love most about Brixton be used to shape and inform new development in the area?


We want to learn about the great things happening in Brixton so that we can create a vision for new development in the area.

Attached to this email is an invitation that you can share more widely with friends and colleagues who live in the area. They can sign up by scanning the QR code or completing this form by 16th March. We ask for sign up to ensure we have enough handouts and refreshments available for each session. Please sign up for all three workshops.

This is what you can expect each of the workshops to cover...

Monday 20th March: 17:00 – 21:00 In this session you will:
  • Clarify any questions you have about this development or the programme
  • Learn more about what appreciative inquiry is and how it fits with the wider community engagement planned for this programme.
  • Develop discovery questions that we will ask the wider community who are unable to participate
  • Develop ideas for a programme name that young ambassadors will vote on before the workshop on 28th

Tuesday 28th March: 18:30 – 20:30 In this session we will review the findings from the discovery phase and theme them to help us develop a collective vision

Thursday 30th March: 18:30 – 20:30. In this session we will use the learning from sessions 1 and 2 to create a collective vision for Brixton and how development might respond to that


We are creating some Frequently Asked Questions about the development which we will share with you in advance of the first meeting.
 
Above is for the new London Square development on Pop site and International House.

All welcome to register for this.
 
This is the FAQ pack I received at the start of the Brixton Citizen's Panel process
 

Attachments

  • FAQs.pdf
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Saw your reply in the other thread.

I will ask this at the next meeting to see if there has been any improvement on "an aspiration"
 
This is the FAQ pack I received at the start of the Brixton Citizen's Panel process

Thanks.

For starters.

This:
What are the Recreation Centre decoupling works and how will these affect tenants at
International House?
International House and the Brixton Rec currently operate as one building and share a number of
services, i.e. water, gas, electricity, etc. As part of the new development, International House will
need to operate independently of Brixton Rec and have its own energy and general operational
needs. All the shared services that need to be separated and any equipment within the areas of
International House that only serve the Rec need to be relocated in order to achieve this, this is
what is meant by the decoupling works.
Enabling works in supports of the decoupling works may need to be undertaken before the lease
ends in September 2023. However, these works will be limited to Brixton Rec areas and will not
impact on the operation of International House or affect tenants. The main works will be
undertaken after International House has vacated to avoid any operational or health and safety

Question:

1. how is the separation works being funded?

Is the developer paying for this?

Or is the Council paying to do this?

Im concerned that the money to do the separation works is coming out of budget to refurbish the Rec.

So would like clarity on which budget these separation works are coming from.

The Council? The developer? Or money set aside ( the ten million) to refurbish the Rec.

Second related question.

As part of the Brixton Masterplan a Local Energy Network is envisaged. So new buildings are supposed to be built to retrofit a local energy network. How does de coupling International house from Rec further this? As I do not see it myself.

Policy PN3 ( Brixton area) in local plan says this:

I. implementing town-centre energy and waste management strategies
involving a wide range of sustainable elements and innovation and
supporting this delivery through planning obligations. This could include
provision of sustainable waste management and recycling facilities or
district heating networks, and permanently moving the town centre waste
compactors from their temporary location on Brixton Station Road.

And this from the Local Plan:

Policy EN3: Decentralised energy
A. All major developments will be expected to connect to, and where
appropriate extend, existing decentralised heating, networks in the vicinity
of the site, unless a feasibility assessment demonstrates that connection
is not reasonably possible. Minor new-build developments should be
designed to be able to connect wherever reasonably possible. Where
networks do not currently exist, developments should make provision to
connect to any planned future decentralised energy network in the vicinity
of the site, having regard to opportunities identified in Heat Network Priority
Areas of the London Heat Map and area specific energy plans.

Basically this is saying all new developments should be able to join future local energy networks.

So my question is how does separating services between International House and Brixton Rec further this part of the Local plan.

I dont see it does.
 
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This is the FAQ pack I received at the start of the Brixton Citizen's Panel process

Thanks for posting this up and coming here to ask locals what they think.

Much appreciated.

I will have more questions.

How is it going so far with the Citizens panel meetings?

Sorry if I sound cynical but I have done so many "consultation" exercises where the Council have ignored or misinterpreted findings that I cant stomach the thought of spending hours doing it. Even if paid.
 
I'll probably print this thread off ahead of the next meeting (which is this weekend)

The panel has been really good to be honest. I'm fairly vocal so have felt listened to.

Obviously they are trying to shine the best light possible on the developer and things have come "too far" already IMO. For example the site needs to have 240 "homes", this was apparently stipulated by the council - but where has this figure come from? Why not 100 homes in a low rise block? If International House has been such a success why isn't the council commercialising it and getting the revenue? Unfortunately we are not really asking those questions at this panel as it's gone beyond that stage already.

The process feels like we are able to input but in reality the parameters we are operating within are so narrow that there are only a few realistic solutions on the table for what will be built. It will likely be tall, probably look modern, and will have commercial on the ground floor. Everyone has been keen for it to be an "open" space like Pop Brixton.

I'll feedback again after the next session.
 
I'll probably print this thread off ahead of the next meeting (which is this weekend)

The panel has been really good to be honest. I'm fairly vocal so have felt listened to.

Obviously they are trying to shine the best light possible on the developer and things have come "too far" already IMO. For example the site needs to have 240 "homes", this was apparently stipulated by the council - but where has this figure come from? Why not 100 homes in a low rise block? If International House has been such a success why isn't the council commercialising it and getting the revenue? Unfortunately we are not really asking those questions at this panel as it's gone beyond that stage already.

The process feels like we are able to input but in reality the parameters we are operating within are so narrow that there are only a few realistic solutions on the table for what will be built. It will likely be tall, probably look modern, and will have commercial on the ground floor. Everyone has been keen for it to be an "open" space like Pop Brixton.

I'll feedback again after the next session.

Thanks for this.

A word of advice from someone whose done consultations a lot.

At some point a report will be written up of this consultation and given to Council

I would suggest that the panel asks to see any write up of this consultation before it is published.

In particular if the panel think the parameters are to narrow then it should have that included in a final report.

What you are saying about major decisions already been made should be made clear in any final report.

Sorry but my experience is that results of consultation can be massaged to fit what the Council wants. Such as oh look the panel took the option of high tower of flats. Even though as you say the options you have been presented with are limited.

Why I think panel should insist on seeing any final report before it goes out.

Is each meeting of the panel minuted? So you have record of what is said.

So insist on seeing any final report before it goes out to make sure it truly reflects what panel members said.

And that what panel members said is not used selectively.
 
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Thanks.

For starters.

This:


Question:

1. how is the separation works being funded?

Is the developer paying for this?

Or is the Council paying to do this?

Im concerned that the money to do the separation works is coming out of budget to refurbish the Rec.

So would like clarity on which budget these separation works are coming from.

The Council? The developer? Or money set aside ( the ten million) to refurbish the Rec.

Second related question.

As part of the Brixton Masterplan a Local Energy Network is envisaged. So new buildings are supposed to be built to retrofit a local energy network. How does de coupling International house from Rec further this? As I do not see it myself.

Policy PN3 ( Brixton area) in local plan says this:



And this from the Local Plan:



Basically this is saying all new developments should be able to join future local energy networks.

So my question is how does separating services between International House and Brixton Rec further this part of the Local plan.

I dont see it does.
Partial answer to question 1. The money is not coming out of the rec refurb budget.

Other info: it doesn't seem like the developer has any proper agreements with the council yet so it seems likely that the council is funding the separation works - although I didn't get an answer for this so please don't take that as gospel.
 
Partial answer to question 1. The money is not coming out of the rec refurb budget.

Other info: it doesn't seem like the developer has any proper agreements with the council yet so it seems likely that the council is funding the separation works - although I didn't get an answer for this so please don't take that as gospel.

Well I'm not so sure Id take what council say as gospel either.

Not having a go here. But perhaps the Citizens panel can start asking for info on the specific issues.

Seems to me this Citizens panel is not really about the citizens.

Each consultation meeting seems to me to be set by Council / London Square and Mutual Gain.

Perhaps the panel could decide amongst themselve what they want from this this consultation.

Rather than the Council/ London Square version.

Ive posted up about deliberative democracy etc previously on Urban

Madrid as a democracy lab

This came out of the Spanish opposition to the right. In Spain there is Podemos and other local to the left parties.

Here it is the Labour party and realistically nothing else.

My problem with the New Labour Lambeth Council version is that it is superficial.

Mutual Gain go on about these new radical forms of democracy. Then get hired to work for right wing Labour Councils like Lambeth who want to give a radical take on their working with property developers.

This is the main difference between Tories and New Labour ( now Progressive Britain) The right of the Labour party co opt radical ideas then water them down.

Its a clever way of working. But in effect it is still same concept. Sell off land and assets to developers.

But give it veneer of community input

Perhaps the citizens panel could question Mutual Gain on where it gets its ideas on deliberative democracy from? Madrid is an example. Be interested in what Mutual Gain think of Madrid example.
 
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Only posting this here because BBC Newsnight filmed part of tonight's programme exposing a "Dads for sale" immigration racket outside the Rec in one of those cafés underneath on Brixton Station Road.
Not sure what I feel about it - the quoted rates to be an immigration UK fake Dad for a pregrant woman with no papers ranged from £8,000 to £11,000 according to the programme.
As might be expected with HMG it hasn't yet occurred to the Old Etonian Brexiteer buffers who run this country that DNA testing has arrived! So at the moment, and for many years past apparently this is all done on a gentleman's agreement.
If you say you are the Dad, and you put in the application form, then turn up to register the birth, you are away with 11 Grand. Fascinating.
Not sure why they filmed it under Brixton Rec though. Maybe the Rec Quarter has finally arrived!
 
It's all getting nicely sanitised (from an email)

Removal of Beehive Place artwork by Lambeth council​

Thanks for letting us know our paintings of our deceased friends from the local community will be removed & put into storage.

Is it possible you can grant us planning permission to put them on the other side of the Brixton Rec building facing PopBrixton please? .

It would be a shame to lose these much loved characters from the art walls of our beloved Brixton .
 
Now winter is up us the temperature of the pool has plummeted.

It now 24 to 25 degrees. And was told the showers were not working yesterday.

I cant use pool like that.

Keep getting promise the heating in the changing rooms will be sorted out. And they arent.

Several people I know who are regular swimmers say they are forced to go elsewhere now. They do not like to have to do this. As part of swimming is the social aspect of it. With regular swimmers meeting each other.

Complaints are not replied to properly.

People were told last year that new boiler would sort this out.

Also the with Lambeth taking over things would improve.

Those who who thought Lambeth taking over management would make things worse feel they have been proved right.

User of Rec get told ad hoc reasons. "its an old centre" for example. Its not an old centre. Its not been maintained properly over the years. That is the problem.

The lifts are finally going to be replaced. As Council were told years ago things like lifts do not last forever. And when they need replacing can be predicted.
 
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