When I asked the other day for ideas for this year’s locality fund, I mentioned some of the projects we’ve supported in the past.   One of these came to fruition on Monday, when Sven unveiled the new local history board at the Lee Green crossroads.   The board was the idea of the Lee Manor Society, who have done a great job producing it and choosing the right spot for it. 

The photo on the right shows Sven cutting the ribbon and one below shows the unveiled board.   If you get the chance, do wander over and learn something about the history of our area.

My Lib Dem colleagues at the GLA have brought to my attention a new report from the London Development Agency that looks at Lee Green and six other town centres in South London, examining whether new housing could be the answer to revitalising them.

The study – which you can download here – looks at Lee Green in some detail and suggests three potential schemes for regenerating the whole crossroad area.   It also makes the case more generally for housing in town centres.

I think the report’s interesting, and certainly in all the discussions I’ve had with the Leegate Centre’s owners, St Modwen, over the last 3 and a bit years, they’ve always stated that one of their aims in any redevelopment would be to introduce more housing.  It makes sense to them financially (or did!) and it’s also in-line with London and local planning policy which calls for more housing around transport hubs.  Not sure Lee Green’s quite a transport hub, but there are a fair number of buses..! 

The disappointing thing about this report is that it doesn’t seem to have involved any consultation with local people or their elected representatives.  The nearest thing that I can see is a meeting they’ve had with a planning policy manager at the Council.  The report acknoledges that “Local residents groups aspire to a better shopping, restaurant and cafe offer as well as public realm improvements,” which I presume is a reference to the Lee Manor Society’s design brief.

All in all, a bit of a missed opportunity.   The report’s starting point is to make the case for extra housing, but without asking the community if that’s what we want, the rest of its findings are a bit academic.  It’s a shame, because the money that the LDA have spent looking at Lee Green could have been used to help us develop a real community vision.

If you get the chance to have a read, I’d be interested in your views.

I’ve  spent the last two evenings stuck in the Town Hall, so thought I’d explain what I’ve been up to.

On Wednesday, I attended a meeting of Mayor and Cabinet. I don’t make a habit of going to these, but there were three things I was interested in on the agenda.

Firstly, the Mayor was (finally!) agreeing the rent increase for 2009/10. This was delayed as the Government announced – very late in the day – some extra money for rents. This has caused chaos as Lewisham had already announced the rent rise, and so has had to freeze rents til July while they work out what to do. The Government has also managed to exclude thousands of tenants across the borough, who won’t benefit from this cash at all. Not their finest hour. Anyway, the final increase is 3.84% and should come in from July 6th.

Secondly, the Mayor agreed the waste strategy, which (amongst other things) will see a garden waste drop-off point set up during weekends, probably in the Blackheath Station Car Park. A bit nearer than the Landmann Way site for people in Lee Green, but still no good if you haven’t got a car (can’t see many people pushing a wheelbarrow that far!).

Thirdly, the Mayor rubber-stamped the £5,000 the local assembly allocated for community consultation and activities at the Leegate Centre. Excellent news.

After work on Thursday, I met with the Executive Director for Customer Services to discuss various housing issues. The good news is, the Lee stock transfer is still on-track for approval in June/July – can’t come a moment too soon for me or the residents on the stock transfer estates.

Then I was off to housing committee, which was considering the draft homelessness prevention strategy. I was pleased to get the document amended so that councillors will get regular reports on how the strategy’s progressing. It’s one thing having a good strategy (which I think we now have) but it’s another thing making sure it’s implemented.

Once housing committee concluded, I was straight into the Sustainable Development Committee, where they were already half way through taking evidence from Sutton, Islington and Greenwich Councils on home insulation. Always good to hear what some Lib Dem-run councils are up to – and Islington and Sutton do seem to be setting the pace. After that we discussed the new parks management contract (currently held by Glendale). This gave me a chance to put in another plea for a park keeper for Manor Park. I was also pleased to learn that some of the investment cash for this contract will be targeted at smaller parks – so there’s a chance we could get some improvements to the little-known Edith Nesbitt Gardens, Lee Green’s third park.

Thankfully the weekend’s a bit more Lee Green focussed – I’ve got my monthly advice surgery at Leybridge Court, and am planning to drop into the Lee Manor Society Plant Mart and the St. Margaret’s Victorian Fair. Late on, I’m attending a meeting with residents regarding 87 Old Road, and then I’m sitting back to watch Eurovision.

The next Lee Green Assembly will take place on Thursday 7th May from 7.30pm until 9.30pm at Lee Manor School, Leahurst Road.

My flyer was on the doormat when I got home tonight, and I’d encourage you to have a read of yours when it comes through – it gives a good summary of what we’ve been up to since the assembly began last June.

Up for discussion this time are:

• Proposal to spend £20,000 on developing a youth club in Lee Green
• An update on the Leegate priority
• An update on the environment prority and a suggestion that we spend £20,000 on further improvements in Manor Park
• An update on the parking ‘motion’ we passed at the last Assembly
• An update on the re-opening of Manor House Library from the Library service.

So a lot to discuss – do come along if you can make it, and if you can’t, feel free to let me have your views in advance of the meeting.

I’ve been contacted by several people about the dumped fridges that are currently in the doorway to the New Tigers’ Head at Lee Green.

This corner of the junction is actually in the London Borough of Greenwich, so I’d asked my Lib Dem colleague Cllr Brian Woodcraft of Middle Park and Sutcliffe Ward to take this up.   The council can’t remove them straight away, as they’re on private ground, but Brian’s contacted the owner of the site and got their permission for Greenwich Council to remove them – so hopefully they’ll be gone soon!

You might be interested to know that Greenwich Council actaully granted planning permsission in 2007 for redevelopment of the pub into flats and some sort of retail use on the ground floor – the permission still seems to be current.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted for which I can only apologise.   I’ve had a really busy January both with Council and Lib Dem-related activities, and a busy time at work.

Earlier this month,  two of my Lib Dem colleagues have moved on to pastures new.    My former flatmate Councillor Simon Carter’s work has moved to Holland, which means he’s had to stand down from the Council.  And Councillor Mark Morris has accepted a new job with the Greater London Authority, which prevents him from continuing as an elected councillor.   I’ll miss both these colleagues, but I’m pleased that Blackheath Councillor Chris Maines has taken over as the Lib Dem Group Leader, and that we’ve got two excellent candidates in the form of Duwayne Brooks and Jenni Clutten standing in Downham Ward to replace Simon and Mark.

Full Council last week was a less than edifying process – Andrew Milton has summed it up better than I could.    However, our new group leader asked what the Council is doing to deal with the three empty Woolworths sites we now have in the borough (in the Lewisham Centre, in Downham and our own in Lee Green).    The Deputy Mayor advises that staff in the Town Centre Management Team will be making contact with the owners to find out their plans for the sites.  I’m pleased to see the Council recognised that these are anchor sites in each of the shopping centres.   Some residents from Leybridge Court have asked me to write to Wilkinsons to see if they’d be interested in the Leegate unit, which I’ll do.  If anyone has any ideas of any other retailers who’d be good, let me know and I’ll drop them a line – it’s worth a try.