The Department for Transport has announced that all trains running on the South London rail network are to have CCTV cameras installed on them to increase safety for users. In addition, rail stations, including Streatham, Streatham Hill, Tulse Hill and Streatham Common, are to be staffed at night, and an extra 1,500 secure cycle bays will be provided to stations across the network.

The measures have been written into the criteria of the new franchise agreement for the South Central rail network – currently operated by Southern - which covers stations across South London and parts of Southern England. They were developed after consultation with rail user groups to improve services for commuters.

The operator that wins the bid to run the South Central network between 2009 and 2015 will be required to implement the security measures, and increase services running through South London. Late night services will run until 12.30pm on Fridays and Saturdays and at least 11pm all other nights of the week.

Chuka welcomed the recent government announcement:
“Improving our transport links and services to the Streatham constituency is an absolute priority and we are doing just that with these moves to increase safety on our stations and extend running times.”

Chuka is currently campaigning to maintain Thameslink services to Streatham rail stations, click here to find out more information and to join the campaign.

Carys Afoko

He joined Eddie for the Rum Shop, where guests and listeners discuss the main stories making the headlines in London that week. Discussion ranged from the Baby P case to teenage pregnancy and tax cuts. Eddie is best known for his starring roles in The Real McCoy and Casualty, and presents his own blend of outspoken, opinionated and entertaining radio.

Listen again to the show at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/networks/london/aod.shtml?london/eddienestor

The grant is for £8,781 and is from Awards for All, a Lottery grants scheme for community organisations. The money will go towards providing opportunities for asylum seekers and refugees to integrate and adapt into the community, introducing them to local resources.

The Drop-in Centre was founded in 2002, and provides vital services as well as a safe and welcoming environment for refugee and asylum seekers in the local area. Based at English Martyrs Church Hall, the centre offers English lessons, complementary therapy and access to health advice as well as a crèche, weekend family support group and homework club. It works in partnership with a range of local organisations including Lambeth College and PCT. All services are free of charge.

Chuka congratulates the Drop-in centre on its recent funding award, and the good work it does for local asylum seekers and refugees.

Carys Afoko

• Our Thameslink Campaign has appeared in The Evening Standard and Streatham Local Guardian
• Chuka responds to Trevor Phillips’ claims of institutional racism in the Labour party in The Independent
• Chuka was a guest on Radio 4’s the Week in Westminster, you can listen again here.
• Chuka contributes to the Guardian’s Comment is Free, click here to read his recent articles.

Carys Afoko

Lambeth Primary Care Trust has been rated as one of the best in England by the Healthcare Commission. Lambeth’s 2007/8 Annual Health Check saw it ranked in the top 7% of Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) with only 1 Trust in England scoring higher.

The Healthcare Commission is the independent watchdog for healthcare in England. It assesses the quality and safety of services provided by the NHS to improve services for patients and the public. The Annual Health check is an overall performance rating of local healthcare services, reporting on a Trust’s ‘Quality of Services’ and ‘Use of Resources’.

Lambeth PCT received an ‘Excellent’ rating for use of resources, and a ‘Good’ rating for quality of services. The Healthcare Commission said it found Lambeth is “excellent at managing its finances and has made improvements on its good standard of the last two years”.

The improvements mean Streatham and Lambeth residents are receiving some of the best healthcare services in England.

Chuka congratulated Lambeth PCT on their rating:
“One of the reasons I joined the Labour Party was because it was our post war Labour government that set up the NHS to ensure everyone receives good quality health services regardless of their means. It is fantastic to see our local health service carrying on the best of the traditions of the NHS. All I can say is a huge thank you and congratulations to everyone at Lambeth PCT!”

The full Annual Health Check can be found on the Healthcare Commission’s Website. For more information on healthcare services in the area visit Lambeth PCT’s Website.

Carys Afoko

Words cannot express how happy I am at the victory of Barack Obama in the US Presidential election last week.  He is a huge inspriation and I think he has all the makings of one of the finest presidents that country has seen.  Some of my personal thoughts on his election are below.

I have never seen anything like it. I had the honour of presenting prizes at Dunraven secondary school in Streatham last week, a school whose most famous ex pupil is supermodel and Streatham native, Naomi Campbell. For all her alleged faults, Campbell is an icon, but in the course of the evening the school principal mentioned a very different model - Present Elect Barack Obama.

Young people are supposedly so switched off and removed from politics that many don’t bother to vote if they can. But the instant reaction of those present at the prize-giving to the mere mention of Obama’s name was loud cheers and applause - and he is not even their president! When Labour came to power in 1997, can you imagine Tony Blair getting the same kind of response? I think not.

Everyone is asking - could we see an Obama figure in the UK? Undoubtedly Obama’s multiethnic heritage is part of his appeal. There is something in his background that we can all relate to and grab hold of. Here we have seen great progress on ethnic minority representation this last decade with the appointment of the first ever ethnic minority ministers to the Labour government - there were none before, there are 7 now. The numbers of ethnic minority MPs is projected to rise to 25 in the next parliament, up from 9 in 1998.

And though we still have a long way to go in turning Parliament into a place that looks like Britain of the 2000s rather than the 1950s, the elevation of the junior Senator from Illinois to the most powerful office on the planet surely makes further strides more, not less, likely.

Some ask whether I think my unusual name could hinder me when I ask the good people of Streatham to put a cross by my name at the next General Election - well I need not worry if someone called “Barack Hussein Obama” can make it to the White House. More importantly, many more young people who share Obama’s heritage are saying “yes I can” and taking a serious look at getting involved.

The obstacles for today’s new politicians of colour are not what they were for their parents’ generation. The army of Obama fans enthused by what they have seen in this year’s presidential election will be demanding a place at the top table. Expect to see many more putting themselves forward to be local councillors, assembly members and members of parliament in the near future.

However those who focus on Obama’s race somewhat miss the point. Yes, eight years of one of the worst US presidents in history and an economy in turmoil helped, but it was Obama’s ability to inspire and his determination to move away from the harsh, shrill, “punch and judy” politics of yesterday, to a politics of change, hope and working together across different lines which clinched it in my view. That is the model that we should all be seeking to follow.

The Transition Town model encourages people to work together in their local communities to find sustainable solutions to rising energy prices and shortages. Transition Town Brixton was established 18 months ago making it the country’s first inner city model of a low carbon community.

Transition Town Brixton held an ‘unleashing’ event, in Lambeth Town Hall, which Chuka was pleased to attend. After hearing from the project’s organisers, attendees split into groups to discuss how improvements can be made to the way in which we use energy locally, alongside reducing waste.

A key focus is encouraging and supporting people who wish to grow their own food, for example residents of six Brixton estates are being assisted in farming vegetables. The organisation is also working with market traders and shops to cut down plastic bag use. It’s think global act local approach has gained widespread support and is generating many innovative local solutions to creating a more sustainable lifestyle. Chuka wholeheartedly supports the initiative, and is looking forward to see what new ideas it generates.

If you would like more information on Transition Town Brixton visit their website. All photos are courtesy of Amelia who attended the Unleashing and wrote a great blog on the event.

Gabriel Huntley

Last week, Chuka paid a visit to Renton Close on Brixton Hill, to see their new community garden.

The project, run by Simon Ghartey encourages children from Renton Close and nearby areas to build and maintain an allotment on the green spaces of the estate. We were given a tour of the garden by Simon and Debbie Etienne, Secretary of the Renton Close Tenants and Residents Association.

The children all aged under 11, work from 3.30pm to 6pm after school each Thursday. They learn to dig and prepare a plot in addition to planting and caring for vegetables like tomatoes and pumpkins. As well as teaching them new skills, the initiative has the benefit of putting the outside space in the estate to functional use, receiving a positive response from local residents.

Although the garden has only been up and running for a few months, it was named the second best community garden in the 2008 Lambeth Estates in Bloom Competition.

Chuka was really impressed by the garden:

“It is not just a question of giving our young people things to do, it is a question of finding them interesting and different things to do - this is a great way of doing that and enabling them to contribute to the environment they live in, in a fun way.”

Carys Afoko

Network Rail have decided that the Thameslink service as we know it is to be no more. With no real consultation they have declared that Streatham and other stations on the “Wimbledon Loop” part of the Thameslink line will lose direct train services to stations beyond Blackfriars from 2015.

For Streatham and other stations on the Wimbledon Loop this will mean:
• No direct train to St Pancras and its interchange with the Eurostar and many cross-country links;
• No direct service to Farringdon, cutting Streatham and other Wimbledon Loop stations off from Crossrail;
• Streatham and other Wimbledon loop stations will miss out on the new connections as Thameslink expands.

Network Rail banded together with other rail industry bodies to produce an industry-wide “Route Utilisation Strategy” for South London, a 160 page document published in March 2008. The proposal to sever Streatham and other Wimbledon Loop stations from the rest of the Thameslink line was hidden away in two small paragraphs in that document. Given that no apparent consultation of service users has been carried out, the existence and status of the proposals has been unclear or unknown to most service users.

In order to seek clarification of the position and to enquire what consultation remains to be carried out, Chuka Umunna recently spoke with senior Network Rail executives who revealed that no further consultation is planned and that the plans will be presented for approval to the Department for Transport shortly.

Commenting on this, Chuka said:
“These proposals - hidden away in two small paragraphs in a 160 page document - will have a huge affect on thousands of local residents who hop on and off Thameslink at Streatham every working day, every year.
“The proposals are completely unacceptable. Thameslink provides the only direct route for rail users in Streatham to destinations north of the river and now this is being taken from us. We want Streatham to be better connected, not cut off from the rail map of the future.
“Network Rail have cooked up these plans without giving a single leaflet to service users or putting up a single poster to canvass our views – there has been no meaningful consultation whatsoever – and now they are seeking to quietly push these plans, as a fait accompli, through the Department for Transport.”

Network Rail cited two main reasons for this devastating change in discussion with Chuka: the allegedly huge cost of altering the platform layout at the new Blackfriars station to allow trains from the Wimbledon Loop to continue on northwards; and, the alleged prohibitive cost of upgrading Streatham and other Wimbledon Loop stations to accommodate the longer 12 car trains.

Responding to these claims, Chuka said: “It is bad enough that rail users from Streatham were not considered important enough to factor in when re-vamping the new Blackfriars station. It is nothing short of a disgrace that Streatham is being consigned to the second-league, unable to join the super-league of stations that will see 12-carriage trains as a matter of course.”

Network Rail have promised more trains to Blackfriars and London Bridge –from 5 or 6 per hour to around 10. Chuka wholeheartedly supports the expansion of these vital services. However, he thinks that the plans to terminate trains at Blackfriars pose a real threat to Streatham:

“Our links to the rest of the capital and beyond are being severed, whilst stations in Kent stand to benefit at our expense. This, added to the upheaval the present plans will inevitably bring, will anger this community.”
Chuka will be campaigning to ensure that the proposals as envisaged are not granted approval by the Department for Transport.

For more information, or to join the campaign to save Streatham’s Thameslink Services, email thameslink@streathamlabour.org.uk.

Network Rail’s South London Route Utilisation Strategy (RUS) was published in March 2008 and can be found here. The proposal to sever the Wimbledon Loop from Thameslink north of Blackfriars is contained in paragraphs 9.6.1 and 9.6.2 of the document on page 111.

The school was established by a group of mothers from the church in 1973 and is now predominantly funded through voluntary donations. It offers a range of stimulating activities from sand play, dressing up, painting and crafts, to construction toys, play doh, puzzles and cookery within a caring environment, to the children during those all important formative years in their development. The school aims to assist the children in their social, physical, emotional and intellectual development in accordance with the Pre-School curriculum and to prepare them for school with confidence - Keith and I were able to see for ourselves that that is just what the school has achieved and its tremendous contribution to the local community. Happy Anniversary Lewin Pre-School! For further information on the Pre-School, click here: Lewin Pre-School.