Message to Juniper Parents
If Juniper children must do their Maths homework in the garden, could they at least give the rest of us some lessons?
Slideshow
Rest In Peace. John Scherer
1945-2022
20/04/2022
After a long disease and an eventful life, Juniper founder resident John Scherer (flat 2) has died peacefully in hospital in the company of his immediate family.
A man of broad and passionate enthusiasm and experience, John helped many people with his generous advice and practical help with anything to do with cycling, HiFi, and even the underground rivers of London.
John was one of the original ‘Salvagers’ of Juniper House, who helped repair and rescue the block (which was then semi-derelict) from certain demolition in the late 1970’s. His efforts at that time helped provide homes for people moving in now.
In his idea of Heaven, angels would have bikes, not wings, and the music of their harps would be heard playing Studio One classics through glowing valve amplifiers. He was a man with a lot of expertise to pass on. A true individual.
John’s ashes are to be scattered in his beloved Scotland.
In memory of John, a Holly bush is to be planted near his flat (2) on Friday 13th May. 7pm..
All are welcome to attend. Please share with any friends of John who minght not yet know the news..
Refreshments available courtesy of Fay, but all contributions welcome.
John was one of the original members of Juniper House, and we could always share our memories of the early days of the block. He was one of the people I turned to whenever I needed help with my bike or any audio problems. I remember him providing me with my first hifi amp, and turntable which went on for many years in my flat and studio.
One of the outstanding and unforgetable stories I have of John was the day I took him a 20ft audio speaker cable that had stopped working. He said that somewhere in that 20ft the cable had broken and the best way to find out where was to cut it in half, then half again etc until we arrived at a working cable. So he divided the cable in half and made a clean cut, then tested both 10ft sections to see which piece worked. And only John could cut that cable perfectly in half and hand me back 2 perfectly working 10ft cable, having cut the exact point where it had broken.
John, you will be missed and Juniper will be a lesser place without you.
Jaki Wilford
09.05.2022
•••
Share condolences and memories via Fenix Memorials:
https://fenixfuneral.co.uk/memorial/993-john-scherer-2022-04-20/
John would also appreciate donations to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds:
https://www.rspb.org.uk/join-and-donate/donate/
Insurance
Insurance Policies Available
Working with Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance plc, Southwark council has arranged a new-for-old, pay-as-you-go home contents insurance scheme, which has been specially designed for tenants and leaseholders. home contents insurance pay as you go scheme .
Further information on the schemes available, and which is most suitable for you from your local area housing office: email crystal@jltgroup.com or phone 0845 601 7007.
Click to access home_contents_insurance_scheme.pdf
0345 450 7286
E-mail: tenantscontents@thistleinsurance.co.uk
General public and residents’ liability claims against the council
‘Southwark effects different insurance cover, to protect its own and stakeholders’ property and liabilities, including a building policy for housing lessees and a voluntary tenants’ and lessees’ contents insurance scheme.
This guidance however is primarily concerned with the procedure to be followed if you wish to pursue a claim against the council for injury to yourself or damage to your property, which you consider the council is legally liable for.
Please read the general guide on making claims
https://www.southwark.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/complaints-comments-and-compliments/insurance-claims
2022 Help
2022 – helping each other
There is no escaping the fact that, for many families, the next year will be difficult. Energy and food prices are certain to rise at rates few of us have ever seen, most wages will be frozen, or possibly cut, and any government help will probably not be enough to make up the shortfall. It therefore falls to the community to try and help itself – again.
During the Lockdown of 2020, a food delivery service for isolated residents was organised through Pie’n’Mash at The Field. 2022 will need an even greater effort. Specifically, we will need more volunteers to collect supplies from different outlets for distribution to Juniper Residents, and people willing to canvass the block to collect details of those who need assistance.
Contact the Secretary: sec.junipertra@gmail.com • Flat 32
SOUTH-EAST LONDON FOODBANKS & CLUBS
CENTRAL SOUTHWARK COMMUNITY HUB
Foursquare Church, 177 Walworth Road, SE17 1RW
Open: Mondays: 13:00-15:00.
New Covenant Church, 506 to 510 Old Kent Road, SE1 5BA
Open: Tuesdays: 12:00-14:00.
St Paul’s Church, 4 Lorrimore Square, SE17 3QU
Open: Wednesdays: 11:30-13:30.
Open: Thursdays: 10:00-13:00.
PIE’n’MASH MUTUAL AID
385 Queen’s Road, New Cross, SE14 5HD • 07857024435
89 Peckham High St, Peckham, SE15 5RS
Distribution. Tuesdays. 2 – 3.30pm. Peckham Library Square.
Also Deptford Library Square. 9 Giffin St, London SE8 4RH Distribution. Thursdays: 3 – 4.30pm. Deptford Library Square.
email: piemashfield@riseup.net • tel: 07857024435
Facebook group and Telegram channel.
www.pienmash.org.uk/
THE FELIX PROJECT
Unit 7 Deptford Trading Estate, Blackhorse Road, SE8 5HY
tel: 0207 394 2478
Open: Mon-Fri : 8am – 6pm • Sat : 8am – 12 noon
THE COMMUNITY FRIDGE.
Albrighton Community Centre, Dog Kennel Hill Estate, SE22 8AH.
tel: 0207 737 6186
Open: Tues – Thurs from 1pm
PECKHAM PROJECT
Location: All Saints Church Hall • Blenheim Grove • SE15 4QS
Open: Wednesdays 5pm and Saturdays 5.30pm
Contact: peckham@foodcycle.org.uk
ST PETER’S CHURCH BROCKLEY FOOD BANK
43 Wickham Road, Brockley, SE4 1LT. • tel: 07872 161 271.
Open: Social supermarket on Wednesdays. £3 weekly fee.
LEWISHAM FOODBANK LIST
www.nxgtrust.org.uk/local-food-banks
THE NEW CROSS FOOD BANK
467 New Cross Road, SE14 6TA • tel: 0207 231 0535
PECKHAM PANTRY
St Luke’s Church, Chandler Way, SE15 6DT • 0207 277 7075
Opening Times: Wednesday – 11:00 – 14:00
ALSO 49-53 Peckham Park Road, SE15 6TU • 020 7277 7075
Open:
Monday – 09:00 – 16:00
Tuesday – 11:00 – 16:00
Wednesday – 09:00 – 16:00
Thursday – 10:00 – 19:00
Friday – 09:00 – 16:00
Saturday – 09:00 – 15:00
MY 2ND CHANCE
All Saint’s Community Centre, Room 4, 105 New Cross Road, SE14 5DJ. Phone: 0208 895 6113 • 0208 895 6119
Email: info@my2ndchance.co.uk • http://www.my2ndchance.co.uk/
LIVING WATERS
Honor Oak Community Centre, Turnham Road, SE4 2JD
tel: 0208 690 7579
WHITEFOOT AND DOWNHAM COMMUNITY FOOD PROJECT
Whitefoot Lane, BR1 5SF – Telephone: 07745258841 • 0208 698 7945
Open: 10:00 am – 4:00 pm Monday – Friday
JUNIPER PLAYSCHEME 2021
POMEROY PEABODY PARKING PAPERS
Another Slap in the Face
Between them, Lewisham Council and the developers Peabody seem determined to use ‘The Pomeroy’ to increase traffic congestion and pollution on Pomeroy Street.
Their latest trick is the plan to open a shop on the ground floor of 43-49 Pomeroy Street, inevitably attracting more parking throughout the day to further block an already over-exploited residential thoroughfare.
To London Borough Of Lewisham Planning Department.
Tim (who works in housing development) has noticed that Peabody have now applied to London Borough of Lewisham (LBL) to change the wording of the condition on their planning permission that restricts the use of the commercial space to office use as they want to have a shop occupy the unit (Reference number:DC/21/123402).
Unfortunately recent changes to the Use Class system in Planning basically allows this –
Offices and Shops are now lumped together in the same use class and changes within a use class are allowed. Tim believes Peabody are seeking to acknowledge this in updated wording to tidy up the permission so as to easily lease the unit to a retail shop. This application and potential use can be used as an opportunity to highlight that Pomeroy Street is a mess following errors by LBL to carry out their planning and highways responsibilities correctly and so LBL must do something to alleviate the traffic issues on the road.
A Catalogue of Bungling and Duplicity
- The original development was permitted by Planning Officers using delegated authority rather than the development going before the Planning Committee where it would be subjected to scrutiny from elected councillors. This is unusual for a development of 65 homes especially where local residents at both Juniper House and Kender Street TRA had written in opposition.
- The Officer’s report was not uploaded on the LBL website so the decision making was not transparent. Peabody later hid behind this error to avoid their obligations.
- The original application was permitted without a proper highways impact assessment for residential parking as it was proposed as Zero Car Housing. This meant there was no highways assessment of parking impacts on Pomeroy for the Residential or Office uses. The application documents misrepresented the road stating that the majority of the road has a double yellow line parking restriction.
- The method for securing zero car housing is to write a restriction in the legal agreement that accompanies the planning permission that prevents future occupants of the development being eligible for a parking permit should a permit system be introduced. LBL missed this restriction in the s106 legal agreement. LBL also missed a £20,000 contribution from Peabody for a Controlled Parking Zone feasibility study that was recommended to accompany the permission.
- When this omission was spotted by residents in February 2019 LBL were at first uninterested in doing anything about it despite there being an unknown highways impact on a road for which they are responsible for road safety.
- Eventually in June 2019 LBL agreed to try and correct their errors and contacted Peabody. Peabody originally denied the application was ever for zero car housing, despite their application documents stating this numerous times. They said that they were unaware of LBL’s intentions as the Officer’s Report was not available – this was all deeply disingenuous.
- When, in December 2019, Peabody finally agreed to update the s106 at LBL’s cost, they then filibustered and delayed until March 2021, by which point 90% of homes were sold, before signing the updated agreement. This meant that the added restriction could not be applied to signed leases for sold homes. So now there is an un-assessed highways impact from the residential units.
- In Peabody’s application to change the wording of the condition to allow the retail use they hypothesise that if the application was determined today the new Class E use would have been permitted as it includes the permitted office use. This is hard to say as the Officer’s Report does not mention the office use once. So it can only be concluded that they did not properly consider the additional impact of the office use. I do not believe the potential parking impact of office use was properly assessed either. Retail use would have a greater parking impact than office use, this definitely has not been assessed. Loading arrangements for a retail use have not been accounted for in any plans.
- LBL are completely unaware of what the parking impact of both residential and retail uses will have on the safety and traffic flow on Pomeroy Street – a road for which they have responsibility (not `Southwark).
- Zero car housing is allowed at greater densities in locations with sustainable transport options nearby in order to support sustainable development and to lessen the impact on the climate crisis. LBL and Peabody have both acted either incompetently or underhandedly to allow parking for this development, undermining the push towards sustainable development.
- Peabody still has to comply with a Travel Plan which commits them to ensuring their residents do not rely on cars for their transportation. LBL still has a chance to get Peabody to do something about the parking and car use of their residents.
The fundamental issues of the road.
- At approximately 8.5m, Pomeroy Street is not wide enough for two way traffic and parking; as with parking on both sides this clear carriageway is reduced to 4.5m.
According to The Department of Transport’s Manual for Streets, a road with two way traffic requires a minimum 4.8m clear carriageway. With parking on both sides of the road traffic will not flow and will result in frequent traffic jams. Parking around the new development has become noticeably worse since residents have moved in and there is frequent gridlock. Adding a retail shop use with visitors stopping and parking on the street will only make this worse. - The limited gaps for passing result in cars speeding to reach the next gap. They are also often frustrated from being stuck in traffic and not paying attention. They often do not stop for the Zebra crossing. This is a huge safety issue on a residential road near a park and a school.
- Gridlocked traffic results in more pollution on the street. As was the case with the death of Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah air pollution from traffic impacts residents in the older buildings far greater than those in new buildings who have modern airtight buildings with
mechanically controlled ventilation with filters. Existing residents with vulnerabilities have been failed by this failure to control parking on Pomeroy Street. This impact, brought about by agents of change who will be less affected, does not stand up to an Equalities Impact Assessment. - Gridlocked traffic will result in an unacceptable noise impact both from accelerating cars, as they have to stop and start multiple times along the road, and from horns as they vent their frustration.
- Emergency services are also affected, especially with the Deptford Ambulance Station and New Cross Fire Station being located close to Pomeroy Street, both being obliged to regularly negotiate its chronic congenstion. Will this cause fatalities because of delays to emergency services?
What is the remedy?
One quick remedy would be to introduce double yellow lines along a greater proportion of Pomeroy Street. This could include the entire eastern side between Hatcham Gardens and 29 Pomeroy Street.
A long term solution would entail a review of the road and the implementation of a properly designed traffic scheme with traffic-calming and formalised parking at appropriate points on one side of the road. The introduction of formalised parking may also allow for street trees to be introduced making Pomeroy Street a far better environment for all involved.
Unfortunately the horse has bolted on allowing the parking and the shop use however LBL are still responsible for the safety of Pomeroy Street.
Complain
There are three ways to log a complaint with the outcomes of this planning permission and to advocate for improvements to Pomeroy Street:
• Email – Planning@lewisham.gov.uk
• Write a letter to – Planning Service, Laurence House, 1 Catford Road, LONDON, SE6 4RU.
• Online – click on this webpage link
https://lewisham.gov.uk/mayorandcouncil/complaints-and-feedback/how-to-send-a-complaint-to-us click direct on
COMPLAINT
2021 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING PACK
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
7.30pm • Tuesday • 21st September
https://meet.jit.si/JUNIPERMEETINGS
•••
All Residents Welcome.
MEETING PACK
1. AGENDA
2. MINUTES OF LAST AGM
3. MINUTES MEETING #43
4. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 2019-2020
5. DRAFT 2020-21 ACCOUNTS
6. ANNUAL REPORTS
PARENTS GROUP FORUM
SUMMER 2021 FORUM.
Please use comments to exchange ideas and opinions.
For real-time chats, our Jitsi channel is always open.
https://meet.jit.si/JUNIPERMEETINGS
Suggestions from meeting #1:
Skillbase
‘That residents with professional skills might also be willing to use their experience to run workshops.’
Please notify sec.junipertra@gmail.com with any contributions.
Southwark Estate Promises
Our Estate Cleaning & Horticultural Promise
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, and in order to manage the risk of spread, a reduced staffing level may have some impact on this schedule.
On a daily basis our cleaners will:
• Litter pick, remove fly tip and spot mop/wash spillages in internal communal areas
• Sweep, mop and clean lifts, litter pick and remove dog fouling and fly tip from external communal areas, place dumped rubbish in domestic waste bins inside bin rooms, sweep bin room floors.
• Remove litter, fly tip etc. from recycling sites/banks and to a surrounding area of 5 metres
• Empty litter bins.
On a weekly basis our cleaners will:
• Sweep external balconies and wash/spot mop any spillages of bodily fluids, animal fouling etc.
• Clear dirt, detritus from drain gratings.
• Empty dog waste bins.
On a twice weekly basis our cleaners will:
• Sweep and mop internal communal areas other than lifts.
• Clean internal fixtures and fittings.
On a monthly basis our cleaners will:
• Remove fly tip, litter etc. from block entrance canopies & roofs to a height or 4m above ground level.
• Clean block entry doors and screens.
On a three-monthly basis our cleaners will:
• Power wash walls and floors of refuse rooms/bin chambers.
• Throughout the growing season (March to October/November) our cleaners will:
• Deploy a range of methods to control and remove weed growth on communal hard standing areas.
On a six-monthly basis our cleaners will:
• Wash dog waste bins.
• Wash walls and ceilings of internal communal areas.
• Polish internal vinyl flooring.
• Clean communal windows (excluding the outside face of first floor and above windows).
On an annual basis our cleaners will:
• Wash litter bins.
• Clean external fixtures and fittings.
On an as and when basis our cleaning service will provide a pro-active, rapid response service to deal with the following:
• Removal of fly tip.
• Removal of offensive and non-offensive graffiti and fly posting.
• Removal of snow/ice and application of grit to priority areas.
Our grounds maintenance service will:
• Cut all communal grass areas once a fortnight dependent on grass growth between March & November.
• Maintain shrub, rose beds, hedges and plant containers in a weed free condition.
• Prune shrubs, roses and hedges according to type, season, good horticultural practice and mitigate any nuisance or obstruction.
Juniper Window Gallery
May Bank Holiday Weekend 1st – 3rd May 2021
Let’s get together in our own window art exhibition!
Display your best most colourful art works in your front windows for everyone to enjoy. The exhibition will take place over the May Bank Holiday weekend, so over the last weeks of April lets get arty and show off our best creations!
This is a great way to welcome in the Spring and celebrate our community over the past year of lockdown 🙂
Juniper House 