People sometimes ask me what Councillors do in Lewisham now we have an Executive Mayor.    Well, apart from all our work locally in Lee Green, plus planning, licensing and other statutory committees, we also take part in overview and scrutiny - reviewing the administration’s policies and also suggesting new ways forward.    A good example would be the work the Sustainable Development Committee did last year on individual alternatives to car use (I should declare an interest as the Vice Chair).

One of the things we’re planning to do this year is to carry out an in-depth review of Empty and Under-Used Properties in the borough, with a focus on identifying the extent of the problem, and looking at ways to reduce numbers.  

We’d like to know about any problematic empty or under-used properties (either commercial or housing - this may also include lock-up garages) that you are aware of in Lee Green ward, particularly problematic examples (e.g. concerning noise or nuisance issues; environmental concerns; longstanding under-use or emptiness, etc.).

All the examples we gather will be fed into the pot and used to build up a picture across the borough and see if there are any patterns, or any solutions the borough hasn’t considered yet.

Personally, I’m hoping to push two things through this:

• Identifiying empty homes which can hopefully be used to alleviate the housing shortage in the borough.   I think there’s also opportunity to identify land or spaces which has the potential to be turned into homes.    Wandsworth Council claim to have had a fair amount of success with a scheme called hidden homes - but it’s also come in for criticism.   It’d be good to look at this in the Lewisham context and evaulate the potential (or desirabilty) of such a scheme.
• On the commercial property side, I think there’s a good opportunity to see what we can do in terms of economic development to fill empty units.   I’ve been concered to see more empty units cropping up in Lee Green of late (we’ve got four on Staplehurst Road now, and a couple of new ones on Lee High Road - not to mention Leegate).  

So if you’ve got any examples you think we should be looking at, do let me know.