Chris Best

The Sydenham Assembly is open to anyone to lives, works or studies in the ward. It meets quarterly at different locations including the Naborhood Centre in the high street, the Grove Centre in Jews Walk, Sydenham High School in Westwood Hill and Our Lady and St Philip Neri Church Hall next to the library in lower Sydenham.

If you would like to be added to the mailing list please email Chris.

As I Chair the Assembly I welcome feedback so that I can make sure it is a meeting that will deliver improvements to Sydenham.

For more information about the Sydenham Assembly take a look at the web page http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/LocalAssemblies/SydenhamAssembly

I am so pleased that we agreed the Sydenham Charter as it brings together all the work over the past two years. As well as setting out the details of the Coordinating Group, details of the Ward, and all the effort that has been undertaken to move the top five priorities forward.

• More activities for children and young people including a youth centre - Gerry discussed the next stage on the new youth centre.
• Improving community safety and tackling anti-social behaviour - Angela highlighted all the work with street drinkers.
• Vibrant high street - Kevin talked about a vacancy rate in the core shopping area of under 10%. Jonathan outlined the Sydenham Arts Festival for 2010 and Valerie shared the success of the Oliver Budd Mosaic weekend .
• Environmental improvements to provide a cleaner greener Sydenham - Alona gave an update on the three parks and the next meeting dates for the User Groups as well as Sydenham Transition Town.
• Transport improvements for Sydenham - Barry had just come from a meeting with Transport for London and welcomed names of residents to join him on a train ride to test the new trains.

We then had a short presentation from Andre on the Sydenham Timebank, Pat fedback on the planning application and Barry ran through the Sydenham Road improvements.

We held ten round table discussion groups: • Review of the top five priorities - Cllr Chris Best • Provision for older people - Cllr Marion Nisbet • Community Cohesion - Christine Thompson • Street drinking in Sydenham - Barry Milton • Setting up the Youth Forum - Gerry Devine • Sydenham Mosaic - Valerie Kelly • Trading in Sydenham - Jenny Holland • Community Gardens - Alona Sheridan • Diversity in education - Paul Phoenix • Sydenham Summer 2010 Arts Programme - Pat Trembath

A vote was taken to change the name of the building currently called the Naborhood Centre to the Sydenham Centre. The learning disability users will still be called the Naborhood Centre User Group.

The was also be an information exchange session towards the end of the meeting.

The Mayor's Fund of £50,000 has been agreed. Silverdale Hall - £10,000 The proposal is to create a fenced, netted, sports and games practice area in the playground at the rear end of the existing play area. Additionally to fit an enclosed children’s playground behind the Hall as well as securing the gate and fencing at the side/front. Youth Forum small grants - £2,000 The money would be used to provide small grants (£50 to £500) for projects to benefit children and young people. This would enable local people to provide small scale, cost effective activities, especially during the school holidays. Greening Sydenham - £2,000 A number of areas in Sydenham need to be properly maintained and the proposal is to plant up and maintain green spaces in identified locations. The areas include the planters, various beds such as outside the Post Office and small spaces that can enhance the environment. 15th Sydenham Scout Group - £1,700 The 15th Sydenham will be going to Kandersteg International Scout Centre to meet other scouts from around the world in a planned programme. They will participate in scout pioneering skills, other winter sports and activities that involve scouts from other nations in order to achieve the international friendship badge. The proposal will help meet the costs for 26 young people. Outreach for Sydenham Music - £1,600 Sydenham Music wish to extend their work in the community and has submitted a proposal for a programme designed to take musical performances to various residential care homes and include those who are not mobile. These sessions will benefit hard to reach groups.

We also received short updates on the rest of the Mayor’s Fund projects - Sydenham Arts Festival - £10,000 Sydenham and Forest Hill Youth Forum - £3,000 Switch It Football project - £3,000 Young People’s Forum development - £3,700 Sydenham Community Radio - £3,000 Sydenham Mosaic - £10,000

The Locality Fund of £10,000 is for the Councillors to decide on local projects they would like to see funded and, after having received a number of bids, we agreed the following: Sydenham Timebank - £3,000 Leaflet on the Conservation Area - £1,000 Sherlock Holmes at the Dolphin - £500 Leaflet on the Sydenham Assembly - £1,000 Hazel Grove activities - £1,000 Sydenham communications/signage – £2,000 Sydenham community facilities data base - £1,500

The sixth Sydenham Assembly took place on Thursday 11 June and we voted on the remaining £17,000 of the Mayor's Fund. There were bids of £21,700 awarded in the priority of voting - Switch It came first with £3,000 for the three months funding for the football project and three tied on 20% - Sydenham Community Radio, Young People's Forum development and Sydenham Mosaic. The project that came last - Sydenham Youth Forum Youth Fund will not receive any funding. Of those that are tied we will consider topping up the funding gap of £2,700 for the Sydenham Locality Fund and discuss at the next Co-ordinators meeting on the 14 July.

Many thanks to everyone who came along to the fifth meeting - and my thanks to admin for posting the clips of the Assembly on Sydenham Town web site. Please visit Sydenham Assembly web page for the agenda, minutes of the meeting where residents voted on the Mayor's Fund and agreed £10,000 towards Sydenham Arts Festival; £3,000 towards the Sydenham and Forest Hill Youth Forum, £10,000 towards Silverdale Hall and £10,000 towards the Rotary Day Centre. The last two projects were agreed in principle as more work was needed on to see if the feasibility proposals were going to be value for money.

The fourth assembly meeting started with feedback on the progress of the top priorities. Kay Kelleher from Volunteers Lewisham spoke about Volunteering and Timebanks. Of interest was the direct community action on gorilla gardening at various green spaces in Sydenham.

Dr Brian Fisher led a round table disucssion on health issues and the need for more support when people leave hospital - particularly older people who need community based services.

As we come to the end of 2008 we have held four successful Assembly meetings and I look forward to putting your ideas into action in 2009.

The first Sydenham Assembly met on the 6 March 2008 and replaced the annual area forum (for the thee wards of Sydenham, Forest Hill and Perry Vale) and the quarterly Sydenham Community Regeneration Partnership as a means for local people to meet to identify priorities and influence what happens in their area. The aim of the Assembly is to add value by:

• establishing a universal approach for all Lewisham's wards, providing a strong focal-point for engaging with the Council and other service providers
• promoting active citizenship
• influencing the decision-making process
• improving accountability and service delivery
• creating opportunities for innovative new initiatives like "participatory budgeting".

A Coordinating Group had been set up to help plan and structure the Assembly meetings and there is support from the local Co-ordinator who spends over a day a week on Sydenham issues.

We agreed the Locality Fund for 2008/9: Sydenham Arts Festival - £5,000 Youth activities - £3,000 including £2k for Sydenham Radio project with young people and £1,000 towards the development of the Sydenham and Forest Hill Youth Forum Additional litter bins - £1,000 "Wallpaper" for the vacant shops - £1,000

Many thanks to the 100 or so residents who came along to the meeting - and my thanks to admin for posting the clips on Sydenham Town web site. Please visit Sydenham Assembly web page for the agenda, minutes of the last meeting, "Responding to your views" and suggestions for the £10k Locality Fund. There is support for a Sydenham Arts Festival in 2009 and the meeting agreed £5k from the Locality Fund to support match funding that may be available. The rest of the Locality Fund was agreed as £3k for Youth activities including £2k for Sydenham Radio project with young people, £1k for additional litter bins and £1k for "wallpaper" for the vacant shops.

This second meeting received feedback on the top priorities for Sydenham and started to discuss actions to deliver on these priorities:

• more visible police
• safety when crossing the high street
• more quality shops
• shop displays not to obstruct the pavement
• more publicity about youth activities
• effective action against anti-social behaviour
• cleaner streets
• improve communication on local activities and services

We discussed some ideas for the 2008/9 Locality Fund of £10k including a Sydenham Fun Day and the purchase of a new "fido" - a pooper scooper that picks up dog fouling.

The planting of the trees in the Thorpes and Mayow Road to replace those damaged by the storm last year and by vandalism, has been completed. Sadly three of the trees in Mayow Road have again been vandalised and replanting will be arranged, this time with metal cages. The underspend, caused by a delay on planting, has been used for cultural activities - £500 to Sydenham Music to support the events in the local care homes and £500 towards to the production of A Midsummers Nights Dream - see above.

A big thank you to the 200 people who attended the first meeting on Thursday 6 March at the Naborhood Centre. For an independent report please visit the Sydenham Town web page and for my views before and after the meeting please go to the video clip on Sydenham News. The meeting agreed volunteers to take part in the Co-ordinating Group that will consider the top priorities and report back at the next meeting on the 5 June.

The Assembly replaced the Sydenham Community Regeneration Partnership meetings but many of the previous residents came along with some new faces to bring together the local community. Along with the residents were the traders and key agencies such as the Police and the Town Centre Manager. Please let me know if you agree with my view on what we need for Sydenham.

Each assembly will be expected to adopt the Charter as the starting point for defining and developing a way of working that reflects the circumstances and ambitions of that ward. Where the work of the assembly identifies specific actions or proposals these can be incorporated within the Charter document. Each Charter can be adapted to include specific agreements reached by the Assembly with the Council or other bodies.

The Charter is a voluntary agreement between the Council and each local assembly that:

• Sets out the rights and responsibilities of the Council and of the local Assemblies
• Includes specific information about the standards local people can expect in relation to local services
• Provides a starting point for each assembly to adapt and develop the Charter based on the detailed work of the Assembly.

Influencing decision-making

Local assemblies will have a range of opportunities for influencing decision-making and will range from liaising with council officers and other service providers to more formal mechanisms, including putting forward evidence or recommendations to Council committees.

Once a year they will be able to put an item on the agenda of a full council meeting. In certain circumstances the local assembly could choose to refer the issue to a scrutiny committee.