Going over old ground - The Hound that is Grey

[Eagle]

Lovely artists impression. Unfortunately probably will not be reality.

Very impressive though.

[leenewham]

Agree, and very nice tubby. As usual. I'd quite like to see that blown up big and put on the greyhound hoarding.

[biscuitman1978]

Excellent work by Tubby. I agree with leenewham that it would be good to see the image on the hoardings.

The next Sydenham Assembly meeting is on Wednesday. Can I urge everyone who wants to see the Greyhound rebuilt to attend the Assembly meeting and to make their voices heard? It's vital that our councillors understand that we are not prepared to tolerate a derelict pub on such a prominent site.

To my mind we need answers to the following questions:

1. Plan A is for Purelake to secure planning permission to rebuild the pub and then to get back on site to do so. It's now more than a year since Lewisham's planning committee resolved to grant permission, but that was subject to the variation of a legal agreement, which has still not been signed by all the relevant parties. As a result, planning permission has not been formally granted. What is the Council doing to move this forward?

2. If Plan A doesn't work:
(a) What is Plan B?
(b) At what point will the Council give up on Plan A and switch to Plan B?

The Sydenham Assembly meeting is at 7pm on Wednesday 18 June at 7pm at The Sydenham Centre on Sydenham Road (the 'High Street'). See you there.

[Tubby]

More than happy to have my image put on the hoardings, Does anyone have the facilities to make that happen?

Yes I'll be at the meeting. Definitely needs to move forward now!

[Gaddison]

I will attend as well

[dickp]

Live from sydenham assembly. There's no realistic chance of any work being done on the greyhound by Christmas . Yes, folks - that's a start date.

[owlwise]

In other words at least Jan 2015. Nothing ever happens at Christmas in the building game.

[leenewham]

Did they say why?

Was it due to Purelake, the council or another factor?

[Chris Best]

Last night Gavin Cooper, Lewisham's Development Controller, spoke about the meetings he had been having to unlock the situation that not all parties have agreed to sign the Deed of Variation necessary from the Planning Consent granted in April 2013. The position is that Purelake will submit a revised planning application after a meeting with community representatives to consider the current conditions and how, with a bit more flexibility on the conditions, Puelake can ensure that The Greyhound is going to be commercially viable. I am currently arranging a round table meeting in early July with community reps so that Purelake can go through the conditions they would like varied. Following the meeting Purelake plan to submit another planning application - hopefully by the end of August. This will go through the normal planning processes including 3 weeks for consulation and then back to a Planning Committee for a decision. This process will normally take 2 months - so September and October. If all goes to plan Purelake could be on site to ensure the building is wind and weatherproof before the inclement weather of the Winter.

As an example one condition that I think is reasonable is to permit early morning opening to catch the commuters - offering a breakfast service. At the moment the agreed hours of opening are from 8am to midnight. Purelake also want parity with Sainsbury's on longer delivery times. There are a number of conditions to work through so I am looking forward to the negotiations that arrive at a win/win situation and Purelake can get back on site.

[leenewham]

Hi Chris,

These factors seems entirely reasonable. But it also seems daft that they are holding up the rebuilding as they aren't related. Surely planning could be flexible and agree to look favourably on such amends if the building is made watertight sooner and us it as a bargaining tool?

Isn't common sense more important than red tape? Unless there are other factors we don't know about this situation seems silly.

I'd be happy for it to be open earlier, although it hints at it being something other than a pub.

[dickp]

Can I make an observation regarding community consultations?

Although by no means perfect, Bromley are using surveymonkey to gauge the community's reactions to various proposals for improvements to Crystal Palace Park. It's probably going to produce a reliable reflection of what "the community" wants than other methods, including the assembly last night. You'll be fully aware that there have been strongly divergent views about what "the community" wants, at both the greyhound, and also at the Windmill site.

It would be a simple task to hand out flyers at both Sydenham station entrances during peak times over a day or so, pointing them to a surveymonkey consultation site, where various options are outlined. Bromley has people wandering around Crystal Palace park on Sunday morning, pointing them to the consultation event taking place in the rangers hut. It seemed quite successful.

Wisdom of crowds and all that...

[G-Man]

Hi Chris,

These factors seems entirely reasonable. But it also seems daft that they are holding up the rebuilding as they aren't related. Surely planning could be flexible and agree to look favourably on such amends if the building is made watertight sooner and us it as a bargaining tool?

Isn't common sense more important than red tape? Unless there are other factors we don't know about this situation seems silly.

I'd be happy for it to be open earlier, although it hints at it being something other than a pub.

This completely makes sense Lee. I arrived at the meeting a little late, thought I missed some things but obviously didn't. It baffles me.

Commuter time opening does hint at something other than a pub. I think this is would be a huge shame, and in my opinion on the hoof in the station and the other cafe's cater for the commuter market. Let's see though, it may work as a duel purpose offering.

G-Man

[mosy]

In pragmatic terms, I see the building to be of a finite size and fixed where it is at present, so why can't the shell be completed and made secure, then the hoardings taken down so it isn't such an eyesore? There should still be time to do that before winter and the dreaded early year frosty weather that lasts a few months.

I don't see how agreement on either operational aspects like delivery and opening times, or about the internal structure for eventual use, affect the outer shell if it is accepted it is fixed where it is.

The only reason I can think of for not doing that straight away is Purelake using the holding up as leverage, or they hope to get out of the whole thing, left as is. Could be completely wrong - just mystified at the moment.

[Tim Lund]

Wisdom of crowds and all that...

The problem with this is that it may, like some pubs, attract the wrong crowd.

[Tim Lund]

it hints at it being something other than a pub.

Anyone for a Pizza Express?

Not sure if the wine list



would match the fine dining experience of the soon to be opened 'The Honor Oak',



but this is Sydenham

[JRobinson]

The building needs to be weatherproof - sod the varience, and planning for the time being - get Purelacking back on site to make what's there weatherproof, then sort out everything else, and make sure what they do to weatherproof it is entirely reversible once they're allowed back on site properly. And they should bear any costs of this.

it's obvious that they're trying to drag this out as long as possible so that the building deteriorates to a point where they say that the only sensible option is to demolish is. Just look what happened to Brighton Pier as an example - £2m was raised in the hope that it'd be matched by local govt to rebuild, but everything dragged on and on, and there were several fires, and eventually it was deemed uneconomical to rebuild. What a waste. We don't want that to happen here.

[JMLF]

Walked past the other day and noticed some of "the greyhound" pub lettering shining through the windows - not noticed them there propped up against the windows before... Further potential work being done or the ghost of the greyhound/purelake teasing us?!

[Kirkdalian]

There were some workmen doing something inside the building on the upper floor yesterday. No idea what though.

[owlwise]

Will the contributors of photos for the greyhound mural have their names displayed on a plaque as was promised by the organisers??

I have to say that I'm not too impressed that so many of the the same images have been used repetitvely when there were so many different photos sent to the organisers when they put out a request for them. I personally sent a lot that were not used and can only spot one of mine on the mural. It just makes the mural less interesting having so many duplicates on there. The whole idea of it was to show the essence of what Sydenham's all about and images of locals and the locality. Why didn't the organisers / designers use a combination different images to make up the mural as was the original brief?

[leenewham]

Hi owl wise.

I'd like to clarify a few things. The organisers ran the competition but thier brief want to include as many images as possible from Sydenham.

Our idea, which won the competition, was to make the image of the greyhound, which is based on the original sign, out of images of Sydenham and it's people, past, present and future.

Unless the whole of the mural has been uncovered, many images are out of view. We tried to keep the images in their original firm as much as possible, and as you can see the sky is white and blue and the greyhound shades of brown. A green image wouldn't work in the sky or the greyhound and is probably in the grassy area currently out of view.

Images are repeated as there are thousands and thousands of pixels. We didn't get and never expected to receive enough images to have a bespoke image per pixel. Some images are repeated simply because it's the right tone and colour for that space. We also relieved some duplicate images.

As far as possible, baring any issues with resolution or some images that we were unable to use we, used nearly all the images submitted. Everyone who clicked the buttons on the online submission forms to have their name on the mural appears on there, although many declined to do so, there is a fair list of names. This part of the mural is out of sure behind the hoardings.

The wildflower grassy area of the mural at the bottom was especially designed to include as many images as possible from those submitted. This was incredibly time consuming!

So far we have had great feedback on the mural. I hope the above answers your queries owlwise.

Regards

Lee