Chris Best

I am a member of Lewisham Council and there are various pages relating to Sydenham including the Sydenham Assembly.

Please visit the Lewisham Labour Group to find out more about our local policies and councillors. The Labour Group can be contacted through labour.group@lewisham.gov.uk.

The directly elected Mayor for Lewisham is Sir Steve Bullock and to contact Steve please email -steve.bullock@lewisham.gov.uk or write to him at the Town Hall - Mayor's Office, Lewisham Town Hall, Catford, London, SE6 4RU.

The MP for West Lewisham is Jim Dowd he can be contacted by email - jimdowd.newlabour@care4free.net or telephone the office on 020 8699 2001. The Constituency office is at 43 Sunderland Road, Forest Hill.

Two of our MPs in Lewisham have positions in the Government – Joan Ruddock was promoted in the June 2009 reshuffle and is now a Minister of State with responsibility for energy policy in the newly created Department of Energy and Climate Change. Bridget Prentice is the Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State at the Ministry of Justice. Bridget is standing down at the next election and I am so pleased that our Deputy Mayor Heidi Alexander has been selected as the Labour Party candidate. I know Heidi will be a hard working MP for the people of Lewisham East.

The Greater London Authority has information on Lewisham.

Len Duvall is the Member for Greenwich and Lewisham and can be contacted by email len.duvall@london.gov.uk or telephone 020 7983 4408/4517. Len is Leader of the Labour Group and Deputy Chair of Economic Development, Culture, Sport and Tourism Committee. Val Shawcross who represents neighbouring Lambeth and Southwark is the Deputy Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee and Labour Spokesperson for Transport.

The London Labour Party has a web site that sets out the latest news in London as well as details of the MPs and MEPs for London.

To find out more about London local government visit the London Councils web site. To find out more about London including Lewisham politics please visit the London Area web site.

There are two Labour MEPs representing London - Mary Honeyball - www.maryhoneyball.net and Claude Moraes - www.claudemoraes.net.

There are a number of Labour linked websites and blogs that promote progressive thinking and comment - Co-operative Party www.party.coop and the blog – Politics for People –http://politicsforpeople.blogspot.com/, LabourHome – www.labourhome.org LabourList – www.labourlist.org Labour Matters – www.labourmatters.com Progress - www.progressonline.org.uk Unions Together www.unionstogether.org.uk

Other progressive links include Compass – www.compassonline.org.uk Demos – www.demos.co.uk Fabian Society – www.fabians.org.uk - and the Fabian Society blog – www.nextleft.org ippr – www.ippr.org.uk New Local Government Network – www.nlgn.org.uk New Statesman – www.newstatesman.com Young Foundation – www.youngfoundation.org.uk and I am a Guardian reader who visits www.guardian.co.uk/politics.

For more information on Sydenham visit the excellent and award wining Sydenham Town web site on www.sydenham.org.uk. There is also a Directory of Lewisham Community Websites at www.lewishamonline.co.uk.

I am a member of the Sydenham Society, Friend of Horniman Museum and a Friend of Sydenham Garden.

For the latest news on Mayow Park please visit the Mayow Park blog. Envirowork Lewisham have also set up a web site that shows the progress of Mayow Park.

In 2009 we once again had the spectacular Sydenham International Music Festival and our first Sydenham Arts Festival.

I am proud to be a former governor of Sydenham School, the local secondary school for girls in Dartmouth Road, as the results are now above the national average. Forest Hill School in Dacres Road has over a 1,000 boys attending this thriving comprehensive school supported by a magnificient new building with state of the art technology and performing arts facilities.

The Forest Hill School Community Sports Centre has top class sports facilities open to the whole community. The facilities include 22 stations and a large sports hall that is able to offer basket ball, five a side football and different activities including Taekwondo and Tai Chi.

The Metropolitan Police Lewisham web site is well worth a visit as it has information about the Safer Neighbourhoods Team and the contact details for PS Jonathan Hill at Sydenham Police Station - 020 8649 3598.

For independent advice on a wide range of problems details of Sydenham Citizens Advice Bureau can be found on www.adviceguide.org.uk - telephone number 08701 264037.

I write a councillors' column for the SE26 magazine which is distributed free to the SE26 postcode and contribute to the online Palace Magazine for news of Crystal Palace.

Please visit Lewisham's blog for the latest information on what is happening in Lewisham.

For outdoor activities there is a Healthy Walk in Sydenham Wells Park every Tuesday at 11am meeting at the pond.

A circular walk can be made around Sydenham Common starting at Sydenham Station. Walk London has a range of information on walks in the area including the Green Chain.

There is a local sports club, the Sydenham Lawn Tennis, Squash and Croquet Club based at Springfield Road, just off Lawrie Park Road, that offers an excellent social facility with a Club House and Bar.

A public golf course at Beckenham Place Park, cricket can be played at Beckenham & Sydenham Cricket Club and dance at Sydenham Dancentre at Champion Hall, Champion Road.

Young people have worked hard on the Sydenham and Forest Hill Youth Forum site. As well as the latest news the Forum has events, resources and what is happening in the community for young people.

There is the b-inspired website for young people, b-inspired provides a database for a range of activities in Lewisham. There is also the Volunteer Centre if you have some free time to work with others.

If you want to be involved with the Young Mayor visit the web site and get the latest news.