Agenda and minutes

Cllr Vicky Foxcroft welcomed everyone to the assembly meeting and

introduced Cllr Darren Johnson and Cllr Obajimi Adefiranye

Rachel Wickes welcomed everyone to the Stephen Lawrence Centre and

told the meeting that the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust is a national

education charity working towards transforming the lives of young people.

There are lots of activities taking place at the Centre including a jobs club, a

BBC apprenticeship programme and work with local schools. At present the

Centre is celebrating Women’s week with a host of activities linked to this.

PC Gillard and PCSO Burrows told the assembly meeting that they are the

Brockley Community Officers and that they deal with the local issues

supported by the Local Policing Team. At present the main issues are

Burglary, Robbery and Motor Vehicle crime. There have been burglary

patrols by the local policing team to try and combat burglary, most of the

robberies tend to occur in the transport hubs and motor vehicle crime is

starting to decline after peaking at Christmas. Predictive policing is used to

combat many of these crimes, this uses the latest technology to see where

offences are taking place and assesses crime patterns so that resources

can be channelled into the correct areas.

Q What are you doing to combat the drug use around Friendly Street and

Vanguard Street?

A We are aware of this and at present we are obtaining warrants to target

certain addresses

Q Should we use the 101 number instead of yours?

A If it is an emergency you must dial 999, if it is not, it does not really matter

as it will come to us anyway

Q How does an area become a hotspot?

A This is based upon reports and can change day to day. A good example

would be the Amersham Arms which is a regular hotspot for theft of mobile

phones and robbery where youths are generally targeted at transport hubs.

Q Cllr Adefiranye, the bus stop at Yew House is regularly being smashed, is

anything being done?

A We are working with TfL and Pinnacle on this, this bus stop may be

moved

Mark Zahra from Skanska told the meeting that Skanska are now in year 3

of a 4 year project to replace the street lights in the borough. Half of

Brockley ward has now been done and the work will be finished by August

this year.

Q What is the difference between heritage and non heritage lights?

A They are the same standard, but the heritage ones are more ornate

Q What about the lights at Broadway Fields play area, the replacements are

not as effective?

A We will need to look into this as this is a play area, it may not be a

Skanska matter

Brian Regan from Lewisham Planning services told the assembly about the

Local Development plan which sits under the core strategy which was

developed in 2011. This is known as the Development Management Local

Plan which the council is minded to adopt. This has to go through

independent examination and should be adopted later this year.

Brian spoke very comprehensively about this and if you want more

information please visit:

http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/planning/policy/LDF/developmentpolicies/Pages/Submission.aspx or contact Brian Regan on 020 8314 8774

or email brian.regan@lewisham.gov.uk

Q None of these new developments have enough parking why can’t this be

addressed?

A The national policy is to limit parking spaces

Q But there is a serious problem here, on Friendly Street there is no where

to park and buses often cannot pass along Brookmill Road

A Cllr Johnson – I did ask questions about this and the Deputy Mayor will

be consulting

A The only way to address parking issues is to have more CPZs, but

residents must want this

Q What about Council Housing?

A Cllr Foxcroft, we are building 250 houses, but we need to increase the

Council revenue account

Wickham Mews– Jas and Carol thanked the assembly for the funding and

stated that some of the money has been used to improve / clean the area

and gravel it. There were some trees and bulbs planted, but these were

stolen. There is an issue regarding fly tipping and Love Lewisham is

reluctant to assist as it is private land.

Cllr Foxcroft then told the assembly meeting that fly-tipping is becoming

quite an issue in Brockley and that maybe we should look at forming a fly

tipping sub group.

Breakspears Community Garden– Jane McCallum showed the assembly

meeting some pictures and stated that this is a work in progress, but there

are new beds, improved ponds and the area has really been transformed

from an area that was heavily fly tipped. There are now about 25 regular

gardeners and there is a great community spirit. People can visit most

weekends and there will be regular opening hours after Easter.

Cllr Foxcroft – This is a really successful project and is great to see

Brockley Society Tree Project– Anthony Russell told the meeting that

they were awarded £2,400 to purchase 10 trees all of which have been

planted. Three in the conservation area, 3 in Millmark Grove and 4 in St

John’s area. People can always fund trees themselves and they can reduce

pollution by 60%. People can also join the Brockley Society and become a

Tree Warden.

Cllr Foxcroft told the assembly that it was decided that the Councillors

Discretionary Fund and the rest of the underspend would go on youth

projects. Ideally we would have liked this to go through the youth forum, but

this is something that we will need to re-launch. It was therefore decided at

the last assembly that the decisions would be made by the Coordinating

Group. There was £4,713 to allocate and the following projects will be

funded:

Paint a Deck – For ages 7-16 a series of one day workshops to create their

ownskatedecks – awarded £770

Brockley Girl’s Football Project – taster sessions and a football tournament

for girls – awarded £980

Media workshops and careers advice day – Camera and sound workshops

plus careers advice – awarded £1,000

Children’s Society play day – A multi activity play day event to be held at

Amersham Children’s Centre – awarded £750

Healthy Eating for Life – Will help women who have experienced

disadvantage of one type or another, resulting in them becoming homeless,

to fulfil their full potential in terms of achievement, education and health –

awarded £500

Equipment and Table Tennis Competition – To enable the St Andrew’s

Centre to update their equipment and work more with the Brockley Youth

Forum – awarded £713

- Claudia Castillo told the assembly that there is a petition relating to

traffic problems on Brookmill Road, visit petitions 24.com for more

information

- Healthwatch Lewisham - Simone reminded the meeting that people

needed to complete the feedback form and let her know what is / is

not working regarding relating to local healthcare.

- Brockley Noise Action Group - aircraft noise is really a problem in

Brockley. There is a meeting on 18 March at St John’s Church to

discuss this.

- Build the Lenox - please sign the petition against Convoys Wharf.

The project itself is about preserving the areas heritage by building a

17th Century warship in this historical dockyard. For more information

visit www.buildthelenox.org

Councillor Adefiranye told the assembly that Brockley is losing 2 important Brockley activists. Cllr Darren Johnson has

been a great supporter of Brockley in every aspect and Cllr Vicky Foxcroft

has been a dynamic Councillor for 4 years, she is now moving on to greater

things. The assembly wished both Cllr Johnson and Cllr Foxcroft the best of

luck for the future and thanked them both for their hard work.

Cllr Johnson – It has been a real honour and pleasure to serve Brockley

for the last 12 years.

Cllr Foxcroft – It has been great working here in Brockley and meeting so

many great people, a big thank you to every one for their support.