Issue - meetings

The Strategy was introduced by Councillor Sophie McGeevor who highlighted

the crucial role played by parks and open spaces during the pandemic crisis.

Councillor Jonathan Slater welcomed the Strategy, particularly the

involvement of the Disabled Peoples Commission.

Councillor Chris Barnham said he was encouraged to see walking was being

promoted and he urged the signing of the Ramblers Charter. Councillor

McGeevor responded by saying a Walking Charter had been prepared and it

just needed official approval from the Ramblers Association.

Councillor Mark Ingleby raised specific concerns about laying documented

foundations in the Local Plan, alongside necessary references to the Urban

National Park in the Open Spaces Strategy.

The Chair of the Grove Park Neighbourhood Planning Forum, Stephen

Kenny, provided Councillor Ingleby with a link to the documentation for the

Urban National Park, which has the boundary evidence required for the Local

Plan at:

https://grovepark.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/db3d5-urban-national-park-landscape-vision.pdf

Councillor Ingleby continued by saying the Urban National Park  was originally

a Lewisham Council idea from the later 70's early 80's which was never

completed and which the Grove Park Neighbourhood Forum, policies and

plan supported. He added Grove Park Nature Reserve needed to complete

the[FK1]  process of being declared a statutory nature reserve.

Also the LBL SINC (Sites of Important Nature Conservation) needed to be

amended to include the priority habitat wetwoodland/swamp forest at Willow

Carr, near Northbrook Park, that the Mayor visited in October 2018.

Councillor Ingleby asked that his submissions go into the official record, to

complement and preserve current pieces of ongoing land assembly.

Documentary protection was required if the Willow Carr and wet woodland

were not officially identified and recorded in the ecological data/ SINC reviews

and the appropriate parts of the Local Plan.

Councillor Liam Curran, the Chair of the Sustainable Development Select

Committee, welcomed the report, which he believed could have a major

impact. He introduced the referrals made by his Select Committee. He was

supported by Councillor Louise Krupski who believed the Select Committee

process had been very thorough and had raised multiple issues for

consideration. The Executive Director for Housing, Regeneration and

Environment  promised that full account would be taken of the views of the

Select Committee.

Having considered an officer report and presentations by the Cabinet Member

for Environment & Transport, Councillor Sophie McGeevor, the Chair of the

Sustainable Development Select Committee, Councillor Liam Curran, and by

Councillors Louise Krupski and Mark Ingleby, the Mayor and Cabinet, for the

reasons set out in the report by a roll call vote of 10-0:

RESOLVED that the Parks and Open Space Strategy 2020-2025 be adopted

into Council Policy and that Officers prepare a response to the views of the

Sustainable Development Select Committee.