Our Lib Dem London Assembly candidate for Greenwich and Lewisham, Chris Annous, sat down with a student journalist to talk about why he is running to represent our local community.

While the majority of graduates fresh out of university probably think about getting on the career ladder, I doubt many dream about becoming their constituency’s representative in the London Assembly. Yet, within five months of graduating, Chris Annous decided to throw his hat into the ring to become the next Greenwich and Lewisham Assembly Member. If elected, he would be the youngest London AM ever. It’s an unusual move for a 22-year-old and begs the obvious question: why?

Catford resident Diana Cashin has been selected as the Lib Dem candidate to fight the by-election on 6 May. In the 23 years she has lived in the ward Diana has become known as an active campaigner on issues that affect the area, working closely with residents’ associations.

Margot Wilson has been selected as the Lib Dem candidate to fight the Sydenham by-election on 6 May. Margot, a former teacher of French and English to Speakers of Other Languages, moved to Sydenham in 2011 to be near her family. She appreciates the lively arts scene in Sydenham and is a strong supporter of local independent shops.

Transparency is not a virtue of Lewisham’s Labour Council. Anyone reading their Commonplace email sent on 1 March about making our streets safer for children might be forgiven for thinking that they plan to introduce school streets near St Winifred’s RC School, Trinity CofE Secondary School, Trinity CofE Primary School,Brindishe Lee School, Brindishe Manor School and St Saviours RC School. This is, however, not the case.

Each year at our Burns Supper toasts to the Lassies and Lads are part of the tradition, this year Alex Feakes combined both toasts in this tribute to the NHS.

Lewisham Liberal Democrats members recently took part in some socially distanced festive activities to learn about making Christmas cards and Gingerbread biscuits. We provide the steps (and some photos of the results!) in the article below.

Concern has been expressed that many fire doors in Lewisham Council owned housing stock fail to meet fire safety requirements. A report to the Council’s Housing Committee in December 2018 stated that over 9,000 properties had Front Entrance Doors (FED) which did not consistently meet the 30 minute fire resistance required under building regulations and needed replacing.

Low Traffic Neighbourhood: SUCCESS!

Following lobbying by Lib Dem campaigner, Karen Pratt, the Council has replaced the key-operated barrier on Leahurst Rd with a camera. However, the two planters have been retained and the description of the filter on the Council’s website doesn’t match their recent leaflet.

Ordinary traffic is now allowed to travel from west to east (Hither Green to Lee Green) but emergency vehicles can go in both directions, all through the same gap. In the rush hour this can only result in chaos and possibly fatal delays.

164 public questions were submitted to the Lewisham Council meeting on 21 October and a majority of these were about the LTN. It should be noted that all references but one to the Liberal Democrats (in the context of our survey report) were replaced by 'a political party'! The Council held a public consultation meeting by zoom on 22 October, which unfortunately turned into a public information exercise. Feedback suggests that few people were happy with the written answers supplied or with explanations given at both events, although some interesting facts emerged, the most shocking being the sum of £3 million which the Council has already taken in fines from the camera-enforced filters.

Lewisham Council have announced some changes to the Lewisham and Lee Green Low Traffic Neighbourhood schemes. For details of these changes please see: Lewisham Council: Changes to Lewisham and Lee Green Low Traffic Neighbourhood Announced.

We welcome the fact that the Mayor has taken note of the response to our traffic survey and the unprecedented number of questions on this subject which have been submitted for Wednesday's Council meeting. Everyone who submitted a question will receive a written response and may be invited to ask supplementary questions on 21st October.

Local residents in Lee Green have given a big thumbs down to the low traffic neighbourhood (LTN) introduced by Lewisham Council.

Black Month History provides an opportunity to celebrate the lives of people who have contributed to life in modern Britain.

One such life is Ignatius Sancho, an exceptional character who lived on the Lewisham / Greenwich borders.

Lewisham council have finally switched the provider of Lewisham’s leisure services from Fusion Lifestyle to a new provider, Greenwich Leisure Limited (who trade as Better). Lewisham Lib Dems have been calling for action against Fusion for a number of years as services have declined.

Fusion have decided to throw in the towel because of the impact of Covid-19 and the lockdown, but their contract has been in trouble for a number of years. This is partly because Lewisham agreed a long 15-year contract in 2011 with assumptions that have inevitably proved inaccurate and with Lewisham failing to ensure service standards are being met.

The decision to change to Greenwich Leisure was taken by Lewisham’s Cabinet in a secret meeting on August 12th but the details have only now been released.

Lewisham Labour can’t even meet affordable housing target on their own developments

In the last local elections, Lewisham Labour promised that new housing developments would have to provide at least 50% affordable homes as part of their delivery. We’ve previously covered how the council are letting private-led developments through with much lower shares of affordable housing. Now, they’re not even insisting on the 50% target for their own developments.