A report to Lewisham’s Mayor and Cabinet highlights the alarming growth in abandoned dogs in the borough and the escalating cost of rounding up these stray pooches and paying for them to be boarded in kennels.
The Mayor and Cabinet meeting on 17 November will hear that the borough’s environmental team paid a bill of £100,000 in 2009-10 to round up strays and pay for kennelling – £79,000 more than they had budgeted for.
In 2008-9 the number of abandoned dogs rounded up by the council was 223; in 2009-10 this had mushroomed to 532 – an increase of 142%.
Battersea Dogs’ Home is currently inundated with strays, so the council has had to pay high fees for the private kennelling of the borough’s abandoned dogs.
This year to date, the number of stray dogs has remained at 2009-10 levels.
The Department of Culture, Media and Sport has announced that from 2015, eight museums including Horniman are to lose their government grant. The department has said that these museum are “local” not national museums and should therefore find suitable sponsors to ensure a sustainable future or be supported by local councils.
In a statement, a DCMS spokesperson confirmed that the funding of all its sponsored museums was secure until the end of 2014-15. “We are now exploring whether the department’s non-national museums may be more effectively sponsored through other bodies or programmes in the longer term. As part of the transfer arrangements the department will seek to be satisfied that new sponsors can offer a sustainable future for these museums.”
One of the museums on the list, the People’s History Museum in Manchester, has said that it may have to abandon its policy of free entry from 2015 as a result of these cuts.
The eight museums on the list are: Horniman, the Geffrye Museum, Museum of Science and Industry Manchester, the National Football Museum, the Tyne and Wear Museums, the Design Museum, the People’s History Museum and the National Coal Mining Museum.
Local councils such as Lewisham are increasingly keen to pass the running of local assets such as libraries onto community groups – a process known as community management or asset transfer. We are going to hear a great deal more of this in the next few years. So how exactly does it work?
Take a look at these two very simple and straightforward videos:
For more videos and information visit the Building Community website
Lewisham is facing cuts from its budget amounting to between £50-60m over the next three financial years. At the Mayor and Cabinet meeting on the 17 November the Mayor and Cabinet is expected to approve the first tranche of these cuts – £19.78m over three years plus a further £12.7m savings where consultation with staff and public are currently taking place.
A decision on closing five Lewisham libraries has been postponed for two months pending further investigations on “alternative community library proposals” and the cost of moving to these alternatives (see http://www.mayorsteve.co.uk/ ).
Here are some of the cuts expected to be approved at the meeting:
Severely cutting the borough’s economic development unit with the loss of 22 jobs, meaning that there will be no community business support and no town centre managers
Reducing the number of flower beds in parks – a saving of £30,000
The financial control department to reduce cost and staff saving £943,000
Corporate communication department’s budget to be cut by £97,000 (£64,000 of this to be saved by cutting Lewisham Life from 10 issues per year to six)
Reduce park investment by £396,000 which will mean fewer Green Parks, hanging baskets and street planting
Head of strategy department to be cut – savings £70,000; loss of three posts
No more spraying of weeds on streets and pavements saving £50,000
Saving £170,000 by reducing the amount of printing and photocopying by borough
IT savings of £1.3m by sharing services with Bromley council; IT data services to save a further £200,000
Mayor’s Fund (giving grants to local wards) cut by 25%; Local Assembly grants budget cut by £45,000 and admin costs for LA cut by £31,000
Close Clyde Children’s Centre (Deptford) and reduce budgets of Early Years Centres in Rushey Green, Honor Oak and Ladywell to save £2.1m
Reduce Lewisham’s contribution to Arts and Brodway Theatre by £43,000; One Lewisham Funs for Arts support also reduced by £25,000
Cut Lewisham’s contribution to borough’s Police Support Team by £125,000 (currently £250,000) resulting in “changes to PCSO deployment” . Note – this was postponed by M&C on the night
£450,000 cut in “Valuing People Agenda” (due to personal care packages scheme for elderly and disabled currently being proposed by central government); some savings could be gained by closing existing day care centres
A £22.84 charge to households for replacing lost, damaged or stolen wheely bins. Note – this was postponed by M&C on the night
£63,000 cut in waste advisors who encourage recycling
A reduction in the strategy and performance division saving £278,000
Amalgamating the community safety service and the community wardens service to create three area based neighbourhood safety teams and reduce staffing – saving £811,000
This is an exciting new development at 2-4 Trewsbury Road just behind the Mexican restaurant (the old ice cream parlour) on the corner of Sydenham Road and Trewsbury Road. Permission was granted in November 2007 for a 3-storey building plus basement housing commercial space plus 2 x 1 bedroom and 7 x 1 bedroom flats.
The building was designed by local archtitects Thomas Ford and mirrors the redeveloped former church hall on the corner opposite.
Throughout 2010, on the first Thursday of every month, St Christopher’s Hospice has hosted the Dame Cicely Saunders Concert Series – classical, folk and jazz music from the very best in the business. Now St Christopher’s has announced their line-up for 2011. And it’s even better than 2010.
Here is a quick look at the first six months concerts for 2011:
Thursday 6 January – Robert Cohen (one of the “foremost cellists of our time”) with Elizabeth Burley
Thursday 2 June – Martin Pyne and Busnoys, jazz vibraphone player with trio
And don’t miss the last concert of the 2010 season:
Thursday 2 December 2010 CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
Joglaresa: “ Folk Carols of England and Ireland.” Ancient and spell-binding Yuletide song ringing with echoes of winter pagan festivals. Reworkings of well-known carols
Belinda Sykes : vocals, bagpipes, dirrector. Jeremy Avis : vocals.
Mick Sands vocals, bodhran, flute. Jim O’Toole : fiddles.
Jean Kelly : clairseach. Tim Garside : percussion, dulcimer.
The 2011 concerts will be held in the Dame Cicely Saunders Room at the hospice. Tickets are just £12 and include canapés and a glass of wine during the interval.
To reserve your place at one of these exclusive concerts, or to receive a leaflet with further details, please contact Debbie Calvert at d.calvert@stchristophers.org.uk or on 020 8768 4747 (Monday to Fri 10am-4pm). Money will be payable at the door. If you cancel a reserved place please let them know as numbers are limited.
Griff talks about the role of civic volunteers, the Big Society and reforms to the planning system. Watch the feature by fast forwarding BBC i-player to 22 minutes. Watch it here
The Forest Hill Society and Forest Hill businesses would like to hear from people who are interested in inspiring local residents in a fabulous event of local, community-run activities that celebrates just what is available in the community.
Forest Hill high street businesses are offering their venues and facilities for POP UP SHOPS to hold free activity sessions. And they are inviting you to take part. It’s a great opportunity to promote your project, interest or business to local people. They’d like to hear from people who are interested in inspiring residents of Forest Hill in a fabulous event of local, community-run activities that celebrates just what is available in our community.
Forest Hill Pop Up Shop event is on Thursday 2nd December 20106pm – 9pm; Children’s activities 3pm – 6pm
For further details on running a 45-minute activity session contact Hugh before the 15th November and we will include your session in the programme and publicity campaign.
People are already going to share
Creative Writing Yoga Parent & Toddler Art Workshop DIY Art
Forest Hill community workshops Computer Training Children’s Boxing & Dance
Lewisham Council has written to Town Hall unions warning them that 446 staff jobs are to disappear in the next three years as cuts start to bite.
Management jobs will be at the forefront of cut backs.
The agenda of the Mayor and Cabinet meeting on November 17 carries a report which warns that 195 jobs – 43% of the total – will go from the Resources Directorate which deals with finance, corporate policy, the executive office, procurement, personnel management, legal services, strategy and IT. The report warns that “the Authority is currently considering Phase 1 revenue budget savings proposals of some £19.8m for 2011/14, of which £13.7m relates to 2011/12. …… Should all the Phase 1 proposals be agreed, it is likely that this will result in up to 195 posts being deleted. This will inevitably result in substantial redundancy costs which will need to be financed corporately and via the use of directorate resources. “
Local historian, Steve Grindlay, tells the history of this distinctive building:
Before the opening of Perry Vale Fire Station on 22 March 1902 fire defence in Sydenham and Forest Hill was fairly haphazard.
From the 1860s there was a horse drawn pump based at the Crystal Palace. Beside the Bricklayers Arms there was a fixed hose, attached to a water pipe, by which “any person may direct water in abundance”. There was also a fire escape (a cart with a ladder fixed to it to rescue people from burning buildings) next to the Woodman. In 1872 a volunteer fire service was formed in Forest Hill, but it was severely constrained and constantly in debt because it depended entirely on voluntary contributions.
After its creation in 1889 the London County Council began building fire stations across London. The earlier buildings were Victorian Gothic but by 1900 the Arts and Crafts style predominated. Building began on the Perry Vale fire station in 1901; the foundation stone was laid on 4 July 1901. The architect was most probably Charles Canning Winmill, the LCC Fire Brigade Department’s principal architect. The building is considered a particularly fine example of an early arts and crafts fire station.
From the Times 24 March 1902
The building was designed to house 12 firemen and their families. The 1911 census has 10 firemen, 2 coachmen (who drove the appliances and cared for the horses) and their families, a total of 50 people living in the station. The reason the accommodation was provided was because the firemen were on call 24 hours a day. This system ended in the early 1920s when shift work was introduced and the firemen had a fixed working week.
At the time the Perry Vale station opened there were two basic types of fire appliance: the pump, for extinguishing fires, and the escape with a ladder for rescuing people. The familiar dual-purpose fire engine, with both a pump and ladder, was introduced in 1934, partly for greater efficiency, and partly as an economy (reducing staff numbers).
Perry Vale fire station circa 1906
When the new Forest Hill Fire Station on Stanstead Road opened in 1972 the Perry Vale Fire Station closed. In March 1973, within a year of closure, it was listed Grade II. Since the building closed as a fire station it has been used by the Council as a housing office and for temporary accommodation. In 2008 the Council decided that the building was surplus to its requirements, and put it up for sale.
Nikolaus Pevsner described the Perry Vale Fire Station as “an especially picturesque example of its type”. Recent surveys make it clear that although there have been internal changes, some original features do survive. We must hope that any plans for the future of the building respect its past.
