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Greenwich news and information

Firefighters tackle Greenwich Millennium Village blaze

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Thirty firefighters were required to deal with a blaze at Metcalfe Court in Greenwich Millennium Village on Wednesday afternoon.

The fire started in a fifth floor flat and then spread to an apartment in the floor above, causing damage to both.

Six appliances were at the scene after the Fire Brigade were called at 2.30pm. Firefighters from Poplar, East Greenwich, Woolwich, Silvertown, Plumstead and surrounding fire stations had the fire under control two hours later.

Nobody was injured in the fire and the cause is currently under investigation.

Popular local newsagent passes away

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Last Evening Standard sign at Sabo Newsagents

Bette Sabo, a much loved local newsagent known to many local residents, has passed away at the age of 83.

Bette started working at the family shop in Stockwell Street seventy years ago when she was aged just 13 – a time when King George VI was on the throne and Britain was at war.

A funeral service for Bette will take place at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church on Crooms Hill on Tuesday 30th March at 1.30pm

University studies Stockwell Street land

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The University of Greenwich will soon start work on the site of the old Village Market in Stockwell Street.

Archaeological, ecological and geological surveys will take place and some of the disused buildings on the site will be pulled down.

The University plans to submit a planning application later this year for a new School of Architecture and campus on the site.

They have provided details on some of the investigations they will be carrying out on the site before any work can take place:

Before construction work begins, detailed studies are planned. Test pits will be dug to look at the archaeology of the site, which has been in use since at least the medieval period. Initial research indicates that building work over the centuries, and war-time bombs, have destroyed evidence from early periods, but the university will pay special attention to what remains of the 19th century maltings, which once supplied ale to the Spread Eagle Tavern.

Another investigation will establish whether there are still old petrol tanks beneath the forecourt of the disused petrol station on the site. If necessary, an expert team will carry out clean-up and remediation works. Greenwich Council has given permission for the removal of the petrol station, along with some other empty structures and hard landscaping. In order to preserve the streetscape for as long as possible, two large blocks on the frontage of Stockwell Street, John Humphries House and the disused storage unit at number 18-19, will remain standing for the time being.

Next weekend will mark the one year anniversary of the end of the much-loved Village Market which was held every weekend at the Stockwell Street site.

The land, which includes the John Humphries House office block, was sold to a developer who had planning permission for a mixed use development on the site but instead sold it on to the University of Greenwich.

London 2012 planning application to be decided March 23rd

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The planning application to use Greenwich Park at London 2012 will be decided by a meeting of the Council’s Planning Board on March 23rd.

Council planning officers have recommended to councillors that they support the controversial proposals.

If permission is granted, work will begin in Spring 2010 to prepare the Cross Country course. A test event will begin setting up in June 2011 and will be removed by August 2011.

Setting up of the actual event will begin in March 2012. The majority of the park will be closed for public access from 6th July to 3rd August 2012, with only the Children’s Playground and parts of the Flower Garden remaining open during that four week period.

Removal of equipment and structures associated with the games will take place between September – October 2012, with a reinstatement programme beginning in November 2012. The estimated date for the completion of the restoration/replacement of large areas of acid grassland is 2015.

The planning application has received the support – ranging from the enthusiastic to the conditional – of Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), the London Borough of Lewisham, British Grooms Association, Pentathlon GB, British Equestrian Federation (BEF), Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site Executive Group, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich Foundation for the Old Royal Naval College, Royal Parks, CABE and English Heritage.

It was opposed by the British Archaelogical Trust, the Blackheath Society and Garden History Society. The Woodland Trust and Friends of Greenwich Park were opposed to the Cross Country element of the plan.

The Greenwich Society urged the council to treat this only as outline permission. No to Greenwich Olympic Equestrian Events (NOGOE) submitted a petition of 13,000 signatures opposed.

2,099 individual letters were received by the Council in response to the planning application – 36 in support and 2,063 objections.

Local campaigners, NOGOE, had hoped that the Metropolitan Commons Act 1866 would prevent the Council giving permission for the Blackheath Circus Field to be used, thus scuppering the whole proposal, but council officials have batted away this complaint, saying the restrictions cited applied only to the historic “Commissioners” of the land.

They say “the functions of the Commissioners have not devolved to the Council. Accordingly, the section imposes no restraint upon the power of the Council to determine the planning application in accordance with the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.”

The meeting will take place at the Town Hall in Woolwich on March 23rd at 7pm 6.30pm and is open to members of the public.

Call for clarity over East Greenwich Library

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Dave Sharman, a Green Party candidate for the Peninsula ward, has written to Greenwich Council asking for assurances that East Greenwich Library will not be closed.

The library, donated to the community by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, is also home to Greenwich Community College’s Meridian Music Centre.

Greenwich Community College is currently undertaking a consultation process on the courses it can afford to offer after it had a 10% cut imposed on its “Adult Learner Responsive” budget this year.

The review involves all aspects of the college, including the Meridian Music Centre, although local Greens claim that staff have already been told the music centre will close at the end of this academic year.

Dave Sharman commented: “I hope the music college’s planned closure is not part of a wider project to do away with the library by stealth – the people of East Greenwich will not stand for that”

Cllr John Fahy, Greenwich Cabinet Member for Culture and Olympics, commented that “the Scheme [to refurbish the library] and Estimate is being costed and work will commence shortly“.

He added that he would continue to work with the Friends of East Greenwich Library and Ward Councillors “to maximise a long term future for the building“.