All 3 Lewisham Labour MPs back government on aviation expansion

Assuming the Standard has got it's voting figures correct, it seems that all 3 Lewisham Labour MPs, including Lewisham Deptford MP Joan Ruddock, junior minister for climate change, backed the government and supported the expansion of Heathrow Airport in yesterday's vote in the House of Commons. Nice one Joan, but you're supposed to be the minister that takes action to prevent climate change, not to guarantee runaway climate change. Just keep telling us to change our lightbulbs, that should do the job . . . not.

'Disgusted of Ladywell'

Re-Elect Jean Lambert MEP

Along with lots of my fellow Green bloggers, I want to give a plug today to the work of Green MEP for London, Jean Lambert.

Jean was elected as London's first Green Party MEP in 1999- and in 2004, she was re-elected with an increased share of the vote. On June 4th 2009, she faces re-election again - but due to EU enlargement, there are less European Parliament seats to go around in the UK, and more votes are needed every time to achieve re-election.

Second on the Green Party's London Region list for the European Parliament is our very own Ladywell ward councillor, Ute Michel. Getting two Green MEPs in London is a tall order, but I know Ute would do a brilliant job given the chance, as has Jean.

Pictured above: Ladywell ward councillor Ute Michel, with Shahrar Ali and Jean Lambert, the top 3 London Region Green candidates for the Euro Elections.

The work of the European Parliament can sometimes feel remote from people's everyday experience - but much of the UK's environmental, social and human rights legislation is now decided at an EU level, and the often unheralded work of our MEPs makes an enormous difference to the shape and impact of those laws. Jean has been tireless in working for social justice, environmental sustainability and peace - as recognised by the fact that she was named Justice and Human Rights MEP of the year in 2005.

Among other issues, Jean has focused on trade union rights, fairer treatment for asylum seekers, and the abolition of the UK opt-out to the Working Time Directive. She has been a prominent voice in proving that Green issues are not confined to the environment, but are concerned with building a more fair and just society.

It was Jean's 'Hothouses' report on climate change and greening London's housing stock, that first got me thinking seriously about ways of insulating my flat. The report highlights the importance of insulating London's existing housing (97% of London's housing was built before 1995), including the challenge of dealing with the 1.7m solid wall homes in London (over half of London's housing stock, including much of the Victorian housing in and around Brockley and Ladywell).

Her more recent 'Green Work' report looks in more detail at the need to create thousands of jobs in green industries such as insulation, and train up thousands of people to meet the 'green skills gap' in insulating homes, the renewables and recycling industry, plumbers, builders etc.

The BBC who have done a week-long blog and feature on the role of MEPs this week, in an attempt to demystify their work slightly, which includes an interview with Jean.

To continue her excellent work in Europe, Jean needs to get the message out to millions of Londoners, but she isn't funded by corporations, lobbyists or millionaires, so instead, her re-election campaign is relying on the efforts of ordinary Londoners. If you'd like to donate to her campaign, you can do so here via Paypal. If you'd like to volunteer in anyway, contact the campaign (or e-mail me for details of local events), and keep in touch with developments through Facebook.

Insulation Day 3

OSB (oriented structure board) has started to go down in the front room today. Just 8mm thick, but enough to give extra support to the boards that will go over the top, as well as add an extra air-tight layer over the insulation. Apparently OSB is better than using plywood or MDF as it contains less formaldehyde and wastes less wood. Slight hitch in that my phone line was accidentally cut today when the skirting boards were removed - apologies to anyone who tried to call and couldn't get through - it's back up and running now though, so do call again.

Operation Insulation and the Lunacy of Expanding Aviation

The insulation has been laid in my front room now, and it already feels warmer, even before the floorboards have been put back on top!

I wondered for a while today why I'm bothering to make the effort though, when our government has today announced it was to press ahead with Heathrow Expansion, which would cancel out any carbon savings individuals make and put us well and truly on course for runaway climate change.

- Sorry Bangladesh, our government thinks BAA's business interests are more important than rising sea levels that will put your country underwater.
- Sorry Londoners, 1,000 of whom already die prematurely each year due to air pollution, but your government has just decided to make it all much worse and build an airport that will almost certainly be in breach of EU air pollution laws.
- Sorry to all those who already get woken up at 5am by the first planes overhead - for those of you who don't yet - stand by as it's going to get a hell of a lot noisier soon.

I am absolutely furious, and for me this is a line in the sand. I will do everything I can within the law to oppose this, but will also now consider taking part in direct action and if necessary risk arrest, as I think what the government is proposing is criminally negligent (and they didn't even have the guts to put it to the vote in parliament).

I haven't heard much from our 3 Lewisham MPs on this issue, but have written to Joan Ruddock MP asking for clarification of her stance on this, both as my constituency MP and as Parliamentary Under Secretary in the Department of Energy and Climate Change. By dodging having a vote in parliament on this issue, the government has tried to avoid embarrassment for any of its ministers with London constituencies.

Of course there is every possibility that we could end up with a Tory government after the next general election and if so they have pledged to scrap the plans for Heathrow expansion, but can we really trust them not to cave in to big business on this one? Clearly some of their members are less than supportive of their leaders' stance (not to mention being head in the sand climate change sceptics).

Good press release from the national party today and it was also announced that the Labour group leader on Bury St Edmonds Council has resigned from Labour and applied to join the Green Party in disgust at the Heathrow decision.

Finally, if you haven't already done so, why not sign up to Greenpeace's Airplot campaign, and declare a beneficial interest in a plot of land within the site of the proposed new runway? There is also a Flashmob at Heathrow Terminal 5 at midday this Saturday (17th).

Have your say in shaping improvements in Ladywell - come along to the Ladywell Assembly on Tue, 20.01. from 7-9pm

The next Ladywell Assembly will take place on 20 January from 7-9pm in the modern science block of Prendergast School on Adelaide Avenue and it is open to everybody who lives, works or studies in the ward.

At the last assembly, residents selected the top five priorities for the ward: Local Shops, Streetscape and Environment, Lack of Youth and Community Facilities, Anti-Social Behaviour and Crime, and The Playtower. At the forthcoming assembly, feedback from a meeting of the assembly coordinating group and councillors with Council officers about these priorities will inform the discussion on concrete action to tackle issues raised, and on specific project proposals that could be put forward for funding from the Mayor’s Fund, a pot of money from which the Mayor has allocated £50k to each ward (£25k from this and from next year’s Fund) as part of the assembly process. This is in addition to the Locality Fund of £10k, and so £60k will be available for improvements in Ladywell ward. This assembly will start considering good uses for the money and at a later assembly meeting the detailed proposals will be assessed for funding.

In addition, one of the participants will give a brief update from the recent LINC meeting on reducing our impact on the environment. This is a project that was launched at the last assembly but is independent of it and taken forward by a group of Ladywell residents. The discussions we had on waste and recycling, home insulation for both Victorian and more recent properties and transport issues were very lively and informative, and more information on practical activities and access to further information will be available soon.

There will also be information on the activities funded with this year’s Locality Fund, and the popular community update will focus on youth provision in the ward. In addition, everybody who would like to share local information is going to have an opportunity to do so. It is a great opportunity to find out what is going on in the ward.

Last but not least there will be elections to the assembly co-ordinating group for a one year term.

It would be great to see many of you there as it promises to be a very interesting meeting and is local residents’ chance to shape the look and feel of Ladywell ward.

Operation Insulation has commenced!

Finally, after months of reading up and getting estimates, and just over a year after I joined the Green Homes scheme and got my home energy audit, my plan to insulate and 'green up' my flat took a step forward today, with the start of the work to insulate under my floor boards. Living in the ground floor flat of a converted Victorian house with stripped floorboards and single glazed sash windows has been more than a bit draughty over the past few weeks, but hopefully that's all set to change. The works are going to take a few weeks, and involve moving all the furniture out of one half of the flat while all the floorboards are taken up. Any inch of space that isn't taken up with furniture, is jam-packed with huge bales of insulation material.

Work started today in the front room. The floorboards have all been lifted and the skirting boards removed. 'Periscope vents' have been fitted onto the air bricks to channel the air down. It's important that air continues to circulate underneath the insulation to avoid damp problems. A fair amount of rubble has been removed to make sure the air holes are clear. A breathable membrane is going to be placed over and between the joists, to hold the insulation in place.

The insulation that I'm using is hemp based, and (I'm assured) both fire retardant and treated with smthg which makes it unappealing to mice. After discussion with the builders today, we decided to add an extra 6mm layer of board on top of the insulation and joists to add extra support to the floorboards (they've already been sanded once and after being sanded a second time might be slightly thinner than ideal).

All this insulation will just about bring my floor insulation up to modern day building regs standards, ie not by any stretch of the imagination zero carbon, but significantly better than it currently is. We're limited in what we can do by the fact that the gap under the floor boards and the depth of the joists is not that big, but the insulation should certainly be enough to block the draughts that currently blow through the place and help to make my home a bit cosier and more comfortable than it has been.

Blogging may be slightly intermittent while the works are underway . . .

Free Compost Bins Available

Lewisham Council has a limited number of free compost bins to give away to residents.

Why compost?
42% of the waste in the average rubbish bin is compostable kitchen or garden waste. Home composting can save you money on buying expensive compost and helps the environment by reducing car and truck journeys.

To request your FREE compost bin and for more information, call Envirocall on 020 8314 7171.

Algernon Road does it again!

Well done to the residents of the Loampit Vale end of Algernon Road, who have been crowned the 2008 Lewisham Recycling Champions. They achieved a recycling participation rate of 84%. The scheme itself was a great success with an average increase in recycling through the kerbside collection scheme in nominated streets of 9%.

This is the second time Algernon Road has won the recycling champions award - the Ladywell end of Algernon Road won the first ever recycling champions award in 2006. In 2007 it went to Champion Street in Sydenham, but in 2008, I think a bit of friendly neighbourly rivalry may have kicked in with the 'other' end of Algernon Road determined they could go one better than their neighbours! Well done to all concerned.

Quick roundup

I was away on a training course over the weekend and have a pile of things to catch up on, but wanted to very quickly flag up a few things:

A blog from the Hilly Fields Birdwatch project and update on Hilly Fields playground from the park users' group, over on Brockley Central.

South London Garden Organic want your plastic bottles to make a greenhouse.

A quick reminder that Friends of Brockley & Ladywell Cemetery have their next workday this coming Sunday, 18th January, and their next meeting on Wednesday 21st January. For the workday, meet by the chapel at 10am. The meeting is at Brockley Grove depot at 7.30pm.

Interested in the Transition Towns movement? Well, an e-mail discussion list has now been set up for people interested in starting some kind of initiative in Lewisham. There are already people from Brockley, Ladywell, New Cross, Sydenham and Catford on it. Join the list for further info, or see here for my previous posts on Transition Towns stuff.

Finally, Lewisham Green Party's monthly meeting is tonight at Brockley Social Club, 7.30pm. All members and supporters welcome, although only members are entitled to vote on any items on the agenda, which includes among many other exciting things (honestly!), the selection of our candidates for the Downham double by-election.

Empty Properties Recommendations

Lewisham's Sustainable Development Committee, which I chair, has this week published a report and recommendations following our scrutiny into the issues surrounding empty properties in the borough, an issue which is of course significant in Ladywell ward, and only likely to be exacerbated in the current economic climate. The full report can be viewed here. Our key recommendations were that:

• Council staff need to share information more effectively about empty properties, and use their full range of enforcement powers to bring them back into use, including compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) where necessary as a last resort.
  

• Owners of shop premises left empty by bankrupted businesses should be encouraged to make available to voluntary and community groups hungry for space, if commercial tenants are in short supply
• The Council's refuse collectors could act as the community's eyes and ears by reporting when bins are consistently not left out, alerting empty homes officers early
• There should be more publicity for residents about how to report empty or problematic properties and those with empty properties should be given more support in bringing them back into use.
• Businesses should be made aware of the empty commercial properties database
  

Lewisham isn't necessarily worse than other local authorities on dealing with empty properties, in fact it has had notable success with its use of Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMOs). However, our scrutiny found that is lagging behind neighbouring boroughs such as Bexley in its use of planning enforcement legislation, and Lambeth in its use of CPOs.

I will present the report to Mayor & Cabinet on behalf of the committee in a couple of weeks, and hopefully the Mayor will look at implementing some of our proposals.

As far as 'problem properties' in Ladywell ward are concerned, as ward councillors we are continuing to follow up with planning and environmental health to get enforcement action taken on a number of properties, in particular 46 Ladywell Road (the former Nightwatch shop) and 67a Loampit Hill (the old shop on the corner of Tyrwhitt Road). We are hopeful of some progress on both soon, after two years of pushing for action, but can't say more at this stage.

Boris Watch

2 things in particular that the Mayor of London has done have annoyed me this week:

1) Motorbikes can now use red route bus lanes on TfL roads. (Borough bus lanes are at the discretion of local authorities and Lewisham has already confirmed that it does not plan to allow motorbikes to use its bus lanes). This measure is not going to encourage people to take up cycling on London's streets. Motorbikes may use less fuel than cars, but they're still dependent on fast-depleting fossil fuels and contributing to greenhouse gases. The Mayor of London should be focussing his efforts on promoting walking and cycling, not pandering to petrolheads while imposing above inflation increases on public transport fares.

2) It's also been revealed this week that he is scrapping the London Green Homes Concierge Service. Regular readers of this blog will know that I signed up to this scheme last January, and since then have been working on ways to improve the thermal efficiency of my home. The scheme was launched a year ago by the previous Mayor of London and the London Development Agency and was designed to help Londoners cut climate emissions and fuel costs by making their homes more energy efficient.

It wasn't perfect (a London-wide free insulation roll-out to every home would have been better), but it's better than nothing, which, as far as I can gather so far, is what it's being replaced with. The London Development Agency has axed the Green Homes Service from its plans for next year and beyond. This was confirmed early this week by LDA chief executive, Peter Rogers, under questioning by Darren Johnson at the Assembly's budget committee. It seems a huge waste of money to scrap something just one on, just as it was getting established.

Anyway, that's the end of my anti-Boris rant for now. You may have gathered that I'm not a fan, and couldn't quite believe that the people of London elected him as Mayor last year, but I guess that's democracy and we just have to make sure a progressive and green candidate gets more votes than him next time!

Greening Your Community event on 8 January

An exciting project is under way in Ladywell which aims at reducing people's impact on the environment and climate change; in the process it will reduce bills and boost community action.

As part of the LINC (Low Impact Neighbourhood Community) project a facilitated workshop is going to take place this Thursday, 8 January, from 7-9pm at Prendergast School, in the new science block on Adelaide Avenue. It will look at environmental concerns of residents, which will be turned into an action plan for individuals and the community and provide information about practical support available to get going. So whether you make new year's resolutions or not, come along to develop some actions to reduce our impact on the environment and amongst other things, find out about how to cut your fuel bills and make your home warmer.

For more information contact Tony Rich at tony@richregeneration.com. If you cannot make it on Thursday but would like to get involved or be kept informed please contact Gordon Cowie at gordon@rockuk.net.

Reflecting on 2008 and looking to 2009

Best wishes for 2009 to all readers of this blog. Nick over on Brockley Central has done an excellent recap on the main local events in 2008 (I'll turn a blind eye to his ongoing attempts to subsume Ladywell into Greater Brockley!!), but I wanted to write a few words from the point of view of a Green councillor on what the main challenges were in the last year and what we managed to achieve.

At the beginning of the year we spoke out against plans to expand Heathrow while the Mayor of Lewisham chose to remain silent. By the end of the year he had agreed to write to the Minister for Transport urging him not to grant permission for the expansion plans.

January saw the publication of Lewisham's Sustainable Development Committee's report on 'Alternatives to individual car use' (yes, that's right, people were queuing up to get their hands on a copy!) which advocated a 20mph zone across residential streets in the borough and greater resources for cycling training in schools, amongst other things. As chair of the committee I spoke in favour of the recommendations at Mayor & Cabinet and in February, the Mayor of Lewisham supported the call for a borough-wide 20mph zone, and the previous Mayor of London was also supportive, but that was all scuppered when (the outer ring of the doughnut that is) London (overwhelmingly) opted for Bojo in May.

January also saw the first informal meeting in Masons, which led to the launch of Ladywell Village Improvement group, and I organised the competition to design the 'Shop Local in Ladywell bags'. The bags proved popular and sold out, but more have been ordered and will be arriving in early 2009. Rivoli Ballroom was listed by English Heritage and I vowed that 2008 would be the year I would green up my home (ahem, more on this v soon in 2009, I promise, work is due to start on Jan 12th!).

The controversial 'A Picture of Health' consultation, with its proposals to cut services at Lewisham Hospital was launched, decent homes work started in Ladywell, and I enjoyed two minor successes locally with the removal of an illegal advertising hoarding and finally getting a street bench repaired.

In February, Green councillors highlighted the amount of money Lewisham Council was wasting on water coolers: as a result a plan is now being implemented to phase out most of the water coolers in Council buildings. We also highlighted Council leaseholders' concerns at having their original Victorian wooden sash windows replaced with UPVC windows.

In March we responded to a police consultation that included a proposal to close Brockley Police station and joined residents marching to oppose the proposed hospital cuts. We also, finally , got a bit more redundant street clutter removed.

In the annual budget negotiations, despite a tough financial settlement for the borough, the Green Group secured the following budget concessions:
- 'Smart meters' - devices proven to slash household CO2 emissions and fuel poverty - to be on loan through libraries and schools.
- -Cash for a bid to be the first London borough to run street-by-street energy reduction scheme.
- More sustainable transport officers to boost cycling and draw in more TfL funding.
- Full funding of the successful Real Nappies scheme piloted last year which has brought Lewisham to the top three of all participating boroughs.
- Reversal of cuts to sports programmes targeted at poor young people and obese people.
- Reversal of staff cuts in food and licensing enforcement.

April was full of election campaigning for London politicians, but locally also saw the results of the Ladywell Road survey and improvements for cyclists on St Margaret's Road.

In May, following a motion proposed by Greens, Lewisham Council committed to ensuring that all its employees and contractors earn at least the London Living Wage. Greens will be monitoring progress on this closely, particularly with regards to contracts with external providers.

Also in May, following our biggest election campaign ever in Lewisham, Darren Johnson and Jenny Jones were re-elected to the London Assembly. Encouragingly, despite the tight squeeze London-wide our vote share went up in 14 out of 18 wards across Lewisham, most noticeably in our target constituency of Lewisham Deptford. In Ladywell the Green vote was up nearly 6%, the second highest increase for Greens in London.

Greens supported a long-running and vociferous local campaign against the opening of another betting shop on Brockley Road. In May, the betting shop won its appeal. Although ultimately unsuccessful, the campaign helped trigger a Local Government Association campaign calling for the laws to be changed.

The Mayor of Lewisham did a u-turn on affordable housing and agreed to Green demands for a 50% affordable housing quota in new developments.

In June, Ladywell Leisure Centre was closed for a few weeks due to an outbreak of Legionella, the first Ladywell ward assembly was held and Francis Drake Bowling Club got some lovely new gates.

Following a survey of Lewisham Council Pension Fund members, which I called for, a massive majority called for a more ethical investment policy. Not much has changed yet though, and in July our fund managers even opposed Hugh Fearnley Whittingstalls motion to get TESCO to phase out battery-farmed chickens. Hmph, still working on that one.

Over the Summber, 3 Brockley primary schools got solar panels on their roofs thanks to funding agreed by Green councillors via the localities fund.



Meanwhile, Foxborough Gardens TRA held a successful Fun Day,






Lewisham Greens went to Climate Camp to protest against new coal-fire power stations, and on Ladywell Road, Oscars Cafe opened and Ladywell Tavern re-opened. There were some successes on environmental enforcement issues in the ward, particularly in Howson Road.

We continued to support tenants and leaseholders affected by the Brockley housing PFI. As well as supporting leaseholders unhappy with the lack of information about the scheduled works, we also highlighted discrepancies in insulation standards proposed between properties in the conservation areas and those outside it and pushed for living roofs to be installed when garages roofs are renovated. A number of Green Group initiatives were incorporated into the borough’s new climate change strategy.

In September, following a motion proposed by Green councillors, Lewisham Council agreed to opt in to the Sustainable Communities Act. Greens organised a public meeting to raise awareness of this new legislation and will be monitoring progress closely. September also saw a new national leader for the Green Party, Caroline Lucas MEP.

In October, we found ourselves again opposing proposals to cut social care to vulnerable Lewisham residents (elderly and disabled people), calling for a more ambitious PC shutdown system at the town hall, a year after we first proposed it, and welcoming the Mayor of Lewisham's recession plan as far as it went, but urging him to go much further and to create a 'Green New Deal' for Lewisham. Within Ladywell, we were highlighting missing street trees and the consultation on dog control orders, which will potentially impact on the cemeteries.

In November, we welcomed another victory against the ongoing PFI UPVC onslaught on local Victorian buildings, this time for Ladywell Lodge, but mourned the passing of the Pepys Community Forum Recycling Scheme.

In Ladywell, the year was rounded off with an excellent Ladywell Christmas Market organised by LVIG and a nice bit of graffiti admonishment to Nestle. We quietly launched our new local party website and gave this blog a slight facelift, although there is more to come.

My predictions for Lewisham for 2009? Well, there's little doubt that it'll be a tough year, with things likely to get worse before they get better, and little sign of the government addressing the root causes of the economic crisis rather than just propping up the status quo. So far, so obvious.

Nationally, we urgently need our government to invest in a nationwide free home insulation programme, which would create lots of jobs and dramatically reduce our carbon emissions and fuel poverty. We also need to look at our nation's food security in a time of great economic uncertainty. We are far too dependent on a centralised food distribution system and supermarkets, which looks increasingly unstable as energy sources start to dwindle.

However, I am encouraged by the way the community has worked together over the past few months, with a number of new groups formed, and think a strong community-based approach is key to getting through the crisis. I think that 2009 will be the year Transition Lewisham gets off the ground and starts to question how we are doing things, and whether we are ready for the economic, energy and environmental challenges that lie ahead. And on a personal level, 2009 will be the year when I finally get my insulation and new windows fitted!

If the government takes the decision to go ahead with expanding Heathrow Airport, we will see unprecedented levels of people involved in direct action to oppose this, including this and I suspect many other elected representatives in the capital.

Darren thinks there will be a general election in March, I'm less sure, but we're getting prepared just in case.

And I sincerely hope that Israel and Palestine call a ceasefire and go back to the negotiating table.

Anyway, it's high time I got off to Moonbow Jakes to see in the New Year, and sadly mark the end of this Brockley institution, as it ceases trading today. Best wishes for the New Year to everyone.

How many people read this blog?

These are the visitor stats for this blog since it started in March 2006. Not sure if they're good or not, but the number of visitors continues to grow, which is encouraging.

No councillor surgery on 27 December

The fourth Saturday of the month is on 27 December and due to the Christmas bank holidays both surgeries that day at St. Andrew's on Brockley Road - mine for Ladywell ward and Cllr Dean Walton's for Brockley ward - have been cancelled.

The next regular surgeries are on 10 January: in the old bothy in Hilly Fields from 11am-12pm for Ladywell and in St John's on Lewisham Way from 10-11am for Brockley.

In the meantime I can be contacted by e-mail or by phone and will deal with enquiries and casework after Christmas. In case of an emergency please contact Lewisham Council's switchboard on 020 8314 6000.

The next major ward event is going to come soon: the Ladywell Assembly on Tuesday, 20 January from 7-9pm at Prendergast School (modern science block on Adelaide Avenue), with an update on ward priorities and improvements undertaken and planned. More on this soon.

In the meantime have a quiet or exciting but in any case stressfree break; or, if you are working at this time, like the carers, nurses and doctors, policemen and fire fighters who provide essential services, I hope you get at least a moment or two to take a deep breath and have a cup of tea.

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.

Discussion on Brockley Central Blog

I'm braving the dragon's den that is Brockley Central blog today, by asking for views on spending the £2,000 we have allocated for the Ladywell ward bit of Brockley Road. Thanks to Nick for posting my request up there. Comments of late on the BC blog have been a touch heated, to say the least, so I'm hoping people will be kind! Feedback so far suggest we should stick to plan A, which is to spend the money improving the area outside the row of shops opposite St Andrew's Church.

Dressington Avenue 'Ghost Playground': What's the Story?

Last week I went on a walkabout around Foxborough Gardens, Dressington Avenue and Rushey Mead with a representative from Regenter B3. The walkabouts are organised quarterly and and I find it's useful to pick up on issues that we've previously raised via e-mail but which haven't yet been resolved: sometimes a site visit helps.

I had a whole list of things I wanted to check up on from previous casework, but what was really interesting for me was finally to get into the derelict playground which is locked away in the middle of Dressington Avenue, in between the back gardens of some of the houses. I'd seen it before from the entrance near Ladywell Lodge, but had no idea how far it went back, or how big it was. It looks like as well as a playground area, there was also some kind of sports court. There are also various alleyways that run between the backs of the houses but are now sealed off.

I would love to know the story behind this; why was it locked up and abandoned years ago? I suspect it is a story of a poorly-designed 1970s estate and that the area, sheltered between back fences attracted anti-social behaviour and residents got fed up with the noise etc, but I could be wrong. It seems a shame just to leave it, but maybe that is what residents wanted? From a biodiversity point of view, the area is probably quite good for wildlife now, but in terms of local amenity, clearly it's wasted space.

Next time we're out door-knocking and speaking to residents in Dressington Avenue I will ask people, and I'll see if there is anyone in the Council's Housing team who knows the history. In the meantime, if there's anyone reading this blog whose memory stretches back to a time when this playground was open, I would be interested to hear from you. And if there are any current residents of Dressington Avenue reading this post, what do you think should happen to the space?

New Website for Lewisham Green Party

One of the reasons my blogging has been a little more sporadic over the past few weeks is that in my part-time day job as constituency organiser for Lewisham Green Party, I've been working on a new local party website. Well, that is, doing the donkey work of uploading stuff, not the funky designing bits. It's not entirely there yet (a couple of videos are coming soon), we need a few more photos etc, but it's nearly finished. We're the pilot for a new Green Party local party website template - what do you think?

Get an RSS feed of our press releases, sign up to our supporters' list, find out how you can get involved in our campaigns, join, make a donation, or simply find out more about our policies and what we've been up to.

The next project (again with my constituency organiser rather than local cllr hat on) is a website for our Lewisham Deptford parliamentary campaign, just in case the general election is called sooner than many expect. . .

Links

Just wanted to flag up two sites I have recently added to the 'Local Links' section of the blog.

The first is Lewisham LINK (Local Involvement Network) the successor to PALS, what was the patient advice and liaison service, ie the body for hospital patients and other healthcare users to make their views/concerns known. It says it is "an inclusive network to enable people and organisations in Lewisham to have a say and influence the planning, commissioning and delivery of health and social care services to improve the health and well being of patients and service users". It is being run by Parkwood Healthcare and based at Ladywell Leisure Centre.

The second is to the Ladywell Assembly page on the Council's website, which gives details of our next ward assembly (January 20th), as well as the ward priorities, minutes of previous meetings, the localities fund spending etc.