News
Improvement work under way at £18.5m to Beckenham Place Park East Side transform Work on a raft of improvements has started at Beckenham Place Park East Side, focusing on the Downham side of the railway line.
A
fter extensive consultation with the community, Lewisham Council is improving the quality of play, recreation, health and wellbeing opportunities for residents, particularly those living near this part of the park in Downham and Bellingham. The improvement works will increase biodiversity and rewilding whilst bringing significant flood and climate resilience benefits to the area. There will be increased community volunteering opportunities for local people with the improvements to the river corridor. The new works to the park will include: •
Extensive new landscaping, new planting and rewilding of the east side of the park with lowland meadows and wildlife-rich ponds with space to accommodate stormwater to reduce flood risk.
•
New playground and multi-use game area.
•
An improved main entrance from Old Bromley Road.
•
Improvements to the river corridor and increased community volunteering opportunities.
•
New/improved footpaths and wayfinding.
•
Activity trail and off-road cycling trail and outdoor gym to support health and fitness.
•
New park café opportunity with publicly accessible toilets.
The full programme of work will last for around one year, with regular updates published on the Beckenham Place Park web page beckenhamplacepark.com Occasional pathway suspensions and diversions will be required during the works and the playground in this part of the park will be closed for a period of time whilst the new play facilities are being built. Environmental charity Thames21 is working as part of the project to encourage the involvement of local people to learn more and actively enjoy contributing to their park and local river – the River Ravensbourne. This river is a tributary of the River Thames and runs through part of the park. Although it is a place of beauty, it can suffer from many challenges, including road and plastic pollution.
T Loughman & Co is the main contractor delivering the park works and has a proven track record of successfully delivering park and river regeneration and restoration schemes. Landscape architects from BDP have been involved from the initial conceptual design stage and are taking the project through to completion. Beckenham Place Park is the largest green space in the borough, covering 98 hectares. It contains large areas of ancient woodland and is a beautiful and peaceful location providing vital green space and activities for residents, improving both physical and mental health. Damien Egan, Mayor of Lewisham, said: “I'm delighted that the work to improve the Bellingham and Downham side of Beckenham Place Park has begun. “This is the final part of what's been South London's biggest new park project and it's been an incredible success. “Since improvements to the park were made on the west side, we have seen numbers increase from 200,000 to around 1.2 million visitors every year! I look forward to seeing the changes.”
New electric charge points heading to Bexley Public charging points for electric cars and vans are being installed across Bexley.
T
he move is part of the borough’s commitment to protecting and enhancing the green environment for current and future generations. The council’s new partner, Ubitricity, will be maintaining these new charge points using a combination of bollards and street lamppost charges built into existing street furniture on residential roads. The charge points, which take as little as two hours to install, will
be deployed on residential streets across Bexley – with at least two per ward within the borough and will charge at speeds of up to 5kW. Councillor Richard Diment, Cabinet Member for Places, said: “Installing these chargers using existing lampposts means that there is less physical infrastructure to install and disruption will be kept to a minimum, keeping our street green without cluttering them. “We are excited to work with Ubitricity and look forward to expanding our network of charging points across the borough."
Toby Butler, UK Managing Director of Ubitricity, added: “The future of mobility is electric and the multitude of EVs taking to the roads must have access to convenient charging infrastructure close to home. “We’re thrilled to add Bexley to our list of council partners across the UK whose trust has helped Ubitricity become the UK’s leading charge point provider and look forward to helping support their residents in the switch to EV.”
Croydon town centre
A
project to transform Croydon town centre and restore pride is set to receive £18.5m of Government funding. It follows a successful bid by Croydon Council to the Levelling Up Fund, under round three. The council applied to the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities (DLUHC) for the Reconnecting Croydon scheme, which will see six infrastructure and public realm projects funded to reconnect and revitalise Croydon’s streetscape. The vision for the project is to ‘Reconnect, Refresh, Revitalise and Regenerate’ the town centre, as part of Executive Mayor Jason Perry’s priority for the wider regeneration of Croydon town centre. The projects will provide improved connections throughout the town centre, so residents and visitors will be able to travel more easily through safer, greener and more pleasant routes. The projects will cover the South End restaurant quarter, East Croydon station, West Croydon station and Old Town and Croydon Minster. Central to the bid is the delivery of a new civic square for the Fairfield cultural complex, connecting Queen’s Gardens and Surrey Street Market. Executive Mayor of Croydon, Jason Perry, said: “I’m delighted we have been successful in the Levelling Up Fund, round three. “Our impressive bid submitted at round two has been assessed as high quality and ready to deliver. “This will be a huge boost for Croydon town centre and will form part of my determination to restoring pride in our community, reconnect and regenerate Croydon.”
33
