The BGNF has been working throughout 2023 on Public Transport and active travel measures at Bell Green, ahead of the proposed no-car developments on the Gasholders and Livesey sites, by Barratt and Apex. We are fortunate in having a highways engineer working for us pro-bono. Our traffic engineer has attended the Public Transport Liaison Committee, and made excellent direct links with TfL, Network Rail, and Southeastern whilst also hosted TfL and Lewisham Highways to a site visit around Bell Green and Lower Sydenham.
Following this, Bell Green’s s106 money owing was calculated, and a project manager has been appointed for the Bell Green Project, a traffic-modelling study of the current situation. It is hoped that improvements in pedestrian crossings, and completely new ones, will be approved within the next 18 months.
Tonight, representatives of Network Rail and Southeastern are visiting Lower Sydenham Station, and walking around the access routes from Southend Lane. We are pushing for accessibility improvements, and for the station to be re-zoned to Zone 3/4, bringing the travel cost down to the same rate as Sydenham Station.
Please help us by taking our anonymous online questionnaire, and encouraging other people to do the same. We have had 253 responses so far, constrained by limited resources in publicising it. TfL and Lewisham have agreed that responses to this professional questionnaire will be taken into consideration. It is your chance to say what problems you have in the area and where.
We need responses from people who either shop, visit, work, or live in Bell Green & Lower Sydenham, or travels through the area. It is vital to get a diverse cross-section of the community to strengthen the validity of the data collected, so we really do welcome all to have their say in our questionaire.
Bell Green Public Transport improvements
Re: Bell Green Public Transport improvements
Where is this questionnaire, please, JRW?
Re: Bell Green Public Transport improvements
Happy Christmas to everyone in Bell Green. This is your update on what's been happening in 2023.
Gasholders site- Barratt London.
Having withdrawn their previous application at the last moment, Barratt submitted their new application weeks ago. It still hasn't been published, which suggests Lewisham may have an issue with some aspect. The previous application was published within hours of its receipt. Once it is published there will be a lot of work for us all to do, checking it out and coordinating responses from our wonderful expert panel. Help is urgently needed please! I'm overloaded. If someone doesn't step up, I can't guarantee much work will be done on this vital case.
YOU CAN HELP: don't just assume someone else will do it.
Air monitors
Because we were refused designation as a Neighbourhood Forum, our outside funding stream was eliminated. We can't find £16k of alternative funding to pay for the subscription, so Lewisham Council has decided to have all eight of our Bell Green monitors REMOVED. In spring 2024, Lewisham is installing 100 new monitors, spread across the entire Borough. They will not tell us how many monitors will cover Bell Green, so there is no guarantee how good the coverage will be. Denying us designation has directly resulted in this loss for our community. YOU CAN HELP: write to your councillors and tell them how important our Neighbourhood Forum is to you.
Amenity Society status
Having refused us designation as Neighbourhood Forum, we applied for recognition as an Amenity Society. This was refused because they were introducing a novel definition of Amenity Societies as being based on a single conservation area.This wording was withdrawn from the Constitution etc, but they are still trying to enforce it in practice. Effectively, Lewisham Council is preventing poorer areas from campaigning effectively for environmental improvements.
Transport
The BGNF has been working throughout 2023 on Public Transport and active travel measures at Bell Green, ahead of the proposed no-car developments on the Gasholders and Livesey sites, by Barratt and Apex. We are fortunate in having a highways engineer, Deone Costley working for us pro-bono. He has attended the Public Transport Liaison Committee, and made excellent direct links with TfL, Network Rail, and Southeastern, and whilst hosted TfL and Lewisham Highways' site visit around Bell Green and Lower Sydenham. Following this, Bell Green’s s106 money owing was calculated, and a project manager has been appointed for the Bell Green Project, a traffic-modelling study of the current situation. It is hoped that improvements in pedestrian crossings, and completely new ones, will be approved within the next 18 months. On Tuesday, representatives of Network Rail and Southeastern visited Lower Sydenham Station. We are pushing for accessibility improvements, and for the station to be re-zoned to Zone 3/4, bringing the travel cost down to the same rate as Sydenham Station. Both of these aims are ambitious, but we are now on their radar, at least.
YOU CAN HELP by taking our anonymous online questionnaire, and encouraging other people to do the same. We have had 253 responses so far, constrained by zero resources in publicising it. TfL and Lewisham have agreed that responses to this professional questionnaire will be taken into consideration. It is your chance to say what problems you have in the area, and where improvements are needed. We need responses from people who either shop, visit, work, or live in Bell Green & Lower Sydenham, or who travel through the area. It is vital to get a diverse cross-section of the community to strengthen the validity of the data collected, so we really do welcome all to have their say. Follow this link: https://forms.gle/NbLmrTFZk6ZqTaNZA
OR access the questionnaire via our website www.bellgreenneighbourhoodforum.co.uk Consultation closes 11:59pm on 20th December 2023
Please come to the last meeting of 2023, on Saturday 16th December at 11am. RSVP if possible.
2024 meetings start with;
27th January 11am at Sydenham Library.
2nd March 11am at Sydenham Library. Please put these dates in your diary, because they are absolutely vital, given the new Barratt application looming.
Best,
Julia
Gasholders site- Barratt London.
Having withdrawn their previous application at the last moment, Barratt submitted their new application weeks ago. It still hasn't been published, which suggests Lewisham may have an issue with some aspect. The previous application was published within hours of its receipt. Once it is published there will be a lot of work for us all to do, checking it out and coordinating responses from our wonderful expert panel. Help is urgently needed please! I'm overloaded. If someone doesn't step up, I can't guarantee much work will be done on this vital case.
YOU CAN HELP: don't just assume someone else will do it.
Air monitors
Because we were refused designation as a Neighbourhood Forum, our outside funding stream was eliminated. We can't find £16k of alternative funding to pay for the subscription, so Lewisham Council has decided to have all eight of our Bell Green monitors REMOVED. In spring 2024, Lewisham is installing 100 new monitors, spread across the entire Borough. They will not tell us how many monitors will cover Bell Green, so there is no guarantee how good the coverage will be. Denying us designation has directly resulted in this loss for our community. YOU CAN HELP: write to your councillors and tell them how important our Neighbourhood Forum is to you.
Amenity Society status
Having refused us designation as Neighbourhood Forum, we applied for recognition as an Amenity Society. This was refused because they were introducing a novel definition of Amenity Societies as being based on a single conservation area.This wording was withdrawn from the Constitution etc, but they are still trying to enforce it in practice. Effectively, Lewisham Council is preventing poorer areas from campaigning effectively for environmental improvements.
Transport
The BGNF has been working throughout 2023 on Public Transport and active travel measures at Bell Green, ahead of the proposed no-car developments on the Gasholders and Livesey sites, by Barratt and Apex. We are fortunate in having a highways engineer, Deone Costley working for us pro-bono. He has attended the Public Transport Liaison Committee, and made excellent direct links with TfL, Network Rail, and Southeastern, and whilst hosted TfL and Lewisham Highways' site visit around Bell Green and Lower Sydenham. Following this, Bell Green’s s106 money owing was calculated, and a project manager has been appointed for the Bell Green Project, a traffic-modelling study of the current situation. It is hoped that improvements in pedestrian crossings, and completely new ones, will be approved within the next 18 months. On Tuesday, representatives of Network Rail and Southeastern visited Lower Sydenham Station. We are pushing for accessibility improvements, and for the station to be re-zoned to Zone 3/4, bringing the travel cost down to the same rate as Sydenham Station. Both of these aims are ambitious, but we are now on their radar, at least.
YOU CAN HELP by taking our anonymous online questionnaire, and encouraging other people to do the same. We have had 253 responses so far, constrained by zero resources in publicising it. TfL and Lewisham have agreed that responses to this professional questionnaire will be taken into consideration. It is your chance to say what problems you have in the area, and where improvements are needed. We need responses from people who either shop, visit, work, or live in Bell Green & Lower Sydenham, or who travel through the area. It is vital to get a diverse cross-section of the community to strengthen the validity of the data collected, so we really do welcome all to have their say. Follow this link: https://forms.gle/NbLmrTFZk6ZqTaNZA
OR access the questionnaire via our website www.bellgreenneighbourhoodforum.co.uk Consultation closes 11:59pm on 20th December 2023
Please come to the last meeting of 2023, on Saturday 16th December at 11am. RSVP if possible.
2024 meetings start with;
27th January 11am at Sydenham Library.
2nd March 11am at Sydenham Library. Please put these dates in your diary, because they are absolutely vital, given the new Barratt application looming.
Best,
Julia
Re: Bell Green Public Transport improvements
Hi Julia, I’ve completed the questionnaire and I’m afraid I can’t attend the meetings but I’ll help virtually.JRW wrote: 8 Dec 2023 12:35 Happy Christmas to everyone in Bell Green. This is your update on what's been happening in 2023.
Gasholders site- Barratt London.
Having withdrawn their previous application at the last moment, Barratt submitted their new application weeks ago. It still hasn't been published, which suggests Lewisham may have an issue with some aspect. The previous application was published within hours of its receipt. Once it is published there will be a lot of work for us all to do, checking it out and coordinating responses from our wonderful expert panel. Help is urgently needed please! I'm overloaded. If someone doesn't step up, I can't guarantee much work will be done on this vital case.
YOU CAN HELP: don't just assume someone else will do it.
Air monitors
Because we were refused designation as a Neighbourhood Forum, our outside funding stream was eliminated. We can't find £16k of alternative funding to pay for the subscription, so Lewisham Council has decided to have all eight of our Bell Green monitors REMOVED. In spring 2024, Lewisham is installing 100 new monitors, spread across the entire Borough. They will not tell us how many monitors will cover Bell Green, so there is no guarantee how good the coverage will be. Denying us designation has directly resulted in this loss for our community. YOU CAN HELP: write to your councillors and tell them how important our Neighbourhood Forum is to you.
Amenity Society status
Having refused us designation as Neighbourhood Forum, we applied for recognition as an Amenity Society. This was refused because they were introducing a novel definition of Amenity Societies as being based on a single conservation area.This wording was withdrawn from the Constitution etc, but they are still trying to enforce it in practice. Effectively, Lewisham Council is preventing poorer areas from campaigning effectively for environmental improvements.
Transport
The BGNF has been working throughout 2023 on Public Transport and active travel measures at Bell Green, ahead of the proposed no-car developments on the Gasholders and Livesey sites, by Barratt and Apex. We are fortunate in having a highways engineer, Deone Costley working for us pro-bono. He has attended the Public Transport Liaison Committee, and made excellent direct links with TfL, Network Rail, and Southeastern, and whilst hosted TfL and Lewisham Highways' site visit around Bell Green and Lower Sydenham. Following this, Bell Green’s s106 money owing was calculated, and a project manager has been appointed for the Bell Green Project, a traffic-modelling study of the current situation. It is hoped that improvements in pedestrian crossings, and completely new ones, will be approved within the next 18 months. On Tuesday, representatives of Network Rail and Southeastern visited Lower Sydenham Station. We are pushing for accessibility improvements, and for the station to be re-zoned to Zone 3/4, bringing the travel cost down to the same rate as Sydenham Station. Both of these aims are ambitious, but we are now on their radar, at least.
YOU CAN HELP by taking our anonymous online questionnaire, and encouraging other people to do the same. We have had 253 responses so far, constrained by zero resources in publicising it. TfL and Lewisham have agreed that responses to this professional questionnaire will be taken into consideration. It is your chance to say what problems you have in the area, and where improvements are needed. We need responses from people who either shop, visit, work, or live in Bell Green & Lower Sydenham, or who travel through the area. It is vital to get a diverse cross-section of the community to strengthen the validity of the data collected, so we really do welcome all to have their say. Follow this link: https://forms.gle/NbLmrTFZk6ZqTaNZA
OR access the questionnaire via our website www.bellgreenneighbourhoodforum.co.uk Consultation closes 11:59pm on 20th December 2023
Please come to the last meeting of 2023, on Saturday 16th December at 11am. RSVP if possible.
2024 meetings start with;
27th January 11am at Sydenham Library.
2nd March 11am at Sydenham Library. Please put these dates in your diary, because they are absolutely vital, given the new Barratt application looming.
Best,
Julia
Good luck!
