Full speed ahead for Northern Line extension from Kennington to Battersea Power Station

This news item can also be found at the South West Londoner, here.

Plans to extend the Northern Line from Kennington to Battersea Power Station have moved a step closer after TFL finalised their budget for the work.

The ‘NLE’ project, which will also include an intermediary stop at Nine Elms, has been in planning since 2009, and aims to be completed by 2015.

When the project started, an allotted budget of £1bn was set and present cost projections are around £998m.
A public survey found that around three quarters of the responses to this were positive or neutral, many approving of the increased public transport accessibility.

A report from TfL states that key issues to come out of the survey relate to possible noise and vibrations for buildings above the route. Around 1000 property owners and occupiers may be directly affected.

The London Borough of Southwark is calling for Kennington to be re-designated as a Zone 1 station once the extension is complete.

Since carrying out the survey, TfL have consulted with community groups and heritage experts in Kennington on how to proceed with any above-ground construction.
Alongside the preparations for the rail extension, Battersea Power Station has had £400m invested to turn it into a leisure hub for the area.

SP Setia, the largest property group in Malaysia, purchased the land alongside other company partners.
The structure has had various renovation plans in the past (including becoming a football stadium and a hotel), but they all succumbed to funding problems.

The completed complex is aiming to include a block of luxury flats, shops, eateries, a gym, and a revitalised public park.

Work on the Power Station is scheduled to start this autumn, concluding in 2016, although preliminary preparations have already started.

The success of the Power Station's reopening is likely to depend heavily on the increased accessibility from the rail extension.

Feminist comedian to take centre stage at Wandsworth Arts Festival

This feature can also be found on the South West Londoner, here.

Rosie Wilby has been putting in an appreciated queer feminist angle into stand-up, music and filmmaking since she was at university, and her experiences are coming together in her new performance at the Wandsworth Arts Festival this Thursday.

Called Nineties Woman, she talks about her self-identification as a feminist and the newspaper she worked on at university, in a mash up of live performance and documentary.

Studying at the University of York, the campus fostered a wide range of student publications, and started working on Matrix, a 'zine' for women.

Zine culture (short for 'fanzine') revolves around amateur production magazines dedicated to specific interests. Because of the low barrier to entry, it meant that people who felt that their demographic or interests weren't reflected in professional media could still get their voices heard.

"It was very much put together in a lo-fi DIY style which seems appropriate, as there was a huge fanzine scene at the time which has now come back," she said.

Matrix featured a mixture of heavy topics of body image and sexual harassment, but also had cartoons.

At the time, the riot grrrl movement was popular in the feminist scene and heavily related to zine culture. Taking a harder, punk rock edge, riot grrrl media focused heavily on sexuality and empowerment in a counter to the endless reams of boy band pop at the time.

"We weren't really listening to riot grrl bands when we put [Matrix] together," said Rosie. "It was more folk lesbian acts like the Indigo Girls.

"When I got to London after graduating, I realised that some really exciting challenging musical things were going on."

Beyond Nineties Woman, Rosie Wilby works in her self-identity into most of her stand up. She said that, coming from a generation where being gay defined who you were and the company you kept, it featuring in her comedy was inevitable.

She noted that things have changed and sexuality isn't so much of a core identity issue these days which, in her opinion, is both a good and bad thing. Still, she wants to keep her stand-up accessible to everyone, regardless of sexuality and gender.

"Love is universal, after all," she said.

Outside of her performances, Rosie is still heavily involved in queer media. Back in 2011, she co-wrote and co-stared in The Bride and Bride, shown at the BFI Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. Her radio show, Out in South London, was one of the sponsors for this year's festival.

She said: “I enjoyed it, particularly the widening focus to include more trans and gender queer work. Though this may mean they need to change the name of the festival.”

In the future, Rosie looks forward to a resurgence of queer voices in media, both from zines and larger-scale publications. She said that a mixture of both in-depth writing was needed among more lifestyle and entertainment publications, though they still have their place.

Out in South London airs on Resonance 104.4FM every Tuesday at 6.30pm

High Street Blues: Balham residents voice concern over rise of betting shops

This feature can also be found on the South West Londoner, here.

“Balham is my 'village' and I use it daily for shopping, dining and community engagement,” said Kevin Fitzpatrick of Fieldhouse Road, Balham.

“The addition of yet another betting shop will add nothing positive.”

He's talking about a planning application submitted by Coral Bookmakers on May 2. The proposed location is on Balham Station Road, replacing a dry cleaners and directly next to The Moon Under Water pub.

What's more, a gambling arcade, Cashino, is just down the road. The close proximity of these businesses is giving both shop owners and residents a cause for concern.

Have you recently noticed an increase in certain types of stores on your high road? Odds are, you’ve seen new charity shops, betting shops and chicken take-aways sprouting everywhere. It’s no coincidence, it’s happening all across Britain.

In a report made by PricewaterhouseCoopers, between December 2012 and February 2013, 77 new betting shops opened across Britain - and presently there are almost 9,000 in total.

It’s got to the point where betting shop companies are apparently fighting between themselves to take high street shop fronts. However, aside from the owners of these businesses and their landlords, very few people are pleased to see new bookmakers appearing.

Deborah Suggate filed a complaint about the planning notice. "It already feels like running a gauntlet of drunks when passing by," she wrote.

She added that the placement of the Coral Bookmakers is deliberate, to prey on vulnerable people who frequent the pub and the gambling arcade.

However, there’s little any of those who disagree can do about it – and it all comes down to how planning works.

A Class Act

All buildings in the UK have a Use Class dictating the use of the building. Retail is in one class, restaurants and cafes are in another, and so on. You require planning permission to change land from one class to another, which can be denied, if the local authority feels it’s a bad idea.

However, you can convert a building to anything in the same class without having to ask permission. The problem is, betting shops are categorised so they’re in the same class as a lot of different business types – so anything from restaurants to estate agents to banks can be turned into a betting shop.

Fortunately, the Balham dry cleaners that Coral wants to convert is of a different Use Class, forcing the company to go through the Wandsworth Council planning department. Still, many councils are looking into possible solutions to stop betting shops (and other overly common businesses) from going out of control.

An On-going Fight

The Greater London Authority put out a report in March showing concern for the increased rate of shops closing on high roads. It cites shop diversity as a requirement for good high street growth, and suggests that borough councils gain stronger planning powers to limit too many of the same kind of business from appearing.

The only defence councils have against betting shops is something called the ‘Article 4 direction’. The rough idea is arranging a zone under special circumstances, where certain types of building changes are required to submit a planning application, even if they wouldn’t otherwise.

It won’t surprise you that getting clearance for an Article 4 is lengthy, expensive and fraught with headaches.

In another borough of London, Merton Council did research into how severely betting shops were affecting them. Funnily enough, Merton has one of the lowest concentrations of betting shops in London.

"It's important to have a diverse high street,” said Councillor Andrew Judge, a cabinet member for environmental sustainability and regeneration.

 “It's equally important that Merton's town centres meet the needs of our residents and visitors.”

But councils are starting to fight back against the seemingly unstoppable surge of unfavourable businesses. Multiple borough councils across London have backed the idea of giving betting shops their own Use Class, forcing them to go through the planning committee and giving councils and the public a chance to refuse.

Mayor Boris Johnson is even trying to haul in the reins of betting shop proliferation by demanding a change to the Gambling Act 2005, which presently does nothing to prevent clustering of gambling establishments.

With Concerns Elsewhere

However, Wandsworth Council seem to be less concerned about the subject.

“From a planning perspective, it hasn’t appeared to be an issue,” said Sarah Dixey, of Wandsworth Council planning department.

“Take-aways are more of a concern.”

Similar to Merton Council, Ms Dixey considered Wandsworth to have a low concentration of betting shops, though a precise figure wasn’t given. As such, they have no present interest in backing the lobby to have the law for the betting shop Use Class changed.

“Our town centres are reasonable successful, with low numbers of vacancies,” she added.

They do use the Article 4 direction, but for something entirely other than high street management – the direction allows for them to conserve designs on older houses.

So will the voices of the public be heard? Possibly. For standard planning applications, Wandsworth has an average turnaround of eight weeks. At time of writing, that means there are another four weeks for concerned locals to have their say.

Fulham pub closes after feeling unfairly targeted by police

The full page for this story is available here. (Quark will only export as a .pdf, apologies.)

A pub on Goldhawk Road has closed after being met with heavy licensing restrictions, despite members of staff feeling they have been unfairly targeted.

The Raving Buddha, specialising in live DJ and open mic nights, held their last event, a ragga and dancehall night, on Saturday 25 May.

The pub, had a ruling on from the Hammersmith & Fulham Council Licensing Sub-Committee. They said that it was ‘associated with serious crime and disorder’; due to police picking up on three separate instances in one month.

The recent incidents included an arrest of a customer wanted for assault who was carrying seven rocks of crack cocaine; two men arrested on a separate incident with Class A drugs; and three arrests in one evening for GBH.

However, one of the bar staff the Raving Buddha feels that the business was unfairly targeted by the police, when there are other pubs on the road which may also suffer from crime.

Natalia Eagle, 21, said "The police bullied us!"

Taking issue with the first incident - the man wanted for assault - she said that the police were at the Raving Buddha by chance, and happened to see their target inside; as opposed to police chasing the man to the pub (which, she claims, the council statement and local news coverage implied).

The man was on a list of people the staff know to throw out on sight, but he was let in by the bar security. The pub has since switched security companies.

Ms Eagle felt that since the Raving Buddha is has fewer resources to defend itself; the police are making an example of them, when there are instances of pub-related problems in other areas.

"They think that this pub is the reason that people do drugs," said Ms. Eagle. "It's really stupid and deluded."

In light of having their License suspended, the Raving Buddha was given strict guidelines to follow in regards to CCTV usage and customer entrance numbers.

While the council do uphold that venues in the borough should follow key licensing objectives, the scrutiny that Raving Buddha was put under is a unique instance.

Nearby pub, the Walkabout Inn on Shepherds Bush Road, is also known by the police to have violent customers and now does not open on Sundays, following a policy change in February imposed by the police.

Other pubs on Goldhawk Road have been closed down over the last year. The Goldhawk Tavern was closed last November, and was reportedly sold to a developer to become offices; though no change has yet been made.

The Grand Union pub at the end of Goldhawk Road has been closed for the last year after relocating to a new venue in Wandsworth. The land has since been bought, and there are plans to turn the venue into a European gastropub, to open in late May. There is little visible sign of refurbishment on the site.

Popular Wandsworth pub reopens its doors after extensive refurbishment

This restaurant review can also be found at the South West Londoner, here.

The riverside Wandsworth restaurant The Ship reopened on Friday after a refurbishment starting in January.

The venue, which has been around since 1786 under the name Thameside Waterman's Inn, has expanded to included a larger courtyard with a new view of the river, bigger toilets and a new menu.

As the opening fell on  a miserably overcast day, the large outside seating area went unused, something which made the inside feel even more warm and welcoming. The bar area is inside a conservatory, letting the room fill up with light, even on such a grey day.

The view into the dining area  from the bar made it appear rather small, but upon entering, it had a large expansion off to the side. The kitchen is in full view of the diners, so those who are paranoid about food preparation need not break a sweat. The décor was rather 'antique rustic', with wood panelling everywhere, and intentionally mismatched chairs. It all felt rather relaxed and home-made.

The full dinner menu started at 6pm (before that, there's a small pub menu available, though the prices are similar to the dinner menu), and was rather diverse - I was expecting seafood as a speciality, given the restaurant name.

The courgette and sage soup was decently big and ideal for the weather, but I found it overly salty. Not enough to ruin it, but it drowned out the flavour of a sage a bit too much.

For the main course I had the monkfish, clam and tomato tart. The portion was sizeable, and the mix of seafood tasted great with the saffron cream sauce they used. The monkfish itself had a nice, slightly chewy texture - a must-try for those who haven't had that type of fish before.

I was looking forward to trying one of their rich-sounding desserts, the treacle tart in particular, but the monkfish tart was so filling I had to call it quits.

While I visited on a Friday, The Ship has a history of live music on Sundays and a dedicated Irish traditional music night on Tuesdays. Most notably, Tad Sargent and George Stains perform regularly.

"The primary aim is to look after customers through the summer," said Oisin Rodgers, manager of the establishment since 2006.

I entirely agree. Though The Ship had a successful opening (especially in the pub area), I think that come summer, The Ship will come into its own. The food is definitely at 'special occasions' prices for the post-university set like me, but I'm still looking forward to having an outdoors barbecue in the sunshine.

Information about The Ship, including menus and bookings can be found on their website www.theship.co.uk

Urgent need for more primary school places in Croydon, new figures reveal

This news piece can also be found at the South West Londoner, here.

Croydon is projected to be in severe need of primary school placements by 2014, according to an England-wide study.

The National Audit Office (NAO) warned on Friday that due to one in five primary schools in England being at capacity, there could be a deficit of 250,000 places by 2014. Croydon's projected shortfall of 15.8% is the one of the highest figures released.

The shortage of school placements in the borough has been acknowledged for some time. In February, residents campaigned against plans to expand a primary school in South Norwood, fearing it would put strain on nearby roads.

There is an ongoing consultation in progress on building a new primary school on Haling Road in South Croydon, offering 60 places a year. If the proposal is accepted, the school would take students from September 2014.
John Bownas, a spokesperson for Croydon Council’s Education Department, said that each student place matters when helping placement deficit issues in the area.

Annual Wandsworth festival boosted thanks to Arts Council funds

This news piece can also be found at the South West Londoner, here.

Arts Council England will provide £40,000 to fund Wandsworth Arts Festival, helping to claim back run-down public areas by the river.

The event will run from May 3 - 19, with the official launch taking place on the opening day.
This year, over 40 events are set to feature including a new event called the Festival Fringe - a volunteer organised collection of community-based events as a testing ground for new work.
The festival will close on a large-scale outdoor event called The Shimmy. Lasting all day and free to attend, the public are invited to walk along the riverside between Putney Wharf and Wandsworth Park, filled with art installations, performances and spoken word recitals.

Councillor Jonathan Cook, Wandsworth's culture spokesman said that the 'generous' funding would help the festival to be even better than before.

"For the past two years, the arts festival has given residents and visitors from all over London the chance to discover the enormous wealth of culture and creativity Wandsworth has to offer," he said.
Details on the acts and events will be released by the Arts Team from April.

To find out more about the festival, event information can be found at http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/artsfestival, on Facebook as 'WandsworthArtsTeam' and on Twitter @wandsworth_arts.

South West London high streets feel the impact of shop closures

This news item can also be read on the South West Londoner, here.

Wimbledon is feeling the impact of high street closures, reflecting national figures released last week.

Unlike other towns in the area, Wimbledon's HMV store has so far escaped closure, but elsewhere the high street has succumbed to financial pressures. 

PWC and the Local Data Company stated that last year, an average of 20 shops a day closed down, with further figures from December 2012 to February 2013 predicting this will increase to 28 per day.

Among the hardest-hit retailers across the researched town centres have been video games (-45%), health food (-24.7%) and clothing (-15.9%); while payday loan establishments, pawnbrokers and charity shops have increased in number (20%, 13.2% and 2.7% respectively).

Around Wimbledon town centre, owners of high street shops have been affected by recent closures. A GAME and a Jessops, long closed and abandoned since those businesses faced bankruptcy last year, linger unclaimed.

Millets, which also closed last year, had since been turned into a pop-up laptop repair shop, before finally becoming an Oxfam only three weeks ago. The Deputy Online Manager of the branch, 21-year-old Ellen Melhuish, said that many unemployed locals came to volunteer at the shop, including ex-employees from the nearby Jessops.

Mark Newbury, 28, deputy manager of the FARA charity shop, said that the opening of the new Oxfam branch had not affected the number of customers in his own store. He added that high street shop closures had affected him personally in the past, having taken up charity volunteering as a result of being made redundant during the recession.

Some sales assistants are seeing the closure of bigger businesses in a more positive light.

“It’s nice to see smaller, privately opened businesses," said Erin Luke, manager of the Cancer Research shop.

 

"Independently-run stores foster a better sense of community, so closures are not always a bad thing.”