Our next Town Team meeting is 7pm on Tuesday 18 November and we would like you to get involved in our bids to the Mayor of London's High Street Fund. We need your ideas, enthusiasm and time. Come and have your say and help improve your area.

We had a great turn out for the meeting on Thursday 30 October at the Here For Good Centre. I started the meeting with a recap of SEE3 initiatives, achievements, learnings and our legacy. We then moved on to report back on the Forest Hill Urban Design Workshop, the Kirkdale Neighbourhood Planning Group Report and the Sydenham Arts collaboration. Here is the recap:

Michael Abrahams reported back on Urban Design workshop in July - four development zones have been identified.

1. The Station front and London Road: There was potential to develop the area in front of the main entrance to the station. New trees could be planted symbolizing Forest Hill, a piazza built and mixed use made of the rest of this important area, while maintaining drop off access to the station.

2. Perry Vale and to the east of the Station: A new crossing over the railway line would link what felt like a separate area to the rest of the town centre and encourage greater use of the Perry Vale car park. Also, there was potential for the north end of Perry Vale to be a pedestrian area with a street market.

3. Dartmouth Roadspaces: Themed public spaces could be developed, making better use of what was already there.

4. Dartmouth Road/railway links: The area to the immediate west of the railway line had seen several new unconnected developments. Improvements could be made to the footpath to make this area more accessible on foot and by bicycle.

The report could be the basis for a submission from Lewisham for money from the High Street Fund. This would be in addition to the Council’s successful bid for £600,000 from Transport for London to improve the north end of Dartmouth Road.

Pat Trembath presented a report from the Kirkdale Planning Group that had been handed to Lewisham Planning Policy officers who have said they will give it serious consideration when the formal review of Lewisham’s Strategic Development sites takes place over the next twelve months.

Jonathan from Sydenham Arts Festival talked about the plans in the New Year for a quarterly magazine, listing the very best in events, businesses and activities in the area including:
■ High Street Happenings – in collaboration with SEE3, regular entertainment alongside the monthly markets
■ Mr Tibbetts’ Old Time Music Hall – a delightfully vintage recreation of Victorian variety show, Livesey Hall 8 Feb 2015
■ Sydenham Arts Word Fayre – a 10-day festival of Literature and the Spoken Word in March, featuring authors Alan Johnson MP and Xiaolu Guo
■ Home Fires – touring our WW1 play in schools
■ Sydenham Arts Summer Festival – Don’t miss the glorious American-style Street Celebration on 4 July, the incredible story of Eleanor Marx and 7 Jews Walk, the intrepid explorers of The Astounding Ascent of P4 and dare you enter the amazing Sydenhamaze?

Jonathan explained he was putting in funding bids and wanted to collaborate on a creative arts bid for the £20k pot of the GLA High Street Fund.

The focus of the Town Team meeting on 18 November will be agreeing the bids that need to be submitted by 1 December. Some great ideas were put forward and have been developed.

We also want your views on the events and happenings in 2015 as well as any help you can offer to continue with the work started by the pilot. So plenty to discuss and agree - do join us on Tuesday - 7pm at Here For Good, 17 Sydenham Road.

Keep checking for progress on our web site - and subscibe to our eNews - http://www.SEE3.co.uk