LEE GREEN ASSEMBLY COORDINATING GROUP

MEETING

Tuesday 26 April 2011 7pm – 9pm

Manor House Library

Old Road, London SE13

Record of Meeting

Present: Councillor Pauline Beck, Cllr Jim Mallory (Chair), Anna Manola, David Ford, Andrea Hughes, Peter Richardson, Karen Pollock, Ade Joseph (Assembly Coordinator)

Apologies: Mary Petty, Donald Stavert, Kathryn Glover

Item / Action
1 / Welcome & introductions
Cllr Mallory welcomed everybody to the meeting and asked for a quick introduction.
2. / Update on Leegate
Cllr Jim Mallory provided an update on the progress made since the last meeting to move forward the Leegate priority.
·  A partnership launch took place on 28th February bringing together different stakeholders to discuss the shaping forward of the Leegate Centre. Participants attending included representatives from local schools, interested community and resident groups, businesses, faith groups, St Modwen’s and Lewisham Council planning department. Inspirations acquired from the event has led to the Council planning department offering to do further works to develop a vision for Leegate in preparation for any future development plans.
·  Funding from the Assembly Mayor’s Fund has enabled the hiring of a coordinator responsible for overseeing the day-to-day running of the community centre. It was reported that out of 120 application received when the post was advertised Kaiya Williams a local resident with a wealth of experience of managing community centres was appointed. It was also reported that there are 10 regular activities currently on roll at the community centre.
·  The meeting were informed of the Lee Green Lives Group success in its bid to become a Charity organisation. The group was awarded a charitable status at the beginning of April. This meant that the transfer of the lease of the community centre to Lee Green Lives can take place at the end of the current one ending in June 2011.
·  St Modwen’s have agreed to extend the lease for the centre from June 2011 for a further 12 months.
·  Lately, St Modwen’s has been active in their attempt to fill some of the empty retail units following the article in the Times which classed the centre as the most run down shopping centre in Britain. The attempt has resulted in the Sue Ryder store occupation of a bigger unit opposite the community centre and a second hand furniture shop taking on the lease of a unit at the Leyland Road end.
3. / Update on Controlled Parking
The group were informed of a recent meeting held with the Council Executive Director for Regeneration and Head in regards to the parking issues raised at the last assembly meeting. Both officers will be attending the next Assembly meeting on 9 May to hear residents concerns on Controlled parking in the area. It is expected that all views and suggestions collected during discussion will be noted and will inform decision on review of parking in the ward. The meeting commended the efforts of those responsible for getting this result and expressed a strong view that any future review must include consideration for a two hour control parking during the day.
It was also agreed that the first part of the meeting be devoted to the parking discussion and Malcolm would be expected to attend future assembly meeting to report back the findings of the issues raised by the assembly. / Ade / Malcolm Smith
4. / Update on Youth Priority
A
B / Some concerns was raised about the low number of young people attending the Lee Green Youth club. Recent visits to the club showed evidence of a ration of one or two young people to three staff present at the Tuesday night sessions. This was viewed as a set back judging by the amount of efforts and funding that has gone into the development of this provision. The meeting were told that the concern has been logged with the Head of Youth Service and the area youth coordinator and both had reassured that more outreach will be done in the community to encourage more young people to use the facility.
One of the attribute contributing to the lack of interest from young people was the lack of equipment at the centre. It had been noted that although some equipment has been purchased, initial problem with adequate storage provision at the community Centre has meant that those equipment has to be stored at Baseline Youth Club in Lewisham. The head of Youth Service has reassured that every effort will be made to purchase storage facility to store equipment at the club. It was reported that in spite of the low attendance at the Tuesday night session, attendance for the Friday night multi sports session has been encouraging and seems to be a better attraction for young people due to the variety of activities on offer.
There was a further discussion and exploration of other possible activities of interest to young people outside the club including use of the tennis court and the multi-sports cage at Manor House Gardens and a space for skating.
Other concerns raised were in relation to the lack of coordination of activities and adequate supervision of staff based at the club. It was evident during the discussion with Alvan that there was no set target for monitoring or evaluating progress of the club. The meeting felt strongly that accountability in general should be improved. The youth service would need to put measures in place to ensure regular monitoring and improvements of the provision. It is also expected that a report will be put together explaining to the assembly what measures has been applied and the impact on success.
Cllr Mallory informed the meeting of the discussion held with Alvan Wright (Head of Youth service). It was agreed at the meeting that a precautionary measure is applied to improve young people’s attendance. Alvan had been asked to develop a plan for the youth club which will include milestone of set targets and proposed actions for remedy. This report is to be sent to the Lee Green Councillors and circulated to members of the coordinating group.
The meeting was generally supportive of this suggestions which prompted the agreement of the following recommendations:
It was agreed that at this stage it will be reasonable to hold off on sharing this information with the assembly but rather to allow for a three months period of improvement measures to be applied first until the end of August 2011. It was expressed that at the end of this period if there are no visible changes then the assembly will be notified and other options can then be considered. Ade was asked to inform Alvan of the measures agreed at the meeting and invite him to the September Assembly meeting to provide an update on what has been done by the youth service to address this matter.
The group felt that generally, accountability should be improved and as such asked that regular monitoring visit to project should take place at least once a month. For the Friday night session at Colfe School, Cllr Mallory offered to attend the session in May while Cllr Beck offered to visit in June. Both will report their findings at the next Coordinating group meeting.
Ade informed the meeting about a contact made by a group of young people from the Leybridge Estate regarding a request to erect a mini skate park on a piece of land near the Edith Nesbit garden. The request had been sent to the Mayor’s office who had referred the youth to the assembly team. It was unclear at this stage whether the newly appointed landlord managing homes on the estate will give permission for this proposal. Ade was asked to liaise with the young people to explore options and report back to the meeting. / Alvan / Muhammad
Ade / Alvan
Cllrs Mallory Beck
Ade
5. / Updates on Environment Priority
A
B
C / Manor Park Building
It was reported back to the meeting that the construction of the inside and outside classroom at Manor Park part funded from the assembly funding has not began. The group asked Ade to find out what has brought about the delays in works.
The meeting felt that as so much work has already been done to bring the building back to use it was expressed that if the issues causing the delays was due to insufficient funding to complete remaining works, there are scope to accommodate additional fund to enabled completion. Ade was asked to liaise with Glendale and feed back to the group.
Bridge in Manor Park
The group received an update on progress made with the bridge project. J Breheny (contractors currently working on the park improvements in Ladywell Field has been chosen to install the bridge. The contractor have been working with the architects on the design. Helen had been successful in securing the £10,000 shortfall in funding for the project from Transport for London, who had kindly put forward the fund. This meant that the £10,000 fund agreed in principle by the assembly at their last meeting can be returned. However, there has been a slight set back to proceed with the work as planned due to Japanese Knotweed found on site. The plant is found to be highly evasive and is capable of exposing weaknesses in building foundations, concrete and tarmac. The Council is considering methods to eradicate the weed as work cannot commence until the plants are eradicated.
In order to get a clear understanding of the implications of the knotweed to the hindrance of the weed to the progress of the bridge construction, Ade is asked to invite Martin Hyde to the assembly meeting to come and explain how they wish to proceed with the bridge construction in the light of recent findings.
Community Garden
Karen Pollock told the meeting about the first meeting of the garden group held in May 2010. The lease of the piece of land on Micheldever Road owned by the Council and managed by Lewisham Homes was mentioned. The lease has now been agreed and Karen and Ralph White hold the lease on behalf of the garden group. Information about the next meeting of the group planned for Friday 29th April mentioned as well as the public liability insurance being pursued. There are plans to have a sign on the gates to the garden to publicise the group activities to raise more awareness in the community. The funding secured from Capital Growth and the Assembly had enabled preliminary work to commence. Boxes for raised beds have been constructed and 2 planting sessions conducted. The group were told about the Lee Manor Society Plant Mart on Saturday 14 May from 2 to 4pm. The sale of some of the produce from the garden will be on sale at this event. / Ade / Darren Budden (Glendale)
Ade
6. / Planning Assembly Meeting 9 May
A.
B. / Door to Door publicity – A draft of the Assembly door to door leaflet was presented to the meeting. It was decided that Jim will provide a summary update on Leegate and forward to Ade. It is envisaged that distribution will take place on Tuesday 3 May.
Meeting Agenda – The following agenda was agreed:
1.  A discussion on CPZ matters
2.  Break
3.  Updates on Assembly priorities – Leegate, Youth, Environment (Manor Park Bridge / Building & Community Garden
4.  Any other business / Cllr Jim Mallory
7. / AOB
News on Manor House Gardens
Peter Richardson informed the meeting about the Green Flag status granted to Manor House Garden. The park was rated as outstanding in a recent poll and holds the green flag for Lewisham.
Library Closure
Recent events on the closure of five libraries shared with the group. Peter told the group that the case against closure of five library in Lewisham is still ongoing. Senior Officers from Lewisham Council have been invited by the Ministry of Culture to explain what the Council is doing about the affected libraries. Campaigners against the closure have also been invited to put their case forward to the ministry before Easter. The Culture minister had been asked by campaigners to consider whether there are breaches in the way Lewisham Council had acted which could halt closure process if found to be in breach.
Peter will keep the group updates on future development at future meeting.

Declaration of Interest

There were no interest declared at this meeting.