Minutes:
The following Community Updates were distributed via email in advance of the Assembly meeting:
Sydenham Community Updates on our top five priorities
Sydenham Assembly on Saturday 12 June 2021
Working with the community
This is our first Assembly since the cancellation of our meeting planned for 21 March 2020 due to the Corona virus pandemic. We would like to thank everyone who has helped our community during this difficult times and look forward to meeting you in person when the Government restrictions are lifted.
Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy (NCIL) Funding - Open 28 May – 25 July 2021
The amount of money available varies each year as the NCIL process receives a proportion of all Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) collected in Lewisham. Currently the NCIL Borough Wide Fund has a total of £977,094. Of this total £100,000 will be allocated to the development of borough wide air quality initiatives that promote community involvement. The remaining £877,094 will be allocated to projects that address the Borough’s 4 project criteria:
Initiatives that seek to support local community groups to contributing to tackling crime and anti-social behaviour
Provision of high quality mentoring services and those designated to keep Lewisham’s children and young people safe from exploitation, violence and serious youth crime
Support for people with learning disabilities and/or mental health problems to find employment opportunities
Projects that will assist in Lewisham’s Covid-19 recovery by demonstrating a benefit to Lewisham’s communities at a borough wide level
Applicants may apply for a small grant of up to £35,000 or a large grant of between £35,001 and £100,000 - more information here https://communityfunding.lewisham.gov.uk/.
Latest on Our Lady and St Philip Neri school
The RC Archdiocese of Southwark has applied for a Judicial Review of the Planning Inspectorate’s decision to reject their appeal against the Council in relation to Our Lady and St Philip Neri School. The Judicial Review is against the Planning Inspectorate, rather than the Council, so the Council is only an interested party.
We are currently waiting to hear whether their application for a Judicial Review will be granted – we will seek to keep residents updated with any further developments.
We remain committed to finding the best possible solution for residents and the parents and students of OLSPN, while ensuring we fulfil our duty to uphold compliance with planning law.
Community safety
Since the last Assembly in 2020 there has been a lot of change on Sydenham SNT, with officers leaving and new faces coming in. PC Arnott joined last July, and is now the acting Sergeant on the ward, alongside PC Homshaw who is the new Dedicated Ward Officer. PCSO Peter Okonji is still here though, walking the beat day in day out. As part of the new rotation process for new officers, we have had PC Van Der Berg on Sydenham ward since late January, but will be departing for pastures new as part of his development in July.
With all the change that has happened, we have still managed to get some great results in, bringing prolific offenders to justice, who bring crime and anti-social behaviour to the area. At our ward panel we have had lots of discussions about E-Scooters, and have taken it upon ourselves to learn more about what we can do, and what you want us to deal with. Anti-Social/Dangerous riding is not tolerated, and is one of our top priorities to deal with, as there are a number of these Scooters along Sydenham Road, riding along the pavement at speed.
Speaking of our ward panel, which meets every 3 months, we are always looking for new members to join from different areas of the ward. If you are interested in joining, and want to help shape the way that we police the area as a local team, please drop us an email at Sydenham.snt@met.police.uk where we can point you in the right direction!
As ever we urge you to report all crime to us, to allow us to get a better picture of the ongoing situation on the ward, which then allows us to target our patrols effectively, and look to catch offenders in the act. There are numerous ways to report now, online at http://www.met.police.uk ; by calling 101 (in a non-emergency situation) ; or calling 999 if it is an emergency or a crime is in progress.
Vibrant high street
We have a Shop Safe Shop Local campaign to support the main high streets including Sydenham. Lamp post banners have been up and tote bags issued to traders to hand out to customers.
Cleaner and Greener Sydenham
We are planning a Cleaner Sydenham session on Saturday 26 June from 11am – 1pm organise a high street clean up session to remove flyposting of the shop shutter stickers as well as some posting on the granite upstands. It would show great support to our traders if a number of residents could volunteer to help out.
Transport improvements
Our Transport Strategy stated that the Healthy Neighbourhood areas will be re-prioritised at least every 2 years, using the latest available data. We are currently undertaking this process to develop the future programme and identify priority areas. The funding that the Council usually receives for such measures, through the Local Implementation Plan, remains very uncertain. There has been another short-term funding agreement between Government and Transport for London, to 11 December 2021, and boroughs are having to bid for this funding rather than it being allocated on a formula basis, which is usually the case. This makes project and resource planning extremely challenging. The Silverdale/Bishopsthorpe Road modal filter is part of the phase 1 filters that were implemented and this will be reviewed taking into account the traffic flow.
A project that has been ongoing for many years is the Sydenham Park footbridge which needs replacing over the railway line. We have regularly reported on progress and we are now working with consultants to evaluate the community requests for a ramp on the Sydenham Park side and a stepped access on the Dacres Road approach. The Dietrich Bonhoeffer church are very keen to improve access for buggies as it is a steep incline on Dacres Road side. We are also exploring funding sources such as the use of S106 and/or CI plus the relaunch NCIL towards the end of this calendar year.
Enforcement of yellow box junctions by ANPR cameras is a project that was approved by Mayor and Cabinet in December 2020. Yellow box junctions are in place at specific locations across the borough to help improve safety and effectively manage the highway network and reduce congestion. Our enforcement activity is being focused at those locations where there was identified to be a high level of contraventions. We are aiming to start enforcement later this month and we will be erecting correx signs warning motorists that CCTV enforcement is in place. We will also be issuing warning notices in the first two weeks of enforcement to motorists contravening the restrictions. Enforcement of the yellow box junctions along Sydenham Road will at the junction with Bell Green, Kent House Road, Mayow Road and Newlands Park.
A new height restriction will be installed at Girton Road car park next week to try stop large vehicles entering the car park and fly tipping. Officers are also looking to erect additional signage to the car park which we hope will reduce parking stress on the surrounding streets.