Lewisham give update on £24 million town centre changes
Lewisham Council have published a response to issues raised during recent consultation on major town centre changes.
As part of a £24 million project, public realm work along the High Street is underway with plans next year for a new market canopy and work on Lewisham library.
£19 million in funds comes from the previous government’s “Levelling Up” project with £5 million from Lewisham Council.
Poor maintenance
Concerns were raised by those who responded to the consultation regarding maintenance. Lewisham town centre has not been well maintained for many years and paving pockmarked with tarmac patches for a long time.
In response to concerns the council state:
“A maintenance strategy is already being defined which includes looking at a humane pigeon deterrent, efficient waste disposal, Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) and planting.
“There will be annual inspections of the works and opportunities for the public to report faulty lighting.”
Lewisham council spent money on consultants such as companies Project Centre, Public Works and Architecture 00 “to develop and deliver the engagement strategy, offering a mix of in-person and online methods for people to share their observations.”
Not sure they needed to go through this whole process and spend money on companies to bring us revelations that the public can report faulty lighting.
There’s a whiff of, for example, the recent Plumstead High Street upgrade where consultants sucked up much of the budget.
After completion parts of the High Street there quickly became run down.
Many of the responses given in Lewisham’s consultation state the obvious. “Would you like a nicer town centre?” “Yes”. Thanks for that.
Of perhaps more specific interest is a snippet on crossing which states “There may also be an option to work with TfL at the south end of the high street to improve pedestrian and cycle crossings”.
Well, specific in terms of location. “An option to work with” doesn’t really tell us much.
The exercise looks like a lot of money spent for some vague future suggestions – based on this report – with the authority and their consultants highlighting what everyone already knows. Trees are good. Badly lit and unused spaces are bad etc.
Council reports
It looks like keeping tabs of council reports will as usual be the best way to see what’s actually happening. It’s how I saw that plans for a rooftop space/bar/café in the library had been ditched due to cost pressures.
The consultation actually listed the most popular aspiration for people at the new library as a “visit the rooftop bar (70%)”. Whoops.
Expensive consultations and reports drawn up just to report people say “we want better lighting” or “a street food market would be nice” is hardly a great use of funds. If useful insights are gained then great, but scant sign here.
It also states that “hard wearing and weather resistant material which reduces visibility of dirt and grime is proposed for the paving on the market and high street” which should be blindingly obvious in an area of high footfall but then again Greenwich Council have failed to ensure the same at current Woolwich town centre works.
Who would have thought installing bright white materials in a busy area and one known for frequent dumping of rubbish and vehicle parking would look so bad so soon?
Perhaps councils do need to be told the obvious.
Lewisham respondees noted poor parking and cars driving on the High Street.
In common with Greenwich borough, Powis Street sees similar.
The parking issue is barely mentioned again in the Lewisham council report. There’s also very little actual information of how they will keep new paving, landscaping and structures such as the market in good condition.
In conclusion this exercise showed people like nice stuff. Revelatory indeed. They may actually see less of the nice stuff given expense on such exercises but there you go.
Work on public realm changes are already underway with the market canopy work due to start next year.
Some harsh yet very fair comments.
Lewisham seem to be applying more common sense in choosing materials. It was pointed out to Greenwich that they should do this in the consultation but they just seemed to have ignored it.
Still I think woolwich will look nice even if it’s a bit grimy
These consultancies are parasites, quite frankly. Surely the council can conduct their own surveys at a quarter of the price?
(BTW it would be good if you linked to the report in question)
As for the paving, here in Sydenham about ten years ago they repaved Sydenham Road with those white slabs which blindingly bright for the first three months – uncomfortably so in sunny weather – and of course have looked absolutely filthy ever since as the council can’t be bothered to clean them properly.
Consultants seem the current gravy train. Did they really need to hire THREE companies?
Some of what they state is admirable but the conclusions seem half baked and common sense anyway so what’s the point? If any real insights gained you could say it’s worth doing (though I’m sure it didn’t need all the expense) but that doesn’t even seem to have really happened. Anything that didn’t fit the pre-ordained view gets brushed over. Maybe they could have kept the planned bar if they hadn’t blown so much on THREE external agencies!!
They’ve being replacing the same stretch of pavement for around 4 months, and the work doesn’t seem to be progressing at all. Very bad organisation.
@Jane W: whatever is happening won’t be finished until March 2025. No hurry, Lewisham council as shoppers continue to be inconvenienced by the re-routed buses.