Ladywell Big Bulb Plant: Sunday 11th October

Ladywell Village Improvement Group (LVIG) are organising another planting session on Sunday 11th October. The aim is to perk up the planters (which are starting to look a bit sorry for themselves) and put some bulbs in them, so they look good over the Winter and in the Spring. LVIG have been given 250 free bulbs by the Big Bulb Plant (organised by the same people as were behind the Big Lunch).

At LVIG's meeting on Wednesday there was lots of discussion about possible streetscape improvements, as well as the planting day and plans for the Christmas market. Planning for the Christmas Market is still at fairly early stages, but the tentative date set is for 12th December.

Lots happening locally this weekend

Just a quick post to flag up a few of the many events happening locally over the weekend.

1) London Open House: loads of buildings that aren't normally open to the public are open this weekend, including 13 in Lewisham. The one I'm particularly keen to go and visit is the self-build house on Walters Way, Honor Oak, which has been eco-retrofitted by the same builder who did my insulation. I've heard lots about it so I'm keen to see the finished product.

2) Lewisham Green Party Action Saturday: not quite so well known as Open House, but important to us, it mostly involves shoving lots of newsletters through doors, with a dash of door-knocking for those who are up for it, followed by food and frivolities in the evening. New volunteers always welcome; we've just taken delivery of our Autumn newsletter, which is to go out to homes across Lewisham Deptford constituency, and would welcome as much help as possible delivering them. Just turn up at 202 Malpas Road, SE4 1DH from 10am onwards.

3) Mike's 50th birthday party: this is invitation only, but I just wanted to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my fellow ward councillor.

4) Folkus Festival, Saturday 19th Septmber, 12pm-12am, Sanford Housing Co-op, Sanford Walk New Cross SE146NB. "BANDS, ART, FILM, PERFORMANCE, COMMUNITY, DISCUSSIONS. Some of you will know about Sanford Housing Co-Op…a little oasis in New Cross with a newly built, award-winning bikeshed/recycle-stage made from railway sleepers, beautiful gardens and communal housing for urban nomads of all descriptions.

This year sees the return of the Sanford annual celebration. For the last 30 years Sanford has staged a free, inclusive community event that is renowned for promoting great music and art as well as co-operative/sustainable living. "

(Incidentally, there was also a great write up in today's Guardian on the work Sanford Housing Co-op have done to reduce their carbon emissions.)

5) Lewisham Country Fayre: Sunday 20th September. For the third year running, this popular event is taking place in Cornmill Gardens, from 12-6pm.

6) Also on Sunday, but a bit further afield in Herne Hill, the Urban Green Fair is taking place in Burgess Park, 11am-7pm. There are usually a huge range of stalls, talks and events showcasing the best in green business, community groups etc, and entirely powered by the wind and sun. Transition Lewisham are having a stall there, and a couple of people who were involved in Brockley Max are also attending, with a view to organising a Lewisham Sustainability Fair in the Spring.

7) And finally, on Sunday, Lewisham Green Party members are likely to be humiliated by the superior forces of Greenwich Green Party's 'petanque' team, in Twinkle Park in Deptford. If you know your boules, please do come and join us, meeting at 4pm in the Dog and Bell!

UPDATE: I forgot the big central London bike ride formerly known as Freewheel, now rather crassly named after its sponsor. Anyway, still a good event regardless of the sponsor. This Sunday, details here. There is a feeder ride leaving Ladywell Fields at 10.15am I believe.

Road Resurfacing Programme: Brookbank Road is top of the list (hurray!)

Highways have now posted up onto the Council's website their proposed resurfacing programme for the remainder of this municipal year. Phase 1, which included Eastern Road, has now been completed, and top of the list for phase 2, is Brookbank Road. This is good news as Brookbank Road has been in an appalling condition for a number of months now, as residents are all too aware (it deteriorated after the bad weather back in January). As councillors we can and do flag up residents' concerns about the state of roads, but the decision is ultimately taken by the Mayor, based on highways officers' advice, which in turn is based on a condition survey they carry out of the roads each year.

Hilly Fields Crescent, a section of Ladywell Road and parts of Harefield Road and Tressillian Road are also on the list. Unfortunately, the lower part of Tressillian Road, leading down to St Margaret's Road, is not on the list, although it has been in a terrible state for a number of years now. I suspect this is because it is not on the 484 bus route, which a number of the other roads being resurfaced are, which bumps it up the priority list.

Not as many roads on the list as I would like to have seen, but quite a chunk of them are around Brockley and Ladywell, and highways officers are well aware of the poor state of a lot of the roads in the conservation area.

Recent Mayor & Cabinet Decisions pertinent to Ladywell and Brockley

There were a number of decisions taken at Wednesday's Mayor & Cabinet meeting that I thought worth drawing to local residents' attention.

Streetscape improvements on cards for Brockley and Ladywell?
Item 6 of the agenda was about proposals for Lewisham's Local Implementation Plan (LIP), which is the plan for how to spend money allocated from Transport for London (TfL) within the borough.

I'm pleased that the proposals include funding ear-marked both for Ladywell Road and Brockley Road. The Ladywell proposals include the long overdue 'toucan' crossing on the east side of Ladywell Bridge, to make it easier for cyclists to get onto the Waterlink Way path (Lewisham Cyclists and local residents have been calling for this for years) as well as (hopefully) the chance to get the bigger streetscape improvements on Ladywell Road that Ladywell Society and more recently Ladywell Village Improvement Group (LVIG) have been calling for.

I know that representatives from LVIG have already had early discussions with highways with a view to ensuring that this is a community led project, rather than a highways consultation imposed from above, and we will be keeping a watching brief to ensure that remains the case. You may recall that the last Ladywell ward assembly allocated £10k of its money to fund urban design work to develop plans to improve Ladywell Road, so we now need to work with highways officers and LVIG to see how that can best be spent.

The proposals for Brockley include works around Brockley Cross area and the station, but also Brockley Road itself from Brockley Cross to Adelaide Avenue, though it's not clear exactly what shape these works will take yet, and whether it will just be the roads, or also the pavements and wider streetscape issues that get addressed. As a Ladywell ward councillor, I'm particularly interested in the stretch of Brockley Road from the junction with Wickham Road to Adelaide Avenue, but I suspect my colleagues in Brockley will be keeping a close eye on proposals for Brockley Cross and Coulgate Street.

You can read the report in full here (p9-12 have the Brockley and Ladywell details). Also worth noting are the significant sums involved in repairing and maintaining Victorian bridges within the borough, including a massive £500k to re-waterproof Ladywell bridge.

Youth Provision and 'Myplace' Funding
In another item on the Mayor & Cabinet agenda, which is disappointing for Ladywell (but positive for Sydenham) is the decision to focus the Council's bid for 'Myplace' funding for a youth centre in Sydenham Wells Park, rather than the project they had previously considered to bring Ladywell Playtower back into use. The report states:

"The proposed site for a Myplace application was identified through an analysis of current youth service provision, levels of deprivation, teenage pregnancy rates, anti-social behaviour and crime hotspots, and ongoing engagement with young people and key stakeholders.
6.2 Based on this, two sites came to the fore for potential development: the Playtower site in Ladywell and Wells Park Youth Hall in Sydenham. An exploration of these options concluded that a redevelopment of the Ladywell Playtower as a youth centre would not align with cross-Council strategies, and as a Grade II listed building, would prove too costly to refurbish."

The question now of course remains what will happen to Ladywell Playtower, when, and will some kind of community use be retained?

Gordonbrock Primary Rebuild
This was in the confidential part of the meeting as it was dealing with contracts and commercially sensitive data, so I can't say too much, but plans are proceeding with the proposed rebuild, with a view to decanting the school, and starting works in January, assuming all planning permissions and the decant site are ready by then. Part of the reasoning behind the rebuild is to increase it from 2.5 form entry to 3 form entry. My understanding is that one of the existing Victorian buildings will be incorporated into the new design.

Brockley Mess - new cafe opened today on Brockley Road

I'm writing this from inside Brockley Mess - the new cafe that has opened today on Brockley Road, in what used to be Moonbow Jakes. I'm really impressed with what they've done with the place - it used to be rather dark and dingy (which suited Moonbows, as it was more of an evening, live music kind of place), but now it's all light and airy, with great colourful tiles and wallpaper, and some huge old black and white photos on the wall (one is of Brockley County School, what is now Prendergast Hilly Fields and the other is of South East London Technical College - Lewisham College as now is).

Brockley Mess is run by the people behind Royal Teas in Greenwich and there is definitely more of an emphasis on food and the day time trade than Moonbows (they're currently only planning to open until 7pm, but might open later at the weekend if demand is there). There are not one but SIX types of cake, all baked on the premises, including a delicious gluten-free and vegan orange one which I tried. They also do a wide range of all day breakfasts, platters to share and even cream teas!

Oh and they have wi-fi (hence I'm writing this now).

I don't normally do quite such shameless plugs for businesses on this blog, but when Moonbows closed it left a gaping hole on this stretch of Brockley Road so I'm really delighted that we've now got a worthy replacement and I wish Brockley Mess every success.

PS: A big thank you to Lewisham town centre manager Liz Bannister who I believe played a role in this all happening.
PPS:It also looks like something will be opening soon in the former Brockley Kitchen site, which will hopefully be one less empty shop a bit further up the road too.

Introducing Charlotte . . .

I'm not long back from a well-attended local party meeting where we selected the first of our council candidates for the May 2010 elections. Here in Ladywell, Mike is standing down, sadly, but Ute and I are standing again.

I'm delighted to introduce Charlotte Dingle as our third candidate for Ladywell. Charlotte lives in the ward and has been an active local Green Party member for some time. In her day job she is the editor of a magazine for lesbian and bisexual women and her hobbies include morris dancing, drawing and playing the guitar. She also has a keen interest in animal rights. If elected, I suspect she may well be Lewisham's first vegan, morris-dancing councillor!

Anyway, you should hopefully see lots more of Charlotte and the rest of our Ladywell team as we try to get out and speak to as many residents as possible over the next few months (it's no mean feat trying to speak to 10,000 people, as well as juggle ongoing council responsibilities). Charlotte will also be posting on this blog too.

Mike will of course be continuing to play a full and active role as Ladywell councillor until next May (and almost certainly long after that through his involvement with many local community groups). Hopefully we will still be able to bend his ear for expert advice on all things ecology-related and I'm sure he will still regularly be seen cleaning off graffiti in and around the ward.

Reminder: Councillor Surgery this Saturday in NEW VENUE

Just a quick reminder, further to my post back in July, that our regular surgery on the 2nd Saturday of the month will, from this Saturday be in Hilly Fields Medical Centre rather than the Old Bothy on Hilly Fields. We are hoping that this will be more comfortable and accessible for residents (and us!) over the colder months.

So, 11am-midday, 2nd Saturday of the month, Ladywell Ward Councillors' Surgery, Hilly Fields Medical Centre, 172 Adelaide Avenue, SE4 1JN. Just ask at the main reception and they will direct you, We will probably be in room 6 just around the corner from reception.

Our other surgery, at St Andrew's Church, on the 4th Saturday of the month, remains unaffected.

Do come along if you have any queries about Council services that you would like to raise with us. Alternatively, you can as always e-mail or call us (contact details in the top right-hand box on this page - hover the cursor over our names for e-mail addresses).

New blog poll: Should solar panels be permited on conservation area properties?

I've set up a poll to gauge readers' views on whether solar panels should be permitted on conservation area properties. Please do vote - you can find it in the right-hand column of the blog.

To be absolutely clear, I'm not claiming any particular scientific validity for the poll, self-selecting as readers of this blog inevitably will be, and it's not in any way an official council consultation, it's just a straw poll.

The poll has come about as a result of an ongoing discussion on an earlier post with a blog reader. My own view is that action to reduce carbon emissions and prevent climate change is a bigger priority than preserving the aesthetic qualities of a conservation area, but that most of the time the two need not be incompatible anyway. I would generally support solar panels on roofs in conservation areas, as long as they were positioned and designed as unobtrusively as possible, and the owners had already taken all reasonable measures to insulate and improve the energy efficiency of the property. ie I'm not into solar panels purely as fashion statements - insulation, an energy efficient boiler etc come first. That said, I don't see preserving the character of the conservation area and doing our bit to reduce our carbon footprints as mutually exclusive, and think St Peter's Church on Wickham Road is a good example of how this can be done sensitively.

Anyway, I would be interested to know what my readers think, so please do participate in the poll, which will run until 20th September.

St Cyprian's Hall to be auctioned off on 22nd September

According to the notice that has just gone up outside it, St Cyprian's Church Hall, on the corner of Brockley Road and Braxfield Road is due to be sold at auction on 22nd September. As well as the church hall (which in itself is a considerable size), I understand that the auction includes the sale of the neighbouring commercial premises and flats above (the undertakers, and the premises on the other side of the hall too).

Taken together, these represent a sizeable site, onto which I imagine some developer will be hoping to squeeze as many flats as possible. As far as I'm aware, none of the buildings are listed, so theoretically they could all be demolished. although the owners has to honour existing leases with the businesses.

Personally, I think it would be a real loss to Brockley Road if these buildings were demolished, and would hope to see a sensitive redevelopment that incorporates at least parts of the existing church hall, and brings the front entrance to the church hall, that has been bricked up for so long, back into use.

The hall and neighbouring premises are 'owned' by the RC Diocese of Southwark, although I know there is some controversy as to whether the diocese actually owns the hall and has the right to sell it, due to a covenant that was allegedly signed when it was transferred over from the Church of England in 1968, which says the building is to be preserved for community use. Back in 2007, when rumours of plans to sell the building surfaced, a group of local residents got together to oppose the plans, but I'm not sure what came of it all. If any of those residents is reading this and would like to get in touch, please do. Given it is about to be sold at auction, I'm assuming the diocese are confident that this is not the case.

It would be nice to see the hall brought back into community use, but I'm rather cynical about the chances of this happening, given the pending auction, the considerable sums of money that need to be spent on the hall roof to make it safe, the proximity of St Andrews and the fact that the hall has not been in proper community use for a while now. The RC Diocese of Southwark has allowed the hall to get into a very run-down state over the years, and over the past few years the number of events, classes etc held at the hall gradually dwindled, until it was closed entirely about a year ago, on health and safety grounds I understand. Furthermore, the diocese's efforts at community consultation and engagement over this have been non-existant, as far as I'm aware.

A potted history of the St Cyprian's Hall, according to Geograph:

"The building was erected in 1881-2 as St Cyprian's mission church in the parish of St Mary, Lewisham (Anglican). It was superseded in 1901 by a new parish church of the same name in Adelaide Road [sic] (which was bombed in WW2) but retained as a parish hall and occasional place of worship until 1968 when it was sold to the Roman Catholics for use as a church hall."

Climate Camp comes to Lewisham!

Exciting news for Lewisham today as climate camp sets up on Blackheath.

I went to both the Heathrow and Kingsnorth camps and found both to be very well organised, and the sites were left in immaculate condition. The main irritation in both cases was the heavy-handed policing.

Brockley ward councillor Darren Johnson and I popped up to the site earlier on today and were impressed with how things were being set up. Happily, policing was reasonably low key and hands off. In fact, campers told us that the local ice cream vans got there before the police vans did (covert surveillance with your Mr Whippy perhaps?!).

The camp runs from now until 2nd September and there is an emphasis on education, awareness-raising and training at this year's camp, with a whole range of workshops on all sorts of things from composting, DIY and yoga to training for non-violent direct action. You can see the full programme of workshops here, and it's all free.

Lewisham Green Party have put out a supportive press release today. Lewisham Lib Dems and Labour in contrast have condemned the climate campers as irresponsible. Hmm, now let me think about that one . . . supporting the building of more motorways, airports and coal-fired power stations, allowing the only wind turbine factory in the country to close, or a group of people camping in a field and discussing practical steps that they need to take to reduce our carbon emissions and curb climate change. Hmm, I know which one I think is more irresponsible, how about you?

Anyway, I'm looking forward to discussing green stuff with like-minded people and attending some of the workshops at climate camp over the next few days, and hope that the peaceful atmosphere and hands off policing continues.

It's also great to see more micro-renewables in the form of solar panels and wind turbines in Blackheath Conservation Area than have ever been seen before -a dream for a Green councillor who sits on planning and is constantly frustrated by how inadequate our planning policies are to meet the challenges of climate change!

Greenwich Green Darryl also has a nice write-up and photos of the setting up of the camp on his 853 blog.

UPDATE 11pm, 26th August: pleased to see that Lewisham Lib Dems have now released a more positive statement about climate camp following the earlier quotes attributed to Blackheath councillors that appeared on the Guardian website.

Tree removal on Fossil Road

Just a quick post as a number of residents from Fossil Road have contacted us concerned about a street tree being removed. We spoke to an officer from the tree team this morning who clarified that the tree was removed as it had two types of diseases; some kind of fruiting fungal infection that was making the tree go sponge like from the inside, and another which had killed the crown of the tree. There are no plans to remove any other trees from Fossil Road, although one more will be reduced and reshaped.

The Council's arboriculturalist team have recently completed a full survey of the borough's street trees - every one is now logged on their new database and has been prioritised according to how urgently it needs work on it or not, so there should be a noticeable increase in tree works over the next few months as they carry out this work.

The bad news is that I've been told that the budget for street tree planting has already been allocated for this year and that the Fossil Road tree can't get replaced this Autumn. Do people think we should dip into our localities fund to get it replaced sooner, or should we hang on for it to come out of the normal street tree planting budget next year?

I've asked for clarification on how big the tree planting budget is and how big the shortfall is, as I know a number of roads in the ward have 'missing' street trees.

Interestingly, residents tell me that the cherry trees on Fossil Road, which were planted at the same time as the houses were built, are an unusual species that flower three times a year, although we haven't yet found out the name of the tree type - any suggestions on that?

Boris keep your promise!

London currently only has one rape crisis centre to support female victims of rape in a city with 3.9 million women. In his election manifesto, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson promised he would fund three new rape crisis centres for London at a cost of £2,230,000. He said he would divert £744,000 a year that the previous mayor spent on publicity. Since then, however, the cycling mayor has been furiously back-pedalling on this pledge and that figure changed to £1,400,000, 37.3% less. Campaigners, as the video below makes clear, are less than impressed.



It would appear that the mayor who famously referred to his £250k salary for writing his newspaper column as 'chicken feed' isn't placing a very high priority on supporting rape victims. For more details, including ways you can help, visit the Boris Keep Your Promise website.

UPDATE 18th August: There is a petition you can sign about this on the 38 Degrees website.

Pedal-powered screening of 'Age of Stupid' in Deptford this Thursday!

Slightly outside of my usual geographical remit, and unfortunately clashing with Transition Brockley's film at St Andrew's this Thursday, but this sounds like a good event:

Oxfam’s Pedal Powered Outdoor Cinema
plus panel discussion with local leaders, the film’s director and climate campaigners!
Thursday 6th August 2009, Doors open at 7:30pm
Laban Outdoor Theatre, Creekside, Deptford, SE8 3DZ
LIMITED SPACES AVAILABLE & ONE NIGHT ONLY!!

Showing award winning film with Peter Postlethwaite:
For your free ticket and more info please e-mail Sophie Freeman or call 020 7802 9971.

New links added

Just added a few new links to this site. First up, Deptford Misc, a new blog by long-term Deptford resident and campaigner Bill Ellson join the ranks of Deptford Dame and Caroline's Miscellany.
And a couple of newish Green bloggers added are Green Kentish Town and Matt Sellwood for Hackney. Any more I've missed?

Open Gym wins social enterprise competition!

Congratulations to local resident and founder of Open Gym, Jo Hill, who is one of three winners of a competition organised by Cancer Research UK. The Open Gym concept, which is currently operating in Hilly Fields, Telegraph Hill Park and two parks in north London, will now be rolled out nationwide, along with two other projects, as part of a plan to raise £10m for Cancer Research UK*.

It's a great concept - get people out doing exercise, which in itself reduces the risk of people getting cancer, and at the same time raise money for a cancer charity. I've recently started going to Open Gym, and find it more motivating than being stuck in a gym or going to an indoor fitness class. Too many hours spent in front of this computer or in council meetings mean that I'm currently the undisputed least fit participant in the Hilly Fields Open Gym (to the extent that the instructor has to give me easier variations on some of the exercises!), but I'm hoping to persevere!

So once again congratulations Jo!

*I have long had mixed feelings about Cancer Research UK - on the one hand they clearly do a lot of good work, and as someone who watched their father die an unpleasant death due to cancer, I'm as keen as anyone to find a cure. However, I don't agree with their ongoing funding of tests on animals, and prefer to donate to other cancer charities, such as Marie Curie or the Lavender Trust.

Transition Brockley - films, 3 tonne club, carrot-mobbing, swishing and more!

Transition Brockley, a group of local residents who have got together to look at how the local community needs to adapt and prepare for a low-carbon, fossil fuel-free future (due to peak oil and climate change) has now had 5 or so well-attended meetings, and its members are working on a number of projects. You can join their e-mail discussion list here and check out the Transition Lewisham website here. Below are a few of the projects they are working on, and would welcome more people to help with. Lots of great ideas; do get involved if you can:
FILMS
The first two in a series of film showings are planned for Thursday 6th August and Thursday 10th September at 7pm in St Andrew's Church Hall (corner of Brockley Road/Wickham Road). There will be a small charge of £2 to cover the hall cost. Both the films to be shown look at how dependent food production is on the availability of oil.

On 6th August they will be showing The Power of Community: How Cuba survived Peak Oil and on 10th September they will be showing Farm for the Future, in which wildlife film maker Rebecca Hosking investigates how to transform her family's farm in Devon into a low energy farm (recently shown on BBC 2 and it's available online in 3 parts if you can't make the showing).

Contact Alex or Fran if you'd like to help with the above. There are also tentative plans afoot to make a local film about action in Brockley.

THREE TONNE CLUB
A group of TTBers recently held a very convivial meeting where everybody calculated their carbon footprint over a glass of wine or two. They were using the 'Three Tonne Handbook' from the Women's Environmental Network, which offers tips on how you can reduce your footprint down to 3 tonnes a year (apparently the UK average is around 13.5 tonnes). The group have formed a 'Three Tonne Club' and will organise another “weigh-in” in due course. If you want to measure your carbon footprint then go to Carbon Independent. E-mail Tamara to join the club!

FOOD GROWING
Transition Brockley is also looking at identifying possible spaces in the neighbourhood to grow food/set up community gardens. They are in contact with Pinnacle about one or two possible sites in the area, have been along to courses at Frendsbury Garden and are keen to work with Brockley Cross Action group on the community orchard project. A couple of people are mulling over producing a book of recipes using local produce (Brockley Honey flapjacks, anyone?!). One member, Ruth, is already busy with the community garden she's been instrumental in getting started at St Saviour's Church. Contact Ruth for further information or to offer to help with this. I'm also following up on one or two possible Ladywell sites for food-growing.

BROCKLEY SWISHING/CLUB NIGHT?
A swishing event is when a group of friends get together and have a party and swap unwanted but still useable clothes with each other. Rosa, from TTB is hoping to organise a club night/swishing/freecycling event in Brockley in October. Contact Rosa if you want to get involved.

SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES ACT
TTB have submitted a number of proposals to Lewisham Council as part of the first year of the Sustainable Communities Act, which they hope will be taken forward as part of Lewisham's proposals to be passed on to the LGA (Local Government Association). (See previous post for submissions we made to this.)

CARROT MOBBING
Finally, but perhaps one of the most fun ideas, is the suggestion of a 'Brockley Carrot Mob'. The basic proposition behind carrot mobbing, is that you talk to local bars / pubs / restaurants and ask them what percentage of their profits they would invest in eco-efficiency measures to their business if you organise a group of people to spend an evening at their bar / restaurant. You then choose the business that offers the largest percentage and perhaps also consider the need for efficiency measures and organise an evening out. Then the next day the 'experts' are sent in to carry out whatever work money has been raised for. See Carrot Mob and 9 carrots for two similar takes on this. We sounded out Graham at Mr Lawrence's about this - he was quite keen, and we were keen to get more energy efficient light bulbs in there as a start!

Carrotmob Makes It Rain from carrotmob on Vimeo.

Change to Ladywell Ward Councillors' Surgery Details

We've decided to switch the venue for one of our councillor surgeries from September. We currently have two surgeries a month; one at the Old Bothy, Hilly Fields on the second Saturday of the month (11-12pm) and another at St Andrew's Church, Brockley Road, on the fourth Saturday of the month (11-12pm).

While the Old Bothy works well for the summer months, it's a bit grim in the winter, and accessibility is less than perfect. Therefore we're moving that surgery to Hilly Fields Medical Centre on Adelaide Avenue. Same time, still second Saturday of the month, just a hopefully more comfortable venue. We won't be holding surgeries in August, but as always you are welcome to phone or e-mail us with any queries (contact details in sidebar at top).

Save Vestas!

The only wind turbine factory in the UK, Vestas, on the Isle of Wight, is due to close at the end of this month with the loss of 600 jobs. At a time when we need to be massively increasing our renewables capacity in this country and investing in wind power, this is absurd.

The company is closing the factory despite rising profits and has taken a threatening and aggressive line towards workers protesting to save their jobs. It seems bizarre that the factory was creating blades for US wind turbines rather than the European market - a great example of globalisation gone awry. The government says the blades aren't the right specification for here. So modify things for goodness sake - don't lose the local expertise that's been built on now.

The government coughed up the dosh (ie our money) to prop up the car industry and the banks; now it's time for them to invest just a fraction of that in saving this factory, the jobs of the 600 workers, and with it our hopes of developing a viable low-carbon energy supply to replace our coal-fired power stations . To do otherwise yet claim to be green would be rank hypocrisy. Time for Ed Milliband and Joan Ruddock at the Department for Energy and Climate Change to stand up to the unelected Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills, one Peter Mandelson, and demand he shows a bit of bloody innovation in saving these jobs.

Gordon Brown has talked a lot recently about creating green jobs, but he seems somewhat short on action. He also seems to include decidedly brown sectors such as nuclear power and coal-fired power stations within his definition of green. The Green Party's policies in contrast would create a million new jobs in genuinely green industries.

There was a demonstration in outside the DECC offices in London tonight, which Darren spoke at - I didn't go, but sent a message of support to the campaign via savevestas@googlemail.com.

Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MEP, in whose constituency the factory is located, has also sent a message of support to workers and spoken out against the proposed closure.

Ladywell CPZ Consultation - coming through a letterbox near you any day now!

I've just heard that the long-awaited Ladywell CPZ (controlled parking zone) consultation documents are back from the printers today, and distribution to local households could start as soon as this weekend. Regular readers will know that this is something many local residents have been requesting for several years and we have been flagging up their concerns to highways and Mayor & Cabinet since 2006.

You can see the map of the area they plan to consult here, and the consultation document should also be available to download on the Council website soon. The form just says the rather vague 'return within three weeks' as they don't want to put off those who are on holiday from completing the form when they get back. I've been assured that they will accept forms right up until they start compiling the results, which will be in about six weeks time.

An exhibition of the proposals, where there will also be a chance to discuss them with highways officers, will be held next Friday and Saturday at the Wearside depot:

Friday 17 July 2009 from 10am to 8pm
Saturday 18 July 2009 from 10am to 5pm
at The Visitor Centre, Wearside Depot,
Wearside Road, London SE13 7BR

Previously I've been fairly ambivalent about CPZs, not being a car-owner myself, and I'm still not a staunch advocate, but over recent years I've become more convinced of the merits of a CPZ in the Ladywell area because:

• We get lots of complaints from residents who say they can't park in their street due to commuters parking in the area then going to the train station/hospital/town centre. We then get residents leaving out traffic cones to reserve 'their' parking space, causing conflict and tension between drivers.
• A CPZ won't magically enable residents to park their car outside their house, but it should increase their chances of being able to park their car somewhere near their house.
• While to an extent a CPZ simply displaces the problem to outside the zone, it may also prompt a few people to leave their car at home and use public transport.
• The extension of the Lewisham CPZ in the Loampit Vale and top of Algernon Road area a few years back has had a negative knock-on effect on the rest of Algernon Road and surrounding streets.
  
• The proposed developments in Lewisham Town Centre are likely to create extra pressure on parking spaces in the area, and if residents of the new homes can't park there (they won't get residents parking permits), they may well look to park in Ladywell.
  
• The consultation also asks for views on some extra short stay parking at the top of roads adjoining Ladywell Road. This is something that local shopkeepers often cite as being lacking and key to their business.
• The consultation also offers the opportunity to get more car club spaces in the area, which again has been shown to reduce car ownership and free up parking space on roads.
• The more CPZs we have in the borough, the more revenue in the highways budget to sort out the appalling state of roads in this area. Boroughs such as Camden which is almost entirely CPZ, have significantly more revenue to spend on resurfacing works than Lewisham does.
  

So I anticipate returning my form in favour of the CPZ, and in support of car club spaces and more short stay parking near businesses, but I will wait until after the drop in event to make my mind up for sure.

Whatever your views on CPZs, it's important that if you live in the area you respond and make your views known. Unlike some consultations where it seems that the decision has already been made, that is not the case with CPZs - Lewisham's policy is that they only go ahead when a clear majority in the area are in favour, so do make sure your voice is heard.

"Green Team for Ladywell for 2010?!"

Well, not quite, but it may have got a few people's attention! I thought this photo of Ute after judging the 'Best Scarecrow' competition at the Ladywell Day Centre Summer Fete today deserved a wider audience. Surely the one with the rather bling jewellery and leopard skin tights would be enough to scare even the most hardy of London pigeons!

As always, the fete was a great event, with users of day centres from across the borough coming to Ladywell for the day. There were a wide range of arts and crafts, plants and cakes for sale, many produced by centre users. I bought a few bizzie lizzies for my garden which were grown by the gardening group at the centre.

As for Green Party candidates for the May 2010 local council elections, we have now put out the formal call for nominations to our party members, with a deadline for the first tranche of wards at the beginning of September. We are keen to recruit a diverse range of candidates from all sectors of the community. If you're interested in finding out more about what standing as a candidate and (potentially) being a councillor involves, feel free to e-mail me with you contact details to discuss further. You would need to be a party member before the close of nominations and broadly agree with our principles and policies of course!