Author Archives: SE16.com

A business improvement district for Bermondsey?

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Southwark Council is poised to award a £30,000 grant to the Bermondsey Business Association with the aim of establishing a Bermondsey Business Improvement District “to support the future development of the area as an attractive place to shop and do business”.

The association is based in South Bermondsey and is building on the work done by the South Bermondsey Partnership.

Southwark already has BIDs in London Bridge and Bankside, and the Waterloo BID straddles the Lambeth/Southwark border.

BIDs are funded by a levy on local business rates.

The £30,000 grant will come from the council’s Community Restoration Fund which was established in the wake of last summer’s riots.

The same fund will also provide Deli Felice with £4,800 to promote and advertise the parade of shops on Albion Street.

No progress on new secondary school places for SE16: UTC and free school plans stalled

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Extracts from a report on school places in SE16 prepared for next week’s Education, Children’s Services and Leisure Scrutiny Sub-Committee meeting, covering the Compass Free School, University Technical College and Southwark Free School:

COMPASS

14. Compass School have yet to identify a site and this non-identification of a site, both permanent and temporary, is a significant risk to the school opening as proposed in September 2013.

15. This ongoing uncertainty may result in Compass not progressing and consideration may need to be given as to how additional places could be delivered within the existing estate.

UTC

16. The DfE has approved the deferral of the opening of the UTC to September 2013. The UTC proposals are not currently progressing as a result of the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the future of Southwark College and the potential for this to result in the non-availability of the site or the necessary ancillary facilities for the UTC. Even with the quick resolution of the site issues a September 2013 opening is unlikely to be achievable.

100 PLACES

17. Discussions and recommendations in regard to the delivery of the 100 additional places are not being progressed at this time as it is considered that these should be delivered in the context of the delivery of all the identified required places. These other proposed expansions are currently at risk due to site availability issues and should they not proceed the delivery of 100 places at a particular school may undermine site potential and funding for expansion there or elsewhere if required.

SOUTHWARK FREE SCHOOL (Primary)

18. In 2011 Southwark Free School (SFS) secured Department for Education pre- opening approval to open in September 2012. At the time of this approval the school was proposed to be established at a site in Great Dover Street.

19. In March 2012 SFS initiated a public consultation process seeking feedback from local stakeholders in regard to proposals to establish a 420 place primary school at 399 Rotherhithe New Road. The current status of this site acquisition is unknown.

20. The preferred site is not in a condition that would enable the school to be established in September 2012 and Partnerships for Schools are therefore also seeking to identify a temporary site. No temporary site has been confirmed but a September 2012 opening date is still targeted by SFS and PfS. The school was not included in the 2012/13 admissions arrangements.

Central School of Ballet seeks cash to continue free dance tuition for SE16 kids

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The Central School of Ballet is this week celebrating a year of providing free weekly dance lessons for pupils in Bermondsey and Rotherhithe.   CSB has been running a satellite school based at Alfred Salter Primary School since October last year giving local pupils free dance tuition.

An average of 80 pupils has been participating in the weekly sessions which also include pupils from Redriff and St James’s primary schools.

“We can see a greater confidence in the children who have taken part, both physically and mentally,” says Fran Burke, arts co-ordinator at Alfred Salter Primary School.

“This has had a positive effect on both their work in the classroom and at play.”

The project is funded by The Ironmongers’ Company who enable CSB to provide dance teaching staff, a pianist and a dance uniform for the pupils.

Jess Mahoney, learning and participation manager at Central School of Ballet, said: “We have been delighted with the progress made by students taking part in the first year of our exciting satellite school project.  We are now hopeful of raising sufficient funds to allow us to continue these classes during the next academic year, meaning children in Southwark can enjoy access to free regular ballet classes, learning to love dance in a safe and supportive environment.”

Harmsworth Quays: we’re not selling, says council

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Following this week’s news that Daily Mail and General Trust is planning to sell its interest in the Harmsworth Quays print works site to British Land, Southwark Council – which owns the freehold to much of the site – has said that it wants to acquire DMGT’s interest in the land “with a view to delivering a mixed use scheme with a significant element of employment and commercial uses”.

“Southwark Council,  as freeholder of the majority of the site, has held discussions with both parties during which it has been made clear that for the foreseeable future the council does not intend to sell its freehold,” said a council spokeswoman on Friday.

Cllr Peter John, leader of the council, said: “Harmsworth Quays is of strategic importance for the regeneration of Canada Water.

“Following the announcement by the Daily Mail of their intention to vacate the site, the council is about to begin a programme of public consultation on its future.

“This work will inform the review of the Canada Water Area Action Plan, the principal planning policy document for the area.

“Until this work is significantly more advanced the council feels that it would be premature to consider disposal of the site.”

However, this claim stands at odds with the council’s own annual plan, agreed by cabinet earlier this month, which includes “develop strategy for the disposal of the council’s freehold of Harmsworth Quays” as a target for the cabinet member for regeneration in the year 2012/13.

British Land buys Harmsworth Quays

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British Land is to buy the Daily Mail print works at Harmsworth Quays.

The company will buy Daily Mail & General Trusts’s part  leasehold part freehold interest in the 14.57 acre site.

British Land is no stranger to Canada Water from its joint venture with Southwark Council and its share in  Surrey Quays Shopping Centre.

British Land will take possession of the site in late 2013 following the relocation of DMGT’s printing operations from Harmsworth Quays to Thurrock.

“The purchase of this large site adjoining our existing ownerships re-enforces our confidence in the area and demonstrates our continued commitment to the wider Canada Water regeneration and Rotherhithe,” says development director Mike Rayner.

“We look forward to working together with the London Borough of Southwark and the local community to realise the full potential of this site.”

DMGT’s David Dutton said: “Canada Water has been a really good location for our printing works, it has been changes in technology that have led to the relocation out of the area and I am sure British Land will deliver a really first class scheme on the site which will benefit the local community.”

The freehold of part of the site is held by Southwark Council which is expected to sell its interest in the land.

Canada Water Library wins architecture award

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Canada Water Library, designed by Piers Gough of CZWG Architects, has won a London regional award from the Royal Institute of British Architects.

The judges said:

The library was built as the civic centerpiece for the regeneration of the area around Canada Water and as a focus for the community. Southwark Council, which is building libraries while other boroughs are closing theirs, saw that by adding a performance space, education and meeting rooms and a café to the Library, it was better serving the needs and aspirations of residents. And it seems to be working.

The perforated, anodised aluminium cladding shimmers in the sunlight and mimics the ripples of the water that it sits beside.

Tibetan former street children perform at Spa Road Buddhist centre

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Last week 10 former street-children performed in Kagyu Samye Dzong’s shrine room in front of a full house.

The children were brought to London by the ROKPA charity, which runs the orphanage in Kathmandu where the kids have been looked after, cared for and educated after becoming homeless in often very traumatic circumstances.

The evening started off with a moving speech by the co-founder of ROKPA and vice-president of the charity Lea Wyler. She explained how much it has helped the children to be given a platform to tell of their traumatic experiences in the form of song, dance and play.

The children’s lively eyes, engaging smiles and faces full of hope could not fail to melt every one of the 120 hearts in the room. Photographs and film footage projected onto a screen behind the young performers provided the context to their story showing shots of their home country and also of what their lives were like before they were taken in by the ROKPA children’s home.

After the tumultuous applause had quietened down, Dr Akong Tulku Rinpoche the founder of Samye Ling Monastery in Scotland, and co-founder of the ROKPA charity was invited onto the stage. He spoke of his own struggles of facing a situation of near-starvation when he escaped Tibet, having to beg and experiencing tremendous suffering and explained how that has lead him to see how important it is to provide, food, shelter and, possibly above all, much-needed kindness.

SE16 people in Queen’s birthday honours list

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In the Queen’s Birthday Honours list Rita Beckwith, chief executive of City Cruises – based at Cherry Garden Pier – receives the OBE for services to the leisure and tourism industry and the regeneration of Docklands.

Dr Amanda Squires, founder of the ‘What’s on in Rotherhithe’ Group and the driving force behind the production of the popular Rotherhithe map guide, receives the OBE for services to healthcare for older people in her professional capacity as a physiotherapist.

Her husband, Dr Roger Squires, former deputy national chairman of the Inland Waterways Association, receive the British Empire Medal for services to Inland Waterways.

Prem Goyal, a trustee of Time & Talents, receives the OBE.