Agenda and minutes
PDF 1 KBVenue: St Laurence Church Community Centre - Main Hall
Contact: Lucy Formolli
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Welcome from the Chair |
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Lewisham Big Budget Challenge Presentation from John Miller, Q and A and a chance to let the Council know your thoughts on how and where you would make savings. Minutes: John Miller, Head of Planning at Lewisham Council, took the attendees through the big budget challenge presentation. And explained that the challenge was to cut £1 in every £3. with the total of £85 million to be saved over all, £40 million of which will be in the first year. Many savings have already been made but there are many more to come. He emphasised that this was the start of a conversation, not a formal consultation – that will come later based on the outcome of these investigations. It is for you to let us know where you think the council can make some savings. Details of the figures and numbers involved are on the presentation delivered by John. John took the attendees through the big budget simulator on the Lewisham Council website. You can see the savings you can make and the consequences of those savings. Finally the decision making process was detailed for the attendees including an overview of the scrutiny and select committees that will challenge officers on their recommendations for savings – what the consequences are and how these will be mitigated. Then a formal periods of consultation. The Council will set its budget on the 25th of February 2015. John advised that that attendees take full advantage of the exercise to let the council know their thoughts and what matters to the community.
Q and A session followed, a number of clarification questions were asked and included the following as a sample:
Q. Why Lewisham seemed to be worse off compared to other boroughs? A. This national government are applying the cuts using a different formula than in the past - as a flat rate rather than taking into account deprivation of an area which is why Lewisham is hard hit his time comparatively Q. Could council tax be increased? A. Mayor of Lewisham had in his manifesto that he would not increase Council tax as he felt that people were feeling the squeeze enough Q. if someone else gets into government at the next general election will the situation improve? A john could not pre-empt what a national government would do but felt the situation was unlikely to change Q. Is there the opportunity to increase revenue? A. yes, where ever possible increasing revenue is being looked at Q. where is the biggest pressure likely to be? A. the majority of council spend is for the most vulnerable people in Lewisham therefore it is crucial to be very careful that the most vulnerable are not disproportionately affected. The attendees then took part in the big budget challenge exercise to help the council know what was most important to them and where they felt savings could be made. This information was collected and fed into the big budget challenge.
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Brownhill Road Petition Minutes: Natasha Clarkeson introduced a campaign petition for a safer Brownhill Road
We set up this campaign following the death of a young girl in July 2014, it really shook our community and has highlighted the lack of safe crossings on Brownhill Road.
The positive response we have received from the local community has been overwhelming and already after only 2 days we have over 330 signatures. We feel that we need TfL to do a safety assessment and specifically look at the junction of Brownhill Road/Stainton Road and the junction of Brownhill Road/Torridon Road.
Brownhill Road is a crucial part of the South Circular and always busy. This particular stretch between Torridon Road and Catford is also a busy pedestrian route with families having to cross it in order to get to schools. We want to provide our children a safe place to get to and from school and the park. Lewisham is a rapidly growing borough so this is why we feel if we don't improve the safety soon we are likely to see another fatality.
We already have the full support of Cllr Alan Smith and Heidi Alexander so we would really appreciate your platform of the Catford South Assembly Meeting to reach our target of 1000 signatures. Heidi Alexander has also said once we are ready to submit our petition, she would be happy to send this on to the Commissioner of Transport for London, Sir Peter Hendy, on our behalf.
The petition was passed around at the assembly meeting for those who wanted to sign and people were encouraged to sign it online
Here is a link to the petition: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/safer-brownhill-road-for-everyone
You can also contact saferbrownhillroad@gmail.com for more information and please see the facebook page for regular updates https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004487115477
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Local Assembly Funding Hear from the organisations the panel are recommending to the assembly this year. Minutes: Local Assembly Funding Cllr Eva Stamirowski, who chaired the special funding coordinating group meeting, explained the process of assessment that the coordinating group went through when assessing bids to bring forward to the assembly. The applications presented to the room had gone through very strict scrutiny and used a selection criteria based around the priorities and project suggestions for the ward as decided by the assembly at the previous 2 meetings.
The recommendations for the funding were presented to the assembly with representatives of those applying for funding discussing their project, taking questions and explaining what they hope to achieve. Initially, as was decided at a previous full assembly meeting, there was to only be one vote accepting the recommendations of the funding co group as a whole. However there was a feeling in the room from attendees that they wanted to vote on each individual project, Cllr Amrani as chair agreed he was happy to hold an individual vote for each project. This was done by a show of hands. There were 78 people eligible to vote. The outcome of that vote is as follows:
Torridon Infants School – Torridon Mosaics project – £890 78 for – 0 against. Unanimously carried Culverley Green Residents Association - Improving the Street Environment - £764 73 for – 5 Against. Majority carried Corbett residents
association - Corbett Green Streets -
£2000 Corbett Resident Association – Sandhurst Parade Christmas Market - £750 77 for – 1 against. Majority carried St Laurence Youth Centre Trust – Sunbeam tots - £2490 78 for – 0 against. Unanimously carried Diamond Club – Zumba Chair - £2053 77 for – 1 against. Majority carried Lewisham Young Women’s Resource Centre - SNAP - Special Needs Activity Program - £2000 78 for - 0 against. Unanimously carried Corbett Residents Association – Sandhurst Shop Art - £2000 60 for – 18 against. Majority carried CommuntiyTeachsport - Volunteer Active Teachsport £2053 78 for – 0 against. Unanimously carried
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Abbotshall Road Update Minutes: Peter Ranken from Community Teachsport gave an update on the development of the Abbotshall Road centre. Community Teachsport has raised £450,000 to regenerate Abbotshall Road Playing Field and build a new Healthy Lifestyle Centre which is due to open in April 2015. The Centre will be open weekdays and at weekends from 9.30am to 6.30pm and provide a natural gathering place for all members of the community offering a range of junior sporting activities and healthy lifestyle activities for all including Yoga and Pilates plus health and weight management advice. There will be a community café to relax in and a community garden with opportunities to volunteer
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Catford Bulbs in Bloom Minutes: Update on Bulbs in Bloom from Lewisham Gardens. Bulbs have been available for residents to collect from Holy Cross Primary School and Torridon Library, and available at the meeting here tonight. Over 8000 bulbs are being given away. Information on how to best plant the bulbs and what they are is in the agenda pack. Primary schools and local community groups were delivered hundreds of bulbs to brighten up their areas. Huge thanks to everyone involved and the volunteers who came along to help with the distribution. We are hoping that by planting your bulbs outside in your front gardens everyone will benefit from a more beautiful area, and help encourage neighbourliness. Bulbs in Bloom will hopefully happen again in 2015. |
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Community Updates Minutes: Beckenham Golf Course – Statement by David Hodson, Local Catford South resident, unable to attend this evening
Beckenham Place Park Golf
Course is a public course within a public park in south east
London. For hundreds of thousands of golfers, this is the course
where they learned the game. Once the most-played public course in
Europe, Beckenham Place Park is the only 18 hole public course in the ‘inner
boroughs’ of South London. In addition, it has in recent
years assumed a leading role in bringing the game of golf to the
youth of the district with a thriving junior academy introducing
this splendid game, with its emphasis on fair play and etiquette,
to players as young as 6 years old.
Bakerloo Line Extension petition
Petition to call on the Mayor of London and Transport for London (TfL) to extend the Bakerloo Line to south-east London via Lewisham and on towards Bromley via Catford. The Bakerloo Line extension would be good for Lewisham, Southwark & Bromley. It would improve connectivity for local residents travelling into central London. By helping people access the wider jobs market available in central London, it will help tackle poverty and unemployment locally. It will also support local economic development, bring jobs, investment and opportunities. There is a petition here tonight and online that you can sign. www.BakerlooExtension.com
The Big Draw Catford
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AOB Minutes: Does any one know what is happening with the pot holes around Hazlebank Road and Crantock road. Cllr Stamirowski has raised it with officers and will does again.
Garden waste collection – frustration as there is dumping. The green bag service still goes on – buy a pack of bags from the library for £10. Consider a funded project next year around volunteers or a collection point in the summer like they have for Christmas trees.
Lucy reminded the attendees of the Catford South Priorities and that all information about these meetings is on the Catford South local assembly web page
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