The next free Camberwell Business Network (CBN) engagement and networking event – in association with SE5 Forum for Camberwell – takes place next Thursday 25 April 6-8pm at Theatre Peckham. ALL local businesses are invited to attend for FREE. 

The event (the second of three free events) is being facilitated by our CBN Engagement Officer Oli Polidore Perrins as part of his brief to create an active business network, support business growth in the area and create an improved retail experience for locals and visitors. 

Businesses will be able to hear presentations and get advice from councillors, brand experts and SE5 Forum representatives, as well as finding out more about the Camberwell Business Network.

SE5 Forum will also be giving a presentation on its current Camberwell Identity project, and how this will support local business. The CBN event will be chaired by our SE5 Forum board member and business lead Will Reeves.

Any business representative who would like to attend this exciting business event, please see details below on our business invite and contact Oli on: cbn@se5forum.org.uk

Camberwell Police Station closure. How safe do you feel? Southwark News wants your views. 

Local newspaper Southwark News has approached SE5 Forum to get local Camberwell residents’ views on the closure of Camberwell Police Station, with local teams no longer to be based there (in March).

The newspaper is keen to have your views on local community safety and policing.

If you’d like to give your views to Southwark News, you can reply to this email with your full name and any brief quotes you’re happy for Southwark News to use.

We will email this on to the newspaper (if you’re interested in passing on your phone number, too, you can – and the newspaper may contact you further).

DEADLINE: THIS MONDAY (morning at latest)

Many thanks for your contributions.

SE5 Forum’s board members and other volunteers are currently working hard together on initiatives to strengthen Camberwell’s identity – to help increase awareness and interest in the area and encourage improvements for residents, visitors and businesses. We are collecting people’s views on the area to inform our work.

SO we are reaching out to you, our community, to ask you for your thoughts and input!

We’d be very grateful if you could take a few minutes to fill in our short survey. This quick anonymous questionnaire asks you to tell us what you like/don’t like about Camberwell, what improvements you’d like to see, what facilities you use, etc.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO GO TO OUR ONLINE SURVEY.

OR PRINT OUT the survey and bring it to the SE5 Forum stall on Saturdays on Camberwell Green between 10am and 2pm.

If you would be interested in taking part in any future informal focus groups on Camberwell’s identity, or would like to just tell us more, please email: admin@se5forum.org.uk

MANY THANKS FOR YOUR HELP

SE5 Forum objects to TfL’s proposed bus changes

SE5 Forum’s transport working group has worked with local consultant Jane Bevis to create a strong, well-researched objection to TfL’s proposed bus routes changes. We, and many others, believe the changes in services will have a hugely negative effect on Camberwell’s transport links.

Our response was submitted to TfL’s consultation earlier this month.
You can read it here: TfL Bus Consultation (SE5 Forum)

Just some points in our response:
• As a result of the proposed changes Camberwell will have lost 3 direct cross-Thames connections, 171 between Elephant & Castle and Holborn; 45 between Elephant & Castle and King’s Cross; and 40 between Elephant & Castle and Aldgate.
Bus travel times to central London will be lengthened further by the removal of direct cross-Thames bus services and the need for interchange.
• Vulnerable and disabled people, wheelchair users, carers with pushchairs and the elderly are expected to disembark at Elephant & Castle where the 171 and 45 will terminate and the 40 will be re-routed.  TfL estimate this will affect 7,300 journeys per day.  This busy hub has few facilities (no toilets, few seats and limited bus shelters), is dangerously exposed to the cycle lane on the northbound side, and is already over-crowded as one of the most popular hopper fare interchanges.  8
• Repeated failures over 80 years to invest in Tube, rail and tram services connecting Camberwell with central London, means most residents are reliant on bus services.
• Overcrowding at Denmark Hill.
• No reopening of Camberwell train station.
• TfL is failing in its Public Sector Equality Duty in the way it has assessed its proposals and their impact on Camberwell residents.
• SE5 Forum objects in the strongest terms to TfL’s proposals to reduce and re-route direct cross-Thames bus services from Camberwell. They are based on flawed data and fail to recognise the significant socio-economic and equalities issues affecting Camberwell and its residents.

SE5 Forum has written to Southwark and Lambeth councillors and MPS, urging them to mobilise a campaign against these proposals by TfL; some already are. Some SE5 Forum members also lobbied Southwark Council and TfL at the Camberwell Community Council meeting last week. As a result, TfL is now willing to meet with us to discuss these bus route changes, and Peter John, leader of Southwark Council will meet to discuss how to move forward with the reopening of Camberwell train station.

Have your say on transport in Lambeth

Lambeth Council has launched its transport strategy and is asking the public to respond. As well as an online consultation, there will be a public event on the strategic direction of transport planning in the London Borough of Lambeth for the next 20 years. Borough transport policy officers will present their plans, and there will be opportunities for questions and discussion.

Time and location: Tuesday 27 November 2018, 17:00-19:30 (drop-in session)
Lambeth Town Hall, 1 Brixton Hill, London SW2 1RW

The event will focus on the content of the following two documents, which are currently in draft form:

Transport Strategy (see document)
The Transport Strategy is a document outlining the strategic direction of transport planning in Lambeth for the next 20 years. At the heart of the Strategy is the aim to ensure that the transport system is accessible to all, allows us to lead healthier lives, tackles inequality and cleans up our air.

Local Implementation Plan (see document)
The Local Implementation Plan (LIP) complements the Transport Strategy, providing additional detail. It provides a background to the borough including challenges and opportunities. It also contains a three-year programme of investment alongside local targets and indicators to enable the plan to be monitored.

To register, please visit the Eventbrite page here.
Eventbrite tickets are not mandatory, however entry will be prioritised to those with tickets in case the event is over-subscribed. Tickets also enable us to estimate the number of attendees so that we can book appropriate facilities.

Commenting online
If you are unable to attend, or if you wish to submit your comments online, you can complete the Transport Strategy Survey on Lambeth Council’s consultation page. Deadline: Monday 17 December.

Lift at Loughborough Junction train station

SE5 Forum has lent its support to Loughborough Junction Action Group’s funding application for a lift at Loughborough Junction train station to create equal access for everyone. The local community has long been concerned that Loughborough Junction is not accessible to people with disabilities and with buggies. The lift is needed on equalities grounds to enable access by the local community, particularly the elderly, disabled and parents with buggies as well as visitors to Kings College hospital.

SE5 Forum members recognised in Southwark Stars Awards 2018

SE5 Forum is pleased to announce that Mark Webb (below), long-term volunteer and Chair of the Camberwell Green Safer Neighbourhoods Team Ward Panel, has won the Keib Thomas Award for Active Citizen of  the Year from Community Southwark for his committed voluntary work on community safety, including accompanying the Met Police on local knife sweeps. Earlier this year, Mark raised £328.48 in a donation from The Co-Op in Camberwell towards metal detector equipment for knife sweeps. This was covered in Southwark News.

In addition, two of our board members Sophy Tayler and Craig Stansfield have received the 100 Hour volunteering award for their work for SE5 Forum and in particular their efforts towards the campaign to re-open the train station and create better, more sustainable transport links for Camberwell. Many thanks for all their voluntary contributions.

Community Southwark’s Southwark Stars gives the opportunity to celebrate those who take the time to volunteer to support others thus helping to make Southwark a better place. In addition to the Southwark Stars Awards event this year, Community Southwark is going to continue the celebration by displaying posters of nominees and winners, and their stories, at the Tate Exchange space for the weekend following the event. The award Ceremony will be held on Friday 16 November at Tate Exchange from 6pm to which successful nominees and a designated number of organisation and family representatives will be invited, too.

For more info on Southwark Stars, email: Volunteering@communitysouthwark.org or call 0207 358 7020  

https://twitter.com/SouthwarkCAN/status/1063508785833091075

Mark Webb, Keib Thomas Award for Active Citizen of  the Year:

A quick update about a setback for the campaign to reopen Camberwell station…

Just a year later than Sadiq Khan had promised, a preview of the business case for reopening Camberwell Train Station was presented by TfL to SE5 Forum’s campaign team: Priority Action for Camberwell Transport (PACT), Southwark Council Councillors and officers, and Helen Hayes MP.

The document delivered two main conclusions:

• If large numbers of Kent commuters have a slightly longer journey, that ‘disbenefit’ would outweigh the benefits that the station brings to local users of the new station
• TfL estimated that number of new homes (460) that could be linked to the development is ‘relatively modest’, which would not cover the costs of building a new station.

So what does this mean for the campaign? Read the latest update by Southwark CAN, which has been working together with SE5 Forum for Camberwell on the campaign:

More here: https://www.southwarkcan.org/camberwellstation

Read the newspiece on Southwark News: www.southwarknews.co.uk

The SE5 Forum for Camberwell would like to thank you for your ongoing support to make Camberwell a better place to live and work. If you’d like to become more involved in our Forum, or just find out more, read on…

Annual General Meeting (AGM): Camberwell Library, Wed 19 September 6.30-8.30pm: Save the Date!
We would like to invite members of our Forum and the public to attend our next AGM, which takes place at Camberwell Library on Wednesday 19 September from 6.30-8.30pm.

As well as conducting our usual AGM business, we have invited key speakers on our topic of air quality: Clean Air for Camberwell. We know this is an important issue for many of our supporters, and also ties in with our campaign to re-open Camberwell Train Station as part of a move for better, cleaner transport in the area. The session will be followed with a Question Time, and, of course, refreshments will be provided. Full details on the attached AGM Agenda.

Come and find out more about our activities, and share your views – we hope to see you there!

Invitation to new Board Members of the SE5 Forum for Camberwell
As we near the AGM, we are also inviting members of our Forum and the public to express interest in standing as a Board Member for the SE5 Forum for Camberwell.

To find out more: read our Invitation to new Board Members: AGM Invitation Board Members 2018, with an explanation of Board Member duties and how to put yourself forward. Please email: admin@se5forum.org.uk

You can also read our Chair’s Annual Report 2017-2018: AGM chairs report 2018
and the SE5 Forum’s new 3-year Strategy and Action plan, detailing our priority areas of Transport, Business & Identity in Camberwell – so you can find out more about what the SE5 Forum is up to at the moment.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Local MPs Harriet Harman and Helen Hayes have met with Rail Minister Jo Johnson to present our petition of thousands of signatures in support of reopening Camberwell Station and to ask for his support. Helen Hayes says this is “urgently needed to improve transport services for local residents, businesses & hospital”. Harriet Harman says: it is “urgent to reopen Camberwell Station”, and “strongly backed” by SE5 Forum, Kings College Hospital and the Maudsley NHS, the University of the Arts London (UAL) and the London Borough of Southwark.

Handing petition to ⁦@JoJohnsonUK⁩ transport minister. Urgent to reopen Camberwell Station. Strongly backed by @Kingscollegenhs @MaudsleyNHS @UAL @SE5Forum @lb_southwark @helenhayes_. pic.twitter.com/XwwVxjUfm7

— Harriet Harman (@HarrietHarman) June 20, 2018

Today @HarrietHarman & I met the Rail Minister @JoJohnsonUK to present a petition in support of reopening Camberwell station and to ask for his support – urgently needed to improve transport services for local residents, businesses & hospital #CamberwellStation pic.twitter.com/ZnZpfGAlRB

— Helen Hayes 💙🌹 (@helenhayes_) June 20, 2018

The presentation of the parliamentary petition took place at the Department for Transport on Wednesday 20 June – after hundreds of hours of volunteer effort to gather thousands of signatures supporting the reopening of Camberwell Station. 

SE5 Forum for Camberwell and campaign backers are delighted to have taken the message right to the top! Transport for London’s business case for Camberwell Station has yet to be published, so this is a chance for us all to shape the political agenda.

You can help by Tweeting your support. It would be great if any local residents keen to see the reopening of the station could retweet our MPs’ message: twitter.com/HarrietHarman

Tweet your support at:

@HarrietHarman
@helenhayes
@SE5Forum
@JoJohnsonUK 
#CamberwellStation

Camberwell Business Network – Engagement Officer

Are you well-organised, with excellent interpersonal and communication skills? Have an interest in helping businesses in Camberwell come together?

The Camberwell Business Network (CBN) needs an Engagement Officer to:
– engage with local businesses and create a database of business contacts
– build and maintain social media presence
– research and compile informative and interesting topics for the CBN e-newsletter and distribute it to database.
– coordinate outreach events, including finding a venue, arranging catering, managing the budget, booking relevant speakers and inviting attendees.
– produce progress reports in line with grant requirements.

This is a 52-week contract on a self-employed basis for approximately 5 hours per week, paid at £14.50 per hour.

For a full role description, please see below or download the PDF here: Camberwell Business Network role description

To apply, please submit by email your CV, including two referees, and a short cover letter/email by 5pm, Friday 22 June 2018 to: admin@se5forum.org.uk

The SE5 Forum for Camberwell is a grassroots, non-political umbrella organisation that exists to work for the improvement of Camberwell to benefit all members of our diverse community. The SE5 Forum is supporting the Camberwell Business Network with the help of a grant from Southwark Council.

********************

Southwark News has reported on SE5 Forum’s campaign, with local supporters, to reopen Camberwell Station in this week’s issue of the newspaper, published on Thursday 9 May.

You can read the news piece in Southwark News here.

SE5 Forum organised a protest on Camberwell Green last Saturday 5 May, to highlight how reopening Camberwell Station should be part of a Cleaner Transport means Cleaner Air approach to transport and air pollution issues in Camberwell.

Local supporters joined SE5 Forum campaigners to don free giveaway air pollution masks and hold up a banner demanding more to target air pollution, which is twice the EU legal limit, according to pollution monitors installed by Southwark Green Party.

Getting TfL to support the right choices in terms of our transport options is important for cleaner air, and healthy streets. So the Camberwell Train Station Campaign continues!

Changing our older buses for lower emissions models is just one small step – we need to make radical changes to SE5 transport options available to residents, and road users.

SE5 Forum now has access (via a Freedom of Information request) to the background planning documents TfL is using for its business plan for the station. So far, air quality is not on the agenda. Our protest aimed to show TfL that this an important issue for Camberwell, including re-opening the Camberwell railway station.

Tweet your support at:

#CamberwellStation
#openourstation
@OpenOurStation
@OpenCamberwell
@HealthyAirLDN
@SE5Forum
#TFL #SE5

SE5 Forum Press Release, 7 May 2018:

‘CLEANER AIR, CLEANER TRANSPORT: REOPEN CAMBERWELL STATION,’ SAY CAMBERWELL CAMPAIGNERS

Supporters of reopening Camberwell Station donned anti-pollution masks at Camberwell Green on Saturday to highlight air pollution levels that are twice the legal EU limit in the centre of Camberwell[1]. Traffic is a major source of air pollution in the area, and reopening the Camberwell railway station could provide a cleaner transport alternative, campaigners say.

Local group SE5 Forum for Camberwell has now won access, via a Freedom of Information request, to studies[2] showing clean air is not a priority in TFL’s analysis of the benefit of reopening the station. Campaigners will now aim to convince Minister of State for Transport Jo Johnson that using the train rather than cars and buses will improve local air quality. They are briefing local MPs Harriet Harman and Helen Hayes, who will hand a 2000-signature petition to reopen the Camberwell station to the Transport Minister on 15^th May.

Campaigner Sophy Tayler, who obtained the background planning documents and comments, says:

‘We are worried TfL is shunting this important project into the sidings. The studies fail to take seriously traffic pollution, slow bus services, growing population and difficult access to hospitals in Camberwell. These issues will continue unless there is a step change in transport options.’

According to SE5 Forum, the studies suggest the train service would provide a time saving of 15 minutes for those travelling from Camberwell to Elephant and Castle. Users already on the train would experience an average delay of only 42 seconds (and only on those trains that stopped at Camberwell). The study says that this change “arguably… would not be noticed by existing users”.

According to Tayler: ‘More rail users come from outside London, than get on at Camberwell, so we don’t get a high enough BCR (Benefit Cost Ratio) to boost the business case for re-opening. But this could mean inner city Camberwell never gets a meaningful chance to improve transport options and air quality.’

Campaigners are now demanding a say in the economic and social assessment of the local benefits that they believe TFL’s business case should provide. They say the 36-page report TfL commissioned to cover ‘economic appraisal and wider impacts assessment’ does not mention Camberwell’s hospitals or the particular needs of patients, staff and visitors in relation to transport; it also fails to take into account the growing local population, new housing developments and five redevelopment areas, all of which would benefit from the station; and that it does not consider the area’s future, if it continues to suffer poor transport, poor air quality and challenges, in attracting and growing local business.

Note for editors

Camberwell Station Background
Camberwell station sits on the Thameslink line between Loughborough Junction and Elephant and Castle. While the station last served passengers in 1919, platforms and infrastructure exist and could be re-instated. In 2014, despite a majority vote favouring Camberwell in the TfL Bakerloo underground line consultation, the route down the Old Kent Road was selected. However, the response to the consultation recommended that the business case for reopening the Thameslink station should be undertaken. In Summer 2017, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan promised that TfL’s business case would be published the autumn of that year. Now in 2018, and still with no business case in sight, campaigners made a Freedom of Information request to obtain the background documents, so as to better understand the issues.

SE5 Forum for Camberwell
The SE5 Forum for Camberwell (se5forum.org.uk) is a grass roots community organisation, which promotes the development and improvement of Camberwell in South London. It provides a cross-borough forum in which local residents, organisations, groups and service providers can share expertise and information and work together to improve the local area. It has a track record of more than 10 years of raising the profile of Camberwell as a place in which people can live and work.

[1] The legal EU limit for nitrogen dioxide is 40 micrograms per cubic metre(μg/m3). The level recorded in May 2018 outside McDonald’s restaurant in Camberwell was 84.3 micrograms per cubic metre, according to pollution monitors installed by Southwark Green Party.

[2] Camberwell Station Reopening, Railplan Strategic Modelling, Mott Macdonald, September 2017; Camberwell Station Re-instatement Economic Appraisal, Steer Davies Gleave, TfL, 6 June 2017; South London Stations Report (Camberwell Station) Final v1-0, Steer Davies Gleave, TfL, 18 July 2014