This week 10, 20, 30 years ago

10 Years Ago

Police stations that closed to the public across South London during the 2012 Olympics were feared to never reopen.

The front counters at Gipsy Hill, Cavendish Road in Clapham and the Union Road station, also in Clapham, were closed to free up extra officers for street patrols during the Games, but remained closed.

A Lambeth police spokesman was unable to confirm when – or if – the stations would reopen as each London borough’s force prepares to make recommendations over which of the Met’s 800 buildings can be closed.

Southwark police announced East Dulwich Police Station would close for good and the building will be sold off.

Poetry written in jail by a Tooting terror suspect won a pair of prizes.

Talha Ahsan, who has been detained without charge or trial for six years, was highly commended for his poem Grieving, plus his poetry collection of the same name.

Campaigners descended on a town hall to protest against outsourcing public services including kids’ play areas, libraries and one o’clock clubs.

Trade unions, teachers and the public held banners and placards outside Lambeth Town Hall, in Acre Lane, Brixton, where the council’s cabinet was held.

The protest was organised after the revelation that Lambeth Play Association (LPA) – a private company contracted to run children’s adventure playgrounds – had breached the terms of its contract.

The seven playgrounds were shut to the public during the height of the school holidays when it was revealed by the South London Press that LPA did not disclose results of criminal record disclosures of staff to the council.

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20 Years Ago

Grieving relatives were left devastated after the graves of their loved ones were covered up with sacks.

The sacks bore warnings that the graves were unsafe and that people should keep away from them.

The signs were placed over unstable headstones, the staff at Camberwell New Cemetery in Honor Oak warned. Southwark council said that it had tightened its rules on health and safety and told mourners to contact the site office for advice on securing the headstones to make them safe.

But mourners branded the move as shocking.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone promised that the days of people having to wait ages for a bus were numbered with the announcement that a new fleet was to be introduced.

At the same time as introducing the controversial congestion charge zone.

Mr Livingstone promised to make 11,000 more spaces available on buses within five months.

The move was designed to combat the extra 20,000 people who would be forced out of their cars by the new £5 daily charge of driving into central London.

The fate of a pub that had reportedly once been an “epicentre of crime in South London hung in the balance.

Plans to turn the Green Man pub in collaborator Lane, into six flats were submitted to Lambeth council.

The loss of a pub would ordinarily have been against council policy but planning officers had recommended that the plans, tabled by Briarpath Properties, should be permitted.

Brixton town centre manager Jo Negrini urged residents to back the plans as the pub.

Local businesses said the area would not improve while the pub remained open.

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30 Years Ago

Hundreds of mourners turned out to pay their last respects to a popular priest Canon David Diamond, had preached at St Paul’s Church in Deptford for 23 years and had campaigned to have the building restored [including its stone steps].

In 1992, he became the first person to be buried in the churchyard since 1842.

Deptford came to a standstill as a requiem mass was held for the priest, who was known to many as “Farv”. A street procession was then held before he was laid to rest.

A council drew fire after refusing to pay compensation recommended by a watchdog.

Southwark council claimed that the award was unfair because the woman was a co-opted council committee member at the time of arbitration and she got preferential treatment.

Local government ombudsman Dr David Yardley found maladministration causing injustice in a complaint over housing repair delays and said Southwark council should pay the woman £100 compensation.

But Southwark council paid her just £1 after councillors complained that she had been given preferential treatment.

Tenants were warned that they would be fined if they failed to let pest controllers into their homes.

Southwark’s housing chief said they would have to pay for any delays caused and making them pay for any locks that had to be broken to gain entrance by force.

The move followed the council’s war against cockroaches and pharoah ants that had infested more than half of its 55,000 homes.

But some tenants refused to have their homes sprayed rendering work on entire blocks pointless as the pests spread once the residue from the spray had disappeared.

The council had put aside £1million to tackle its pest problem after numerous complaints from tenants.

 

Main Pic: Lambeth Town Hall  / Reading Tom at https://flickr.com/photos/16801915@N06/8715334040 (archive)