Mayow Park Orchard

The Friends of Mayow Park are planning a new community orchard on the southern side of the park, very near the tennis courts. The proposal is for five apple varieties, three pears (including two varieties of perry pear) and two varieties of plum bordered by a hedgerow of mirabelles, gooseberries, raspberries, dog rose, redcurrants and blackcurrants.

They are looking for individuals or community groups to sponsor or care for the fruit trees. If you are interested in either possibility, please email them at friendsofmayowpark@ymail.com

Several of their members recently attended the Orchard Leaders Training day run by London Orchard Project where training included fruit tree planting and maintenance, community engagement and starting to write an orchard management plan in preparation for the new orchard.

London Orchard project will lead the community planting day on Saturday, 28 January from noon to 3pm, bringing trees, stakes, tree guards and tools. All that is needed is a few volunteers! Go along and get involved.

January News Update

Burns Night

Thursday 26 January (a day late for purists – sorry)

 

Come along to the All Inn One for another great Forest Hill Society Burns Night. A traditional, and fun, evening of addressing the haggis, and then eating it with the usual tasty accompaniments.

“What a great night! The food was delicious and very reasonable. Great people and the entertainment a right hoot”  Burns Night 2011 attendee.

 

We’re also looking for people to get involved in poetry reading on the night (Scottish accents a plus), bagpipe playing and highland dancing.

 

For details on booking and to offer your artistic skills contact alisa@foresthillsociety.com

 

 

The Society’s Local History Evening

Thursday 23 February 

7.30pm – 9.30pm upstairs at The Hob

 

We’ve arranged for the fabulous Steve Grindlay to give a talk on an aspect of Forest Hill History. What Steve doesn’t know about Forest Hill isn’t worth knowing! Come and join us and learn more about this great place we live in.

 

Exact subject yet to be confirmed, but we’ll update you very soon. Open to all, no booking needed.

 

We need You

Membership to the Forest Hill Society is open to everyone and costs just £5 a year. Benefits include 12 newsletters, 12 local events - most free, assistance with planning proposals, making new friends in the local area and, perhaps most importantly, the ability to have a say about where you live.

 

We're a voluntary group and are always looking for people to help with what we do. We have great plans and we need people to help in a number of ways, most very simple and easy things -

 

• Handing out membership leaflets in your street, or one close by
• Distributing our newsletter four times a year, a chance to see different areas of Forest Hill, or maybe do your own road
• Helping to write articles for the newsletter - either sending your own articles or helping with ones already written
• Helping with leaflet design a few hours a few times a year.
• Helping at events - not all, just one is a help - maybe baking a cake, helping on a stall or posting links on local forums

However you can help you'll find us friendly and supportive. if you want to find out more about volunteering with us contact richard@foresthillsociety.com

 

 

Freecycle Event

Saturday 25 February (11am - 3pm)

Holy Trinity Church Hall, Trinity Path, Sydenham

 

A Bring and Take event. Bring stuff you no longer want and, in return, take away stuff you do want. You really can get some amazing things - from CDs to clothes to toys to furniture. What’s not to like?

 

Trinity Path is between 35D and 37 Sydenham Park.

Planning: 10a, 29, and 31 Dartmouth Road

The Forest Hill Society has objected to the plans for the change of use at 29 Dartmouth Road.
You can view the application here. And you can view the letter of objection here.

The unit now has the signage up for 'Cash City', although planning permission is required before the change of use is allowed.

The Forest Hill Society has objected to the plans for the change of use at 10a Dartmouth Road.
You can view the application here. And you can view the letter of objection here.

The Forest Hill Society has objected to the plans for an additional residential unit to the rear of 31 Dartmouth Road.
You can view the application here. And you can view the letter of objection here.

Christmas in Forest Hill

This year saw Forest Hill Society decorate the Christmas tree for the second year, adding baubles and tinsel to the tree. The weather outside was chilly but that did not prevent crowds gathering in the forecourt of Forest Hill Station on December 10th to see Cllr Philip Peake lead the countdown to switch on the Christmas lights.

A string trio led the lusty carol singing as pleasantly surprised crowds gathered to sample the mulled wine, pumpkin soup and hot sausages on sale from Mark and Helen's Smokehaus tent (smokehaus5@hotmail.com) and coffee and cakes from Ellie's On the Hoof corner coffee stall.

If you would like to help remove the baubles, please meet at the station on Monday next, 9th January, at 2.00pm.

Our thanks go to LOROL for permission to partially close the forecourt to parking on December 10th and to Skanksa and their man Pete for providing the lights and making them work on time.

Recycle your Christmas Tree

Lewisham will again be recycling Christmas Trees this year. Simply take your tree to one of 12 designated recycling points between now and Friday, 27 January 2012. The two nearest locations are ​Mayow Park (near the entrance on Mayow Road) and ​Sydenham Wells Park (near the entrance on Wells Park Road)

Planning: Hindsleyʼs Place and Westbourne Drive

The Forest Hill Society has written in support of the planning application for live work units on Hindsleyʼs Place and Westbourne Drive.
The Forest Hill Society is interested in supporting well designed high quality buildings and appropriate development. In relation to this application, we write in support of it for two reasons:

• The live/work units proposed provide a flexible and valuable building type that has been successfully demonstrated in the Forest Hill area at Havelock Walk and other developments. We are keen to support proposals that propose genuine live/work development such as this because they add to the richness of the area and support small scale employment opportunities.
• The proposals are of a high quality and address concerns that have been raised to earlier proposals on the site. This development will make a significant improvement to Hindsleyʼs Place, in particular.

Planning: 33 Dartmouth Road - DC/11/78718

The Forest Hill Society has written in response to this planning application to oppose the proposed change of use of 33 Dartmouth Road from A1 to A4.

Dartmouth Road has had a difficult few year, since the closure of the swimming pool in 2006, however with the reopening of the pool next year we have a strong belief that retail units on Dartmouth Road will be revitalised with the increased passing trade, especially on the route between the station and the pool. At this time we need to council to protect existing retail units so that as the fortunes of Forest Hill change there will be opportunities for new businesses to set up retail units on the high street.

This site is within the core shopping area of Forest Hill and is therefore covered by STC4: Major and District Centres - Core Shopping Areas
Within the Core Shopping Areas, the Council will strongly resist any change of use involving the loss at ground floor level of Class A1 shops. The following factors will be taken into account when considering exceptions:
(a) whether the proposal harms the overwhelming retail appearance of the shopping frontage, with an over-concentration of non-retail uses (normally 3 non A1 uses together and 70% maintained in A1 use);

In reference to STC 4a, this unit is next door to a pub and a pizza takeaway (currently closed). Changing this unit from retail to non-retail would harm the retail appearance of the road at this section.

We are also concerned about the proposed hours of operation including until 3am at weekend. This is later than any other pub in the area and feel it would be an unnecessary disturbance for neighbours.

With the existing concentration of pubs in the immediate vicinity, and new ones approved for opening directly across the road, we believe that this is not an appropriate use for this unit.

Burns Night 2012

Following the success of previous years, our Burns Night celebration will again be held at the Foresters/All Bar One, near Forest Hill station.

Please note that this year, the evening will be on Thursday 26th January (a day late for purists, but please make a note in your diaries). If you would like to get involved in helping organise or addressing the Haggis, please contact alisa@foresthillsociety.com

Lighting Up in SE23

Under a Private Finance Initiative, Croydon and Lewisham councils have appointed Skanska to improve street lighting across both boroughs including the underpass in Forest Hill. The councils won £151 million of government funding.

The project includes an initial five year core investment period where the main replacement of lighting stock, traffic signs and street bollards will be undertaken by Skanska, with an ongoing maintenance and repair programme until 2036. During this period, 20 subways will be relit, 38,000 new lighting columns (lamp posts) installed and over 7,000 illuminated traffic signs and bollards will be replaced on a ward by ward basis. Perry Vale is the first ward to be upgraded locally, with work expected to start in February. Forest Hill, Sydenham and Crofton Park wards follow in the second year of the contract.

The replacement programme takes many factors into account when considering whether to replace or upgrade the existing lighting including age, condition and compatibility of existing equipment. In many circumstances the roads undergo a complete re-design and positions of the columns may be changed as it's not always possible to integrate the existing columns in the new design layout.

Also, the new design sets light the footpaths in addition to the highway, which means that the majority of the lighting columns will be positioned at the back of the footpath where possible. Lighting on side roads will be converted to Iridium white light sources, rather than the current yellow, sodium lamps.

One of the major factors in the replacement programme is to reduce energy consumption, and a typical saving of 30-40% per road can be achieved by utilising the latest technology. It is also possible to detect faults quicker due allowing the street lighting to be maintained much more efficiently.

Localism and SE23

The much talked about Localism Act will bring into force a range of changes that affect local authorities and planning. Much of this will come in to force on the 6 April 2012. This gives a greater role to local authorities under a 'general power of competence'. They will also be given greater powers to work with other councils in order to drive down costs and consider different ways of delivering services.

Some of the most revolutionary changes will be powers given to communities, such as the ability to challenge the running of Council services and propose cheaper alternatives, and the community 'right to buy' assets of community value. In terms of planning, communities will have a stronger role in developing planning policy through Neighbourhood Planning proposals, and a new requirement for developers to consult with the community on proposals before submitting a planning application.

Neighbourhood Planning
This lets communities have more of a say on proposals, allowing them (within reason) to draw up a 'neighbourhood plan'. In 'unparished' areas such as London, the community and Council will need to define what a 'neighbourhood' is and the best group to draw up a plan.

We have been working with the Sydenham Society on this. In September we organised an event to discuss the key issues. This focused around four locations: Forest Hill, Honor Oak, Kirkdale and Sydenham/Lower Sydenham. This went very well and a report has been produced and is available on our website. An area that we want to work on is to have better information about the specific character of the area so this can be used to inform decisions about new development.

Our next steps include meetings with Lewisham Council, and the organisation of a Neighbourhood Forum. Then we will be working on a programme of community workshops and events over the next 12-18 months and seeking funding support for this.