Spotted by the BVRG

Lost my key so stayed in Blackheath O/N. Very pretty. But stop calling yourself London. You're about as close to London as Milton Keynes.—
richard bacon (@richardpbacon) January 27, 2012

Age Exchange and the Library

First up was Sir Ian Mills, asking everyone to please use the Bakehouse Library. Apparently it has lots of kids using it, but not enough adults. £800,000 of development work is due to take place by 2015, including grand plans to turn the two upper floors of the Reminisence Centre into a kind of community centre. The Bugle sat on his hands and didn’t ask anything impertinent about local council’s obligations being overtaken by charities – I hear it’s all the vogue these days.

One of the questions – why isn’t there a big notice in the window of the centre, encouraging people to please use the tiny library out the back for god’s sake? (I may be paraphrasing)…

Olympics Transport Issues

Then onto Olympics, where a nice lady called Emma told us that we would all be consulted, and that our feedback was essential, but that she couldn’t really confirm anything very much, as she wasn’t a technician, and that all the important people were at Greenwich council for a planning meeting that was unfortunately scheduled to coincide with the assembly.

Lots of questions about parking and permits during the Olympics – many from Kevin Bonavia, who made sure to turn to the audience whenever asking a question… He’ll go far I’m sure. Emma smiled, nodded, and apologised through them all. She couldn’t specify a month by when we could be certain about the parking situation.

There will be bus stop closures on Ha Ha Road.

“Will there be parking on the heath?”. Yes there will, but only on one day (July 30th), and only by coaches picking up olympic believers from Blue Water, and depositing them on Prince Charles Road. But the coaches will be on matting, so the grass will be ok.

Originally LOCOG had promised that there would be no parking at all on the heath.

There will also be a bike rack and taxi rank in Talbot Place.

A question about this: “If I’m a resident, can I still park outside my house?”. No blooming idea. Come along to the informal chit chat at the Clarendon Hotel on 3rd & 4th February, where all will be revealed.

One Talbot Place resident was particularly cross about the impact that the taxi rank and bike racks would have on disabled people in the area. “I’ll feed that back”.

“What will happen to the DLR? Will it be able to cope?” “TfL have done lots of lovely modelling. There are some very colourful models on their website”.

Blackheath Live Site

Then it was Liz Dart – Community Engagement officer from Lewisham Council, who was up to talk about the plans for the Olympics Live Site (the big screen planned to go in front of Taste of Rat).

Liz last addressed the Assembly back when Blackheath still had a proper library, but I digress… We were about to be PowerPointed, but Lewisham council make all their staff use secure USB sticks, which never work, as anyone who has attempted to use one in a Windows machine can attest.

She went through the plans, which looked the same as the ones which have been highlighted previously on this site. She mentioned some of the activities that will take place – tea dances, comedy nights, sports films. Some of these will be ticketed, and some will be free.

Zone 3 will contain a climbing wall, and a roller skating rink which sounds rather fun. It will be run by a company with an amusing name which sounded a lot like Bottom, but I’m sure it wasn’t. It wont’ be a fairground – there won’t be loud music, and no “callers” (not sure what they are).

The staff & contractors used will be the same teams that are used for Fireworks night.

Emergency services will be the same teams as usual, except for the police, who will be all centrally controlled from the Met, due to the Olympics.

Lot of questions about noise from the big screen. One very annoyed man pointed out that whilst the screen is facing away from the nearby homes, this means that the cheers from the crowds will be projected towards the homes. Also pointed out that it’s near a busy road.

The location was determined by the Locog events nearby. They don’t expect 5,000 people for the majority of the time. The deciding factor will be the weather, and how well Britain is doing in the Olympics.

“Will it be ticketed – isn’t it too many people?”. Fireworks attracts 100,000. It won’t be ticketed.

“What about the grass?”. It will be maintained by Glendale as usual.

Question about screen times, and adoloescents loitering, upsetting young families. Answer: 8am-11pm but only if there is interest. Alcohol won’t be served throughout these hours, but will probably be available from midday at weekends for example.

“What about seating? Can we bring our own?” No fixed seating will be provided at the site. There may be hay bales, or something of that nature. You can bring your own seat.

Apparently there will be a firework display this year, touch wood. The live site event isn’t expected to make a profit, and there are strict rules about commercial activity so close to an Olympic venue. Initially a school dinner provider wanted to try and break a world record at the site (for the most dinners served? Largest omellette? Can’t remember), but this level of sponsorship wouldn’t have been allowed.

The overall cost is thought to be around £150,000, but some income will be derived from attractions, partnerships, etc.

The licence decision for the live site is due to be decided at a council comittee next week. i got the feeling that they’re pretty sure it will be approved.

Localism – Pickles’ Grand Idea

Then it was onto Heidi Alexander talking about the Localism Bill.

I’m not going to even attempt to explain it all here. It looks bloody confusing to me, although she spoke well. Interesting points:

* Groups of 21 or more can form local forums, subject to local council approval
* These forums can declare “local assets”, such as pubs, churches, etc to be added to a special List.
* Anything on this list cannot be quickly sold or got rid of by the owner. They have additional obligations to discuss any sale with the council. Either an extra 6 weeks or 6 months delay is added, to prevent quick sales of local assets.

So this raises interesting questions: Who can form a Forum? Are there concerns about groups forming forums specifically to exclude other groups? The legal status of these forums appears murky as the legislation currently stands. Should the Blackheath Society form a forum? Should the Blackheath Assembly be a vehicle for a forum?

What would you like to see on a list of Blackheath Assets? One suggestion was that the station car park could be added to such a list, to prevent National Rail from screwing with it.

UPDATE: See the petition about the station car park.

London 2012 Olympics: Games organisers purchase new Blackheath lease from Crown Estate for equestrian event

“London 2012 Olympic officials have purchased a Crown Estate lease on a pocket of land called Circus Field adjacent to the controversial Greenwich equestrian site after negotiations with three Government agencies.

But such is the confidential nature of the new agreement that the local Greenwich councillors will not be given a copy of the lease and the lease will not be registered with the Land Registry…. …it needs to be enclosed, which is forbidden by the relevant Metropolitan Commons Act of 1866 and the Supplemental Act for Blackheath of 1871.”

There are also draft plans for parking in Greenwich and Lewisham during the Olympics shown here (PDF).

More info here. And then “informal drop in sessions” (not consultation) will be held at The Clarendon Hotel on Friday 3 February 2012, 12 noon–8pm, and Saturday 4 February 2012, 10am–4pm.

By Flickr user KhE 龙. (Click this link to enlarge). Used by kind permission.

Over on The Deptford Dame, you can find out more info.

But you can stop it! Adding your comments isn’t hard:

Go to this link, scroll to the bottom and click “Comment on this case”. Fill in some details, and add some comments… Here are the objections from the Dame’s post:

I am objecting to this application because I feel we already have more than enough betting shops; not only does it reduce the diversity of the businesses on the high street, but this clustering encourages anti-social behaviour, street drinking and fights in a small, concentrated area, putting people off using the street at night and making them fear for their personal safety.

The deadline for objections is 17 February 2012. Please pass this on.

The greatest show on earth – live on Blackheath

As well as being great fun, events taking place at the site will be designed to encourage communities to participate in improving their health and well being, become involved in their local community and celebrate local achievements. The Community Live Site will provide a showcase and fundraising opportunities for local voluntary and charitable organisations.

In addition to the big screen, another great attraction at the Live Site will be a beautifully decorative and rare Spiegel Tent which will play host to a range of events for all ages including tea dances, cinema, storytelling and live music. This splendid venue is so glamorous it is worth a visit in itself, even if it is to take in the surroundings, have a bite to eat or enjoy a cocktail created especially for the event.

It’s not that rare… I’m suspecting the Spiegel Tent will be the same one that featured at the Hyde Park winter wonderland. I went to this, and it was an overpriced restaurant & bar in a setting that looked like a leftover from the Moulin Rouge. Quite fun, and it had good Gluvine, but I seem to remember 3 drinks costing the best part of £15.

Network Rail has distributed this letter to residents living close to the station, advising that work will shortly be underway to lengthen the platforms to take 12 coach trains.

Didn’t they extend it to take 12 cars back in 2010?

* The Kidbrooke Kite spots more completely mental descriptions of Kidbrooke Village, “Black Heath” (wherever that is)… See for yourself here (warning, it’s a horrible PDF).

* The Blackheath Society is reasonably keen on the proposed big screen on the heath:

The Blackheath Society supports this event in principle and will play an active role in ensuring that there is a full and proper event management and acoustic plan in place. In addition the Society will lobby for the full reinstatement of the Heath and act to ensure that the Heath is protected, as far as possible, from this intense period of usage. In consultation with LBL, the Society has already recommended that more information be made available to those living within the immediate vicinity of the event.

See The Olympic Washerwoman’s Bottom if you missed this the first time around.

* Kettling 2.0: The Olympic State of Exception and TSG Action Figures – Fantastic article about what the Olympics means for London. Did you know that during the Olympics, there’s a plan to allow the police to search your home without a warrant? Nice. And a great photo at the top of the post.

* Finally, hopelessly-unaffordable-but-still-rather-nice: photos of an unrestored 1960s Eric Lyons-designed Span House. A snip at £500k. Lovely wood finishings.