Chuka Umunna MP

When Boris Johnson was running for Mayor in 2008 he included a pledge in his Transport Manifesto that said he would halt “the proposed Tube ticket office closures”, and ensure “there is always a manned ticket office at every station”. During his campaign he signed a petition that condemned plans to close Tube ticket offices and drastically reduce the opening hours of many others.

However, recent proposals from Transport for London suggest that the permanent closure of eleven ticket offices is under consideration and dozens more could face drastically reduced opening hours. The proposals would affect tube stations including Brixton, Clapham South, Clapham Common and Balham and result in hundreds of jobs being axed.

Under the proposals, Clapham South station ticket office would see its opening times cut by 46 hours per week, while Clapham Common station’s ticket office would be open for 32 fewer hours each week.

While currently Clapham South’s ticket office closes at 9.30pm on Saturdays and Sundays, under the Mayor’s planned changes it would be without a ticket office after 3.45pm on Saturday and 4.00pm on Sundays.

The ticket offices at Balham and Clapham Common will close at 7.45pm from Monday to Friday and Clapham South’s at 7.15pm, also closing for most of the afternoon, between 1.30pm and 5.00pm on weekdays.

If you would like to register your disappointment with the current proposals then you can contact to Transport for London at enquire {at} tfl.gov(.)uk, we will post any consultations on the proposals as soon as they are available.

Chuka Ummuna, who is opposing the planned reduction in ticket office opening hours, commented:

“Thousands of people use our underground stations on a daily basis and they form a vital connection with central London.

“The Mayor’s drastic cuts to opening times would see our local tube stations without ticket offices for hours on end at peak times.

“As well as the loss of customer service for tube users, I am concerned about the impact the changes could have on the safety of stations, particularly late at night.”

Brixton Windmill is to be reopened to the public after funding for its restoration has been secured from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Around £400,000 is being provided by the fund after campaigning by Lambeth’s Labour Council and local residents, in addition to almost £200,000 contributed by the council itself and Friends of Windmill Gardens.

With this long-awaited project becoming a reality the windmill – which is a unique historic landmark and a source of great local pride – will now be restored, given a secure future and maintained for the enjoyment of future generations. Its interior, which is currently closed, will become accessible to the public.

The Heritage Lottery Fund grant will also be used to fund educational and community activities at the windmill, alongside a new exhibition demonstrating the mechanical parts of the mill in operation.

The Grade II* listed windmill, which was built as Ashby’s Mill in 1816, is the only one of its kind in inner London.

Jean Kerrigan of Friends of Windmill Gardens welcomed the news:

“This is tremendous news and we are so excited that all of our hard work has been rewarded.

“We would really like to thank our friends and the community in Brixton, as well as Lambeth Council for the support and help they have given us in taking this meaningful project to the next stage. Brixton Windmill now has a glorious future for generations to come.

To find out more about the windmill and its history, visit the Friends of Windmill Gardens website.

Recently Chuka visited the brand new Windrush Square in Brixton on its inaugural weekend, which included live music and celebrations to mark its opening.

To see more pictures, please visit Chuka’s Facebook photo album.

Brixton’s brand new Windrush Square will open this weekend, with celebrations on Saturday and Sunday including live music and a lantern-lit procession by local children.

The development is a part of the wider Brixton Town Centre programme, which is enhancing the local urban environment alongside upgrading the area’s roads and pavements to improve access and safety.

Creating a new focal point in the heart of Lambeth, the new town square will also be a venue for community activities and events, joining together the old square with Tate Gardens to create a single pedestrianised open space.

The square’s name was chosen in 1998 with help from local residents and businesses to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush from Jamaica on 22 June 1948 which was a landmark event in the development of our modern multicultural society.

The rejuvenated square has been built with a new fountain, improved lighting, wider crossing points and improvements such as cycle stands to encourage more people to cycle. It also features 21 new trees. Added to this there will be high quality landscaping and surfacing and sculpted granite seating, creating what will be a thriving centre for our area.

In this video, filmed after the recent Q&A with Ed Miliband MP and local people organised by Chuka at Lambeth Town Hall, Chuka talks to the Climate Change Secretary about the event and the UN conference on climate change currently taking place in Copenhagen.

This week, Brixton launched its own currency – the Brixton Pound. The currency is designed to help local shops and market stalls in the recession by encouraging shoppers to spend money locally, whilst also promoting the area.

The currency is pegged to Pounds Sterling, and is accepted in over fifty business in the area.

The idea was developed by the community-led Transition Town Brixton project, which works to make the area more self-sufficient.

Local currencies have been launched elsewhere in the UK including the towns of Totnes, Lewes and Stroud, but Brixton is the first inner-city area to do so.

To find out more, check out the project’s website, or read this BBC News article about the new currency.

Brixton has been announced as one of ten low-carbon areas across London. It will pioneer a number of groundbreaking green projects and become a showcase for how London can become a low-carbon city.

The resulting projects include low-carbon heating for King’s College Hospital and improvements to Brixton’s community buildings to make them more energy efficient.

Brixton will aim to reduce its carbon emissions by over 20% by 2012, with residents, community organisations, businesses and Lambeth working together. The area will receive £200,000 of funding from the London Development Agency.

Brixton was selected by an expert panel following an application by Lambeth’s Labour council.

Chuka’s letter on primary school places was published in the Streatham Guardian on 6 August 2009, in response to a previous article:

Parents understandably want their children to attend a good local school – I know because I am a governor of one. Increasing demand for school places is an issue across London, with population shifts, increases in the birth rate and pressure on sites for school buildings.

With reference to your article, “Lambeth school space crisis” (9 July 2009), the government is taking action to create more primary and secondary school places by expanding existing schools and building new ones. Nationally, Labour is investing £21.9 billion on school buildings between now and 2011. Locally we have already seen the fruits of this with the establishment of new secondary schools such as Lambeth Academy and new primaries such as the Jubilee School since 1997.

However, though all those who applied on time for a primary school place received an offer in a Lambeth school this year, it is true that the ability to meet parental preferences in each case is still a challenge and more places are needed in the future.

That is why Keith Hill MP and I are meeting with ministers and working hard to ensure central government provides further investment so we can provide more places for our children, for example by converting the Woodfield Centre in Streatham, an old Special School, to provide a new primary school in the area. We will keep residents posted on our progress.

Chuka Umunna
Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Streatham

Chuka and Keith Hill, Member of Parliament for Streatham, headed down to enjoy and lend their support this afternoon to Brixton Splash, the Brixton street festival.   The festival includes live music, poetry, art exhibitions, street theatre, crafts, children’s activities, food sales, sound systems and domino competitions.  The event aims to involve people from all walks of life, providing something for everyone to participate and enjoy themselves.

 More Brixton Splash 2009 photos can be found here: Brixton Splash

Philippe Castaing, Brixton Green from NewStartMag on Vimeo.

The Brixton Green development is a community project to sustainably develop a large site on Somerleyton Road in Brixton. Its vision is to combine work spaces for local small businesses with mixed-tenure housing, creating a hub for social and environmental enterprises. Chuka is a strong supporter of the project, which hopes to start building within two years.

In this video local restauranteur and Brixton Hill resident Phillipe Castaing, who initiated the project, discusses its aims.

The development will foster social cohesion by combining owner-occupied premises with social housing and providing communal spaces for residents to come together.

A large communal garden will be the centrepiece of the development, providing space for urban agriculture, including vegetable growing, bee keeping and greenhouses – producing 120 tonnes of produce a year.

To find out more, check out the Brixton Green development’s website.