Since November 2008 there have been a series of meetings between the Friends of Brockwell Park and Lambeth officers. Cllr McHugh attended the meeting on 23 January 2009 (originally scheduled in November 2008). At each meeting Lambeth has suggested revisions to the FoBP scheme and these have been incorporated into our plans.

At the meeting on 23 January Lambeth's Director of Planning suggested the FoBP should submit their scheme for planning permission. We would prefer the new scheme to be considered on its merits in terms of the Council’s own objectives. It takes less parkland, offers significant other improvements over the Lambeth scheme and will save a considerable amount of public money – both in terms of the works and also in replacement parkland. However, as it seems the Council prefers to give consideration to the revised scheme by means of a planning application, we have been developing the application – even though this is costing us a further £2,000.

We have been doing this in good faith in the hope that a compromise solution will save some of Lambeth’s precious parkland. We cannot understand why Lambeth is now saying they want to go ahead with the works even before giving the revised scheme the consideration they themselves suggested.

The FoBP revised scheme differs from the Council’s only in respect of the slip road. It will have absolutely no effect on the plans for regeneration near the junction or other aspects of the scheme.

However, there are differences on the slip road: the FoBP/IMA plans

• take significantly less parkland
• are more consistent with Lambeth’s own UDP than the Council’s scheme
• offer better visibility to drivers entering the slip road than the Lambeth scheme
• have a curved slip road that will reduce traffic speed near pedestrian crossings relative to the Lambeth scheme
• are safer than the Lambeth scheme for drivers leaving the slip road into Dulwich road
• are safer for pedestrians and cyclists than the existing Council scheme
• and all at a considerable saving in public money.

All of these are in the Design and Access Statement (see below) that is about to be submitted to Lambeth as part of our Planning Application.

We appeal to Lambeth Councillors to seek an independent evaluation of the two schemes and, for our part, will be happy to co-operate with and contribute to any such evaluation.

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