If you would like to update the assembly on anything, please let us know and we will try and give you a forum to promote your news – either at the assembly meeting, on www.lovecatford.co.uk or on twitter @love_Catford
Minutes:
Q. Any suggestions how we make people enforce the speed limits in the area, the speedbumps are not efficient in Sandhurst Road, speeding is a real problem, does anyone else see this as a problem?
A. Cllr Alan Smith responds. On Sandhurst Toad the av speed is 24 miles per hour, we are introducing the borough wide 20mph zone, apart from the TFL red routes, It is enforceable at the moment but once the borough wide 20mph restrictions come in it will become significantly easier. Speed humps don’t work, put in after a public consultation, and almost immediately people wanted them removed. We have to look at different ways of doing it. we are looking at different ways other than speed humps such as the way pavements are planted and so on.
Q. People seem to like to accelerate quickly then slow quickly leading up to humps. There are lots of people with very loud cars, they make a lot of noise in the early hours. Is there a law about how noisy cars can be and can it be enforces.
A. Cllr Alan Smith responds. There is a law about noise but the level is very, very loud, much louder than most cars. The equipment is very expensive, a lot of noise you hear may be quad bikes, this is something that needs to be looked at. You can drive quad on the road if they are registered.
Statement: Peter Ranken from Abbotshall Road Healthy Lifestyle Centre
Thank you so much for all the community support since the HLC opened in June. Thank you everyone for the support you have given us. Would like to draw your attention to the Urban Wildlife Retreat we are working to develop and get funding through Tesco bags for help.
We have been successful to receive £8000 - but we need your help to raise that up to £12000!
What you have to do is go to your local Tesco and the voting closes tomorrow, please go down go to the till ask them for a token and then put it in the box for the Urban Wildlife Retreat at Abbotshall Road.
Statement from local resident I would like to make sure that everyone knows and has the opportunity to make a comment by the 16th of March on he planning application that is in at the moment to demolish Phoebes Garden Centre and build 20 flats on the site. I live right opposite so if anyone wants to help out with that it will be brilliant.
Chair of Culverley Green RA corrected that the last day of comments is the 23rd of March.
A. Cllr Alan Smith responds. You can put comments in right up until the day of the planning meeting up to that point. I have called for a public meeting on this [LF Checked this after this meeting and a decision to go ahead with a public meeting dose depend on how many objections planning receive] We will try and make it local. We will advertise it on lovecatford.com
Q. I have a real concern about the traffic in Catford, it is at a permanent standstill and this has environmental and health issues standstill Is there any way we can look at the traffic problems?
Secondly as you try to cross the road by Jubilee Fields on Canadian Avenue you have one second to get a across, is it possible to try and deal with road crossings. If you put a camera there you would make a lot of money from the amount of cars going through the read lights
A. Cllr Alan Smith responds. It is not our road, it belongs to TFL we have asked them repeatedly to put a crossing there, they say they cant because of the rise of the bridge. They won’t put a second crossing in.
Traffic light cameras will make TFL money, not us. The traffic is a major problem, the restriction to improving the bottleneck is the railway bridge. 2 years ago we heard that they were going to replace the bridge. We have asked them to make it wider to relive the traffic problems, it is now waiting for someone to find a couple of million pounds to fix it. If that can be done one of the bottlenecks will be reduced
There are ongoing plans to move the south circular from between the 2 council buildings to behind Laurence House, TFL have agreed that that will happen and will cost about 20 million – not sure why it is so much but that is the current estimate. Also looking to remove the gyratory system that doesn’t work and but it will be a few years away, hopefully we can update you, as it is a major problem for Catford.
Statement from Local Resident - If you are not already aware there is a planning meeting proposing a 19 story tower block on Catford Green. This is not affordable housing. If it goes ahead it will set a precedent and Catford will become high rise, I don’t think I am being an alarmist. There is lots of congestion there already. In a highrise property you cause more pollution. I do not want to see another Lewisham here in Catford. Please get involved and attend the meetings to stop this. There could be an alternative such as an 8 story building. It has been shameful the way this has been handled. It is made public but you need to know to look for it…
A. Cllr Alan Smith responds. I am aware of it and I am speaking to Barratt London. I can’t personally comment on planning applications, but I do think it is too big. This is something that has to go through the planning application process. You will have the opportunity to come and object. The planning the council has less and less powers over planning. There is a move to developers choosing their own planning departments in the future - It is mad.
Q. Talking about introducing a 20 mph limit can we get rid of speed humps and put in camera, our cars get wrecked. Can we spend the money we save from removing speed humps on camera’s
A. Cllr Alan Smith responds. I agree with you it wrecks the cars. However taking out speed humps doesn’t save us money it costs us money. We are looking at different ways to develop roads to reduce speeding, we know speed humps don’t work. They do need to be dealt with. They don’t work
Q. I want to ask about resurfacing the roads locally. The roads are really terrible, surfaces are really bad. I live on Newquey road and this road is one of the worst affected. Lots of roads seem to have been resurfaced except ours ours.
A. Cllr Alan Smith responds. We can get the schedule on the website if possible. I don’t know when its due.
[Note: Newquay road was nominated for resurfacing by Cllr Stamirowski, Newquay Road will be considered and investigated with other priority carriageways in London Borough of Lewisham. If the road is within the priority benchmark, subject to funding, it will be considered for resurfacing in 2016/17 or 2017/18 financial year.]
Q. At an assembly meeting a year ago there was a Topic on cycling. At the time the Councillors were asked if they would pledge to sign up look for safer space for cycling within Lewisham which is a very unpleasant environment to cycle in
Councillors in this ward couldn’t sign up to this and said it was due to legal advice. I made and Freedom of Information request and apparently there was no legal advice given. Will the councillors pledge or generally state that they will look to improve safety for cycling in Lewisham.
A. Cllr Alan Smith responds. We explained to you at the time, we didn’t sign up to it as it asked for some very specific measures. There is no way that as the person who determines the policy on this issue, can sign up to specific measures, everybody appreciates that. We are working on it all the time to improve it. We can’t sign up to specific requests for certain roads, we couldn’t do it.
It is general legal advice about what we can sign up to depending on our roles within the council. Skip [Cllr Amrani] can’t talk about planning applications or on issues specifically about planning, as he chairs the planning committee. I can not establish policy for this Council on the hoof – this is not a good idea
We are trying to improve cycling all the time across the borough and trying to get money all the time for improvement It is part of our general policy to do so.
Cllr Amrani agreed and stated We do try and improve cycling, please come to a strategic planning committee meeting, we look at it and try and improve it. Decisions have to be made on a case by case basis
Update from Lucy on Local Assembly funding
We are opening the local assembly funding opportunity in the summer as usual this year. The co group want to put more focus into activities and projects for younger and older people, as we have a larger than Lewisham average population in these 2 age ranges.
We will still accept and look at applications for all priorities, but this year I think you can agree with the coordinating group, that with restrictions and savings in these areas, it is a good idea to focus more on the more at need in our ward. We are not closing the door to other applications but it will be the way the co-group will be prioritising this year. The Assembly has up to £15000 for community projects and initiatives. All funding information will be posted on the www.lovecatford.co.uk and we will email you when it starts.
A reminder that people have an opportunity to indicate their hotspots on the maps on their way out so please take the time to do so.
Meeting closed by Councillor Amrani