The Charlton Champion

Charlton Neighbourhood Forum: Play your role in Charlton’s future

July 5, 2019June 19, 2023The Charlton Champion

The forum aims to involve local people in the redevelopment of Charlton’s riverside

With Charlton about to see huge changes over the next 20 years, a group of residents want to set up a neighbourhood plan – a legal planning document which ensure local people have a genuine say in the future of the area. JODIE COUGHLAN, one of the organisers, explains more, and invites you to its first public meeting on Saturday 13 July.

Since its inception in November 2017, Charlton Together – a collective of local groups in Charlton (including Charlton Central Residents’ Association (CCRA), Derrick & Atlas Residents’ Association (DAGRA), SE7 Action Group, The Charlton Society, Valley Hill Hub, and the Charlton Parkside Community Hub) have worked tirelessly and campaigned ceaselessly as a voice for residents and businesses on planning and development issues in Charlton and Charlton Riverside.

There have been ups and downs along the road, the down being the Fairview development on Victoria Way being approved by Greenwich Council’s planning board in January 2018, the up having successfully fought the Rockwell development on Anchor & Hope Lane at City Hall a year later.

More recently Charlton Together has been working on a more proactive approach to planning and development, by becoming a neighbourhood forum. We would like as many people who live and work in the area to get involved, to help create a Neighbourhood Plan for Charlton.

In order to get the project off the ground, Charlton Together have had a stand at Charlton Station, and several local outdoor events. We’ll also be at the Sherington School Summer Fair tomorrow.

What’s it all about?

In order to produce a neighbourhood plan, we first need to set up the Charlton Neighbourhood Forum, which is a group of local people that live and work in the area.

A neighbourhood plan (supported by the Localism Act 2011) gives the community the right to influence the form of development locally, and is a formal planning document, written by local people and businesses, and forms a material consideration when the Council decides planning applications. (See more detailed background.)

For a forum to be established, there needs to be at least 21 people from across Charlton, and it must be representative of the area. Membership of the forum is free and is open to anyone who living or working across Charlton (all the way from Charlton Riverside, Charlton Central, across Charlton Slopes (Victoria Way, Bramhope Lane, Wyndcliff, Mayhill, Hopedale, Sherington Roads to Eastcombe, Bramshot Avenues, Tallis Grove and Highcombe) across Charlton Road, up towards the Lido, including the roads around near to Charlton Park, Maryon Wilson Park and Maryon Park.

The proposed forum area – which covers the entire SE7 postal area plus areas included in the Charlton Riverside masterplan

Do I need planning & development expertise?

There will be many different roles in producing this plan, so tell us where you can help, whatever your skills they will be welcome. We believe that it will take time to create the plan, but think it will be well worth the effort.

How do I join the forum?

For more information, visit www.charltonneighbourhoodforum.com and click on ‘’Contact’’ to get in touch.

You can also come along to the forum’s first annual general meeting at the Assembly Rooms, Charlton Village, at 4pm on Saturday 13 July. At this meeting a committee will be formed, and officers elected. A constitution will also be agreed and the boundary of the plan area finalised.

After the AGM, an application to Greenwich Council will be made for formal designation.

PLEASE SUPPORT THE CHARLTON CHAMPION

We tell the SE7 stories you won’t read elsewhere. We can’t do it without your help.
– Please tell us about your news and events
– NEW! Advertise your business with us from just £10 (find out more)
– Become a monthly supporter at patreon.com/charltonchampion
– Donate to our running costs at paypal.me/charltonchampion

What happened at Maryon Park’s Big Picnic 2019?

July 5, 2019June 19, 2023The Charlton Champion

A group of neighbours who live near Maryon Park held a big picnic there last Saturday. HELEN JAKEWAYS, one of the organisers, explains what happened…

This was our fourth Picnic and once more we were extremely lucky with the weather. We were able to put on many more games and activities this year thanks to funds raised from Greenwich Council’s ward budget, Tesco Bags of Growth and sponsorship from Lovell.We were also kindly supported by the council’s Park Rangers team.

We hosted about 500 people over the course of the afternoon, including all the performers, group leaders, stall holders and our 30+ strong volunteer team and the main field in Maryon Park was bustling with activity surrounded by people enjoying their picnics in the shade provided by the trees round the edge of the park.

We enjoyed a couple of lovely dance performances and workshops run by Greenwich Dance, football sessions run by Charlton Athletic coaches which were enormously popular, non-contact boxing taster sessions with St Peter’s Amateur Boxing Club and late-arriving roaming hula hoops and basic circus skills sessions from Aircraft Circus.

There was a busy programme on and around the small stage including a set from Charlton based DJ Ed Simmons and performances from the Brass Band, the Woolwich Singers, The Tuesday Morning Recorder Group and Creative Generation Dance and Gymnastics, all kept in order by MCs Christopher Seaden and Justine Bennett from Charlton Parkside Community Hub.

We were delighted to have our stage powered entirely by the sun and can highly recommend the Solar Roller, run by the Minesweeper Collective (enquiries to minesweepercollective[at]gmail.com) – this comes complete with a sound system and lovely technician Camden, who has attended our event for three years now.

We had a broad range of games for smaller children to play with and on including our stable of pink space hoppers and a very busy creative making tent hosted by Liz Buck from St Luke’s Church. A more sedate guided tree walk was hosted by the Friends of Maryon and Maryon Wilson Parks. Community stalls included the 38th Woolwich Scout Group, the Brownies, Friends of Maryon and Maryon Wilson Park, Charlton Athletic Community Trust Youth Services, Riverwood (a Mencap-funded carpentry project), Friends of Windrush School, Neighbourhood Watch, Greenwich Dance, the St Thomas Church Tuesday Group and the local Neighbourhood Forum. Woodhill Brewing Collective (Simon, Dan and Owen) were on site selling their very popular homebrew, the profits from which they generously donate to the St Thomas Church Night Shelter project every year and there were soft and not-so soft drinks on sale organised by Andrew Donkin from Valley Hill Community Hub.

The Community Garden was open for the afternoon so the whole park really was busy. The event was rounded off by some very competitive sack, egg and spoon, three-legged and space hopper races, the tug-of-war and raffle, proceeds from which will be used to support the St Thomas Church Night Shelter project. This free local event aimed at families is growing in confidence every year, but we aim to keep it small and manageable so there is plenty of space and opportunity for everyone to enjoy the afternoon.

Huge thanks are due to all those who pitched in this year – volunteers, performers, groups running the activity sessions, stall holders and of course the audience who turned up to help make it all such a special afternoon. We are always looking for local volunteers to help especially with fundraising, planning and stewarding on the day – if you’d like to be involved next year please contact Charlton Parkside Community Hub Admin on cpchadm[at]gmail.com.

PLEASE SUPPORT THE CHARLTON CHAMPION

Greenwich Council set to finally approve Morris Walk Estate demolition

July 3, 2019June 19, 2023Darryl Chamberlain1 Comment

Greenwich Council’s cabinet is poised to approve the demolition of Morris Walk Estate next week – a year after the next stage of the redevelopment of three estates in Woolwich was due to begin.

Morris Walk, on the Woolwich/Charlton border, along with neighbouring Maryon Road estate and Woolwich’s Connaught Estate, are being redeveloped by developer Lovell as part of the £269 million council-backed One Woolwich scheme, agreed under former leader Chris Roberts. The Connaught has already been demolished and the Trinity Walk development has risen in its place.

Remaining tenants and leaseholders have been left in limbo by delays to the scheme, with Greenwich Council denying last year that the project had been delayed until 2027. Demolition had been due to start in autumn 2018.

Papers to go before the cabinet next Wednesday recommend approving the demolition of the estate. However, there is still no date set for new buildings to be erected on the site, with the cabinet report stating “without this instruction, the site would remain derelict and subject to flytipping and antisocial behaviour activities with concerns of security and health and safety”. The cabinet is the council’s main decision-making body, made up of councillors picked by its leader Danny Thorpe.

The redevelopment of the estates had originally been billed as being at no cost to taxpayers. But there has been frustration within the council at the slow pace of the project. Greenwich is exercising an option to underwrite Lovell’s costs of £14.3 million to knock the estate down.

Legal advice states that there is only a “remote risk” of Lovell’s development not going ahead, noting that if Lovell did walk away, the council could develop housing on the site itself or sell the land for profit. “The risk is that the demolition takes place and the developer walks away,” a note states. “[Greenwich is] required to pay the costs of the demolition. However, if the site is clear [the council has] a saleable asset in terms of a fully demolished site, along with outline planning.”

There is also a second set of papers reconfirming a compulsory purchase order on the estate, with improved terms for leaseholders who are being bought out, who will now be given help to buy a home worth up to £550,000 within the borough of Greenwich.

This follows a ruling against Southwark Council in 2016 when the Westminster government refused to sign off the compulsory purchase of homes on the Aylesbury Estate in Walworth, where it was judged that Southwark had not offered enough money for leaseholders to buy a new home in the area. There are 24 leaseholders left on Morris Walk and Maryon Grove, with 91 council tenants.

Built for the London County Council by Taylor Woodrow Anglian from prefabricated parts in the mid-1960s, Morris Walk’s construction can be seen in some shots in the cult film Blow-Up, which featured scenes shot in and near Maryon Park. It was built in a similar fashion to the ill-fated Ronan Point tower across the Thames in Canning Town, which partially collapsed in 1968 after a gas explosion, killing four people. Morris Walk’s gas supply was removed soon after. Half a century on, many of the buildings are now in a poor state of repair as they await demolition.

Across the Connaught, Morris Walk and Maryon Road estates, 1,064 homes originally built for council rent will be replaced by 1,500 homes with 35% as “affordable”, a catch-all for a range of tenures from shared ownership, through proportions of market rent to social rent. Of the total number of homes, Greenwich Council says 25% will be for social rent. A topping-out ceremony took place at phase 3 of the Trinity Walk development on the Connaught site last week. Despite Greenwich Council’s press release boasting that 239 of the 684 homes – 35% – would be “affordable”, only 25% of the homes are for social rent, with a further 10% available through shared ownership schemes, according to papers filed in 2014.

The scheme follows the demolition of the Ferrier Estate in Kidbrooke, which had 1,910 council homes when completed in 1972, and its replacement with Berkeley Homes’ Kidbrooke Village development, which will have 738 homes at social rents when finished, along with a further 787 “affordable” homes.

PLEASE SUPPORT THE CHARLTON CHAMPION

We tell the SE7 stories you won’t read elsewhere. We can’t do it without your help. – Please tell us about your news and events
– NEW! Advertise your business with us from just £10 (find out more)
– Become a monthly supporter at patreon.com/charltonchampion
– Donate to our running costs at paypal.me/charltonchampion

The Boys from the Village: Charlton Athletic at War walk and seminar

July 1, 2019June 19, 2023Darryl Chamberlain

Charlton Athletic museum — The event begins at the Charlton Athletic Museum

Thanks to Charlton Athletic fan and war historian Steve Hunnisett for letting us know about an interesting event on Tuesday 6 August exploring the history of the Addicks during both world wars. The Boys from the Village starts off at the Charlton Athletic Museum, and includes a walk up the hill led by Steve and the museum’s Clive Harris to the White Swan, where there will be talks about the club and its players during both wars, including the youths from some of the earliest Addicks sides who were conscripted into the First World War. The event is free, so you can dip in and out of it as you please, and it is also a chance to visit the fantastic volunteer-run museum inside The Valley, which has flourished despite the ownership problems surrounding the club.

Poster for Charlton Athletic at War event

The museum is open to visitors from 4pm, the walk starts at 6.15pm, and the talks at the Swan begin at 7.45pm.

Faraday Works: Developer to host updated exhibition on Charlton Riverside development

June 30, 2019June 19, 2023Lara Ruffle Coles1 Comment

charlton-riverside-september-2018-9-9 — The Faraday Building, soon to be demolished, if U+I gets permission (photo: Neil Clasper)

Developer U+I is hosting a new exhibition for its Faraday Works development, next to the Thames Barrier, on 11 and 13 July. The exhibition intends to update local residents on U+I’s revised plans following a similar exhibition in February.

The developer intends to build 500 homes ranging from 6 to 13 stories, with at least 35% of the homes to be “affordable”, with a priority for housing at social rent (usually half of market rents). The scheme is reusing buildings from the giant Siemens cable works, which closed in the late 1960s.

The Wire Workshop element of the scheme would create 460 jobs as a co-working hub for local businesses, and the scheme also plans to keep light industry on site, with the Telegraph Works building being extended to accommodate industry downstairs and homes above.

The Faraday Building at 37 Bowater Road will be demolished as part of the development, with U+I stating that it has “reviewed ways to achieve full retention… but it is not possible to achieve the same levels of benefits without the removal of the Faraday Building. The replacement will replicate the materials and façade as faithfully as possible.”

bowater-v2 — Artist’s impression of the restored Bowater Road (photo: U+I)

Feedback from the first exhibition, in February, included requests for retail and community space, and U+I now plans to include a shop on Bowater Road and discounted use of the Wire Workshops facilities for residents. It also proposes a new museum focusing on the history of the site.

If you would like to review the exhibition boards from February, they can be found on the Faraday Works website.

The dates and times for the exhibition, to be held at 25 Bowater Road, on the Westminster Industrial Estate, are as follows:

Thursday 11 July 2019, 8am to 10am
Thursday 11 July 2019, 4pm to 8pm
Saturday 13 July 2019, 12pm to 4pm

SUPPORT THE CHARLTON CHAMPION

The Charlton Champion provides news and information about issues and events in London SE7.
– Help us by telling us your stories
– NEW! Advertise your business with us from just £10 (find out more)
– Become a monthly patron at patreon.com/charltonchampion
– Buy Lara a coffee at ko-fi.com
– Donate directly to the site at paypal.me/charltonchampion

Got a business or event? Advertise with the Charlton Champion from just £10 per week

June 24, 2019June 19, 2023Darryl Chamberlain

Are you putting on an event in south-east London, or do you have a business that could do with more customers? We’re delighted to announce that as of today, you can now place an advertisement on The Charlton Champion.

We’re even more delighted to confirm that Flying Squirrel Furniture of east Greenwich is our first advertiser, so pop in and see what they’ve got on offer – they’re at 102 Woolwich Road, by the flyover, and tell them we said thank you.

Advertising with us is affordable. Our ads start at £10 for a week, a fraction of what you’d pay to appear in our printed competitors. The difference between us and them is that people choose to read us – in the first six months of 2019 alone, we’ve reached 75,000 readers, almost as many as in the whole of 2018.

It’s also simple – our ads are provided by Sakaza, a product of Reach plc, one of the UK’s biggest media groups. You build an ad and pay them with your credit card, and your ad could appear as quickly as the next day. Go on, try it.

Your money is staying local – by advertising with us, you are helping secure the future of The Charlton Champion, which is published by Flyover Media, a Charlton-based community interest company providing independent local media in SE London.

Design and buy an ad now

If you’ve a business, event or service in Charlton or the surrounding areas, find out more about advertising with us – or start building an advertisement right now.

If you’re not a business, why not suggest it to your local pub, shop or tradesperson? We’d also love your support via Patreon – we’re hugely grateful to the people who have signed up recently to support us with a monthly donation. We’re also looking into new ways for people to support us – more information soon.

Would you like to write for us? We’ve recently welcomed Lara Ruffle Coles to the team, but more contributors are also welcome. Got an idea for something you’d like to write? Get in touch.

And, of course, please tell us your stories. Is your community group up to something exciting? Don’t keep it to yourself – you never know who else in Charlton might be able to help. Tell us about it, and let’s bring this community together.

PLEASE SUPPORT THE CHARLTON CHAMPION

Parksfest 2019 in Charlton Park: What did you think?

June 24, 2019June 19, 2023Lara Ruffle Coles1 Comment

Inclement weather was nowhere to be seen for Saturday’s Parksfest, with attendees soaking up the sun all afternoon. Face painting, drumming and skating were on offer – plus plenty of cake at the Great Charlton Cake Off stall.

Musical entertainment was provided by The Big Red Bus Club’s Baby Blues Choir, DJ Mikee C, Central Vibe and Ronnie Ripple and the RipChords, before Glenn Tilbrook closed the day’s events with a Squeeze filled set.

Saturday’s event was part of a wider series of Parksfest events run across Greenwich borough, and there are many more to come. Check out the Parksfest calendar for further details, and keep scrolling to see more from Saturday afternoon.

The skate park saw plenty of action…

The face-painting saw long queues….

And then there was the Great Charlton Cake Off….

You could try your luck on the wheel of fortune, or play crazy curling and basketball…

Ronnie Ripple & The RipChords played…

as did Glenn Tilbrook!

And here’s Glenn with his son Leon performing Squeeze’s Take Me, I’m Yours.

Now it’s all over, the Friends of Charlton Park team would like to know what you thought of the event. Please drop them a line at friendscharltonpark[at]gmail.com, or leave a comment below.