The Tesco Express store on Southampton Way is now open. Finally we have somewhere that isn’t a half hour walk away where we can buy a fresh piece of fruit or veg, paper, bog roll and a bottle of wine or two.

The store is pretty spacious with a fresh bakery section (rolls, pastries, croissants etc), a pretty good wine and beer section and a quite a good magazine section too.

The cash machine to the side should also prove extremely useful.

Here’s hoping it’s the beginning of an upturn for local facilities and Southampton Way in general.

It’s proposed now that the £4.5 million initial funding will be spent as follows :

• Convert redundant roads to park
• Improve entrances and boundaries
• Improve accessibility and footpaths
• Re-model landform to create a coherent park and increase the usable space
• Repair and reconfigure the lakeIntroduce part of St. George’s Way Gardens
• Enhance biodiversity and maximise the retention of existing habitat
• Introduce 3000m2 play area near site of Chumleigh Gardens car park
• Implement Signage, furniture and bins, railing renewal
• Expand the New Church Road ‘wild’ area
• Implement 5km circuit
• Re-use existing site materials

Separate funding has been secured from other sources to provide:

• Food growing areas near the Surrey Canal Walk
• Outdoor gyms and satellite play
• National standard BMX track

The full revised plan for the park can be read here.

• Fun Dog family day featuring dog show and free micro-chipping for dogs from midday – 5pm. More info here
• Historic walk through the park. Uncover Burgess Park’s history. More info here

“No. 67″ boasts trendy decor, reasonably priced (ish) food and a nice garden to relax in. Exhibitions within the gallery are free.

Café opening hours:

Monday – CLOSED
Tuesday – Sunday, 10am-6.30pm
Except Wednesdays, 10am-9pm

Whilst we have put a list of questions and concerns to LDA / Southwark Council regarding their plans, we welcome the idea of a grand new scheme for Burgess Park. Recent objections refer to many  piecemeal provisions that were never conceived with a bigger vision in mind. As such, we don’t see their removal as necessarily destructive or negative.

Burgess Park from St. Georges Way

Residents along the south side of Burgess Park (not just EQRA members) have spoken repeatedly of the need for improvements to the St George’s Way strip, which is currently felt to be uninviting, unkempt and ugly – even threatening. Since safety and security is a huge issue for users of the park, the plan for a formal flower garden and the removal of many of the most overgrown, neglected patches along this stretch is extremely popular.

Through the consultation events, members have also been able to stress their desperate need for a decent play area for older children. For years the lack of such a playground has been a local scandal and a source of frustration and anger, not only to parents. Thanks to the consultation, individuals and groups such as ours have been able to insist that a new playground is an absolute priority and should be achieved in Phase 1 of the redevelopment.

Several of our members have questioned the wisdom of turning over a proportion of the park to communal growing areas. Parkland is precious and turning it into allotments is not seen as ideal by all, not least because of issues surrounding how the plots will be managed.

Burgess Park : artist's impression

Much has been made recently of a proposed amphitheatre for large music festivals. Nothing in the plans refers to increasing the number of festivals (believe me, we don’t want that either): they simply acknowledge that festivals are a part of Burgess Park’s remit and that the space for them should be better designed.

EQRA broadly supports the Masterplan and it is our view that to raise a long list of objections at this late stage in the proceedings is counter-productive and risks throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We can’t wait for work to begin.

Meriam Soopee. Chair, Evolution Quarter Residents’ Association

Featured in Southwark News

Here are the scheduled walkabouts and meetings.

8 July - 6-8pm meet in the sports centre on Neate Street for a walkabout of a choice of three different routes as below:

Route 1: Lake and Old Kent Road area

Route 2: Trafalgar Avenue to underpass taking in both sides of the road including the sports area

Route 3: Camberwell road to underpass

10 and 11 July - Walkabouts in the park at 10am and 2pm. We will be taking people on three different routes as above. Meet at Chumleigh Gardens, near waterfeature.

Please can people contact ruth.miller@southwark.gov.uk to book on to the walks stating your time and walk preference.

20 July- Public meeting at Thurlow Lodge, Thurlow Street from 5-7pm. Food will be provided. The aim is to discuss the consultation and resulting long term vision plan changes. We will also be doing a workshop regarding phase 1.

31 July – 11-2pm drop in session at Chumleigh Gardens to see final plans.  This is an information sharing event.

He also addresses the specific 24 objections put forward by the Burgess Park Action Group. Read here.

As happened last year, there’s an arty flavour to proceedings with the venue hosting Bold Tendancies : Sculpture Project 4

The cafe will be open Thurdays – Sundays 11am to 10pm

Their website will have more info when available – www.frankscafe.org.uk

Boris’ attitude thus far (read City Hall’s latest response here) to transport in North Peckham has been sorely disappointing, and shows ignorance of the problems faced by residents. But we haven’t stopped raising the issue with City Hall.

Below are the points raised in our most recent letter to the Mayor.

• In the North Peckham area, approximately 6,000 residents are more than a mile from any railway station.
• The same 6,000 residents are served either by bus route 343 alone, or by bus routes 63, 343 and 363, all of which suffer overcrowding.
• Further home-building which is nearing completion will add to the population of this area, adding further pressure to the already inadequate public transport services.
• The area has benefitted from considerable urban regeneration work over recent years, nevertheless there remain pockets of deprivation.
• Poor public transport provision means North Peckham residents suffer poor access to jobs, education and services, hampering efforts to tackle the deprivation which persists in this area.
• The existing bus services provide few direct links to major centres of employment or main shopping areas, particularly from Southampton Wayand the surrounding streets where route 343 is the only local public transport service. The West End, for example, is approximately 3 miles away, yet requires a change of bus or changing from bus to tube to complete the journey. Since ?transfer? fares are not offered, this also means paying twice for the inconvenience of having to change.
• Extending bus route 168, which serves much of the same corridor as the Cross River Tram proposal, from Old Kent Road to Peckham would have provided very similar links to and from the North Peckham area.
• A suggestion to TfL (made by London Travelwatch) to extend bus route 168 from has been dismissed by TfL for being too costly, despite being priced at less than £1million per year.
• Cross River Tram would have opened up new journey opportunities to and from North Peckham. That the scheme was developed at all, prior to your review in 2008, suggests that there was a strong business case for it. It therefore makes no sense that there is apparently no case for improving bus services (at far less cost than building the tram).
• Thameslink is not a substitute for the Cross River Tram. We understand that the service levels from Peckham Rye station from 2016 will be 4 trains per hour, of 8-car length. The current service level is 4 trains per hour, of 8-car length, which already operate through the Thameslink tunnel to Farringdon, St Pancras and beyond. Completion of the Thameslink programme will therefore deliver no additional service frequency nor capacity compared to that which is currently provided.
• East London Line is not a substitute for Cross River Tram. Although the East London Line will open up some new links from Peckham Rye, these will be orbital rather than radial, avoiding Central London.
• We understand that the introduction of the East London Line may result in a worsenment in existing train services from Peckham Rye to Victoria, with fewer trains than at present.
• Neither the East London Line nor the Thameslink services will stop within 1 km of North Peckham.
• It could be argued that, in view of our proximity to Central London, residents of North Peckham could travel by bicycle. Many of the properties in this area are flats or apartments, where bicycle ownership may not be practical.
• The impending Cycle Hire scheme will not provide any docking stations in or near North Peckham.
• The proposed Cycle Superhighway from Lewisham to Victoria, running on an east-west axis through Peckham, is not a substitute for the Cross River Tram (or any alternative public transport service) running northwards from North Peckham into Central London.
• Whilst cycling is a practical mode of travel for some people for some journey purposes, it is certainly not practical for everyone, nor for every journey purpose.
• We would welcome an extension of the Underground to provide a tube station local to North Peckham. However, any such extension is currently no more than an unfunded aspiration which is not going to be delivered for at least another 15 years.
• The two additional journeys on route 343 are, of course, welcome as a much-needed first step, as are the measures introduced to run a more reliable service. Nevertheless, we believe they will fall far short of addressing the overcrowding problems which affect existing bus services in this area and northwards towards Elephant & Castle.
• Increasing the 343 also fails to provide the links which this area needs, to major centres of employment or shopping particularly in Central London. It is a shame that the resources being used to increase the 343 could not have been put to better use, for example by extending route 168. We would also remind you that since we pay taxes and Council Tax, we are paying for adequate levels of public transport yet we believe these are not being provided in the North Peckham area.

EQRA is awaiting a response which properly acknowledges and addresses the transport deficiencies afflicting the area.

It’ll also mean the end of the lengthy subways required to navigate the junction on foot.

plans for E&C roundabout

According to the plans traffic should be using the new layout in October this year and the scheme completely finished by April 2011.

• Story on Southwark News.
• Full blurb PDF from Council.