Parents are fundraising for Charlton Park Academy students
Parents and carers at Charlton Park Academy are fundraising to give their children a special spend-off when they leave the school in the summer.
There’s been no money to host the event at the school, which caters for children with special needs and disabilities, for the past three years. So parents are taking to the streets (and the internet) to find the cash themselves.
Vivien writes: “The kids often raise money for other charities themselves – time to support them, we feel. As parents we are making and selling crafts and have a choir which will be singing in General Gordon Square and the Woolwich Centre on Thursday with a bucket for coins! We have six months to raise the money.”
Fans Supporting Foodbanks will be collecting outside The Valley on Tuesday and Friday evenings this week
Charlton Athletic fans are being asked to help Greenwich Foodbank this week by donating non-perishable food at the club’s two home matches on Tuesday and Friday evenings.
A similar appeal last year resulted in local families in need receiving 1,000 meals. With the promoted club experiencing a spike in attendances, Fans Supporting Foodbanks will be hoping to beat that number this year.
You’ll find a collection point in The Valley’s car park from 6.15pm on Tuesday, ahead of the match against Huddersfield Town, and from 6.15pm on Friday, before the Hull City game. You don’t have to be going to the match to donate.
The food bank is looking for food with a long shelf life and that doesn’t require refrigeration. Examples include cereals, rice, long life milk or canned meat or fish. It currently has plenty of beans and pasta but is in great need of tinned fruit, tinned carrots, tinned peas, long-life fruit juice and tinned rice/custard.
If you can’t make it to The Valley, there are collection points at Charlton House, Sainsbury’s Charlton Riverside and Charlton Asda.
The Stone Foundries site was sold earlier this year
‘Twas the weekend before the Christmas holiday… so, naturally, it’s time for another consultation into another redevelopment on the Charlton Riverside.
The developer Montreaux, which bought the Stone Foundries site earlier this year, is to reveal its plans at an exhibition at The Valley from 2pm to 7.30pm on Friday 13 December, and noon to 4pm on Sunday 14 December. Awkwardly, not only has the developer picked the weekend before many people head away for Christmas, the Friday session is also on the same evening as Charlton’s match against Hull City, which kicks off at 7.45pm. Wine and beer will be available on the Friday for a small donation to St Peter’s boxing club and the Charlton Athletic Community Trust.
Montreaux has previously said it plans 1,500 houses on the site. This will be the fifth plan to come forward for the riverfront. The spiel will be familiar by now. “The brownfield site in Charlton known as Stone Foundries is being regenerated to create a new community, whilst still preserving the area’s rich industrial heritage. The scheme will provide much-needed new homes along with community, business and green space – generating jobs, boosting the local economy and providing new public services and amenities.”
Not sure where Stone Foundries is? It was a major employer which made parts for ships and aeroplanes, but dwindled over the years and the factory was finally sold in August. Some of the company’s land was sold off in the 1990s to create the Stone Lake retail park – the redevelopment site is down an odd-looking private road near that.
U+I plans 500 homes on the old Siemens glassworks site on the Charlton/Woolwich border, along with a co-working hub for local businesses and space for light industry. A planning application for Faraday Works had been expected in the autumn.
The public inquiry into the Rockwell development, which is next door to the Stone site, ended last week.
The closing statement from the community group Charlton Together said: “The high percentage of studios and one-bedroom homes in this proposal is likely to drive a rental market and create properties for sale, not as homes but as investments. This is not going to kick-start a sustainable community.” A decision will come next year on Rockwell – the same group will be hoping for better from Montreaux.
Five of the general candidates for Greenwich & Woolwich took took questions from voters at a hustings event in Charlton on Saturday morning – the last such event before Thursday’s poll.
Here is (slightly wobbly) video of the entire event, which was held at Charlton Assembly Rooms.
The candidates who took the time to appear (from left to right on the panel): Rhian O’Connor (Liberal Democrat), Matt Pennycook (Labour), Victoria Rance (Green), Thomas Turrell (Conservative), Eunice Odesamni (Christian People’s Alliance). The Brexit Party’s Kailash Trivedi did not show up, nor did the independent candidate Sushil Gaikwad.
The chair was Andrew Donkin. It was hosted by the Charlton Society in partnership with the Charlton Central Residents Association, Charlton Parkside Community Hub, and Valley Hill Community Hub – thank you to them for allowing filming.
Maryon Wilson Park Community Garden is open regularly all year round Maryon Park Community Garden is opening its gates on Saturday for its Christmas event – with Santa on hand to hand out gifts to children in his grotto.
There’ll also be a the chance to buy plants, cacti and woodcraft gigs, and you can give the lucky dip a whirl too.
It all runs from 1pm to 3pm at the old nursery in the park.
Charlton fans held a protest march with Coventry City fans in October 2016 (photo: Neil Clasper)
An Abu Dhabi-based consortium has bought Charlton Athletic, ending five years of calamitous ownership by the Belgian electronics magnate Roland Duchâtelet.
East Street Investments – named after the street (now Eastmoor Street) near the Thames Barrier where the Addicks were founded in 1905 – have bought out Duchâtelet, who alienated fans by interfering in team selection, sacking much-loved manager Chris Powell, drafting in unsuitable players from other clubs he owned, and mocking unhappy supporters as “vinegar pissers”.
Fans threw plastic pigs onto the pitch and travelled to Duchâtelet’s home town of Sint-Truiden to protest at a regime which saw the club relegated to League One in 2016. While the Addicks regained their Championship status this spring after winning a play-off final at Wembley, the future of the club – and especially manager Lee Bowyer – remained uncertain with key players and the manager himself only retained on short-term contracts. Now many fans are ending lengthy boycotts of the club.
The new chairman, Matt Southall, said in a statement: “While we may be the club owners, truly we are only the custodians. The true spirit of this football club rests with the fans, it is nothing without them. Their support throughout some difficult times both recently and in the past has been inspirational and we intend to build on that loyalty. Our priority will be immediate contact with fan groups in order that their views play a major role in the club going forward.”
Southall’s fellow director is Tahnoon Nimer, the chairman of Abu Dhabi Business Development, the private office of Sheikh Saeed Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, a member of one of the six ruling families of Abu Dhabi. The company oversees the running of more than 60 companies including energy, insurance, broadcasting, shipping and sports businesses.
Charlton fans will be hoping it is third time lucky with new owners – Duchâtelet was preceded by Michael Slater and Tony Jiminez, whose reign foundered when promised financial backing was withdrawn. The new owners’ plans for The Valley and the club’s training ground at Sparrows Lane in Eltham will also be closely scrutinised.
The site is on land designated for long-term housing development, with the council’s own Charlton Riverside masterplan stating that the Bugsby’s Way retail strip does not conform with the council’s “policy to promote Woolwich as a metropolitan town centre”.
With only two objections, the decision can be made by council officers without the application going to councillors to discuss. There is no report by planning officers, so the council’s response to the objections remains a mystery.
One council condition is that 12 “secure and dry” cycle parking spaces must be provided, on a site that is one of the most intimidating for cyclists in the borough.
McDonald’s has a lease on the land until October 2021 – when contacted by The Charlton Champion in September, it was unable to answer questions about its future plans.
The Charlton Champion 