To hear presentations and announcements about:
Minutes:
Millwall FC
Jeff Burnidge, Chair of the “Millwall for All” trust and former chairman of Millwall FC, explained that the club had been in Southwark since the early 1900s, and so had a strong connection to Southwark. There were a few issues on match days, but on the whole the club had a good relationship with the community living around the 20,000-seater stadium, built in 1992/93 in the wake of the Hillsborough disaster. He went on to outline the efforts the club was making to link in with the local community, and highlighted the advantages for the community of having a football team of this stature in the area. “Millwall for All” had been founded primarily as an organisation to counteract racism, and to foster community cohesion and inclusion. It was important for the club that their core support came from around where their stadium was located. For historical reasons the club did not enjoy much support among BME communities, but it was trying to reach out to these. Millwall was very diverse in their management structure: it had, for example, had the first black, female chairman. The Millwall community scheme, which was independent of “Millwall for All”. It had a similar remit, but went for large funding streams. The club was trying to become “the natural choice” for people in the area. Responding to questions, Jeff Burnidge said that the club’s ultimate aim was to get into the premier league, which would also be beneficial to Southwark. The council could help “Millwall for All” with small amounts of financial support to “pump-prime” other sources of funding. A resident thanked the football club, for providing a meeting space for a Makaton fund-raising event, free of charge.
The meeting heard that the Olympic torch would make its way through Southwark on the morning of Thursday 26 July 2012. The route would take it across the Millennium Bridge at about 10am, past the Globe Theatre, Southwark Bridge Road, Marshalsea Road, Bricklayers Arms, Trafalgar Avenue, Peckham Academy, Peckham Road, Camberwell and continue on into Lambeth via Coldharbour Lane.
Community Safety Update
Sector inspector Al Irving, who manages the Safer Neighbourhoods Teams (SNT) in the Bermondsey and Rotherhithe sector, addressed the meeting saying that there had been an arrest that morning related to a spate of burglaries in SE16. Another suspect was awaiting sentencing after he had been arrested for breaching his ASBO in Rotherhithe ward. Responding to questions, Inspector Irving said that the local police would be pulled in different directions during the Olympics, all officers would have to help out. To counteract this, he would put together “flex-teams” which could be moved around to guarantee cover in all the wards. He informed the meeting that Rotherhithe police station would close sometime after the Olympics, and that the investigation into a recent rape in Bermondsey was still on-going. He went on to advise people to download the “find my iPhone”, or similar apps, to protect their phone.
Responding to a comment from the floor, PC Steven Brown from South Bermondsey SNT explained that one of Riverside SNT’s priorities was the theft of phones around Bermondsey tube station, and that plain clothes officers were deployed there. Across Grange, Riverside and South Bermondsey wards, four anti-social behaviour orders (ASBO) had been issues. The police were in the process of getting clearance to name the suspects, and were working with the council’s housing department to start proceedings against people who housed known robbers.
The current priorities for his team were: anti-social behaviour, robberies and thefts, and handling stolen goods. He then presented some of the recent activities and priorities for the other teams:
Grange SNT had concentrated on street drinkers (especially on the Old Kent Road) and rough sleepers on the Kipling Estate with the support of outreach workers. Nine acceptable behaviour orders had been issued. ASBOs had been issued for a person on the Neckinger Estate.
South Bermondsey SNT were dealing with the stabbing incident in Paterson Park investigations into which were ongoing. There would be a street briefing in Paterson Park with regards to this. Anti-social behaviour was the main focus of the team. A ring leader for anti-social behaviour among young people had been issued with an ASBO barring him from South Bermondsey ward.
PC Brown reminded people to report all non-life threatening issues to the new police number 101, which could also put people through to their local SNT.
Albion Street Community Charity Shop
Pauline Adenwalla informed the meeting that a charity shop run by a consortium of four churches (the Norwegian and Swedish churches, St Mary’s and Paradise Street) had opened its doors for the first time at 10am that day, after 2 years of preparatory work. The shop would be open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 10am-4pm. She encouraged people to visit, and to buy or to donate items. All the profits would be ploughed back into the community via the churches. In answer to questions, Pauline said that the shop sold items donated from the local community: books, clothes, bric-a-brac and bags.
Albion Street Steering group
Pauline Adenwalla said that the group was involved in several projects, for example Cleaner Greener Safer funded environmental improvements around Irwell Green and Railway Avenue South. The group was also involved in plans to organise a street market to coincide with the Christmas fairs at the Norwegian and Swedish churches which would take place on 24/25/26 November. This event would be well advertised. The issue around the toilets in front of the Norwegian church was still on-going. The closed library which had been purchased for redevelopment. Pauline said that the Albion Street working group had been a subgroup of Rotherhithe Community Council, and should continue on. The chair agreed that this group would be a subgroup of the new community council as well. Simon Hughes, MP, said he wanted to pay tribute to the work of the group. He had recently met with traders in the area, and with the ambassadors of several Scandinavian and Baltic countries who had historical links to the area. The ambassadors had been keen to help with linking up businesses from their countries with those in the Albion Street/Albion Square area. The traders had also been keen on the idea, and had wanted to invite the ambassadors to visit the area. Simon Hughes MP went on to call for better maintenance and tighter organisation in the shops in Rotherhithe village. Councillor Richard Livingstone said the council agreed with this, that it had agreed a small amount of money for Albion Street, and was keen to continue working with the traders there.
London Fire Brigade
Paula Burns, Project Manager, informed the meeting about the refurbishment of the existing fire stations at Dockhead and on the Old Kent Road. Paula encouraged attendees to pick up a leaflet, which featured the proposed designs for both stations and the timescales for the works. Alternatively the information was available from the Fire Brigade’s website, which also featured feedback from the recent consultation events. The refurbishment works at the station on the Old Kent Road would start in summer 2013, while the refurbishment of the station at Dockhead would commence in summer 2014. While the refurbishment works were going on, the local fire crews would be patrolling the area and would be based at New Cross, and Deptford fire stations. In answer to a question from councillors, Paula responded that both fire stations would have a community space on the first floor, which would be available to community groups and organisations as meeting space. There would also be a public reception space, which would feature fire prevention information.
Big Dance
Lara Erwin, a freelance dance artist living in Surrey Quays, told the meeting that the she had applied for a grant from “Big Dance”, with the aid of which she had organised a dance event - “Locomotion” - the previous Saturday. 12 community groups and 84 performers had participated. The event had also attracted 250 spectators. She went on to say that she would like to organise more dance events and regular groups in the area for example for 0-6 year-olds and for young people aged 18-25, especially on the plaza. She encouraged all those interested to get in touch with her. The meeting heard a suggestion that this should be tied in with the Albion Street steering group.
Biscuit Factory, Drummond Road
Jonathon Shelton from Workspace explained that Workspace managed this development and that most of the present tenants on the site were small businesses of 1-10 people. In total 600 people were employed at the site. The first phase of the redevelopment of the rest of the site was now in progress. This would create up to 1,500 jobs on site, but also another 1,000 in the surrounding community. In November the initial plans had been out for consultation. Changes had been made – the current plans included 800 residential units on the northern part of the site, and the creation of 1,2,3 and 4-bedroom flats, duplexes and town houses. Under the new plans, Storks Road would be opened up again. The development would not have gates, and the roads within it would be open to the public.
In answer to questions from the floor, Jonathan said that there would be a 20%-ratio of parking spaces to residential units. Residents of the new development would be excluded from applying for parking permits in the surrounding CPZ area. The percentage affordable housing would be optimised and family homes would also be part of that. Transport consultants had conducted traffic studies which had fed into the transport plan which had been verified with Southwark planning officers. Workspace had a proven track record of creating jobs, and encouraged their tenants to provide young people with work experience places every year.