My Street Makeover

Getting the basics right with our streets is the single most important thing that we (residents, businesses and the Council) can do to regenerate our area:

• Collecting litter (and not dropping it in the first place)
• Reducing refuse bins through more effective waste management (or hiding them)
• Choosing good quality street furniture (benches, railings, bins, etc) and then looking after them
• Reducing unnecessary clutter (especially pointless signs)
• Putting some effort in to shop fronts (and then supporting the shops that do)
• Planting flowers (and maintaining them)
• Fixing the pavements and towing people who park their cars in the middle of our streets so they can get their hair cut.

Stuff like that. The kind of stuff people do to shift their houses on property programmes, because they are relatively cheap and very effective.

Brockley Central's political manifesto would put these basic things at its heart. Look after stuff like that and people begin to respect their area more, enjoy their area more and invest in the area more.

So we're delighted to hear from Cllr Sue Luxton that Lewisham Council will be organising a "My Street Makeover" on Coulgate Street soon. This will involve:

• Painting the railings and lamp posts
• Repainting road markings
• New road signs (hopefully replacement ones rather than more road signs)
• Gully cleaning
• Graffiti removal
• Weed removal
• Litter clearance

There will also be a clean up for all to get involved in around the Station - including both Mantle Road and Coulgate Street. Some good joined-up thinking would also involve enforcing the regulations on shop fronts, to make Speedicars change their horrible signage in time for the makeover day.

My Street Makeovers are a borough-wide initiative, launched in 2006. We hope they also come to Brockley Road and Lewisham Way very soon.