Brockley Ward £10K killer question
Cllr Dean Walton has kindly sent Brockley Central the details of each of the Localities Fund applications, which will be discussed this eventing at St John's Church. Your feedback and poll votes will be very welcome and will be fed in to the meeting before any decisions are taken.
On initial inspection, all the ideas seem to have some merit in our view - except number 7.
Here's Dean's note:
In no particular order, here are the proposals for this year’s Localities Fund. ‘Community Cohesion’ has really taken off as a theme this year which is very interesting.
1. Brockley Fun Run. This event received some money from the Localities Fund last year. The applicants say “The Fun Run was a real success last year and we need to create a bigger splash this year. It highlights the beauty of our local parks while raising awareness of the support it needs to create a better public space. We let the children under 12 run free to help engage the local schools. It also brings together two sides of Brockley, Brockley Cross and Ladywell to create better relations within the community. Last year, outsider runners accounted for 17% of runners as we are a certified runners world hill run. It creates a great PR opportunity for everyone in Brockley to use, as well as make people in Brockley feel like they are involved in their community.”
2. Brockley Christmas Market. Fairly self explanatory but the applicants say the benefits of the event to the local community “By encouraging people to shop locally. To demonstrate to stall-holders that there is a demand for a wider range of products and stimulate them towards opening retail premises locally.”
3. Brockley Max Festival. Taken straight from the application form “The Brockley Max has been running for 7 years and has proved very popular & successful in bringing the community together to develop, explore and celebrate the creativity in Brockley.” The applicants also provided some totally non-biased comments from local people about previous festivals – “‘Brockley Max was amazing! Brockley rocked large! Thanks to all the BMax crew for making all happen so beautifully - what an incredible accomplishment - and the fire works...WOW! What a fantastic part of town this is...!’ ‘I am just emailing to say congratulations and thank you so much for organizing the fantastic Brockley Max festival last Saturday and last week. Thank you very much for the memories and best of luck for the future!’
4. Street Garden/Party and other events in Brockley A series of events within the Brockley ward which promote cultural exchange across the communities in Brockley.The main event would be a street/garden party in Wickham Gardens. There would be satellite 'freecycle events', a free exchange car boot fair where people who wish to get rid of household items could freely exchange in a fun setting. We would engage an arts and crafts specialist to run an large "Art attack" style sculpture made of recycled/used materials from the ward.
5. Friendly Street Gardens/Brookmill Park Additional improvements to Friendly Street Gardens/Brookmill Park ideas. There is a programme to improve the park significantly over the winter, the fund could provide additional improvements such as a contribution to a trim trail or other equipment in the park.
6. Street trees – last year we planted a number of trees in Brockley. Street trees provided by Lewisham come with a proper guard and a watering and replacement programme in their first few years. They cost more than trees from garden centres but should last longer.
7. Additional publicity for the Brockley Assembly. The turnout at the last Assembly was lower than expected. Do people think it’s worthwhile to consider spending some money on publicising the Assembly further, or should we look to redouble our efforts through more informal networks and the like.
8. Paving Outside Brockley Road Post Office. Since the recycling binds were (thankfully removed) and the trees (from your localities fund) planted the pavements have been shown to be rather stained. If possible, would it be a good spend of money to bring the pavements up to scratch quicker than might occur under the usual replacement programme for Lewisham.
9. Council Services Workshop Organise a council services workshop to empower residents to become best ‘community activists’ by informing how best to contact the council and other organisations, how to complain and how to best get issues actioned and resolved. Knowing who , what and when. Lee Green Assembly has organised a social event -http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/NewsAndEvents/News/LeeGreenAssemblySocial.htm
10. Community orchard - may need to do some work on the site but find a site, plant some trees and within a year or two free fruit for local people; combine with a school perhaps to provide a means of guaranteeing the upkeep of the orchard over the years.
11. Music club/ clubs - mainly aimed at young people but suggested by one of Lewisham’s community wardens - guitar tuition, song writing tuition making and recording, making and recording own music, performing live to young people.
Some of the ideas proposed above may need a bit of further refinement, or it may be that in fact it’s not cash that’s need but the right combination of people. Your thoughts and contributions will be really useful to the local Councillors and Co-Ordinating Group who will be meeting at St John’s Church on Monday.
Applicants and any local people are very welcome to attend and contribute.
