Author: Darryl Chamberlain

Eastcombe Avenue rubbish, and Russian poo-lette

Darryl Chamberlain13 Comments

Eastcombe Avenue, 16 February 2013

After the post on Floyd Road, it’s a Dirty Charlton special. David writes…

I’ve been living in SE7 for the past 3 years and I’m fed up with the amount of rubbish that is thrown on the street in Eastcombe avenue, the end of Eversley Road and especially Kirkside underpass.

The council collect the rubbish every Monday but by the weekend it has built up again and looks very dirty and pretty ugly.

I was wondering if anyone else is also fed up with this and is interested in creating a group to collect the rubbish early on a Saturday morning so it look much better over the weekend? I reckon it would take one person about 25 mins.

I have mixed feelings about clean-up operations – we pay the council to clean up rubbish through our council tax, and if the council doesn’t do it right, we should be getting onto local councillors and telling them to sort it.

But then again, if it’s the only way to get things fixed, then it’s the only way, and perhaps it can shame others into action. Do you want to help David? Leave a note in the comments and I’ll pass on your details.

Speaking of the underpass from Bramshot Avenue to Siebert Road in Blackheath, it had some fetching artwork in it last weekend – now removed, presumably not to an auction house in the US.

Siebert Road subway

Ahem.

Speaking of filthy streets – and complaining to Greenwich Council – I had this email a few weeks ago from Clare:

I was wondering if Charlton Champion would be the place to cover the unpleasant issue of dogs waste? It is an absolute blight where I live ( Tallis Grove, and often worse on Highcombe near the allotment). Literally every 10 steps you need to divert your course and face the terrible consequences if you take your eyes off the pavement. It is Russian “poo”lette if you need to walk there after dark!

I have a toddler and we cannot walk around the block without wending our way through the piles of mess. I have written to the council – so maybe thats the best course of action and maybe charlton champion should deal with more pleasant matters!

Tallis GroveOddly enough, since Clare sent me this email, things might have improved. I’ve been waiting to capture a photo of Highcombe looking a mess – but to no avail. Even the fly-tipping seems to have eased. Complaining can work. And what’s this stenciled onto Tallis Grove?

There are streets in Charlton notorious for sporadic outbreaks of dog muck – bad owners tend to come and go, I guess – and Greenwich Council can be handy with the stencils (which have caused controversy elsewhere in SE London). But do they work? Share your experiences below – after wiping your feet, of course.

The derelict mystery of Sutlej Road

Darryl Chamberlain6 Comments

Sutlej Road, Charlton
A couple of years ago, someone who’d had past connections with Greenwich Council asked what was going on with “that house in Sutlej Road”. Apparently, it’d been empty for a long time and had gained a bit of notoriety. I didn’t know anything about it and forgot all about it.

On Sunday, I was cycling along Sutlej Road… and there it was. So I took a very ropey picture of it. Clearly abandoned for many years, it’s an eyesore in what’s otherwise a quiet residential street. And with homelessness on the rise, it’s absurd that this place should be lying empty.

So what happened? Who owns it? What can be done to get this fixed up? Or will it take someone else to come in and do it illegally? Whatever, it does seem a mess.

Charlton Church Lane’s sinking feeling finishes

Darryl Chamberlain2 Comments

Charlton Church Lane

So, what happened at the top of Charlton Church Lane last week?

(Last with the news, I know…)

Michael asks: “Church lane has been closed for a few days and gossip tells me its from some subsidence somewhere between The Heights and the Church. Have you heard anything and is it severe or will it remain closed for a long time?”

Well, I’d heard nothing, but the street’s open now, buses are running along it and things should be back to normal for Monday morning’s commute. There’s some tell-tale clumps of brand new tarmac on the road now, so something must have happened. Anyone know any more?

What happened to Woolwich Road’s £35,000?

Darryl Chamberlain17 Comments

Woolwich Road
It’s all go at the bottom of Victoria Way, where Greenwich Council is moving the zebra crossing in response to safety concerns. It’s not clear what’s going on at all; after the consultation which went to just a handful of households, actual news of what’s happening is thinner on the ground.

Simon commented a couple of weeks ago:

Please note everyone work now is underway – moving the zebra crossing 2 metres to the east. Well that really is going to help. Not even a raised crossing, no lights. I have asked the Council what is happening and have received no response as yet – will update if I know. Please contact Mary and the other Councillors locally if you are as disappointed as I am.

So far, there’s been no news…

Even more mysterious is the matter of a missing £35,000. As part of the Sainsbury’s/M&S development, developer LXB paid Greenwich Council £35,000 as part of what’s known as a Section 106 agreement. These are meant to offset the negative impact of a development by building or improving something positive in the area, and it was thought that this money would go into improving Woolwich Road.

But nobody’s sure where this money has gone. It’s not a process that’s well-known outside town halls, and it’s not certain whether this cash is actually ring-fenced in this way. With a council as notoriously opaque as Greenwich, the whole thing’s a mystery.

So is LXB’s cash going towards this zebra crossing shift, or is it going to something else? Or will it end up getting spent miles from Charlton? So far, nobody knows – unless you can enlighten us, dear reader.

Get to know Charlton’s people and parks

Darryl Chamberlain

Maryon Park

A note from Carol Kenna at the Charlton Parks Reminiscence Project:

After two years in the making The Charlton Parks Reminiscence Project is now
complete and can be visited online at www.charltonparks.co.uk. There you will
find stories and photographs looking at the history of the parks and their importance
to local people over the past hundred years.

You can listen to scores of interviews, with people talking about everything from wartime jazz at Maryon Park bandstand to looking after the deer and other animals in Maryon Wilson Park. There are memories of swimming at Hornfair lido to clambering around Gilbert’s Pit plus many more stories featuring Hornfair, Charlton, Maryon Wilson, and Maryon Parks, Gilberts Pit and Barrier Gardens parks, all featured on the website.

24 volunteers including adults, as well as pupils from Years 9,10 and 11 at John Roan School were trained in audio recording and interview techniques and over 60 interviews conducted. Extracts from those interviews are included on the website while full versions are available to listen to at the Greenwich Heritage Centre in the Royal Arsenal. The website, designed and edited by Stuart Evans, Rib Davis and Carol Kenna, is now also archived with the UK web archive at the British Library.

To accompany the website, a CPRP booklet has been produced including extracts from each person contributing to the project alongside wonderful photographs of the parks.

The book will be available FREE from borough libraries, Greenwich Heritage Centre
and Charlton House from late January 2013.

New contributions – if you weren’t able to take part in the project it still isn’t too late to add to the website: There is a special ‘Contributors” button to enable people to upload new stories and photographs, and we welcome suggestions for items or issues which may have been missed. We aim to update the website with many more reminiscences and pictures over the next five years.

The project has been organised by the Charlton Parks Reminiscence Project Steering Group – Greenwich Mural Workshop, The Charlton Society, Friends of Charlton House, Friends of Charlton Park & Friends of Maryon & Maryon Wilson Parks.

The project is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and The Viscount Gough, and is partnered by Greenwich Council parks department, Firepower and Greenwich Heritage Centre.

It’s an incredible piece of work – congratulations to Carol and all involved. Don’t forget, you can download the booklet here.

Also, Tim Anderson from the Friends of Maryon and Maryon Wilson Parks will be talking to the Charlton Society at Charlton House tomorrow (Sat 19 Jan, 2.30pm, all welcome.) (Cancelled due to the snow)

Finally, it’s the Charlton Pub Quiz tomorrow – come along!

Greenwich Council backs Charlton Sainsbury’s/ M&S scheme

Darryl Chamberlain12 Comments


It’s been a long while coming, but councillors finally voted last night to back plans to to move Greenwich’s Sainsbury’s to Gallions Road, Charlton, in a new site along with an M&S and other shops.

Greenwich Council’s planning board voted 8-1 in favour of the application, despite concerns about traffic congestion and air pollition on Woolwich Road.

As well as the two superstores, the scheme will provide 850 jobs as well as a “high street” frontage of other stoes in front of the Rose of Denmark pub.

One councillor, Steve Offord, was heckled by members of the public for saying it was “inevitable” that the council would have to accept drivers entering the complex from Woolwich Road. Local campaigners had argued that customers should have to use Bugsbys Way, to tak traffic off the A206.

Council leader Chris Roberts suggested a compromise solution, where a fund of money from the developer should be set aside for traffic improvements after the store had opened, to calm fears of rat-running on Victoria Way and other streets. He also backed calls for a second entrance to Charlton station on Troughton Road, although this is subject to a separate process.

The only dissenting councillor was Kidbrooke with Hornfair Labour representative Hayley Fletcher, who acknowledged the scheme had great promise but was full of “missed opportunities” to promote sustainable transport on the Woolwich Road, dubbing the air quality statistics in the area “frightening”.

(Other councillors referred to the bad air quality on Woolwich Road, despite Greenwich Council’s Labour group voting to launch a campaign to build a third Blackwall Tunnel to add more traffic to the A102 – see petition against it.)

Most speakers were in favour of the development, but many were sharply critical of the lack of measures to control traffic. Developer LXB said it had offered Transport for London money to extend bus route 202 from Blackheath Standard to the store, to compensate people who would usually take the 108 service to the Greenwich store, but TfL insisted the bus network was fine as it is.

Chris Roberts suggested the council should take a tough line with TfL on the issue, adding that existing route 129 was only created thanks to a planning application put in for the Millennium Dome.

To see short summaries of what was said during the meeting, see this Storify round-up. The new store is likely to open in 2015.