Please could I bring to your attention, in view of the recent media coverage of safety on the streets of a recent campaign to improve street lighting in the St John’s area. I attach a map of one particular spot, which an impressive 55 residents have signed and sent as a petition to Lewisham Council to ask for more lighting (see map below).
We would like to build on the good work started by this small pocket of residents and extend the request to other parts of St John’s.
If you are aware of a spot which could do with improved lighting, please could you email me and let me know exactly the spot. I will then add it to our conversation with Lewisham Council for improved lighting in the area.
In addition to campaigning for better street lighting in the area, you may have noticed that a second mural is going up on St John’s station bridge. We are again most fortunate to have been funded by Network Rail and this time the design and painting will both be by local St John’s artist Alma Tischlerwood. We are so lucky to have so many talented residents in St John’s and extremely fortunate that Network Rail was kind enough to fund this again. We have had very positive responses from locals and beyond about the murals.
Kath’s Place, in 50 Friendly St, since opening last year has gone from strength to strength. Short films made about the project/charity, with the help of local St John’s residents, supported by St John’s Society, have been submitted for international awards and is attracting much attention. If you think you can do anything to help them, or indeed need their help or advice, please pop into their shop or visit their website https://kathduncan-equality-civilrights-network.co.uk/
Due to the growing importance of green spaces in the area, St John’s Society have identified spots that we can make more green. We hope to provide more information about our ambitions in making St John’s a greener, more pleasant place to live, in the coming months.
St John’s Society application to the Mayor’s Greening Fund in 2019 was successful and led to the improvements seen in ‘St John’s Garden’ behind the church. Despite the pandemic, two new bins and five new park benches were installed. There will be more to come, over the next year or so with increased planting and other measures.
We have supported Tanner’s Hill Residents with a recent clean up. Fly tipping is a cause for concern, in the area. We are trying to find ways to reduce this and encourage all residents to report any dumping of rubbish to ‘Love Lewisham’ https://lovelewisham.lovecleanstreets.com/reports or ‘Fix My Street’ https://www.fixmystreet.com/. If you have any ideas of how we can all reduce this problem, please get in touch with us.
We have tried for a number of years now, since before CPZ was introduced, to encourage the council to give us some EV points. We were disappointed to find out that the EV points that were planned were rejected by Lewisham Council’s Planning department due to our being in a couple of conservation areas. Photos of EV points found in other conservation areas both in London and elsewhere in the country, have been sent to local councillors by St John’s Society. If you have any thoughts on this, please contact our local councillor, Sophie McGeevor, (Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport) CllrSophie.McGeevor@lewisham.gov.uk and please could you ‘cc’ the St John’s Society in any communication so that we can support any improvements in this area.
A new St John’s Society Sub-Committee Planning Group was established in 2020. We cover the whole of St John’s which includes both the Brookmill Road conservation area and St John’s conservation area. We are available for general advice. However, your first port of call in all cases should really be https://lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/planning
Thank you for being such wonderful supportive residents. We really appreciate your positive comments and ‘Likes’ on both our Twitter and Facebook pages. Please remember that the St John’s Committee is made up entirely from volunteers who all live in St John’s, SE8. We all have a variety of day jobs. So if we do not respond quickly, please be patient with us. We also do not have any direct funding nor are we a charity. We rely solely on donations, sponsorship and any funding we apply for (which goes directly into a project such as the mural). But the over-riding factor is, we are all very passionate about St John’s SE8 and want to improve it further.
Do get in touch with us, if you would like to get involved or have ideas that we should be thinking about.
Stay safe and well, during these strange times,
Litsa Breingan
Chair