Deptford on the up

The Deptford Dame has posted about the poorly publicised consultation that occurred on Saturday (and the previous Wednesday) at The Albany, regarding the refurbishment of Douglas Way and surrounding market area – which she notes, is a pretty bleak area to walk through when the market isn't on.

She also notes that the improvement due to start in January 2011 are part of the North Lewisham Links project which is also due to go through our estate (and which galvanised John Rhodes into setting up crossfields.greenspaces.org) and are not related, funding-wise, to any improvements planned for the High Street...

The Dame attended on Saturday, and seems reasonably happy with what she heard. The consultants must've brushed up their act since Wednesday, when Guru Red went to a poorly attended meeting to find out what it was all about. She was joined by a couple of residents from the housing opposite The Albany, and a couple of street traders. They were told about ideas to move the market pitches:

- in the alley leading to the square, pitches would be moved to the centre, creating a wider path either side for access to the shops either side. The traders didn't like that.

- opposite The Albany, the pitches that line the south of the path would be moved to the side walls of the housing. The residents didn't like that. They already tolerate an inordinate amount of disturbance three days a week that makes their little houses shake. They were appalled by the idea of benches outside their homes that would more than likely become occupied by street drinkers.

The traders were also not pleased to hear that the storage space for their barrows was likely to be moved again since the new parking space (behind the Albany presently, but only just recently moved from the 'Deptford Project' yard) is privately owned and about to be developed. They also took the chance to complain about the new parking arrangements for visitors that has seen a large and significant drop off in trade.

Red Guru could hardly get a word in edgeways, but it occurred to her that it was a bit bloody late to be asking those immediately affected by the new plans for their opinions or ideas. Perhaps the Albany management had some input into the consultation at some point. The Dame commented that this consultation seems to be about what colour paving stones to have, and must have her tongue in her cheek when she says it would appear the 'start date of January 2011 is achievable'.

Personally, I'd go for some trees, mend and clean the paving that's already there, and IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT...Anything that needs any maintenance will almost certainly NOT BE MAINTAINED (Giffin Square is a prime example)...As usual, these things come round every ten years or so – we get new stuff built with some pocket of new funding, instead of proper and continued maintenance of what is already in place.

For a limited glimpse into the subject see the council's website here.
See the Deptford Dame's post here.

Meanwhile, didn't someone say (Joan?) that building on the new Deptford station would start in October? And what are the plans for the high street?

Postscript: I realise I have forgotten that pitches will need to be rearranged to accommodate a CYCLE PATH...one would imagine that this would be best situated running down the residential side...

The future is fragmented

Thanks to Deptford Dame for digging up an almost secret consultation process about the Future of Deptford Town Centre this weekend.  How comes nobody seemed to know about the upcoming consultation on the proposed developments for Douglas Way?  Who has been told about the meetings in the Albany Theatre tomorrow (Wednesday, 29 September, 4 - 7pm) and on Saturday (2 October, 10am - 12 noon)?

So as yesterday was a bit of a ''walk around making a nuisance of myself day'' I popped into the regeneration office in Unit 1, Resolution Way, to see what I could find out.  The initial conversation started off a little like this:


''I wanted to see what I could find out about the consultation that's coming up at the Albany.''
''We've already done it on Friday and Saturday''

Perplexed, this turned out to mean that not only was there an Albany-based consultation that nobody seemed to know about but that there had also been another Unit 1 consultation that nobody seemed to have known about as well.  How did that work out?

It appears that the office was talking about this consultation....

This particular consultation was specifically targeting the tenants who would need rehousing if the architects' plans got the go ahead.  I can't remember the exact order, but there would be a chain of rehousing which works out something like this;  build new flats on the Tidemill nature garden site, rehouse the residents of the block on the north side of Reginald Road, demolish this block and rebuild on that site, move residents in one block on Giffen Street into there, demolish that block and rebuild, and so on.  Until just about everybody has moved one block along.

The residents of Frankham House, which is on the same block of land, were not consulted on this.  It appears that the progressive rebuilding and rehousing of a local community does not concern them because they're not part of the rehousing chain.  These old Crossfields flats were built to last it seems.

So, regardless of the rights and wrongs about very targeted consultations that leave neighbours wondering about what's going on in the blocks next door, this fragmented approach to letting us have our say is how they're working.

More concerning, however, was that, while the man I spoke to, Gavin, was exceptionally helpful and communicative, he didn't actually know anything about the Albany consultation that Deptford Dame flagged up on Sunday.  I actually had to get him to type lewisham.gov.uk/deptfordtowncentre and steer him away from vainly looking at Lewisham's list of active consultations (where I've yet to track it down - while the link claims ''This site lists all consultation events being run by the Council'' there clearly is no trace of any of these consultations) before he knew what I was talking about.  So, absurd as it seems,  I've walked in off the street, asked about a consultation, and I'm actually telling him how to get to where a different wing of his own department is carrying out its consultations.

''Ah, it's the Douglas Way consultation!''

How are we supposed to find out what is going on when the Regeneration office doesn't know what its other hand if doing?  It seemed pointless to ask what kind of publicity, leafleting, etc is being carried out because Gavin would have had no way of answering.

It strikes me that there's something dysfunctional about all this.  Modern information technology allows people work in isolation - because information is easily circulated.  But this can only be effective if the information genuinely gets circulated.  Otherwise the whole thing becomes fragmented and uncoordinated, both within the council's offices and between the public and the council.

EDIT: I would like to re-emphasise that in no way do I want to criticise the person I spoke to.   Gavin's helpfulness was exemplary.  It's not the person, it's the structure that I'm unhappy with.  The simple fact that these consultations are not listed on the council's consultation page demonstrates that the system isn't functioning properly.