a spark in your veins – Page 23 – Ye who have a spark in your veins of cockney spirit, smile or mourn acccording as you take things well or ill;— Bold Britons, we are now on Shooter's Hill!

24th July 2013

Mayor to decide Woolwich Fire Station closure

Woolwich Fire Station – London’s oldest operational fire station

After all the months of consultation, 24 public meetings with 1,330 attendees, 23 council and scrutiny meetings, 13 petitions with a total of 21,770 signatures, 2,323 questionnaire responses at a cost of at least £172,377, the decision on whether to close 10 London fire stations, including Woolwich, comes down to one individual: Boris Johnson.

The consultation did result in some changes to the London Safety Plan: Clapham and New Cross fire stations would remain open, East Greenwich fire station would gain an additional fire engine and Chelsea fire station would keep its two fire engines. I couldn’t find anything in the consultation report and revised safety plan that mentioned the commitment made at the Greenwich consultation meeting to reconsider the closure of Woolwich Fire Station in light of the expected massive increase in the population of Woolwich Riverside. Coincidentally the day after the report was published I received a letter from the Royal Borough of Greenwich informing me that they had given planning permission for a further 2,032 homes in the Arsenal site – this is the plan for a series of blocks of flats up to 22 storeys high along the river front. That’s 2032 homes on top of the thousands already being built in the Arsenal site, just down the road from the fire station.

It seems from the consultation report that public opposition to the closure of Woolwich Fire Station wasn’t as strong as for others in the capital. Only 156 people signed the petition to save Woolwich Fire Station, compared to over 8,000 for the 3 petitions to keep Bow Fire Station and over 6,500 for those to save Clapham. Also no-one specifically mentioned Woolwich in their response to the questionnaire: other fire stations were named by respondents opposing their closure. The consultation meeting back in May was dominated by politicians, it was even commented during the meeting that very few “ordinary citizens” asked questions, though this may have been influenced by holding the meeting in Greenwich rather than Woolwich.

The YouGov analysis of the responses to the consultation questionnaire showed that an overwhelming 94% of respondents opposed any fire station cuts, graphically illustrated in the snippet from the report below.

Snippet from Appendix F of Fifth London Fire Safety Plan Report

Despite the opposition the Fire Commissioner presented the new plan, but the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) voted by 9 to 8 to reject the proposed cuts. Their e-mail on the subject said:

A majority of LFEPA Members (by 9 votes to 8) approved the following amendments – That:

1. The Authority instructs the Commissioner to delete from the Fifth London Safety Plan, supporting documents and appendices all references to station closures, appliance reductions and consequential operational post reductions, including reductions in Fire and Rescue Units, reductions in crewing levels of Fire and Rescue Units, alternative crewing of specialist units and reductions in officer numbers, and to make the subsequent changes that are necessary.

and also:

7. This Authority recognises and respects the single clearest issue raised during the consultation process: that Londoners do not want to see local fire stations closed. The Authority notes that the 1.2% Council Tax cut implemented by the Mayor came at a cost of £9.4million and that the Mayor’s plan to cut it by 10% over his four-year term will cost a further £70million making some £80million in total. Consequently the Authority calls on the Mayor to reconsider his policy of a 10% council tax cut and instead work with officers and members of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority to develop an approach that preserves London’s fire cover, saves London’s fire stations and balances the budget into the longer term.

The decision now rests with the Mayor of London, though a tweet from the London Fire Brigade Union yesterday reported that he is “minded” to overturn the LFEPA decision and close the fire stations.

Boris Johnson has written to the London fire commissioner, indicating he is ‘minded’ to overturn the fire authority’s rejection of cuts.

— London FBU (@LondonFBU) July 23, 2013

I’m not sure exactly what politicians mean when they are “minded” to do something. Have they just not quite made up their minds? Have they decided but are trying to avoid the criticism that a bad decision will attract? Whatever … it is starting to seem likely that Woolwich Fire Station will close after a hundred and twenty six years of operation.

23rd July 2013

Open Day at The Fan Museum

Emily from the Fan Museum in Crooms Hill e-mailed details of their local community open day next Saturday, 27th July, from 11.00am to 5.00pm. Entry is free if you live in Greenwich or Lewisham boroughs, as long as you bring along proof of your address such as a driving licence or utility bill. The museum is in a beautiful Georgian house at the bottom of Crooms Hill, address: 12 Crooms Hill, Greenwich, London SE10 8ER.

The Fan Museum has a huge collection of fans from different cultures and historical periods, many of which are artistically decorated. As well as the chance to see the collection the open day will include demonstrations of fan making and mini-tours of the museum led by the museum’s curators. There will also be refreshments in the elegant orangery – a taster of their afternoon tea which was rated one of London’s ten best afternoon teas by the Daily Telegraph. The Telegraph’s list also included the far-more-expensive Claridges and the Chesterfield Hotel in Mayfair.

It’s several years since I visited the museum and it was slightly surprisingly absorbing, so it’s definitely time for another look around, even if only to replace the fan tea towel I got from the museum shop last time.

22nd July 2013

The Magnificent Mirf

Recycling pile at one end of Greenwich MRF

“That’s about 2 days worth of recycling”, said our guide, Danny Easton, pointing to the massive pile of rubbish that had been emptied from the Borough’s recycling trucks. We were at the start of a tour of the Greenwich Mirf, as the Materials Recycling Facility in Nathan Way is known. We’d already seen where the compostable material from the green bins is deposited, and learned that the methane from the composting waste is piped off to the gas grid.

I’d been trying to get a tour of the MRF for a while, wanting to know how the mixed-up contents of our blue top bins were separated out, but had been told that the old regular tours no longer run. A couple of years ago, in lieu of a visit, I was sent an interesting DVD describing how the recycling centre operates, but it’s not the same as seeing it for real. An enquiry card dropped into a box at the recent Great Get Together/Armed Forced Day event solved the problem, leading to an invitation to a personal guided tour.

The technology at the MRF is very impressive, and it utilises a wide variety of forces to sort the different materials: gravity, vibration, magnetism, induced electrical currents, infra-red, optical recognition and compressed air are all part of the process. The Veolia web site describes the technology and processes really well, so I won’t repeat it all here. I was most impressed by the the huge Trommel near the start of the process, after the bag splitter. The Trommel looks a bit like a massive tumble drier, 3 meters in diameter and 12 meters long, which rotates 12 times a minute separating containers from paper and cardboard. Then later on the infra-red auto-sort for plastic bottles which is able to detect the difference between coloured, clear and opaque plastic bottles whizzing past on a conveyor belt at 30-40 mph and adjust a blast of compressed air to direct them to different places. Amazing!

The MRF undergoes maintenance for 20% of the time, though it can usually be run safely at the same time. Partly this is for routine, scheduled work – for example the moving parts on the conveyor belts need to be cleared of dust and broken glass particles – but sometimes the machinery is stopped by material that shouldn’t have been put in the recycling. Textiles are a problem, particularly for a machine called the V Screen which separates mixed paper. Also old VCR tapes get broken and release hundreds of feet of tape that gets wound up in the mechanisms and need staff to come in on Sunday to cut it away with Stanley knives. So we can help by not putting VCR tapes and textiles in our blue top bins, and by removing the caps from bottles and tetrapak cartoons so they can go to the appropriate place in the MRF.

Separated bales at the other end of Greenwich MRF

As much as possible of the separated waste is sent on to UK companies for further processing, though some does go abroad: for example old tyres are shipped to Holland. Greenwich waste that cannot be reused, recycled or composted mostly goes to the South East London Combined Heat and Power energy recovery facility near Millwall Football Ground, where it is burnt to generate electricity. The train into London goes right past the SELCHP site. This means that Greenwich has one of the lowest figures for the percentage of waste that gets put into landfill in the country. For 2008/9 an FOI Request revealed that “Greenwich Council sent less waste to landfill than any other local authority in the UK. This was around 3% of the household waste generated.” However 2011 data on recycling on the Guardian Datablog indicated that Greenwich was the third lowest council for “Percentage of municipal waste sent to landfill”, with a figure of 6%.

The Guardian Datablog data also shows that Greenwich is a middling performer on amount of waste recycled, at 37%. The best council in London was neighbouring Bexley at 51% and the worst our northern neighbour Newham with just 15%. However the Greenwich percentage has shown quite an increase from the 11.5% in 2003 when it was agreed to build the MRF. There is still a way to go to meet the requirement in Chapter 5 of the London Plan to exceed exceed recycling/composting levels in municipal solid waste (MSW) of “45% by 2015, 50% by 2020 and aspiring to achieve 60% by 2031.” Greenwich is working with other South-East London boroughs to achieve this.

Snippet from Guardian Datablog: Recycling in England: the map

Another interesting thing I learned during the tour was what drove their efforts to improve recycling quality and quantities. As well helping to save the planet, obviously, the need to meet European directives is important, but also economics plays a major role. For example the best grade of recycled paper currently fetches £150 a ton, and aluminium is £700 a ton. This makes it worthwhile to recycle waxed tetrapak type cartons which contain a thin layer of Aluminium. I remember from school chemistry how energy intensive it is to extract Aluminium from Bauxite, so this is a benefit on many levels.

It was a very interesting tour and we were buzzing with fascinating facts when we handed our safety helmets and protective glasses back to Danny on the way out. Some amazing technology, and key to decreasing the amount of our rubbish that gets buried in landfill sites and increasing how much is reused in some way.

Disposal of Rubbish in England from Guardian Datablog

9th July 2013

The Hill is Alive

The Friends of Eaglesfield Park are holding a ParksFest2013 event on Saturday (13th July), with an afternoon of music by the pond. Madeleine from the Friends wrote:

The Friends of Eaglesfield Park would like to invite you to join us at the Eaglesfield Wildlife Pond and Meadow for an afternoon of fun and music on Saturday 13th July between 2 pm and 5 pm. An exciting Afro-Brazilian band and the Greenwich Gospel Choir will be providing the music. Why not bring a picnic. Enjoy an afternoon In Eaglesfield Park and check out the Restored Wildlife Pond and Meadow – it’s amazing how quickly everything has grown and the amount of wildlife it is attracting. Take a closer look at the pond life – come and try POND DIPPING (we will supply the equipment).

Madeleine also mentioned the Friends’ participation at the EPNWS Community Fête on the 15th June, which was memorable, in part, because of the strong winds and heavy rain that that struck bang on the stroke of 1.00pm when the Fête was due to open. But they managed to “Carry on Pond Dipping Regardless” and the weather didn’t spoil their photo display detailing the various stages of the restoration of the pond and meadow.

Madeleine gave an update on the Friends’ plans for the pond:

Our aim is to provide a habitat that will encourage a wide range of wildlife – wildflowers/grasses, insects, bees, butterflies, pond life, birds, etc and a healthy well balanced pond environment. Creating the appropriate habitat is not just a question of “let everything grow, let Nature do its own thing”. Some plants are “thugs” and will take over very quickly, which smother some of the important nectar rich wildflowers. So it does mean we need to carry out maintenance and tidying.

This aspect of work is very much a learning curve for FOEP. We are compiling reference guides for identification of wildflowers, pond creatures, butterflies, birds, dragonflies/damsel flies, bees etc. If anyone has an interest in this type of research or monitoring we would love to hear from you. FOEP is not just pond dipping, digging and gardening! Although I enjoy hands-on gardening, I must admit since I have become more involved with identification and research, I am more aware of how much there is to see, once you start looking!

FOEP will arrange another Pond Dipping and Tidying Session as soon as possible. Please keep an eye on our notice board at the Foxcroft Road entrance to Eaglesfield Park.

Finally, please keep in touch with us. We would like to hear your comments and suggestions about any aspect of Eaglesfield Park – don’t forget the area on the other side of Eaglesfield Road is also part of the park.

We are only a “small band” – so anything you could do to help would be very much appreciated.

There will be another ParksFest2013 event, Plumstead Live, on Winns Common on Sunday 21st July, with a line up of four Jazz, Soul, Funk and Blues acts.

Eaglesfield Park Neighbourhood Watch Scheme (EPNWS) Community Fête — EPNWS Community Fete at Eaglesfield Park

4th July 2013

Aperture Exhibition at Charlton House

The Mulberry Tea Rooms in Charlton House play host to an exhibition of photographs by members of the Aperture Woolwich Photographic Society, one of the groups who meet at Shrewsbury House. The Exhibition is a selection of images that have done well in AWPS competitions over recent seasons by members of the society including Stu Mayhew, Andy Linden, and Trudie Mackie. There are a variety of amazing images, some spookily atmospheric, some surreal and some that have you asking the question “how on earth did they do that?”

Entry to the exhibition is free, and it runs until 4.00pm on Wednesday 31st July. The AWPS are planning another exhibition to be held later in the summer at the Elixir Gallery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and they will have a stand at the Horn Fayre at Charlton House on 28th July.

3rd July 2013

Eaglesfield Mast – Olympics Dish Not So Temporary

‘But Mr Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months.’

‘Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn’t exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them had you? I mean like actually telling anybody or anything.’

‘But the plans were on display …’

‘On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them’

That’s the display department.’

‘With a torch.’

Ah, well the lights had probably gone.’

‘So had the stairs.’

‘But look, you found the notice didn’t you?’

‘Yes,’ said Arthur, ‘yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard.’

Arthur Dent‘s experience with his local planning department came to mind today as I tried to get hold of the documents detailing a new planning application, 12/2933/F – Permanent retention of 1x300mm diameter transmission dish. LFEPA MAST, EAGLESFIELD ROAD, PLUMSTEAD, SE18. When I first saw the application online yesterday it didn’t include any information describing what was proposed, just correspondence.

I was greeted at the Woolwich Centre by a friendly man who directed me to a booth in the corner where planning documents were kept and gave me a phone number to use on the courtesy phones if the documents I needed weren’t there. They weren’t, so I dialled 5222 and spoke to another friendly, helpful council officer. We mostly spoke mostly about an old application that I was looking for, but I discovered that due to shortages of storage space the council no longer keep the paperwork for planning applications over 4 or 5 years old, which is a problem when the process takes longer as it does sometimes for significant developments. I tried the council PC in the phone booth, but it had a version of the council web site from 2012 with a non-working link to planning searches.

12/2933/F is a recent application so I was directed to a pair of large filing cabinets downstairs in the corner of the library. Here the folders containing application paperwork are tightly packed in numerical order. The one I wanted wasn’t there, so I checked a few either side in case of misfiling then went to ask the library staff if it could be somewhere else, waiting to be refiled. “We don’t deal with that.” I was informed, “That’s the responsibility of the Planning Department.”

Back to the filing cabinets where I searched through the drawers of applications, but no luck. Back upstairs and dialled 5222 again. “Ah, maybe someone up here has the file.” Which they did, and it was brought down to me in the library. I finally photocopied the documents about an hour after arriving at the Woolwich Centre.

When I got home all the documents were now online!

The application documents were equally annoying. They referred to the application about a year ago for the temporary installation on the Eaglesfield mast of an extra microwave dish to support Olympics’ security. The Design and Access Statement from that application said (the text in bold is in the original):

It needs to be borne in mind that the proposed development is for 1 additional temporary microwave dish which is required to be installed for use during the Olympic period. The dish will be removed by 30/09/12.

So not only is the dish they promised to remove by last September, nine months ago, still there, but now they’ve changed their minds about it being temporary and want to keep it. To rub salt into the wound part of the justification for keeping this new dish in a conservation area is that “The Dish is already in situ and as such there will be no alteration to the appearance of the site.” You couldn’t make it up.

Location Plan from Application 12/2933/F

The dish was originally installed to provide a back up communications link, required for security reasons during the Olympics. It provided a direct microwave link to another TETRA communications mast within 50km. The new application is also to provide a communications link, replacing their existing system based on the BT kilostream product. The application doesn’t say what the link will be communicating with, but it appears to be pointed towards London City Airport according to the maps supplied. The snippet above shows the beam directed over the old fire-station and then down Eglinton Hill.

The application includes an ICNRP Declaration, which declares that the dish conforms to the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) requirements for radio frequency (RF) public exposure: effectively declaring the design safe. As it transmits “only 50 milliwatts, approximately a thousandth of the energy of a light bulb, and 200 times lower than the energy from a mobile telephone base station”, there is less concern for safety. It is also focused in a narrow beam pointing above the roofs of nearby houses.

Everyone who lives near the mast, 627 addresses altogether, should get a letter inviting comments on the application. I haven’t received mine yet, I assume it’s in the post.

The planning system had one last aggravation for me. I decided to track changes to 12/2933/F using the online system, but it requested that I register first, something I’ve been trying to do since April. I entered all my details again only to get the same error message that I reported to the council 3 months ago yet again:

Error Message on trying to register with the Royal Greenwich Online Planning system

26th June 2013

Woodlands Farm Summer Show

Maureen from Woodlands Farm sent details of the Farm’s Summer Show which takes place this Sunday, 30th June from 11.00am to 5.00pm. She wrote:

The Woodlands Farm Trust Summer Show is on Sunday 30 June 2013, 11.00am-5.00pm.

Come and meet our animals, and enjoy the chance to buy quality local produce at reasonable prices, including home-made preserves and cakes. Attractions include Progress Dog Training Class and Fun Dog Show, Falconry Display by Icarus, Ferret Racing by Ferret Friends and live music by Skinner’s Rats (have a go at barn dancing), get involved in craft activities and games. Take a break in the farm’s Café.

Entry is £2.50 adults, £1.50 concessions and £1 children aged 4-16. Children aged 3 and under go free.

All proceeds go towards caring for our animals. A great family day out!

There will also be regulars such as Jambs Owls, the Very Green Grocer and a chance to see the farm’s animals. Should be a very entertaining event.

Sheep Shearing on Open Farm Sunday at Woodlands Farm

25th June 2013

Woolwich Great Get Together/Armed Forces Day

The Great Get Together/Armed Forces Day festival will be a sadder event this year following the murder of Lee Rigby just near the Royal Artillery Barracks. However this opportunity for members of the public to show their support for “the men and women who make up the Armed Forces community: from currently serving troops to Service families and from veterans to cadets” is sure to be well attended. Last time it was held, two years ago, some 15,000 people attended.

The festival is organised by the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the Army and runs from 11.00am to 6.00pm on Saturday, 29th June at the Royal Artillery Barracks. It should be an excellent day, the Armed Forces Day web site lists the events and activities:

On Saturday 29 June the Royal Artillery Barracks will be hosting one of the UK’s largest Armed Forces Day events. The event is combined with the Great Get Together Festival – a large and vibrant community celebration. The array of attractions will include a military and vintage vehicle display zone, historical re-enactments, walk round entertainers, a live music stage, charity and commercial stalls, animal displays, lazer quest, zorbing balls, fairground rides, sports taster sessions and many other things for all ages to see and do. At the heart of the event is a large arena with a thrilling programme of spectacular military displays and marching bands, along with stunt car shows, bird of prey demonstrations, and more. Entry to the event is free. Visitors will be able to park in dedicated parking areas for a small charge. The event is organised by the Royal Borough of Greenwich in partnerhsip with the Army at the Royal Artillery Barracks. When it was last held in 2011 it attracted between around 20,000 people

Amongst the stalls in the marquees will be one from Shrewsbury House who are publicing the many and varied activities that happen at the house, including the fact that they are now licensed to hold civil and marriage ceremonies there.

24th June 2013

Severndroog Castle Restoration Starts

Steve Daly, one of the Trustees of the Severndroog Castle Building Preservation Trust, contacted me to say that the long-awaited restoration work on the castle had started. He wrote

Restoration work started at Severndroog Castle on Monday 10 June with completion due mid-December.

The contractor is Hilton Abbey a company based in the borough of Greenwich.

The Trust would appreciate support from the local community in reporting to the police any suspicious activity/vandalism at the Castle while building work is in progress.

Hilton Abbey, the Greenwich-based company selected to do the work, have previously worked on The Royal Observatory and The Queen’s House in Greenwich. Work on the latter was highly commended by the Painting and Decorating Association.

The trust were recently granted planning permission and listed building consent for for applications 13/0228/F and 13/0229/L which describe the programme of repairs and alterations to the castle. The Design and Access Statement that forms part of the application includes this statement about the future use of Severndroog:

The restored building would provide for the following proposed uses:
• Education for all ages: children, elderly people and people with learning disabilities.
• An exhibition about the Castle and its history.
• Visits to see the view from each storey and from the roof.
• A focus for walkers and wildlife visits.
• Light refreshments served indoors and outdoors.
• Private hiring for weddings, functions and meetings.

I’m looking forward to seeing the views from the top of the castle again.

10th June 2013

Eaglesfield Park Community Fête 2013

Fete Poster - Artwork by Kalea Moore, Christ Church Primary School, year 5 — Artwork by Kalea Moore, Christ Church Primary School, year 5

The Eaglesfield Park Neighbourhood Watch Scheme (EPNWS) Community Fête looks like it will be even better than ever this year. It takes place this Saturday, 15th June from 1.00pm and, as well as over 30 stalls, the attractions include the Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery. As the EPNWS Summer Newsletter says:

This is the sixth year that the fete has been held to help promote the benefits of Neighbourhood Watch and foster community spirit. The fete will be opened at 1pm by Borough Commander Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Wood, poster competition winners from Christ Church Primary School and resident John Pead in memory of his wife and fellow EPNWS co-ordinator Annie Pead who died suddenly in February.
There are over 30 activities and stalls this year. New attractions include a puppet show, model trains and the Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery. Other activities include mini tennis and golf, children’s story telling, face painting, pond dipping, hurdles and frisbees. Greenwich Met Police teams will be on hand as well as the Eltham Fire Brigade. Pets at Home Charlton will be providing pet care advice and Woodlands Farm will be bringing some of the farm animals, and there’s much more.

Celebrating the opening of The Lilly Pond 15 June 2012

Saturday will also be the first anniversary of the grand opening of the restored Eaglesfield Park Lilly Pond, and the Friends of Eaglesfield Park will be host a display of photos about the changes to the pond and an opportunity to try pond dipping. Madeleine from the Friends wrote:

We will be holding a Pond Dipping Session at the Neighbourhood Watch Community Fete on 15th June, between 1 pm – 4 pm. So do please come and see us. We will supply the equipment.
We will have a photo display which will show the pond and meadow through the stages of restoration, grand opening and various events. The pond life is beginning to establish and photos show what we have found already and those yet to be discovered. It will also provide details of the meadow preparation and the flowers and plants we hope to attract (and those we don’t want). The butterflies and insects are important and they are also detailed in the display. We haven’t forgotten the birds. As we gather information, we will add to our on-going “Life at Eaglesfield Pond”.

A not-to-be-missed event.