Assembly time! Big decisions to be made on Mayor’s fund

The next Ladywell Assembly is coming up on Wednesday February 9 – don’t miss it! Publicity will be circulated by the council very soon. Top of the agenda will be a discussion on the Mayor’s fund, which is allocated to the ward each year and used to promote local priorities. There is £25,000 available for 2010-11, and a further £18,750 for 2011-12. Local groups can bid for the funds which can be used for one-off projects or schemes that can show they will be self financing. So what should it be used for? Any ideas? Trees, a Ladywell sculpture, a community shop, a summer event . . . The decision is down to Ladywell residents. So make sure you are there!
There are also likely to be assembly discussions on empty shops in the area and Ladywell’s controlled parking zone. Tony Major

Ward priorities (agreed at the last assembly in November):
Environment and landscape
Anti-social behaviour and crime
Local shops
Lack of youth and community facilities
Traffic

Council pulls the plug on community garden

Community garden hopes dashed

Lewisham council has, in a complete reversal of its position last Autumn, withdrawn its support for a community garden on the former Watergate School site at the end of Church Grove, Ladywell.

Having encouraged locals to make use of the site on a short lease, the council has now backed out. It seems that whilst officers in one part of the Council were supportive of the garden idea, others had earmarked the site to build a school annexe in 2012 and were concerned that it might be difficult to take back the land at the end of 2011 once it had become a thriving and popular community garden.

Whilst residents cautiously welcome a return to education use, they do feel they've rather been led down the garden path and wonder whether some more joined-up thinking is needed at Lewisham council?