Did I not acknowledge the FH Society's fantastic work?

Anyway. Yes BusyBee, as someone with a very strong grass-roots connection with Forest Hill since 1971, of course it goes without saying that the station car park is THE best place for the event - especially when you're one of the lucky few who was part of it! And of course people will 'stumble across' a business that's parked out on such a prime spot during such a well-publicised one-off special event - but I understood from the FH Soc that it wasn't possible to use the station on a monthly basis.

I was merely exploring the bigger picture. These things often take a bit of lateral thinking for the longer term, which is why my suggestion might seem a bit off-the-wall. A town centre design study done some years ago identified a need to connect Dartmouth Road and Clyde Terrace, including the alley along the railway, via Clyde Vale, Dartmouth Place and other adjacent inter-connecting alleyways; and this is the reason for the retail units at the Printworks development and the widened pavement and public seating outside facing the railway.

My suggestion brought this into play and, as the station carpark option apparently isn't on, it is aimed at sustainability, which is not solely aimed at the stallholders but to the potential benefit Forest Hill's permanently-based trading community as well.

Taking a step back for a moment from the euphoria of everything that was good about Sunday's event we shoud not forget that many of the business proprietors in Dartmouth Road have hung-in there week-in-week-out paying rent, rates, lighting, heating, staff, etc, etc throughout a five year struggle in which they endured the closure of the swimming baths and the Post Office as well as an 18 month period when deep-excavation roadworks took out one side of the road, which meant one-way traffic and no parking.

That part of Forest Hill still looks a bit like Beirut but there are signs of a gradual revitalisation and the new pools will obviously make it a popular local destination and I'm sure new businesses will start to fill the gaps very rapidly. Once that has happened, I believe it would be feasible that the Printwoks shops and restaurant, being only a few short steps away, will become viable and that little area will also be recognised as part of the town centre. And, call me a fantasist, but a market down there could even spill-over into the little industrial estate.

Oh, and back to the subject of sustainability, the zillions of motorists passing through on the South Circular are no good to us due to parking constraints. So this has to be aimed primarily at serving the local population - or those who can get here using our fantastic links to public transport. From that point of view Dartmouth Place is also quite accessible for people around Dacres Road and the area to the west of the railway as they'd be able use the footbridge and walk down to it past the Albion Villas nature reserve.