Party in the Park 2014

Party in the Park's line-up has been finalised. The focus is on music, with dozens of young bands and DJs performing. You can view the full roster here.

16 Coulgate Street work underway

It appears that work on the Coulgate Street block, approved in 2012 is now under way.

The site, next to Brockley Station and the rail line, was formerly the home of Speedicars taxi service (now Keen) and has been used in recent months for storage and access by engineers working on the Brockley Station platform expansion works, but a construction team is now working on the plot itself.

The approved plans are for:

The construction of a part single/part four/part five storey building at 16 Coulgate Street SE4, incorporating balconies and roof terrace, comprising a mini cab office/retail/commercial unit (Use Classes A1/A2), 4 one bedroom, 3 two bedroom and 2 three bedroom, self-contained flats, together with the provision of a bicycle store.

New Ladywell Fields cafe opens

The Ladywell Fields User Group reports that the new park cafe, operated by the charity Ten Thousand Hands is now open. They say:

"[We were] impressed today by the friendly service and coffee strength - and the kids enjoyed a reasonably-priced ice cream. The early signs are good, with more punters than the previous café - including some new faces."

Click here for the Ladywell Fields Facebook Group.

Support The Deptford Cinema [UPDATED]

"I'm raising money for this documentary I want to make about Kickstarter and I'm trying to figure out the best way to do it."

- Jimmy Dore

The Deptford Cinema Kickstarter has begun. They're trying to raise £6,000 to fund the 50-seat cinema, which will incorporate a cafe lounge area and a darkroom. Watch the film to learn more about this exciting project and click here to support it.

UPDATE: The project has now reached its fundraising target.

Lewisham's Big Budget Challenge

Lewisham Council has launched a "Big Budget Challenge" consultation, asking residents to give them their views on how it should bridge the £85million funding gap it faces over the next three years. They say:

What would you do if you had to save around £1 in every £3 you spend? That’s the challenge facing the Council which has to find further savings worth £85million over the next three years in the face of reduced government spending. 

The Council would like to know what you would do – how you would meet this budget challenge. What services are important to you and your family? What services do you think are important to the more vulnerable members of the community? Where might you find the savings? Using the online budget simulator you can decide how you would allocate the funding. To take part, click here.

 You can also attend your local assembly meeting during September and October to join in the discussion about the Council’s budget. 

It might look like one way to save some of that 85 million quid would be to employ less elaborate consultation mechanisms but the tool is actually hosted by the Local Government Association.

What it is trying to impart to us is that the "easy wins" of sharing services with other councils, allowing advertising on redevelopment sites and procuring more economically will only take them so far - that some very difficult choices lie ahead. And to that extent, it's a salutary exercise.

BC chose to ringfence "Environment and Waste" and "Planning, Economy and Regeneration" because we figure these are the fundamentals on which Lewisham's future prosperity is based - helping the Council to grow its revenues in the long term. We only trimmed the "Culture, Leisure and Community Development" budget, because we think this is an investment in quality of life, which benefits everyone. We also jacked up Council Tax by the maximum permitted amount, but it doesn't make a lot of difference.

What the game shows is that the Council is primarily a front-line social care provider and to make the figures balance, you have to cut things like adult care, child protection, housing support and community safety to the bone. We chose to protect spending on children's services and child protection (because, you know, children are the future) as much as possible, but we set about Council support and customer services with a blow-torch and some pliers, not because these aren't useful, but because front-line services have to come first.

Finally, we made up the balance with quite drastic cuts to adult social care, housing and community safety - the latter because with falling crime rates in the borough, we think there needs to be some sort of peace dividend and the former, no-doubt, out of our own ignorance of how essential these services are. The site tells you what the negative impact of your proposed cuts in each area are and the adult care cuts we proposed would probably lead to more people ending up in homes, more social isolation and less effective intervention by social workers.

All in all, not a pleasant exercise and by the end, you do not envy the Councillors and officers who have to implement the real cuts. Which is of course, the point.

The Brockley Front Garden Sale 2014

Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 September, 11am – 4pm

The Brockley Front Garden Sale is an SE4-wide sale organised by BrocSoc - like the Open Studios event, with boxes of old DVDs. People will also be selling art, clothes and a wide range of other items.

Last year over 70 addresses took part in a day of coordinated front garden sales. This year it will be on both Saturday and Sunday. You can choose to participate on one or both days.

If you would like to take part, send an email by Wednesday 3 September to:
gardensale@brockleysociety.org.uk with your name + house no. +  street + postcode and email, stating Saturday, Sunday or both.

The St George's Players

The St George's Players are an amateur dramatic society based in Forest Hill. They will be staging a series of play reading nights in local venues, beginning at the recently-reopened Honor Oak pub. Felicity explains:

I am organising some play readings. We'll all get together in a local venue and read through a play. Our first in a series of readings will be Monday 15 September at the newly opened Honor Oak Pub.

For those who haven't done readings before there's no need to prep we just read out the parts (putting as much acting into it as you like - points for trying out accents on the hoof!) and have some fun with it.

This should give us the chance to test out some material that we could use in the future or perhaps read through something that we like but isn't players appropriate (ie too many parts, too elaborate scenery or even too edgy to put on in a church!). The first play is going to be Moira Buffini's Dinner.

We're really keen for new members to join up, so please do come along, and encourage others by forwarding this post or following us on Facebook or Twitter.

We've got a private room at the Honor Oak Pub and we'll start at 7:30 for 8pm. It can take anything from an hour to two to get through a play (probably depending on how many times we go to the bar).

Please get in touch if you'd like to come along.