Albert Square and St Stephen’s Association

F

A sunset over the proposed American Embassy

The ASSA map route to the New American Embassy

Those who travel down Nine Elms Lane will see that the old car showroom has been cleared and there is now a large empty area. Part of this area is for Ballymore an Irish developer proposing to develop out a 15 acre site and the Americans are proposing to use  a further 5 acres adjacent.
The new American Embassy should start to be built in 2014 and be completed by 2017 and some might argue that for good or for ill it  is the  U.S. Embassy  (and not Battersea Power Station, empty for decades)  which is the  critical lynchpin of the Vauxhall Nine Elms  re-development.

The blue and white dash markings are the proposed routes to and from the Embassy area and there are faint circles on the  map above  showing the walking times to various areas in Vauxhall and Stockwell.  Each circle moving up in 5 minute increments.
Would any resident feeling energetic please give it a go- walking to Sainsbury’s down the back and through the flower market car park?
A 20 minute ++ walk seems somewhat conservative?

There has been a wave of break-ins/attempted break-ins in our area in the last few days. Residents in Albert Square and Wilkinson Street have had windows smashed, and in one case a flat was entered and a laptop laptop stolen.

It is very important that all such incidents are reported to the police:

• call 101 for non-emergency reports
• call 999 if you are aware of a break-in in progress.

Remember to take the usual care in securing your home and not leaving valuables, car keys etc in view or near to front or back doors or windows.

Val Shawcross (right), ASSA member Emma Francis and children check out the traffic on Clapham Road

Whatever your feelings about the new Tesco Express at the old Freeman site on Clapham Road, the fact is that it is up and running. That – plus the welcome new cut-through between Clapham Road and Durand School/Horizons in Liberty Street – means that there are more people then ever, including many children, crossing the Clapham Road just south of the entrance to Albert Square.

The big problem is that we have no controlled road crossing there – even though we were promised this as part of the redevelopment plans that have brought hundreds of new residents to the site. It seems that Transport for London has ditched (without consultation) the planned crossing just to ‘keep traffic moving’.

But local residents believe that road safety – of pedestrians, car and commercial vehicle users and bus passengers and drivers – is more important than increasing the speed of passing traffic. That’s why residents’ associations on both sides of Clapham Road, representing the Albert Square and St Stephen’s conservation area and Durand Gardens, have come together to launch a joint petition to Transport for London calling on TfL to install a pelican crossing on the Clapham Road.

Without a proper crossing we believe there is an imminent risk of an accident.

You can sign the petition online at: http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/claphamroadcrossing

You can also support the campaign by writing individual letters to Transport for London at:
4th Floor, Zone Y4, 14 Pier Walk, North Greenwich, London SE10 0ES – enquire@tfl.gov.uk

Please also send copies to the Mayor, Boris Johnson – mayor@london.gov.uk

and Caroline Pidgeon, chair of the Transport Committee – caroline.pidgeon@london.gov.uk

and Val Shawcross, deputy chair of the Transport Committee - valerie.shawcross@london.gov.uk (see Val’s story about the crossing here)

Don’t forget, there is an election for London Mayor in May – so we need to make sure that safe roads are on the agenda.

We’re delighted to announce that we are back online and will be bringing you news of our activities as soon as possible.