17th April 2012

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= WELLS WAY TRIANGLE RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION =  Minutes of Committee Meeting held on 17th April 2012 

Committee members: Jenny Bentall (Chair), Richard Llewellyn-Davies (General Secretary), Astrid Niggeloh, Andrew Osborne, Mike Morris, Claire Sharpe, Aston Martin

In Attendance: Cllr Mark Williams (Ward councillor), Donnachadh McCarthy, Keith Doyle, Noel Ene (Southwark Housing Officer), John Kissi (Southwark flood prevention officer),

''' 1.  Apologies: '''

Jenny Jones, Susie Giles, Kapie Mzumara, Emily Woodhouse, Tessa Brown, Tom Tibbits.

 2. Approval of the minutes of the March 13th 2012 meeting 

The minutes were approved subject to some changes. The revised minutes will be sent to Kapie in due course.

 3. Flood Zone 

John Kissi talked about the issues of vulnerability to flooding. The flooding team within Southwark council was created in April 2011.

It’s possible that in the future we may expect heavier storms and unusual weather and the council are looking to instigate a surface water management plan. Camberwell is a key risk area in this respect.

The council are looking at two key ways for managing flood risk.


 * Looking at ways in which to reduce flood risk
 * Looking at ways to reduce the impact of a flood.

Ideas are currently being submitted to the Environment agency. Changes to funding for flood prevention means that the agency will no longer fund any scheme 100% so we would have to find accompanying funding for any proposals. Southwark are ahead of the other boroughs in terms of submitting proposals.

The council have also undertaken some modelling work to look at where surface water would gather in the event of a heavy storm. These models cannot take into account specific details about individual properties but they reveal that a one in one hundred year rain storm would lead to much of the triangle being between 0.5m and 1m under water.

As a preventative measure the more green spaces exist the less surface water will be a problem. Ideas for flood prevention include green verges next to the roads. Additional trees are also very helpful though a commitment to maintaining trees will be required from either the council or the community.

Having a permeable garden, that has not been concreted over, is also helpful and additional use of water butts, as these can slow down the flow of water from the roofs to the soil.

Preventative measures include individual flood plans, which can be developed from advice on the Environment Agency website. However community flood plans can also be submitted by a residents association.

Action
'' John Kissi will make the various resources for helping residents to prevent floods available to the association when they are ready for publication. ''

'' If we want to submit a community flood plan then we can meet again with John to discuss proposals for funding. The proposals must be community led with the council supporting, rather than the other way round. ''

'' The WWTRA green group will consider what actions to take next. ''

4. Matters arising
= State of the local environment and fly-tipping =

The fly-tipping and rubbish bins outside 1-11 Rainbow Street has continued. Noel commented that the side gate by Bonsor street has been fixed. Noel has also spoken to refuse collection about leaving the bins outside the block, as this should only be done last minute. It was noted that some large items, like mattresses, had also been dumped on the corner.

It was also noted that the new block of flats between Southampton Way and Wells Way were also in the habit of leaving their bins on the pavement. This has encouraged fly tipping in this location.

Action
'' Noel will write to residents reminding them about what they should do with their rubbish and, also, reminding them about the council’s free bulk waste collection service. ''

'' Cllr Williams also committed to getting back to the environment officers to see what steps could be taken to tackle this and to understand the requirements of residents and freeholders, whether they be local authority or private. ''

= Trees on Coleman Rd =

The general secretary has been writing repeatedly to a council official, in environmental services about getting the Trees on Coleman Rd replaced. The official has promised to replace these but so far no action has been taken.

Action
'' The general secretary will forward the e mail chain to Cllr Williams. Cllr Williams promised to chase this up and get our trees replaced. ''

BMX track
Planning permission for this has now been approved in spite of our objecting to the location.

The CPZ
The northern part of the WWTRA area has now been turned into a CPZ. Residents felt that the traffic has been getting worse in the triangle streets since its implementation.

Action
'' The deputy chair has already agreed to design a badge that identifies residents cars from non residents. These will show how many cars parked on a weekend or an evening are not local. The possibility of a green triangle or a smiley face as a symbol was suggested. ''

Elmington Estate
We discussed our concern that cycle safety had not been adequately written into the plans for the estate redevelopment. This followed on from discussions about the development at previous meetings

Action
'' Cllr Williams will push for a cycle safety review to be carried out against the plans for the Elmington estate. We are hoping that pushing again for this within the council will encourage the developers and council to include provision for cyclists. ''

Camberwell library.

Cllr Williams updated: The designs for the site outside the law courts submitted by the architects were rejected by the council, on the grounds that they could be re-designed to lose fewer trees from the orchard. We were confused because it had been reported that the council had agreed to look at alternative sites around Camberwell green.

Action
'' Cllr Williams will update on what’s happening regarding the promised consultation on the siting of the new library. ''

5. Independent Commission on the Future of Council Housing in Southwark.
The General Secretary updated the meeting on Jan Luba’s Independent commission on the future of council housing in Southwark having attended the event held by the Commission for local TRA reps on the 22nd March.

There were criticisms about how the Commission was undertaking the consultation exercise. Writing to TRA reps had only managed to generate very limited attendance and the vast majority of attendees were, unsurprisingly, TRA reps from council Tenant’s TRAs. Jan Luba expressed a desire for a wide consultation, which includes discussions about how housing gets allocated. He wants to, therefore, include representations from people who want to access council housing but cannot. The commission are highly unlikely to recruit the wide variety of representatives that they are seeking through the methods that they have employed.

Following the meeting some TRA reps expressed a desire to work together prepare a presentation for the Commission.

The council’s commitment to listening to the views of the Commission was also raised and Cllr Williams assured us that the Commission was being undertaken at considerable expense and so the council was determined to take their recommendations very seriously.

Action:
The General Secretary will continue to liase with the reps from other TRAs regarding a presentation to the commission and will continue to act as the lead for the WWTRA in this area.

The General Secretary will also prepare an e mail survey to be sent to all residents to examine their views on the future of council housing. This will be circulated before the next meeting.

Details for how individuals can feed their own thoughts to the commission should now be available on the website.

 6. Greening the Triangle 

The vision group will be meeting again on April 19th at 6 at 2 Coleman Rd, to finalise plans for the Greening the Triangle Community Meeting to be held on Saturday 19th May. We also discussed local leaders for “gardening for the games”

= 7. AOB =

 Council reps 

 Noel Ene requested that council officers agenda items are put up early on for future agendas so that they can leave the meetings early, without having to sit through items not pertaining to their presence.

 Charity funds for Jubilee parties 

 St Olas and St Saviours charities have funding available for jubilee parties. We will make sure that the SE5 forum are aware of this as we are joining in their celebration.

''' Application to the Cleaner, Greener Safer Revenue Fund. '''

 Cllr Williams confirmed that £15,000 had been awarded to us for an application to improve the corner of Southampton Way/Wells Way. Council Officers will be in touch to consult with us.

 The council have a cleaner, greener, safer revenue fund. Cllr Williams has put in for some funding to support another application for some street planting. This could provide up to £500 for this project.

 SE5 forum summer party 

 A meeting for reps is being held on the 11th May to people wanting to get involved with organising the big lunch on the 3rd June.

 Action: 

'' David Frost to be asked to attend the meeting. Andrew O may also be able to attend. ''

 The Peckham and Nunhead area action plan 

 This is a legal document setting out the planning framework for the area was shown at a meeting on Transport at a consultation meeting in November. However the latest version of the document has deleted the cycle lanes. We agreed that we would like the cycle lanes reinserted.

 Action: 

<p style="tab-stops:36.0pt">'' Jenny to write to the consultation leaders to request that the cycle lanes be reinstated on the area action plan. ''

<p style="tab-stops:36.0pt"> Future meetings 


 * 8th May Committee meeting
 * 19th May Greening the Triangle Community Meeting.