If you're still short of a present or two for a loved one in Ladywell . . .

. . . the last 3 Shop Local in Ladywell bags are on sale in Oscars, as of this evening. Everywhere else has sold out now. Some more are being ordered and will be on sale in the Spring. Failing that, have you tried the chocolates, gifts and ceramics at Sunrise Ceramics on Algernon Road? Margaret who does the pottery side of things, is now sharing the premises with a chocolatier and a jewellery maker. Good time for all of us to put our money where our mouth is and shop locally.

I'm logging off for a few days now. Best wishes to all for Christmas, Hannukah, Yule etc and the New Year.

All Change on Ladywell Road

Ladywell Road has seen a number of changes over the last few weeks and there are a couple more hopeful developments in the pipeline.

Firstly, of course, was the long-awaited re-opening of Ladywell Tavern. Ute and I had Sunday lunch there a few weeks back and it is a great improvement - a much more relaxed, family-friendly atmosphere - the kind of place you could happily go and read the Sunday papers by yourself and have a coffee, without feeling intimidated. The new owners are very keen for it to be part of the community and tentative plans are already afoot with Ladywell Village Improvement Group (LVIG) to host a Ladywell Beer Festival there at some point in the future. Good food and decent wine and beer too.

Next up, Oscars has now opened on the site of the former International Minimart. Once again, a complete transformation. Part deli, part cafe, serving paninis, cake and ice cream, plus a range of decent bread. Beautifully done, with a lovely garden to the rear and nice touches such as the mosaic by the entrance. Good luck to local resident Petra who is behind Oscars and also active in LVIG.

Thirdly, YOGIS newsagents changed hands this week, with the previous owners moving to Lee Green after 30 years running the business. The new owner, Kaidaya, is keen to make a few changes and expand the shop to the rear. I dropped off a copy of the results of the survey that LVIG did about Ladywell Road, but now might be a good time for lots of people to go along and ask him if he is thinking of selling some fruit and veg (and then supporting him if he does!).

Shop Local in Ladywell Bags
There are a very limited number left now - just a dozen or so scattered between a few of the shops. Most of the money has been collected and banked now and a second order will be placed soon. Feedback so far has mostly been asking for longer handles for the next batch - anything else? Although we didn't make any profit out of the first batch, we did prove wrong all those who said it wouldn't work and the scheme couldn't compete with the bags sold at supermarkets etc etc!

Walkabout
Finally, I don't think I've mentioned that way back at the beginning of July I organised a walkabout in and around Ladywell Road with Deputy Mayor Heidi Alexander, highways officers and representatives from Ladywell Society and LVIG. It was a really useful to have Heidi there as well as officers, and for residents to explain their concerns and hopes for the road. Perhaps as a result of our previous walkabout and various casework enquiries (or perhaps just a happy coincidence), highways have submitted a bid for £250,000 to TfL to make improvements to the area along Ladywell Road. We will find out in November if they have been successful. If they are, highways will carry out a feasibility study and possibly do a consultation to coincide with the Ladywell CPZ consultation next spring. Highways issues raised on the walkabout included:

• the railings
• traffic speed
• the need for a safe crossing at the end of Algernon Road
• uneven paving (the patch outside the drycleaners that has been roughly tarmaced over for ages is waiting for Thames Water to come and sort it out. Every two weeks or so highways come along, inspect and fine Thames Water, but they still haven't sorted it).
• parking: residents' parking and the need for short-term parking for shops

Other issues raised included:

• long-term empty premises such as Nightwatch and the Snack Bar which bring down the rest of the street
• the run-down state of Coral's building with empty flats above (with all the money they are draining from the local economy, you'd think they could at least restore the top half of the building and rent the flats out really)
• the possibility of a Christmas market by the station, like Brockley had
• the garages site on the corner of Malyons Road (planning permission was granted a few years ago for flats and retail premises, but no approaches have been made to planning yet to do this)

Catching up

Lots to catch up on from the past week or so. It already seems ages since I was in Cornwall over the bank holiday weekend!

Shop Local Bags now on sale
The 'Shop Local in Ladywell' bags are now on sale in lots of the shops in Ladywell. They cost £3.50 and seem to be selling well. Em from the drycleaners (pictured) sold her first 20 within a few days and is now on her second batch. There are only 300, so buy now while stocks last!

Good news for Gordonbrock?
Hopefully a rebuild or refurbishment of the school is now back on the cards, following earlier delays. A paper called "Primary Strategy for Change and Primary Capital Programme" went to Mayor & Cabinet last week and the proposals within in it include a new build (or refurbishment) of Gordonbrock Primary School and to expand it from two and a half form entry to 3-form entry. A rebuild of Brockley Primary School and to expand it from one-form entry to two is also planned. Basically, having got money for the BSF (Building Schools for the Future) programme for secondary schools, the Council is now hoping to get a second tranche of government funding bidding for primary schools.

Ladywell Leisure Centre Closed due to discovery of Legionnella Bacteria
You may have read elsewhere that Ladywell Leisure Centre has been temporarily closed due to the discovery of Legionnella, the bacteria that causes Legionnaires disease, being found in the showers. The discovery was made during regular checks and the pool closed as a precautionary measure. Ladywell ward councillors will be watching developments closely and hope that the pool will reopen as soon as it is safe to do so. I would hope that there will be a full investigation into why this has happened and what measures can be taken to prevent it from happening again.

New Playground for Foxborough Gardens?
On Tuesday I met with residents from Foxborough Gardens and representatives from Pinnacle, to discuss building a playground on the estate. Residents have organised a petition and collected 120 signatures calling for a playground. Many of the signatures were collected by the children themselves, and a number of them came along to the meeting. Their request seems perfectly reasonable to me, as there is no playground on the estate at the moment, but a grassy area that could be a suitable location for one. The timing for this may well be fortuitous as Lewisham has recently been awarded £1m to develop play areas. Hopefully a Foxborough Gardens TRA (tenants and residents association) is going to be formed which can then work with Pinnacle to look at ways of taking things forward.

Parking Problems on Marsala Road
On Wednesday I helped residents in Marsala Road collect signatures for a petition calling for a controlled parking zone in the area. There was a consultation on this back in 2005, but at the time there was a very low response rate from the road, and the Council decided not to proceed. The Council's position is that it will only introduce a CPZ where there is a clear demand for it from residents.

Since that time, the parking problems along the street have got progressively worse. Commuters park at one end for Ladywell Station and at the other end for Lewisham Town Centre and station. The introduction of the CPZ on Bertrand, Branscombe and the top part of Algernon Road has increased commuter parking on Marsala and Ellerdale Roads, and as Pinnacle are now cracking now on commuter parking on Viney Road, at residents' request, there is even more competition for spaces on Marsala and Ellerdale Roads. Some residents are putting out cones to reserve a space, which in turn irritates their neighbours.

I've been told a further consultation on CPZs will be carried out in Ladywell in January 2009, but I was also told it would happen last year and it didn't, so the residents' petition may serve as a timely reminder for the Deputy Mayor of the strength of residents' feelings on this issue. The consultation is likely to cover a number of streets, including Chudleigh Road, Malyons Road, Gillian Street as well as Marsala Road and Ellerdale Street. I don't have strong feelings either way about CPZs, and am happy to support whatever the outcome of the consultation is. There appears to be a majority of residents along Marsala Road in favour of a CPZ, but there would also need to be a majority in neighbouring streets in favour in order to proceed.

Ladywell Road to be part of new commercial recycling trial
The recycling team at the Council has successfully applied for funding to set up a pilot commercial recycling scheme using bags instead of bins in Ladywell and Blackheath. They hope to be able to start the scheme in August and will be promoting it in the next couple of weeks. Businesses will still need to pay for collections, but this will be at a rate that is 30% lower than refuse (as with the recycling bin scheme). One of the current barriers to businesses along Ladywell Road recycling, is that not all of them have outside space to store recycling bins. This scheme will enable businesses to use bags rather than bins, and will allows them to pay only for the waste that they produce, as opposed to paying for a standard sized bin each week.

I had a walkabout with officers from the recycling team last year, to discuss recycling with businesses along Ladywell Road. Although businesses were keen to recycle, the cost and bin storage space came up as issues at the time, so I'm delighted that the recycling team are trying to solve this with the pilot scheme. It is also now cheaper for businesses to recycle as one of the Green Group budget amendments from last year was to reduce the cost of commercial recycling (by raising the cost of general waste collection). Hopefully the combination of these two things (bags and lower cost) will enable many more businesses along Ladywell Road to start recycling their cardboard etc.

Ladywell Tavern re-opening soon
I bumped into one of the guys running Ladywell Tavern the other day and he told me that they will be opening very soon, following a few last minute hitches. They are still promising real ales, fine wine and good food, and the chef apparently used to work with Marco Pierre White, so fingers crossed.

New Cafe coming soon on Ladywell Road
Planning permission was granted last week for a new cafe at 48 Ladywell Road (what was the fruit & veg shop). If al goes to plan, the new cafe, which will be called Oscars and will specialise in ice-cream and home-made cakes, will open in about 4 weeks' time. It is being run by a local couple who want their cafe to have a community feel to it.

Ladywell Village Improvement Group AGM
LVIG's AGM is taking place at St Mary's Centre this Thursday (5th June) at 7.30pm. The agenda includes, among other things, the election of officers for the new group, ratification of the constitution, review of the survey results, feedback from Ladywell Fields Fun Day and the formation of working groups. All are welcome.

New Gates for Francis Drake Bowling Club
Brockley Central have beaten me to it on this one, but Francis Drake Bowling Club have got a lovely new gate, which I believe was designed by local artist Heather Burrell, who did the gates at the entrance to Hilly Fields from Eastern Road.

Finally, for those interested, Lewisham Green Drinks is taking place tomorrow (Monday), at Mr Lawrence Wine Bar, 389 Brockley Road, from 7pm onwards.

Ta-dah!

300 'Shop Local in Ladywell' bags, featuring the winning design by 5 year-old Jemima Jones from Gordonbrock Primary School arrived today. I'll be working over the next few days to get these on sale in local shops and they are also likely to be on sale at Hilly Fields Fayre and other local events. They are a good quality organic cotton produced by a fairtrade organisation in India. More details to follow.

That was the good news for today, Ute will be posting later with some not so good news for Brockley Road . . .

Shop Local in Ladywell Bags

Thanks to all those who entered the competition to design a logo for a 'Shop local in Ladywell bag'. I've received over 40 entries, including some lovely ones from pupils at Gordonbrock Primary School. I'm hopefully meeting with an officer from the Council's communications team this week to look through the designs and decide which one to use and will post the winning design here in due course!

Not quite with it - deadline for competition is the 18th, not the 11th!

In my earlier post, I mistakenly wrote that the closing date for the bag design competition was 11th Jan; I meant the 18th Jan, sorry! So still not much time, but a good week or so to get ideas together.

Your designs wanted! Ladywell Bag Competition

OK, after a certain amount of negotiating, Ladywell is soon to get its own 'shop local in Ladywell' fairtrade organic cotton (or possibly jute) bags. There was some criticism of the design of the other shop local bags by commenters on this blog and elsewhere. We have taken that on board, and are going to have a competition for local residents to come up with the design to go on the side of the Ladywell bags!

We don't have a great deal of time to come up with a design, unfortunately, as the bags need to be ordered along with another batch in time for Fairtrade Fortnight, so I need designs by the end of next week, ie 18th January. Designs should be bold and clear and in no more than 3 colours and the words "Shop local in Ladywell" need to appear somewhere in the design.

So if you would like to see your design printed on 500 bags and become the must have accessory in Ladywell in 2008, get your felt tip pens out and creative juices flowing and please send your designs to me by the end of next week. E-mail: cllr_sue.luxton@lewisham.gov.uk or post them to me c/o Governance Support, Lewisham Town Hall, Catford, SE6 4RU. Prize for winner: a free bag and lots of local kudos. There is no lower or upper age limit: entries from children and adults all welcome.

Bags will be on sale in local shops and hopefully will be sold by an about to be formed 'Ladywell Shops' group (more on this v soon)

This is not a plastic bag

Following hot on the heels of Anya Hindmarch's highly-sought after designer bag and the announcement that Modbury in Devon has just become the first plastic bag free town in Europe, Lewisham town centre management team are about to launch a range of cotton bags, with the double aim of both promoting local shops and reducing waste.

The idea started out as a Green budget proposal. When we first discussed the idea with town centre managers, they liked it so much that they decided to spend a small amount of leftover cash from last year's budget on it straightaway. The first batch have just arrived back from the manufacturers and will be hitting shops soon. I believe the first bags are earmarked for the bigger shopping centres in Lewisham (ie Lewisham, Catford, Brockley), but as our budget proposal also went through, more bags (this time in fairtrade (and I think organic) cotton, as stipulated in our budget agreement) have been ordered, which I believe are going to be aimed at smaller shopping centres (I'm hoping this will include Ladywell, but I have no say over this).

The town centre managers will be offering the bags to shopkeepers at just above cost-price , who can then sell the bags onto customers at £2 each. This means that the scheme should be self-financing (ie sustainable in more ways than one!), as well as making the shops a small profit, and any profit made by the town centre managers will be ploughed back into buying more cloth bags or on other improvements to shopping areas.

So buy them quickly before they are snapped up and put on E-bay for extortionate prices. Could soon be the must have accessory for all shoppers in Lewisham!