Perry Vale Assembly

Wednesday 12 October 2011

7pm – 9pm

Forest Hill School Community Sports Hall

Bampton Road, SE23 2XA

Minutes of the Meeting

1.Welcome, introduction & format for the meeting

The assembly started with a fine musical performance from the Forest Hill School Band

Councillor Alan Till Chair of the Perry Vale Assembly welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked the Forest Hill School Band for their excellent performance. He then introduced Councillor Susan Wise and Councillor John Paschoud as the two other ward councillors.

Cllr Till then explained the format for the evening and went through the agenda.

2.Lewisham Thunder Basketball Club

The assembly was treated to a Basketball demonstration by Lewisham Thunder Basketball Club.Based at ForestHillSchool they now have 6 National League Teams, including girls and wheelchair basketball. Lewisham Thunder has benefitted from both the Locality Fund and the Mayor’s Fund and thanks the Perry Vale Assembly for its continued support.

Lewisham Thunder Basketball Club is a community club that has been in existence for approximately 5 years. The head coach is Steve Bucknall who was the first Englishman to play in the NBA, playing for LA Lakers amongst many other clubs and is now the England U18 Coach.

Last season the U13’s made it through to the final of the National Championship. They also have a number of players representing England and competing internationally. Jason Witter who recently represented England at the 3 on 3 world championships and Rowell Graham who plays for the England U18 team. Both players have come through the basketball programme starting as novices.

The core values are Teamwork, Responsibility and Self Discipline.

In order to reach this point they have had to constantly encourage new young players into basketball at a grass roots level.

3.Nomad Taekwondo Demonstration

Based at Forest Hill School Nomad Taekwondo is a Full member of the British Taekwondo Control Board and was established in January 2006. At Nomad Taekwondo, they provide a safe friendly family-oriented and yet productive environment to allow students of all ages to experience Martial Art as it should be enjoyed and at the same time achieving set goals. The group trains every Monday and Wednesday with ages from 5 – 45 years taking part.

Councillor Till thanked both Lewisham Thunder and Nomad for the excellent demonstrations.

4.Updates

The Rockborne Youth Club – Cerys Baxter from the Rockborne Youth Club thanked the Perry Vale Assembly which has previously funded the purchase of sports equipment for the centre, this includes a Table Tennis table, Pool Table, Air Hockey Table, Basketball Nets and other smaller items of sports equipment. The assembly has also funded workshops which have included healthy eating and fashion.

Rockborne was awarded £10,000 from the 2010/11 Mayor’s Fund, this money was used for the creation of a new IT suite.

Cerys stated that all this funding has made a huge difference and that the recent renovation means that the area now has an excellent facility in the Rockborne.

Sydenham and Forest Hill Youth Forum –Melissa Knight from the Sydenham and Forest Hill Youth Forum explained that the forum is a collective of local organisations who work with youth, including local small charities. We aim to network police, schools, youth clubs, councillors as well as work directly with young people. We have set up The Amazing Fun-draising Group, who use comedy and drama to raise money for the forum. They are a group of young people who lost their drama group due to cuts back in July and now want to give back.

The forum is asking local people to give £2 a month, or what they can and then use this money to form a public fund where our member organisations can apply to in order to fill gaps in youth activities. We will identify gaps through our website where we are asking anyone who puts on activities in the area to add what they do to the website. Only registered members will be eligible to apply to the fund as part of the conditions is to advertise your activity on our website - which is free to do so.They hope to launch the fund in March 2012.

5.Perry Vale Energy Savers

Councillor Susan Wise introduced the assembly to the Perry Vale Energy Savers Scheme. Perry Vale is the only ward in Lewisham to benefit from this after the Council secured funding from the Greater London Authority RE:NEW programme which means we can offer all residents in the Perry Vale ward a range of free energy efficiency home improvements such as insulation, energy monitors and hot water tank jackets, and water saving devices like new showerheads.

Participating households will receive a home visit from a professional energy adviser employed by Groundwork London, our partner on the project. The energy adviser will assess which energy and water saving devices the resident could benefit from, install them and offer practical advice on how to reduce energy use. The scheme is open to everyone living in the area and is completely free, with no obligation on the resident’s part.

The Perry Vale Energy Savers scheme started in August and aims to help over 1,600 homes in the ward before it ends in March 2012. Cllr Wise told the assembly that she has benefitted from this scheme and it is totally free with no catches.

The Groundwork GreenDocs were at the assembly as well as representatives from UK Power Networks who were offering a free smart meter to EDF customers

Q Is it available for businesses too?

A No it is for homes only

Break – During the break the attendees were encouraged to talk to the GreenDocs and UK Power Networks, there was also the option to take a tour of the school’s sports facilities.

6.Sports provision and the Olympics

Annette Stead Service Manage Sports and Leisure Services provided the assembly with the attached presentation which was about sports provision and the Olympics / Paralympics before, during and after.

Q Is there potential for you to fund secure and lockable stores at MayowPark so that equipment can be stored?

A We do fund equipment through small grants, however, throughout the 2012 period there will be lots of new streams of funding through sport.

Annette also stated that traffic and transport will be key issues during the Games, but as yet we are unsure what the impact will be on Lewisham. She will be happy to return to the assembly and report back when there are further developments.

7. Community Updates

  • Coordinating Group volunteer Tim Lund spoke about the gardening related projects that the Perry Vale assembly has been heavily involved with. These include Grow Mayow, SydenhamGarden, Young Lewisham Project and KilmorieSchool. Tim believes that we should have an assembly with a gardening theme to showcase community gardens within the ward.
  • Cllr Wise stated that 5 projects from Perry Vale have been involved in Lewisham in Bloom, these are KilmorieSchool, SydenhamGarden, Grow Mayow, Young Lewisham Project and ForestHillSchool. SydenhamGarden won the best in the competition.
  • Cllr Wise told the assembly that the new recycling contract will start on 5 December, under the new contract you will be able to recycle mixed plastics and tetra paks.

Cllr Till gave a special thank you to Carol Lynch the manager of the sports hall for all her help with the set-up and for allowing the Perry Vale assembly to take place in the sports hall.

There being no other business the meeting was closed at 9.00pm. The next meeting will take place on Thursday 02 February 2012 with the venue to be confirmed. Further details and information will be circulated to all residents nearer the time.

No declarations of interest were made at the meeting.