Labour-run Wandsworth Council is offering asylum seekers money off on activities from pantomime visits to pottery classes and weddings.
The local authority is offering the discounts as part of its "Access for All" scheme launched last year.
Wandsworth has been under Labour control since 2022, ending its half-a-century status as Margaret Thatcher's flagship council.
Residents in the borough who can access the discounts include people receiving benefits, children in receipt of free school meals, children in care and care leavers - as well as asylum seekers or refugees.
Under the scheme, eligible people can also receive a half-price discount on an annual allotments fee and annual fishing permit for Battersea Park, Wandsworth Common and Tooting Common.
One of the allotments included in the discount offer is the Beatrix Potter allotment on Magdalen Road, which was last recorded to have 605 people on its waiting list.
Asylum seekers in the borough can also benefit from a 50 per cent discount on electric bike rentals from companies including Forest, Lime, and Voi.
Council leader Simon Hogg said the authority is making sure "no one is priced out of healthy and sustainable travel".
"It’s about opening up affordable, sustainable travel that helps our residents to access work and entertainment opportunities across the borough," Hogg said.
"We’re proud that Lime, Forest and Voi have agreed to join Access for All and to operate respectfully and safely. We are making sure that no one is priced out of healthy and sustainable travel.”
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS :
PA
|Asylum seekers in Wandsworth can get discounts on e-bike rentals including Lime bikes
- Free off-peak membership to Wandsworth gyms and leisure centres and peak sessions can be accessed for £5 (£2.50 for under-18s)
- Sports pitch hire – half-price hire of council sports pitches across Wandsworth
- Half-price access to athletic tracks
- Half-price tennis camps and free play during select times with All Star Tennis
- Half-price bowls green hire
- Half-price activities in Wandsworth leisure centres including use of squash courts, table-tennis, badminton and volleyball sessions
- Free swimming crash courses for children in school years 2 to 7 who are not able to swim 25 metres
- Library charges – the council says it will waive fees for late library items and the cost of reserving a library item
- Digital skills – half-price European Computer Driving Licence and BCS courses through Wandsworth libraries
- Free English and Maths functional skills courses in Wandsworth Town Library
Wandsworth Council is offering asylum seekers a range of discounts
- Half-price for any course offered by Putney School of Art and Design, including sculpture, pottery, etching, and life drawing classes
- Free birth certificates for new births registered at Wandsworth Town Hall
- 50 per cent reduction in burial, cremation and memorial costs and no charge for death certificates
- Half-price weddings and civil partnerships for ceremonies at Wandsworth Town Hall
- Free "baby box" for all first-time parents - this is available for pregnant asylum seekers and includes essentials such as clothes and toys
- Half-price room hire in Wandsworth libraries and leisure centres
- Street Parties – half off the cost of applying for a street closure for a street party
- Half-price on desk and office space in Start Up Wandsworth Business Lounges
- Half-off the cost of Council-provided pest control services
- Half-price annual membership of a Wandsworth bike hangar
- 25 per cent off all borrowing at Wandsworth Library of Things in Southside by selecting "save money with a concession membership"
- £3 tickets to events as part of Wandsworth’s year as London Borough of Culture including Battersea Park in Concert
- Half-price tickets to Battersea Park Fireworks
- Half-price tickets to Wandsworth Panto
- Half-price soft-play/adventure play sessions in Wandsworth leisure centres
- Half-price tickets to Furzedown Literature Festival
- 20 per cent off the cost of hiring recumbent bikes in Battersea Park
- 50 per cent off the cost of Putt in the Park in Battersea Park and Wandsworth Park
- 15 per cent discount at Go Ape Battersea, valid Sunday to Friday
- 230 free tickets are also each day to those eligible on the scheme for Tooting Bec Lido
- 50 per cent off e-bikes from Forest, Lime and Voi
GETTY | Protests have flared outside a number of asylum seeker hotels including most recently in Epping
The bombshell discounts have been revealed just days after Sir Keir Starmer warned his Cabinet to repair "social fabric" or risk another summer of anti-immigration riots after recent unrest outside three asylum seeker hotels.
Pressure is mounting on the Government as a trio of protests broke out across the country, in Canary Wharf in London, Epping in Essex and Diss in Norfolk, as Reform UK leader Nigel Farage warned that Britain was close to "civil disobedience on a vast scale".
The Epping protest led to 10 people being arrested and a dispersal order being put in place in the town by police.
Speaking at a Cabinet meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner also said the Government needed to acknowledge "real concerns" about rapid change in order to defuse community tensions.
The Prime Minister said Labour had to improve integration in areas that have experienced high levels of migration.