Brockley Road improvements - suggestions please

There are plenty of bits of Brockley Road which could do with some love, but probably the most wretched is the stretch is the area opposite St Andrew's Church.

Cllr Sue Luxton has been in touch about this area, which is in the Ladywell Ward. There is still £2,000 earmarked for improvements from last year's Ladywell ward locality fund and she is looking for good ideas and feedback on the most effective way to spend the money. She writes:

Our initial plan was to spend the money on improving the area outside the row of shops opposite St Andrew' Church (where Brockley Kitchen is), and ideally I would still like to do this, but it is proving slightly more complicated than expected, due to the privately-owned shop forecourts and getting support from the businesses and property owners along there.

I was wondering if we could get some feedback via your blog on the following suggestions.

How should the £2,000 to improve the 'Ladywell ward' stretch of Brockley Road be spent?

1. Put it towards improvements to the forecourts for the shops opposite St Andrew's Church (row where Brockley Kitchen is). This would need to be in agreement with the property owners as the forecourts are not council-owned. Depending on funding, this could include some/all of the following:

• Filling in that huge pot hole (it's not the public footpath)
• Working with Artmongers or a similar local organisation to find a way of making the rubbish bins outside the shops less unsightly, and to site a storage point for them off the public footpath.
• Put bollards to block cars going over the public footpath and parking in front of the shops (NB: the stonemasons do need access for loading/unloading however)

2. Have a community planting day and work with local businesses and residents to enter that stretch of Brockley Road into 'Lewisham in Bloom'
3. Spend the money clearing out the alley to the rear of SIDS and Moonbow Jakes and putting some gravel down to deal with the 'clay pit' in the middle there. Do a spot of community planting/guerrilla gardening there.

4. Spend the whole lot on street trees.

5. Any better ideas?

Thanks to Sue for getting in touch. Please post your thoughts here. We'll also set up a poll.