We were contacted by reader Miriam, who is relatively new to the area and keen to hear suggestions for how she can volunteer for local good causes. She's particularly interested in helping the elderly or people with mobility challenges, so if you are involved with a local organisation that's looking for new volunteers, please post the details here.
We're sure Miriam's not alone, so this thread is open to any organisation looking for volunteers - tell us what you do and how readers can help.
John Laing Infrastructure Fund, the LSE-listed investment vehicle, has acquired the Brockley Social Housing contract from its parent company, John Laing. They say:
The sale to JLIF is in line with John Laing’s strategy of selling interests in mature infrastructure projects and reinvesting the proceeds into its growing pipeline of new primary development opportunities... John Laing will continue to be responsible for day to day management of the relevant disposed assets.
Brockley Social Housing is a PFI project signed by Lewisham Council in 2007.
Hello Brockley! I've got an announcement: Danny Dyer's Chocolate Homunculus is dead, but Man Feelings are back. You are witnesses at the rebirth of Man Feelings.
- Super Hans, Peep Show
We've quoted them on this site so often, that it was natural that the writers of Peep Show should want to repay the compliment by name-checking Brockley on Friday night.
Either they thought that the place that had played host to the White Stripes, Kings of Leon and the Cosmic Sausages was a fittingly epic setting for the historic rebirth of Man Feelings or they regarded it as the kind of musical backwater that would be perfect for the Death of Danny Dyer's Chocolate Homunculus. It's impossible to know what's going on in their heads and if we ask them, they don't necessarily have to tell the truth.
Tea & Make, the locally-run craft events company, has opened a pop-up shop in New Cross, at 3 Lewisham Way until December 11th.
The shop features work by 10 designers and making sessions throughout the day. Opening hours are 10am - 6pm, Tuesday - Saturday (late opening until 9pm on Thursday), and 12pm-4pm, Sunday.
If there is one thing guaranteed to irritate a Falkland Islander, it’s saying that their weather is rubbish.
Perhaps the issue is a proxy for all the ways in which their international image has been defined by the 1982 conflict (74 days, nearly 30 years ago), a reputation frozen in time despite all the progress the country has made. The war took place in one of their toughest winters, leaving a legacy of television archive footage and photo libraries showing leaden skies that have been used ever since. Or perhaps, an obsession with weather is a legacy of the British inhabitants from who they descended.
Whatever the case, it is not a grey place. The weather is best described as ‘entertaining’ – changing by the minute. In the week we’ve been here, we’ve managed to get sunburned, drenched, get battered by hail and enjoy glorious crisp skies. But above all, we have been buffeted. For the Falklands are definitely windy.
The country has harnessed this natural resource with a wind farm of just six turbines, which provide more than half of their electricity needs, making Stanley the most wind-powered capital city in the world.
Small communities with relatively low energy demands have a particular problem in exploiting wind power efficiently: The sudden surges produced by strong gusts threaten to overload their grid - a doubling of the windspeed results in a quadrupling of electricity output. The FI solution is to deliberately limit the maximum output of any single turbine and combine them with their old diesel generators to create an integrated system.
By doing this, they regularly manage to generate more than 50% of their power from wind and with some further tinkering and an investment in flywheel storage, aim to get the figure much higher.
Last night, the Lewisham Mayor and Cabinet approved plans for a skate park in Telegraph Hill. Having already secured funding and won approval from the local assembly, this was the final hurdle the plans needed to clear.
The decision is a major boost for local sports provision in the area.
We're currently torn between schadenfreude as we sit 8,000 miles away reading tweets from Brockley residents struggling with snow-induced transport chaos and fear that we're about to get our comeuppance and be unable to fly back to a UK airport. In either case, we're staying out of this debate, but Fintan wants to know what BC readers think about the area's preparedness for this early flurry of snow. He writes:
Am I the only one who thinks that Lewisham council has simply abandoned the idea of gritting anything other than the major roads?? I cycled: Aspinall, Frendsbury, Turnham (over the rail bridge which was particularly dangerous!!) & Dalrymple without any indication whatsoever of any attempt to grit.
Likewise on the other side of Brockley & Adelaide, St. Margarets, Chalsey, Tresillan, Harefield this morning walking – again no sign or evidence whatsoever of any attempt to grit!! ALSO – the overground was not working on the Brockley line south of Surrey Quays – BUT was running fine into New Cross. Does this suggest that that overpass at New Cross Gate is particularly vulnerable to snow and ice?
