A strange view of Catford

According to LB Lewisham Planning Department both Deptford High Street and the Laban Centre are in Catford Town Centre.

Lewisham have published a Scoping Report relating to the Sustainability appraisal and Strategic Environmental Assessment of their proposed Catford Town Centre Area Action Plan. It appears to have been put together by consultants Mouchel and then been put out for consultation by LB Lewisham without anybody bothering to check the document. If it was just a case of laughing at the poor choice of photographs by the consultants then it would not be so bad, but look through the document and total ineptitude reveals itself.
We are told that:

"This scoping report for the Catford APP will go out for public consultation in order to give members of the public the opportunity to comment on the issues and topics covered."

and;

"This section of the report identifies key baseline information relating to facts about Catford Town Centre and some demographics of the London Borough of Lewisham and the Rushey Green Ward (within which Catford Town Centre is located)."

and also;

"The Rushey Green electoral ward covers most of central, northern and western Catford."

but we are not told either in the text or by way of a map / illustration what area is actually meant by Catford Town Centre. Now everybody in Lewisham probably knows where Catford is, but (for example) are any of the surrounding residential streets included in the area the Scoping Report. How can the public "comment on the issues and topics covered" if we are not told what area the report relates to.

The report can be accessed at:
http://lewisham-consult.limehouse.co.uk/portal/planning_policy/catford_scoping 

Dangling Empty

Boris's vanity project has opened. For the princely sum of £3.20 people can travel from a car park in Greenwich to a car park in Newham. What purpose does it serve?

Tourist Atrraction
Simply too far out of central London. Tourists only travel to Greenwich because the visit includes a river trip there and / or back.

The Dome (or O2 as we are told to call it) only attracts serious numbers of people as a music venue. Excel mainly hosts trade exhibitions. It is hard to see any significant numbers from either bothering with the cable car.

Public Transport
Should any body wish to travel from the O2 to Excel they can catch a Jubilee Line train at North Greenwich to Canning Town and change there onto the DLR to Custom House. As can be seen below the average journey time is around 23/24 minutes.

The map above shows the problem that the cable car stations are much further away from either venue so it is not surprising that the journey takes longer by gondola. (In an effort to woo tourists the cable car will be even slower outside peak travel hours.)

Hardly surprising that today was a slow start:

Uptake seems a bit slow today, only one in every three gondolas seems occupied. #cablecar
— Matt Clinch (@mattclinch81) June 28, 2012

I just been on the new Emirates Cable Car. Good london Scenery from top. Not great number of people using it yet. No Queues at all.
— Cllr Iqbal (@Jiqbal222) June 28, 2012

Convoys Wharf, again

Yet again there is a 'public exhibition' of plans for Convoys Wharf.

The only difference from previous occasions is the clear lack of enthusiasm from the site owners: No colour picture on the leaflet and their website has gone tits up. Plainly they are not longer interested in trying to sell us anything. Perhaps their new strategy is to try and bore us into submission.

Hall & Studio 1st Floor
Deptford Lounge
9 Giffin Street
London SE8

Saturday 14 July 10.00am - 3.00pm
and
Monday 16 July 5.00pm - 8.00pm

Pete Pope's final send off (2)

On Sunday afternoon we gathered at the Birds Nest PH, Church Street, Deptford. I cannot possibly beat Colin Bodiam's description of our purpose:

It was implied in that programme on Deptford - recently much praised by the media but what do they know? - that Deptford is back in the doldrums, everyone hates each other and there's no sense of community at all. Well, here's proof to the contrary, everyone from all walks of Deptford life gathering together Sunday last to see off one of it adopted sons, Mr. Pete Pope, and after drinks and music, proceeding from The Bird's Nest to the footbridge which Pete helped to bring back, to disperse of his ashes in a glorious cacophony of street percussion and fireworks!

 

At about five there was some music inside,

and then everybody gathered to move off

up Creekside

past APT

past Faircharm

on our way to the Ha'Penny Hatch Bridge.

With everybody gathered on the bridge the ashes were passed down to the tender,

held aloft, 

and then cast upon the waters of Deptford Creek.

 Loud cheers, more music and the bashing of pots and pans were accompanied by fireworks launched into the afternoon sky.

 

 When the cheering and noise finished the brief silence was broken by the Question: "Anyone fancy a pint?". As Pete would have said 'It would be rude to refuse'. Then as Pete's ashes floated gently downstream, we floated gently back to the Nest.

Back at the Nest we had a few more drinks. Eventually we all dispersed, but not before in a final touch that Pete would have immensely enjoyed, one woman enquired of another

 "Are you coming to the next one?".

 Photographs by Ayla, Sascha and I. More on the Ha'penny Hatch and Pete's involvement in having it re-built can be found at Scattering virtual ashes

Pete Pope's final send off (2)

kkkk kkkk

llll lll

A Red Scooter

A red Vespa parked outside the Dog and Bell PH, 116 Prince Street, Deptford on the afternoon of Pete Pope's wake it simply had to be photographed.