Agenda item

Community announcements and presentations

To receive information on local community events and the following:

 

·  Presentation from a community council funded project – Radio King online project.

 

·  Dulwich Youth Community Council – this will be an opportunity for the chair to present certificates to the Youth Community Council for their work over the year.

 

·  Dulwich Community Hospital – update on progress on developments.

 

·  The housing renewal team: To promote their services which include adaptations for the older people, people with disabilities and grants for tenants and landlords.  

 

·  Herne Hill Flood Alleviation Scheme.

 

·  Police updates from the Safer Neighbourhoods Teams.

Minutes:

The following announcements and presentations were made:

 

Dulwich Youth Community Council

 

The chair said she was delighted to have the young people from the youth community council present at the meeting. The chair explained they had fully participated in the meetings and shared interesting ideas.  At the transport themed meeting their intervention had helped increase the frequency of the P13 bus route.  In recognition of the work the Dulwich Youth Community Council had done they were each awarded a “certificate of appreciation” for their work over the past year.

 

Housing Renewal team

 

Officers from the private sector housing and renewal team were present with an information stall and spoke briefly to promote their advice and services to residents of Southwark which included adaptations for the elderly and for the disabled.  They were available during the break.

 

For information contact the renewal team on 020 7525 5941 or email Housing.renewal@southwark.gov.uk 

 

Herne Hill Flood Alleviation scheme

 

The chair informed the meeting that the planning application for the Herne Hill flood alleviation scheme would be considered at the main planning committee on 25 March 2014 at the Tooley Street offices.

 

Following the planning meeting, a pre-construction public consultation meeting was held on 9 April 2014 at Francis Peek Centre, Dulwich Park.

 

The drop in session times were from 4:00pm to 6:00pm with a presentation, between 6:00pm and 7:00pm.

 

Information on the completed application form could be viewed on the Southwark website.  For information contact the flood risk management team on 020 7525 5000 or email: floodriskmanagement@southwark.gov.uk

 

Dulwich Community hospital site

 

Rebecca Scott from NHS Southwark, along with Simon James and Robert Braham from NHS Property services, provided a further update on progress on proposals for a new health centre on the Dulwich community hospital site since the last community council meeting.

 

Rebecca said the next phase of the process would be the “soft market testing”, and that involved them approaching a number of housing providers and developers from the GLA development panel.  The housing providers and developers would provide marketing advice and ultimately determine which part of the site would be the best location for the health centre.

 

Once that feedback had been received, it would then be made available to the public, possibly by the end of March 2014.  Officers would then conduct an “options appraisal” to finalise the strategy going forward.

 

In response to questions, Members felt the brief should be made available to the public so the process was open and transparent. 

 

Simon mentioned that some parts of the brief could be quite sensitive as a number of leading developers had been approached and their feedback and responses could be commercially sensitive. However he agreed to check whether it was legally possible to do this and would report back to a future meeting.

 

In response to further questions, officers advised that they were awaiting the outcome of a request on the ‘right to contest’ the site.  The relevant body had been written to and officers were awaiting the outcome of this information which shall be considered in the development plans.

 

Rebecca mentioned that although the drawings had been produced they were not at the design stage yet.  The officer confirmed that at least a third of the site would be developed and the height of development would possibly be a two storey building. 

 

The previous project was for a community hospital that happened to be far bigger than the project they were looking at now.  Therefore officers would be starting from scratch with the design. Rebecca explained that it was important to get the right design because of the way local health services has been delivered over the last five years.

 

Members made reference to the number of community assets that would be placed on site as this would be the local community’s expectation for a local community health centre that has an increased number of outpatients’ services.  The site should have other uses for the community.  Simon said their first priority was to ensure the centre and site was fit for purpose.

 

Rebecca stated that there would be no more than two GP practices and confirmed Elm Lodge GP Practice would not be relocating to a different site.

 

A resident stated that it should be for residents of Dulwich to decide on where services ought to be on the hospital site, not planners or developers.  In response to this comment officers explained that NHS Southwark needed to ensure they get the best value and fully maximise use of the site.

 

That Dulwich community council agreed:

 

·  The brief should take into account the area’s community needs and provide clear details of the financial implications for the site.

 

·  That the market testing brief once circulated to the London development panel, should be accessible to the community.

 

·  That in order for the progress of Dulwich community hospital to move with the development plans, a schedule detailing the programme of works should be made available to the community.

 

·  That the consultation process should take into account and include the physical arrangement; design, parking, architecture as well as its uses.

·  The need to develop a master plan process so that NHS Property services are able to come with detailed responses on these issues.

 

Police updates from the safer neighbourhood teams

 

Inspector Richard Hynes from the South West cluster that covers Peckham and Dulwich gave a presentation at the last meeting following a request to talk about proposals concerning policing in the borough.

 

Inspector Hynes talked about progress of the new policing model in the borough and reported on what was undertaken over a five week period during February and March 2014.  He said the South West cluster covered East Dulwich, College, Village and wards in Camberwell.  He referred to the police tasks, shift patterns, response time, and the patrol times in each of the wards.

 

Inspector Hynes talked about the latest figures regarding the total number of arrests (33), stop and search searches (141) and the current number of neighbourhood watches (29) in operation across the wards.

 

In response to a question concerning policing in College ward, Inspector Hynes said the dedicated number of staff was on a par with other teams and a police constable and PCSO had patrolled the hotspots in the area.  A question was also asked about the time it took the police to travel from one part of the area to another and whether it would be easier for the police to travel using push bikes or to travel by cab.

 

Questions were asked about how effective the police contact / access points were.  Inspector Hynes said there were different ways to access the police.  He advised that there would be a review of the access points at the end of March 2014.

 

The chair thanked Inspector Hynes for the update and summarised:

 

·  Police ward panel meetings: The meetings were not taking place as often as they had done previously.

 

·  Local policing model: The views were that the Camberwell police base might not be the most effective operational base for officers assigned to the Dulwich area.

 

·  Police transport between areas: The views were that officers who moved from the Camberwell area into Dulwich would be spending a quarter of their time travelling and this could be considered a waste of resources.  Although people understood the interaction and good team work between officers.

 

Other events and announcements

 

Dulwich Helpline & Southwark Churches Care (DH&SCC), a local charity that supports isolated older people in Southwark.  They work closely with the council, local health services and other community organisations that refer isolated older people to the charity.

 

The charity would like to seek and recruit more volunteers and befrienders in the local area. Representatives from Dulwich Helpline & Southwark churches Care were available at the meeting.

 

Fitzroy announced the local fundraising events on 21 March 2014 and All that Jazz at James Allen's Girls' School and the James Allen Community Orchestra concert on 30 March 2014 which was in aid of this charity.

 

For further information visit the charity’s website www.dhscc.org/events

 

Dulwich Table Tennis Club

Abdul Wuraola spoke about the table tennis coaching sessions that took place on Harris Academy Peckham and James Allen’s Girls’ School.  The coaching sessions had been running for five years and the club had received a good turnout and had taken part in a number of table tennis tournaments.

 

For further information visit www.abdulsports.com or email info@dulwichttc.com

 

Kingswood Draw

The chair announced that the Kingswood drawing event would take place on Thursday 17 April 2014 at 2pm until 8pm at Kingswood House, Seeley Drive.

 

Floodtide on the Effra

This special project used the flow of the underground river Effra to create musical notation which is performed live along the route of the river Effra in Belair Park, Dulwich Picture Gallery and Dulwich Park. The event date: Sunday, 18 May 2014 would include picnics and activities from 12pm, performances between 2pm and 4pm at various locations along the river Effra.

 

For more information email events@southwark.gov.uk

 

Choir workshop

To sing as part of a choir, there would be a workshop on Sunday 4 May 2014 from 11am to 1pm at the Francis Peek Centre. If you are interested, please email events@southwark.gov.uk