News

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Have your bins been emptied?

Wondering what’s going on with bin collections.? Some parts of Lee haven’t had their food bins emptied for more than a fortnight, with turkey carcasses and other Christmas leftovers rotting inside.

Lewisham Council say the Christmas and New Year holidays should only delay collections by up to three days. But they have also admitted that “severe staff shortages” have caused further delays. Now they have promised that things should get back to normal by January 13th. Fingers crossed! Find out more here.

In the meantime, have a laugh with the Naked Week’s take on the Christmas bin issue!


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And so that was Christmas…

The Christmas Tree graveyard in Manor House Hardens is already filling up.

Lewisham Council offers this advice on how to dispose of your tree:

After Christmas, you can take your real Christmas tree to a collection point near you. If you have a garden waste bin, you can use it to recycle your real Christmas tree. Just cut it into pieces no bigger than 10cm thick and 50cm long. Find out more about our garden waste collection service. You can donate artificial trees to a charity shop or give them away. If it’s broken, take it to the Landmann Way Reuse and Recycling Centre.

You can find details of other collections points here.

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Replacing the dead trees in Southbrook Road

By Charles Batchelor

More than a dozen households have responded to the Society’s proposal to match-fund the planting of trees in Southbrook Road. We have set aside funds to spend on the planting and invited residents to provide a similar amount.

The death of several of the aged cherries has left Southbrook Road particularly denuded of tree cover  though the Society plans to roll out the programme to other local streets in future years.

Much of the £395 charge per tree is accounted for by labour costs, digging up the pavement to create a tree pit. Working with Street Trees for Living, the charity managing Lewisham’s street tree programme, we have surveyed potential planting sites.

Some residents have expressed an interest in trees offering either spring blossom or autumn colour. A final decision has yet to be taken on the varieties to be planted but they will comprise a small number of tree types rather than a single variety. This will make the trees less liable to succumb en masse to any of the many viruses that can affect them. Planting will take place in the winter of 2025.

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Blackheath Station Development – Latest

The Blackheath Society is warning about several risks attached to the proposed housing development in the station car park.

These include concerns about overdevelopment generally; loss of amenity for neighbours, in particular the houses in Collins Street; disruption to and potential loss or reduction in scale of the Sunday market; loss of parking for traders and the public and the impact of construction works, with John Ball School nearby.

The Society’s concerns are spelled out in their winter newsletter which you can see here.

The developers have set out their plans on a website which you can find here.