The Clapham Common Management Advisory Committee (CCMAC) is a community-led group that works in partnership with Lambeth Council on the management of Clapham Common. We aim to ensure that Lambeth Council runs the Common as well as possible and balances the needs of all its users. We want the Common to be a resource for all, forever as outlined in the Clapham Common Masterplan.

What do we do?

We provide community input on the maintenance of the Common, discuss plans that affect the Common, such as applications for licenses for events or redevelopment of facilities, raise funds, and decide how they should be spent. We develop plans and define what we believe should be the Council’s priorities for the Common.

How do we work?

The main committee of the CCMAC meets once a month. At these meetings, we review and discuss reports from the Park Manager, and from our own working groups that focus on current challenges and opportunities. Our membership and our way of working is defined in our constitution (insert as hyperlink), which has been adopted by Lambeth Council.

Our working groups include:

• The Management Plan Working Group is working with Lambeth Council on its ideas about how to run the Common with greater community input and how to raise money for the Common through funding bodies like the Heritage Lottery Fund.
• Regular users of the Common will notice that it is always evolving – hence the changes at Mount Pond and the new wetlands at Eagle Pond. Old trees die and need replacing, new trees and bulbs are planted that suit the natural ecology. Trees, Landscape and Ecology Working Group focuses on trees, but also the wider ecology and landscape of the Common. The group also meets with the Council’s officers, to review issues of immediate local concern, such as waterlogged pitches, and over the longer term the tree replacement strategy (Insert as hyperlink to strategy document).
• The ‘Green Waste Depot’ on Windmill Drive is where green waste from the Common and Kennington Park is taken to be composted. Over the years, with good reason, the site has been nicknamed ‘the dump’, but this is all about to change. The Green Waste Depot Working Group has been developing plans with Lambeth Council for the site to be cleaned up. Improvements to the green waste recycling process operated by Veolia are underway, and as a result free compost will be made available to the local community.

In addition, with the help of funding raised by Bandstand Beds, part of the site will be reclaimed to create a community food-growing space with raised beds and a polytunnel. The plant propagation hub will be available for use by local residents, schools and food-growing groups. Work on the site should be completed by the autumn.

The Events Working Group’s role is to encourage a diversity of scale and theme of events on the Common and to make sure that major events do not adversely impact on the Common and the local community.

Key successes

Skate Park

The original skate park was in need of improvement. We were approached by local younger people to support their efforts to secure funding from the London Marathon Fund and the Met Police to revamp the skate park. The refurbished skate park opened in July 2012 and is now one of the best skate parks in south London.

Bandstand

By the late 90s, this much-loved destination was showing it its age. The CCMAC developed a management plan for the Bandstand and the surrounding area and used it to secure funding from English Heritage (now Historic England) to restore it to its former glory. In 2011, it was fully refurbished and it is now the heart of the Common, providing a wonderful venue for a programme of events throughout the summer.

Fitness trail

Following a successful application by Lambeth Council and the CCMAC, the fitness trail was funded through a £54,000 grant from the London Marathon Trust, as well with developer contributions. The trail was completed in August 2014 with fitness stations designed to appeal to a wide range of users and needs, from gentle stretches to gruelling work outs

Table tennis tables

The CCMAC worked with LB Lambeth to secure a £3,000 grant from Sport England to fund the installation of two table tennis tables. Lambeth Council provided additional funding to prepare the ground the tables stand on.