New Cross
Assembly Meeting
Date: Saturday 8th February 2020
Time: 12.00noon~2.00pm
Venue: Waldron Health Centre
Chair: Councillor Paul Maslin
Summary of Meeting
1. Welcome from Cllr Paul Maslin, Chair of the New Cross Assembly
1.1 Cllr Maslin welcomed everyone to the meeting and explained that Cllr Brenda Dacres and Cllr Joe Dromey sent apologies.
2. Presentation on Neighbourhood CIL
2.1 Cllr Maslin introduced James Lee, Director of Culture and Community Development who gave an overview of the process so far & presented feedback received from the on-line consultation. A copy of the presentation is appended to these meeting notes.
2.2 James gave an overview of Neighbourhood CIL explaining what it is, an outline of the approach that Lewisham has adopted & examples of projects that have been undertaken in other boroughs
2.3 There is £262,781.14 available for New Cross. There was a discussion on how this had been calculated as there was a confusion due to a mention of Grove Park ward in the presentation & residents felt that the funding should be weighted to the wards that had the most construction in them.
2.4 James explained that this was a typo as each ward’s presentation had the same template to ensure parity of process. He clarified that there was weighting applied to allocation adding that he would also be presenting at Forest Hill Assembly later that day where the pot was in the region of £30,000.
.
2.5 James explained that the figures for respondees for the New Cross ward were lower than in some other wards, however there have been other consultations such as the one that took place as part of the Liveable Neighbourhoods Project which may have impacted of the response rate.
2.6 There was a query regarding the figures in the table outlining the likes as a project that had 35 likes was not featured in the top scorers. James will ask that the figures are checked and that the table is updated to attach to the meeting notes
Q. Are comments about Deptford High Street included as this is in Evelyn Ward?
A. The part of Deptford High Street south Giffin Square is in New Cross ward. There is a pot of money for projects that span two wards.
Q. What are the demographics, for instance have young people been involved?
A. Sarah confirmed that she had undertaken focus groups with young people & that Woodpecker Youth Club had been consulted as part of the Livable Neighbourhoods work. Alys confirmed that Lewisham Homes undertaken consultation with residents too.
2.6 James outlined the next steps were that there would be an open call for projects to bid for projects under the agreed prioroties which would be launched in March. Residents would then be involved in selecting project in the round of Assmblies taking place in June & July.
3. Priorities Workshop
3.1 There was a discussion on possible contenders for the sixth priority.
3.2 Jill pointed out that the air pollution in New Cross often exceeds the recommended World Health Organisation recommended limits. Andrea suggested that there should be a housing co-op & Alys said that the outreach they had done highlighted that fuel poverty was something that affected social-housing tenants.
Suggestions were
· Green spaces
· Air Quality
· Community Led Housing
· Mental Health
· Fuel poverty
·
3.3 After a short discussion it was agreed that that Health & Wellbeing encompassed all of the above apart from the Community Led Housing.
3.4 A show of hand garnered 3 votes for Community Led Housing so Health & Well-being was agreed as the sixth priority by a majority.
3,5 It was noted that the acoustics of the venue were poor due to background noise of people accessing the health centre and the acoustic of the space. This led onto the following item.
4. Waldron Health Centre
4.1 Fiona Kirkman introduced her role in the reviewing the use of the public spaces at the Waldron Health Centre which includes both the aspirations for creating a community garden outside and re-configuring the café as a space for community workshops & sessions.
4.2 In the coming months they will be trialling activities, working with local residents and groups to explore what this might be, hence us using the venue for the Assembly. This has already been useful in that it has highlighted that there needs to be significant dampened of noise in the foyer. Jill suggested that there are sails that can be used or this.
4.3 Fiona will be running some focus groups over the coming month & she ask residents to sign up if they wanted to get involved. She also asked those who ran groups if they would like to host a session so that she can speak to a wide range of people about their needs and aspirations for the space.
5. Feedback from Funded Projects
5.1 Cllr Maslin introduced Sophie Amos from Creekside Discovery Centre who received funding from Assembly Fund previously.
5.2 This year funding was kindly donated by Tideway for Activities for Children. This is Section 106 money to offset the loss off land in Deptford so is for projects providing activities for young people who live in & around the Crossfields Estate.
5.3 The grant was used to put on a piece of promenade theatre called Creek in partnership with Penny Dreadful Productions, a local theatre group. They are seeking funding for further shows later this year. In the past they have also used funding in order to subsidise their holiday activities offering them to local children for just £1.00.
5.4 Sophie gave an overview of the work with schools that they do at the Centre & the Sue Goddard Nature Reserve. The Creek is a unique habitat & the only tidal creek in London.
5.5 There will be quite a bit of disruption this year as there needs to be some dredging as part of the Tideway build.
5.6 Sophie explained that in the last year they started to work with older groups & had provided the opportunity for a Geography GCSE group from Deptford School to get into the river as their field trip. This was successful & they are seeking to extend the offer to other schools.
5.7 There are also community activities such as low tide walks for the local community & they will be increasing these due to their popularity.
5.8 The New Cross Assembly in the summer will be held at Creekside.
6. Community Updates
6.1 Richard from Deptford Neighbourhood Action explained the process of developing the Local plan & highlighted that there had been work undertaken to develop the plan which they were now consulting on.
6.2 Ben raised a query regarding the boundary as the original scope that was proposed included Milton Court Estate but it had then been redrawn.
6.3 Richard replied that they this had been the case but they needed to re-draw the boundary as there was another group who were looking to create a plan for New Cross. This however had not come to fruition but by this time the boundary for DNA had been designated.
6.4 Danielle announced that there was a community clean-up once a month on the Milton Court Estate. Anyone who is interested can e-mail Sarah sarah.lang@lewisham.gov.uk & she will pass their details to Danielle.
6.5 Danielle also said that there is a group called WE Women (Women Empowering Women) who meet at the Pepys Community Library. This is women supporting each other through skill sharing. Just drop into the library to get involved.
6.6 Joanne from Moonshot Centre in Fordham Park told the assembly that they have a range of fee community exercise classes including Thai Chi & women’s dance session. More information at the website www.moonshotcentre.org
6. Feedback sheets and close
6.1 Cllr Maslin thanked everyone for attending and reminded them complete the feedback forms.
There being no other business, the meeting closed with no declarations of interest.
Note: These are not verbatim minutes therefore questions and answers have been summarised.
The presentation is appended to the minutes.