Search For a Star

The West 12 shopping centre is hosting the finals of its 'Search for a Star' contest this weekend. The Semi-final will see five acts battling it out, between 1pm and 4pm, this coming Saturday, leaving two acts for the final on Sunday, between 1pm and 3pm. So if you want to watch and cheer local talent on, in a live showdown, get down there this weekend.

• West 12 page         Finals at West 12
• Chronicle Story     Search for a Star 

Sands End Community Centre Sold

Children's demo to save Sands End 

Sad to see that the Sands End Community Association attempt to buy the closed Community Centre, which houses the library, has failed. They offered the council £2.2m for the building and were proposing to reopen some of the Centre's facilities. The building has been sold to a developer, for an undisclosed sum and will be turned into luxury flats. A new library is to be built at Hurlingham and Chelsea school.
 News on Barons Court Library is still scarce, although H&F still seem to be living in denial about its closure, by maintaining that all '21 libraries in the new Tri-Borough service remain safe from closure', that figure doesn't include Barons Court, which is expected to become a 'Neighbourhood Centre' and be staffed by volunteers.

• Chronicle Story         'Money grabbing council' 
• Save Sands End        Sands End Community Association 
• Tri-Borough               Tri-Borough Implementation Plans
• Andy Slaughter          Lie-brary News

Rainbow Over Lytton

Pelham Driveway Being Resurfaced

Work to resurface Pelham House driveway started this week.
LETRA has lobbied for a number of years to have this job done, thanks to our persistence and the aid of council officers, a new road surface is being laid.  This will be a great benefit for residents and all our local neighbours, who use the driveway as a cut through.

Workmen preparing the driveway surface

The tarmac gang lay the new driveway 

Finishing touches are put to the newly laid driveway

In conjunction with the work at Pelham House, H&F have included some extra repairs to the road surface outside Samuel Richardson House. A very sensible policy that makes full use of the road resurfacing team while they are working in our area. Well done H&F !

Repairs outside Samuel Richardson House

LETRA at Andy's Surgery

LETRA met with our MP, Andy Slaughter, this Monday, at one his regular surgeries. He was just back from the Labour Party Conference, but was keen to have an update on issues concerning the Lytton Estate.

 First off, I told him about LETRA's new initiative, to apply for a grant from 'Awards for All', in conjunction with the 'Active Planet' team. If successful, this will result in a number of new youth activities, such as futsal, handball and craft classes, being held on the Lytton Estate. Hopefully, these will start early next year, if we succeed in winning a grant. Andy was delighted to give his full support to our application.

 Secondly, I raised our concern that the youth club building, in Marcus Garvey Park, is to be sold off by H&F Council. He said he would look into the sell off and see if anything could be done to halt or at the very least, try to make sure it is done appropriately, especially regarding the key situation it occupies, with all the other youth facilities sited in the park.

 Lastly, I asked if he had any news on the future of Barons Court library. 
As far as he knew, it was still uncertain what H&F intended for the building, although he did not believe it would continue to be used as a library in the future, with the volunteer model, now seemingly  becoming unworkable, after the withdrawal of Avonmore Primary School's once promised involvement.  He said, that he would try to find out if there was any new information concerning the councils plans for the library.

 Andy thanked LETRA for attending his surgery and asked to be kept up to speed with issues on our estate.

• Andy's home page  
• Active Planet site 

Olympia To Lose Weekday Service

The fight to keep a regular weekday service to Olympia has been lost. Transport for London have decided to remove the current timetable from this coming December.

• Transport for London's decision
• Hammersmith Today Report
• Chronicle report on local anger at the decision 

Thanks From Waqar & Zulfiqar

The managers of the recently closed 
and already missed corner-shop Mace,

 Waqar and  Zulfiquar, would like to 

"thank everyone for a wonderful experience."

Mace Closes

Mace the mini-mart, on North End Crescent, has shutdown.   The business was hit hard by the arrival of a Sainsbury's across the road.  Everyone will miss the friendly staff, who were there for us, 365 days a year.  LETRA's sorry to see such a good shop go.  Lets hope a new owner for the premises can be found soon, as it's a prime retail spot in the area. 
Update:  After talking to the shopkeepers, the new Sainsbury's, wasn't the only factor in Mace's closure, high rent levels were also to blame. The landlord is now looking to turn the property into flats, which they believe will bring a better return. 

The Last Pre-Raphaelite

The Burne-Jones & Morris families at The Grange

An interesting extract from, Fiona MacCarthy's 'The Last Pre-Raphaelite'  in the Telegraph.  It's on the life and loves of  the artist Edward Burne-Jones who lived at The Grange, the mansion house, that once stood within our estate.

• 'The Last Pre-Raphaelite'
• Slideshow History of The Grange

H&F Consultation on parking

Review of Parking Controls 

on the 

Lytton Estate

To be discussed at the LETRA Open Meeting

being held in the Residents Hall

starting at 7.30pm, Thursday 15^th September

Key points for consideration and debate

• We need to consider alternatives to towing

• Alternative parking control will be required on the majority of estates

• We want your views on methods of control and who qualifies to park

• New scheme could be self financing – drivers should fund service

• How do you want visiting vehicles managed

• Pilot scheme to run – 5 or 6 trial sites commencing November 2011

• Access to parking for carers, contractors and essential services can be sustained

• Local parking arrangements can be sustained