Jonathan Bartley, Green Party Candidate for Streatham, visits Spires, centre for homeless

Today, I was lucky enough to accompany Jonathan Bartley, Green Party candidate for Streatham, to a visit to The Spires centre. Spires is a South London based charity that helps hundreds of homeless and disadvantaged people all year round. They work to improve the quality of life of people who are homeless, insecurely housed, unemployed or suffering from the effects of poverty, mental ill health and loneliness.

Jon and I were given a tour of the services and given a chance to meet and have a chat with some of the people who use the services on offer about their concerns and needs.  It was clear just how invaluable the centre is to the clients there, with people telling us that they travel from as far away as Croydon and Vauxhall in order to get help there.

The range of help on offer is diverse and staff said that it was never just one problem that resulted in homelessness for their clients, but a range of different issues, all contributing to their situations.  They told us that the problem of homelessness needs to be tackled holistically.  Staff also told us that they were seeing ever-increasing numbers of people accessing their services, the problem being exacerbated by lack of access to affordable housing, with the uncontrolled housing and rental market in London, zero hours contracts and drastic cuts in rough sleeping and substance misuse services. Spires offers a range of help and developmental services through the centre and also holds outreach sessions, enabling users of the centre to move away from the chaos of the streets and towards greater lifestyle stability for a more hopeful future.

Some positive news from the visit was that the centre is now offering a Volunteer Training Program, helping people back into work, to enable them to help other people who have faced the same problems in their lives.  Lucy Barrett, Director at Spires Centre, told us that the next round of 12 trainees were due to commence their course shortly and that they have had a great rate of success with it in helping people into work and to get their life back on track.

Jonathan spoke with staff and service users about the Green Party's belief that society should guarantee access to basic material security for all and that it was very worrying, just how little value the other parties seemed to place on the needs of people who are in difficult circumstances.
Jonathan, along with Cllr Scott Ainslie, will be returning to Spires on 26th March, to contribute to the centre's Active Citizenship program, encouraging service users to register to vote and engage in the political process in order to get their voices heard.

@spireslondon  @lambethgp @jon_bartley  

Jonathan Bartley, Green Party Candidate for Streatham with staff from Spires 

London Contemporary Voices at St Leonard's church this Friday

There's a great selection of events going on at the moment as part of Streatham's Little Big Peace festival.

One not to miss is the London Contemporary Voices (LCV) at St Leonard's Church this Friday 20th September at 7.30pm.

LCV are a modern forward-thinking mixed voice choir. From singing with Mercury winners Alt-J to playing massive concerts at the Royal Albert Hall with Imogen Heap to small intimate settings this bold and unusual choir are 100% worth catching wherever they play.

PLUS you will also have the pleasure of hearing the wonderful local St Leonard's Church Choir...

Don't miss this evening of fabulous voices - all for just £2! More information and booking here.

Benefit changes information meetings - Wednesday 24th April

Find out how benefit changes affect you this Wednesday 24 April, 1.30-3pm & 6.30-8pm

Did you know that six major changes to the current benefits system have kicked in this month? These include:

- A benefits cap

- The “bedroom tax” limit on housing benefit

- Introduction of Universal Credit

- The replacement of Disability Living Allowance, Council Tax Benefit and Community Care Grants and Crisis Loans.

Find out how these could affect you or a member of your family at a free event on Wednesday 24 April.

The community forum Streatham Action will be running two information sessions - from 1.30-3pm and 6.30-8pm

The venue will be St Leonard’s Church, Streatham High Road, London SW16 1HS. There is step-free access from the Tooting Bec Gardens entrance to the churchyard.

Refreshments will be available.

Getting the pavement fixed on Tooting Bec Gardens

Before Christmas a number of local people asked if we could do something about the pavement at the top end of Tooting Bec Gardens, particularly opposite St Leonard's church and outside the Church of the English Martyrs.

The paving stones there have cracked up to such an extent that they are sticking up out of the pavement and people are tripping over them. Some also sink several inches into the ground when you tread on them. TfL have longer-term plans to repair the pavement on Tooting Bec Gardens, but the area in question needs sorting out urgently as it is dangerous for pedestrians and getting steadily worse every week.

We therefore got in touch with Transport for London via Green London Assembly member Darren Johnson (as this is Red Route the local council/ councillors are not responsible) and a site visit was made. Given the urgency of the situation TfL promised that they would make the necessary repairs by 31st December. However this has not happened and so we are chasing up once again.

[Update 10/01/13. Two sections of paving stones have now been replaced:

(For other work we have done to sort out Tooting Bec Gardens see here)