Below is a transcript of the interview.

What have you achieved during your time as an MP?

I gave five specific practical pledges, policy related but what I would do as an MP.

1. I would carry on holding on holding surgeries in the same locations as Keith Hill, and also add another location in Brixton, which I have done.

2. I said I would be the first MP to establish an office within the constituency, and I have done that.

3.  I said I would give up my then job as a solicitor, to devote my time to doing my functions as MP. I did the day after I was elected.

4. I would be fully transparent and accountable. All my expenses and allowances are published on my website.

5. I would regularly do people’s question times, which I have done one all over the constituency, with another one currently being arranged.

Those were the five practical things which I committed to do, and I have applied for further money to have more staff, but this enables me to provide a better service to my constituency.

For wider policies, some of the issues I have been more affected by emotionally is the youth violence particularly within the borough, and it is an acute problem for us in Lambeth, as well as other boroughs such as Southwark, Lewisham and Hackney. Almost immediately after my election, it became an even bigger issue than it already was with the death of Zac Olumegbon in June 2010 and the incidents of violence and the tragedies we have seen carries on, and have carried on through to July 2011 with the murder of Nana Darko-Frempong in Tulse Hill, and so the first parliamentary debate which I initiated and held in the House of Commons was on serious youth violence, I have been in very close contact with ministers on this issue and have pressed them for funding, as I don’t think they have provided Lambeth with enough funding to provide adequate youth provision, which is one way to tackle the issue. I have also quite recently become the chairman of the London gangs forum, which basically takes learning and best practice from across all the different boroughs and encourage to learn from each other. This brings together the London boroughs, the home office and other third sector organisations who otherwise are not keyed in and so that is one way I can use to power my office to bring people together and we will be feeding into the governments gun crime consultation which has recently opened, and will submit a report.

A top down solution is not the answer to this problem; it has to be a bottom up with the community working with the different agencies.

Secondly, housing is an issue for many people, in respect to those who are subject to the austerity cuts on benefits, which is making people’s lives hard, but also the ongoing problems we have with lack of investment in social housing stock. I have been working closely with the council, to address not just the provision from Lambeth living but also I have been working with lots of the other registered social landlords and housing associations on individual casework which people have, but also working with them to put pressure on the government to provide money to complete the decent homes updates. I have met with ministers and raised questions in the House of Commons about this, since I was elected.

Thirdly, the other big issue is education. The government have put forward its calibration of the academies programme. I am slightly hesitant about the academies programme, but I am clear it has to be about the local people and local governing bodies to decide. What was very clear to me was that in making the decision whether or not to adopt academy status, the governors just felt they didn’t understand the issues or have access to the information to make an informed decision. I worked with my other Lambeth colleague MP’s, we convened some round tables with school governors and head teachers to discuss and share views on whether or not to adopt academy status and in the course of that we had about 200 governors across Lambeth come along to the events we hosted for them in the house of commons. There are many other things, the other thing is obviously the school places issue. I have met with Cllr Pete Robbins who leads on Children and Young People’s Services and with Tessa Jowell and Kate Hoey. We went to the Department for Education to meet with Michael Gove to press for more money to address the acute problem we have with primary school places.

There are many others, but those are just some of the highlights.

Would you say it’s been a successful two years for you?

I am pleased that where we can we have helped thousands of constituents with individual casework, but what I find frustrating at a national level is not being in government. I am a member of the shadow cabinet, and we have a constitutional agreement to hold the government to account, but we are not the ones in control of the levers, and there are so many decisions they are making which I think are bad for my community.

Back when you were a Parliamentary Candidate, you listed the biggest challenges in the constituency as:
the economy and the ongoing recession; anti-social behaviour, prostitution and burglary; ensuring that the supply of school places meets demand; ensuring that everyone has access to high quality, affordable, decent housing and housing services; funding for the provision of activities for our youth; the regeneration of Streatham High Road and our main thoroughfares; improved public transport links to the area; and, promoting environmentally sustainable living in the area and reducing the litter and pollution on our streets.

How do you feel this has changed since you’ve been our MP?

I think the Safer Neighbourhood Team’s which Labour established government in all of the wards. In the eight wards in my constituency have been doing fantastic sterling work with the Safer Neighbourhood Panels to address some of these issues, and I think ASB is still an ongoing issue, and is one of the reasons why I thought ASBOs were a good thing. If you had a problem family causing misery to the rest of a block or estate, it helped provide further powers to those in authority to address that. I think it’s still an ongoing issue and this is one of the reasons why I oppose the government’s 20% cut in police funding. We agree with the independent inspector of policing who says that a 12% cut is sustainable and will not affect policing, but 20% is way above and beyond. If we learnt anything from the unrest we had in the borough, it is that police numbers matter.

What ways do you engage with residents and hear their views?

Today we have been out on one of my walkabouts. I have over 20 estates in my constituency and we have been out this morning with residents, officers and members of the SNT to look at issues, and pick up problems.

We are constantly in contact with people via email and over the telephone, people do find it a bit frustrating that we don’t have the telephone line open all day but the reason we don’t have it open all day is if everyone is on the phone all day, then the casework can’t actually be dealt with.

Thirdly, we have the people’s question times, we have had around 7 of these, and I also try to get out and about in the community to different events, there’s usually a flurry of events around summer and Christmas.

I am a massive user of social media, I have picked up casework through social media, Facebook, twitter and also my website to engage with residents.

Also, my advice surgeries and drop in surgeries.

I have to be in the House of Commons all day, Monday to Wednesday and usually half day Thursday, hence I’m not in the constituency as much as I’d like. I usually work a 7 day week, due to my responsibility, but I also have my national responsibility. I try one weekend in four to have my own time, and see family and friends. The demands on your time are huge.

I have also done coffee mornings, and picked up casework.

What does your role of Shadow Business Secretary entail? And how does help your constituency?

We as an opposition have two constitutional functions. Firstly we are there to hold the government to account as Her Majesty’s loyal opposition and to question what they are doing, and to point out where they are getting things wrong, or right. This is an important part of any government to be an effective opposition for democracy to function. And secondly, we are an alternative government, a shadow government, so come to the election we are the alternative that you put forward to the people to run the country, it’s very important so people have a choice. Simply it’s between a Conservative led government with support from the Liberal Democrats which is pursuing an economic policy which goes too far too fast, and has seen long term unemployment in the constituency double in the last 12 months, and chocking off growth, a labour party which is devoted to enabling people individually and their families to achieving their full potential in a strong and cohesive society and a growing economy where wealth is created and people can prosper and succeed.

I am part of that alternative government, and I lead not only on business but also on international trade, universities, further education and postal services and employee rights too. I lead nationally on behalf of the people to hold the government to account on that respect but also in terms of saying this is a different way of doing it. Like any other UK constituency, we have business who are struggling to succeed and expand in the really difficult economic environment, go onto the A23, the longest piece of continuous high street in Europe which I am proud to say runs through my constituency and see the difficulties being faced. We also have further education institutions like Lambeth College, and many young people who want to go to university but are worried about having to pay £9000 tuition fees, so all the national stuff has a huge impact on the people I represent locally, and one of the great things about being in the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Business Secretary is it further empowers me to raise those issues in a high profile way on behalf of the people I represent.

What are your overall views on the tory/lib dem coalition?

My politics start from the view we are all mutually independent so we all depend on each other. My view of conservative party politics is it’s generally a me, myself and I culture. it is important to give individuals the ability prosper, and strive to achieve their best, but having people  needs  a strong society to do that, whether that’s through a good education system , or providing good policing so people running businesses are safe in the knowledge they  are not going to be burgled and looted or in terms of providing the vulnerable, the poor, the people who can’t help themselves, the elderly, the disabled, the infirm whether it is giving them the help that I think we as human beings have a duty to provide. I don’t think that’s something the conservatives subscribe to, they have always ideologically thought that its very much about the individual and that’s it. I don’t really know what the liberal democrats stand for, and all I do know is they promised a lot, to increase investment in our schools and to protect the NHS and not to impose higher tuition fees to people living in this area, and all I do know is they have been part of this government and have supported the plans to basically privatise the NHS, they relayed on their promise not to introduce higher tuition fees, in fact it was the Lib Dem Business Secretary who imposed that on people in this constituency and they have supported policing cuts, all of these are things they and their councillors promised local people that they wouldn’t support and they have.

There is huge concern over the NHS Reforms, what is your view of the NHS and these proposed reforms? Despite the petition having well over 160,000 signatures, the government still say this may not be debated in parliament, do you think this is right?

I think this is wrong, and there should be a full debate of what they are proposing in parliament, and what they thought to do is shut-down by saying the people who are opposing what they are planning; are not wanting to change and reform the NHS where it’s needed. We are not against change and reform, but it’s got to be done in the right way, and they promised there wouldn’t be a top down reorganisation and that’s precisely what they are imposing on the NHS and they are going to waste £2billion in the process which is money which could be spent on patient care, and improving local services.

I am really proud, that under our labour government we saw in our constituency 6 new or improved health centres being built, and everybody loved them.

Would you say you are a keen labour supporter as an MP for Labour?

Absolutely. I joined the labour party because just look at all the things we have done and supported historically, whether it was the establishment of the NHS, our internationalist vision, thoroughly opposing the apartheid regime in south Africa, and the votes for working people and women. We have always been the ones who have been on the front foot when it comes to equal, fair, democratic Britain. The strength of our vision is the thing that has held back the conservatives from winning the majority.

How do you feel about the unpaid work experience scheme the government have in place?

I don’t mind work experience I think it’s a good thing for people to get work experience as I think it helps to improve their ability and enables people to get access to skills, the problem of course with the governments work experience programme is that if you went onto a programme and withdrew, for example if it wasn’t very good and you didn’t get the experience you expected, they would withdraw benefits, which I thought was wrong. Secondly, there is a discipline issue with the government paying commercial organisations to take on people for work experience and then using those people to do work which employees would otherwise do, I think that was worrying, but they appear to have listened to some of the concerns of the businesses who they engaged to do the work experience who said, like I have that stopping peoples benefit if they left the programme was not something they can support, but not opposed to the principal of work experience.

Yesterday you gave a speech at the CBI about reforming the UK economy, can you tell us about this in brief?

One of the things we need to do is we have got two problems, firstly the economy hasn’t quite been delivering for businesses, people and  families for some time, that is one of the reasons we have one of the biggest squeeze on living standards in a generation, despite increases in productivity, efficiency in which our businesses are operated haven’t been translated into higher wages for people, so wages nationally stayed the same, despite inflation and rising costs. Secondly, we are also facing much more competitive pressures coming internationally from other market economies like Brazil, China and Russia, that presents opportunities as a new market to sell our products into, but also more competition for things we already sell. My speech was about how we can work in partnership with business to make sure we are well setup as a country to exploit these new opportunities so they deliver better outcomes for British people. One of the things I actually said during the speech and I talked about Lambeth in the speech, if we want to sell into these new economies we have to improve our language skills, and traditionally we have focussed on French and German in our schools, latterly there has been a bit more focus on Spanish, but I think we need to be looking at what are the language skills which we need as a nation to exploit these new economies. We have one of the largest Portuguese speaking populations in Lambeth, which provides us with a unique link and ability to connect up with Brazil to exploit that big economy and we are just not using it. We need to do much more to make use of that not just for the Diaspora community, but also to create jobs for the community as well.

Do you think the recession is as a result of the coalition?

Yes. We aren’t quite in a recession yet, we’ve had one quarter of negative growth if we get another, and technically we will be in a recession. I hope we don’t get another quarter of negative growth. The simple fact is, our economy has stagnated and flat lined for most of the last 12months, long before the euro zone crisis started to impact on our economy, but the worrying thing is, that is still yet to feed through. That was because of what the government did. When I became an MP, and labour left government, unemployment was falling and growth was rising and business was beginning to flourish again, but because of what they did, confidence fell, and therefore demand fell for goods, so we are in the situation we are. There is just over 2.6million people out of work and in the constituency alone we have just over 4300 people claiming Job Seekers Allowance. That is the situation we find ourselves in, and that’s why we have been arguing they should change course, and adopt our plan for growth which includes creating 100,000 jobs for young people, along the lines of the future jobs fund scheme, which was helping so many people in Lambeth.

We don’t often see you down here, what are you doing for this part of the constituency?

All of the things I have been doing with policing, gang prevention, housing and casework are all throughout the constituency. I don’t think it’s fair to say that I’m not seen around, as I try to get to all parts of the constituency, for example Weir Estate is one of 20 estates in the constituency, so getting around everywhere is a challenge considering the best time I can do that is a Friday or Saturday. We deal with lots of casework from Thornton residents. We have supported the setting up of the Weir Community Garden. I do surgeries within the ward, but these must be organised by appointment.

I held a coffee morning in The Weir Link, and met residents and picked up casework, and attended the Weir Community Day, and recently done a walkabout on the Weir Estate.

We were very sad to hear of the boundary changes, and if these come into force our part of the constituency will form part of the new Clapham common constituency which will be a highly conservative area. Do you think it is right to make these changes, and to split Streatham constituency up so much?

No. I don’t agree with it, and I think the Lib Dems have a lot of explaining to do. I was quite bemused to see they had been putting out leaflets asking residents to rise up and oppose the proposals that their government is putting through, and they support. It’s quite extraordinary. Clapham Common Constituency is forecast to be a marginal.

Chuka would like to thank WERA and everyone involved for the very valuable work you do. Serving the estate and making it the very vibrant community that it is.

 You can contact Chuka by several methods:

email: chuka.umunna.mp@parliament.uk

web: www.chuka.org.uk

twitter: @ChukaUmunna        facebook

Lambeth Living’s Chief Executive has spoken of the long awaited plans to restructure the Lambeth ALMO in her first interview given exclusively to wera.org.uk. Staff at the organisation found out on Tuesday what the changes will mean to them and to the services they deliver.  Residents can also listen to how it will matter to them and what impact the new restructuring will have on estate services.

In the interview with WERA Chair, Dave McEvoy, Cathy Deplessis denied it was solely to save money and insisted it was as much about improving the services to residents across the borough. “This is about seeking to address some of the key concerns residents have made to us, and the top one is seeing improvements in the repairs service, better standards of customer service and seeing what we do to improve on Anti-Social Behaviour.”

After months of discussions with residents and staff as well as numerous public meetings; a plan has been established to tackle the issues and reduce its outgoing costs in the current political and economic climate.

A pilot scheme has already been established and is operating in the central area, in which Weir Estate is part of and forms part of one of the three new lambeth areas which are now North, Central and South rather than split into several areas. Cathy Deplessis said that the pilot was already making huge difference to the services in the pilot area on customer service “We are finding already this is making improvements in the central area where we are anticipating ordinary people will see a far better service, such an example is we have a new designed customer service team we will be doing two things improving the culture of the organisation, we will have a dedicated customer service team in each area.”

She then adds “Our business is quite a complex one and it can appear that it can take several people to give what should be a straight forward answer to the customer, the new customer service teams will now take full ownership of that and the other teams in the office will be responsible for giving a clear and good answer back to the team to then report back to the customer [Resident].”

Lambeth Living has been seeking to change the attitudes and impression of the organisation amongst Lambeth’s residents after much negative press. The ALMO was implemented by Lambeth Council in 2008.

As part of the restructuring plans, Lambeth Living have also entered in to some of the biggest contracts to deliver services in the borough’s history Cathy Deplessis explained “The council for sometime has been considering how to improve its repairs service, its major part of the contract between the resident and the council that the council does the repairs and the resident pays the rent. What we know from customer satisfaction is the repairs have a major impact on the level of satisfaction with the service; there is no doubt this has been far lower than anyone would like it to be and we have been procuring and letting brand new repairs contracts with a life of seven (7) plus three(3) years. With these contracts they are designed that we work in a very different way and focus far more on customers.”

In answer to questions about job losses from the front line which it had been rumoured up to seventy frontline jobs could be lost under the restructuring proposals, Cathy confirmed this is the highest level expected but may well be lower while those affected consider whether to apply for other posts being created under the restructure “I think there is no doubt that in these difficult times, financially that everyone in the public sector and Lambeth Living too needs to do its bit and there is no doubt that what happens with the Housing Revenue Account [HRA] there is only certain amount of money available to pay for the service. Therefore it’s very important we make sure that every penny we got we spend it wisely. As part of this we had to look at front line services and what levels of staffing is appropriate to deliver on the expectations of the resident and the council as our major client. There is no doubt that there will be an overall reduction in staff numbers and as a private company our client is the council, they are our main share holder and we have to live within the fee. It is also very difficult to make staff redundant but we have been able to create some other specialist posts.”

“Residents shouldn’t see that greater deal of disruption as their point of contact will still be the Lambeth Service Centre. If anything residents should see an immediate benefit that they will now be able to go the customer service team who do the chasing around and finding out what’s going on.”

Lambeth Living currently has 401 permanent staff and their will be an increase of 9 new posts. Due to the creation of these new posts the number of staff leaving the organisation could be as low as forty.

“Our worst case estimate is between forty and seventy staff will leave the organisation with two thirds of staff remaining with us”

Lambeth Living has been heavily criticised for not acting on concerns and the indications things have not been working well. Cathy Deplessis makes it clear in her frank interview with wera.org.uk that they are now seeking to move forward despite the cuts which are to hit Lambeth Council following the coalition government’s spending review. “I have always recognised that particularly in this borough there has been objections on the basis that people think it has been set up to privatise the housing stock. I recognise those objections have been a philosophical objection and I have accepted that and I have never tried to change people’s minds on that as they entitled to their beliefs. I also recognise those who are objecting on philosophical beliefs do actually want to ALMO to improve.
In relation to the where the council is at, they have publicly accepted that the service is poor. They have had to find a way to improve this service. I believe we had a poorer start than other ALMO’s and we had a tougher start than others while having to focus on basic areas of service. I am not surprised by the criticisms and we have turned it around on many of those criticisms. I appreciate the difficulties but we are here for a reason. If you look at the history of the service, it is now being delivered far better.”

“We are now under a greater level of scrutiny. The proof is in the pudding and ALMO’s up and down the country have been set up to improve council services. The level of service for ALMO’s have been two stars and local authorities is one star, I believe there is no doubt there is a great emphasis now on improving the services that residents will see a difference with the structure.”

The cuts have already hit the decent homes funding which has been slashed by half, and Lambeth Living will still have submit a performance report to the regulator which is the Homes and Communities Agency.
Central Government has now changed the emphasis on achieving the previous two star rating and must now show they are cost effective and getting value from money.

Cathy has told of her concerns at the impact of cuts handed down to them from the spending review “I am very concerned, most of services are people, making services happen and we have already experienced a cut into our management fee. I am particularly concerned about any future cuts which will prevent us delivering a better level of service. We are all learning to live with less.”

There is many stages to the restructuring process and the go live date will be the 28^th February next year and will take a further nine months to finalise as staff seeking other posts will have had to have secured a new job by the end of February 2011.

One of the newest changes will be engaging more with communities in order to listen to views on how the ALMO is performing following this new structure.

Residents can now expect information on the changes and branding which will show who is responsible for what in the new roles and restructure where residents will have a greater say. The ALMO is overseen by a board chaired by former Housing Minister and Streatham MP, Keith Hill.

You can hear the full interview above where Cathy Deplessis explains much more about the future for housing in Lambeth, under the Arms Length Management Organisation.



Members of the community and service users got their first glimpse at the new facilities and work to St Stephens Church this week which is now the home of Weir 2, part of the Weir Estate based ‘The Weir Link’ centre. Weir 2, marking the second year of services has been opened in partnership with the local church to accommodate the need for more space and to be able to offer new and existing services to the community.

The Weir Link which was opened on Weir Estate back in June 2008 by then MP, Keith Hill and began operating in September the same year, replacing the eyesore two storey derelict former laundry building.  The centre has outgrown their current available space and has sought new room to continue to offer current services such as Stay and Play and Toddler Tunes as well as social groups on offer to the community.

Rev Simon Gates, Chair of Trustees, delivering his speech

Weir 2 in partnership with St Stephens Church gives them new facilities to accommodate those services and develop new groups and projects identified by users and the wider community and now with a primary focus on Health and Wellbeing as part of the funding agreement.
Weir 2 will be managed by The Weir Link on weekdays. Funding for the project to transform the church rooms was obtained by a grant awarded by the Social Enterprise initiative fund, part of the Department of Health. The funding as enabled works to update the old rooms and receptions area as well as a new wheelchair accessible community mini bus.

Weir 2 will be able to hold larger groups and more services for The Weir Link, managed by members of the local community as trustees and a small team of staff.

The Weir Link’s ethos has always been to support the community and assist those at the fringes of society and offer Children Services and support to parents, as large part of its funding has been provided through Lambeth Council Children Services.

The opening of the Weir 2 was attended by many who work with or have used the facilities at The Weir Link over the past two years of its successful growth as well as the Assistant Director of Children and Young People’s Services, Stella Clarke who was full of praise for the Weir Link and its staff which is one of 27 Centres but unique in its one of the only ones not in a school and community led.   The Arch Deacon for the Church of England, Chris Skilton and local councillors, Lib Peck and Diana Morris were also in attendance aside many service providers and users.

Cllr Peck said the new facilities are ‘a phenomenal achievement’ and ‘a genuine hub for the community’ adding later “I am very proud to be representing an area which has pulled off such a amazing and vibrant scheme” This was also echoed by her Councillor Colleague Cllr Diana Morris who said “It really is a culmination of a huge effort by all sorts of people and I am really proud to be able to represent such a thriving community”.

Simon Gates who is the local vicar at Stephens and also Chair of Trustees at The Weir Link spoke of his pride ‘surprise’ at success of The Weir Link “Getting the Weir Link was the dream come true but this is such a surprise to be able to have the need for our buildings used for the wider community in this way. We have about 21 users [at St Stephens] already and now with the Weir Link coming in, it just provides us with enormous additional usage”

The theme song for the event was foot print in the sand by X factor winner Leona Lewis, reflecting the new era for The Weir Link put together with a video showing the changes at St Stephens and the work of The Weir Link, which has been hailed as a excellent example of a co-op initiative working in the community by Lambeth Council leaders.

Many at the event unveiling of the new reception area, large lounge, Side hall, two brand new meeting/consultation rooms, a sports hall, a teaching kitchen and separate kitchenette and refurbished toilet facilities including new provision for infants were full of praise for the work which began at the start of the summer and months of work by the Weir Links Business development manager, Margaret Hedley who was credited with making it possible after putting together the application in 11 days.  Margaret Hedley said during the event “It is a very proud day for me and to be part of the story of the Weir Link as it moves onto its next phase, it’s very exciting.”

She added “The next thing for us is make full use of the investment given to us for the community and fulfilling the commitments we have made to deliver services and activities, it has been hard work but in the end its been an absolute joy and I don’t mind the hard work if it gets this kind of result.”

Services will focus on delivering benefits such as a focus on healthy lifestyles to those living around the new facilities to new health and well being.  This will include physical and talking therapies in order to promote physical and mental wellbeing in the wider community.

Claire Rennie, Company Secretary and Trustee's Secretary of The Weir Link

Claire Rennie who is Weir Link Secretary of trustees and long serving member of Weir Estate Residents Association has been involved in the entire process of establishing the Weir Link as a model of best practice of a Children’s Centre and community led ambition and drive to establish the existing building and the new addition Weir 2 said “I am really delighted that as a community we are building on the work of Weir Estate Residents Association, the church, our councillors, this is such a testament of everybody working together from the safer neighbourhood team,  Clapham Park Wardens, loads of different groups I don’t want to name them all as I know I will forget some, but it says it all as there so many now, working together to increase services and provide more opportunities.”

She added of her pride and being ‘humbled’ at it success “This is a proud moment but I am humbled at though I chip in, many people chip in and it proves that we can achieve as a community, these new facilities gives us more robust foundation and more stability as we go on but will be in difficult times with a spending review coming up.”

There is concern over the children centre funding which could well be cut in the Governments spending review later on this month.

Claire Ballard-Yawson who is Centre Manager since joining the Weir Link in February 2008, working in the early days of the Centre at St Stephens said “I am very excited and as I used to work from here, the space is so much brighter and welcoming for local people but I am beginning to worry how long it take us to fill the spaces here and remembering The Weir Link was to be an all singing all dancing community and Children’s centre I think we will be full here very soon.”

She then joked when asked about the her fears over space at both facilities “Maybe there’s something over in Stratford that we can transport over here early one morning like the Weir Link was transported early one morning we can bring over to Clapham early one morning in a year or two.”

Megan, Assistant Administrator for The Weir Link

In response to seeing the new facilities and space at St Stephens Clare admitted she is ‘bit worried’ about the level of resources available but once they iron out the future problems they can look at building volunteer to work programmes for local people and went on to encourage Weir Estate and local residents “Use our services and if we are not offering what you want, we need your feedback to begin to offer more and better services”

The original Weir Link sits on the Weir Estate and works closely with the Weir Estate Residents Association whose involvement extends from residents seeking to see an end to the former laundry building which sat derelict for over thirty five years and has remained a strong supporter of the centre. Our Treasurer and Executive officer, Sue Cranmer said of the new look St Stephens “Its fantastic and I am so impressed and it’s lovely to see how the community can make things happen. Residents will definitely benefit and hopefully we will see far better participation from those living on Weir Estate and off the estate.”

The Weir Link would like to hear resident’s views on a wide range of services they could offer as well as arranged trips making use of their new mini bus as well volunteering opportunities. The Weir Link also has an outstanding rated Nursery.

You can listen to all the speeches and comments made at the Weir 2 opening above and view the pictures from the day’s events.

You can find out more about The Weir Link HERE

The ideas in The Co-operative Council is intended to form the starting point of a debate on the future of public services in Lambeth and over the coming months they will be inviting as many members of the public, staff, partners and interested partners as possible to take part in shaping the plans.

Lambeth Council have also set up a Cooperative Council Commission (also known as the Citizens Commission) between May and September 2010 to consider how to make the concept of a cooperative council a reality.

Cllr Steve Reed explains in more detail in our interview which you can listen to below.

Full details of the co-op council can be found here