I’ve been contacted by residents living in the flats above the Leegate Centre who are concerned about a licensing application in the centre.   Paul had the news on Leepedia last week:

It looks like the empty Cinnamon unit at Leegate will once again be a restaurant/bar as there is a licence application for extended hours for the Nazar which will occupy the old Cinnamon unit:Nazar, Unit 12 Leegate has applied for a new/variation licence under the Licensing Act 2003 for live music 18:00 -04:00 Monday – Friday & Saturday – Sunday 12:00 – 04:00 Recorded music dancing & sale of alcohol 12:00 – 04:00 Monday – Sunday. Late night refreshment until 05:00 Monday – Sunday.

 

(Current licence of the Cinnamon: Sale of alcohol on the premises Monday – Saturday 10:00 – 00:00 & Sunday 12:00 -23:30.)

The four criteria under which you can support or object to this application are:
Prevention of Crime and Disorder
Protection of Children from Harm
Public Safety
Prevention of Public Nuisance

You can email the Licensing Team or write to:

The Licensing Team, 2nd Floor Laurence House
1 Catford Road, London SE6 4RU

Please could you ensure that any representations either for or against this application reach the Licensing Team by 26th August 2008.

The main issue for residents is the fact that music will be played until 4am and it seems the unit will be open until 5am.   They’re collecting a petition.  If anyone else has comments, please do get them to the licensing dept by the 26th - feel free to copy me in.

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.

The Lewisham Homes Lee Green Housing Office on Eltham Road has now closed.   As tenants in the ward will be aware, I campaigned against this closure when it was first proposed last summer.    Many residents said they didn’t receive the consultation document from Lewisham Homes, and many objected to having to travel to Catford to see their housing officer.   However, the Mayor and Cabinet approved the closure on November 14th.   It’s a real shame as it’s yet another empty unit in Leegate, and another local service lost.

Lewisham Homes originally planned to close the office at Christmas - but we were able to persuade them to keep it open until the end of the lease, which was good news.    I know residents at Leybridge and Newstead are now talking to Broomleigh about potential office arrangements after the stock transfer - and as residents will vote on these in the ballot, they’ll be keen to get things right.

To their credit, Lewisham Homes have arranged two surgery dates each week, where residents can see someone face-to-face.  These will take place on the ground floor of Merridale, Carston Close.  The surgery times are:

• Mondays from 2pm until 4pm
• Thursdays from 9.30am until 11.30am

Properties in Lee Green Ward are now managed from the Holbeach Housing Office in Catford (just round the corner from Argos).  You can call the office on 8314 7991 or email enquiries {at} lewishamhomes.org(.)uk    The office is open 9-5 every day except Wednesday, when the hours are 10-5.   

Repairs should always be reported on 8314 8314 or emailed to repairs {at} lewishamhomes.org(.)uk

Separately, all Lewisham Homes offices will be closed from 12 midday on Friday 18 April for all staff to attend their Annual Staff Conference. The out of hour emergency repairs service will continue to run during this time. The number is 8314 8314.

Lewisham Council is still landlord to properties managed by Lewisham Homes, so if you are having problems, you can still get in touch with your Councillors (as indeed you can if you’ve got problems with a housing association).   My contact details, as always, are here.

Apologies for not posting this sooner.   I attended the Planning Meeting on Thursday night, and the car wash was granted permission to continue operating until 2011, subject to the conditions mentioned in the report to the planning committee.

I think this is a good result - the operators said they were more than willing to improve the signage and fencing as they’d been asked to do, and stick to the hours of operation proposed.    I think a clean and tidy looking car wash is far preferable to the site falling derelict and into disrepair.   I know this was also the view of the majority of people who attended the public meeting last year.

You might remember that a public meeting was held last year at the United Reformed Church to discuss the continued use of the former BP garage on Burnt Ash Road as a car wash.

The general feeling of those at the meeting was that the car wash provided a good service, and was much preferable to the site being unoccupied, but it’s current appearance was poor and the site needed to be tidied up.

After much chasing up by your councillors, the application to continue use of the site as a car wash will be considered by Planning Committee A this Thursday, 28th February (7.30pm at the Town Hall).

The planning department have recommended that permission is granted, subject to several conditions - regarding hours of operation, that no car sales take place on the premises; that the lighting, signage and fencing is improved (and proposals approved by the Council) and that a refuse store is provided on site. You can read the report which is going to the committee here.

Please do let us know if you have any comments, or if you plan to attend the planning committee meeting.

St Modwen (who own the centre)  have agreed to progress their redevelopment proposals with a view to getting them included in the Local Development Framework - an important planning document which is due to be published in final form next August. St Modwen have committed to producing a draft land use plan for by April 2008. This won’t be a comprehensive planning application - just an indication of how they’re likely to use the land (e.g. retail, office space, housing, parking, etc). This is good news, as it marks the first step towards getting Leegate redeveloped so it reflects the vitality of our community. We’ll keep you updated as and when we hear more.

We also hear that a national non-food retail chain is interested in taking over the former Kwik Save unit, which is good news. However nothing’s been signed yet, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed.

We met with senior officers and the relevant cabinet member regarding the potential closure of the housing office on Eltham Road. Negotiations are now taking place between the Council, Lewisham Homes and Broomleigh to see if the office can be kept in use until the stock transfer ballot takes place and we know who will be managing the Council housing in our area.

Finally, St Modwen have beefed up the Christmas lights at Leegate this year, and very festive they look too!

Coming home from work tonight, I was really pleased to see that the new bins we paid for with this year’s locality fund have been installed on Eltham Road. The one in the picture’s just by the crossing outside the Hyde Housing office.

We chose the stainless steel design to match the seating that Transport for London installed when they remodelled the junction - and I think they look really good!

We also paid for the planters outside the Lewisham Homes office - both good examples of how we’re trying to make Leegate look better.

Do let us know what you think.