Ladywell Road: Community Planting Day Saturday May 16th

Just come back from a walkabout with highways and Green Scene officers and LVIG representatives to discuss plans for a community planting day on 16th May, and the highways work that needs to be done before then.

We have now fixed Saturday 16th May as the day when LVIG will be organising a community planting day, with the help of the Council, Envirowork Lewisham, and hopefully some local business support (times tbc soon, but please mark the date in your diaries). We've got funding from the localities fund for 4 more planters, and hopefully we will be able to get some trees in the Autumn (though this is dependent on a survey of where underground cables are on Ladywell Road).

Before 16th May, highways and Green Scene have promised to make sure they do the following (and I have witnesses that this has been agreed!):

1. Clear the paint off the pavement on the corner of Ladywell Road/Algernon Road (they've tried several times already without success, but are hopefully going to be trialling some new chemical).
2. Remove guardrailings where the safety audit recently carried out confirms it is safe to do so, and pending local consultation.
3. Rebuild the section of Ladywell Road that is currently subsiding (near Ladywell Tavern).
4. Chase the utility companies to reinstate paving stones where they have put temporary tarmac.

It's not the full scale, Living Streets-type rethink of Ladywell Road we had been hoping for, as funding wasn't forthcoming from TfL for this, but if all of the above happens as planned, it should be a good start. We are hoping the initial planting will lead to bigger things, and perhaps a bit of sponsorship and support from local businesses to do more next time (Ladywell Tavern currently lead the way with their hanging baskets, and Masons are also apparently planning some kind of floral display this year). If it goes well, we may even enter London in Bloom . . .

Something similar is in the pipeline for part of Brockley Road, but still need to chase up on a few things before I can say more about that.