Forest Hill Assembly
Sunday 14 August, 2pm - 4.30pm
Sydenham School
Dartmouth Road, SE26 4RD
Minutes of the meeting
1. Welcome, introduction and format for the meeting.
Cllr Feakes, chair of Forest Hill Assembly welcomed everyone to the assembly and explained to the attendees that there were 17 projects all bidding for a share of the £45,026.40 Assembly Fund. All the applicants have been allocated stalls and attendees are asked to visit each stall to learn more about the applications. People will then be asked to rank project from 17 – 1 with ‘17’ representing the favoured project and ‘1’ the least favourite. The voting will close at 3.30pm and the votes will then counted, the highest ranked projects will receive the funding until the £45,000 has been spent.
Special announcement – Bengu, a local Forest Hill resident told the assembly that she is fundraising for Macmillian Cancer Support and next week at Mayow Park the ‘Wacky Olympics’ will take place with all money going to Macmillian. The event will be on Saturday 20 August from 12 – 3pm and will include a ‘Beat the Goalie’ competition and a Bouncy Castle.
The next part of the assembly saw the attendees visit the 17 stalls to ascertain more about the proposed projects. Each attendee had already been issued with a pack containing project summaries (see below) and on each stall there were copies of each proposal in full.
2. The Assembly Fund proposals
Proposal A – Man Digs Pond
Applicant – Friends of Albion Millennium Green
Amount applied for - £500
Project Description - Over24 hours, from midday to midday the following day, A Man will create a wildlife pond in Albion Millennium Green, complete with a garden bog area, flora and fauna and a rock garden designed to benefit amphibians. The pond will be surrounded by a rope barrier to comply with health and safety regulations.
Throughout the 24 hour period, the audience is free to come and go as they wish. They will be able to observe A Man working. The event will be free but the audience will be invited to make a donation towards future projects which benefit The Green and there will be a simple self-service ticket system to keep track of audience numbers. A programme, (free) will provide educational material regarding the benefits of wildlife ponds as well as information about the performance.
The projects legacy will be a wildlife pond to benefit humans and wildlife for many years to come.
Proposal B – Open Air Theatre on Albion Millennium Green: A Feasibility Study
Applicant – Friends of Albion Millennium Green
Amount applied for - £1,000
Project Description - The aim is identify a suitable location and design specification for a performance space on Albion Millennium Green.
Albion Millennium Green is situated at the end of Albion Villas Road on the border between Forest Hill and Sydenham. It is a short walk from Forest Hill Library.
The Green was one of 245 greens created across the UK in 2000 by the Countryside Agency. All greens have a number of aims which include commitments regarding nature and wildlife, leisure and exercise and making “a substantial contribution to the whole community”. They also should include an area suitable for community events.
Already boasting a successful wildlife habitat and community orchard, in recent years, a number of drama productions have been staged for children on the Green. These include the Bedlam Bunch’s audience participation shows each May Day and more recently an adaptation of “The Wind in the Willows”. These have been well received by the young audience.
The aim of the feasibility study will be to look into the best way to create a dedicated performance space on the Green.
Landscape architect consultants would then be employed to look into the suitable positioning and design of stage and seating area as well as costings. It is further envisaged that this would very open and consist solely of natural elements – grassy mounds, trees and bushes, rather than buildings. The local community would be asked for suggestions on making the space as green and unique as possible.
It is important that the study addresses access for people of differing abilities and provides a safe environment for children.
It is hoped that the eventual Millennium Green Open Air Theatre would become a visitor attraction to complement the museum and pools already in Forest Hill. Furthermore it is hoped that its purely natural construction would not only be relatively vandal-proof but would stand as a new environmental landmark.
The eventual theatre space will attract more theatrical productions to the green and increase the artistic profile of Forest Hill. The theatre will enhance the cultural opportunities available to local residents – especially its younger ones. This in turn provides an essential introduction to theatre for children.
As the Green is open to all, the space will also serve as a “play theatre” for children who wish to perform for one another.
Proposal C – Kirkdale Village Beautification
Applicant – Kirkdale Village Traders Association
Amount applied for - £1,000
Project Description - The project will help to beautify a neglected area of Forest Hill and to unify the traders and residents in Kirkdale and the surrounding area (Kirkdale Village). We envisage six solid planters with bicycle hooks attached (many of our customers complain about the lack of bicycle-parking facilities). The planters will be filled with flowers which will be planted and tended by local people in a series of public gardening sessions (we have a team of willing hands at the ready).
We will also commission and purchase signs for each end of Kirkdale, welcoming visitors to Kirkdale Village.
We will launch a public competition to design a decorative street art feature running along the stretch of road between Dartmouth Road and Sydenham Park Road to the Woodman Roundabout and then Kirkdale /Kelvingrove at one end and Kirkdale/Peak Hill at the other end. We will seek sponsorship for the winning design to be manufactured.
We would also like six or more trees to be provided and planted by the Highways Department along with further bicycle stands (for a good example please see the stretch of Walworth Road near East Street, where groups of trees have been planted and silver cycle stands and benches). We would also like to work with the Highways Department on traffic calming measures (zebra crossings) around the junction of Kirkdale and Dartmouth Road, to take trade to the business on the North Side of the street. A crossing outside Tesco would be welcome, too, to help people cross the road safely there.
The Kirkdale Street Beautification project will make an important visual statement to accompany our current campaign to improve community spirit and bring more trade to our stretch of Kirkdale. The area is already becoming known for its quirky businesses which include a piano shop, French bakers, costume hire shop, upmarket skincare clinic, bespoke carpenter and Spanish shop/cultural centre. We hope to attract more innovative traders and cultural groups (pop-up art galleries and new eateries, for example), to improve trade and to promote a friendly, stimulating and inclusive home environment for residents throughout the area.
Other plans for the coming year include a number of events, including a Halloween event, Christmas lights and Easter Event as well as the planting events. We have already held a very successful Easter Event to launch the ‘Village’, attended by 300 people. We also instigated a Big Lunch Street Party and hosted Film and Theatre Nights, pop-up theatre events and art exhibitions as part of the Sydenham Arts Festival. We are now working on a Kirkdale Village Loyalty Card scheme.
Proposal D – Healthy Living Workshops: Teaching and encouraging cooking, nutrition and gardening
Applicant – Centrepoint
Amount applied for - £1,500
Project Description - A significant number of our Young People are from Forest Hill Ward, and tend to frequent the local fast food shops.
We want to encourage Young People to grow, cook and eat healthier food, and we hope that during the programme the Young People will learn all about these three areas.
The project has already been quite successful, gaining £300 of funding for kitchen equipment (chopping boards, saucepans, utensils and crockery etc) and £500, which has been used to develop an allotment in the garden (including sweet corn, beetroot, potatoes, cabbages, lettuces, tomatoes, strawberries, herbs and much more) and we have run 1 cooking workshop so far. However, the feedback that we got from the Young People was that the thing that demotivates them from cooking every day was having to keep their cooking equipment in their bedrooms. Some of them have to drag their pots, pans and everything else up/down several flights of stairs each time they want to cook. If they forget something, it’s a bit too much for them to make it worth cooking. It can also be a health and safety issue to keep carrying heavy things / lots of things up and down the stairs.
There have also been some food hygiene issues in bedrooms that we would like to resolve.
Therefore, we are applying for funding to get some lockers so that young people can keep their implements in the kitchen without the need to keep walking up and down several flights of stairs.
This will achieve:
· More Young People cooking and getting involved
· Improved general health in Young People, reducing local NHS bills
· Reduced anti-social behaviour in the local area, which can be linked to bad moods as a result of a poor diet
· Linking in with other community / garden projects, eg, Grow Mayow and Sydenham Gardens: more community involvement
· Improved environmental awareness for Young People
· Improved independent living skills for Young People
Proposal E – Horniman theme for empty shops
Applicant – The Forest Hill Society
Amount applied for - £1,600
Project Description - This project would turn empty shop fronts into a showcase for the exhibits on display within Horniman Museum. As well as promoting the museum, this would provide visual interest to shop fronts in Forest Hill, in a conservation area, give a cultural boost to the town centre, make the high street a visually more pleasant places to spend time and do shopping, and bring in new businesses.
Shop fronts will be transformed in two ways; the use of self adhesive vinyl panels in appropriate shop windows, and for other shop fronts, where self adhesive vinyl panels would not be appropriate, we would use large printed posters which fit with the theme of exhibits at the museum. Additionally we would like to work with local artists to paint some fake frontages on boarded up units, in keeping with the conservation area.
Initial shops we would target:
First floor WH Smiths
Palm Pizza – Dartmouth Road
Unit next to Wok Express – Dartmouth Road
Bakery close to Bird in Hand – Dartmouth Road
Aceri – London Road
Blue Mountain Coffee Shop – Devonshire Road (opposite the Hob)
Other units on Dartmouth Road close to Derby Hill and towards Kirkdale
This is as an important way to start making a significant difference to the high street and we believe that following this success we can involve more of the artistic community around Forest Hill to add new attractive features to the town centre.
Proposal F – Wildlife Hedgerow and Fencing and 8 New Fruit Trees for Albion Millennium Green Community Orchard
Applicant – Friends of Albion Millennium Green
Amount applied for - £1,628
Project Description - This boundary, currently a partly collapsed brick wall, is the first view of The Green that visitors see approaching down Albion Villas Road. The area is prone to fly-tipping which is detrimental to wildlife and presents an unhappy first impression. The new fence and hedge will improve aesthetics, discourage tipping and provide valuable wildlife habitat. Importantly, the new fence will help prevent anyone falling down the 1.5 metre drop into The Green. We will also extend the existing successful Community Orchard with the addition of 2 apple, 2 pear, 2 cherry and 2 fig trees.
This will bring the total number of planted fruit trees to 24 and increase the bio-diversity on The Green with the addition of Fig and Cherry. The aim of The Community Orchard is to provide fruit locally for generations to come while offering the possibility of selling future surplus production to provide a small annual income for The Green. We will also repair the existing fencing, which is collapsing, just inside the gates at The Green end of the road. The style of fence will be the same as the above existing 3 rail fence. The intention is to use oak fence posts and rails. And we will plant wildlife-friendly hedging along the inside line of the new fence to add to the hedging already planted there by Nature’s Gym.
Proposal G – Busy Bees - Lively sessions for under fives and their parents, grandparents and carers at the Horniman Museum
Applicant – Horniman Museum and Gardens
Amount applied for - £3,420
Project Description - The Museum welcomes over 100,000 local under 5s a year. Busy Bees sessions provide important early years learning opportunities for up to 13,000 under 5s and their carers in the Forest Hill area. Sessions open up the Museum to this audience, introducing them to museums and helping them feel comfortable with cultural institutions from an early age. The early years are fundamental to a child’s development and future learning so exposure to these experiences is vital. We run these sessions two mornings a week, on Wednesday and Friday.