Residents along Southbrook Road will be aware that Transport for London proposed earlier this year to install fixed stops along their road to serve the 273 route.

Following objections from residents, the plans for Southbrook Road have now been revised.    Stops will now be situated outside the Northbrook pub and the small industial estate opposite, with no stops outside residents’ homes.   Southbrook Road residents should receive a letter from TfL to this effect in due course.  

Unfortunately retaining the hail and ride system is apparently not an option, as this is being removed right across London.

Stops along Fernbrook Road will now be located:

• Opposite Hither Green Station where the timetable frame is now (Petts Wood direction)
• Just west of the junction with Fernbrook Crescent (230b) (Petts Wood direction)
• Outside the Manor Cafe (Petts Wood direction)
• Outside 65/67 (Lewisham Direction)
• Opposite 68a (Lewisham Direction)
• Directly outside Hither Green Station (Lewisham direction)

Manor Park will proceed pretty much as planned, with an additional set of stops to be located on Staplehurst Road in the area people use at present to board and alight.  

Regular visitors to this site will know that we’ve been working to set up a user group for the recently refurbished Manor Park.

The next meeting of the user group will be on Monday 2nd June at 7.30pm in the Parish Room at the Good Shepherd on Handen Road.

Paul has more details here.

The first meeting of the newly formed Manor Park User Group will be on Monday the 28th April at 7.30pm in the Parish Room of the Good Shepherd Church in Handen Road.

Paul has more details here.

Then Paul has news for you.   

Hope to see you at the meeting next Tuesday!  

Details: Tuesday February 12th, from 7pm in the Parish Room of the Good Shepherd Church in Handen Road

Residents in Manor Park will soon be consulted by TfL (Transport for London) on possible changes to the Hail and Ride sections of the 273 bus route which runs from Lewisham, Tesco - Hither Green - Lee - Grove Park - Chislehurst - Petts Wood.

From TfL’s consultation letter:
This route operates on a Hail and Ride basis in Manor Park, Staplehurst Road, Fernbrook Road and Southbrook Road. Following discussions with LB Lewisham and in conjunction with the proposed introduction of a Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ), we propose to introduce fixed bus stops in these roads. Stops have been identified following a survey arranged with TfL, the bus operator and the Council. The Police were also invited to attend and will receive this consultation letter.

Details of the proposed stopping points on Manor Park are:

Towards Petts Wood:

• outside Alamo Car Rental building.
• outside no: 37
• opposite no: 70

Towards Lewisham:

• outside nos: 84/86
• at entrance to Manor Park (the actual public park!).
• opposite the Alamo Car Rental building.

Subject to the consultation, TFL propose to implement fixed stops as detailed above. At this stage there are no proposals for shelters on Manor Park.

Please let us have your comments - and of you live on Manor Park, don’t forget to respond to TFL yourself too - a good response rate increases the chances of TFL listening to residents.

Better late than never - I’ve been having some problems with my internet connection, as I moved flat over Christmas - but a reminder that you can recycle your Christmas tree at two points in the ward:

• Old Road entrance to Manor House Gardens
• Manor Park entrance to Manor Park

Two years ago, we didn’t have any recycling points for Christmas trees in the ward.  Last year, my colleague Paul Bentley persuaded the Council to introduce one in Manor House Gardens, which was a massive succcess.   This year, we’ve managed to get another point in Manor Park.

Please do take advantage of these free facilities, and help get the ward off to a clean and tidy 2008.

Your councillors have been asked to give their opinion on whether it’s worth pushing forward attempts to get funding for a bridge across the Quaggy from Longhurst Road, creating a new entrance to Manor Park. While it is true that there is some opposition to the proposal, as far as we can tell the majority are still in favour as it is felt having access to and from this area of the park will increase the number of people using the park and add to the overall security of park users and nearby residents.

We’ve also suggested that opening a café or some other form of activity in the park would increase ‘passive supervision’ of the area (Pistachios, who run the café in Manor House Gardens, have offered to get involved in a partnership with local young people, which we think is a great idea).

We’ve also raised the issue of the closure of the park gates. Only one person is responsible for locking the gates of unmanned parks across the borough, and we think Manor Park needs proper control of the locking and unlocking of the gates to prevent it from falling into misuse once more.

Do let us know if you have any thoughts on the above - my details are here.