PRERA committee discusses new resource centre with council officers and architects

Yesterday evening’s PRERA committee meeting was joined by some visitors who came to brief us about the consultation and engagement process for the new resource centre on Coburg Crescent. They were:

  • Fiona Connolly (Assistant Director of Adult Social Care at Lambeth Council),
  • Alan Fleming (Strategic Programme Director for Major Capital Programmes at Lambeth Council)
  • Rolf Nielsen and Xabi Garcia from the architects (C.F. Møller)

Fiona Connolly described the needs of the users of the new building (adults with learning disabilities) and how the council intends to consult with residents of the estate. Initial discussions about the project have included ideas such as a day centre, a small amount of residential accommodation and potentially a cafe that will be open to all. These are very much early stage ideas and nothing has been signed off or agreed by Lambeth Council as yet.

Rolf Nielsen gave a presentation to describe the architectural experience of his practice and their ideas for the design of the resource centre. He suggested a two-storey design with the ground floor (the level of the exisiting shop) dedicated to a day centre. The 1st floor (the level of Palace Road) might contain residential units and a larger space to accommodate meeting room. This larger space might contain a cafe and be provided with a moveable partition, to allow it to be divided up for other uses.

Resource centre project programme
Resource centre project programme, from the architects’ presentation

The next stage in the consultation will be a meeting on 9th February. This will involve four groups discussing the day service, employment, accommodation and community space. Representatives from PRERA will take part in the community space group. Let us know if you have any ideas or opinions that you would like to be shared at this meeting.

The PRERA committee will continue to publish information about the resource centre on this website as we get it. To search for blog entries on the resource centre, click here or on the words “Resource centre” under the title of this post.