Sydenham Assembly - This Saturday 5th December

[admin]

2pm at the Library followed by the grand piazza opening. If you haven't received the flyer (or lost it) here are the details:
http://sydenham.org.uk/extras/sa_newsletter.pdf

I will not be there. Would someone kindly take notes/take-a-pic and post here or PM/email me?

Admin

[Chris Best]

Just a reminder that the Assembly is 2pm tomorrow with voting on the allocation of £12,500 and updates on The Greyhound, highways etc. Refreshments follow whilst the stage is set for "This Elf Has Had Enough" at 4pm and then outside for the launch of the piazza, turning on the Christmas tree lights and carols.

[sydres]

Can we get an update on what was discussed / agreed?

[Chris Best]

I was chairing the meeting and started by going through the written update on The Greyhound and from highways - works progressing in lower Sydenham.

We then moved on to a well received presentation on waste and the problems of flytipping. There is good support in using the Love Lewisham site but we need more residents to be vigilant when they see refuse being flytipped. If we have registration numbers we can investigate and with evidence go for a prosecution.

There was a written summary of the bids for the £12,500 Assembly funding and a presentation was given on each of the bids. The bid that generated the most dicussion was for the street art on the concrete panels at the rear of Station Approach. Joyce agreed to consult residents on the design and collected contact details of people who want to be kept up to date. We agreed to report back at the next Assembly meeting.

The voting was as follows
£2,500 for a vibrant high street including events at Easter, Halloween and Christmas
£2,000 to bring the Sydenham literary piazza to life with a series of events
£1,200 for music and stories for the under 5s in the library
£1,300 for street art outside Sydenham Station
£4,800 to replace 20 x street trees
£700 to support Reach for the Changes, a new community group at Wells Park Road

We then had an update on the situation at Sedgehill School, Lee Jasper spoke about the change of emphasis at the Zanzibar and the new music policy of looking to a more mature audience. Anthony and IIse spoke about Sydenham community library and the new piazza. A great turnout as we moved onto refreshments whilst the stage was set for This Elf Has Had Enough. It was my 28th Assembly meeting and in 2015 Cllr Liam Curran will be taking over.

After the performance we welcomed the Mayor, Sir Steve Bullock, to turn on the Christmas tree lights and formally open the piazza. Sean has a short video of the launch on YouTube - it shows a great community gettting together to make things happen.

[Lee Jasper]

I enjoyed attending the Sydenham Assembly and found the approach to dispensing local grants novel. I wasn't clear but does the Assembly have an executive that meets more regularly to deal with progressing the work and setting the agenda? I was really impressed with the staffing and commitment of the people running the libary and found that inspiring.

I also noticed that maybe, out of a hundred people, around ten were people of colour and wondered what is the local demographic for the area covered by our Assembly. Is Sydenham less diverse, as a local area, than some other parts of the borough?

The audience for the Elf That Had Enough was much more diverse though and for my grandchildren whom I brought along, much more enjoyable. A lovely day was had , a great introduction to the local area. Well done.

[admin]

I also noticed that maybe, out of a hundred people, around ten were people of colour and wondered what is the local demographic for the area covered by our Assembly. Is Sydenham less diverse, as a local area, than some other parts of the borough?

Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic (BAME) 41.8%
Not Born in UK 30.2%
(Census 2011, Sydenham Ward)

Not quite the same measure Lee. Diversity is a bit more complicated than colour. It's just the most obvious. Well that and gender. But then adjusting for the age demographic of people who attend these events makes it even more complicated.

Admin

PS can we keep diversity relevant for democratic representation in Sydenham for this thread. There is another place for general discussion on on ethnicity, immigration et al

[Tim Lund]

can we keep diversity relevant for democratic representation in Sydenham for this thread.

I hope so. Housing tenure is another factor to consider, as I mentioned on the Lewisham budget challenge thread

I'd also add housing tenure - how much more do we hear from owner occupiers than tenants? And people in the private rented sector in particular? I think we should have the statistics

It's particularly relevant to issues which affect housing, as commented on earlier today

80% of us - owner occupiers and most social housing tenants - benefit, at least in the short run, from restricting the supply of housing, whether from just having more space, and avoiding the disruption of development going on near where we live, or from seeing the value of our houses going up, if we are lucky enough to be owner occupiers. Do we care if the 20% of our fellow citizens who live in the non rent controlled private rented sector lose out?

Not that I would want to deflect attention from Lee J's point; following the results of the bidding at another ward Assembly a while back, I asked the council officer most involved with it what he would notice if they looked at photos of the winners and losers. He didn't know what I was getting at. The answer was that all the winners were white, and all the losers were black.

I nearly forgot - age. As with most of our democratic system, young people are not adequately involved. This also correlates strongly with tenure (younger people are much more likely to be in the PRS), as well as ethnicity.