Lee Green Lives is the campaign group that’s grown out of the Local Assembly decision to make the state of the Leegate Centre one of our priority issues.

The group will be holding its first meeting this Wednesday, 24th March, at 7.30pm at the New Testament Church of God on Lee High Road.

Everyone’s invited to come along and discuss how we can work together to breathe life into the Centre and develop a community vision for the longer term.   We’ve drafted a constitution for the new group (which was discussed at the last assembly meeting on 19th January and will be put forward for adoption on the meeting on Wednesday) and we’re also looking for people to join the group’s committee.

We’ll also be updating everyone on what’s happened so far:

• The launch of our online survey at www.tinyurl.com/leegate – also available in hard copy to collect from retailers in the centre in coming weeks.
• The appointment of our new Town Centre Manager
• The owners’ offer of an empty unit rent-free to house our new youth group and other community activities

We’ll also have a speaker from the Meanwhile Project, a national project to encourage interim use of empty commercial premises.

Everyone in Lee Green Ward should have received a flyer about this in the past week or so.  It promises to be a positive evening, I hope as many local people as possible will be able to make it.

Supermarket Shakespeare is coming back to Lee Green Sainsbury’s for the third year.  Previous performances have attracted rave reviews.

This year’s performances at Lee Green are at the following times:

Tuesday 20th April 7pm
Wednesday 21st April 7pm
Thursday 22nd April 7pm
Friday 23rd April 7pm
Saturday 24th 12pm & 6pm
Sunday 25th 12pm & 3pm

There are also performances at Forest Hill, New Cross and Lewisham Sainsbury’s – details on the Teatro Vivo website.

You can also watch a trailer here.

Manor House Library staff are to host a great opportunity to regularly meet other Spanish speakers and to celebrate Latin America.

Should Spanish be your second language, this is also a chance to socialise and hone your language skills. The group will watch a movie or have a chat about a short-story by a Latin American author. Copies of the short stories will be provided in advance.

These are free evenings and will be held fortnightly on Thursdays, between 5 and 7 pm. The first session will be on Thurday 15th April.

More info on 020 8852 0357

We’re in the middle of Fairtrade fortnight (22nd Feb- 7th March) and to celebrate there are a few Fairtrade events coming up at Manor House Library:

• borrow a book, CD or DVD and get a free fairtrade teabag (while stocks last!)
• on Monday coming (1st March), the Manor House is hosting a Fairtrade Tea Dance from 2pm until 4pm.  Fairtrade tea and cakes are provided.  Call 8852 0357 to book your place.
• there’ll be a showing of the Black Gold Movie ( a film about coffee and trade) on Saturday 6th March at 2.30pm
• ‘The Luckiest Nut in the World’ is an event for kids and families on Sunday 7th March at 1pm

All sounds good – disappointed I can’t make it for the Fairtrade cake, but probably best that the public is spared my dancing…!

Just a reminder that from this Friday evening, there are FREE sports activities for 13-19 year olds at Colfe’s School Sports Centre every Friday night.

The action kicks off at 6.30pm and continues til 8.30pm – no need to book,  just turn up.  For more info contact Lewisham Youth Service – Muhammad Rahmani at muhammad.rahmani {at} lewisham.gov(.)uk

This regular session has been kick-started by the Lee Green Assembly’s work to establish youth facilities in Lee Green Ward.  Many thanks to Muhammad and his colleagues at the youth service for securing extra funding in order to run these sessions.

Directions to the sports centre can be found here – access is off Upwood Road.

The local assembly went well last night – I’ll do a proper write-up when I get the chance.  For now though, just a quick event plug:

The Icarus Club takes place every Thursday from 8pm at The Station pub on Staplehurst Road.  There’s jazz, blues and acoustic music.  It’s absolutely free, and apparently turning into a very popular night.  Do get yourself along.  More details on their blog here.

They’re also organising an event at Blackheath Halls this Friday,  when Darrell Scott will be headlining.  More details about that event, and the chance to buy tickets online here.