Sydenham Assembly 11 am this Saturday 11 June

[Chris Best]

Residents living in Sydenham ward should have received the door to door flyer about the next Sydenham Assembly starting at 11am at the Naborhood Centre. 44a Sydenham Road. next to the Post Office on Saturday 11 June.

We will start with a report back on the decision on Sydenham Library as well as updates on the improvement works to the high street and the outcome of the consultation on the closure of Kirkdale Learning Centre.

Kirkdale has been a centre of learning for 150 years most recently providing courses for adult education. Community Education Lewisham is faced with a 25% reduction in central Government funding and proposes to close one of the four centres and relocate the Kirkdale courses to the other centres at Brockley Rise and Granville Park. During the consultation meetings residents have asked what would happen to this locally listed building and because of the shortfall in primary places the next door school, Kelvin Grove, would like to use the building to expand to a three form entry.

An hour of the meeting is be taken up with presentations and voting on this years Sydenham Assembly Fund of £15,000. We have some exciting proposals for local projects and below is the summary of recommendations from the Coordinating Group:

Priority 1 and 2 – More activities for young people and tackling anti social behaviour
• Kelvin Grove School Teambuilding Day - £895

Priority 3 – Vibrant high street including an inclusive community
• Sydenham Town Toilet scheme - £3,200
• Sydenham Mosaic – funding the next roundel - £3,000
• Sydenham Music Outreach work - £1,600
• Eco-Computers – IT training at Sydenham Library - £3,157
• Spontaneous Productions at the Dolphin - £1,000

Priority 4 - Environmental improvements for a cleaner and greener Sydenham
• Grow Mayow “Sow it, Grow it” - £2,500
• Sydenham Town greening – hanging baskets, Xmas tree and lights - £2,000

As you can see the project bids total £17,352 so your vote will count on deciding which projects are funded in 2011/12.

Following this there will be time for information to be shared, including an update on Community Safety and the street drinkers. Finally there will be time for any questions residents wish to raise concerning Sydenham.

Chris Best
Councillor for Sydenham Ward and Chair of the Sydenham Assembly
http://www.chrisbest.org.uk

[Tim Lund]

I know it's not exactly glamorous, but I really like the Sydenham Town Toilet scheme. The lack of toilets is a major reason not to use traditional High Streets such as Sydenham Road, and matters all the more for more vulnerable groups such as parents with small children or the elderly - as I can already anticipate being myself.

There's more about it here:

Sydenham Community Toilet Scheme

Sydenham Town Centre Steering Group is bidding for £3200 from the Mayor's Fund to set up a joint venture with businesses in Sydenham Road to establish a Community Toilet Scheme — very important with the imminent demolition of the loos in Station Approach when the Sydenham Road/Station Approach improvements begin in September.

These schemes, originally introduced by Richmond Council, and widely adopted elsewhere, including Lambeth and Bromley, pay local businesses to make their toilet facilities available to those in need, without the need to become customers. For this facility the businesses would be paid £800 pa. They will display easily recognised signs in their windows, and will be listed on the Council's website.

At the time of going to press four businesses have indicated they may be willing to take part in the scheme.

Here's a link to the relevant page on Bromley's site.

I'm also interested by the long run sustainability of this project. Will the participating shops be paid £800 annually if this is to keep going? Will this become a regular call on Sydenham Assembly funding - or might Lewisham Council find resources for it elsewhere? Alternatively, is it possible that participating shops derive other advantages which mean they don't need to be paid £800 - such as getting valuable goodwill, or more directly getting customers into their shop? One way of answering this question would be to know if other local authorities have tried haggling on this. Does anyone know?

[Tim Lund]

A bid which I'm not so keen on is for a further £3,000 for the Sydenham Mosaic. The proponents have only recently applied for planning permission, and there are currently 15 objectors - of whom I am one - registered on Lewisham's planning website. This automatically triggers a meeting with planning officers, and I have to think that planning officers are quite likely to accept the force of the objections, even if they have not already come to the same view themselves.

As such, it seems at least risky to vote more money for this project - and also raises the question whether money already allocated can be recovered - or can whatever has been spent on the project be met from money raised privately?

[mummycat]

..

[timeastop]

I will be attending the Sydenham Assembly as an objector to the mosaic this Saturday. This is a good opportunity for all those objectors who have written a post or simply disagree with the process and proposed poor quality designs to spend just one hour of their time making their voice heard and voting against further funds for this poorly thought through commission.

Whilst I applaud those who have enthusiastically raised funds for the mosaic and who clearly wish to improve the high street, I am very concerned about the approach taken and proposed mosaic design. Commissioning successful art in the public realm is a professional business these days. As with most built environment projects, installing public art in prominent sites should follow high standards of procurement and project management.

With public art projects over £20,000 there should nearly always be a clear, accountable selection process, based on a range of tendered options from different creative producers, artists or designers. It is not at all clear from the limited documentation and the poor sketch designs I have seen that a professional process has taken place: How was the designer selected for this proposal? Was professional public art commissioning guidance used? To what extent was the borough’s arts team consulted? How much research was done into restoring the existing good relief design and the building façade? In what ways were local artists consulted or invited to submit ideas?

I believe in high quality public art and this proposal unfortunately shows a deeply conservative, traditional and very out dated approach which is not in keeping with the building or with the communities who use the high street. As far as I can tell, the subject matter depicts mainly famous men in history linked to Sydenham, with no reference at all to the vibrant multicultural communities surrounding the high street today.

In my view, the best solution would be to use some of the funds to simply restore the façade of the Naborhood Centre and the existing relief-design and use the rest of the funds raised to produce a more relevant and high quality commission elsewhere, inviting a range of proposals from artists/designers and which would be representative of the local communities today.

[Tim Lund]

Thanks to the SydSoc web site, we now have an agenda for this with running times:

11.00 Introduction and welcome Cllr Chris Best (Chair)

11.05 Feedback from last Sydenham Assembly on 3 March

• Station Approach and public conveniences
• Timetable for start of high street improvement works
• Myplace funding for the Youth Centre
• Sydenham Library
• Kirkdale Community Learning Centre

11.30 Sydenham Assembly Fund £15,000
Recommendations by the Coordinating Group

• Kelvin Grove School Teambuilding Day £895 Nafisa Ballard
• Sydenham Town Toilet scheme £3,200 llse Towler
• Sydenham Mosaic £3,000 Valerie Kelly
• Sydenham Music Outreach work £1,600 Robert Trory
• Eco-Computers – IT training £3,157 Darren Taylor
• Spontaneous Productions at the Dolphin £1,000 Jonathan Kaufman
• Grow Mayow “Sow it, Grow it” £2,500 Iris Borgers
• Sydenham Town greening and Xmas lights £2,000 Barry Milton

TOTAL £17,352

(7 minutes x 8 bids – 56 mins plus voting following the Eurovision Song Contest model 8 to 1 point)

12.30 Information, Open questions and answers

Neighbourhood Community Safety Service June Al Malah
Sydenham Music Festival - Barbara Kern
Sydenham Arts Festival- Pat Trembath

Results of the voting

12.55 Dates for the next Assembly meetings

• 7pm Thursday 8 September 2011
• 7pm Thursday 1 December 2011

1.00 Close

[Tim Lund]

One of the curiosities of this agenda is that there are recommendations from the co-ordinating group. In the policy document which set up Local Assemblies it states:

Coordinating Group

3.4. Each local assembly will be supported by a coordinating group, helping to plan and structure meetings.

3.5. The coordinating group should involve at least one local councillor, one resident and one representative from the local third sector. It will be important that this group does not duplicate or pre-empt the work of the Assembly.

Since an original 17 proposals have been reduced to just eight, it seems this co-ordinating group may have got above itself, and again pre-empted the work of the Assembly.

I'm pleased to say that the IT Kickz project, which was on the glossy flyers distributed door-to-door has secured funding elsewhere, and will be able to proceed, but what does anyone know of the other eight, either culled by the co-ordinators, or dropped out voluntarily?

[Chris Best]

Reporting back on a positive meeting this morning - starting with a huge round of applause for Pat on the great news of her award of the MBE for community services to Sydenham - it is so deserved for the tremendous amount of work Pat continues to do for Sydenham.

We then through the updates from the last meeting with Darren talking about the offer in Sydenham Library.

The main part of the meeting was taken up with the presentations followed by questions and answers on each of the projects - the voting took place and the ranking was as follows:

1. Sydenham Toilet Scheme - £3,200
2. Sydenham Music Outreach work - £1,600
= Eco Computers IT work - £3,157
4. Grow Mayow - £2,500
5. Sydenham Mosaic - £2,000 (agreed to reduced by £1,000 to ensure more funding for other bids)
6. Sydenham Town greening and Xmas lights - £2,000
7. Spontaneous Productions at the Dolphin - £543 only as this was the end of the £15,000
8. Kelvin Grove School Teambuilding Day - not funded

A big thank you to all the groups who put in bids and the minutes of the Coordinating Group were available explaining why the other bids were not being presented.

June then talked about Lewisham’s Neighbourhood Community Safety Service and the Problem Solving Plan (PSP) around street drinkers/drug users. The PSP aims to:

• Reduce anti social behaviour, crime and the fear of crime.
• Make a safe and pleasant environment for local residents, traders and shoppers.

The partners involved in this plan include the Safer Neighbourhood Team, LBL Planning and Licensing, Local Traders, London Fire, Drugs & Alcohol Action Team, Lewisham Businesses Against Crime.

The followed a discussion about police response for non emergencies and the answer was to ring the Met number 0300 123 1212.

My thanks to some 80 people for coming along this morning and showing support for the local projects that will make a difference to Sydenham. I will put some photos up on my web site and flickr.

Cllr Chris Best
http://www.chrisbest.org.uk

[leenewham]

Deleted due to double post

[leenewham]

I think there are a few issues with the Sydenham Assembly.

1. How do we get a more diverse group to attend?

I did a quick head count of the people there. I only counted 56 in the hall, certainly not 80. There were a number of empty chairs. Out of the 56, I counted around 14ish without grey hair. I'd say I was amongst the youngest there, my wife probably the youngest and I'm 40. It wasn't what I'd call diverse.

This isn't to criticise the assembly's for existing, or the people who came. But there must be a way to engage more of the community to vote on important issues that affect us all.

2. For this assembly, only those who live in Sydenham ward could vote, despite the fact that many of the decisions taken, such as the mosaic, affect all those that shop and use Sydenham. Is it right to restrict voting for issues that affect people from a wider area than Sydenham ward?

Thoughts?

[poppy]

I can't believe the mosaic has got another £2,000!

What have they spent the last £10,000 on? Has it really been spent or is it being kept for materials.

Can we have a break down please?

How do new windows, paint job, railings etc feature in the mosaic plan? If they don't it is even more misguided than I thought!

In the meantime huge planting areas are left in a depressing state, such as
1) the one at the top of Trewsbury Road
2) the one at the top of Kent House
3) the ones in Venner road

The number of lovely easy to maintain amazing plants that could have been bought for these with a fraction of that cash! It makes me really sad actually.

[Robin Orton]

For this assembly, only those who live in Sydenham ward could vote, despite the fact that many of the decisions taken, such as the mosaic, affect all those that shop and use Sydenham. Is it right to restrict voting for issues that affect people from a wider area than Sydenham ward?

But perhaps the point's worth making, Lee, that, as I understand it, all the assembly can decide is whether a comparatively small sum of money (compared with the total costs of the project) should be allocated to the mosaic. The assembly has no say, at any rate formally, about whether the project actually goes ahead.

Otherwise, I agree with your comments. As a committed Sydenhamer from SE26 (albeit a grey-haired one, I'm afraid) who hasn't nevertheless got the privilege of living in Sydenham ward (an electoral unit covering only a part of the real Sydenham community) I would have come to the assembly yesterday if I'd not had a diary clash. I would have been disappointed not to be allowed to vote for the mosaic bid.

In the meantime huge planting areas are left in a depressing state, such as
1) the one at the top of Trewsbury Road
2) the one at the top of Kent House
3) the ones in Venner road

The number of lovely easy to maintain amazing plants that could have been bought for these with a fraction of that cash! It makes me really sad actually.

Was there a bid for spending the money in that way, Poppy? If not, perhaps you could submit one yourself for the next round.

[Rachael]

If I didn't use this forum, I would never have heard about the Sydenham Assembly. I live in Perry Vale ward, and I've only heard about that local assembly from SE23.com. I still have barely any idea what these assemblies are for or what they do. I live very near Mayow Park and see radical changes going on in there, without ever having been consulted or leafleted or otherwise engaged by Friends of Mayow Park or the assembly. Something is seriously wrong with this situation.

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[Tim Lund]

If I didn't use this forum, I would never have heard about the Sydenham Assembly. I live in Perry Vale ward, and I've only heard about that local assembly from SE23.com. I still have barely any idea what these assemblies are for or what they do. ... Something is seriously wrong with this situation.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

When these local assemblies started in 2008, I had just become the Chair of the Sydenham Society, and I took a copy of the policy document concerning them to peruse on my summer holidays. If you are interested, download it here, although it may now be a mere historic curio, since in response to my reference to it on Saturday, Chris Best said what things had moved on since then - and are in fact moving towards Neighbourhood Forums, as envisaged by the Localism Bill.

There is a fair bit to get your head round in this original Local Assemblies document, and while it has many good intentions, much is clearly unworkable. In particular, there is a whole lot about charters, e.g.

Charter

3.10. The Charter is a voluntary agreement between the Council and each local assembly that:

• Sets out the rights and responsibilities of the Council and of the Local Assemblies
• Includes specific information about the standards local people can expect in relation to local services
• Provides a starting point for each assembly to adapt and develop the Charter based on their detailed work

3.11. Each assembly will be expected to adopt the Charter as the starting point for defining and developing a way of working that reflects the circumstances and ambitions of that ward. Where the work of the assembly identifies specific actions or proposals these can be incorporated within the Charter document.

This sounds like some kind of legal agreement, but nothing is ever said about what sort of legal entity an Assembly is to be entering into such an agreement. The same question will arise in connection with the Localism Bill Neighbourhood Forums. If it wasn't that voters aren't anything like as interested in this sort of stuff as the NHS, the abandonment of this policy would already be added to the list of Coalition U-turns.

[Tim Lund]

I can't believe the mosaic has got another £2,000!

Well, Poppy, the fact that you weren't there to offset all the oldies Lee counted makes it that bit more believable!

Also - you missed a good two minute hate when I made the point about the co-ordinators over reaching themselves, as argued in an earlier posting on this thread.

Previously I had been told by another objector, who would appear to understand how things are done in Sydenham, that the opposition to the mosaic was being led by a senior member of the Sydenham Society - the very organisation whose newsletter has carried an enthusiastic update on the project in its Spring 2011 newsletter, and whose accounts included a £500 donation to it!

[Tim Lund]

For details of the Sydenham Co-ordinators' decisions on which bids were put to the Assembly and which not

Priority 1 and 2 – More activities for young people and tackling anti social behaviour
Lewisham Junior Soccer Team (LJST) - Refurbishing the changing rooms at Home Park - £10,000
It was felt that further information was required and there was a need to see a business plan, the Terms of the Lease being worked out with Lewisham and what Lewisham's involvement is.

Glendale - Spot the Fun sports programme - £6,500
It was felt that there was insufficient staff for the unknown number of children of there was no specified age groups.

Teachsport - Citizenship and Community Cohesion Youth Project - £5,310
No indication where this project will take place. These qualifications are available through schools.

Forest Hill School - `It Kickz' Music Project - £4,000
Agreed this is an appropriate application to go forward for consideration.

Powerpoint Elim Church - Keep fit in summer, be fit for life -£1,900
Insufficient information - estimated costs will not cover equipment.

Sydenham Arts Festival - Take Part in Art Workshop - £1,800
Withdrawn following successful funding bid to Arts Council.

Dalmain School Community Project - Engaging Young People in Health & Physical Activity Leadership - £1,400
Why has this come to Sydenham and not Crofton Park Assembly?

Kelvin Grove Primary School - Teambuilding day for playground buddies - £895
Although not strictly in Sydenham Ward it will benefit Sydenham children. Agreed can go forward providing the Head Teacher is aware and is in support of the project.

New Tidings Outreach Group "S" Factor Project -£15,000
Not enough detailed information and no evidence that groups named as getting involved have been approached.

Priority 3 - Vibrant high street including inclusive community
Sydenham Town Centre Steering Group - Community Toilet Scheme - £4,000
Agreed £3,200 should go forward as a pilot scheme providing a pub is involved to allow for all day/evening availability.

Sydenham Mosaic - sponsorship of a roundel - £3,000
Agreed to go forward

Forest Hill Community Church/Sydenham ESOL Project at Here for Good - £1,800
Does not meet Assembly priorities

Sydenham Music - Community Outreach Programme -£1,600
Queries raised about the costs of the musicians - would have hoped to see some unpaid time as part of this bid. However application fits the criteria so agreed should go forward

Spontaneous Productions - Open Air Theatre at the Dolphin - £1,000
Agreed should go forward.

Eco-Cornputer Systems - £3,157
Nowhere on the application does the venue get mentioned but as Eco Computers are bidding to run Sydenham Library it is assumed that this is the venue. Agreed that this kind of project is very important to the Lower Sydenham areas and should go forward.

Priority 4 - Environmental improvements for a cleaner and greener Sydenham
Grow Mayow Community Garden - "Sow it, Grow it Sydenham"- £3,880
Needs more information but agreed that this should go forward. Barry to talk to Iris about providing information for the Assembly as there are bound to be questions.

Sydenham Town Centre Steering Group - Greening Sydenham and Christmas lights - £2,000
Agreed should go forward.

Of all these decisions, the one that baffles me most is that teaching English as a second language doesn't meet the inclusive community priority.

[Chris Best]

Lee - officers told me that nearly 70 had signed in and some people hadn't including myself so that is at why I estimated 80. During the meeting some people left and others came in - I know there were several other events on Saturday but we wanted to mix up Saturday mornings with evenings. If you think holding the Assembly at a different time and with a different approach would encourage more young people then please let me know. When we have had the Youth Centre on the agenda we have had more young people turn up - and we do liaise with Melissa at the Sydenham and Forest Hill Youth Forum.

As I said at the meeting each ward has its own Assembly and Petra stated that the voting was open to anyone who lived, worked or attended an educational establishement in the ward. It was not open to anyone who attended a faith group or shopped in the high street as this could be seen as unfair on the residents of Sydenham ward.

Poppy - copies of each bid were available and a summary was included in each pack. Here are the details for the mosaic project:
Description - The Project aims to improve and enhance the Council owned building previously known as the Naborhood Centre, renamed as the Sydenham Centre. It will do so by means of a high quality piece of mosaic art celebrating the history and achievements of Sydenham. The Project aims to contribute to a renewed sense of community pride in Sydenham by creating a vibrant town centre.

Expenditure
Design Consultancy £3,850 + VAT £673.75 - £4,523.75
Fabrication of 3 medium panels £1,400 + VAT £1,645 -£4,935.00
Fabrication of 1 small panel £840 + VAT- £940
Creation of bronze lettering -£3,000
Installation, gold flow lines and tiling work -£12,000
Scaffolding for building during decoration and installation -£3,360
Decoration of the external face of the building and provision of a panel of information -£5,494.79
Room hire for fundraising and promotion -£51.46
Planning application -£95.00
Outstanding roundels (9) -£15.600
1 very large 2 metre roundel £3,000 + 20% VAT - £3,600
2 large 1.5 metre roundels £2,000 + 20% VAT - £7,200
2 medium 1 metre roundels £1,400 + 20% VAT - £3,360
4 small 0.75 metre roundels £800 + 20% VAT - £4,800
Total Project Expenditure -£50,000
Income
Sydenham Assembly Fund requirement – very large roundel -£3,000
Previously Mayor’s Fund in 2009 for first part of project -£10,000
Other funding (please specify) Applied for/Confirmed
Donations – Sydenham Society, Arts Festival, Shackleton Foundation,
Local businesses (R. Woodfall, White’s Pet Shop etc) - £16,250
Future roundel sponsorship - £12,600
Community fundraising – to date carol singing, attic sales, dinners etc - £2,718.95
Future community fundraising - £5,431.05
Total Project Income - £50,000

The works to the high street are planned to start in the New Year and a "pocket square" will be created outside the building including the removal of the railings. The Council does not have the estimated £20k to completely redecorate the building and install new windows etc so the mosaic project has included costings to decorate the front of the building whilst the scaffolding is in place.

In terms of your comments on the planters, Iris included £600 in her bid from Grow Mayow for plants in the high street and previously this has included Station Approach - planter and bed, Venner Road planter, planter outside the Post Office and the two planters outside the Dolphin. The rose bed on the corner of Trewsbury and the bed on the junction with Kent House are part of the Council's contract with Glendale but I will see if Iris is able to add to these beds and whether anyone would like to volunteer to help plant up.

The bid for Sydenham Town greening included 14 x hanging baskets for the core shopping area.

Each Assembly is advertised by a door to door letter/flyer so if you haven't received a leafet please contact the team and they will check on the delivery round - Local Assemblies Team
Tel: 020 8314 7034 Email: localassemblies@lewisham.gov.uk
.

[Rachael]

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere, but was there any public consultation about the mosaic project? I understand the idea was brought to the council, but was there then a public and transparent process of commissioning the design and selecting the artist?

I am particularly interested as I wrote a PhD thesis on public art in the urban environment, and I am interested in how this project is being received by the community, compared with, for example, the proposed Greyhound mural.

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[Tim Lund]

Is there a breakdown of the Mosaic project income and expenditure by how much has already been spent or received?

[Robin Orton]

I understand the idea was brought to the council, but was there then a public and transparent process of commissioning the design and selecting the artist?

My understanding is that those who are raising money for the project had a particular mosaic artist in mind from an early stage. This is not of course a council project and most of the funding is coming from private and voluntary sources. So I'm not sure such a process for commissioning and selecting the artist was required.