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Neighbourhood Watch Fête

If you thought neighbourhood watch was about ostracising young people, putting up worrying signs, being paranoid and twitching curtains, think again, because the eaglesfield neighbourhood watch scheme are a positive force promoting what’s good whilst remaining vigilant concerning the not so good. Actually this area is more good than not, the local met beat has the lowest crime rate in the borough (in april 2010 it was 5.83) and the group can probably take some credit for keeping it that way.

When the scheme was conceived in around late 2005/early 2006, i attended a meeting about the rising tensions between local residents and a group of youngsters in eaglesfield park, and yes the reactionary squad were out in force, claiming that if children got caned at school everything would be alright! but with the advent of the group, and the introduction of a detached youth worker (who got them to plant crocuses and take a bit of care of the park) things gradually got better. I’m not sure what happened to the yoof, although i did hear a rumour that as a treat the youth worker took them to chessington at the end of the summer, where they managed to get thrown out… i believe they were moved from the park to the woods after that, having seen them once when london bubble were performing there one night (incidentally they are back this august, trying to stop the dogs running off with their props!).

Since then the scheme has got bigger and better, and with the inception of its website, which recently celebrated it’s first birthday, the whole police ward has gradually become more interconnected with residents on different streets (cleanthus, foxcroft, kenilworth, bushmoor etc) joining up under the shooters hill umbrella with the backing of the local safer neighbourhoods scheme.

As part of their ongoing positive action, they will be presenting their annual Fête tomorrow (sat the 12th of june) from 130 to 430, and have amassed an impressive selection of activities.

  • Meet ‘Rufus’ the harris hawk from CBBC Animals At Work and other working birds of prey
  • Play ‘beat the goalie’ with the Charlton Athletic FC
  • Take part in mini tennis with the Shooters Hill Lawn Tennis Club
  • See the Police Air Support and meet the mounted team and traffic division. Plus Cadets and Met Specials and the Shooters Hill Safer Neighbourhood Police team
  • Listen to the Corps of Drums 97 Cadet Battery (Woolwich)
  • Children can take part in a ‘Nature Trail’ and have their face painted
  • Guided tours of the trees in the park will be hosted by Arboriculturalist Joe Woodcock.
  • The police have pulled out all the stops this year and you will be able to see the Met Police Air Support team and traffic divisions. Cadets and Met Police Specials will be on hand, and the Shooters Hill Safer Neighbourhood Police team.
  • Join in the nature trail and guided tour, and have your face and hands painted.
  • Take part in the raffle to a win 2 pairs of tickets to see Bon Jovi in the VIP suite at the 02, plus many other great prizes.
  • Yummy home-made cakes and refreshments will be on sale, as well as a bric-a-brac stand.
  • The fete opens at 1:30pm by PC Fiona Genovese of the Shooters Hill Safer Neighbourhood Police Team.
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No Crossrail in South East London

crossrail

The Proposed Crossrail Route (tunnels in red)

Well, the banking crisis is strongly starting to make itself felt in the selondon area now. This week, various blogs (including london reconnections and 853), have covered a recent commons debate that was secured by nick raynsford, and rather defensively fielded by the new minister for transport, theresa villiers (a tory i think). The debate was on the future of crossrail in woolwich specifically and possibly selondon as a whole, and it’s not looking good. The inclusion of Woolwich in the scheme was originally achieved on the back of a 2008 assurance by Berkeley Homes to pay £150 million for the station, which helped the public by reducing government spending on getting the line from Canary Wharf to Abbey Wood. Now it seems that Berkeley Homes are struggling to meet their commitments, because of the banks, and the Government look likely to use this to justify the dropping of the woolwich terminal or the entire selondon spur from the programme.

Obviously people can still get to East London and the City via the wonderful new DLR line from Woolwich Arsenal Station, and Villiers made a point of this, but Raynsford then pointed out that instead of the 2.4 million predicted journeys in year one of woolwich DLR, there were actually 5 million through this station; anyone who uses it in the rush hour will know that overcrowding is a problem. Furthermore, Crossrail would have been really good for links with other parts of London (see map), and would have been a much more popular and clean connection with our neighbours in the east than the proposed thames gateway bridge would have been.

Villiers closed the debate by washing her hands of Berkeley Homes, whilst saying that she would try to help Greenwich Council and other ‘interested parties’ to try to help Berkeley:

I know that Greenwich council is actively engaged in the issues that we have discussed this evening. It is now important for all of us who care about Crossrail to assess thoroughly the possible alternative funding sources that could be available between the interested parties if Berkeley Homes does not step up to the plate and deliver what it promised. Therefore, while I cannot promise additional funding from the Department and the taxpayer, we do stand ready to try to help the interested parties find a solution to enable Woolwich station to go ahead. The right hon. Gentleman can have my absolute assurance on that.

Who these ‘interested parties’ are I’m not sure, I suppose I am, but i’m not really in a position to lend Berkeley 150 million, and I doubt if Greenwich Council are either. I hope that Canary Wharf (who are also paying for their station) consider standing Berkeley the cash, considering the massive profits currently enjoyed there, might they be persuaded?

… I fear that if Woolwich goes, the entire selondon spur will be sacrificed.

Don’t worry though, Villiers offered this by way of consolation:

…it is worth noting that several important programmes in recent years have benefited his [nick raynsford’s] constituency, such as the refurbishment of the East London line as part of the London overground network [hmm, brockley isn’t in raynsford’s constutuency], new interchanges with the tube and bus networks [the dome?], and the extension of the docklands light railway [yes, it’s brilliant, but overcrowded at times].

She forgot to mention that the waterfront transit scheme has also been dropped…

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Woodlands Farm Summer Show

Although I previously blamed my batteries, it actually turns out that I haven’t got much to say about the Woodlands Farm Summer Show after all: I arrived in time for the extreme falconry, to see a harris hawk surfing on a mock rabbit with accompanying sardonic commentary, plus the tug-o-war to sound of ‘eye of the tiger ‘, but I did miss the bakewell cupcakes, w.h robinson steam machines, sheep shearing, and the blacksmith, plus I noticed the bromley bee keepers weren’t there, perhaps as a result of woodlands farm’s own bee keeping operation turning out to be better than theirs? The next barn dance, on June the 19th was being promoted, this time in aid of Severndroog castle.

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Plumstead Make Merry

As community spirits go this weekend probably marked the high point of the year, with the Plumstead Make Merry yesterday and the farm’s summer show today, and I went along to both to see what was going on, but my computer’s battery is just about to run out, so here’s a few thoughts on the make merry for now.

Unfortunately I missed a lot of the early action, and can’t confirm if the man who does a fantastic punch and judy with incredible sound effects who also doubles up as a balloon contortionist was there – I fear not. The terrifying clown was also possibly not there, and neither were the blackheath morris men, so my expectations were dampened a bit.

However things obviously change at these events, and there were some great newcomers too: including Stepz School of Dance, who were promoted on this site in winter, and have been successful so far and are now offering evening classes on Wednesdays at St Josephs on Herbert Road.

It was also nice to see Mariama Samba a promising local singer songwriter who recently supported Youssou N’dour at the dome as well as winning a ‘Spirit of London’ award. She’s so charismatic that by the end of her show a spontaneous crowd of admirers gathered around her on stage, and she thanked them all for being her new backing dancers.

Speaking of award winners, the multi award winning Plumstead Common Environment Group had a nice stall there, selling attractive postcards and giving out copies of their quarterly newsletter. It’s a full colour printed and bound publication and alone justifies the annual membership fee of £2/4, and demonstrates very effectively how their care of public spaces has benefited the area – they have also produced an excellent glossy book. It’s not all good news from them though, and things take a turn for the worse when they describe the limited resources and motivation of the council and police when it comes to littering, dog control orders and vandalism. The group were also promoting the newly released third volume of colin weightman’s plumstead-stories, a collection of reminiscences and pictures, which comes ‘sprinkled with nostalgia’.

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Woodlands Farm Summer Show

The biggest of all the farm shows is happening this Sunday:

All are welcome at the Woodlands Farm Trust Summer Show. Come and meet our animals, and enjoy the chance to buy quality local produce at reasonable prices, including home-made preserves, cakes and honey. Relax in our café to music by Greenwich Concert Band, get involved in craft activities and games, and enjoy displays of country crafts and falconry. 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!

woodlandssummershow
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Ringway 2

Ringway 2 Proposed Route
Ringway 2 Proposed Route
A recent discussion over on plummy mummy’s website, has reawakened my interest in the incredible story of the long (and so far successful) struggle of the residents of south east london against the urban motorway planners that just will not go away: the creators of the dreaded ringway2/elrc/tgb historical trilogy of vastly unpopular road building schemes.

In an effort to win favour with the people, the proposal has actually been watered down each time; starting out from a bold 1960’s dream/nightmare of a three carriageway bypass running through oxleas wood, the blueprint was gradually scaled down, ending up with the most recent suggestion that through-traffic could simply drive down residential streets to access the so-called ‘local’ bridge that the tgb was supposedly going to be.

Well, thinking back to the state of play in the 1970’s, if you are curious which parts of the area would have been concreted over if ringway2 been built, there is a website that can demonstrate! A motorway enthusiast, who runs an online road directory has painstakingly researched the history of the London Ringways, and has produced an accurate map showing what the route would have been. [click on the image to zoom].

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Bluebells and Motorbikes

bluebells

Bluebells in Oxleas Wood

The bluebells on the easternmost edge of Oxleas wood are reaching their greatest flowering intensity around about now. This photo is a week old, so they be will a lot more vivid by now (although I did increase the saturation a bit to try and bring it up to date). I’m not sure why the bluebells are so happy in that part of the wood, but there are some sections where the whole forest floor is covered in a dense blanket of flowers, and it’s quite a sight to behold. The farm were doing some special walks as well which were advertised in the neighbourhood watch site, I didn’t go but I imagine they knew all the best bits to go to.

Actually this photo doesn’t really show the best view of the bluebells, mainly because it also also shows some recently laid motorbike tracks. It’s not certain whether off roaders will be persuaded to leave the woods alone, but this does remind me that the Friends of Shrewsbury Park are holding an event to safeguard the park against invading cars on the 30th of May:

Put up bunding. We want to stop cars getting into the Park, so will re-install the bunding the Water Board removed from the Garland Road entrance last year. Please bring spades/shovels, stout gloves and wear strong boots – Meet at the junction of the Green Chain Walk with Dothill.

ps – this site is now mobile friendly, which has the added benefit of being much faster to load.

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Dosey Doe

The first Woodlands Barn Dance of the year is coming up this Saturday, and has been added to the events list, here’s a bit of eynsham morris to get the mood going, although i gather that skinners rats are a full ceilidh group offering all styles of folk dances… The next event is on the 10th of July.

Brighton Camp, Eynsham by eshootershill

Sat May 15 2010 7:30 PM: Music by Skinner’s Rats; ploughman’s meal included, but please bring your own drinks and glasses. Tickets £10, available from the Farm office. These dances were very successful last year and sold out quickly so please book early to avoid disappointment. Tel: 020 8319 8900

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Election

The turnout for the local election was a fantastic 80.4% 67.7% (oh dear I just checked and the turnout figure appears to have been revised), almost double that of four years ago. The most interesting thing to come out of this is that decent voter turnout here appears to be very good for labour, and very bad for the tories, with a 7 point swing to labour (I’m not exactly sure if i calculated it right, but here goes):

lab = sum(total lab vote 2010/total vote 2010)-sum(total lab vote 2006/total vote 2006) = 5% positive
con = sum(total con vote 2010/total vote 2010)-sum(total con vote 2006/total vote 2006) = 9% negative
diff/2 = 7%

On the fringes, the greens got more votes (4%) than the bnp (3%) too, another reversal of national behaviour, so overall, and considering the extremely high turnout, it looks like the residents of Shooters Hill present a fairly socially progressive political outlook compared to the country as a whole.

The lib dem share went down by 3%, which leads me to speculate that the downturn in con/lib fortunes is probably not for want of trying (the tories look to have spent a small fortune on glossy leaflets) but rather the mobilisation of the left. Certainly it is possible that some of the green/liberal vote went to labour, although it’s curious to note that the local green got more votes than their parliamentary candidate for eltham, who only got 419 votes, losing his deposit… Considering that, it looks like shooters hill greens probably did vote tactically nationally but possibly not locally…

I haven’t really given much thought to the national election, but now that clive efford has successfully staved of the tories in their target seat #68 (based on the 68th smallest amount of swing needed – 4.1%), i’m looking forward to seeing what happens with his proposals for green flag paths and signs (and gym!) in eaglesfield park. simon emmett, who was very gracious in defeat, has announced that he will be watching labour in the proposed regeneration of swingate lane shops and in the opposition to the tetra mast (but not the other masts?) – i.e. can the emergency services have it moved somewhere else?

2010 Council Election for Shooters Hill Ward (turnout 80.4% 67.7%)
Name Party Results
Phillip Jonathan BECKER Green Party 659
Mo BURGESS Conservative 1,881
Richard John CHANDLER Conservative 1,628
Simon EMMETT Conservative 1,777
Edward OTTERY Liberal Democrats 1,210
Harry Drummond POTTER Liberal Democrats 939
Jagir Kaur SEKHON Labour 2,917 – ELECTED
Barry Ian TAYLOR Labour 3,093 – ELECTED
Danny Lee THORPE Labour 2,788 – ELECTED
Steven Thomas TOOLE Liberal Democrats 1,009
Eddie Herbert WHITE British National Party 513

For comparison, here’s the details from last time:

2006 Council Election for Shooters Hill Ward (turnout 42%)
Name Party Results
Linda Susan Cunningham Conservative 1409
Sylvia Gladys Derrick-Reeve Liberal Democrat 796
Elizabeth Patricia Drury Conservative 1393
Denise Hyland Labour 1527 – ELECTED
John Kelly Labour 1589 – ELECTED
Edward Ottery Liberal Democrats 736
Simon Lester Tee Conservative 1326
Danny Thorpe Labour 1540 – ELECTED
Michael Westcombe Liberal Democrats 660