5 minute read
Big Interview
THE INSIDE TRACK:
Lee Pepper
Favourite food: OK, this is a tough one! I love Indian food, a chicken tikka, American hot pizzas and cheese & onion crisps Favourite tipple? Probably Peroni and various IPAs
Favourite holiday? A few years back, we were lucky enough to visit the Maldives, and it’s pretty much my ideal holiday Describe your family life? My wife and I have spent the last ten years renovating our house. It’s Victorian and seems to have been a perpetual project with still more to do!
How do you spend your downtime?
We like to visit heritage or historical sites or houses and will often go out for the day and just pick a random place to see. I love the cinema and films in general, they’re a great way to unwind. I’m also passionate about football and have started playing squash again after a 30-plus-year break
What are your key strengths as a
manager? My work ethic and technical experience have definitely helped me. I also like to think I have an open and honest approach And your limitations? At first, I ran the business for a long time as a “techie running a business”, which created a few pitfalls along the way. In the last couple of years, I’ve worked hard to change that mindset
Best thing about doing business
in the borough? I love the history behind the borough and, logistically, it’s a fantastic location for the business. Also, as we’ve become more involved in communicating and working with the Council, Chambers of Commerce and Enterprise groups, you can see the effort they’re putting into local businesses and start-ups
Famous person you’d most like to
spend dinner with? Tom Hanks, Ian Wright and Ricky Gervais. If I had to pick one, I’d go for Wrighty; he’s a local lad and I love his passion for football and Arsenal
Most interesting fact about yourself?
The office I worked in for my first job was where Eisenhower directed the allies in World War II
Making the right connections Each month the Chamber hosts a variety of events which offer members a superb opportunity to meet and chat to fellow business people. Here, we review a few of our past events.
one of our regular speakers who always gives good value and insight into the world of politics. He answered members’ questions both sent and asked on the day. We look forward to asking him back next year.
Later that month, we were delighted to welcome back
Rob Elder, the Bank of England’s Agent for Greater
London as our guest speaker. Last year we had been at an Executive Lunch at Davy’s Wine Vaults to hear him talk about Brexit. This year, it was a virtual Zoom directed by Think Events and Rob gave us an insight into the economy during lockdown. In these difficult times, Rob has agreed to speak again before the usual summer event. We started August with
Claire Pritchard, Chair of the London Food Board and CEO,
GCDA. At our virtual breakfasts with other speakers, Claire has been giving updates on food distribution and this was her opportunity to tell us about her work as the Chair of the London
In early July, Clive Efford MP for Eltham was our guest speaker. Clive is
Food Board.
As this issue goes to print, you may be interested to learn that during lockdown, across the Royal Borough and Lewisham, GCDA distributed 60 tonnes of food. Greenwich residents received 22,500 healthy ready meals and the box schemes totalled 4,500 which provided food to make 90,000 meals.
September started with our first meeting with Abena
Oppong-Asare the newly elected MP for Erith &
Thamesmead discussed her new role, the lead she has had to take on the housing crisis in her constituency during the Covid crisis, and related casework as a direct result. Abena talked about seeing many individuals falling through the cracks, and how the councils are taking a strong lead in the response, in order to be ready and able to tackle exponential growth in resulting homelessness. Concluding the discussion on how the Government needs to better support this by funding councils properly.
She discussed the ongoing transport issues with a drive to seek resolution on delays to delivering a suitable transport network to Thamesmead in particular. Where plans to bring the DLR to the only area of London without a train station have recently seen additional delays and uncertainty ensuing from the COVID crisis and lockdown, pushing for revised dates and clear updates to plans as we emerge into the “new normal”.
We finished the month, with another regular speaker,
Cllr Peter Morgan, Executive Member for Renewal, Recreation and Housing at Bromley.
Cllr Morgan shared insights on Bromley’s town planning & housing strategy. Questions were asked by members who had booked into this paid event.
Reflecting on the impending White Paper Dr Malcolm Hockaday U+I questioned council plans in the likelihood this will affect the GLA drive on house building and pressure on existing demands versus available resources potentially threatening town centre character whilst meeting demand. This was followed by a question from Alan Wright, BPTW architects and planners on the realities of infrastructure & quality standards, on possible brownfield development to ease pressure on Green Belt, as well as the possibility of commercial property reclassification to meet those social housing needs, especially amid the latest use class relaxations!
Dr Sam Parrett LSEC asked about LSEC’s Bromley campus green belt status, regarding a planning application to boost student residence capacity in anticipation of imminent government drive to re-skill workforce for rapidly growing demand in Green Economy sector post Covid in 2021. Cllr Morgan asked Dr Parrett to write him about this anomaly.
Mark Jenkinson of Crystal Associates asked about Bromley’s Green Targets for 2029 as well as digital infrastructure with Robert Buckley, Bromley Council sharing the Open Reach announcement to deliver 1gb broadband across the borough as soon as next year.
