Brockley Cross Crisis Point: The Council Responds

A couple of weeks ago, Brockley Central was hit by a dose of what we like to think was swine flu, but was more likely simple man flu. For a couple of days, we were largely house bound, only occasionally leaving home to replenish our stocks of juice, DVDs and medicine. This incarceration brought about a touch of Rear Window-style paranoia, which led to us photgraphing horrific crimes against parking in Brockley Cross.

We published these photos over four days and pointed them out to the Council, asking whether they planned to do anything about the regular, flagrant and dangerous parking abuses that were afflicting the area. They kindly agreed to provide a response.

It's worth stressing before we get to the response that what we absolutely were not asking about was whether new parking controls could be introduced. Instead, what we wanted to know was whether the existing ones could be properly enforced. After all, you don't need special rules to stop cars parking on the pavement. Here's what we wrote on day one:

"It should not require new legislation, restrictions, studies, consultations, funding or any of the other usual reasons why things don't happen. Fixing the problem could even be revenue-generating.

"What we need is traffic wardens. Ruthless, efficient traffic wardens, incentivised to punish transgressors. Traffic wardens who circle Brockley Cross like jackals. A few weeks of this treatment should sort the problem out. It could be done tomorrow, if the will was there."

So with that in mind, the third paragraph in the response from the Council published below is really the only one that matters - and whilst it's encouraging that they have confirmed they will take action to enforce the rules in Brockley Cross, it would be nice to know what this means in practice. We've asked whether they can provide any more details. The first two paragraphs are interesting for those wondering whether a CPZ is on the cards for the area (answer: no). Here is their response:

"We have no current plans to look at parking controls in the Brockley Cross area. We have not received any complaints about parking pressures in the roads around Brockley Cross. Early in 2005 the Council carried out a widespread parking consultation. The purpose of this consultation was to identify areas of the borough where there were pressures on parking and where residents supported the development of parking controls. The consultation included the Brockley Cross area. There was no majority support for further consultation on controlled parking in your area at that time and therefore no consultation was planned.

"However I have passed your concerns to the Parking Implementation Manager who maintains a database of concerns expressed on parking issues and this is used to inform future work programmes. We would only consider introducing parking controls over an area around a parking attractor - a station / shops/ college and such a scheme would only be implemented following extensive public consultation. It is likely that any plans to consult on parking controls would require the approval of Mayor and Cabinet.

"In the meantime I have asked out parking team to enforce against any parking offences that are taking place in the areas you describe."

I Love Brockley Fun Run 2009

The Hilly Fields fun run is taking place this Sunday, with runners warming up from 9.45am. Organiser Erin writes:

The aim of the I Love Brockley Fun Run 2009 is to encourage a family atmosphere as well as an event for regular runners to enjoy. It is also a great chance to learn about your local community as well as fundraise for our large community-led project; The Brockley Common!

The Fun Run 2009 will be a friendly and relaxed morning of running and walking for all ages and abilities for a wonderful local cause. After the success and fun of last year’s race, we are looking forward more crazy costumes and running fun!

Running in the one of the best parks in South East London this is a safe introduction to racing for all ages as well as a chance to meet your neighbours and enjoy an extremely picturesque landscape with a spectacular start and finish.

The event is held in association with Brockley Cross Action Group and a donation will be made from the entry fees from each runner to the charity. Your entry details will be passed to Brockley Cross Action Group for the purposes of sending you fund raising material but will not be shared with any other organisation/company.

A limited edition t-shirt as well as a medal and a goodie bag are included free with your registration price.
Standard entry - £5.00On the day registration - £10.00Children (under 12) – free entry (child t-shirt £5.00)

Lewisham College move postponed

Lewisham College's ambitious expansion plans, which involve relocating from its Lewisham Way location to a new site in Deptford, have had to be postponed.

According to this report, Lewisham College is one of nine London education institutions to miss out as a result of the Learning and Skills Council reassessing how much money it has available to spend on capital investment projects.

The plans would have freed the Lewisham Way site for redevelopment, with a mixed-residential plan the most likely outcome.

Lewisham College will have to reapply in the next funding round in 2011-12. The Lewisham Way site will remain open until further notice.

Thanks to Max Calo for highlighting the article.

[Note: Brockley Nick here. In the interests of transparency, I should declare an interest in this story. One of my company's clients in my day job is the Learning and Skills Council, for whom we help to promote the value of training to SMEs. I am not involved with capital funding, however.]

Little Treasures #4: Ashby Mews Mural

Pick your way down the cratered mews, past charred workshops, overflowing skips and one, immaculately-kept home, to find this excellent graffiti.

Mock Brockley

Local film-maker Fred Rowson is planning a mockumentary film set in and around Brockley. We can't decide which is a better name for it: a Brockumentary or a Mockley.

The plot is Hancock meets Kick-Ass meets Mayor Bullock, as a "would-be Lewisham hero, with no powers has decided to quit. The film is about his last week on the job."

He is keen to involve some BC readers in its production and has asked whether any of you would like to volunteer to play a few roles.

In particular he's looking for:

"A cornershop/cornershop owner who wouldn't mind playing him/herself, some sort of local youth group, with members sort of 16 - 20ish, male and female, who would be interested in getting involved with a couple of reasonably big parts, and some smaller parts. No acting experience strictly necessary and, to some extent, the less the better. Would be a good opportunity to get people of that age involved in filmmaking. Beyond that, I'm also looking for a middle aged man, and, importantly, various abandoned buildings/alleys/backyards in any and all states of dilapidation that the owners wouldn't mind us taking over for the afternoon.

"The dates are, roughly, between the 10th and the 16th of August, and reasonably flexible (especially in exigent circumstances)."

If you're wondering whether Fred is worthy of your dramatic talents, then check out some excerpts of his recent work, 'The King of Deptford Creek' here.

If you're interested, please email us at the usual address [nick.barron@gmail.com] and we'll pass on your details.

Follow Brockley Central on Twitter now - before it's too late!

In a very interesting article about the impact of Twitter and Facebook on the blogosphere, the Guardian's Charles Arthur believes that the blogosphere is shrinking and that only the strong will survive as more people publish via these newer forms of social media. Now this is first and foremost a plug for our Twitter feed [Click here to follow Brockley Central on Twitter] but we also have a question - what local blogs are rusting away to obsolescence?

Andrew Brown called it quits on his excellent Lewisham blog last year, are there any other notable departures we should mourn?

Here are the relevant passages from the Guardian:

The long tail of blogging is dying... Anecdotally and experimentally, they've all gone to Facebook, and especially Twitter. The New York Times also noticed this trend, with a piece on 9 June about "Blogs Falling In An Empty Forest", which pointed to Technorati's 2008 survey of the state of the blogosphere, which found that only 7.4m out of the 133m blogs it tracks had been updated in the past 120 days. As the New York Times put it, "that translates to 95% of blogs being essentially abandoned"...

Why? Because blogging isn't easy. More precisely, other things are easier – and it's to easier things that people are turning. Twitter offers instant content and reaction. People are still reading blogs, and other content. But for the creation of amateur content, their heyday for the wider population has, I think, already passed. The short head of blogging thrives. Its long tail, though, has lapsed into desuetude.

Brockley Common redevelopment hit by asbestos setback

It has already been discussed in a few places on Brockley Central, but this update on the progress of the Brockley Common project from the BXAG website is worthy of its own post.

On June 16th, they Darien Goodwin, Head of Transport, Lewisham Council wrote:

The works in general are progressing well. The site was nominally split into two areas; the steps and the ramp, with the focus being on constructing the step structure as a priority. This was to allow the footbridge and ticket office to be re-opened earlier as it was possible to fence off this area on completion and continue with works to the ramp separately. The paving is currently being laid to the steps and ticket office access and it is intended for the footbridge to be re-opened at the end of the month (June 2009), weather permitting. The scheme as a whole is about 3 weeks behind schedule.

The original budget was estimated at £182k which included work to provide a route through the earthen mound and the creation of a DDA ramp with steps to the south and performance area atop the mound and northern stepped access. The budget was made up of nearly £8000 from the remainder of the Mayors Growth fund for the area, £146000 from the Council’s Others Services Capital Programme of which £71k would be reimbursed from the Department for Transport Access for all small schemes and £28000 from Section 106 funding. The Access for All money cannot be claimed until the ramp has been constructed and signed off by Network Rail and was allocated funded in the 08/09 financial year, but the council successfully managed to ensure that this was accrued for 09/10.

Despite carrying out a ground contamination survey prior to the commencement of works, during the course of construction near surface asbestos sheeting was found. As a result work was delayed while a specialist company was called in to carry out the safe removal of this material.

The cost of this amounted to £150k, which represented nearly 83% of the original budget. There will be additional costs incurred by the council's own contractor that are being determined. The implications of this has meant the council has had to review the project to ensure sufficient funding is available to make good the current works and open up the station access. Officers also need to ensure the costs are contained and that there will minimal additional costs for which there is no budget.

It is possible to provide the primary objective of the scheme, i.e. to provide DDA-compliant access by means of the southern steps and ramps, although funding will have to be identified and sought from the cost overrun of £150k, plus any other contractor costs associated with this . It is proposed to seek approval from Mayor and Cabinet on these additional costs from the existing OSCP funding, which would result in other potential station improvements not proceeding.
There is the concern that the northern section of the site could also be contaminated which would involve costly removal which is not budgeted for. As a result the council will complete the southern steps, the ramp and the piazza area only and will have to omit the performance area and northern steps. This decision has not been taken lightly, and will be a disappointment to the Brockley Cross Action Group who have put in so much hard work in working with the council in helping to deliver this important project, but in view of the current extensive cost overrun, the full project is not achievable at this time and any further work would require more detailed feasibility and an understanding of the total costs of providing the performance area and northern steps which is not planned or budgeted for.