Agenda

1.1      Cllr Webley-Brown welcomed everyone to the assembly meeting and introduced fellow Crofton Park councillors Cllr Chris Barnham and Cllr Tauseef Anwar.

1.2      Cllr Webley-Brown then gave an overview of the agenda items for the meeting.

2.1   Cllr Barnham introduced Sarah Lang, the Community Development Officer for Crofton Park

2.2   Sarah took the Assembly through the attached presentationoutlining the context of the crisis and strands of support available across the borough:

1.    Income maximisation

2.    Food justice

3.    Fuel poverty

4.    Local support

2.3   The presentation also outlined the continuing and emerging needs as well as new actions to respond to these themes.

3.1      Cllr Barnham thanked Sarah for the overview and introduced Laurence Smith from Lewisham Donation Hub which is based at Place Ladywell.

3.2      Laurence explained that model of the Hub is based on fitting in with the emerging needs of the people who are coming through the door.

3.3      Currently 70% of those coming through the doors are asylum seekers and in addition to the large number of Lewisham residents, they also see people from across London and have had people coming from as far away as Manchester.

3.4      Within a mile radius of Place Ladywell every street has had at least one visitor to the hub since it opened.

3.5      In addition to food, the Hub can provide clothes, small household and white goods, prams, bikes and tech which is very popular for families who want their children to succeed in school.

3.6      Lawrence showed the recent piece from the BBC News which highlighted the work of the Hub and the level of need.

3.7      The Hub has recently received a grant for unrestricted funding for items that are urgently need; recently they were able to purchase a microwave for someone who could not be release home from hospital as they needed to be able to cook food, thus freeing up a hospital bed as well as allowing someone to be back in their own home.

3.8      Another trend is that there has been an increase of families with two people working full-time using the service as they are finding it hard to make ends meet.

3.9      Recently the Hub ran out of money and had to launch an appeal; within a week they had received £11,000 in donations.

3.10   The work of Hub has also been recognised at the Mayor’s Awards for Voluntary Contributions.

3.11   Donations are also good for the environment as they are recycling items back into the local community. An example of this is over 3,000 computers and countless mobile phone that have been gifted and refurbished by Laurence’s Dad.

3.12   The Hub was at the forefront of the Afghan crisis; they posted on social media and within an hour had everything in place to meet the immediate need and were able to continue for 6 weeks working with the Mayor of London and the Fire Brigade.

3.13   Laurence thanked the Council for sorting out waste disposal for the Hub.

3.14   Demand is higher now than ever, but the monetary donations are helping, for instance Laurence has been able to broker a deal for packs of kettles, irons and toaster at a low price when he buys in bulk straight from the supplier.

3.15   The link to the Just Giving page is below.

https://www.justgiving.com/lewishamdonationhub

3.16   The link to the presentation is below.

Please note that it may take time to download as it contains the BBC coverage and many photos.

Crofton Park Assembly.pptx (sharepoint.com)

3.17  Cllr Barnham thanked Laurence for his presentation and, in his capacity of Cabinet Member for Children and Young People  ...  view the full agenda text for item 3.

4.1   Cllr Barnham gave an overview of the Sustainable Transport and Streets Consultation which took place in Deptford and Crofton Park ward during spring 2023.

4.2      Circa 2 000 people responded to the consultation which took a street-by-street approach, with the results being presented in a report to Mayor and Cabinet in July.

4.3      The majority of Deptford residents were in favour however in Crofton Park the proposals will only be adopted in two streets within the consultation area.

4.4      There was, however, a lot of support for the provision of yellow lines at junctions

4.5      The conclusions for Crofton Park are in section 9 of the report.

Corporate Report Template (lewisham.gov.uk)

4.6      Manwood Road will be getting a zebra crossing.

4.7      Number plate recognition cameras will be installed in both directions on the Howson Road footbridge between Darlymple Road and the Honor Oak Estate.

Q.    Are there plans to improve the crossing outside Arlo and Moe as it is currently inadequate?

A.         This is not an official crossing, and it is unlikely to become one as there is the one outside of the Co-op and there will be a consultation on a pedestrian operated crossing on Brockley Road outside Beecroft School as part of the Active Travel Strategy in early 2024.

5.1   Cllr Anwar made attendees aware of the latest round of Lewisham’s Community Energy Fund which is for local community organisations to reduce carbon emissions, lower energy bills and promote renewable energy initiatives.

5.2     Grants are awarded up to £10,000. Community and voluntary groups, including cooperatives, faith and equalities groups, social enterprises, and schools, are encouraged to apply if they have projects that generate renewable energy, reduce fuel consumption, and promote awareness about energy efficiency.

Lewisham Council - Lewisham Community Energy Fund returns to help local communities cut carbon and lower energy bills

5.3   Cllr Anwar also highlighted that there is a survey on the Serious Violence Duty that all Councils are undertaking. This is on the consultation portal so please do respond. This closes on 3^rd December.

Serious Violence Duty Survey - Lewisham Council - Citizen Space

5.4   There is an updated list of Community Toilets which is on the Lewisham Local website.

https://www.lewishamlocal.com/communitytoilets/

5.5   A map can be found here, but please note that this is due to be updated.

https://www.lewishamlocal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Lewisham-Community-Toilets-Flyer-November-2020.pdf

Neighbourhood Forum Update

5.6   Nicholas has been working on updating the Neighbourhood Plan which, once tweaked, will be reprinted.

5.6   There was a considerable amount of work undertaken to develop the Neighbourhood Plan and residents are needed to help to ensure the plan is taken forward.

5.7   Members do not have to have any expertise to join the forum, but some may bring specific knowledge that is useful, e.g. scrutinising planning applications, knowledge of parks and nature reserves or streetscapes etc and practical help needed for keeping notice boards up-to-date. Contact njwtaylor@hotmail.co.uk or sarah.lang@lewisham.gov.uk if you want to be involved.

5.6   A link to the Plan is below.

Crofton Park and Honor Oak Neighbourhood Plan Adoption Version - May 2022.pdf

5.7   Street Trees for Living is look for a Tree Rep for Crofton Park. Details of the role are available here.

https://www.streettreesforliving.org/volunteer-with-us

Q.     There is a significant amount of dog mess, could we get hold of some of the stencils to raise?

A.     There will be new bins coming.

5.8   Stillness school have completed their garden build.

Q.    Could we look at getting a community skip?

A.     There is a tendency for this to be unpopular with residents in the locality of the site.

Q.    Would it be possible to site one on the conner by the Chandos?

5.8   There was a discussion about the ongoing work that the Councillors are undertaking to try to resolve this site and the difficulties that are presented by the developer.

5.9   Cllr Carol Webley-Brown told residents that there was representation to prevent the proposed planning permission for electronic bill-boards on the South Circular at Stanstead Road near the railway bridge.

5.10  The decision was not to GRANT advertisement consent for the installation of an internally illuminated digital LED sheet sign at right side of 293 Stanstead Road, SE23, by reason of its unacceptable impact on highway and pedestrian safety, as it has not been established the new sign would  ...  view the full agenda text for item 5.

There being no other business, Cllr Webley-Brown thanked people for attending and closed the meeting.

Note: These are not verbatim minutes so discussions, questions and answers have been summarised

My apologies we could not attend yesterday. Unfortunately we had extremely long shifts over the last few days.

We have identified several areas of concerns raised within the community and have tried to tackle these problems. Officers attention was brought the coop who has seen a rise in assaults and thefts. Officers have spoken to senior managers within the coop and now security has been implemented. We are going to work in partnership with the coop to reduce the amount of anti social behaviour around and within this area.

Various local members have brought to our attention various moped crossing over Eddystone and Dalrymple bridge. We have had various conversation with the local council and they have installed ANPR cameras on both bridges these would hopefully see a reduction in the local drug deal and mopeds crossing the bridge illegally. They will automatically be issued with a ticket, this will be a payable fine.

In relation to your comments about the serious collision near Crofton park station in 2022. I will need to look into this further as this particular incident would usually be dealt with by our traffic division. PC Metcalfe is a dedicated ward officer and is not in transport police.

Officers have raised their concerns about the collision the council are putting in bids for further reductions in the area of around Stondon park road to Brockley rise. Officers have asked members of our traffic division to send down our fully marked speed enforcement van to this location. We should hopefully see a reduction in speeding.

On a final note that was raised in our ward panel meeting was various vehicles parked around the centre of crofton park near the station. These are not local residents are parking on double yellow lines. Sergeant Monday has been in contact with the local council to ask if further civil enforcement personnel can attend the area.

Again apologies for not attending, if there are any issues raised within the meeting that you would like to bring to our attention. Please feel free to email myself.

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