Although the carwash in front of Southwyck House (the Barrier Block) is authorised for 2 more years under a Lambeth Planning decision the advertising hoardings which aggressively dominate the flank fencing to the carwash site are not authorised and Lambeth have served an enforcement notice (a year ago).  

If anyone sees an enforcement officer please let us know!

Regarding ownership of the land – our vice chair has (twice) asked Councillor Rachel Heywood to give us information of this. We had hoped that in the end we can get Lambeth to unite the green spaces in front of the barrier block.

Lambeth did deal with a planning application from Ujima Housing Trust to build a block of flats there about 7 years ago, but the status of this is unclear, not least because Ujima Housing Trust became insolvent following an alleged fraud (case still in court). If they owned the land it might have passed to insolvency practitioners, or it might have passed to London & Quadrant who got the £1 billion worth of Ujima's housing stock around the country.

My guess is that Lambeth Housing still own the site, and are sitting on it hoping to find another housing developer.

DW

Your comments would be welcome to: planning@brixtonsociety.org.uk