Jimmy Lindsay Community activist 

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                                  Jimmy Lindsay Community activist and the racist elements within The London Borough of Lambeth
  
I would like to say to anyone reading this, that I in no way blame John Hogarth for the events in this report, I am confident had He been Director of Education this
report would be different, because He had the capacity to look beyond the colour of our skin to see the potential of our plans and the benefits they would bring
to our community. https://myspace.com/wncd1994/videos

 

I would like to say to anyone reading this that I in no way blaming John Hogarth for the events in this report.  I am confident if had he been Director of Education this report would be different because he had the capacity to look beyond the colour of our skin to see the potential of our plans and the benefits they would bring to our community. https://myspace.com/wncd1994/videos


This Report is in response to a request from Faith Bordman, Chief Executive, London Borough of Lambeth.  We have been asked to express our views on how we believe Lambeth works in supporting local community groups, in particular those from the black and ethnic minority. We were also asked to give a performance rating.

We will highlight some of the concerns and fears of this section of the voluntary sector and show how Lambeth is perceived by West Norwood Community Development ( WNCD) and these groups. 


We think the best way of doing this is to give examples of some of our experiences over the past ten years of our association with Lambeth (Phyllis Dunipace,  Executive Director of  Education). Ian Francis was a local young man who died in custody.   That event led to local people in the community coming together to support his family in trying to determine the circumstances behind his death. The Old Library building at that time was still in use and was chosen as a meeting place for those people involved in the Ian Francis Campaign.   Prior to his death, Ian himself worked in the building as a Youth Worker.  This Campaign helped to bring the community together.  It also helped to spark a sense of awareness and people started to look around the community and question the reasons for the lack of services and amenities within the local environment.  Shortly after the Campaign began, Lambeth decided to abandon the Old Library building.  The building remained empty for some time and soon  became vandalized. There were several occasions when we had to contact the police and Lambeth security to secure the building. This became a continuous occurrence over some period of time and it became obvious that serious damage was being done to the building. Eventually, things got to a point where, one Saturday afternoon, we discovered once again that the front door of the building was open, the windows and other areas were open and a decision was made there and then to secure the building. The necessary work was carried out that evening and the building was made secure.


On our arrival at The Old Library building on Monday morning, we placed a notice by the front door. It explained that we were members of the WNCD and that we were forced to take steps to secure the building. We invited the community to come into the building and to look around.  We also explained on the Notice that we thought the building should be brought back into community for the purpose of the local people and that we had some ideas for its use, but wanted to hear what other people in the community had in mind. Over the following weeks many hundreds of people from the local community came in and looked around the building.   For many of them it was the first time they had been in the building, but the overwhelming reaction from all was that it was a pity the building was allowed to fall into such a state of disrepair. The majority expressed an interest in supporting WNCD’s view for community use of the building. Over 8 hundred people signed a Petition supporting our view that the Old Library building should be brought back into sustainable community use.