If the new hairdressers is anything like Willis B on Lordship Lane I would be happy but if it is offering the same sort of service already on offer I won't be going there I'm afraid. It would have to be very different to add anything.
I know a lot of East Dulwich people have moaned about the chains coming in but a few 'select' chains actually make a high street sustainable these days I think, Snappy Snaps for example haven't been mentioned. Before I lived in Sydenham I came here to use their services.
In an ideal world I suppose all businesses would be independently run, as service etc tends to be more personal but it would be impossible these days to a high street the size of Sydenham's with successful independents alone.
hope it's not an urban myth
Hi nasaroc wrote: "But to believe this happened without intervention, would be a fallacy. Following the arrival of Sainsburys on Red Post Hill., Southwark put a huge number of resources into developing Lordship Lane, encouraging existing businesses and bringing in new ones. "
I live near Lordship Lane and have shopped there for over 30 years. I have often thought that it survived and improved because the Council never intervened! I am not aware of any actions they have taken to intervene in these developments apart from the minimal things they are responsible for like traffic, parking, pavements etc. What is it you are thinking of that they did to help?
I live near Lordship Lane and have shopped there for over 30 years. I have often thought that it survived and improved because the Council never intervened! I am not aware of any actions they have taken to intervene in these developments apart from the minimal things they are responsible for like traffic, parking, pavements etc. What is it you are thinking of that they did to help?
Southwark Council are miles ahead in having a Community Council for each area of their borough which works to a development plan and has the powers to stimulate growth in their area, funds to carry out their work and meets regularly to consider planning applications for their area as a whole.
http://www.southwark.gov.uk/Uploads/FILE_35180.pdf
Just take a glance at the minutes of a recent meeting of the Dulwich Community Council (above) which I have chosen at random. Here you will see community-planning at work from a group who really are making a difference in their area - considering a plan to extend a wine bar, building a new meeting room at a local school etc etc The Community Council also offers grants to local groups for running one-off sports or social events, resident's meetings or to stimulate commercial and retail growth.
Of course this isn't a committee that is going to excite members of the local public. It probably isn't even going to come to the attention of the local public but it is planning at a local level to a set plan and it's what we need in Sydenham.
I could write about this for ages but I have to get back to work!
http://www.southwark.gov.uk/Uploads/FILE_35180.pdf
Just take a glance at the minutes of a recent meeting of the Dulwich Community Council (above) which I have chosen at random. Here you will see community-planning at work from a group who really are making a difference in their area - considering a plan to extend a wine bar, building a new meeting room at a local school etc etc The Community Council also offers grants to local groups for running one-off sports or social events, resident's meetings or to stimulate commercial and retail growth.
Of course this isn't a committee that is going to excite members of the local public. It probably isn't even going to come to the attention of the local public but it is planning at a local level to a set plan and it's what we need in Sydenham.
I could write about this for ages but I have to get back to work!
In addition to their planning role Southwark Community Councils have money to fund local projects - last year £3.25m was spent to fund 204 local schemes. Below here is a list of the local projects which the Dulwich Community Council considered in 2007-8. All small things but they add up to a very much more pleasant locality for the people of that area.
Look through this list and imagine that this scheme was applied to SE26. All of those totallly irritating small issues which infuriate every member of this forum could begin to be tackled - from maintaining local planters to replacing the curtains in the Naborhood Centre.
It isn't rocket science. Take power away from the centre and give it to the localities.
http://www.southwark.gov.uk/uploads/FILE_35245.pdf
Look through this list and imagine that this scheme was applied to SE26. All of those totallly irritating small issues which infuriate every member of this forum could begin to be tackled - from maintaining local planters to replacing the curtains in the Naborhood Centre.
It isn't rocket science. Take power away from the centre and give it to the localities.
http://www.southwark.gov.uk/uploads/FILE_35245.pdf
Money available to organise endless community consultations so Mrs Miggins and her cat can feel valued and included: As much as you like!
Money available to recruit a hard nose sales manager to bang the landlord's heads together, and aggressively "sell" vanant property leases to desirable new tenants: None.
(oops, we spent the budget on the consultation process. Sorry.)
Money available to recruit a hard nose sales manager to bang the landlord's heads together, and aggressively "sell" vanant property leases to desirable new tenants: None.
(oops, we spent the budget on the consultation process. Sorry.)
Southwark and Lordship Lane
Eileen:
Much as I hate to disagree with Nasaroc, I think you're right there. When I was active in Southwark, and trying to create a community web site http://www.dulwich.co.uk I was under the impression that Southwark Council were completely blind-sided by the renaissance of Lordship Lane, and that just as it was getting underway, some planners wrote a report saying it was doomed. The community councils - that Nasaroc is absolutely right to bring up - came later - quite possibly as a response to perceive failures of unresponsive town hall planners. Are there any political lessons from this for Sydenham councillors today?
Much as I hate to disagree with Nasaroc, I think you're right there. When I was active in Southwark, and trying to create a community web site http://www.dulwich.co.uk I was under the impression that Southwark Council were completely blind-sided by the renaissance of Lordship Lane, and that just as it was getting underway, some planners wrote a report saying it was doomed. The community councils - that Nasaroc is absolutely right to bring up - came later - quite possibly as a response to perceive failures of unresponsive town hall planners. Are there any political lessons from this for Sydenham councillors today?
Hello Tim - nice to come across you again! You are right the Community Councils came into existence well after the renaissance of Lorship Lane. If the Council had been involved I suspect it would have gone pear shaped. They have been hugely involved in trying and not being successful to rejuvenate Peckham town centre a mile to half a mile away, and can't even do their crucial planning enforcement job adeqately.
nasaroc - I looked at the Dulwich CC minutes that you gave the link for. Maybe you didn't post the link you meant to as, while it was a Dulwich CC meeting, that was a Planning Committee meeting which didnt involve Lordship Lane at all as far as I could see, and is what every Borough Council has by law to take decsions on planning applcaitons. It has not role at all in ecoconomic regeneration.
But I agree that the Community Councils are a good step in a good direction of bringing local ward councillors more into contact directly with their active constituents and enabling them all if willing to develop constructive relationships. We have had them in Southwark for 6 years and they are a definite improvement on what went before but not suprisingly fall short of really fulfilling their potential, partly, in my view, through a lack of imagination on the part of officers and councillors, and the dead hand of departmental barriers to joined up thinking.
So yes the story from this area is that something to bring the ward councillors more into joined up working with their constiuents is a good thing. But don't think that that had something if anything to do with the economic and commercial renaissance of Lordship Lane. As someone who has lived here for 35 years, shopped there and Peckham town centre, and taken an active part in all things related to the Council for most of that time, I have observed the twin phenomena of Lordship Lane and Peckham town centre with interest. It would make a really valuable research study to tease out what has been going on. A lot of it probably has been natrual organic market responses to the changing socio-economic and ethnic populations providing the commercial markets for the businesses.
Are perhaps the most important roles for local councils in all this to ensure that i) there are no council imposed, by accident or design, barriers to the market repsonses, and ii) the councils do their jobs well in enforcing the laws enabling businesses to carry out good quality commerce? And also of course create some process for ward councillors, officers, and local people (residents and businesses) to start working together to pool their creative talents?
nasaroc - I looked at the Dulwich CC minutes that you gave the link for. Maybe you didn't post the link you meant to as, while it was a Dulwich CC meeting, that was a Planning Committee meeting which didnt involve Lordship Lane at all as far as I could see, and is what every Borough Council has by law to take decsions on planning applcaitons. It has not role at all in ecoconomic regeneration.
But I agree that the Community Councils are a good step in a good direction of bringing local ward councillors more into contact directly with their active constituents and enabling them all if willing to develop constructive relationships. We have had them in Southwark for 6 years and they are a definite improvement on what went before but not suprisingly fall short of really fulfilling their potential, partly, in my view, through a lack of imagination on the part of officers and councillors, and the dead hand of departmental barriers to joined up thinking.
So yes the story from this area is that something to bring the ward councillors more into joined up working with their constiuents is a good thing. But don't think that that had something if anything to do with the economic and commercial renaissance of Lordship Lane. As someone who has lived here for 35 years, shopped there and Peckham town centre, and taken an active part in all things related to the Council for most of that time, I have observed the twin phenomena of Lordship Lane and Peckham town centre with interest. It would make a really valuable research study to tease out what has been going on. A lot of it probably has been natrual organic market responses to the changing socio-economic and ethnic populations providing the commercial markets for the businesses.
Are perhaps the most important roles for local councils in all this to ensure that i) there are no council imposed, by accident or design, barriers to the market repsonses, and ii) the councils do their jobs well in enforcing the laws enabling businesses to carry out good quality commerce? And also of course create some process for ward councillors, officers, and local people (residents and businesses) to start working together to pool their creative talents?
Hi Tim - a PS to my first reply. Just to say that the Community Councils were a direct result of the Liberal Democrats who took over in 2002 with the creation of Community Councils as one of their flagship policies. It was opposed I think by the other parties. Since then the central Govenement's policies have now begun to encourage all local councils to create nore devolved decision making to ward councillor level. In Southwark's case this is still very limited - to small planning applications, cleaner, greener safer projects, of c£300/400k a year, and a small community prpjects fund of about £10k a year. There maybe one or two other small things now being added. But we are finding ways to try to bring other policies and executive actions into the frame. It will be a long haul, but it is a start.