Greenwich.co.uk

Greenwich news and information

Assembly Member Seeks Greenwich Park Feedback

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A member of the Greater London Assembly is asking for your feedback on how consulted you feel about the plans to use Greenwich Park as an equestrian event at London 2012.

Gareth Bacon – a London-wide assembly member – has distributed a survey to a number of homes (I’m not sure how many) in Greenwich asking if you have received communications from LOCOG or the Mayor about the impact of the games, or if you have been invited to any public meetings on the subject.

If you haven’t received the questionnaire and would like to respond, you can request an electronic copy by emailing liz.thompson@london.gov.uk.

Parks Recognised With Green Flag Awards

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Greenwich has again been well respresented in the annual Green Flag Awards that recognise and reward the nation’s best parks and green spaces.

Greenwich Park and East Greenwich Pleasaunce both received the prestigious award.  Elsewhere in the borough, Sutcliffe Park and Well Hall Pleasaunce also received the thumbs up from the Green Flag Award scheme.

What they said about Greenwich Park:

The Park forms a key part of the Greenwich Maritime World Heritage Site; it contains and is surrounded by numerous listed buildings and monuments, forming one of the most important architectural set pieces in the world.  The views from the Park are stunning and include a spectacular panorama of the City of London, Docklands, the Dome and the River Thames.

What they said about East Greenwich Pleasaunce:

East Greenwich Pleasuance is a delightful park in the centre of a residential area in East Greenwich. Surrounded by a high brick wall making it a true ‘secret garden’ in a tranquil setting.

Housing Minister Ian Austin said: “I want to congratulate everyone involved in the creation and upkeep of these award winning green spaces. It’s obvious from the number of winners we have this year that green spaces across England and Wales are continuing to improve at an impressive rate. I’d also like to thank all the volunteer judges who continue to make this scheme possible.”.

What are you favourite parks and green spaces in the area?


View Green Flag Awards in Greenwich borough in a larger map

Park Protesters Meet To Discuss Next Steps

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Opponents of plans for the 2012 Equestrian events to be held in Greenwich Park held a meeting at the Forum@Greenwich in Trafalgar Road last week to discuss the next steps in their campaign.

Issues discussed at the NOGOE (No to Greenwich Olympic Equestrian Events) meeting included advertising restrictions on local traders near to the venue, enforceable under the Olympics Act 2006, and also a possible partial closure of the park again the year after the Olympics to allow for re-seeding where the temporary 23,000 seater stadium will have been erected.

The protest group also put forward the idea that if the events were not held in Greenwich Park, it could still form part of the games by being a location for large TV screens for viewing all of the events from an iconic location.

NOGOE have so far collected 6,000 signatures against the plans, and appealed to supporters to assist with further signature collections and even a possibly rally which might include a human ring around the park.

Sev D’Souza from NOGOE tells Greenwich.co.uk that they do not yet consider this to be a done deal, and they believe that LOCOG has a “plan B” which they could be forced to adopt if there are enough protests.

Meanwhile, Greenwich Council has called on LOCOG to ensure that they consult local people over possible road closures.  The Government has published the Olympic Route Network (ORN) – roads that could be closed whilst the games take place – which includes 44 roads in the borough of Greenwich.

Cllr Roberts, said, “”It’s crucial that the Olympic agencies take into account the views of local residents and businesses – who are after all the ones who will be most affected – before finalising their transport plans. Local people should be reassured that the Council will not support any proposals that fail to reflect local concerns.”

What’s On This Week: July 6th – July 12th 2009

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The heat wave may be over but the joy of jazz is still worth getting out of doors for, with the Greenwich Beer & Jazz Festival at the Old Royal Naval College from Wednesday.  There are three live acts every day with a good mix of renowned jazz and blues experts, such as saxophonist Courteney Pine, with some emerging talent like the Hammond funk band Jezebel Sextet. This energetic troupe will no doubt have you dancing round the lawns in no time, especially if you’ve taken the challenge of sampling the 70 beers on offer seriously.  The ale is as much the star of the show as the music, with a focus on smaller brewing companies -local Meantime is heavily featured – and every variety of ale known to man. 

If you like your al fresco music a little less crowded The Wantage Brass Band are playing a mix of favourites and new arrangements at the bandstand in Greenwich Park on Sunday afternoon. 

Said the witches in Macbeth: “When shall we three meet again?” Well, this Tuesday onwards at Greenwich Playhouse, apparently, in Something Wicked This Way Comes.  I admire anyone who tries to do something new with the ubiquitous Shakespeare and writer/director David Hunt has risen to the challenge by making an entire play out of the bard’s best villains.  Check back to read my take on it later in the week on Greenwich.co.uk.  Along those literary lines there’s also a discussion of The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis at St Alfege’s on Tuesday. 

A little further afield the Plumstead Harmonies are performing Music for a Midsummer Evening at St Mark and St Margaret Church on Saturday in Woolwich.  There’s instrumental music and singing with a programme covering baroque to present day and there’s also some poetry and light refreshments, so it should be a very pleasant affair.

Anything else happening in Greenwich this week? If so, post it below in the comments section…

NOGOE Begin Signature Drive

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Local pressure group, No to Greenwich Olympic Equestrian Events (NOGOE), began its signature drive across the bank holiday weekend.  Their representives were out and about in Greenwich and they tell me they collected over 1000 signatures for their petition against the plans to use Greenwich Park as a venue for the 2012 Olympics.

Sev from NOGOE sent me this pic of a protestor who isn’t actually a member of the group, but took a petition and before long had a queue ready to sign up in Tranquil Vale.

From The Horse’s Mouth: Greenwich.co.uk Talks To LOCOG

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Apart from the acronyms, LOCOG (The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games) and NOGOE (No to Greenwich Olympic Equestrian Events) haven’t found much common ground over the past year. On this site both Sev D’Souza of NOGOE and Andrew Gilligan have highlighted many residents’ continued opposition to the Equestrian events at Greenwich Park. Their protest was borne out of concerns about potential damage to the park, and the considerable inconvenience to the residents caused by the closure of the park, with no demonstrable benefits. In light of this I went to the LOCOG meet and greet session at the park on Saturday and spoke to Equestrian manager Tim Hadaway and press officer Fran Edwards to ask their side of the story, and to find out what their perception is of local views about the Olympics at Greenwich.

As part of the advisory group that recommended Greenwich, Tim was directly involved in the decision: “Greenwich won out on its good transport links, proximity to Stratford and scope to host elements of the Modern Pentathlon.” Asked why these were such key enticements, Tim says “the bid was won on the strength of these being the London Games – we need to keep as many of the events as we can within the city”. Sites outside London would have been “far more challenging, both financially and logistically speaking”. He is also philosophical about Zara Phillips’ pro-Windsor comments, calling them “one person’s opinion” and saying that representatives of Zara’s have since written to NOGOE asking not to be connected with their campaign.

Horse on Greenwich Park

On the locals’ concerns regarding potential damage, Tim believes LOCOG have made good headway: “When we first started speaking to people, they would say ‘you’re cutting down all the trees aren’t you?’ They had visions of a Grand National-style motorway of horses carving up the whole site.” Now, however, Tim feels that initial misconceptions regarding damage have been largely corrected: “We can’t [damage anything] – English Heritage and The Royal Parks wouldn’t let us even if we’d wanted to.” So the trees will stay in their entirety then? “There will need to be some slight pruning on the lower branches of some trees for the cross-country, but nothing that won’t grow back. We won’t be cutting down any trees.”

Regarding the cross-country course, it will only last 1 day and Tim says the hoof damage from the 75 horses will be “minimal”, with the preparation focused on improving the grass’s irrigation leaving the ground “in a better state than before”…

However, the enduring bugbear – the park’s entire closure for the cross-country – is unavoidable. Fran says the lockdown is necessary “for the venue to be swept to ensure it is secure and to ensure that all facilities and buildings are in place. We take security very seriously”. The entire closure will last a maximum of 6 weeks, with the area that will house the main arena staying closed for at least 3-4 months. LOCOG are hoping for a phased re-opening of the park as early as a few days after the end of the cross-country.

The road closure plans are not yet concrete, so all I could get was the perennial promise of “minimal disruption” and although Romney Road will now fall outside the perimeter of the course, it is likely to be closed for at least the fortnight of the events to facilitate spectators.

Some would argue that these inconveniences are a small price to pay for the general excitement and prestige of having this event on our doorstep. LOCOG also believe that the much-debated legacy of the games will result from this prestige: “This event will become part of Greenwich’s history, people will remember the images they see of Greenwich during the Games and want to come and hunt it out after the Olympics.” They again speak of bringing equestrian sport to a new audience by having it in an urban setting, however they are vague when asked about ticket provision for locals. Apparently Greenwich Council are keen to allocate some tickets to local schoolchildren, but LOCOG are far from committed to this arrangement, and competition for tickets is likely to be high in the equestrian world. In other words don’t expect a ticket to be dropping through your door.

Overall LOCOG do admit that Greenwich has been one of their most notable PR headaches. Neil Walker, Community Relations Manager, attributed this to people being “frustrated” in the beginning because the nature of the Olympics means that they work back from an end date rather than having an upfront plan, so they “couldn’t always give all the answers people wanted.” It may sound a little ‘back foot’ to some, but Tim feels confident that they’ve been “open” as plans change. Fran and Tim even talk of being “pleasantly surprised about the positive reaction from locals”, boasting support from the Greenwich, Blackheath and Westcombe Societies, as well as Friends of Greenwich Park.

Despite the institutional support for the equestrian events here, both Fran and Tim admit that many residents will remain unmoved. “You will always get those people whose minds you can’t change and this may be the case with NOGOE”. With the planning application to be submitted near the end of this year, the way will soon be open for the mandatory public consultation that is now looking likely to be the final standoff. Watch this space.

What do you think? Are you convinced by LOCOG’s assurances? Do you believe their timescales for closures?

The Ongoing Greenwich Park Debate

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A headsup for anyone that missed my post earlier in the week: LOCOG are holding their latest Greenwich Park consulation in the Tea Pavillion today (Friday 15th May) and tomorrow. This is your chance to ask questions about their plans for the park come 2012.

I hope to be interviewing someone from NOGOE next week to get an idea of how they think the campaign is going and find out what comes next as they try to halt the equestrian events taking place in Greenwich Park.

If you’re a keen follower of the debate, you might also want to listen to this interview that Sev D’Souza from NOGOE gave to LBC 97.3 recently. I think Sony Award winning presenter, and Blackheath resident, Nick Ferarri could have come up with a better preamble than “There are problems, particularly with the park, I think a site of historical importance, whatever it might be“.

Petition: Greenwich Park Cycle Paths

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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
[[petition-2]]

Andrew Gilligan: Like Having the Builders Round… Forever

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I was struck by a comment from a reader called Paul on last week’s column about Greenwich Market, and think it deserves a wider circulation. He wrote of the danger that in the run-up to that longed-for event of which we all dream, the Olympics, Greenwich will become little more than a series of building sites.

As well as the market, there’s the Olympic development in Greenwich Park, the Ofer Wing of the Maritime Museum (which will also affect the park), the foot tunnel, the old Village Market site, the new pier, the Cutty Sark, Greenwich Reach. As Paul says, “no tourist will want to walk around a load of building sites for the next three years and it won’t be long before word gets out that Greenwich is closed. In the rush to celebrate the Olympics fortnight, it seems that a long-term overview has been thrown out of the window.”

There are plenty of places that are unattractive, provide inadequate public amenities and need lots of work doing to them. But Greenwich isn’t one of them. I think (I’m biased, of course) that it’s one of the nicest areas in London. It just doesn’t need “regeneration,” especially not the airport-terminal kind that awaits us in the market.

Naturally, there are grotty bits – in the town centre, I’d nominate that bland, faceless block which houses Somerfield. But those aren’t the bits they’ll be tearing down. Those are the bits they’ll be copying.

So why has everyone suddenly, it seems, decided that what Greenwich needs is a complete rebuild – all at once? As Paul suggests, the Olympics must have something to do with it. One of the worst things about the Games is the way that a single fortnight has come to dominate, even monopolise, official thinking, as if it is somehow more important than all the months and years which go before it and after it.

It isn’t, of course. The Olympics will be with us for two weeks. The new market could be with us for a century. But the way it’s looking, the priorities of the two weeks will mean that the project for the century is rushed through the planning process without proper scrutiny, then thrown up in months – and is, as a result, far worse than it should be.

We need to stop. We need to take our time. We need to tell ourselves that in the long run, the Olympics simply do not matter. Within months of the closing ceremony, they will be all but forgotten by almost everyone. The market, however, will be in our faces for decades. The short-term goal of a shiny Olympic fortnight is not remotely a good enough reason to compromise Greenwich’s long-term future.

We need to tell ourselves that even during the fortnight, the Greenwich end of the Olympics will not matter. The centre of attention will be on the athletics and the swimming, seven miles to the north. The horse events will get half an hour on TV. There won’t be many Olympic-related visitors to Greenwich – they’ll all be heading for Stratford. Greenwich Council may want to put on a show, but not many people will be coming.

Building white elephants at Stratford is bad enough. But at least some people will want to see them, and they will be safely out of sight of the rest of us. Building white elephants in the middle of a successful town centre is far worse – and the error is compounded by the fact that not many of the people the “improvements” are supposed to attract will even be interested.

PS: I forgot to give the address for objections to the market planning application last week. Emails should be sent to david.gittens@greenwich.gov.uk, quoting reference numbers 09/0829/F and 09/0830/C. Gittens’ postal address is Crown Building, 48 Woolwich New Roas, SE18 6HQ.

Act soon – you only have until 26 May.