Finches Site

Last night the planning committee granted permission for this development. I believe that the objections raised by the Sydenham and Forest Hill Societies, Tewkesbury Lodge and other objectors have resulted in an improved development than was originally proposed.

Key changes included solar panels on the roof, lift access to all flats (including affordable housing), slightly improved views of Christ Church, change of designation for one of the retail units to A3 only (cafe or restaurant), a recognition of the issues around noise levels and improved ventilation for the flats facing Perry Vale. I believe our objections have helped secure a better development for a key site in the centre of Forest Hill that was in dire need of redevelopment.

Tyson Road Objections Template

Local residents around Tyson Road and Honor Oak Road have put together the first draft of an Objections Template to help people who are planning to object to the development. The views expressed in this document do not necessarily reflect the views of the Forest Hill Society, however, we are happy to help any residents' group in the local area.
If you wish to get more details on this campaign by the local residents you should contact se23openspace@hotmail.co.uk. (This is independent of Forest Hill Society).

Tyson Road Planning Application

A planning application has been submitted for 84 flats on the site behind the Christian Fellowship Centre and Tyson Road. Full details can be read at Lewisham Planning site.

Members of the public are welcome to comment on these plans before 20th November at http://www2.lewisham.gov.uk/lbl/planning/planningform.asp or by emailing planning@lewisham.gov.uk.

The Forest Hill Society would also be interested to hear your comments. You can email foresthillsociety@gmail.com This will help us best represent the views of the local community.

Update: As of 23rd November there are 102 objections to these plans and there is a petition against the development. The Forest Hill Society have objected to the this development.

Committee Meeting - 26th October

Full minutes of the committee meetings are distributed to members of the committee and are available on request to members of the Society. However, below are a few notes from the meeting which cover the key points discussed in the meeting:

• Review of Inaugural General Meeting
• Went well with a good turn out
• Guest speaker was very useful and gave a good focus to the evening
• Not enough time to discuss other issues of interest to members
• Membership for the Society is approaching 300 members. It was confirmed that £5 is an annual membership fee.
• Sub-Committees were setup on five topics. These will be able to focus on specific areas of interest:
  
• Transport
• Planning
• Leisure and Amenities
• Communications and Events
• Constitutional Review
  
• We intend to print and distribute a newsletter to members at the beginning of December
• We intend to have general/public meetings more than once per year and intend to have the next meeting early in 2007 (possibly February or March).
• Planning issues:
• Some improvements have been achieved for the Finches site and the latest plans are available on Lewisham's Website today (26th October)
• Honor Oak / Tyson Road development is likely to need some scrutiny later this year
• Transport issues:
• We have the answers from Nigel D'Souza to the remaining questions from the General Meeting. Transport committee will look at these responses and prepare feedback for Lewisham Council Sustainable Development Committee.
• Transport issues include roads as well as trains. There are plans to have traffic calming in Dartmouth Road which will help reduce traffic speeds

Railway Bridge at Forest Hill Station

It is a pleasure to see the the railway bridge has finally been fixed to remove the boards with graffiti that were falling apart. This is yet another significant improvement to the environment of the railway station.

Let's hope that we don't see graffiti returning to the bridge.

Answers to ELL questions from the AGM

For answers from Nigel D'Souza from Tranport for London to a number of questions that were outstanding from the forest Hill Society AGM, please click here

Further notes from Sustainable Development Select Committee

Blushingsnail posted some additional notes from the meeting on www.se23.com/forum

Here’s a summary of relevant points made at Lewisham Council’s Sustainable Development Select Committee, 5/10/2006. Please remember that this is based on my personal note-taking and has not been seen or endorsed by the participants. Official minutes will eventually be available on Lewisham’s website.

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Paul Dean (Head of Rail Planning, TfL): TfL’s long-term transport strategy is called Transport 2025 (86 page document here: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/downloads/pdf/T2025.pdf and 92 page slide pack here: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/downloads/pdf/T2025-slide-pack.pdf )

Richard Bourn (London Campaigner, Transport 2000): supports what TfL are doing but has issues with the general approach of Transport 2025, ie the predicted growth in the amount of travel, rather than the number of people travelling. Solutions to ease congestion are locating jobs away from the centre; meeting needs locally and reducing the need to travel; and contra-peak travel, ie encouraging travel in the opposite direction to peak travel.

Darien Goodwin (Head of Transport, Lewisham): 2025 looks to make best use of the rail network to increase capacity but this will have downsides for users, eg long trains means further to walk to the ticket barriers, and more standing room means fewer seats. The perception of journeys may become worse because it’s capacity that’s being addressed, rather than customer experience. Destinations who want a Metro-style service, such as Lewisham, may not benefit in the way they expect.

Cllr Mark Bennett: assumption that fewer people will want to go to London Bridge?

Cllr John Paschoud: do non-stopping trains that go through Forest Hill stop at New Cross Gate? If so could this be a London Bridge/ELLX interchange – which would increase passenger capacity to LB?

Cllr Philip Peake: ELLX would run on the same corridor as Thameslink – is there a proposal for an interchange?

Paul Dean (TfL): would be looked at as part of the ongoing RUS.

Cllr Philip Peake: short platforms at existing ELL stations – is ongoing development taking into consideration future expansion? Would the new stations have longer platforms?

Paul Dean (TfL): ELLX will remain a 4 carriage railway. Didn’t know about the new stations – would need to check and respond back.

Darien Goodwin (Hd of Transport, Lewisham): issues about Mayor’s powers over long-distance trains, eg enforcing extra stops. It had almost been decided to close Wapping etc stations as part of the ELLX project.

Paul Dean (TfL): the Mayor had wanted them to stay open and therefore the project had to go ahead on the basis of a 4 carriage railway.

In response to questions on station accessibility, Paul Dean (TfL) replied that, to his knowledge, no major changes would be made and there would be no substantive work to introduce step-free access at this stage. TfL would be responsible for a basic level of facilities at stations – "making stations presentable" – and would concentrate on safety and security.

The Committee later decided to invite representatives from Network Rail (a rep had been invited to this meeting but had been unable to attend) and TfL to their meeting on 9 January 2007 for a rail review update.

Sustainable Development Select Committee

A few of us attended the Sustainable Development Select Committee yesterday. I expect official minutes will be available on the council website eventually but I wanted to make a few quick comments before I go on holiday:

There are a lot of plans still being worked out by TfL, Southern and particularly by Network Rail (who were not present).

It does seem that there will be less trains for FH to London Bridge but overall there will be more trains due to the ELL trains. To be fair this will allow easy interchange to Jubilee line (for Bond St, Waterloo, Canary Wharf) as well as interchange as Whitechapel to District and Hammersmith lines (Liverpool Street north east of the squ mile). In addition Crossrail will eventually allow interchange at Shorditch for Farringdon, Stratford and fast access to West London.

Speaking to one of the councillors after to meeting it may be that we only have one train per hour direct to Victoria, although more that go to Crystal Palace and Norwood Junction where you can change.

At present TfL have no plans in place for taking over management/ownership of the stations on our route, but have requested that this happens.

Trains longer than 4 carriages will not be possible on ELL due to the stations at Rotherhithe and Wapping. It would cost vast amounts of money to make these bigger and the only alternative, closure of these stations, was rejected by the mayor.

A formal submission will be prepared by the committee with recommendations to all rail providers and other interested parties but a couple of clear ideas were:
* Increased interchange at stations like New X Gate with the possibility of some more fast trains stopping here (likely to be unpopular with Surrey/Sussex/Kent Councils).
* Selling off Network Rail assets around the stations for property developments to fund station improvements. And allowing private developments in close proximity to the stations in return for section 106 money for improvements to stations and surrounding facilities.

Forest Hill Society blog goes live!

This is the new format for www.foresthillsociety.com to allow us to easily update everybody about developments in Forest Hill related to the Forest Hill Society.

Commenting has not been switched on for this blog, this is to encourage people to use the two Forest Hill Community Forums (www.se23.com and www.foresthillonline.org.uk) where more general discussion can take place.

If you would like to make any comments regarding this site please contact me at foresthillsociety@gmail.com

Minor Improvements to the Underpass

I noticed this morning that the guttering has been repair in the underpass which should make the underpass a little better to use, especially in the rain. This follows last week's demolition of a pointless piece of wall at the bottom of the staircase that allowed rubbish to collect and from the smell it was being used as a urinal.

This makes two or three issues dealt with since the meeting between Southern Rail and FH and Sydenham Society at the station in June. Remaining minor issues like we would like to see addressed before the complete rebuild of the station:

• Removal of graffiti on the footbridge
• Wider exit on the southbound platform to avoid congestion
• Better lighting on the steps from the southbound platform (especially as we approach winter)
• Convex mirror at the top of this exit is facing the wrong way to be of any use
• Removal of the gate from the exit (which is never closed and causes an obstruction when opened onto the platform)
• Resurfacing at the bottom of the stairs
• Possible improvements to lighting and CCTV in the underpass

Let's hope we see more improvements soon.

Latest news (Thursday 5/10/06) - we have seen more improvements - the resurfacing of the bottom of the stair and the surrounding pavement. More good news for Forest Hill.