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Petition Tag - lewisham
1. Safer Crossing at the junction of Lewisham High Street, Courthill Road and Whitburn Road 
We note that Transport for London agreed last year that pedestrian safety at the junction of Lewisham High Street, Courthill Road and Whitburn Road needed to be improved. They now consider that traffic flow is more important than the safety of pedestrians.
This remains a very busy and dangerous crossing and we believe immediate action to improve pedestrian safety is required.
We demand a ‘Green Man’ pedestrian crossing to help people cross the road safely at the junction of Lewisham High Street, Courthill Road and Whitburn Road.
People all over the world are interested in Deptford's maritime history. The proposals for Henry VIII's royal dockyard and the site of John Evelyn's Sayes Court manor house and garden in Deptford must be fought with all the spirit and tenacity that historically characterizes the site that launched ships for the battle of the Spanish Armada, launched countless voyages of discovery of Drake, Frobisher, Cook, Vancouver, and set out ships for Nelson’s battles including Trafalgar.
By signing the petition you register that you are dissatisfied by the current development proposals for Convoy's Wharf by Hutchison Whampoa and News International.
The petition is a tool to measure local, national and international feeling about these development proposals. It is still necessary to write to Lewisham with your response to the developer's proposals.
3. Memorial to Henry Cooper on the Bellingham estate
The late Sir Henry Cooper OBE KSG held the British, Commonwealth and European heavyweight titles several times throughout his career, and unsuccessfully challenged Ali for the world heavyweight championship in 1966. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cooper]
He grew up on the Bellingham Estate in Lewisham, South London, and it would be a fitting tribute to mark the place with a permanent memorial of his contributions to sport, sportsmanship, British culture and anti-racism.
Lewisham has been lacking a cinema for many years now, and the plan for one at the Lewisham Gateway development has been severely disrupted by the property market crash.
An alternative opportunity for a cinema at the heart of our Borough will nevertheless soon arise in the shape of the site currently occupied by the Ladywell Leisure Centre.
The centre is due to be replaced in 2013 by the new Leisure Centre that's currently being built at the nearby Loamit Vale and when that opens the land of the old pool will be redeveloped. The site is entirely owned by Lewisham Council and a specific use for that site has not yet been identified.
This is an opportunity Lewisham must not miss.
We believe that because of its location, size and certain date of availability this site is by far the most realistic option for a successful cinema for Lewisham and that Lewisham Council should engage with cinema operators to make this vision a reality.
Opening Doors service provides a valued and successful free employment and advice service to hundreds of unemployed people.
Lewisham Council has identified that the closure of the service will have ‘a particularly negative impact upon those residents living in those localities with the worst employment deprivation and income deprivation’ in the borough.
In addition, the closure will impact negatively and disproportionately on Black and Ethnic Minority people, who make up 66% of Opening Doors service users.
6. Free School Petition for a Lewisham Montessori Primary School
This petition is to demonstrate support for the campaign for a Montessori Primary School in Lewisham. The campaign is driven by the need for more reception class places in the borough and a commitment to the right to choose the Montessori method.
A new Montessori state school would provide parents with more choice and benefit children through a distinct method of teaching that has proved hugely successful in many schools around the world for more than 100 years. To keep up to date with our campaign see our Facebook page here:
http://tinyurl.com/lmp-school
Grove Park Library, London SE12, is an essential free service for all our community, regardless of age or cultural background. It is especially important for children, local schools and older residents.
We believe that there are other areas where Lewisham Council could more usefully save money, rather than removing this valuable resource for the community.
FIND US on FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=129483680427663#!/group.php?gid=129483680427663&v=wall
Four other libraries are also under threat - Blackheath, Crofton Park, Sydenham and New Cross. Please sign their petitions as well.
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-our-blackheath-village-library.html
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savesydenhamlibrary/
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-new-cross-library.html
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savecroftonparklibrary
8. Deptford says No to Tidemill becoming an Academy
Tidemill is an outstanding school why change it?
If it ain’t broke, why fix it?
* Tidemill is already an ‘outstanding’ school. Turning it into an Academy won’t make it any better.
* The school says it can make changes to help children learn. That’s good – but schools don’t need to become Academies to change the way that they teach.
There’s no guarantee
* The Governors would be taking a big risk. They wouldn’t have the Council to support them if things went wrong. The school would only be accountable to the Government.
* Parents would lose their rights of appeal to the Council if they thought admissions, special needs or equal opportunities policies were being carried out unfairly at Tidemill.
It’s best to be part of the Council
* As part of the Council, schools can work together to share support and plan provision for the whole community. As separate Academies, each school will compete for its own interests.
* Local councillors can be challenged and voted out if we don’t like how a Council is running services. That can’t happen if our schools, housing and other services are privatised.
Why does this Government want Academies?
* This Government isn’t interested in helping local communities. It wants schools to become Academies to help privatise and cut our public services.
* They also want to break up national agreements so that they can pay staff less and make them work for longer hours.
Stealing from the community
* Tidemill would get a little more money if it became an Academy – but it would have to spend it on looking after buildings, personnel, support and all the other services now provided by the Council.
* Any extra money would be taken from the Council’s budget for other Lewisham schools. Tidemill would only gain by stealing from other schools and other local children.
Taking our community buildings too?
* If Tidemill becomes an Academy, will it take control of the new community building on Giffin Street, with is library, sports and community facilities?
* If Tidemill wants to run our community buildings, then it must stay as a community school – not an Academy.
Add your voice - say NO to the Tidemill Academy
* There is widespread – and growing – opposition to Academies. Even the Liberal Democrats - part of the Government - voiced their concerns at their Party Conference.
* If Tidemill decides to become an Academy, the law doesn’t allow it to change back a
Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, has announced that 145 pedestrian crossings across London will be removed.
One of those crossings is on Lewisham Way, the removal of which will make crossing the road to St. John's station and St. John's medical centre more hazardous for pedestrians, especially older people, people in wheel chairs and parents with prams.
We are petitioning the Mayor of London to reverse this decision and keep this much used crossing.
10. Consult the community before Tidemill Primary School is converted into an Academy
It is proposed that Tidemill Primary School, Deptford, London is converted into an Academy. To consult with and inform parents, it has been suggested that over the summer holiday a random selection of 5 parents from each year followed by a one hour meeting by the Board of Governors is adequate.
This petition is for a full and unbiased consultation with all parents and the local community before this important and far reaching change is pushed through.
Lewisham Council is planning to take part to a Government scheme for micro production of energy that costs £8.6 bn but wastes 95% of that staggering sum by rewarding inefficient and often tokenistic energy production with inflated compensations that bear no relation to any measurable amount of energy produced and reduction in carbon emissions.
We must not support such wasteful and badly targeted scheme. There are many better ways to invest such large sum on the environment.
For more info read http://bit.ly/9R0Ck4
12. Disclose Lewisham Councillors' expenses
On 24th November 2009 the Standards Committee of Lewisham Council decided that subject to a vote at Full Council (vote to take place sometimes in the middle of next year) Councillors' expenses could in the future be made public on the Council's website.
It is bitterly ironic therefore that this year's expenses' list was removed from the Standards Committee papers before their publication on the Council's website.
Despite Lewisham Council's failure to publish it, the list has fortunately found its way out and is now in the public domain ( http://bit.ly/4YKt97 ). It is nevertheless important that any Lewisham resident looking for it on the Council's website would be able to find it with ease.
These missing papers are not of any confidential nature but are instead of great public interest as they clearly show who is more cautious with public money and who isn't.
13. Retain Tax Relief on Childcare Vouchers
The government is currently reconsidering plans to scrap tax relief on childcare vouchers.
14. Restore the community notices at the Shopping Centre
The Shopping Centre in Lewisham changed the information kiosk and removed the leaflets' rack that allowed community notices and information about local initiatives and charities to be displayed.
This was an important contact point for many of those that use the Shopping Centre, but especially useful to those that don't have internet access at home, like many of the pensioners that regularly meet there.
Its removal contradicts the Centre's alleged commitment to support community initiatives as also declared by the Centre's own website that specifies that the centre has a:
"Display space in the Central Square to promote your organisation or cause."
15. Build Surrey Canal Road station!
Plans for a station at Surrey Canal Road are under threat – this would mean that there will be no new station in Lewisham at all, despite the route passing through.
Big Yellow Self Storage want to construct a five-storey, 10,000 sq metre (approx) self-storage warehouse on 155 Lewisham Way. Existing businesses were not consulted and will either close or be forced out of Lewisham. It will result in the loss of at least 30 jobs.
The architecture is unsympathetic and sits opposite a listed building and conservation area. If it is built it will blight the area for decades. There are already 11 storage companies within a 2-mile radius, nobody in Lewisham needs another one.
If it is built it will blight the area for decades. The first application was unanimously thrown out by Lewisham Councillors, but now Big Yellow are demanding a Public Inquiry and we need to make the Planning Inspectorate fully aware of local feeling by the 5th November. Please sign this petition.
The Kids Korner is a distinctive Art Deco and landmark building at 232 Hither Green Lane. Built as the Park Cinema it was recently serving the community as a nursery. Its site is still today a strategic one for the success of Hither Green Lane and as such it has unrivaled potential to become a catalyst of regeneration of the area.
The bad news is that a planning application to demolish and build a block of flats with a shop on the front has been submitted by a land developer.
Allowing this to be the end of the Kids Korner site would effectively be surrendering to someone else's laxity, an easy option that furthers the decline of the area.
Its position on a busy junction on the high street is perfect for a community type of use but very poorly suited for quality housing. Not all desirable objectives can be fulfilled in one closely packed area and robust public amenities are more important for long term community cohesion than a few more flats.
The parade of shops ending by the Kids Korner has recently suffered a serious decline and is now even sporting some boarded up unused retail space. In the current economic downturn the addition of a commercial space to the front is not likely to improve the area. The addition of another boarded up shop is not in the interest of the area or the nearby retailers.
The area has a dramatic lack of community facilities and youth provision and as such we support the use of the Kids Korner as a multi-use community centre to include a performance space (which was the original purpose of the building) as well as other spaces for different uses so to allow as wide as possible use for the whole of our community.
The provision of a community centre is also the vision of the Hither Green Urban Design and Development Framework, and a recent audit of Youth Provision made by the Council found a complete lack of indoor spaces for activities for the youths in this part of the borough.
A community centre on the Kids Korner site will support trade as well as improve safety in the area because of the increased passage and its location at the gate of the Meridian South development will also act as a bridge across the community thus furthering community cohesion in this neighbourhood.
This petition aims as showing the Council the strength of the public's opposition to the current planning application as well as the level of support for our vision for an Arts and Community Centre for Hither Green utilizing the old Park Cinema building.
18. Build a station at Surrey Canal Road
The Government and the Mayor of London have reached an agreement to fund Phase 2 of the East London Line Extension, linking Surrey Quays to Clapham Junction
But long established plans for a station at Surrey Canal Road are under threat – this would mean that there will be no new Phase 2 station in Lewisham at all, despite the route passing through.
The station would help unlock the regeneration potential of North Lewisham which has been earmarked for almost 10,000 new homes and up to 6,000 new jobs.
Help our campaign – help secure our station – help your community.
19. Keep Swimming in Forest Hill
Lewisham Council is proposing to move the swimming pools from Dartmouth Road to Willow Way in Sydenham.
We believe that the new swimming pools for Forest Hill should be a high quality design, retaining the frontage block, on the Dartmouth Road site and built in the near future.
The Council is proposing two options to replace Forest Hill Pools. The first is an attractive modern design which places new pools behind the existing frontage block on Dartmouth Road. This design is favoured by local people, but the Mayor claims that it is not affordable and cannot be built before 2015 and maybe not at all. The other option is to move the pools to the industrial estate in Willow Way in Sydenham SE26. This is unpopular with local people, but it is claimed by the Mayor that it could be built soon and more affordably.
What is so good about Dartmouth Road? This site is at the civic heart of Forest Hill and has been the home of swimming for 120 years. It has good transport links and new pools here would give the town centre a lift and help the businesses along Dartmouth Road to thrive again. This plan will reuse the pools frontage block, a familiar local landmark. We believe that this plan can be made affordable if the Council will look at alternative approaches which we can present.
What is wrong with Willow Way? The site is unsuitable and is situated in a narrow side street. Moving the pools away to this site would threaten businesses on Dartmouth Road and tear the heart out of the town centre. The old pools building would be left derelict for the foreseeable future.
20. Keep the Forest in Forest Hill!
The area of land at between Tyson Road and Honor Oak Rd in Forest Hill should not be developed into flats. We think that this wild area is a valuable area of natural beauty and important for Forest Hill in retaining it’s biodiversity.
This open green space is extensively wooded and has many old trees under preservation orders. This area is one of the oldest and most established green sites in Honor Oak as it was once a Georgian garden. To retain the character and identity of Forest Hill, we are strongly opposed to the devastation of this area, which as an open space enhances the standard of living of residents in the area, not to mention the many schools and resident families surrounding the site.
We have seen the proposed plans and architect’s model of the flats and in my opinion, the development is unnecessarily large, over-dense and ambitious for the size of the site. This can only lead to a feeling of over-cramped living conditions in the local area. The existence of a 77 space car park will generate traffic problems in an already busy area, not to mention an increase of cars in a dangerous road with two schools.
The scale of the development is completely inappropriate for the area: the height of the buildings will completely compromise residents’ privacy and disrupt many currently beautiful views of Victorian and Georgian buildings and trees. The nature of the development is such that we feel it will cause total disruption in the area, not only to residents, but more importantly to the abundant nature in this spot.
Please object to the Council by sending an email to planning@lewisham.gov.uk quoting reference 08/70207 in the subject line, and include your name and address.
More info on the application is here
21. Stop Closure of South London Refugee Partnership by Lewisham Council
SLRP was set up in May 2002. It is a ‘cross borough’ refugee partnership which aims to increase opportunities for local refugee organizations and communities groups in the Boroughs of Lewisham, Southwark, Lambeth and Greenwich.
The aim of SLRP is to increase opportunities for local refugees’ organisations and community groups in these boroughs. It provides a wide range of help and support for projects and initiatives by refugee organisations as well as support to individual refugees.
SLRP supports refugees community groups (RCOs) by helping them to set up projects; provides help for individual refugees in responding to new needs arising from changes in legislation; disseminates information relating to training, immigration, fundraising as well as updates for members on human rights issues.
SLRP does not just provide services for refugees and refugees groups; it is also active in providing services to the local community. In particular, it organises a Youth Football Project for young people in Lewisham aged 7-14 years old; a learning and social club for over 50’s; and an internet café for refugees looking for work, that is open to the entire local community.
Since its creation in 2002, SLRP benefited from help from the Lewisham Mayor’s Office, which offered an office for its activities. But since 2005, the organisation was subject to harassment and discrimination from Council officials.
SLRP is located at the ground floor of Parker House, and situated at 144 Evelyn Street, Deptford, London SE8 5DD. Parker House is a four storey office blocks (plus basement) owned by the London Borough of Lewisham and managed by its Community Sector Unit.
During the winter of 2005-2006, the project was deprived of heating. Staff also has had to work in the dark, because the official in charge of the premises refused to replace defective lighting. One of the Council’s staff barged into the chairman’s office of the association, to interrupt a meeting he was holding in his office. This appears to have been part of trying to get the SLRP out of its premises.
On 17 August 2007, SLRP received a letter from Lewisham Council making offering a ‘Tenancy at Will’, involving a substantial rent more than half SLRP’s budget. Whilst SLRP benefits from a ground floor position there was no parity with charges made to the other occupiers of the same building. After SLRP agreed to a ‘tenancy at will’, but sought to negotiate a more reasonable rent, the council then issued a notice to quit the premises by 6th December.
