Tell Southwark Council how COVID-19 and the lockdown has impacted you

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Cllr Peter John OBE

Dear resident,

I am so proud of the way the council, our partners and most importantly our local residents and businesses have supported each other through this crisis. Thank you. The whole borough has come together in a show of solidarity, community and support during a period that will change the way we live and work forever.

We know the impact of COVID-19 has been felt across the borough, through lives tragically lost, and the disruption to our normal way of life.

As lockdown eases, we want to hear how people are managing – what is working well, and where there are problems. This will help us plan the council’s activities in the next few months.

Complete our COVID-19 survey now.

We also know that the pandemic continues to put a great deal of strain on our communities and there is still help available. Find information about how to get help on our website.

Best wishes

Cllr Peter John

Southwark Stands Together

In response to the killing of George Floyd and the injustice and racism experienced by BAME communities Cllr Johnson Situ, Cabinet Member for Growth and Planning, is leading our work in this area under the name Southwark Stands Together. The work will include:

An anti-racist audit of the borough to identify statues and street names that do not reflect our borough’s diversity, especially anything with links to slavery or our country’s colonial past, and to identify positive opportunities for the celebration of more diverse figures
A listening exercise with communities across the borough, partner organisations, and our staff, to hear their concerns, and identify solutions to address entrenched and persistent racism and injustice
A call to all businesses and organisations in the borough to work with us to implement these solutions, taking positive action to ensure equality of opportunity

Make your own face covering

Face coverings are now compulsory on all public transport and should be considered in busy shops and enclosed public spaces. Find out how to make your own face covering at home and remember the key is to cover both the mouth and nose.

Advice about cervical screening

As part of Cervical Screening Awareness Week, Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust has published information and advice about changes to cervical screening as a result of coronavirus.

Enrol in a virtual art and printmaking course

As part of our adult learning offer you could enrol on a virtual art and printmaking course which starts on 25 June and last for five weeks.

Are you worried about domestic abuse?

If you or someone you know is suffering from domestic abuse, you can leave home to seek help or support. Nationally, there is advice and support available but you should call 999 if you are in immediate danger. Locally, the Solace Advocacy and Support Service is also available to women and men in Southwark aged 16 or over.

Give your views on the climate emergency

Whether you live, work or visit our borough we want your views ideas about how we tackle the climate emergency together.

Get ready for Pride Inside!

Pride Inside is an online series of gigs, comedy shows, panel discussions, and arts-based events, between 28 June and 5 July, with support from Amnesty International, UK Black Pride, Stonewall and ParaPride.

Mental wellbeing advice for young people

Young people aged 13–25 can get free and confidential mental wellbeing advice and support from a new service called The Nest. Support is available online and on the phone.

Grants for small businesses

Our Discretionary Grants Fund is now open for applications from businesses in Southwark. Find out if your small business is eligible for a grant and how to apply.

Celebrate silliness!

Children aged 4+ and parents can celebrate silliness with our libraries team on Zoom on 25 June by dressing up, telling silly jokes and joining in silly games in the lead up to the summer reading challenge 2020.

Watch theatre performances, free of charge

Southwark Playhouse’s new streaming service means you can watch shows and plays, free of charge, until the theatre can open its doors again. Performances currently include Wasted, a rock musical about the Brontë sisters

www.southwark.gov.uk

Estate Watch: A new resource for communities going through estate demolition

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Over 35,000 homes on London council estates are earmarked for demolition.

Launching today, Estate Watch is a new website seeking to ensure tenants and residents have the information, tools and resources to fight their corner.

Click here to visit the site and explore the map.

As of 2018, councils and housing associations seeking Mayoral funding to knock down and replace their existing stock with more than 150 new homes must first seek majority resident support through a ballot.

Even so, 44 such schemes across London have been exempted and the Mayor appears to be overlooking landlords conducting ballots on terms that go against his guidance. This despite the Mayor’s Estate Regeneration Guidance, which was supposed to give council tenants and leaseholders a better deal.

Tenants must be fully informed and have meaningful choices before we get to a ballot. We’ve joined with Just Space to establish Estate Watch in part because of concerns that that is not happening.

The new website provides tenants with key facts, tools and case studies to fight their corner and to try to engage on more equal terms in discussion about the future of their homes and communities.

This includes research by academics at University of Leicester (UOL) and Kings College London (KCL) showing that long term uncertainty, depression and displacement were common experiences among both tenants and leaseholders undergoing demolition.

To sign up for Estate Watch mailing list updates, click here and scroll down.

#EstateWatch Online Conversation

SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE

To mark the launch of the website, we are encouraging tenants and leaseholders who are going through or have been through demolition to share their experiences on Twitter using the hashtag #EstateWatch

How has your life been affected?

Did you feel listened to?

Were you offered a meaningful alternative to demolition?

Wednesday 24th June @ 10am Q&A WITH LORETTA LEES

From 10am to 11am next Wednesday, we’ll be hosting a live Twitter Q&A session with Loretta Lees, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Leicester and lead researcher on regeneration and gentrification. Please join us then using the hashtag #EstateWatch @LorettaCLees and @londontenants or @justspace7

Not on Twitter but got a question for Loretta? Email zoe-comms@londontenants.org with your question beforehand and we will put it to her on your behalf.

How you can help

It’s rare for councils and housing associations to provide their tenants and residents with the full facts about demolition, so it’s important that we share that information ourselves.

Do you live on or near a council estate threatened with demolition or know someone who does? Please forward on this email or share a link to the website on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using #EstateWatch.

Have we missed something? Estate Watch is an ongoing project with limited resources. Please help us keep the website up to date by emailing info@estatewatch.london with updates or corrections if you spot a gap.

Please forward this email to your neighbours, friends and contacts.

Thank you.

London Tenants is a company ltd by guarantee, reg in England/Wales No 08155382

Our registered company address is:
82A Godwin Court, Crowndale Rd, London, NW1 1NW

The shopping centre is back!

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Dear Friend

The shopping centre traders are back in business after the Coronavirus lock-down. All of them have had to adapt to new regulations, putting up screens, redesigning the space inside their units etc – showing their quick adaptability and resilience!

Everyone is invited to keep up the Elephant spirit by supporting local traders – so, bring your face-mask, keep social distance and #buylocal #buyElephant!

Please spread the word too –

https://twitter.com/LatinElephant/status/1273246907599589377
https://www.facebook.com/Latinelephant/posts/3019923641390550?comment_id=3019941381388776&notif_id=1592402205715844&notif_t=feed_comment

Regards
Jerry

Copyright © 2020 Elephant Amenity Network, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:

Elephant Amenity Network

18 Market Place

Blue Anchor Lane

London, Southwark SE16 3UQ

United Kingdom

Shops and places of worship to reopen, plus an update on our response to Black Lives Matter

Posted by tgntra

Dear resident,

As we head into another sunny weekend, with more easing of the lockdown measures coming next week, I want to thank you all for your continued commitment to keeping Southwark safe. It’s great news that many of our much-loved local businesses will be reopening on Monday, and that churches, mosques and other places of worship will be open for private prayer next week too. I know what a positive difference this will make to many of you. However, please remember that we will only keep ourselves and our families safe if we continue to observe social distancing. The 2m rule remains in place across our borough to keep us safe.

I promised you last week that I would share with you the details of our plans to respond to the killing of George Floyd and the injustice and racism experienced by our BAME communities. I have asked Cllr Johnson Situ, Cabinet Member for Growth and Planning, to lead our work in this area under the name ‘Southwark stands together’, which today we can announce will include:

An anti-racist audit of the borough to identify statues and street names that do not reflect our borough’s diversity, especially anything with links to slavery or our country’s colonial past, and to identify positive opportunities for the celebration of more diverse figures
A listening exercise with communities across the borough, partner organisations, and our staff, to hear their concerns, and identify solutions to address entrenched and persistent racism and injustice
A call to all businesses and organisations in the borough to work with us to implement these solutions, taking positive action to ensure equality of opportunity

Cllr Situ will report back on progress towards the end of the summer, but in the meantime we will soon be sharing details with you of how you can get involved in this important work, as we want to ensure it is driven and informed by our communities.

Have a lovely weekend,

Cllr Peter John

Third anniversary of the Grenfell tragedy

This Sunday, 14 June, marks the third anniversary of the Grenfell fire in which 72 people tragically lost their lives. On Sunday our Tooley Street and Queens Road offices will be lit #GreenforGrenfell to remember all those who died. We will be thinking of them, their families, loved ones and all of the people whose lives were changed forever by the tragedy, on this sad day.

Face coverings required on public transport

From Monday it will be mandatory for anyone travelling on public transport to wear a face covering. There is more information available on the TfL website.

Shops and places of worship

A number of shops and businesses will be opening across the borough from Monday 15 June. They will have to meet the government’s Covid-19 social distancing guidelines to protect their workers and the public. In addition, customers are asked to be vigilant, stay away from others and wear a face covering if in enclosed spaces where social distancing is not possible.

On Monday 15 June, places of worship are also permitted to allow people to attend for individual prayer only, rather than services, so that people can socially distance.

Businesses that offer personal services, such as hairdressers and nail bars, will remain closed, in line with current government guidelines, until 4 July. This also applies to the hospitality industry, meaning that pubs, cafes and restaurants are still restricted to takeaway or delivery services only.

Businesses can find further guidance on reopening safely, and posters to help manage social distancing, on our website.

New £3.4 million grant scheme for small businesses in Southwark

The council has launched a new support scheme for local small businesses and market traders that did not qualify for the Government’s Small Business Grant, the Retail, Leisure and Hospitality Grant, or were unsuccessful in applying for the Southwark Business Hardship Fund in April. The new £3.4 million fund will be allocated on a rolling basis until the fund is exhausted. Demand for grants is expected to be high so businesses are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. For more details and to apply: http://www.southwark.gov.uk/discretionarygrantsfund

Climate emergency – your thoughts?

In March 2019, Southwark declared a Climate Change Emergency. This declaration reinforced our commitment to combat carbon emissions and do all we can to tackle rising global temperatures. We have been working to reduce our emissions for some time, cutting them by 37 per cent since 2010. Moving forward we want to join forces with everybody in the borough to try to make Southwark carbon neutral by 2030.Please tell us how you think we can work towards a carbon neutral 2030, together.

www.southwark.gov.uk

Stop demolitions and requisition empty homes!

Posted by tgntra

Dear Friend

I hope you have been keeping well during these difficult times.

The Up the Elephant campaign has been working with Latin Elephant and Southwark Law Centre, to help shopping centre traders through the Coronavirus crisis and with their relocation plans. According to Southwark Council 45 traders have now been relocated, with 28 applications rejected. Traders can also draw on two funds – the relocation and transition funds – and Latin Elphant and SLC have been doing great work helping traders with this.

The campaign has also joined with eighteen other groups to send an open letter to Southwark demanding that it Stop demolitions and requisition empty homes to help solve the housing crisis.

There will also be a socially distanced protest to open up empty homes this Thurs 4 June 6pm, outside Pret a Manger
One the Elephant, 1 St Gabriel Walk, Elephant and Castle, London SE1 6SA
FB Event here

This is a socially distanced protest. Please bring a mask or face covering and stay 2 metres apart.

Regards
Jerry
PS We will be having an on-line meeting very shortly – notice and link to follow.

Copyright © 2020 Elephant Amenity Network, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:

Elephant Amenity Network

18 Market Place

Blue Anchor Lane

London, Southwark SE16 3UQ

United Kingdom

COVID-19 updates, tackling the climate emergency and more

Posted by tgntra

Dear resident,

Another sunny weekend awaits but our message stays the same – please stay at home as much as possible to stop the virus spreading.

I want to thank everyone, including council staff and members of the public, who have been working so hard to keep our parks and open spaces clean and safe. We can all do our bit to help by using our parks responsibly. Please keep your distance from others, don’t have barbecues and take your rubbish home with you. Let’s work together to look after our parks, so we can all enjoy them.

It’s hard to believe that three years have passed since the dreadful terror attacks in London Bridge and Borough in which eight people were murdered and dozens more injured. On 3^rd June we will remember those lives lost, and all those harmed on that terrible night, with a service hosted by Southwark Cathedral. Given the current lockdown restrictions the memorial service will be held virtually on Southwark Cathedral’s website. Whether or not you are able to join the service, I know you will join me in remembering those lost on that sunny evening three years ago, and keep their friends and families firmly in your thoughts.

Best wishes,

Cllr Peter John

Give us your views on the climate emergency

Whether you live, work or visit our borough we want your ideas about how we tackle the climate emergency together.

Mental wellbeing advice for young people

Young people aged 13–25 can get free and confidential mental wellbeing advice and support from a new service called The Nest. Support is available online and on the phone.

Is your child due a routine immunisation?

Routine immunisations for children and expectant mums are continuing as usual. Contact your GP if you think you or your child may be due a routine vaccine. Practices have put measures in place to ensure you can be seen safely (YouTube video).

Join in our Festival of Words until 12 June

This year’s Festival of Words will for the first time be delivered online featuring local writers, storytellers and literary artists showcasing their work to stimulate your imagination and creativity. Audiences of all ages will be engaged and inspired – there is something for everyone to enjoy.

Check out the full programme.

You can also look at all the activities in our stay-at-home library of activities to keep you busy at home.

Join a business start-up webinar

Is COVID-19 impacting your tech business? Do you have an idea for a startup and need guidance on getting in front of the right customer? Join an online webinar on 3 June to learn how to attract customers and grow your company.

Submissions closing soon: £6m for your community projects

We’ve received almost 300 proposals for community projects to be funded by the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). The Sunday 31 May deadline is fast approaching. Visit our CIL website and share your idea for a project in your area that could by supported by this £6m fund.

Stream films free of charge

Our elibrary service offers film streaming, ebooks, audiobooks and more free of charge. You will need your library card number to use the service, or you can become a library member now.

Donate your old smartphone to help local people

Test and trace information

Read more about the NHS test and tracing programme which launched yesterday. If you have coronavirus symptoms you can ask to be tested, following the process set out on the NHS website.

Are you worried about domestic abuse?

Suggest ideas to make social distancing easier

We’re committed to quickly rolling out schemes to make travel safer during the COVID-19 crisis. Help us identify locations where we can make changes to help you get about safely

www.southwark.gov.uk

Letter to Residents from Minister of State for Housing

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Dear TRA Chair,

Please see the below and attached Covid-19 Letter to Social Housing Residents links to an important communication concerning Coronavirus from the Minister of State for Housing, the Right Honourable Christopher Pincher, MP:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/885686/Covid19_Letter_to_social_housing_residents.pdf

Kind regards,

George Changua

Tenant & Homeowner Support Officer

Southwark Council || Communities Division || Housing & Modernisation

160 Tooley Street || 5^th Floor || Hub 3 || SE1 2QH

T: 0207 525 3326 || E: george.changua@southwark.gov.uk || Website: www.southwark.gov.uk

www.southwark.gov.uk/mysouthwark For council services at your fingertips, register online.

Update on schools and other COVID-19 information

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Cllr Peter John OBE

Dear resident,

As we look forward to another bank holiday weekend it’s vital we remember we are still in lockdown and that we should still stay at home as much as possible. If you go out this weekend, please continue to follow the rules and keep your distance from others.

Next week is also the half-term holidays for schools. In these unprecedented times I want to pay tribute to school staff in Southwark who have been continuing to provide outstanding support and education for our children and young people in difficult circumstances and also to parents who have been supporting their children’s learning at home, whilst juggling other commitments.

We are working with our schools to establish whether more children can safely return to schools in Southwark from 1 June in line with government guidance. If a school cannot open safely we will support them to remain closed until they can open safely. Our priority is making sure our children return to school safely at the right time, not rushing to meet a specific deadline.

We want to understand how parents feel about education provision during lockdown, and changes to government guidance. Have your say on plans to reopen schools from 1 June, and how the council and schools can best support families over the coming months.

Thank you for helping to keep Southwark safe.

Cllr Peter John

Suggest ideas to make social distancing easier

We’re committed to quickly rolling out schemes to make travel safer during the COVID-19 crisis. Help us identify locations where we can make changes to help you get about safely.

Celebrating Eid Al-Fitr safely

We offer our warmest wishes to Muslims across Southwark who will celebrate Eid Al-Fitr this weekend. We are disappointed that there won’t be a festival in Burgess Park this year but it is so important we all stay safe and well. The Muslim Council of Britain has shared advice about celebrating Eid Al-Fitr safely.

Routine immunisations are continuing

Southwark Libraries Festival of Words: 26 May to 12 June

Check out the full programme.

You can also look at all the activities in our stay-at-home library of activities to keep you busy at home.

Submissions closing soon: £6m for your community projects

Reporting antisocial behaviour

Antisocial behaviour can cause distress and fear in the community. As lockdown restrictions ease we should all consider how our behaviour impacts on others. You can report antisocial behaviour to us, seven days week. In an emergency, always call 999.

Donate your old smartphone to help local people

We are supporting Community Calling, a partnership between O2 and environment charity Hubbub, which asks people to donate their old and unused phones so they can be passed on to help other people stay digitally connected. In a trial 800 handsets are being distributed to residents of Southwark who have been identified as someone who would benefit most from a smartphone – from the elderly to people escaping domestic abuse.

We need foster carers

If you have a spare room and could provide a loving and caring home for a child in need we’d be interested to talk to you about fostering. You can find out more and register your interest or register to attend an information session on Zoom.

Are you worried about domestic abuse?

If you or someone you know is suffering from Domestic Abuse, isolation rules do not apply. Police response and support services remain available. Nationally, there is advice and support available but you should call 999 if you are in immediate danger. Locally, the Solace Advocacy and Support Service is also available to women and men in Southwark aged 16 or over in Southwark.

Free oral contraception

All women who live in Southwark are entitled to free oral contraception which they can register for online and have delivered to their home.

www.southwark.gov.uk

ASB and dealing at Boughton and Balin

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Hello Balin Residents,

As you may have seen on twitter, or heard early this morning, a drugs warrant was carried out by the Neighbourhood Tasking Team in Boughton House, where they arrested a male for Possession with Intent to Supply.

Whilst we were outside the block between 8-10am this morning, a known drug users came by whistling up to Boughton House before seeing us. We informed him a dealer was arrested. So the news must of spread as we didn’t see anyone else arrived in the time.

We understand this has caused residents a lot of concern, upset, and harassment. We will continue with patrols over the next 2 days we are in, to be in the face of the dealer and the users.

The male will be released today under investigation. So don’t be surprised that you may see him about.

We are now speaking with the Council regarding actions they can take in regards to their tenant.

Regards

Sarah & Richard

Chaucer Safer Neighbourhood Team

PC Sarah LOCK, PC Nigel QUINN & PCSO Richard SMITH

Southwark Police Station, 323 Borough High Street, LONDON, SE1 1JL

Tel 0208 721 2441

E-Mail CHAUCER.SNT@MET.POLICE.UK

Ward Promises:

1) Balin House re: ASB Drug Use

2) Meakin Est re: ASB Rough Sleepers/Drug/Drinkers

3) Berwick Court re: Mail Thefts

Follow us on Twitter @MPSChaucer or on Nextdoor App

Also see our webpage on www.met.police.uk

IN AN EMERGENCY, ALWAYS CALL 999

Mental Health Awareness Week

Posted by tgntra

Hosted by the Mental Health Foundation, Mental Health Awareness Week takes place from 18-24 May 2020. The theme is kindness.

https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/mental-health-awareness-week