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Greenwich news and information

Cabinet member to appear before Standards Committee

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A MEMBER OF Greenwich Council’s cabinet will this week appear before a meeting of the Standards Committee.

A meeting of the committee will take place on Monday at Woolwich Town Hall behind closed doors. Although the published agenda doesn’t name the subject of the investigation, this website understands they will be considering a complaint against Councillor John Fahy.

Cllr Fahy will be responding to claims made about his handling of the transfer to library services to social enterprise Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL) earlier this year.

The cabinet member, who was in charge of culture and preparing for London 2012 until just a few months before the Games, and the MD of GLL are both directors of a charity supporting education and sports projects in Ghana.

Cllr Fahy was unavailable for comment and Greenwich Council declined to comment.

Chris Roberts: We oppose closing Lewisham A&E

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GREENWICH COUNCIL is opposing the closure of Lewisham A&E, its leader has confirmed.

The controversial proposal to close the emergency ward at Lewisham Hospital is one of the recommendations in the NHS Trust Special Administrator’s draft report on the future of South London Healthcare Trust (SLHT).

But Councillor Chris Roberts has told this website, “We’re opposing the closure of the Accident & Emergency at Lewisham and the Maternity Unit at Lewisham.”

A draft response has been published on the council’s website and is expected to be agreed next week before being submitted as an official reply to the Trust Administrator’s consultation.

The decision to join calls for Lewisham A&E to be saved comes weeks after thousands of local people took to the streets to protest and a vocal campaign by Lewisham MPs and the council. But the leader of Greenwich Council defends the time taken by the Royal Borough to decide whether to formally oppose the plans:

“It will always be difficult if someone comes along and says ‘we’re going to shut down the Accident and Emergency in your borough.’ You will always have a tone and immediate reaction.

“But the first question, frankly, we had to ask is ‘If we say we don’t support the closure of Lewisham, does that mean you come back and close Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH)?’

“We produced a long list of questions that were added to by our Health Scrutiny Panel that we gave to the Trust Administrator and said ‘Before we say where we’re coming down on this, we want to know the answers to some of these.'”

Cllr Roberts says he now believes that the case for keeping QEH has been made, enabling them to join the calls to save Lewisham A&E:

“We’re very clear now from everyone we’ve spoken to, and we’ve had several conversations with the Administrator, that because of the existence of the PFI, which is paying for the renewal of the equipment every 5 years at Queen Elizabeth, you still have to pay that whether you keep the facility there or not so it doesn’t make financial sense to say ‘We’ve got to pay for this but we won’t have it.'”

He continues: “Because Queen Mary [in Sidcup] has already lost its A&E, on any analysis of travel times and accessibility you couldn’t really swap Lewisham for QEH but we wanted to make sure they felt that as well because whilst we don’t think they should close Lewisham A&E, we didn’t want to find that by making one argument they were just going to cut something else.”

Cllr Roberts does, however, support the idea of Lewisham’s and Greenwich’s hospital being run by the same trust.

“We’re broadly welcoming of putting Greenwich and Lewisham together in a hospital trust. One of the things that’s been missed out in the discussions is that Lewisham did bid to run QEH when the expressions of interest were sought from NHS bodies or independent providers.”

The comments from the Leader of Greenwich Council were part of a wide ranging interview with Greenwich.co.uk that will be published in full soon.

Developer plans new apartments in Blackwall Lane

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A CAR wash could be turned in to twenty new homes if a developer’s planning bid is successful.

An application has been submitted to Greenwich Council to redevelop the site of the ARC car wash in Blackwall Lane.

The new five-storey development would have twenty duplex apartments and commercial space at the ground level. Parking for 15 cars is also included in the planning application.

Previous applications for similar proposals were submitted in the past, with the council refusing the most recent because of air quality concerns although permission was given after an independent appeal for 14 apartments.

The developer behind the plan is Greenwich-based Mulberry Building Developers who were also responsible for the Blue Building, the Vista Building, Pleasaunce View, Pleasaunce Mansions and new houses in Banning Street.

See the planning application

Competition: Win a copy of Greenwich Then & Now

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Here’s your chance to win Greenwich Then & Now – a collection of local scenes presented with a modern image and a photo from days gone by. The images have been brought together in this attractive hardback book, published by History Press, by respected historians Barbara Ludlow and Julian Watson.

To win Greenwich Then & Now, simply email rob@greenwich.co.uk with the answer to this question:

Which Greek goddess is depicted in the statue given to the Royal Borough of Greenwich by Ancient Olympia this year?

A winner will be chosen at random on Monday 3rd December at noon.

Update: Well done to Chris V for winning the competition – thanks for the entries.

Belle to close at the end of year

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Greenwich People: Karin Tearle

A POPULAR local fashion boutique will close its doors for the last time at the end of the year.

Belle in College Approach will close after deciding not to renew its lease after almost nine years.

Shop owner Karin Tearle told Greewnich.co.uk she was “extremely grateful” to her “loyal followers.”

She thanked the “customers and businesses who have supported the business over the years.”

Before closing, Karin is planning various sale events throughout December – keep up to date on them on the Belle Facebook or Twitter pages.

Greenwich People: Linda Cunningham

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Greenwich People: Linda Cunningham

Born and bred in Eltham, Linda Cunningham is passionate about Greenwich and its history.

“I love Greenwich for its diversity and its history. I remember when I was working in the post office in Greenwich back in the late 70s, I used to walk along to the naval college gates and gaze through them but could never get in.”

Eventually Linda did get in and now she combines her love of Greenwich and of history in her job as a guide at the Old Royal Naval College. But she worries that some of Greenwich’s history is being lost:

“As local historians in the area are getting older or moving away, there are stories that are not being handed on. You can read history books on Greenwich but it’s the personal, funny stories that are not being passed on. Stuff that you can’t read in [Clive] Aslet and [John] Bold.”

The historian, who conducted extensive Greenwich research for her Ba(Honours) History, is now setting up her own course for people who want to learn about local history and share their stories too.

It’s an eight week course of two hour sessions, to be held inside Discover Greenwich.

“The first hour will be a presentation with me telling the facts as I can ascertain from every source possible. The second half will be about discussion and debate where we can talk about hearsay and things that are maybe less than factual but nevertheless really interesting.”

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Borough bids to host Tall Ships Race

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Thalassa at Woolwich

THE ROYAL Borough of Greenwich has submitted a bid to host the annual Tall Ships Race.

If successful, Woolwich would be a host port in the 2016 race, which is organised by Sail Training International.

The bid to host the race comes as the council tries to build a legacy from interest in this summer’s Sail Royal Greenwich event.

A report presented to councillors on the Overview and Scrutiny Committee last week says that “12,000 individuals and 1,500 corporate customers took the opportunity” to see London from Sail Royal Greenwich’s 14-ship fleet that sailed daily from Woolwich during this summer’s Olympics.

A five-person bid delegation including Councillor Chris Roberts, Councillor Peter Kotz, who has cabinet responsibility for Culture, the Chief Executive of Greenwich Council and two council officers travelled to Riga in Latvia two weeks ago for the Sail Training International and Tall Ships Conference.

A spokesperson for the Royal Borough of Greenwich commented:

“Developing the Royal Borough as the home for Tall Ships in London would provide an excellent boost to this sector of the economy. The conference is the only event of its kind, and presented a unique opportunity to promote the borough and its attractions to a global audience of Tall Ships Operators and to meet with other ports.

“It provided an opportunity to study and learn from other host ports the requirements of hosting regattas and races on a large scale. As a result of attendance at the conference, contact was made with Tall Ship Operators and the potential for further visits was discussed.”

Greenwich Council also says it is developing a proposal for a Tall Ship regatta at Woolwich in 2014.

The first Tall Ships Race took place in 1956 with twenty tall ships sailing from Torquay to Lisbon.