This week, I launched a campaign with local people to get Tesco to guarantee Streatham Ice Rink stays open whilst the Streatham Hub scheme is developed in the south of this parliamentary constituency. You can read about the scheme here: the Streatham Hub.

At a meeting held earlier this month to update local residents on the scheme, I was concerned when Tesco representatives refused to guarantee that our ice skating provision would continue without interruption.

Tesco owns the ice rink site and under deveopment proposals agreed with Lambeth Council two years ago the company promised that the current ice rink would stay open while a new one was built.

However, the retail giant is citing the credit crunch as a reason for submitting revised proposals a few weeks ago. It is currently in talks with the Council, with an announcement due in December.

It is essential that Streatham does not lose access to ice – the ice rink hosts the Streatham Redskins ice hockey team and numerous school groups. It is also currently being used by skaters aiming to compete in next year’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Tesco has the financial resources to stick to its original pledge and ensure that Streatham keeps skating while the Hub site is developed. You may have seen that earlier this year the retailer announced record breaking sales of more than £1bn a week and annual profits of more than £3bn, despite the impact of the global downturn.

To put pressure on Tesco to keep to its promises on the continuity of our ice provision, please sign the petition calling on them to keep Streatham Ice Rink open – the petition can be signed online here: Keep Streatham Skating! petition

A related ‘Keep Streatham Skating!’ Facebook group has also been set up which you can join too: Keep Streatham Skating! on Facebook

Tesco say they take into account the interests of local communities, in addition to their desire to return a huge profit, when making decisions. If they genuinely care for this community as they claim, they must ensure the continuity of our ice rink provision here in Streatham.

We need lots of local residents to sign the petition to send a clear message to Tesco – they need to know how strongly we, the prospective customers of the new Tesco supermarket they want to build as part of the Hub scheme, feel about this issue.

On the twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, it is important for us to remember the significance of living in a democracy. In China and other states like it, people are denied the freedoms we take for granted – to surf the internet freely, to read and discuss what we want and crucially to choose who governs.

The right to vote was won through struggle and determination, in this country through movements such as Chartism and the Suffragettes. In more recent memory we might reflect on South Africa, where within my lifetime black people voted for the first time.

Despite recent events and the temptation for people to turn their back on politics, we must not take our rights for granted or forget the sacrifices of previous generations which allow us to cast our votes today.

Therefore I urge you to use your right to vote today. In the first instance, of course, to vote Labour, but crucially to vote. Apathy could be a route for the BNP to gain representation in London – which would be a huge blow to a city which is rightly proud of its diversity.

Chuka

Chuka was a guest on BBC One’s Politics Show on Sunday, discussing Boris Johnson’s cancellation of Rise Festival and promoting the UpRise campaign to save the anti-racism event. To see Chuka’s appearance, follow this link (the Rise feature is at 48mins in)

There are less than 2 weeks to go, before Lambeth’s young people vote for their new Youth Mayor.

The Youth Mayor is spokesperson for young people in Lambeth and provides a link between the young people, media, decision-makers and service-providers. They will be responsible for allocating £25,000 to projects designed for and run by local young people and work in partnership with the Lambeth Youth Council to highlight and campaign on issues which are important to local people.

If you are registered to vote, you’ll be able to pick your candidate online from the 20th February, or on polling day in Lambeth schools on February 26th.

For more information and to see this year’s candidates visit the Lambeth Youth Council Website.

Carys Afoko