Hotel chain Travelodge is hoping to open a hotel on the vacant land between Woolwich Road and the Greenwich Shopping Park.

Greenwich Council has received a planning application proposing a 120-bed hotel on the site, opposite the junction with Victoria Way, along with a food store and cafe.

The land has been empty for a decade following the demolition of a retail and industrial estate on the site, which had been earmarked for use in the Greenwich Waterfront Transit scheme, scrapped by Boris Johnson in 2009.

Developers say the project will create up to 126 jobs, and will also help boost local pubs and restaurants.

The scheme is backed by the owners of the Greenwich Shopping Park, and completes their development, with the cafe aimed at its customers.

It also takes advantage of a reorganisation in planning permissions for some of Charlton’s big retail barns, some of which are now nearly 30 years old and approaching the end of their lives.

The food store will replace the Lidl on Bugsbys Way, and would be run by “a local convenience store operator”.

Lidl’s building, which dates back to the mid-1980s, will be replaced with a new Wickes DIY store, which will move from its present site on Gallions Road.

We’ve rummaged in the wasteland here before – last year Matt wrote about plans for the site next door, where outline planning permission was given last year for a retail, business and residential development on the site of the long-shut MFI store, one of the area’s first retail barns. With a hotel set for the site, those thoughts about cafe culture on the Woolwich Road might not seem so fanciful now…

But what do you think of the plans? Full details are on Greenwich Council’s planning website, and neighbours have already had notes through their doors.

I’ve already had a few people contact me about this – some delighted to see something happening, some horrified with the design. I’ve created a poll – and don’t forget the comments below.

Greenwich Council has served an enforcement notice against Network Rail over rubbish left at the entrances to Charlton station, the Charlton Rail Users Group heard last week.

Rats have been seen scurrying around the station, after the rail company failed to clean up fast food debris and other rubbish thrown in the bushes.

Network Rail is responsible for the areas around the station – including the area covered by canopies next to the 486 bus stop – while Southeastern is responsible for the station itself.

Neighbours of other stations down the Greenwich line have also reported problems with rubbish left on linesides.

London Travelwatch’s Tim Bellenger told the group’s meeting the company often only cleans up rubbish after councils or individuals threaten legal action.

Other issues dealt with at the meeting:

– The Olympic timetable cuts – see 853 for more.

– Southeastern plans to repaint Charlton station to “create a more friendly environment”, while mobile staff are being recruited to look after platform areas at Charlton and neighbouring stations.

– The problem of five-car trains stopping at the far end of the London-bound platform was raised. Again. Southeastern’s operations manager had investigated and said all was working properly, and that customer information screens would report on how long each train was. However, it was pointed out from the floor that the screens haven’t shown this information for 18 months.

– The lift onto the London-bound platform, opened with great fanfare in 1999, now has to be operated by staff for safety reasons.

The group’s next public meeting is likely to be in the autumn. For more information, e-mail CRUG [at] pmcentre.dircon.co.uk.

The flyer below says it all – the Second Floor Studios complex, at the end of Warspite Road on the Charlton/Woolwich border, is opening up its doors tonight and across the weekend to show off its wares to art fans, artists and neighbours…

The whole project’s an interesting one – a plan to develop 280 studios together with a gallery and cafe on the old industrial site. It’s tucked away out of sight now, but when the riverside walk is finally finished between the Thames Barrier and Woolwich Dockyard, it could be quite a landmark. More on this soon, I hope.

The Charlton Rail Users Group will meet on Monday at 7pm at Charlton Liberal Club. Representatives from Southeastern, London Travelwatch, Transport for London and Greenwich Council will be there to discuss issues including the cleanliness of the station (I spotted a rat there recently), how easy it is to access other forms of transport (including the “dance of death“) and the issue of having to leg it up the platform if a five-car train arrives.

Also under discussion will be the planned Olympics service cuts – you might like to see the group’s response.

The Charlton Rail Users Group would like to object in the strongest possible terms to the proposed Greenwich line timetable during the 2012 Olympics.

While we appreciate Southeastern needs to run a simple service during a period of high demand, we feel the current service, strengthened with longer trains, will be able to cope. Charlton station has coped well with Premier League crowds of over 27,000 for football matches – it is only when the service is reduced things go wrong. Indeed, Charlton was more than able to cope with Millennium Dome traffic during 2000, although most visitors used North Greenwich..

It appears to us that dropping station calls and closing Woolwich Dockyard has more to do with reducing the risk of Southeastern incurring financial penalties for late running than making the service easier for passengers to use.

Anything less than a normal service will confuse and inconvenience regular passengers, who will find alternative forms of travel – particularly the Jubilee Line – also affected by Olympic traffic. During this period, we should be able to rely on a full train service, and not face arbitary cuts. With North Greenwich station expected to be more difficult to access, Southeastern’s customers in this area will depend on these services more than usual.

London 2012’s organisers have promised a car-free Games – your proposal seems designed to achieve the opposite. Indeed, the secrecy surrounding your proposals – with no mention of them on the Southeastern website – leaves a lot to be desired, especially from a company which already has a poor reputation for communication.

1) Proposal to stop Charing X-Lewisham-Gillingham trains calling at Charlton
It seems utterly perverse to reduce the number of trains calling at Charlton when it is being publicised as a stop for the North Greenwich Arena. Similarly, it will inconvenience passengers from north Kent and the Medway Towns planning to visit Olympic events there – people who need persuading to leave their cars at home.

2) Proposal to cut train services at Westcombe Park and close Woolwich Dockyard
Again, this is perverse and seems designed to protect Southeastern against financial loss rather than provide the best possible service to passengers. Displaced passengers will switch to Charlton, putting pressure on services you plan to reduce.

3) General proposals for stations on the Greenwich line and nearby
Cutting station stops on the Greenwich line and at Kidbrooke will only force people to seek alternatives during the Olympics. The Greenwich and Charlton area will be particularly badly affected by the Games, with Jubilee Line use made difficult by Olympic crowds and road capacity reduced by the Olympic Route Network. The only way to achieve a car-free Games will be to ensure ordinary Londoners can get around during the Olympics by running a full service, with longer trains, from first train to last – not to cut rail services as you propose.

One topic that’s close to people’s hearts and has been coming up habitually in conversations around Charlton recently are the Highcombe allotments. They are one of two in the Charlton area (the other one being at Cherry Orchard) and mean a lot to all sorts of different people. I know from experience; my dad has one back home in Dorset and it’s his pride and joy. Anything he can muster – from spinach to onions to strawberries (when the weather’s nice).

Greenwich Council is putting the price of renting allotments up, so the local people who pay a yearly lease for them are awaiting the news of how much more this is going to be. Some people within the Highcombe community have had the idea of breaking away from the council and privatising the allotments in order to avoid having to pay more for the land.

I spoke to a local resident who has rented land from the council for a few years now. She pays yearly, from April-April usually, but this year it has gone from April-June, so the announcement of how much the price will go up by won’t be until then. Her main concern about going private involves a number of factors and suggests it would be much better to keep the allotment under the maintenance of the council.

Her main concerns are that if the allotments went private, there would be extra costs to pay and sort out that the council does now already. These include a possible water meter, maintenance of the fence, finding a skip which at the moment is provided by the council, and finding manure, which at the moment is delivered by the council twice a year. She feels these costs which are included in the yearly lease fee at the moment will add all sorts of extra costs and burdens to the residents.

At the moment, the woman I spoke to only shares a small patch with someone else, but she told me there are lots of families who have much bigger areas to maintain and so it would cost them a lot more if prices went up. She said she may well have to give her rods up because it will be difficult to pay for, which is a shame for people who spend their time reading, planting and relaxing.

She did stress that the council has been pretty good up until now with helping residents out and maintaining the allotment. This is just one opinion. Maybe you have a different opinion and think the only way to save it is to privatise it. I’d love to hear.

I managed to miss Lloyd Scott crawl along Charlton Road, but I just bumped into him on Woolwich Road, as he attempts to be the London Marathon’s slowest finisher. He’s crawling the route on behalf of Action For Kids, and you can read more about his adventures on his blog. Can’t be fun in this weather…