Presentations on successful applications to the Community Restoration Fund in the Borough, Bankside and Walworth area followed by workshops on the following areas:
Minutes:
Councillor Claire Hickson, cabinet member for communities and economic development introduced the item highlighting the impact of the economic situation on local high streets – with more empty shops, less people using local shops and an increase number of betting shops and payday loan companies. The disturbances in 2011 also had an effect on local high streets in the borough, particularly in Peckham and Walworth. The council had introduced a community restoration fund of £1 million in response to the summer disturbances – half of the fund was targeted at opportunities for young people and the other half was focused on economic development. On the economic development side local people had been invited to bid for funding and three of the successful projects in the borough, bankside and walworth community council area spoke about their bids.
Tower Bridge Road Business Association – Suhel Ahmed, from Tower Tandoori explained that he was starting a project to set up a business association for Tower Bridge Road and the council had contributed £40,000 of funding. Suhel was hoping to improve the look of the street and the trading environment to bring what was once a thriving local high street back to life. Suhel invited local people to get involved with the project.
Creation Trust – Patrischia Warmington explained that the trust were supporting young people to run a series of pop-up shops on East Street. The Creation Trust are running a series of 6 week programmes, the first half of which focuses on building skills such as bookkeeping, marketing and included an apprentice style challenge where participants ran a market stall. In the second part of the programme participants run a shop, on East Street, which has been donated by the Peabody Trust. The profits raised from the ventures are given back to the participants in the form of a bursary to support them in what they want to do next. A previous pop-up shop sold baby clothing and accessories, while the latest version of the shop has opened as a fashion store for 20-30 year olds and is open until 21 October. Some of the participants explained what they had learnt from the programme and invited residents to visit the store.
Business Extra – Patrick Blunt explained that his project was looking at practical ways to improve the local economy in Walworth. Patrick stated that empty shops were an indication of issues elsewhere in the community and so his project had a community focus. Patrick had produced leaflet which included some statistics on retail on the Walworth Road. It also stated the project aims of setting up a ‘Town Team’ to promote the area and to rejuvenate East Street Market.
Borough High Street – Cllr Noakes explained that the former Borough and Bankside community council had done some research about Borough High Street. From the research the community council had found that residents particularly liked the historical features of the high street, borough market and the good transport links. Residents indicated they would like to see more retail such as grocers on the high street, less offices and would like to see more made of the history of the area.
The meeting then moved into workshops to discuss the future of the high streets in the community council area. The topics of the workshops were:
The workshops discussed:
Councillors gave the following feedback from the workshops:
Walworth Road and East Street
What do you like about this high street?
What do you dislike about this street?
What would you like to see change?
Borough High Street
What do you like about this high street?
What do you dislike about this street?
What would you like to see change?
Tower Bridge Road
What do you like about this high street?
What do you dislike about this street?
What would you like to see change?