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…!

Work will start on Tuesday (23rd Feb) to resurface Birch Grove (just off the South Circular).   Work should take about 3 days and will only take place between 8am and 5pm.

The contractors are Volker Highways.  If there are any problems, please contact Brian Humphris at the Council on 8314 2261 or his colleague Samantha McKerell on 8314 2181.

A number of residents on Brightfield Road have complained to us about lorries arriving to visit the Northbrook School construction site before 8am in the morning, in breech of the agreed delivery times.  In fairness to the site managers, Costain, they have erected signs at the end of the road to tell drivers not to do this, but obviously they have been ignored.

I raised this issue with the project team at a meeting with them on Thursday night.  They have kindly agreed to take this up with their suppliers to avoid this happening again.

Should this be a problem in future, this can be reported to Costain’s Project Manager, Clive Kraus, on 8297 1032 or e-mail clive.kraus {at} costain(.)com

Please do also let your local councillors know. We have a monthly meeting with the project team and can raise issues like this on residents’ behalf.

Finally, Costain are holding a drop-in session for local residents from 2pm on Friday 26th February – simply turn up at the Brightfield Road site entrance if there’s an issue you’d like to raise. I understand the intention is to continue these drop-in sessions once a fortnight at the same time.

I was out in the rain first thing tomorrow for a walk-about at Leegate with Lee Green’s new Town Centre Manager, Salma Hathbul. Salma’s just started working for Lewisham and is covering Lee Green, Crofton Park and Ladywell town centres.  Paul, Sven and I met with her at the Town Hall last week and decided it’d be good to have a walkabout ‘on the ground’.

We had a walk around the Leegate Centre and discussed the various shops that have moved on over the last few years, and also some ideas Salma has to kick-start some positive activity at the centre. Salma’s main priority is to provide information and support to businesses in the area, and she’s already been out and about meeting shopkeepers.

One thing the Town Centre Management team are promoting at the moment is the annual ‘Who do you love?’ competition to find Lewisham’s best independent business.   You may remember that last year, the winner was Lee Green resident David Rundel – better known as The Sausage Man. The closing date to nominate someone for this year’s award is February 28th, and you can do so using the form here.

I’m sure we all wish Salma the best of luck in her new role.  You can contact her on 8314 8246 or at towncentremanagement {at} lewisham.gov(.)uk

Following the issues the Local Assembly has raised regarding parking, the Council is now consulting all areas of Lee Green ward that don’t currently have a Controlled Parking Zone about parking in their area.

If you’re in a road in Lee Green Ward that doesn’t have parking restrictions, you should have received a booklet like the one on the right over the last week or so*. The consultation explains what’s happened to date and then asks if you have a parking problem in your area, asks how you’d like this addressed (a CPZ, extra restrictions like yellow lines on corners, or just for the area to be left as it is).  The consultation also asks about car clubs, which is good to see.

I’d make two comments – firstly, this consultation has gone to to every road in the ward without restrictions at present.  I’m sure in amongst those roads there are several that don’t have a parking problem, and just want to be left alone.  That’s fair enough, but I hope people will appreciate that it’s only by doing this once-and-for-all consultation that we’ll be able to find that out.  If this is the case on your road, then please do indicate that and return the consultation – if you don’t speak up, then your voice won’t be heard.

Secondly, if people do want a CPZ in their area, then I’d encourage them to use the ‘other comments’ section to state exactly what sort of CPZ they’d like to see.  Many, many people have asked me why we can’t have the 2-hour CPZs that exist in other boroughs like Greenwich and Bromley.  I think that is what’s needed in an area like ours, where the problem is all-day commuter parking by stations, rather than shoppers, or people visiting the hospital.  If you’d prefer a two-hour arrangement, then please do make that point in the comments section – otherwise we’ll end up with more 9am to 7pm CPZs that make the Mayor £1.3million, but cause tonnes of inconvenience for everyone else.

Finally, if anyone has any issues they’d like to raise with me, then do please get in touch.

*update – this excludes residents on Holme Lacey and Dallinger Roads, and a small section of Manor Lane – these roads will be presented with more detailed proposals for a CPZ covering their roads.  I’m told the consultation document for this area should be ready in the next four weeks or so.

Sven and I were up on Millbank Way and Cambridge Drive this morning.   The Crown Estate are proposing to sell-off their residential property estate, which includes properties in Lee Green, as well as others elsewhere in London.

That’s understandably caused a lot of concern to the tenants and leaseholders of Crown Estate properties in Lee Green.

The Crown Estate have said that the proposal only affects the ‘bricks and mortar’ – e.g. tenancies would remain in place.   However, they are exploring a variety of options – they say they want to sell to a ‘focused housing provider’, but admit this could be a private landlord or a social landlord (e.g. a housing association).  This is a very important distinction, as the sell-off would affect residents in different ways depending who the buyer is.

I have to say, I’d rather things stayed as they are, but if they are determined to sell-off these properties, then a housing association would be a safer option for the residents as their rent levels are regulated and services are subject to inspection and regulation.

The local Lib Dem team is asking residents to give us their views, and we’ll incorporate these into our official response to The Crown Estate.  If you’re an affected resident, do get in touch.

The Crown Estate are also running some drop-in sessions for residents who want to know more.  Details of these are in the brochure you should have received – or contact me for more info.

Update: residents now have a petition on the Number 10 website – you can join me and sign it here: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/crownresidents/ There’s also a campaign website online at http://www.ourhomesarenotforsale.co.uk/