Agenda and minutes

Addressing your noise issues – Charlene Noel Neighbourhood Community Safety Officer

Cllr Stamirowski Introduced Charlene: Charlene Noel knows her field outside and in, she is fantastic officer and is here to talk to us about what Lewisham can and can’t do as an authority around noise nuisance.

Our department used to be called the neighbourhood community safety service now we are the Crime, Enforcement and Regulation Service. The service has meshed as one team with anti-social behaviour, licencing, noise nuisance and trading standards. Anything that comes in around those areas our officers look into, our officers are now extremely busy.
The borough is cut into 4 quadrants, I manage the west side of the borough which covers Catford South, Forest Hill Perry Vale, and Rushey Green. I know Catford south well I grew up here.
I am here to talk to you about noise nuisance and what we do. Historically we had a noise nuisance team however, because of the cuts – the services have all been amalgamated so we now only have a noise nuisance team that is available 9-5. We realise most of the noise nuisance cases coming in at night and that there is an issue there.
How do we manage this? We have to prove as a council that a noise nuisance is classed as a statutory nuisance. Most of the parties that happen tend to be a one offs - so what we would do, is contact the residents and warn them about etiquette and behaviour of future events. If it is ongoing noise then our offers will go out at night and investigate. If it is proven to be ongoing, we will serve the repeat offender with an abatement notice. If they breach that notice, we will take legal action. That abatement notice lasts for a year.
Now, in the summer months, complaints go up as there are more bbq’s, parties, weddings etc.  The noise nuisance team will be working more night shifts through the summer.
The service is constantly under review, we might need to change the service back to having officers working at night full time.
What we have found is that noise nuisance in the borough as a whole has dropped, but this could be because residents are more aware that we don’t have a night service so make fewer complaints about one off situations. Lewisham councils was one of the first to join their services together. Other boroughs are now following us, i.e. Southwark and Greenwich. That is the way we stand at the moment.

Thank you Charlene.

Q.  Apart from parties what are the other major causes of noise that your team will come out for?
A. Mostly mechanical, car alarms house alarms any noise at all, if it constitutes a statutory nuisance under the ‘noise act’ we have to go out and investigate.
Q. The major problem of noise we suffer from are car alarms, they are from bus drivers who park on our road, calendar road. It  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

Planning in your local area – how it works! Lewisham Planning and Enforcement Manager, Michael Johnson.
Structure of planning service – within resources and regen directory. Headed by Janet Senior and Emma Talbot, it includes development managers, design and conservation manager enforcement team and a Business support team.
The Planning team carries out the Council’s town planning functions. Development plans, strategy, neighbourhood plan and so on. 4000 planning aps each year. General planning aps, new builds extensions etc. applications for conservation consent and so on. Apps within conservation areas are subject to special considerations and dedicated policies. We also have Planning Committees, 3 planning committees and a strategic planning committee. They deal with things that have had 3 or more objections from the community, or larger applications, or if an application has been referred by a councillor. These have to be decided within a nationally decided timescale, small within 8 weeks, larger within 13. Most are decided within these time periods.
All applications are available for viewing on the council website. Comments can be posted on the web, gives individuals to be notified by developments that affect their area either by property, road or applications submitted within a period. People likely to be affected directly are sent a letter details of the applications and where to send their comments/objections. There are notification procedures and officers do take further inspections. They are also advertised by local notices, the developer will put up the signs. The Council are responsible for conservation area signs and larger developments.
I am not a neighbourhood planning expert. In general, introduced by the localism act 2011, where local communities can influence planning policy and process for an area. When adopted a neighbourhood plan becomes part of a statutory document.

Questions
Q. Danby road, ongoing issue of an ongoing development of a carwash – what’s happening?
A. Familiar with the breach. The enforcement team are on the verge of serving an enforcement notice against that unauthorised development. Part of the issue was around gathering the evidence. One of the issues was reporting your concerns to the local council, we had received complaints from neighbours but you need to document actual incidents. And diarise it. Thank you for doing this - We are at a point now when we have the evidence and are able to serve an enforcement notice. Serving the notice isn’t the end of the story – they have a right to appeal which will go to the Secretary of State. You will be made aware if this happens so you are able to raise your concerns.
Cllr Stamirowski commented that it had taken a long time, residents are frustrated, planning law is very complicated I know it is frustrating,

Q. Question was raised with Michael from the Culverley Green RA about a property on Penerly Road. Discussion was had around that particular property
A. what we can take action on and something Michael is looking into, is serving a section 215 notice, an untidy land  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Ella Roberta Family Foundation - Rosamund Adoo Kissi-Debrah
Hello everyone. I am here to simply introduce myself and the work of the Foundation. Feel free to ask questions after. Ella Roberta Family Foundation was set up by myself and Dr Wallace from Great Ormond Street Hospital, after my eldest Daughter Ella passed away from asthma. We still to this day do not really know why she passed away, this was one of the reasons that that Dr Wallace felt we should set up a foundation. There were a few issue for him as he worked for great Ormond Street. My late daughter was incredibly passionate about the local area, she was born here, she went to Holbeach school, she went to Lewisham Hospital, she was in the hospital over 40 times. She was a server at St Swithern’s Church, her whole life was about Hither Green, Catford, Lewisham, He felt it was only fitting that if we were setting up a foundation, it should be in Lewisham and Lewisham Children should benefit from the foundation.

We have the support of Lewisham Hospital and I work very closely there with the doctors. We are looking to work with medical students at the hospital and hopefully to go into local schools to raise awareness about asthma.
aim to I work with doctors, not used to speaking to community, I am used to talking to doctor and speak to them about doctors. Sadly I am very medicalised now. There are many issues regarding Ella’s case, this is a tool kit that the doctors and I are why I do what I do

Out of every class in London 3 children have asthma, out of every school 12 children a year die in London from asthma. We were at an asthma event last week, in this day and age no child should die from asthma. No one should die from asthma. My daughter was incredibly sever. Controlling it was a real problem, most people die from mild asthma, such as out of date inhalers, not going for their reviews and check-ups going to their GP at any sign of a problem. It is the no 1 childhood illness. Lewisham has one of the worst asthma rates in the UK. The hospital is overrun with children with asthma. 10000 a year just on spacers part of the inhaler…
Ella’s case came to the notice of Jocelyne Coburn, a human rights lawyer, her interest was personal, she had it herself. She was very interested in the pollution levels. The EU has certain limits we should not be going over. We don’t know if the GOVT will keep to those or do something different. There is an ongoing case where the GOVT has been breaching these levels. Nitrogen dioxide levels are very high locally.

A consultation is going on now. Please fill it in to do with the south circular around pollution levels. Basically to get your support. I have support for friends of the earth. There  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Lewisham Healthwatch Nigel Bowness
Chair of Healthwatch in Lewisham there are 4 Lewisham based trustees that oversee the work of Healthwatch Lewisham
there are information flyers. Was established by the 2012 Health and Social care act. Network of 152 local Healthwatchs. Lewisham Commissions the Healthwatch function in Lewisham. It is an independent charity.
We are here to engage with Lewisham residents. We want to hear your views about what your concerns and experiences are on health and social care - we take your views seriously, we take these back to commissioners of health and social care services. The other aspect of the service is the NHS complaints advocacy service, this can be really challenging for people we are here to provide you with independent advice and help making complaints. Our priorities are largely determined by you. Issues about access to service, issues around mental health and issues for children and young people.
Access to services especially GP services is a common problem, so that is even more of a problem if you are part of a community that doesn’t speak English, or have disabilities, we have spoken to a number of communities about their experiences, raising awareness among children around mental health issues, we have been working with homeless people and food banks around the barriers accessing services.

We have a variety of hubs or stalls, usually in GP services, Lewisham market, Peoples Day, a member of staff or Healthwatch volunteers  are there if you want to share your experiences of health and social care. Unless we hear from your we can’t make change.
One of the things we also do is worked in partnership with local partners and commissioners and other Healthwatches. Promote engagement opportunities, workshops for young people. Call us with your comments, invite us to your event, if you are a community group, or resident association we are always happy to come along with our stall, we have surveys related to health and social care issues and we have focus groups. If you sign up to the email list, you can be kept fully informed we also have a range of volunteering opportunities, we take this very seriously and you can really benefit from this. We have a dedicated community engagement officer for Lewisham Marzena. There are other engagement officers as well. You can contact us via our website on twitter and Facebook.

Take any questions
Q. I think it’s great work you are doing. The powers that be you mentioned – who do you work with and report to? Is it the CCG or is it Public Health? Do you have powers to ensure that the recommendations in your reports are implemented?
A. We share widely with the borough providers CCG all reports are in public domain. We work very closely with all. We are there as a critical friend, we don’t have regulatory powers. Our MO is to be that critical friend, challenge constructively and fairly, you supply us with the evidence that we can  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Shutter art Patricio Forester
The Sandhurst Parade Shutter Art Project was funded by the Catford south Assembly.
I am Anglo-Argentine, I have been given an impossible job to try and please everybody to create to shutter art projects on Sandhurst parade.
I do public art, I don’t do graffiti, I settled in the north of the borough I have been here 20 years since graduating from Goldsmiths College. I have been working and developing strategy to make art in the street that generates a sense of improvement. Doesn’t mean everyone will like it, but they get a sense of the urban space and how we related to each other. The same way when you see a broken window, people feel entitled to keep on breaking however, when people see care and perfection people react differently. That is what public art is …it’s about how a group of people can work together to generate a sense of improvement -
We don’t go away and say hey, here is the art work, we follow these plans this is the process that we work to:
UNDERSTAND The space, who uses it? why? what works? what fails?

INVOLVE Users Managers Stakeholders Experts To explore
IDENTIFY constraints eg materials, budget, health and safety, endurance
IMAGINE Creative directions, Production,  options, Media, this is the hardest thing to come up with the ideas,  

INVOLVE Users, Managers, Stakeholders, Experts, To refine the ideas
PRODUCE Print, video, events, ceramics, murals

INVOLVE Users, Managers, Stakeholders, Experts, To evaluate again constantly talking to the community otherwise we never learn while things work better than others.
Fabricio showed pictures of the many of the works he is most know for, including the shirt and ties in Deptford, the cow bins in New cross, 1000 sunflowers planted in New Cross. They might not see it as art but everyone will see it as an improvement.
We work with youth at risk, voting to resolve the conflicts, anxieties about the environment and the complexities of environmental issues. Turned a water tank into a giant screw. (all pics available on the presentation document

We were commissioned by the Corbett Residents Association.
These are some of the problems with the parade we are trying to resolve: Visually cluttered, Want to bring the shop owners together, Not very appealing at the moment, Doesn’t feel like a destination.
We are doing 2 shops but hoping to enlarge it start with 2 and move it on…
The brief for the shutters was: Communities coming together, Recognize diversity, Preserve the beauty of the Corbett Estate, Capture the spirit of the area.
Easier said than done
The agreed themes were around Greening, unity, people coming together, the night.
We took the ideas to the Corbett Estate fun day we showed them all the options and explained the concepts and over 75 people answered the feedback. The most voted for one was eco planet. I’m not surprised, it is the most simple and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Hayley Barton, Local Resident -  to talk to us about the empty property on Glenfarg road.

This is an issues that we have been working with the empty homes officer at the council. It has been empty for 7 years now, the owner started doing a lot of work at the time, then ran out of money, since that time the property is empty and deteriorating. A really poor state of repair. It is quite a dangerous house

The council has been in a lot of talks with the owner to bring the house back to life although promised have been made no progress has happened.
I live next door, so I have a vested interest in the property, and from my perspective, to have to come home to this house is depressing and horrible. I would live to see it bought back to life.

We had a little survey and a meeting with local neighbours. There is a lot of support in the road to bring the property back to life. I have also spoken to the owner but promises were made but nothing happened.

The result is that the next step is to encourage her to make a difference, Nick is trying to get support for an ‘empty dwelling management order’, while the owner keeps ownership the Council can step into her shoes for a time and complete the renovations and let it out for affordable ownership. The money invested in the property, would be paid back through the rent. After 7 years she would get the property back.

That is the initiative if you can support me. There is a petition at the back of the hall, please sign it on your way out. Please make sure you sign that petition we really don’t want empty homes as it is important.

Cllr Alan Smith who has something he needs to say….

I am going to say a few words about someone present in the room, we have often not seen eye to eye over the years, but we have always managed to get over it and work productively. Earlier on this evening he said he was trying to make life easier for people, [ha ha] I would dispute that [ha ha]! But quite right - you don’t get anywhere without challenging the status quo. The person I am of course talking about is Peter Ranken. He has made significant progress for this area through the Archibald Corbett Society and the wider community. As a result of that community work, our MP Heidi wrote a letter, as a result of that letter he is no longer ‘Peter Ranken’, he is now ‘Peter Ranken – MBE’  we would like to congratulate him.
Very many congratulations well deserved.

Peter Ranken: I would like to say that I am very humbled I have been given this this is for all of you! You have been so supportive of the ACS and the Healthy lifestyle Centre, it wouldn’t have happened without all of you.
This is not for me it is for the whole community.

AOB Jeanette Kenyon, we had a meeting about fly-tipping in March at the assembly which was a bit fractious. We sat down after the meeting as a small group of concerned residents from across the ward and we are going to do something powerful. The CRA has set up an action group with will focus on fly tipping, we have written the chair for the Public Rhelm and we are getting a group together to really try and put it in place, it will be a Catford south initiative - when we bid for money under this theme in the autumn, we would appreciate your support!.

That’s it…I apologise if we have had to keep pace up but we have to leave the building at a certain time.

Thank you all so much for coming this evening, really appreciate it is one way you can really get involve, next one is in October, thank you very much everyone safe journey home - goodnight