Representatives from the following community groups in the Camberwell community council area will give a presentation on what they do and what affects them in the local area:
General announcements
Minutes:
The following presentations and announcements were made:
Welcome from Albrighton Community Centre
Steve Hedger welcomed everyone to the Albrighton Community Centre and spoke about the newly refurbished community centre which has the same footprint as the previous building but is significantly larger.
The centre opened in April this year and offers a range of activities with more services being delivered in the future. They include a Saturday kids club, holiday play schemes, a youth club, Chinese kick boxing, zumba classes, Irish dancing, faith groups and Ta Chi classes. Also a local nursery on the estate uses the centre.
Steve took questions on the income and revenue generated (£8k a month) which is used for the up keep of the building and facilities for the centre.
Councillor Ward mentioned that she hoped the facilities would benefit the wider community in South Camberwell and beyond.
Councillor John congratulated Steve for all his hard work at the centre. Steve explained the Tenants Association would soon become a new Development Trust, as the inaugural meeting was due take to place by the end of year by then the Tenant Association would be registered as a charity.
Sidney Bates memorial
The chair announced that a ceremony would take place on Saturday, 2 November 2011 at 11.00am at Camberwell Green to honour a young Camberwell resident called Sidney Bates who died in World War II and received the Victoria Cross. Members of his Family are expected to attend the service. The chair encouraged local residents to attend.
Council Assembly
The chair announced the next council assembly meeting would be held at Charter School, Red Post Hill on Tuesday, 29 November 2011 at 7.00pm. The theme would be Housing.
Having Faith in Southwark – Part Three
Councillor the Right Revd Oyewole announced the Having Faith in Southwark event which was a public conversation about faith premises. This was on Thursday 10 November 2011 at 6.30pm, Tooley Street, SE1 2TZ. For more information contact Michael Cleere, Community Cohesion Coordinator on 020 7525 5645 or email michael.cleere@southwark.gov.uk
Greendale, Denmark Hill, SE22
Councillor Ward announced that the proposal for the Greendale site had not been validated because an ecological report was required for the site. Councillor Ward said she would keep people updated on progress.
Cleaner Greener Safer 2012 -2013 launch
The chair announced the launch of the Cleaner Greener Safer funding which is divided amongst all eight of the community council areas. The amount allocated to all eight is £220,000.
Michelle Normanly from the Cleaner Greener Safer team addressed the meeting about the application period for the CGS funding programme. This was launched at an event on 29 October 2011 at a community garden in Peckham.
Michelle referred to the criteria and the types of projects that have previously been awarded funding and to highlight the time limit set for the funding programme. Officers were available during the break to answer questions. People were also encouraged to visit the council’s website to down load a CGS e-form.
Councillor Govier expressed concern about the delivery of CGS projects in the Camberwell area particularly those on open spaces (e.g. locality of Sainsbury’s supermarket). He said he would like to see the process for these schemes to be much tighter and to deliver what was promised.
Councillor John agreed with Councillor Govier’s comments and outlined that he hoped all CGS projects that were previously approved are dealt with in a timely fashion. He said next year’s funding programme would eliminate the backlog and ensure all CGS projects are delivered within a two year time frame.
Camberwell Society
Nick Holt, chair of the Camberwell Society gave a presentation at the meeting and explained that this was the first community council he had attended. He also welcomed the launch of the Camberwell Town Centre.
The Camberwell Society is a registered society with 600 members and new members are welcomed to widen the diversity.
The role of the Camberwell Society is to ensure a high standard of development is met in the area. The Society raises money for local events and charities, and lobbies on issues like transport, planning, licensing, open spaces and public realm in general. They also join other local groups to help fund local facilities.
Nick outlined the objectives of the Camberwell Society, they include the following:
· Development and improvements in Camberwell focussing on major sites and planning applications particularly those with a change of use.
· Looking at proposals for a new library in Camberwell.
· Good development and improvement of public realm, refuse collection, clutter on pavements, (Camberwell Church Street), advertising banners, buildings along shops are look dilapidated, arrange for them to be spruced up if possible.
· Extension of the bike hire scheme to Camberwell and possibly in the long term have a tube station in the south of Borough.
In response to questions, about Camberwell’s old railway station Nick agreed that this needs to be looked at.
Also pavements in the area should be improved to better accommodate scooters and push chairs. The old railway station closed in 1915 and for the 100th year anniversary they want to look at the idea of having a completely new station on that site. The Society tried this with the station behind the old bingo hall unfortunately this was unsuccessful. Councillor Wingfield mentioned that he had pushed for a proposal to extend the tube network to the Camberwell area.
Camberwell Youth provision
Edward James, Camberwell Youth Officer gave an overview of youth provision and about what his role entailed. At the moment the work involved him being on duty six days a week in the Camberwell area. The target groups are mainly young people, pregnant teenage girls, lesbian and gay people and gang members out on many of the local estates. His role involves working with the youth community council and representing the views of young people. Edward said young people in Camberwell took part in a survey and gave their views provided on the Camberwell regeneration scheme.
A young person from the audience explained how much he valued Edward’s contribution to the area. He said before he would stay at home and play video games and now Edward has changed his life for the better.
The chair thanked Edward for his presentation and the young people for their attendance and contribution to the meeting.
SE5 Forum
Jeremy Leech thanked the community council for the opportunity he had to speak at the meeting. He explained the Forum had been was set up a few years ago to be a voice, support local businesses and encourage new business to the area.
The Forum has over 2000 members and their own website, representatives have produced a vision for Camberwell.
The purpose of this vision would be to bring ideas and initiatives together which would be set for years to come. The document referred to creating jobs, cross border working and promoting small independent businesses in the local area.
The Forum recognises the proposals for the Camberwell Town Centre and proposed that there be:
· Better signage from Denmark Hill to the rest of Camberwell.
· Street lighting should be at a lower height.
· Making Camberwell Town Centre a place where people would visit.
· To ensure the area remains prosperous and money would be spent to improve the area, particularly as Camberwell had the second highest number of causalities involving road accidents.
· The development of more business ‘job creation’.
· Short term parking particularly around Butterfly Walk, so that it would be better utilised.
· Suggest the appointment of a Camberwell Town Centre Manager and appointment of a officer ‘Economic Development Officer’. Jeremy thought it would be a good idea for Camberwell and Peckham to come together to formulate these proposals.
Everyone in the audience agreed with these proposals, which they felt could be achieved with the support of local councillors.
Jeremy responded to questions concerning the increased number of chicken and fast food outlets in the area. Councillor John agreed this should be looked at in the borough. Waltham Forest Council successfully addressed this issue by limiting the number of fast food outlets in their area.
A question was asked about the number of accidents with peddle bikes and whether funding could be made available to have road side facilities for bikes. Councillor John mentioned that there would be a cycle plan for Southwark which would form part of the borough’s transport scheme.
Councillor Govier stated that Camberwell needed to be more bike friendly further steps should be taken to reduce the number of takeaways. The council should also be more vigorous particularly when people are seeking to change the use of a premises. A resident said there should be more electrical shops and fewer pound shops so the area reverts to what it was before.
SRUG (Southwark Railway Users Group)
Eileen Conn spoke about the users group at the meeting. The main issues were highlighted during the powerpoint presentation which was basically to influence what should be produced when providing maps and railway information to the general public or any information relating to general rail services.
Eileen urged people to get involved so their views are known on what was being decided at local level and nationally. More users were encouraged to join the group.
The chair thanked the representatives for their presentations.