RUMOURS: CINEMA AND NANDOS COMING TO SYDENHAM

[The Lady]

Nigel. I don't think a lack of bums on seats for a film showing in the Sydenham centre is a good indication for an actual cinema.
I personally don't find the prospect of sitting in there or the grove centre appealing. However I would go and watch a film in a cool little cinema as it's a different experience and ambience.
I think if it was done right then people definitely would go there as a destination.

[Larky]

Sorry Nigel, I missed your reply.

I would like to watch current movies and not older ones. I would like to be able to walk to the cinema and have a drink after

[prince]

Seven months and counting and still the application has yet to be determined.

Why? I am sure that there are a number of reasons.

However I have been very reliably informed that one of the objections was made by someone following a conversation that they had with a person who works at the dolphin, whose girlfriend is employed at Nandos!

Really - you couldn't make it up! I think it's very dangerous to make objections following a conversation with someone down the pub without all the facts! Especially when those objections are now having an influence on the determination of this application.

Heavy sigh!

[syd]

Seven months and counting and still the application has yet to be determined.

Why? I am sure that there are a number of reasons.

However I have been very reliably informed that one of the objections was made by someone following a conversation that they had with a person who works at the dolphin, whose girlfriend is employed at Nandos!

Really - you couldn't make it up! I think it's very dangerous to make objections following a conversation with someone down the pub without all the facts! Especially when those objections are now having an influence on the determination of this application.

Heavy sigh!

How can we get the list of objections?

[MagmaTimes]

Nando's don't use free-range chickens so they can get to *&^! as far as I'm concerned.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho ... 72226.html

http://metro.co.uk/2017/08/03/shocking- ... s-6826645/

Keep these bastards out of our town!

[stuart]

Nando's don't use free-range chickens so they can get to *&^! as far as I'm concerned.
Keep these bastards out of our town!

And close Sainsburys next door down too?

We either ban particular animal husbandry practices at national level - or, as long as they are clearly labelled, allow us to choose what we want. You can boycott Nandos & Sainsburys and pretty every other food shop in town and encourage others to boycott them but I see no role for Lewisham town planners or anyone else to decide who is to offer us a choice.

Stuart

[The Clown]

I agree to some extent with The Lady' s comments.
The Artist is a good example of a film that will not draw much of a crowd as it is a silent movie. Strange choice. I got 5 mins into it, wanting to enjoy it, but just couldn't - and that was on the comfort of my own sofa for free.
The niche Picturehouse approach needs a comfy / proper venue to draw a wider catchment, but there could be an appetite If done properly and supported with appropriate food & bev options (corkage for example).
That said, Beckenham and Dulwich are easy enough to get to.
Would be good to get Nando's in and sorted so that I can try it, at last....

[syd]

Nando's don't use free-range chickens so they can get to *&^! as far as I'm concerned.
Keep these bastards out of our town!

And close Sainsburys next door down too?

We either ban particular animal husbandry practices at national level - or, as long as they are clearly labelled, allow us to choose what we want. You can boycott Nandos & Sainsburys and pretty every other food shop in town and encourage others to boycott them but I see no role for Lewisham town planners or anyone else to decide who is to offer us a choice.

Stuart

Well I've read enough bullshit on this site to know something more serious is going on. Sydenham is suffering and some seem to be benefitting from this managed decline.

[appletree]

It's just a restaurant. It doesn't sell fried chicken. Why is obesity suddenly an issue when no one is exactly picketing outside all the fast food restaurants (pizza, fried chicken) we have? The food at Nando's is not particularly fattening: grilled chicken.

Where I lived previously there was opposition to Nando's ostensibly because it was a chain, but actually because if racism. It was perceived as a restaurant black people liked. I wonder if something similar is going on here?

That one opened and there were no problems with it at all. We went there from time to time.

I get the sense there are people out there eager for this area to decline. I don't care especially about Nando's but am frustrated by all the empty shops and the seemingly endless waits for planning permission. Meanwhile Sydenham is a dump.

[syd]

Where I lived previously there was opposition to Nando's ostensibly because it was a chain, but actually because if racism. It was perceived as a restaurant black people liked. I wonder if something similar is going on here?

I'm not sure that kind of innuendo is helpful here appletree. It's a horrible tactic - to put into the minds of people that any legitimate opposition may be because of the racism of those opposing it. Exactly the same thing happened when KFC were going to open at the Savacentre - those opposing it were accused of racism.

Meanwhile Sydenham is a dump.

No it's not.

I would be against most fast food restaurants opening in Sydenham, and Nando's is a fast food restaurant, I'm sorry, it is. I'd be grateful if people could do some reading on the sheer scale of the obesity epidemic - the numbers are extraordinary.

There is some debate about whether the takeaway part of the business will be primary or ancillary, but I would say that they're equally bad. The sheer number of takeaways in SE26 is monstrous! No one is suggesting picketing anything, just pointing out the role restaurants like this, and the Sainsburys opposite it (which I also opposed) play in the shocking levels of obesity in London. I would oppose the application on that level alone.

When we talk about sustainability there are a range of factors we need to consider. It is not just about being green. It includes things like the type of battery farming used by Nandos and Lidl, it includes the impact on obesity of the food they serve.

Nando's is a global mid range brand which will improve Sydenham as it will attract other global brands. Sydenham has a lot of untapped potential and it's quite shocking that we are being neglected. Even the trouble spot Loughborough Junction has had a brilliant make over. Sydenham is unique in London as the only place which has had no major improvements this century. Go anywhere in se London even Penge and you see some improvements. Sydenham hasn't been touched. Something stinks and the councillors are going to have to answer.

[syd]

Admin thanks for making this a sticky

[syd]

It's just a restaurant. It doesn't sell fried chicken. Why is obesity suddenly an issue when no one is exactly picketing outside all the fast food restaurants (pizza, fried chicken) we have? The food at Nando's is not particularly fattening: grilled chicken.

Where I lived previously there was opposition to Nando's ostensibly because it was a chain, but actually because if racism. It was perceived as a restaurant black people liked. I wonder if something similar is going on here?

That one opened and there were no problems with it at all. We went there from time to time.

I get the sense there are people out there eager for this area to decline. I don't care especially about Nando's but am frustrated by all the empty shops and the seemingly endless waits for planning permission. Meanwhile Sydenham is a dump.

Hi Appletree I understand your frustrations but we should get the facts before making assumptions, I will get the list of objections and post them here for discussion. There is definitely a lack of transparency in the councils processes. It came to light when Lewisham tried to buy millwall football ground for property development and it's seems some people on the council would benefit directly from the purchase.

There seems to be some very dodgy characters in the council who have been left to their own devices for too long. Now they have to answer.

[stuart]

There seems to be some very dodgy characters in the council who have been left to their own devices for too long. Now they have to answer.

None, as far as I'm aware were Sydenham councillors. So I think we should tread very gingerly here. I'm more concerned that some of the 'great & good' together with some of the posters here share a belief that to improve Sydenham you have to protect it from certain types of shops. This is, of course shops they dislike - even if there is a good demand to sustain them in our High Street.

Control, even with the best intentions, is limiting. Its success is denying local people the businesses they want, I would say leads inevitably to a degradation the street and making it less attractive to the community at large. Contrast this with a wish, say, to make part of the street an entertaining or eating area. You do this with incentives either directly or through infrastructure.

So I would ask those that want to stop Nando's to think again. To accept that while they may not like it - unless it is likely to cause a disproportionate nuisance to them they should not object. It is not their role to decide where or what I or others eat. It really should be the market who decides Nando's is or is not welcome here.

Stuart

[syd]

So I would ask those that want to stop Nando's to think again. To accept that while they may not like it - unless it is likely to cause a disproportionate nuisance to them they should not object. It is not their role to decide where or what I or others eat. It really should be the market who decides Nando's is or is not welcome here.

If it is the market that decides why are so many people on here getting involved in the application?

It's not the market - it is as much about people pointing to the worst examples of unsustainable practice and calling them out on it. It's about a change in mentality away from consumerism and towards sustainability.

Merely honouring the market will not bring about that sustainability.

. Sure it's a laudable ambition but please remember budgens closed coop have left twice and the high street needs all the help it can get. Nando's are mid range like pizza express without the snobbery

[stuart]

t's not the market - it is as much about people pointing to the worst examples of unsustainable practice and calling them out on it. It's about a change in mentality away from consumerism and towards sustainability.

Point, campaign, calling out - no problem. But we are talking about using the planning process to stop people who you haven't persuaded from eating where they want. That dictatorship.

If there is an honest issue with public space being lost because of a delivery service than that's a legitimate planning objection against the Nando application. But I get the feeling that the real reason for objections is one group of people believing they have a superior right to decide what others should eat rather than going through the bothersome task of either persuading them or legislating against some bad farming practices.

If you are really into sustainability shouldn't be picketing the butchers? And obesity by ridding Sugahill of its Victoria Sponges?

Stuart

[Larky]

And folk of Sydenham wonder why new business are not keen to set up in Sydenham.

If you where a new business wishing to set up in Sydenham and you read this forum, would you take a risk and come to Sydenham ?!

[syd]

And obesity by ridding Sugahill of its Victoria Sponges?

That's fighting talk

[mosy]

And folk of Sydenham wonder why new business are not keen to set up in Sydenham.

If you where a new business wishing to set up in Sydenham and you read this forum, would you take a risk and come to Sydenham ?!

If I were a business, I might just do a teensy bit more research beforehand than rely on a dozen or so comments on any forum as if they represented the whole market I was aiming to attract, especially if I had a proven business model under my belt.

[Willy]

Rod Taylor wrote:

No one is suggesting picketing anything, just pointing out the role restaurants like this, and the Sainsburys opposite it (which I also opposed) play in the shocking levels of obesity in London. I would oppose the application on that level alone.

You opposed Sainsburys because it makes people fat?? So on that basis are you are opposed to pretty much every shop selling food or just the ones you don't use?

[Con]

Not just the shops that sell food, the pubs would need to close as well. Beer and wine are stuffed with calories after all