February eNewsletter

It’s quite a lengthy eNewsletter this month but we wanted to let you know the latest about Forest Hill Pools and the good news about toilet facilities in the Horniman Triangle. Details of this month’s 23 Club are still to be finalised but I’ll get them to you very soon. We also have a combined spring social event with the Sydenham Society – a visit to Brogdale Farm, the home of the National Fruit Collection. So please take a deep breath and struggle through to the end…

POOLS

We now have more details about the architects’ plans for our pools on Dartmouth Road. Roberts Limbrick, the Gloucester-based practice appointed by Lewisham Council, presented their thoughts and plans so far to the stakeholders group and to the Forest Hill Ward Assembly on 1st February.

The architects propose orienting the two pools in the same direction as the current pools but with the changing area in between. This would enable both pools to be lit by natural light from windows along the walls. The teaching pool would be more enclosed with a flexible exercise room above. A gym situated above the changing rooms would get natural light over the larger pool, which would be double height.

There would be two entrances, the current one on Dartmouth Road and another on the side by Kingswear House by a new cafe. This would lead to a public area or mall behind the cafe and the superintendant’s house. There would be disabled access and coach drop off in front to the Dartmouth Road entrance. There would be some disabled parking, but no other onsite parking as the site is too small.

The stakeholders and those attending the assembly had a number of questions around the parking, service access (down a side road between the Pools and Louise House), safeguarding pedestrians, the material to be used, and green issues: some of the roof may be green (sedum or grass), the pools would be covered when not in use to conserve heat, sustainable energy sources have been discussed.

Roberts Limbrick does seem willing to engage with stakeholders and the public so now is the time to make your views heard before planning permission is sought later this year. Do you have a burning issue you would like us to raise? Do you need provision for underwater hockey, for example? Do you want to be able to watch your kids while they are having lessons? Do you want separate male and female changing areas or a changing village?

Whatever it is, please contact us via the Forest Hill Society.


TOILET FACILITIES IN THE HORNIMAN TRIANGLE

This was an issue which concerned a great many of us when Forest Hill Beach (the fancy sand pit opposite the Horniman Museum) opened last Easter. There were no toilet facilities and this caused considerable problems for young children who couldn’t be expected to make it all the way to the Museum’s toilets which the time came. So, the excellent news is that there will be new toilets next to the café in the Horniman Triangle in mid-Summer.

This has become possible because the Forest Hill Ward Assembly agreed to spend £3850 on the architects' designs. The designs were discussed at the last Ward Assembly on Monday 1st February and, after listening to advice from Martin Hyde of the Council’s parks department, the local residents attending the assembly chose the option which would attach the toilets to the existing café building.

The current plan is for there to be two small toilets and a larger disabled cubicle which would include baby changing facilities. There will be a RADAR key available from the café for those who don’t have one and want to use the baby changing facilities.

The council is including the full £80,000 for the cost of building the new facilities in the new parks contract and the architects are expecting to complete their work and send it for planning permission in April. Martin is hoping that building can be finished for mid-summer.

We’re grateful to the local residents and councillors who petitioned and campaigned for these facilities and hope they will make everyone’s life easier when they’re down at the beach.



PERRY VALE WARD ASSEMBLY

Thursday 11th February, 7.40-9.30: Forest Hill Methodist Church, Normanton Street

NATURE’S GYM AT ALBION MILLENIUM GREEN

February 25th 11.00-2.00 Nature’s Gym will continue to prepare the ground and, weather permitting, a collection of damson trees and a mulberry tree will be planted on the north side of the Green. Interested in helping? Bring gardening gloves, branch loppers or secateurs.

BROGDALE IN BLOSSOM

Saturday, April 17th combined FHSoc/SydSoc visit to Brogdale Farm in Faversham, Kent - the home of the National Fruit Collection. The aim is to arrive at Brogdale by 11.00a.m. and have a cup of coffee; do the guided tour of the collection of blossoming fruit trees (approx 1 hour); lunch in the Brogdale cafe and either browse the rest of the site at leisure or linger in the gift shop. You can read about the farm at www.brogdalecollections.co.uk

We’re going in individual cars rather than a coach but the idea is that drivers with spare capacity offer lifts to other members. Contact should be made with chair@foresthillsociety.com to let us know how many to expect.

Phoenix Works Planning Application

The Forest Hill Society is objecting to the latest plans for the Phoenix Work development which is located behind Dartmouth Road, close to the railway line. The site has been semi-complete for over a year but all work stopped following the collapse of a crane.

The latest application uses the same outline of the development but increases the number of residential units. Below are the main reasons for the Forest Hill Society's objection which can be read in full here.

* Density levels equivalent to 950 habitable rooms per hectare, significantly higher than most developments in the area and twice as high as the previously approved development
* Concerns over emergency vehicle access and fire safety in the courtyard area
* Lack of private amenity space for many of the 17 family dwellings
* Lack of parking for cars and bicycles
* Less than desirable access to the commercial units within the development

Forest Hill Local Assembly - Mon 1 February

The next meeting of Lewisham's local assembly is to be held at
Living Springs International Church
8-10 Devonshire Road
London SE23 3TJ

on Monday, 1 February 2010 from 7.30-9.30pm

We hope to see you there!

The following topics will de discussed.

Forest Hill Pools

Forest Hill pools has been an interest at the assembly since the first meeting. The assembly has received presentations and taken part in the consultation over the future of the pools and Roberts Limbrick has now been awarded the contract to design the new pools.
Work on the new Forest Hill pools is now progressing very quickly. The architects and Lewisham's Head of Property have been invited to keep the assembly up to date on progress, and the design team will present their latest designs and ideas to you for this exciting development. You will have the opportunity to ask questions and give feedback to the initial designs. This is an opportunity for your ideas and opinions to be taken into account in the final design.

Horniman Triangle play park toilet block

Forest Hill assembly allocated £3,850 from the £50,000 ward fund to take plans for toilets for the Horniman Triangle play park through the planning process. The money that the assembly has allocated means that it should be possible for the new toilets to be open in the summer.
The assembly meeting will be your opportunity to hear about these plans and ask questions.

Forest Hill town centre improvements

The assembly is working with Economic Development to improve the Forest Hill town centre. This will be on the February assembly meeting agenda, along with lessening the worst effects of the economic recession.
This is your chance to raise your concerns and ask questions about what the Council is doing to promote our town centre. Improving the town centre is one of the ward priorities and this discussion will give the assembly a chance to look at the ways that this can be done.

High Street clutter report

Forest Hill Assembly allocated £2,500 from the £50,000 allocation to pay for a report on how the layout and look of the high street can be improved and made to look less drab and cluttered. The finished report and its findings will be presented at the February meeting. The report will make a number of recommendations for actions to improve the look of Forest Hill. An initial draft can be downloaded here (6MB).
If the assembly supports the recommendations, it can request to raise the issue with the Mayor and Cabinet following discussions with officers on options and solutions.

The coordinating group

The coordinating group meets every couple of months and includes the assembly officer, one of the local councillors and other members of the assembly who are appointed by the assembly meetings. The role of the coordinating group is to help plan and run meetings, plan and prepare for the assembly and address the key priorities of the ward as decided by the assembly.
If you are interested in joining the Coordinating Group please contact Sam Dias on 020 8314 3386 or sam.dias@lewisham.gov.uk.

Newsletter

All homes in the ward should have received a copy of the Forest Hill Assembly newsletter. If you have not received a copy, please contact Sam Dias on 020 8314 3386 or sam.dias@lewisham.gov.uk so that she can chase the delivery company and get a refund. In the meantime you can download a PDF from here.

United against train service cuts!

In an unprecedented show of force, volunteers at every station from Sydenham to New Cross Gate handed out flyers on the mornings of 17th and 18th November telling passengers about the proposed cuts to their services. The Forest Hill Society worked hard on this with the Sydenham Society, Telegraph Hill Society, Brockley Central and the Honor Oak Park Residents Association because only a tough, co-ordinated campaign is going to Save Our Services.

We need to spread the message about the extent of these cuts and what they mean in practice which is why we’re investing so much time, effort and a little money into this fight. Many of the commuters we spoke to as we handed out the flyers were completely unaware that these cuts were being planned.

Our online petition is gaining support by the hour and now has over 2600 signatures. We’re working hard with councillors and London Assembly members to see if there is any way to stop the cuts. We’ve also co-operated with local councillors of all parties to secure a clear and cross-party statement from Lewisham Council against cuts to our services.

We’ve written to the Minister for Transport, both privately and in an open letter, requesting a meeting. We’ve received a reply but he has not agreed to meet us, despite multiple requests. So, why are we so strongly opposed to these cuts? Well, much as we’d like it to be otherwise, the pessimists sometimes get it right. Those people who predicted that the East London Line Extension through Forest Hill and Honor Oak Park would be at the expense of existing rail services seem to have been spot on. From May 2010, our daytime and evening peak services will be cut from six trains per hour to four per hour.

Using the figures we’ve been given by London Overground, we believe that the ELLX coupled with the REDUCED rail service to London Bridge will do nothing to relieve the current level of overcrowding on our commuter services. This is because passenger numbers are expected to rise substantially – by 30% according to London Overground.

Yet, once the ELLX does become overcrowded, there is no scope for increased capacity. This is because the signalling system on the core section in East London can’t cope with more trains than are currently planned. It’s also difficult to see how the operator could simply add extra coaches given that several stations along the route can’t take the longer trains.

True, the ELLX gives us 8 trains per hour interchanging with the Jubilee Line at Canada Water and continuing to Shoreditch. By then, we will also have direct trains to Victoria in the morning peak. But we believe these additions do not make up for the fact that many of us will have fewer trains.

And that’s not all. It is now inevitable that from December 13th Southern Railways will cut our direct evening and Sunday services from Charing Cross. There will still be four trains per hour in the late evenings but they will all start from London Bridge. There will be no additional trains running between Charing Cross and London Bridge. There seems to be a complete lack of joined-up thinking on the railways in South London.

If you would like to support our campaign against rail cuts please sign our petition at http://nototraincuts.notlong.com

Introducing our New Chair - Richard Hibbert

We’re delighted that Richard Hibbert will Chair the Society for the next 12 months. We asked him to introduce himself.

Hello and welcome to another year of the Forest Hill Society. Firstly, I would like to thank Peter Irby and Michael Abrahams for their work in Chairing the Society for the last twelve months. Michael's efforts in leading the Society's campaign for the pools to be built on Dartmouth Road with live/work on Willow Way are greatly appreciated and will be a hard act to follow. Both Michael and Peter will continue to serve on the Executive Committee so we will not be losing their expertise and enthusiasm. Peter has been undergoing a series of operations on his hip and we wish him a full recovery, while Michael is taking a step back from the Society in order to prepare for an expanding family.

Three of the Chairs of our sub-committees stepped down at the AGM, leaving Liz as the only old hand (Communications and Events). Michael (Planning and Development), Tony (Transport) and James (Environment and Leisure) have stepped down due to personal commitments but will be replaced by Hilary, Andrew and Quetta respectively. My thanks to all of them for their time and hard work. I first came to Forest Hill in 2000. I could see that Forest Hill had an interesting past, neglected present and great potential. My partner kept telling me there used to be two butchers, a fishmonger and bakers in Forest Hill when she first moved here. The more I dug into the history and learned about the area, the more I felt the desire to get involved; one of my pet hates is people who complain but do nothing about it.

At about this time, Lewisham started their Local Assemblies and I volunteered to be on the Coordinating Committee. This was where I met Michael who encouraged me to get involved in the Forest Hill Society. I have been on the Executive and Transport Committees for the last year and was active in the Oystergate and Pools campaigns.

The next year has many challenges ahead, including threatened cuts to our train service by Southern and the redevelopment of the Pools. We are actively working with other local civic societies and politicians to campaign against the train cuts; we were promised that our current services would not be reduced when the East London Line extension was proposed and we intend to keep the politicians to their promise.

We also continue to push the council and Sainsbury’s to come to an arrangement for two hours' free car parking off Pearcefield Avenue. But away from the campaigning, there will be plenty of social events over the next twelve months and I hope I shall have the opportunity to meet many of you and hear your thoughts about the future of SE23.

23 Club 2010

The 23 Club enjoyed a successful year in 2009 but we’d like to broaden its appeal in 2010. For example, we could have lunch or even breakfast some months or arrange to meet for a drink in a pub or cafe rather than a sit down meal. If you have any ideas or preferences, your feedback would be really helpful while we are reviewing the way to organize it in the future. Please send your ideas on the 23 Club to Mary (at) foresthillsociety.com.

Here are some questions to encourage you:

• Are there any venues we haven’t yet visited which you would like to recommend?
• Do you think we should have a new start time? Currently we meet at 8pm.
• Do you think we should reduce the number of sit down meals? What alternatives appeal to you: morning coffee, a sandwich lunch, early evening drink, anything else?

New Battery Recycling Scheme

Lewisham Council recently announced a battery recycling scheme. This is very welcome news for those of us with mountains of used batteries! ‘BatteryCans’ have been placed in libraries across our borough.

The UK has a very poor record in this field and lags well behind many of our European neighbours. Of course the ideal thing is not to have batteries to recycle in the first place by using rechargeable ones – this involves quite an upfront cost.

More details on Lewisham’s website.

Forest Hill Pools - The Way Ahead

We now know that the architects who will design our new Forest Hill Pools development are Roberts Limbrick Ltd. They seem to be fans of Thomas Aldwinkle’s legacy of Victorian civic buildings (he designed Forest Hill pools, Louise House and the library.) Roberts Limbrick are currently working on the refurbishment of another of his pools, Kentish Town Baths.

They have also designed and built a number of other modern swimming pools for Local Authorities in and around London including the Mile End Leisure Centre. When we got in touch to congratulate them on being selected for this project they wrote back to say they were “delighted, and indeed excited, over our selection for this prestigious and important project in Forest Hill.” More information about them can be found at www.robertslimbrick.co.uk.

The rest of the design team is WYG who’ll be the Structural Engineers and Building Services Partnership Ltd who’ll be the building services engineers. The Council’s programme for delivering the pools envisages that the design team now spends the next few months working up the final designs prior to the submission of a detailed planning application in April of next year. Construction would then start in June 2011 and the pools would open in December 2012. We are keen to ensure that the detailed proposals are consulted on as they are developed.

There are though a number of key issues we’d like to be resolved during this process. How will the Pools frontage work with Louise House and the Library? Is it possible to use this area to provide a coordinated entrance to and between each of the buildings, ideally one that doesn't require disabled users of the library to use the back of the building? Will the internal arrangement of the building work for the widest range of people? How will the building impact on its closest neighbours? We are hoping that the next stakeholder meeting will be used to focus on these issues and to start to refine a scheme that will really benefit Forest Hill Town Centre and become a well used destination for residents.

Louise House

There has also been recent progress on potential future uses for Louise House. Early in November, the Friends of Louise House submitted three different proposals:

• A serviced office scheme with a community

nursery;

• an arts centre; and

• the ownership of the building by the National Trust

Red Grape Vines Flourish in SE23

Yep, you can grow large bunches of grapes outdoors in Forest Hill - and eat them! Tony Petim, a Forest Hill Society member, shows just some of his many bunches of grapes - many measuring over 25cm in length - from his small garden in SE23.

Tony was brought up growing grapes and making wine with his parents in Portugal but today he just enjoys them for garden decoration and eating. The tradition where he comes from is that you share excess harvests with friends, family and neighbours, which is how we found out about them. They are delicious! So we asked Tony to share his secret.

“Actually there is no Secret – It’s simple and probably only needs about 2 hours effort per year. Here are my tips:”

Position – Pick a reasonably sunny position, although not essential. Large pots are OK but a well drained hole in the garden soil is best.

Purchase - Get a grape vine from a local garden centre. Plant it and leave it alone. Variety is not important as most of the ones sold here will handle the average English weather.

Pruning – In late February or March the following year, prune back to the main stem, leaving one stem or the main two “brown” stems (if any).

Training – As new green buds grow, keep only 10-20 green bud shoots, depending on the size and age of your vine. Pick off the ones that grow low along the main stem. These sap the strength from the green shoots above. When you have your 10-20 buds, be merciless with any new ones and nip them off! The 10-20 buds will grow and grow.

Fertilizer – When buds start to appear in late February or March, feed the vine with a high potash fertiliser every 2 or 3 weeks. If growth is poor, then give it a boast with some nitrogen based fertiliser.

Nipping – OK, this is the real secret. i) when the grapes start to grow, nip 1 or 2 leaves nearest the grapes. ii) as the vine grows, say, another 50-100cm from the grapes, nip the ends of that vine to stem its growth. This means more of the plant’s energy goes into growing grapes.

Pests – Use standard pest control sprays to treat problems such as vine weevil, downy mildew, grey mould, etc.

Eating – Wait, wait,...wait...and then, in early to mid-Sept, pick the grapes off and enjoy them with friends, family and neighbours.

Tyson Road Development Rejected … Again!

We are pleased to report that following our objection to the proposed development on Tyson Road and almost 350 letters of objection, Lewisham Council’s planning department has rejected this development. The department’s planning officers say the “layout, height, design, fail to complement or, moreover, be compatible with the scale and character of the surrounding environment, resulting in an un-neighbourly form of development.”

Many thanks to all those who wrote to object to this planning application. However, if you’ve followed this story, you’ll know that it’s on ongoing battle of wills. The developer recently announced that he would appeal to the planning inspectorate. There will be a local public inquiry on 23 Feb 2010 at Lewisham Town Hall that could last up to four days.

The Society and local residents are planning their next move and we shall let you know how we plan to rise to this latest challenge.