In 2017-18 32 TRAs received 51 getting involved grants totalling over £132,000 to run activities for residents.

Over 7,300 residents were involved in these activities which generated benefits in kind worth over £29,000 (volunteers time plus TRA contributions). These activities included:

• After school clubs (Edmundsbury & St Matthews).
• Art classes (Lilford & Vauxhall Gardens).
• Football programmes (Deronda, Portobello, Streatham Hill and Vauxhall Gardens).
• Children's summer programmes (Albert Carr, China Walk, Deronda, Fern Lodge, Lilford, Portobello, Streatham Hill and Tulse Hill Estate).
• Young People’s Theatre (China Walk).

There were also 32 single day events held which were mostly TRA launches, fun days and Christmas events.

This list doesn’t even include the many activities that TRAs funded themselves or received funding from other sources, so it was clearly a very busy year! Our TRAs deserve every credit for all of their efforts so THANK YOU!

Melbourne Mews TRA were unhappy with the fly tipping on their road so teamed up with Urban Growth, our environmental improvement partner, and our Estate Pride team to design out the problem.

They agreed a large raised bed would deter would-be fly tippers so with Urban Growth doing the construction, the TRA got a group of residents to have a planting day last Saturday week - and very successful it was too!

As reported in last month’s newsletter, all three Area Boards have now met for the first time and elected chairs and vice-chairs. The chairs and vice-chairs meet together as the Coordinating Committee (CC) together with Cllr Jennifer Brathwaite, and Neil Wightman, Director of Housing Services. 

It is the Coordinating Committee that decides what the main priorities for service review are. These service reviews will then be progressed by resident led Task and Finish Groups (TFG) who will look in detail at the service in question before making recommendations for improvement.

When the CC met recently to consider the feedback from the Area Boards it was agreed the overriding priority was repairs. Being the first review it was felt important not to make the brief too wide so rather than include all repairs it was decided it would be best to concentrate on communal repairs. The CC now needs to decide the terms of reference of the TFG and who will sit on it. It is hoped to get this group up and running by June.

If you are interested in getting involved in either the Area Boards or the TFGs please contact Erin Healy on 0207 926 8299 or email gettinginvolved@lambeth.gov.uk.

There has been a number of major refurbishments of our estate facilities this past year, more than in any previous year.

We are very pleased that these facilities have been refurbished and look forward to residents maximising their use in future.

The upgraded facilities include:

• New kitchen and flooring for Heath Road Estate hall
• Repainting of Vaughan House hub, Poynders Estate
• New kitchen and flooring in Chandler Hall, China Walk Estate
• New kitchen, flooring and repainting of Southwyck House hub
• New entrance doors, flooring and repainting of Laburnham Hall, Cheshire Estate
• New windows, kitchen and repainting in Edmundsbury Gardens Estate hall
• Refurbished kitchen, new flooring and repainting of Notre Dame Estate hall.