Charlton

Little Heath and Hillreach road safety measures planned after 1,100-strong petition

Darryl Chamberlain2 Comments

Back in November 2014, we covered a 1,100-name petition being handed into Greenwich Council demanding road safety improvements on Little Heath, Charlton and Hillreach, Woolwich, after newsagent Ash Patel was run down and killed outside his shop.

The area has long been notorious for speeding traffic, but it finally looks as if some action will be taken, with speed cushions planned for this stretch of road. We’re grateful to neighbour Jane Lawson, who brought us news of the original petition, for this update on the story.

Little Heath and Hill Reach, on the Charlton/Woolwich border

I attended a meeting with the Borough Engineer to update on the progress of the measures to calm traffic on Hill Reach.

As you know, TfL have refused a request for average speed cameras to be installed, despite that request having the support of the police. The policy states:

“The criteria for the implementation of a speed camera is that there must have been a minimum of four KSI (Killed or Serious Injuries sustained) collisions in a three year period within one kilometre of the proposed camera site and two of these must have been as a result of speeding.”

So there you have it. Not enough deaths.

However, the Borough does have authority to implement other measures and the plans for these will go to consultation shortly.

In brief, there will be speed cushions added, double yellow lines around the bus stop, a traffic island added with a wider refuge and two additional speed indicators.

Richard explained that the factors that had to be considered were the width of the road, the fact that it is a bus and emergency vehicle route and, further westwards on Little Heath, the spacing and position of the trees. That means that a pedestrian crossing cannot be placed as the sight lines would make it dangerous.

The department has carried out average speed checks and the results show that on the Little Heath stretch the average speed is 34/35mph and on the Hill Reach stretch average speed is 38mph, which is very high.

Commendably the department analysed data for a ten-year period to yield the patterns of deaths and RTCs – a pattern which would not have emerged in a shorter period of time.

The work is likely to be done in July and August during the school holidays, when traffic will be lighter. The road will probably need to be closed for a short time and diversions put in place.

So, it’s not quite the result we had hoped for, but the Borough has done a good job within the limitations of its powers, and it does show the impact of a local petition with hand written names and addresses.

At well over a thousand signatures the depth of local feeling was very clear.

Seven up: Smaller Valley House scheme gets council go-ahead

Darryl Chamberlain1 Comment

Valley House render
The previous Valley House scheme was nine floors high, the new one is seven storeys

Greenwich Council’s planning board has backed plans for a seven-storey block of flats on Woolwich Road, six months after it threw out a request to build a nine-storey development.

Developers want to knock down Valley House – a former office block on the corner of Gallions Road – and replace it with 73 flats.

The approval, which came at a meeting on Tuesday evening, comes after months of wrangling over the development. Last June, councillors deferred a decision after objecting to a separate entrance for residents living in “affordable” housing in the scheme. Then in September, a revised proposal was rejected on the chair’s casting vote.

This time around, 10 objections were received, with the Charlton Society and Central Charlton Residents Association – which covers an area south of the railway line – commenting that the building was still too bulky. There were 80 letters of support, many of which used a generic text praising developer London Green’s scheme.

11 of the 73 flats are due to be “affordable”, including seven for social rent. Councillors placed a condition on the development that it be advertised domestically before it is promoted to foreign buyers.

Charlton’s Hornfair Park BMX track: Fantastic or a flop?

Darryl Chamberlain16 Comments
A near-deserted Hornfair Park BMX track on Sunday afternoon (photo: Clare Griffiths)
A near-deserted Hornfair Park BMX track on Sunday afternoon (photo: Clare Griffiths)

A few years back, plans for a BMX track in Hornfair Park were wildly controversial. On one side, neighbours had slightly wild visions of young people up to no good. On the other, Greenwich Council was playing fast and loose in its eagerness to get the thing built.

Sound familiar?

Anyhow, a Charlton Champion chum took her son there on Sunday… and found it deserted. We’ve had anecdotal reports that the BMX track isn’t being used as much as it could be – others simply don’t know it’s there.

We do know there’s an established BMX club that uses it, but it’s hard to shake off the feeling that it’s becoming yet another poorly-promoted local facility.

But what do you think? Did the BMX track live up (or down) to your expectations? Will the Easter holiday see a surge in kids on bikes heading for the track? And with the skateboard park looking like becoming a reality in Charlton Park, what lessons can be learned from the BMX track? We’d like to know.

Do you have the broadband you need in Charlton? Greenwich Council would like to know

Nikki4 Comments
se7bband
Recent broadband speed test results for Charlton, taken from broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk

Keen readers of the council’s Greenwich Time paper will have spotted that this week’s front page story was about how the council has given permission for a start-up company to trial its grocery-delivering robots in Thamesmead. This is the latest announcement under its Smart City strategy, and the publicity has played heavily on futuristic self-driving cars and robots.

There’s a lot more to the Smart City strategy that the council published last year than that, though, which is worth a read if technology infrastructure and planning is your thing.  The document spends very little time talking about shopping robots and concentrates more on whether Greenwich borough will have the right digital infrastructure for the future, along with whether the council can make more use of open data and internet-enabled sensors on council premises.

You might have missed, meanwhile, that the council would like to know more about your experience of using broadband services in the borough.

There’s a survey here, open until April 23rd, and it’s probably in the long-term interests of anyone struggling with connectivity to fill it in so that the scale of any problems are known.

Back in 2013, we reported that Charlton was supposed to have London’s fastest broadband – is that still right? How is your internet connection? Do you run a business dependent on internet connection or work from home in Charlton and how do you get on? What would you tell the council about the digital future that it hasn’t asked?

 

Vote Valley Grove Growers! Help create a new community garden in Charlton

Neil Clasper1 Comment

Valley Grove estate

Residents of the Valley Grove Estate are working on plans to create a new community garden on the disused land above, and are asking for your help to secure funding from the Tesco Bags of Help scheme.

Organiser Karin Tucker tells us: “It is a project aimed at improving social involvement by growing our own vegetables, herbs and flowers. We have been successful in our application and now need people to vote for us in order to get either £8,000, £10,000 or £12,000!”. Voting is from 27 February until 6th March at local branches of Tesco, including Woolwich, Greenwich, Plumstead, Eltham, Deptford and Thamesmead.

Karin explains: “When you make a purchase you will be given a token at the till and there will be three projects to vote for.  Ours is called ‘Valley Grove’.

You can find the Valley Grove Estate Residents Group on Twitter: @ValleyGroveRes1.

 

Former Invicta Primary School pupil? You’re invited to its street party on 19 March

Darryl Chamberlain2 Comments

Invicta Primary School

Recognise yourself in these photos? If you’re an old pupil or teacher at Invicta Primary School, you’re invited to a street party to mark the end of its old 1950s buildings.

Invicta Primary School

Thousands of Charlton children have been educated in those old buildings – among the school’s former pupils is actor Daniel Day-Lewis, who namechecked it and Sherington when he won a Bafta in 2008.

Now former staff and pupils are invited to a street party on Saturday 19 March to mark the closure of the old buildings and their replacement with new facilities built on the old playground.

Invicta Primary School

Invicta Primary School

The old buildings replaced the original school, destroyed by a parachute mine in 1940. Considering it was an infant school for much of its existence, these must be a bit of a squeeze for older pupils.

Invicta Primary School

Invicta Primary School

Here are the new buildings – apparently due for completion in April. The school’s also expanding in other ways, opening a new site in Deptford to replace the old Charlotte Turner School.

If you recognise yourself in those old photos, want to share your memories of the school, or want more information about the street party, drop the school a line at admin[at]invictaprimary.co.uk.

The winter shelter at St Thomas’ Church, Charlton still needs you

Nikki3 Comments

IMG_2425If you’re a member of the congregation of St Luke’s or St Thomas’ churches, you’ll already know this, but it came as a surprise to some of us: there’s a winter shelter for homeless people in St Thomas’ hall, and still has another six weeks left to run.

The weather can be cruel at the start of the year and while you may see more campaigns around Christmas, the need for shelter is just as pressing now.

Seven churches across Greenwich borough take part in the night shelter project, run by volunteers, with each church opening their doors one night of the week.

St Thomas’, working together with the congregation of St Luke’s, welcomes its guests on Fridays. They arrive at 7pm, are offered showers and a hot meal, breakfast the next morning and a packed lunch to take with them. The hall can hold 15 people and most of these places are usually taken, with between 12 and 15 people normally sheltering for the night.  

Most guests are now regulars, and the volunteers have got to know them well.

Volunteers get ready for Friday night
Beds ready to be made up

We asked James Kinsella, a volunteer at the shelter, to describe the experience of running the shelter in one word, and he chose “humbling”.  

He says volunteers have found the project rewarding and that they have been made “more aware of the plight of the homeless in London”. James says his attitude to homeless people has changed:

I am more aware of the homeless that are on the street in this cold weather, and if I give them some money I don’t cast judgement on how they spend it: if I was out in this cold weather I may need some alcohol to numb the pain

Asked how he thought guests found the shelter, James says he hopes they have found the church hall “a very warm and welcoming place where they are treated with dignity and kindness”.

IMG_2427

If you’d like to support the valuable work that St Thomas’ Church is doing this winter, while there are enough volunteers, the team woud be very grateful for donations.

You can donate food to the shelter by leaving it at the church after 4pm on a Friday, or you can donate money.  The church has a good relationship with its local community and already receives a good amount of food, but it also needs to pay for heating, fresh food and lighting, so money is – if anything – more welcome.  

Cheques should be made out to St Thomas’ PCC and can also be dropped off at the church – the volunteers can give you a written acknowledgement of your donation if they know your name.