2012 Games won't benefit locals, claims think tank Take that, Monaco - London now has the world's priciest homes Our Amy's up for three Ivor Novello gongs Lie detector software proves a nice little money-saver for south London council Russian heavyweights to square off at the High Court Which? reveals candidates for London Restaurant of the Year Image courtesy of Orhan* via the Londonist flickr group.......

Car owners in Lambeth can breathe a sigh of relief: Lambeth Council is no longer going to clamp illegally parked cars in the borough. But before drivers start flooding into Lambeth to drop off their cars anywhere they like under the impression it's a vehicular wonderland south of the river, let it be known that parking tickets and fines will still be enforced and cars will be towed away instead of clamped in extreme......

Lambeth town hall has come if for a good kicking: AN INFAMOUS council has become the worst in London. Lambeth has been judged the poorest performing council in the capital. It is now ranked among the five most pitiful councils in the whole of England. The borough's Labour administration has been left reeling after the national body that measures local authorities' performance decided the council's services to residents had got worse. The Audit Commission......

You can't beat a good whale-hedge story story: A hedge cut into the shape of a whale is under threat in south London after a council said it could be dangerous. Dangerous? Is the thing sentient? Is it devouring Brixton's plankton? Lambeth Council said the hedge severely obstructed a footpath in Solon Road, Brixton, and told creator Zac Monro to cut it back. Mr Monro denied his hedge was a problem and said: "All......

God bless Lambeth Council. They're horribly in debt but they still have the time and money to develop Flash games featuring flying elephants designed to remind people to vote. You see "Elejumper is a very forgetful young elephant. He's only forgotten the tickets to the 51st Annual Amnesiacs Ball. He's got to get on his amazing jet propelled skates and soar across town to get in the queue for tickets!" And you can help......

Jason over on the mighty Onionbagblog has updated the story we linked up last week: "Well, well - lookey here... That's more like it; you can't beat a practical approach to local history in the absence of any acknowledgement from the Lambeth Council knobbers..." He's talking about a Brazilian flag that has now replaced the blank wall that once portrayed an unofficial memorial to Jean Charles de Menezes. Yep the flag will get taken......

Not quite what you think. Just saw this post by onionbag blogger and words failed us. We expect people to be insensitive, but how stupid do you have to be to not realise what a mistake this was: We held the Remembrance Service in the Stockwell Memorial Gardens on Sunday morning. Representation from Lambeth Council observed the two minute silence. And then less than a week later, the mural of Jean Charles de Menezes......

The turning on of Christmas lights anywhere is usually a sad spectacle as some C grade celeb takes time off from shooting his, her or indeed their (hello Westlife) talking heads segment for Channel Five's Top 100 Celebrity Surgical Mishaps to push a button and declare silly spending season officially open. Streatham seemed to be onto a winner by asking Garri Holness to turn on their lights this Saturday. Holness, something of a figurehead......

Just a quick follow up to the Lambeth 'Christmas' lights story everyone was talking about last week. If you remember, the council had begun to refer to the the festive displays as ''Winter Lights' or 'Celebrity lights' in adverts for the switch-on event, the assumption being that they were somehow attempting to extract all the religion out of the event. Conservative councillor Bernard Gentry then went and opened his gob to the Beeb, announcing......

It seems like only the other day we were talking about the plans for the South Bank beach project (well, actually we did mention it on Tuesday), but if you need your memory jogging here's a quick recap. The Jubilee Gardens area of the South Bank was supposed to get a bit of a makeover this summer, with the Coach Park and part of Queen's Walk being turned temporarily into a beach and outdoor......

Londonist was incredibly disappointed when the Daily Mail announced that they had succeded in snaffling Richard Littlejohn from the clutches of the Sun, as we'd actually put in a bid for his services ourselves. We knew that we couldn't hope to offer him the same kind of financial packagae he'll be picking up at the Daily Hate, but we'd hoped that our promises of the best seat in the Londonist dungeon (between Greg and......

Getting through Brixton by car has always been a nightmare. In fact, Londonist remembers an apocryphal tale told to us once in the midst of a Brixton Road traffic jam which claimed that the reason there has not been any major developments in decades to deal with the area's traffic flow was "so police didn't have to worry about criminals making quick getaways". Ok, so we're 99% sure that's not true, but if it......

Remember the South Bank Beach project? Remember how it got tied up in bureaucratic knots thanks to Lambeth Council? Well the council were supposed to finally get round to giving their approval to the project yesterday but, wouldn't you know it, they cocked up again. The problem this time? Councillors "failed to visit the site beside the London-Eye before their meeting". Which means they won't get around to it now until the beginning of......

Never one to mince his words, Ken Livingstone has called for Lord Hollick, chairman of the South Bank Centre, to be sacked over his "blackmailing" of the London Eye. Other Labour bigwigs have now also weighed into the furore, with Culture Minister Tessa Jowell penning a personal letter to Hollick; and Kate Hoey of Lambeth Council is also apparently attempting to "broker a deal", although her diplomacy skills may need some work: Lord Hollick's......

Remember the South Bank Beach project we reported on recently? Well it looks like it's run into problems already. Unsurprisingly it's Lambeth Council who are responsible for the delay. According to reports in the papers certain 'objectors' (including Vauxhall MP Kate Hoey) want to visit the Hungerford coach park site before they give their ok. South Bank Beach Ltd were hoping to get a decision from the council last night but now it looks......

"Hey man, check out the massive lion statue. I bet you could make a really wicked bong out of that." The annual pro-cannabis rally which normally takes place in Brockwell park has found itself a much more prominent location for 2005's event, taking place this Sunday. The Cannabis Education Rally was banned from taking place in Brixton by Lambeth Council who claimed drug dealers had been present at past events (you can't blame them......

Full marks to the London SE1 site for picking up the story that the Hungerford Coach Park next to Jubilee Gardens may be looking at a bit of a makeover this summer. According to the site, a company called South Bank Beach Ltd has applied to Lambeth Council for permission to temporarily turn the Coach Park and part of Queen's Walk into a beach and outdoor cinema. "Planned entertainment includes beach volleyball, mobile barbecues,......

In a move to cut down on Cash Machine related crime (such as shoulder surfing) Lambeth Council has proposed the creation of "safe zones", a painted area around the machine that only the card user is allowed in. But Ken says no. More specifically "Labour talks about cutting crime yet its Mayor's transport quango is blocking ways to stop it", at least that’s the view according to Lambeth Councillor Darren Sanders. Transport for London......