Renewal Area Declared

More good news for Nunhead. After much lobbying (and many delays) the Council has decided "in principle" to declare two Renewal Areas covering both Nunhead (south from Queens Rd down to Nunhead Cemetery) and East Peckham (north from Queens Rd up to the Old Kent Rd). This will focus on working with private home owners to bring their homes up to a decent standard and will particularly benefit elderly residents who own their homes, but don't have enough income to maintain them. There will be grant and loans and advice etc. At present the Council plans to focus this work on a few streets within the areas that they think are in the worst condition and where the owners are most in need of help. This covers the streets around Brayards Rd in the south area and two patches around Astbury Rd and Friary Rd in the north area.

The project will also work to bring environmental improvement to shopping areas like Evelina Rd, Queens Rd and Meeting House Lane.

The next step is statutory consultation on the plans (I think they'll be writing to all residents) and we've been promised detailed consultation with community groups such as the Nunhead Community Forum. Then a final decision on the areas and the work that'll be done should be taken in April. Hopefully we'll also find out how much money the council is going to commit to it (declaring an area is one thing, investing money is another).

In other good news, Lib-Dem Cllr Gavin O'Brien has resigned as the Executive Member for Housing. Officially he feels he just can't give the job the time he would like to due to other commitments. I just hope they find someone better to replace him as he has left the department in a complete mess.

Since the re-organisation of the housing offices on 1 Jan my housing casework has shot up, it seems that tenants often can't get through to report repairs and if they do manage to talk to someone they are being misdirected or given appointments that aren't kept - I have a feeling my surgery tonight is going to be a busy one.