Welcome to Beth Prince newly appointed Trustee at Carnegie Community Trust CIO. 

This month, Beth Prince joins the Board of Trustees bringing her knowledge and experience as a solicitor and commitment to building strong resources in the community. We welcome Beth and look forward to working together.

Foodbank

Beth has already got to grips with the Trussell Trust Foodbank Box in the foyer at Carnegie – which is now picked up regularly. We’d like to encourage all visitors to Carnegie to bring non-perishable food, washing and sanitary products for the Foodbank.

At the end of October we also said good bye to Helen Deane and Sophia Bellinfantie who worked with us for 6 months recruiting volunteers, developing and delivering volunteer training, networking, producing and delivering promotion materials. We continue to use the Heritage Lottery Funding for promotion, equipment and planning.

Enterprise Centre

The Enterprise Centre is ready to go in the second floor room and we will shortly be inviting applications from local people to take the attractive desk spaces on licences (see flyer here). If you would like to chat about this, please get in touch through getinvolved@carnegiehernehill.org

Garden Group

The garden group, a great group including garden experts, has now completed a review of all the shrubs, plants and trees and has made initial proposals to retain the original shape of the garden, clear weeds and many self-seeded plants and trees, prune back, and free up lovely shrubs that are struggling to get light. We are getting some spring bulbs in too!

Cafe

Plans for the cafe are coming along slowly with our partners, who will co-develop the cafe with us. This development depends on Lambeth moving large amounts of books etc from the front room but we are assured that this will happen!

Rates for Room Hire

We have reviewed our rates for room hire and will be publishing the new rates. All three large, medium and small rooms are available for hire by the hour, half or whole day and are great for meetings, classes, parties, conferences and many other activities.

Lambeth Libraries are about to do some work on the trees in the grounds of the Library, to remove dead and diseased wood and protect the building where trees  are likely to cause  damage. You can see what is proposed here.  If you have any comments about the proposed work on the trees please contact Susanna Barnes sbarnes@lambeth.gov.uk

It is planned that the work will be carried out in early November.

Workspace planning permission
We have now received planning permission for the change of use of two rooms at Carnegie to accommodate the “Enterprise Centre” – as previously, this is a shared workspace with fixed desks. The two rooms covered by this permission are the Old Lecture Room upstairs and the room immediately below it (next to the lift). Initially only the upper room has been  fitted out, and we will be advertising this workspace soon.

Garden
Thank you to everyone who contributed to our consultation on the garden design.  The garden group will be putting all your ideas together and sharing these. They are keeping the rear garden tidy and making progress on the dense overgrowth in the border gardens; please let us know if you would like to help – we arrange fairly impromptu gardening sessions quite often.
Email: carnegie-garden-group@googlegroups.com

Volunteers
The Volunteer Training Sessions are now underway – on Saturday 7th September the  Equality Training was very successful. These are short, informative sessions. If you would like to volunteer and also join these sessions please contact:
Carnegiecio@gmail.com
Volunteers are needed at all levels, from occasional helper to Trustee. To discuss, please contact Helen Schofield on 07729806881 or Frances Lamb on 07976 965536

Putting the record straight
We hope you received our July Newsletter, either online or by hand delivery. We will have more to communicate in the coming months, and we know that you are keen to know what we are planning and achieving. If you aware of areas, or neighbours, not receiving our newsletters, please either let us know so we can post a print version or feel free to share our website/twitter/email details
A bulletin from the Friends of Carnegie Library was circulated recently by hand to a number of local addresses. It includes some outright lies which we would like to correct now:

• CCT has no plans to apply for approval for a licensed bar at Carnegie. For some events there will be ad hoc licensing.
  We will be opening an unlicensed Community Café, for which we need approval of plans.
• CCT has no plans to create a terrace at the front of the building for drinks, food or any other purpose. The garden group is consulting about and applying for funding to restore and improve the gardens.
• CCT has received no funding from Lambeth since we became a charity in October 2015.  Prior to this Lambeth had made a project development grant to the original Project Group out of the Co-op Borough Fund. The Council had also funded an architectural options appraisal, a conservation report and a condition survey as well as a public consultation.  All of that was before the gym proposal emerged.

Trustees and local Councillors have received and replied to a number of emails about the false assertions in the FoCL Bulletin, and we are sorry that local residents have yet again been given misleading and worrying information by the Friends’leadership.

Volunteer Recruitment and Training

CCT is keen to recruit volunteers to help with a range of activities as we develop the Hub.  We are pleased to offer a set of short Volunteer Training opportunities at no charge during august and September. Please contact CarnegieCIO@gmail.com if you would like to volunteer or attend the training. The next Volunteer Introduction Session will be on 14th August.

Link to Recruitment flyer
Link to Volunteer Training flyer

Basista Music Workshops

We are pleased to offer the first Basista Music Workshop on 19th August 10.00am to 3.00pm at Carnegie. Contact Carnegiecio@gmail.com if you would like to come along.

Link to flyer

Dance Workshop 

Contact Carnegiecio@gmail.com to join Madame Bell for the very first exciting Dance Workshop at Carnegie 15th August from 1.00pm to 4.00pm.

Link to flyer

Room Bookings 

A One Page Flyer providing all the key information you need about booking rooms for events, parties, meetings at Carnegie

Link to flyer

Our latest newsletter can be downloaded here.

Hard copies will be appearing in local letterboxes in the next few days.

Everyone who cares about the Carnegie building will be aware that the gardens all around are in poor overall condition and it would be great to have these restored. The garden at the rear of the building was turfed and modestly planted following the gym development; this garden is being maintained by volunteers.

The gardens are currently the responsibility of Lambeth Council and they are keen to work in partnership with the users of the building. A gardening group coordinated by the CCT has been meeting and would like to know your views on how to improve the gardens.

A number of factors need to be taken into consideration when planning.  These include:

• The original layout of the gardens – a number of the original round beds still visible, paths and borders
• Environmental issues including need for low water use
• Access for people with disabilities
• Ease of maintenance
• The Ferndene Road side garden: a number of drains and power supply run closeto the surface, this may mean using plants with short roots, or as an alternative, raised planters, which would also improve access to gardening for those who have restricted mobility.

CCT will seek funding for the improvements and are keen to know what you would like to see in the garden. Please let us have your thoughts. What would you like the gardens to look like in perhaps 3 years’ time?  If you would like to join the Garden Group let us know in your response.

Please reply either by completing the attached Word document and sending it back by email, or just sending a simple email setting out your thoughts to: helen.schofield@carnegiecommunitytrust.org.uk

Alternatively, there are paper copies of this consultation in the CCT Post Tray.
Please let us have your views by 31^st August.

We look forward to hearing from you, thank you.

2019-07 Garden consultation

Join the Friends of Ruskin Park  for a launch party for John Ruskin at 200 – a festival to celebrate the bicentenary of John Ruskin’s birth by thinking about his life, his ideas, and his relevance to us today.

The launch will be held at Carnegie Library, close to Ruskin Park, which is hosting an exhibition of heritage materials relating to Ruskin’s Denmark Hill, curated by Jon Newman of Lambeth Archives.

Join the Friends of Ruskin Park to raise a glass to Ruskin, to his legacies, and to our community in and around Ruskin Park.

The free event is free, but please book using Eventbrite.

Part of John Ruskin at 200, supported by Arts Council, England and the Maas Gallery.

A message not from Lord Kitchener but the Friends of our local Park:

The Friends of Ruskin Park’s Summer Fete is our biggest Community day and fundraiser and it wouldn’t be possible without people offering to volunteer on the lead up and on the day.   Help us make it great success.

Volunteers are needed to help with the following:

Before the day we need:

• Cakes for the Tea & Cake Tent
• Plants to sell

Please bring along on the day or drop off.
Contact fete@friendsofruskinpark.org.uk for drop off points

On the day we need help with:

• Supervising vehicles in and out of the park (slots between 9.00am-11.30am & 6.00-7.30pm)
• Setting up tables, gazebos & deckchairs (between 9am and 12pm)
• Helping on a stall – Tea & Cake, Tombola, Coconut Shy, Donkeys (between 12 and 6pm)
• Packing up at the end of the day (from 5.30pm)
• Clearing up at from 6pm-7.30pm
• Help with Litter picking throughout the day

We really do need your support so if you are able to offer some of your time to help with any of the above activities, please contact the FoRP Events team by email at fete@friendsofruskinpark.org.uk with details of your availability and your preferred
activities.   Thank you.

“There is no such thing as society”
-Margaret Thatcher

“Oh yes there is!” 
-the people of Lambeth

A Call for Community Solidarity  – support your local Advice Centre

For 50 years the Brixton Advice Centre on Railton Road has helped, advised and acted for local people with legal or administrative problems who would otherwise be unable to afford legal services.  It averages getting on for 5,000 cases each year, mostly housing, debt or employment issues.  It is a vital part of life in Herne Hill, Loughborough Junction, Tulse Hill and Brixton.  Unless you have used its services you probably don’t know it exists.

Austerity has savaged the Centre’s budget, so to generate income, trustees and staff will be taking part in the 2019 Legal Walk on17th June when the Lord Chief Justice and thousands of lawyers raise funds for good causes.

I am asking you to invest in the community in which you live by sponsoring our walkers.  Follow the link below:
https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-display/showROFundraiserPage?userUrl=BrixtonAC19&pageUrl=2

So, support your community Advice Centre.  Give us a fiver (or more if you can).
By making life better for some the Centre makes the community better for everyone.

Fred Taggart  
Honorary Secretary
Brixton Advice Centre
(and Herne Hill resident for 39 years)

Carnegie Community Trust is pleased to announce that it has signed a Licence to Occupy from Lambeth Council.

CCT is now taking bookings for the hire of space within the Carnegie Library building.

The Booking Form with hire charges, Terms & Conditions and other information can be downloaded here.

Please note our charges will be reviewed after 6 months.

Funders satisfied

The Chair of the Friends of Carnegie Library recently made two separate complaints about CCT to funding bodies. In each case he was attempting to undermine the Trust and persuade the funders not to give us money. This has been an extraordinary matter and we are appalled at this attempt to damage the Trust.  We are pleased to report that in both cases the funding bodies have confirmed either that they ignored the communication or that they have been fully satisfied with our response.