Jan - Mar 2000
Group Meetings
Members meet bi-monthly, on alternate Saturday and Sunday afternoons from 3-5pm. The date of the next meeting is Saturday 18 March at St Mark with St Margarets Church, Old Mill Road, Plumstead Common.
The PCEG Party on 15 January
This was once again great fun and a wonderful food tasting experience, thanks to the huge variety of dishes brought along by members.
The Mayors Reception for Environmental Groups 10 December 1999
This was a great improvement on previous ones, with a lovely spread of food and a welcoming atmosphere. In the past there has been little or no Council presence at this event, which meant that a valuable opportunity for the two sides to get together socially and build bridges was missed. This time, however, the Mayor was involved, together with various councillors and council officers.
The House of Commons Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Committee Report (November 1999)
PCEG has purchased two copies of this very readable report which will be of interest to all those who care about our parks and open spaces. Its findings are stark, though not a surprise. The following is taken from a summary which appeared in The Guardian on 6/11/99: British parks have become unused, derelict havens for crime and vandalism during the last 30 years...We have inherited an infrastructure of parks of priceless value and their documented and visible decline represents a wasted opportunity of tragic proportions.
The Commons environment committee demands that the government should set up a special agency to administer around 5,000 urban and country parks and gardens, and the chancellor provide green taxes to fund their regeneration.
We believe that parks are key features in the renaissance of our urban areas. They have been instrumental in the regeneration of New York, Barcelona and Paris.
The committee says that public confidence in parks has taken a severe knock over recent years. As many as 25% were in poor condition and only 12% in a good one. Past models of municipal benevolence, embodied in high quality parks with excellent standards of horticultural display and bustling armies of gardeners and park keepers, have been eroded by the intensely competitive demands on leisure service budgets. Though they may be remembered as places of childhood delight, many parks have now deteriorated and become unsightly, even dangerous places. Under funding has cumulative effects, often precipitating a spiral of decline, the report says. Lack of funds leads to dereliction, and dereliction causes further expense. The rot can set in very quickly and be out of control in a very short time.
Another problem was the demise of the park keeper. By 1966 only one third of parks had dedicated parks staff yet 90% of local authorities experience vandalism.
A PCEG member writes: Sometimes if Im awake during the early hours ... I have seen many foxes on the common near our home [in Old Mill Road]. You have to stay absolutely still when observing them - the slightest movement and they run away!
Another PCEG member writes: There are resident foxes in Tormount Road - they come from the common and have been around for quite a while (often leaving their scent and mark in my front garden!!). They are very tame and there were a couple able to be fed by hand a few months ago. We have seen dog foxes, and over Christmas a vixen with two cubs. They are mostly around when it is dark but on 1 January one was trotting around opposite my house in the middle of the morning.
Another Tormount Road member writes of the same foxes: In fact the family consist of three foxes - a dog fox, vixen and one of their last year's female cubs which they have allowed to stay on. The dominant female usually prevents subordinate females from mating with the dog fox. They drove off their other three cubs in October/November. The dog and vixen mated (amongst much screaming, chasing and dancing in the street outside our house) over the days and nights of late January which means that their cubs will be born in mid March. The boundary between the Tormount 3 and a neighbouring group is vigorously scent-marked where Roydene Road meets the Slade pond. There is also much scent-marking at the top of Tormount Road where it meets the Common.
From Blendon Terrace a report that on 12 December a young fox in fine condition, with a beautiful bushy tail, appeared on a members back lawn at lunchtime and spent 15 minutes eating peanuts that had been scattered on the ground for the squirrels - to try and deter them from the bird feeder!
A member from Vicarage Park writes of her fox drama just before Christmas, as set out in this extract from The Fox Project newsletter. A young vixen was rescued after falling 12 feet into a cellar at Plumstead, SE London. She had broken rear leg, which was amputated the following day. As she came from Vicarage Park and is a female, we called her Dibley. Our member reports that Dibley has now returned to her local territory no sightings of her so far.
On 15 Dec two great spotted woodpeckers were observed on the bird feeder at the same time! This bird is now coming virtually every day. It particularly loves the fat ball which we have hung up.
On 14 Jan. a sparrow hawk in was spotted in the same garden. In recent weeks there have also been daily visits by a flock of sparrows which includes two chaffinches, and in recent days a huge flock of starlings (around 100) have been gathering in the late afternoon and roosting on lime and aspern trees on the edge of the woodland Nature Reserve behind Blendon Terrace gardens. At around the same time, two members reported seeing a flock of six redwings on the Common opposite Blendon Terrace.
Energy Advice Centre Presentation by Tundi Sanusi
Tundi Sanusi explained to members at the PCEG meeting on 16 January that the Energy Advice Centre is an independent organisation set up to encourage the saving of energy. They are in part funded by the Energy Savings Trust, Greenwich Council, Greenwich Enterprise Board and the University of Greenwich, and try to attract additional funding from other sources. They have a small staff of four which rather limits what they are able to achieve: they give presentations at which they distribute free low energy light bulbs; they produce leaflets containing practical advice on how to save energy and a questionnaire for people to fill in, which are distributed through the council housing office and other departments, libraries, schools etc. As a result of information gathered from the questionnaire, advice is then given on how people can make improvements which will lead to less CO2 emissions, while saving money at the same time - eg by using more energy efficient appliances (guidance is also given on running costs), insulating their lofts, draught proofing their homes etc. Free low energy light bulbs are also given out to people on state benefits.
One member wondered if leaflets should be left at, for example, Do-It-All? Tundi replied that they had in fact tried this at B & Q but it wasnt a success. It seems managements dont like potential customers to be distracted from the business of buying. The new, more environmentally aware Sainsburys on the Greenwich Peninsula, do their own low price bulbs.
At the end of the meeting Tundi gave out free low energy light bulbs and questionnaires to members present. For further information, please contact Tundi Sanusi on 0208-855 5533.
Graffiti Removal Initiative 27 November Bloomfield Road
This was a worthwhile exercise, conceived as a joint PCEG/Greenwich Council and The Mercury initiative. Thanks go to the dozen members who painted out graffiti from the unoccupied white building by the bus stop near the top of Bloomfield Road. The Council anti- graffiti team who joined us on the day removed some graffiti from neighbouring buildings The purpose behind this initiative: we have taken an extreme example of an unoccupied building in a heavily graffitied area to try and prove to the surrounding businesses that it is possible to defeat the graffiti vandals by being prepared to remove graffiti as soon as it appears. If we can succeed with an unoccupied building there is no excuse for businesses who are occupying their premises every day to take no action. This applies equally to householders of course.
To this end, it has been necessary to return to the site approximately a dozen times since 27 November, four of those to deal with really bad attacks, to the unoccupied building, the other times to remove the odd tag. At no time did it take more than 15 minutes, and sometimes 3 seconds! If only people realised that with a little time and effort they themselves could keep the problem at bay!
Ten members returned on 30 January to complete what we began in November. This proved a very satisfying experience because we were extending out from the unoccupied building to the neighbouring graffitied buildings in order to achieve a graffiti-free zone. We had of course obtained permission from Greenwich Council! The area looked transformed an hour and a half later and hopefully other people will notice the difference and notice, too, how we will deal with any further graffiti attacks to those buildings. The aim is to keep the graffiti off for longer than it is on, so as to deprive the vandals of any satisfaction. And of course we hope that the owners of the buildings will start to take responsibility for removing any future graffiti themselves, once they see the point of doing so.
Other News on Graffiti JC attended the full Council meeting on 16th December to ask the Council if they agreed that they should develop the PCEG/Mercury initiative by encouraging people to remove graffiti from their own premises or properties, giving advice and assistance where required, rather than attempting to remove all graffiti from the borough themselves (an impossible task, given the scale of it), with the community disengaged from the process.
Councillor Challis replied by explaining that there had been no central budget for dealing with graffiti up till now, but this problem had been resolved, leading to a speedier process with a dedicated graffiti removal team + council contractors. The Council was now in a position to lead by example. Education was important, and there was a joint initiative between police and council [yes, but graffiti is still not high enough up the list of priorities which the police receive from the Home Secretary down; perhaps the Council could lobby the powers that be?].
Paying tribute to the shining example of PCEG, Councillor Challis agreed that the community needed to own the graffiti issue and said he would be inviting community groups to a seminar in January and be offering them training in the removal of graffiti. So far this hasnt happened, but JC understands that a start has been made in getting together lists of the boroughs environmental and other community groups and residents associations prior to writing to them. Perhaps businesses should also be included? Another positive development is that the Council has been holding meetings with the public utilities and putting pressure on them to regularly remove graffiti from electricity boxes, telephone kiosks etc. and it is noticeable that this is starting to happen.
Graffitibusters Campaign -
Julia Cowdells column in The Mercury
After the PCEG graffiti removal event, and as a result of earlier discussions with the editor of The Mercury, Julia Cowdell was invited to write a fortnightly column as a way of keeping the campaign alive and hopefully stimulating ideas and debate.
How we can take the PCEG initiative further? Here are some ideas: PCEG members to go forth, visiting local businesses with a graffiti problem and trying to get the message across. The Group advising/helping to remove graffiti on condition that the message of self help is adopted.
The link is being fostered again this year with PMS putting on another event to start the Plumstead Make Merry. The school will present Our Common Story using oral history, music, historic documents, dramatic tableaux to present the history of the school on the common. Video material and other media will be used, involving teachers from the history, drama, music and media studies departments. Watch this space!
New litter bins are apparently imminent !
There is still a problem with people driving onto the common near Bleak Hill Lane - bollards are urgently needed. Litter collection by the Council is very good.
Dog mess bins are being used - which is not to say that everyone is using them, of course. The National Trust has launched a dog awareness campaign. Apparently there are as many as seven million dogs in this country - more than the human population of certain countries!
For the immediate future, we would like to designate the 2nd and 4th Sundays each month as pond days, thus enabling people who wish to attend on an ad hoc basis to know when the group will be there. This does mean that occasionally there will be a gap of up to three weeks and the situation will need monitoring.
The general picture is good and it is rewarding to see the return of the ducks. Water levels are very low, despite the amount of rain in December, which exposed and allowed for the removal of large items of rubbish. The reed bed has been very dry enabling us to walk on the mud and remove litter. The amount of sanitary products has diminished but there is some concern at the appearance on two occasions of a syringe and needle.
Timbercroft Schools Garden Initiative One PCEG member, a parent at the school, is intending to raise money for this project by shaving her head (ouch!). She is being sponsored by other parents from the school and is looking for some publicity. The aim is to create a garden at the school for children to learn about the cycle of plants going into the earth, growing, dying off, regenerating, together with an appreciation of nature and the environment. So important!
Acanthifolius: The commonly used word "foliage" quickly tells us that folius means leaves and so any plant with a second name "acanthifolius" will have leaves like Acanthus.
Acanthus: It's a vigorous semievergreen perennial that comes from dry, rocky areas mainly in the Mediterranean and makes striking architectural plants for the back of borders. Most species are hardy. The tubular white, pink or purple flowers often with prominent, coloured bracts can be dried. They will grow in most soils in sun or partial shade and do particularly well in deep, fertile, well drained soil. They are best propagated from root cuttings in winter but can be divided, or sown in cold frames from seed in spring. The long leaves, usually at the base, are variously toothed and lobed and can be spiny. They're lanceshaped or broadly ovate.
Glyphosate: Until now the herbicide Glyphosate (Round up) has been widely thought relatively safe and to break down quickly in the soil. This is despite being toxic to earthworms, lacewings, ladybirds, beneficial bacteria and fungi. It also depresses the activity of important nitrogen fixing bacteria. Wild life is indirectly affected as insects that feed on treated weeds are the food source of some farmland birds. Recently Glyphosate has been found to harm other important soil bacteria too. A study in Sweden has also linked it with a rare form of cancer in humans. As a result it has been recommended that it should be removed from the EU approved list. If this happens, its use would be banned in Europe which must have implications for GM crops that involve the use of Glyphosate. On this subject, we saw a note in the paper the other day that Monsanto had banned GM food from their canteen. Can this be true I wonder?
A further illustration of our strange laws is that in spring the broad bean variety "The Sutton" was given the prestigious "Award of Garden Merit (AGM)" by the RHS. Now it, along with other old favourites such as the runner bean variety "Scarlet Emperor" is being struck off the national list so that it will be illegal to sell the seeds of these healthy vegetable varieties. Gardeners are being encouraged to buy some whilst they are still legal, to grow them and save some seed. This is done by leaving the earliest beans to develop on the plants until they ripen towards the end of the season.
What do you know, 2000? Which is the correct approximate earliest date for planting half hardy plants outside?
a) March 24th. b) April 24th. c) May 24th. Answer next time.