Charlton – Page 28 – The Charlton Champion

Westcombe Hill low-traffic neighbourhood: We’ll be watching effects in Charlton, council says

February 16, 2021June 19, 2023Darryl Chamberlain1 Comment

Residents in Eastcombe Avenue regularly complain of rat-running traffic

Greenwich Council says it will monitor the effects of closing Westcombe Hill to through traffic on neighbouring streets in Charlton and take action if necessary.

The council is consulting on plans to stop through traffic running down Maze Hill, Vanbrugh Hill, Halstow Road and Westcombe Hill in response to persistent jams in residential roads in east Greenwich and Blackheath. Buses, emergency vehicles, walkers and cyclists will be able to use the roads as normal.

Maze Hill has been particularly badly hit since the upsurge in traffic following the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as similar traffic measures in west Greenwich and in Greenwich Park. Westcombe Hill is often used as an alternative to the six-lane motorway-standard A102, which runs alongside it.

Similar schemes across London – aimed at tackling a long-term increase in motor traffic in London, much of it borne by residential roads; as well as to make it safer for people to walk and cycle when public transport is restricted – have proved highly controversial, with often bitter campaigns for and against them. The west Greenwich scheme, which saw streets around Royal Hill and Hyde Vale blocked with planters, saw competing petitions both for and against the scheme and misleading claims that the ambulance service had objected. Two opposing campaigns have sprung up in Greenwich: Greener Maze Hill and Greenwich Gone Too Far.

This scheme will see cameras put in place on Maze Hill, Vanbrugh Hill and Westcombe Hill; planters will be installed on Halstow Road. One option mentioned on an online consultation is to make the measures only operate in the rush hour, with free access at other times.

While most schemes are clearly aimed at making back streets safer, many drivers will consider the three roads with cameras as main roads – particularly Westcombe Hill, which older motorists will remember as the main route to the Blackwall Tunnel until the late 1960s and is served by four bus routes.

Responses to the council’s proposals on its consultation website have been overwhelmingly hostile, although it is unclear how many respondents live within the affected area and how many are drivers from outside who object to the upheaval of taking a different route. In the Blackheath Westcombe ward which makes up the south of the area, 36 per cent of residents do not have a car – a figure that rises to 48.8 per cent in Peninsula ward to the north, which suffers the most from congestion.

One risk of the Maze Hill and Westcombe Park scheme is that traffic will simply move to another rat-run – Eastcombe Avenue and Victoria Way, which are already blighted by traffic heading to and from the Charlton retail parks. TfL analysis given to councils last summer indicated that Charlton and the western part of Woolwich was the area of Greenwich borough most suited to hosting a low-traffic neighbourhood.

There are no formal plans at present to deal with the rat-running in Charlton, but the council’s cabinet member for environment, sustainability and transport, Sizwe James, said the new scheme was “just the start”.

Asked if the council had contingency plans in place if that happened, the cabinet member for environment, sustainability and transport, Sizwe James, said: “During the experimental period we would assess any impact on surrounding areas including the Eastcombe Avenue and Victoria Way routes. Schemes can be improved, and additional measures put in to reduce traffic on other residential streets.

“Due to funding arrangements, we cannot work on all areas at once, but we have got more proposals in the pipeline for other areas which we will be consulting on soon. This is just the start.”

He said the consultation was for “initial proposals” and added: “Any measures would be implemented as an experimental scheme with a full consultation forming part of this process.”

“Our proposals are based on traffic analysis and concerns about increasing traffic raised by local residents. We’re collecting residents’ views on traffic levels in recent years, whether levels have increased and how residents have been affected,” he said.

“If we don’t act now traffic will only continue to get worse. It has already doubled over the last decade in London and in our borough alone between 2014 and 2019 the number of miles driven on our roads increased by one hundred and thirty million.

“People who choose to drive through residential areas are disproportionately affecting everyone’s quality of life – due to air and noise pollution, speeding and illegal parking.

“The proposals would not stop anyone from using their car if they want or have to, but would direct vehicles on to the main roads that were designed to carry them in the first place.

“Why should the health of our residents and in particular our children be at the mercy of drivers who do not even live in the borough taking short-cuts through residential areas because that’s what their mobile sat-navs told them to do. It may even make people question what their first choice of transport is if they feel safer walking, cycling or wheeling because their streets are no longer dominated by heavy traffic.

“If we want to reduce the amount of people with heart disease, osteoarthritis and cancers caused by inactive lifestyles or asthma and respiratory diseases caused by car exhausts then we have to be brave and we have to begin somewhere. The gases from these vehicles are causing a third of all our emissions too – making the planet warmer and directly contributing to climate change.”

A consultation is open at greenersafergreenwich.commonplace.is.

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Charlton Park users left in dark as Greenwich Council refuses to back new lighting

February 10, 2021June 19, 2023Darryl Chamberlain

Greenwich Council has refused an application for funds to install new lighting in Charlton Park – despite complaints that the lack of lighting in the park makes it unsafe for women.

The only lighting in Charlton Park comes from old lamps on its main north-south path – with nothing to help protect those using other paths after dark. There is also no lighting at the skate park.

The park recently received a share of a £1 million fund to modernise and redecorate the sports changing rooms, improve the playground, install new furniture and carry out basic repairs. There is also funding for a wildlife meadow to the east of the park.

But a separate application for funding to improve the lighting has been refused. The money would have come from the council’s Greenwich Neighbourhood Growth Fund, which distributes money raised from a levy on developers and has to be spent in the community by law.

The need for improved lighting was specifically mentioned in a survey of park users by the Friends of Charlton Park in the wake of it getting the earlier funding.

The Friends’ survey had 226 respondents, and 125 asked for improvements to the playground. After that, 54 called for better lighting. “The park is not safe for women after dark right now,” one respondent to the survey said, while another said more lighting would encourage women to play sport.

Another said: “The skateboarding park has been a lifesaver for my son – he struggles in teams but this has allowed him to make friends on his own … Lighting for the skateboarding park would be amazing.”

The Charlton Champion understands that complaints made by people opposed to a past proposal to put lighting in the skate park were a factor in the council’s decision to reject the funding application.

A council spokesperson said: “The Friends of Charlton Park group got in touch recently about applying for Greenwich Neighbourhood Growth funding. This would be for a new path around the main field, new lighting around the new proposed path, as well as for new lighting to other paths and the skate park and outdoor gym.

“We told the group we could not support this application at this time, because there needs to proper discussion, consultation and consideration before an application for funding can be submitted. However, we have said that we would be happy to discuss this further for future rounds of funding.”

The decision also followed the council’s ruling cabinet voting in December to invest £25m in a long-term contract to replace lighting across the borough’s streets. The spokesperson said “this programme was to look at improving the energy efficiency of the council’s current street lighting stock, and not to look at lighting currently unlit areas”.

Other topics covered in the survey included activities, with 43 people wanting more activities in the park, with support for plans for Parkrun to come to Charlton. Planting and nature was supported by 43 people, with 41 people wanting amenities such as a picnic area or support for the Old Cottage Coffee Shop.

The full survey results can be found on the Friends of Charlton Park website.

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‘Magical living’ developer Dandi plans 49-room ‘shared living hub’ at Antigallican pub

February 9, 2021February 9, 2021Darryl Chamberlain

Happier days: The Antigallican in 2017, when the pub was still trading

A developer promising “magical living” wants to turn the closed Antigallican pub on Charlton Church Lane into a “shared living hub”.

The scheme, from west London developer Dandi Living, comprises 49 rooms of between 20 to 24 square metres, with en-suite showers and basic kitchens, with “dynamic furniture” – the bed can be lifted up – to switch between living, working, entertaining and sleeping. There will also be four shared kitchens as well as a co-working area and a bar.

A similar scheme from the same developer in Hounslow saw its rooms dubbed “the Swiss Army knife of flats”.

Dandi – whose slogan is “making magical living accessible” – already has serviced studios in Shepherd’s Bush; while it is completing a large office conversion in Wembley with 368 rooms, a scheme carried out with the British Airways pension fund. The company is backed by the US firm Ollie, which operates co-living spaces in New York City and Los Angeles.

The developer plans to copy the planning approval granted by council officers in 2019 to extend the Antigallican, but applying to turn it into an HMO instead of a 60-room hotel. The pub closed in 2018 and was up for sale at auction the following year, with a guide price of £3.25 million – Land Registry documents state it sold for £2 million.

While technically the application is for an HMO – a category that includes traditional bedsits – the development seeks to capitalise on the “co-living” boom, offering younger professionals dormitory-like living spaces together with space to work and socialise.

The idea is still in its infancy in London, with the best-known schemes run by The Collective, which has a 705-bedroom building on the Isle of Dogs, where rents start at £1,200 per month. The idea has caused controversy elsewhere; in Dublin, they have been banned over fears they would see land prices rocket.

“What we seek now is convenience and amenities on our doorstep, in exchange for a smaller private space, combined with a community that can provide the physical, human connections modern living often sacrifices in favour of increasing digital and virtual connectivity,” the developer says.

The scheme “has been designed to the highest quality and will award a currently neglected, vacant property the opportunity to contribute positively aesthetically and economically to the local area,” it adds. “The retention and rejuvenation of the Public House has a clear social and economic benefit that the proposal will bring to the local community.”

“The aim is to make luxurious living available at a price previously perceived by our residents as unattainable … to create a shared-living hub, thoughtfully designed to meet the needs of residents and welcoming for the local community.”

Dandi’s scheme follows the withdrawal in October of a similar scheme for the Charlton Conservative Club, which aimed to turn it into a 26-bedsit co-living space accommodating 49 people.

The proposal can be seen on the Greenwich Council planning website (reference 21/0121/F), where you can also leave comments – see the design and access and planning statements for more information.

Close by, plans for more micro-homes – the controversial Pocket Homes development on The Heights – will finally go before councillors on Greenwich’s planning board next Tuesday. They had been due to decide on whether to allow the scheme before Christmas but delayed a decision so they could carry out a site visit, which has since been scrapped because of the lockdown.

Note: People who receive the site’s stories by email will have received a version wrongly stating the Antigallican plan is for 60 rooms, not 49. Apologies!

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Work starts on Charlton’s new cycleway along Woolwich Road

February 4, 2021June 19, 2023Darryl Chamberlain

Cycleway 4 extension end — This is where the cycleway ends…. for now

Work is starting on Charlton’s new cycleway, extending the segregated route from the Angerstein roundabout in east Greenwich to the junction of Anchor and Hope Lane.

The first phase of the new route, between Old Woolwich Road and Farmdale Road, opened just before Christmas, and gives cyclists their own protected space on the road, separated from other traffic by wands. A crossing was also installed at the Angerstein roundabout, where two cyclists died in 11 years after colliding with lorries.

Now early work has begun on the second phase, which will continue the route past the Greenwich Shopping Park to Anchor and Hope Lane. Changes will include bus-stop bypasses, enabling riders to get around bus stops, and traffic lights at Gallions Road.

Turning from Woolwich Road into Gallions Road will be banned for motor vehicles to improve safety for cyclists, while a “cycle gate” will be introduced at Anchor and Hope Lane to give riders time and space to get away ahead of other traffic. The northbound slip road onto the A102 is also to be closed as part of this phase of work.

Last year TfL consulted on segregated lanes along the rest of the A206 to Woolwich; however, this section is currently being covered by wider bus lanes.

See an overview of the plans
See the plans in detail

TfL says the Woolwich Road is “amongst the top 5% of routes in London which have the greatest potential for cycling to increase, but only if we build infrastructure to give people the confidence to cycle”.

The route is, in time, meant to become part of Cycleway 4, from Tower Bridge to Woolwich, but only a section from Tower Bridge to the Rotherhithe Tunnel has been built, alongside the route in east Greenwich.

Construction work is continuing on a section of route in Creek Road, Deptford, but plans for the rest of the route to and through Rotherhithe have not yet been confirmed.

Work is also due to start soon on an extra section at the central London end, taking the route as far as London Bridge.

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Coronavirus in Charlton update: Tips on wearing face masks and help with grief

February 4, 2021June 19, 2023Darryl Chamberlain

Covid ad at Blackheath Standard

An update in the coronavirus emergency from Greenwich Council’s public health team, with special advice on wearing face masks and where to go if you are grieving.

In the seven days until Tuesday there were 702 confirmed new cases of coronavirus in Greenwich borough. Cases are gradually decreasing, but are still high. We need to stay safe and make sure this number continues to go down, by following the guidance explained in this update.

185 people are in hospital right now in the borough because of coronavirus. This number is starting to go down, but is still far too high. To have to go to hospital because of coronavirus means your case is very serious, and puts a strain on our hospitals and everyone who works in them.

A national lockdown is in place across the country. This means everyone must stay home except for when it is absolutely necessary to leave.

It has never been more important to take every measure we can to fight the virus. Everyone needs to stay at home, except for essential activities. If you do need to leave home: Wear a mask. Make space. Wash your hands.

You can read all the details about the lockdown at gov.uk/guidance/national-lockdown-stay-at-home.

Masks versus visors

Unfortunately, a face shield, or visor, is not a suitable face covering as it does not cover the nose and mouth properly.

Please wear a face mask, not a visor, when in enclosed spaces such as shops, public transport and places of worship. This is important to stop the spread of this virus and reduce the amount of people that are ill, and sadly, die, from coronavirus.

Coronavirus is spread by droplets from coughs, sneezes and speaking. When used correctly, wearing a face mask may reduce the spread of coronavirus, helping to protect others.

A face mask should:

cover your nose and mouth while allowing you to breathe comfortably
fit comfortably but securely against the side of the face
be secured to the head with ties or ear loops
ideally include at least two layers of fabric
unless disposable, be able to be washed regularly

Because face masks protect others from coronavirus rather than the wearer, they are not a replacement for social distancing and regular hand washing. It is important to still regularly wash your hands and stay at least two metres from people not in your household or support bubble.

Support if you’ve lost someone to coronavirus

Most people experience grief when they lose someone important to them. It affects everyone differently. There’s no right or wrong way to feel.

You may be finding it particularly difficult at the moment because of the changes in place to try to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Changes have been made to several services, including end-of-life and palliative care, as well as funeral arrangements.

You may feel that you need some extra help and support during this time. There are local places that can help, such as Greenwich Cruse Bereavement Centre, Greenwich and Bexley Community Hospice as well as national helplines such as Samaritans and Sudden.

Live Well Greenwich has lots of helpful links that can hopefully help you during this difficult time.

Getting tested for coronavirus

If you have coronavirus symptoms: (a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, a loss of, or change to, your sense of smell or taste), even if they’re only mild, it’s important to get a test and stay at home until you get your result.

There are several local testing centres – please go to gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test to book a test. Booking is essential for all testing centres. Order a home test kit if you cannot get to a test site. If you have problems using the online service, call 119. Lines are open 7am to 11pm.

Rapid testing centres
If you can’t follow the Government guidance to stay at home and have go to work, you can get a test very quickly in a number of walk-in centres around the borough, including at The Valley.

The test takes five minutes, and the results are emailed to you in 30 minutes. It will tell you if you have Covid-19, but no symptoms, so that you can protect those around you by self-isolating for 10 days until the virus clears from your body. Book a rapid test here.

Testing is NOT available at the Emergency Department at the hospital or at your GP practice, so please do not attend here trying to get a test.

Support if you test positive and have to self-isolate

If your test result is positive, you and your household will need to stay at home and self-isolate for 10 days (this has changed from 14 days). This is important to stop the virus spreading and to keep your community safe.

This can be stressful and worrying when you need to go to work. If you are unable to claim sick-pay from your employer and are a low income household, a one-off £500 payment may be available from the Government to support you and your family during these 14 days. Find out if you are eligible to apply for this payment or call 0800 470 4831.

Training available

If you’re interested in helping your community through volunteering, short training is available to introduce and prepare volunteers for the role of Neighbourhood Champion. This is an opportunity to learn, ask questions, share information and practice.

For more information, please email victoria.smith[at]royalgreenwich.gov.uk.

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Greenwich borough archive to stay as Anchor and Hope Lane land sold for school

January 28, 2021June 19, 2023Darryl Chamberlain

Google image of Anchorage Point — Anchorage Point is to be sold to a government property agency (image: Google)

Plans to sell industrial land on Anchor and Hope Lane for a new primary school were approved by Greenwich councillors last night – but the borough’s archives will not be affected by the move, they were told.

The Anchorage Point industrial estate is to be sold to a government agency so it can be used as a school by the Harris academy trust. Councils are not allowed to set up new schools of their own so have to go along with government plans for academies.

Greenwich council’s cabinet last night heard opposition from an Anchorage Point business owner and a local councillor, but voted through the plans after hearing that not selling the land could saddle the council with a £30-40 million bill to build a new school elsewhere.

Plans submitted to the cabinet appeared to show that the borough archive – which moved out of its old base in Woolwich three years ago to make way for the Woolwich Works creative district – would also have to move. But Jeremy Smalley, the council’s assistant director of regeneration and property, said that the trust would be able to stay, although its site may eventually be needed for a new road.

“The Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust are unaffected by this decision,” he said. “They would be affected in the longer term should we find the money to implement the road improvement, and the discussion with the trust is about what and where they need to be not just in terms of the archive, but in exhibition and research space.”

The plans will see existing businesses relocated to new sites, but Richard Cunningham, the owner of Morgan Richards Garage, which is based on the industrial estate, said his business had already been forced to move from Woolwich to Brocklebank Road in Charlton, then to Anchorage Point when Brocklebank Road was sold for use as a retail park.

“Each time, it’s involved great personal expense and great effort to keep a customer base we value,” he said, adding that Anchorage Point offered good facilities and was full of long-term tenants.

Moving the businesses “would result in a definite loss of jobs during the worst trading period due to the Covid-19 pandemic”, he added, suggesting a site further along the riverside would be better for a school.

“The site is essential for a lot of businesses, close to the Blackwall Tunnel, M25 and A2,” he said.

Woolwich Riverside councillor John Fahy said the plan to sell the site was “in direct contradiction” with the council’s aims to keep the Charlton riverside as a location for employment.

“This particular school will be in the middle of a building site with all the health impacts that will bring,” he said, adding that the school would come too early for housing on Charlton Riverside and Morris Walk, with the risk that it would be already full when the new residents moved in.

Local resident Helen Brown said the plans “came as a shock” and that the businesses only found out just before Christmas.

“Economic development and jobs are really important to the council, and that’s one of the reasons that’s a really difficult decision,” Smalley said.

“If the council doesn’t accept the offer, then the council will have to find a site for a school, and will be left with a bill of £30-40 million to find the land and build a new school – and under the law it has to transfer it to an academy.”

Addressing Cunningham, he said: “We’re going to do our damnedest to relocate you close to where you are now, in purpose-built units. We won’t necessarily be able to do that to everybody, but we really want to and we’ve been clear about the need to work with business and find alternative premises.”

“The DfE and [its agency] Located are putting the council under pressure to make this decision, otherwise the money will be withdrawn by March, and the council will then be left with having to find £30 million – £40 million to make the school provision a reality.

Sarah Merrill, the cabinet member for regeneration, said the council was committed to a “holistic regeneration” on the riverside rather than “allowing piecemeal developments ad hoc”, and said she had met residents on site last month.

“We are working with the community and [resisdents’ group] Charlton Together at every single stage,” she said.

The new school could open as early as summer 2022 – before any housing on the riverside is complete, and Matt Morrow, the cabinet member for children’s services Matt Morrow said it was important to get the facility in place early so new residents did not have to send their children long distances to school.

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Use volunteers to get food, Greenwich Council tells shielding tenant cut off by building works

January 22, 2021June 19, 2023Darryl Chamberlain

Fletching Road — The access route to Louise Noyce’s home was cut off on Wednesday

A disabled woman living in a Greenwich Council flat has been told to rely on volunteers to bring in food because her usual access route to her home has been cut off by contractors building new homes.

Louise Noyce lives in a block of flats in Charlton next door to where Meridian Home Start, a council spin-off company, is building 29 houses and eight flats on the site of an old sheltered accommodation block and garages.

The construction work cut off access to the flats from Fletching Road, a quiet street behind Charlton Village, apart from a narrow alleyway. The residents all have Fletching Road in their addresses.

This final remaining route to their road was blocked on Wednesday, with residents told that they would have to use a bin storage area on Charlton Church Lane to get in and out of their homes. The route is expected to be closed for about eight weeks.

Noyce, who uses a crutch or a mobile scooter to get around, has been shielding during the lockdown and relies on supermarket deliveries for her supplies. She is also recovering from injuries sustained after falling while trying to use the bin storage area, which sits on top of a slope. “My knee gave out on the slope because it is too hard on my joints,” she said.

She has been told by her supermarket that because she cannot provide a recognised address on Charlton Church Lane, she can no longer get deliveries.

“The shop said they can only deliver to my bank card address,” she said. “I have to eat to take medication, so either I don’t eat or I go out to get my shopping myself and break the lockdown law and hope I don’t get coronavirus.”

She said others in her block are elderly or disabled and face similar problems. “I am not the only one who will have to do this if we don’t get access to our road.”
After raising the issue with the building contractor in November, and getting nowhere, she tried emailing Greenwich Council leader Danny Thorpe earlier this month. She was advised by a council officer to use the town-hall’s volunteer-led community hub service to get supplies.

Noyce, who is 50, has had to spend the pandemic stuck at home next to the noisy building site, making her depression and anxiety worse. “I don’t like asking for help because I will try and look after myself,” she said. “I have had people help me but I get ripped off or they can’t help when I need it.”

The new development, Duke Court, replaces a sheltered accommodation block, Fred Styles House. The 37 homes were given planning permission as council housing in October 2017; however the development has been transferred to Meridian Home Start, a spin-off company which charges tenants about 65 per cent of market rent, compared with the 40 per cent typically charged for a council flat.

At the time, residents complained of a lack of consultation about the planned work – and the then-chair of planning, Labour councillor Mark James, said more work needed to be done in communicating with residents. Three years on, it appears his words have not been heeded.

“I had no idea until it started coming down,” Noyce said. “I feel they should have moved us all out. I feel as if I don’t have a voice in the matter.”

When visiting the block on Thursday, The Charlton Champion spoke to an elderly neighbour of Noyce’s who told how she took a bus one stop to reach Charlton Village because she was unable to walk up the hill at Charlton Church Lane. She added that the problems accessing the block were compounded by a broken lift.

Despite Noyce’s pleas for help, the council has been insistent that using Charlton Church Lane should be sufficient, even though her supermarket will not recognise the address. “Please could you advise delivery companies that the most appropriate access arrangement to your flat is via Charlton Church Lane,” a council officer wrote on Wednesday.

“They don’t care what happens to disabled and old people,” Noyce said.

“I don’t know what I will do next, I will just try and look after myself the best I can. I will keep trying with the council because what they are doing is wrong.”

A Greenwich Council spokesperson told The Charlton Champion: “Fletching Road remains open to vehicles and no area of the road is due to be closed off. As part of the building works, a footpath will be closed for eight weeks and affected residents were given advanced warning by the contractor beginning a year ago.

“In the interim, affected properties can be accessed from Charlton Church Lane via a footpath to the street. Signs have been installed advising visitors to the area of access routes to the various blocks on the estate.

“Residents should advise their delivery companies of these temporary arrangements. It is disappointing if supermarkets are not currently recognising this alternative route – and we would urge them to rectify this.

“If shielding residents are unable to receive their groceries, the council’s community hub can help.”