Greenwich news and information
Reason Provided By Petition Proposer
“My own pet peeve at the moment is cyclists in Greenwich Park not using the cycling path, but cycling along the road instead which is very dangerous for car drivers (well, and the cyclists themselves). Greenwich Council is considering reducing the speed limit from 30mph to 20mph for safety reasons but instead I wish they would just enforce the use of the cycle path for cyclists”
Petition
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Locog will be at the Pavillion Tea House in Greenwich Park on the 15th and 16th of May between 10am and 6pm to talk about their plans for Greenwich Park at the 2012 Olympics.
You probably will have heard or seen the spectacular fireworks display over HMS Illustrious last Thursday at 10pm. The Greenwich Phantom has some excellent pictures and it certainly made for an awesome spectacle.
But the next day, Malcolm contacted Greenwich.co.uk to make the point that because there didn’t seem to be any advanced notice or publicity for the fireworks, not as many people got to enjoy them as might otherwise have done so.
He also raised the issue of pet owners who would have wanted to keep their pets safely in, as advised to on Bonfire Night, had they known what was about to be unleashed into the sky at 10pm. Malcolm also tells me that one neighbour’s dog bolted when the noise started and had shown no sign of returning by the next day – hopefully he has been found safe and well since then.
I asked on Twitter what people thought about the fireworks and got a very different response from Peter, who wrote: “really enjoyed fireworks from back window. Kids loved them too.Delighted to have random displays from river. More please!”.
So, two very different perspectives on the Royal Navy’s evening display – but what did you make of it? Was it a nice surprise (after the damp squib helicopter flypast) or was it a night-time nuisance?
I noticed a problem with a set of traffic lights in Kingston at the weekend, and being a civic minded kind of chap, headed over to the Kingston Council website to report it. Whilst there, I noticed they had an “ePetitions” section where residents could sign up to make their voice heard in support of particular issues.
I did a bit of Googling, and it seems that there’s quite a few councils around the country that do this now, and I think it’s a smart idea. Probably the most well known use of ePetitions is on the 10 Downing Street, which has given people the chance to promote all manner of causes to the government, with the most recent high profile one calling for Gordon Brown to resign.
Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, Greenwich Council doesn’t offer an ePetitions system which is perhaps not surprising as I don’t think digital engagement is really their speciality. That’s a bit of a shame, as there’s no shortage of contentious issues where a petition might be quite useful. So in the absence of anything official, I thought we might try and set up some petitioning functionality on Greenwich.co.uk.
I’m evaluating the technical options for doing this at the moment, but if you have an idea for a petition to pilot the system and help get us going, send an email to rob@greenwich.co.uk
Or do you think ePetitions are a waste of time? Any comments on this are welcome.
The Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, has announced that he is accepting proposals for a “reconfiguration” of emergency healthcare in South East London.
Following the publication of contested proposals titled “A Picture of Health”, the Independent Reconfiguration Panel were asked to look into the matter and have now recommended that the 24-hour Accident and Emergency unit at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup close in two years.
Emergency services will instead be concentrated on Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, Princess Royal University Hospital and University Hospital Lewisham.
An e-Petition on the Downing Street website calling for the A&E unit to be saved garnered over 5,000 supporters, and a Facebook group called “Save our Services at Queen Mary’s Hospital” has over 2,000 members.
As part of the Fly Navy 100 series of events, there was a “Centenary Flypast” today which saw a selection of Royal Navy choppers (apparently one of each of their frontline models) fly in formation over Greenwich, and HMS Illustrious which is moored here for a week. I thought long and hard about the best place to capture this moment and decided that wandering across to Island Gardens would be my best bet. Once I was over there, it didn’t feel like such a great move as the helicopters were so high, it wasn’t really possibe to capture much Greenwich scenery in the background which is what I was hoping to get.
I heard the occasional snippet of commentary drifting across the river so I think on that side it may have been a more informed experience. But across the river we got to see the marching band on Lusty strike up and perform some of their greatest hits (“Rule Britannia”, “God Save The Queen”… that kind of thing) for a lucky group of spectators onboard.
I’d have to say the Flypast didn’t really live up to its billing. It was over pretty quickly and they were so high up, it was hard to see them in any detail and I don’t think there was the 40 that we were expecting to see, unless the Navy has some stealth ‘copters available to them! I heard one guy call it “underwhelming” and I think that may be the right word for it.
Looking around at some of the camera equipment on display around me, my Canon Powershot G9 seemed distinctly underpowered, but here’s some of what I got.
Here’s a video I put together with images of the flypast and other stuff I saw, such as boats on the river and the band on HMS Illustrious who are just about audible.
See also: Darryl’s coverage at 853 and also IanVisits.co.uk
The Number 16 B&B in St Alfege’s Passage had an uninvited guest on Saturday night, when owner Robert Gray awoke to find an intruder in his bedroom.
A fight ensued and Robert managed to repel the intruder from the property. He made his escape into St Alfege Church recreation garden.
Robert, who is well known around Greenwich and was selected by BBC London to be one of their Voices of Greenwich, was left shaken by the break in. He describes the intruder as being in his “mid to late 20s, black with short neat hair wearing clean jeans and dark blue top”.
It was on May 7th 1909 that the decision was made to spend £35,000 on the development of an airship. That was the birth of British naval aviation, and a century later, a series of events are being put together to mark Fly Navy 100.
On Wednesday 6th May, HMS Illustrious (“Lusty” to her friends) will arrive in Greenwich, having made her way up the Thames. On Thursday at midday, there will be a centenary flypast as every current front line helicopter type will pass over the Thames and Illustrious.
There will be further demonstrations between 14.00 and 14.30 on the 9th and 10th of May, and there will be static aircraft available to view in the ground of the Old Royal Naval College.
A little while ago, via a cabbie that the University of Greenwich was interested in buying the land in Stockwell Street that had been home to the much loved Village Market, and the rather tired looking John Humphries House.
It turns out that the cab driver was exactly right, proving they really do have the knowledge, and the University of Greenwich has just announced the acquisition of the land in a £60million investment which will see the construction of a new library and a new home for the School of Architecture & Construction.
The University is launching a competitive process to select an architect who will be tasked with creating “an inspiring piece of contemporary architecture”. Preliminary work on the site will include the removal of existing buildings and archaelogical digs.
The University says it is committed to consulting with local residents and businesses, and that the development will be constructed to the latest environmental standards, with a low carbon
footprint.
The site had previously been ear-marked for a mixed use development containing flats, offices and shops.
UPDATED 5th March
The tender notice for this contract has been posted to the European Union’s Tenders Electronic Daily system. The details of the job spec put the estimated construction cost at £41million and aims to have an architect selected by the end of August 09. The Memorandum of Information associated with the project says that the “University wishes to create educational buildings that are inspiring, flexible, adaptable and innovative, whilst at the same time sustainable. They should become a bench mark for the way that education can be delivered and must contribute to the built environment of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage site“.
Map of the Stockwell Street site
On Sunday, thousands of athletes and fun runners took part in the Flora London Marathon. Here’s some great photos taken by Dave Levitt, who managed to spot plenty of cartoon characters and animals as they made their way through Greenwich.
Also check out Darryl’s post at 853 with his photos capturing the big event.