PCEG Newsletter

Volume 13 Number 6
Incorporating Minutes of the 76th Meeting of Plumstead Common Environment Group
20 September 2003 at St Marks with St Margaret’s Church

If any members have email addresses which may not be on our membership database, JC would appreciate them emailing her asap at:
juliacowdell@pceg.fsnet.co.uk

Dates for your Diary

Slade Ponds Work Days

The 2nd & 4th Sundays of the month, weather permitting, at 11am:
Sunday 12 October
Sunday 26 October
Sunday 9 November
Sunday 23 November
All members welcome to join Pond Group on any work day. Contact: Chris Day.

Nature Reserve Gardening Group

Location: the wooded ravine behind Blendon Terrace.
Work sessions usually take place on Tuesdays from 10.30 am or at weekends. Please contact JC if you can join in on any given Tuesday, or Annaclaire Purnell and Rob Shaw for weekends.

Graffiti Removal Group

Next date: Saturday 1 November at 10:30am - meeting at Plumstead Common Yard, weather permitting. Contact: Anji Petersen.

Nature Reserve pruning and bulb planting Session

Sunday 19 October at 10.30am
Meet at Bramblebury Road entrance. A good turnout please!

Shooters Hill Local History Group meetings:

these are at 8pm Shrewsbury house on the 3rd Thursday of each month (cost is a small donation to the group). PCEG members may be particularly interested in the following –
A talk on The Slade by Michael Right on 16 October, and Douglas Johnson – an appreciation (tributes and films) on 20 November. Dot Lawrence hopes that this event might include a film showing St Margaret’s Church.

Autumn Market at St Marks with St Margaret’s Church

on Saturday 11 October from 11am to 3pm.
Please contact Erica if you have bric-a-brac etc. to donate.

Green Space Forum at Guildhall

on Thursday 23 October from 10am to 4.30pm
Rob Poole has volunteered to attend on behalf of the Group

Date of the next PCEG

Meeting and AGM:
Sunday 16 November
3-5pm St Mark with St Margaret’s Church Hall - Old Mill Road, past the Old Mill and Prince Albert pubs.
This will be a particularly important AGM as PCEG is about to undergo change, so please everybody, make an effort to attend.

News Items

Obituary – Margery Collins

It is with sadness that we recently learnt of the death of PCEG member Margery Collins, who has died at the age of 92. JC writes: “I always remember my first meeting with Margery. She arrived at my door some twelve years ago, wanting to join PCEG. She was already very elderly and rather frail looking, but with a strength about her, particularly her expression. She said “Of course I wouldn’t be able to do any heavy work, but I’ll do what I can; when I join something I like to see it through.” So it was that she helped on various PCEG stalls, at the Make Merry and Anti-Racist Festival, braving the stupendous noise of the sound system at the latter event. She also attended many meetings. She was one of ‘the old school’, with a lifetime’s service to the community behind her, eg her work with the Brownies and for St John’s Church and as a governor of Plumstead Manor School. She also gave generously to charity and espoused many environmental causes. She will be very much missed by all those who knew her.”

Peta McMorran

has had a difficult summer, having suffered serious problems with her legs. Best wishes from the Group to her.

PCEG members Alan & Beryl Read

, who moved to rural Essex in June send regards and best wishes to all their friends in the Group. They are very much enjoying their new life.

Hunting Dogs

Members may have noticed the lead story in 17 September’s edition of The Mercury entitled ‘Dogs savage pet’. PCEG member John Bryant writes: “There are two pairs of dogs that are known to have killed cats, late at night and in the early hours. The dogs have been seen, but no-one has been seen with them at the time of the incidents. The first pair are described as 'yellow' - one is a lurcher and the other smaller and of indeterminate breed. They have been seen hunting in Tormount Road twice and killed a cat on one occasion and almost caught a fox on the other. However, there is also a pair of 'Bull terriers' that killed a cat at the junction of Roydene and Tormount last Sunday. Apparently four cats have known to have been killed during the last couple of months. The police have been their usual useless selves. One distraught owner was told that it is not a criminal offence [untrue] and anyway it was probably foxes! There has never been any conflict between Tormount's foxes and cats. Indeed I have watched them playing with each other in my neighbour's garden. The fact is that two of the cat killings by dogs have been witnessed, and I saw myself the two 'yellow' dogs chase a vixen up our road, where fortunately she escaped over what used to be Min Good’s fence.”
We need to monitor this situation… 

Wildlife Sightings

PCEG member, June Clark, resident in New York writes: “I read about your ladybird experience [May Newsletter] and wanted you to know my own. When I had my big old Victorian house upstate New York, in a small village, every autumn I was invaded by hundreds of ladybirds (called ladybugs here). They hibernated in the window frames in my house, where they would not freeze but it also wasn't too warm. Every spring they would be confused about the correct exit and I used to check on them daily to deposit the strays outside. It was quite a common occurrence where I lived at the time, so I was really interested to hear it happens in Plumstead Common, too!”
Shirley Newton saw a bat at the end of August in Tormount Rd/ Old Mill Road

PCEG praised

The Group got a mention in The Mercury’s property section (23/07/03) in an article titled ‘So, what has Plumstead got to offer?’ – “The enthusiastic Plumstead Common Environment Group makes sure the common remains one of the area’s treasures.”

Reports

Blendon Tce Nature Reserve

JC told the meeting there had been a fire on the nature reserve side of the hedgerow and once again young shrubs had been destroyed. [Since the meeting there have been 2 further fires]. There had also been some dumping which the Council eventually dealt with. JC feels that we need to re-think how we go about things in the nature reserve, as the Tuesday group usually now only consists of Cowdells, although Kate Chowdhry hopes to resume her participation occasionally. Linda Armstrong also volunteered to join in once a month and Annaclaire Purnell and Rob Shaw said they are happy to continue litter picking at weekends (contact them if you would like to join them). It was agreed that whenever work other than litter picking and routine maintenance needs to be carried out JC would call a group work session. Accordingly there will be a session on Sunday 19 October at 10.30am to undertake pruning and bulb planting! Meet at Bramblebury Road entrance. A good turnout please!

Plumstead/ Winns Common

Parking on the common
At the meeting, members discussed the council’s anti-parking measures on the common alongside Lakedale Road. Two gates have been installed (for Council access and events) and a mixture of bollards and bunds will be installed at a future date. The variety of measures being used are determined by cost, the level of ground and services underground (e.g. pipes).
Anji writes: In August Rob Goring, Assistant manager of Parks, wrote to me in JC’s absence asking me to confirm PCEG’s position in relation to the council’s intention to prevent parking on Winns Common. He said: “My understanding is that PCEG is supportive of the Council’s position and that this has been made known to the Parks and Open Spaces Section of the Council previously. We have at this stage installed two gates and have received a small number of emails from local residents that are opposed to plans to prevent parking on the common.” I responded: “Whilst I cannot speak for every member of the group, I feel confident in stating that given our environmental aims and objectives, PCEG is opposed to cars being parked on the common. I hope that the Highways department will look at ways to deal with residents’ vehicles in this area before all the anti parking measures have been introduced.” This issue was discussed at a PCEG meeting about six years ago. It was decided then that whilst we would not raise it with the Council, we would support them in future if they took measures to enforce their byelaw against cars parking on the common. As with many streets in Plumstead, there are more vehicles than spaces to park them and Lakedale Road is no exception. Members at the meeting talked about their difficulties in finding spaces for their cars – sometimes having to park in the next street. It does seem strange that the Council should consult the Group on taking measures to enforce one of their byelaws.

The Plumstead Riots

JC drew members’ attention to the excellent letter by PCEG member John Bryant to The Mercury on 10 September: 
One hundred and thirty years ago, Plumstead residents led by John de Morgan militantly protested against threats by developers and the military to destroy Plumstead and Winns Commons. John de Morgan was imprisoned for his part in the protests, which are recorded in history as the 'Plumstead riots', but the end result was that both Commons were acquired by the Metropolitan Board of Works to be forever preserved as public open spaces. I wonder if John de Morgan would have bothered if he could have foreseen that more than a century later, children would use their holidays torching the Commons and turning the beautiful Slade ravine into a blackened and ugly scar, that Winn’s Common would be used by yobs to race cars at night before burning them in Bleak Hill Lane, that expensive and vandal proof seats paid for out of our Council taxes, would become meeting places for drug users and drinkers who delight in smashing bottles onto the paths to endanger children and animals, that every single new tree planted by the Council would be destroyed by vandals, and that both Commons would become sites for regular fly-tipping.
The volunteers of Plumstead Common Environment Group have battled away, renovating and tending the Slade Pond, creating and protecting nature reserves, removing graffiti, highlighting dog-fouling and generally trying to keep the Commons as pleasant local assets. But because of ineffective policing, thousands of hours of effort are being negated by a tiny minority of callous, mindless and anti-social idiots whose idea of fun is destroying anything of beauty they find in their sights.
John de Morgan must be turning in his grave!
John Bryant has put forward the idea of PCEG (hopefully with others, e.g. Plumstead Manor School?) staging a re-enactment of the riots next summer, perhaps with 'fun', sympathetic stalls, Council involvement (eg stall) police, fire-brigade, etc. and bring the issue round to the need to 'save the common' from vandalism, the modern equivalent of the threats 130 years ago from developers, military etc. He feels we may be able to motivate local residents into helping defend the Common, armed with leaflets with all the right telephone numbers to report damage, problems and damaging activities, fly-tipping etc. The adverts, posters etc could bear the words, "Come along to defend the Common. It'll be a riot!!"
What do you think? It would need quite a bit of organising/co-ordinating. Anyone willing? It could possibly take place at the Make Merry. Let JC or Anji Petersen know if you would like to get involved in such an event.
At the meeting JC listed all the arson and vandalism that has taken place on the Common over the summer. In addition to the devastation of the Slade ravine, one of the saddest acts of criminal arson was the firing of a mature poplar, causing 80% damage underneath and to the side of the tree. Because of its location next to the Adventure Playground fence, it will apparently have to be felled for safety reasons. Of course, in the current climate of vandalism, it cannot be replaced. This situation is worse than ever, and isn’t confined just to Plumstead Common – it has been happening in virtually all the borough’s parks – and no doubt in many parks throughout the country (what does that say about Britain today?!). The sound of fire engines and the smell of smoke has been an almost daily occurrence. Already fireworks are being let off at night; this will go on until January! In addition, trail bikes have made people’s lives a misery, even tearing round the Common at night. The performance of the Park Keepers has been lamentable, the standard of litter picking erratic - and simply not being done on the slopes. JC highlighted these problems at a recent Greenwich Wildlife Advisory Group meeting which was chaired by Cllr Jagir Sekhon, who promised to bring up the issue with colleagues. JC also alerted the Director of Public Services, Gurmel Singh-Kandola, who invited her to meet him. It was a very positive meeting, despite her depression (!) and it is hoped that by the next meeting there should be some more positive news to report on, as there are certainly moves afoot to deal with the situation. As Bob Carlisle commented to members, it is a problem of democracy that what is virtually a tiny minority can be allowed to dominate the majority. It is certainly undermining life in Britain at the moment

Slade Ponds

Chris Day reports: Water levels are extremely low, which has at least allowed us to begin weeding the reed bed and remove some of the silt build-up from the pond. There has been some vandalism – six flagstones removed from the holding pond and thrown or dropped into the water. I am very grateful to Tim Simpson for removing them. [At the meeting Rob Poole said he would ask the Council for some ready mix to re-cement the slabs in place]. On-going maintenance will include pruning back etc. Council collection of black sacks has been erratic, sometimes rubbish has been left for three weeks; hopefully this problem is now sorted. Volunteers desperately needed - any member wishing to swell our numbers is more than welcome to join our small group on the second and fourth Sundays of the month at 11am – see Dates for your Diary.

Graffiti Removal

Anji Petersen writes: On 26 July, myself, Anette Petersen and Bob Carlisle removed graffiti from the rugby club and the top of Chestnut Rise. Two houses at the junction with Old Mill Road had graffiti tags on their side walls which was removed with wire brushes. One of the residents, a man named Russell, gave the Group a donation of ten pounds in recognition of our efforts. We also tackled the green cable boxes, removing fly posting and washed off marker pen graffiti tags. We returned to Chestnut Rise on 31 August where we painted the doors of one cable box as they tend to get scratched and worn-looking from graffiti removal. Many thanks to Anette and Bob for their hard work at these sessions.
I am still looking for more members to join this group! Please contact Anji if you are interested or have any suggestions for places around the common to tackle.
 

Recycling

Danny Nicol reported that participating residents of Tuam Road have been given blue topped wheelie bins to collect paper, plastic and tin for recycling.

Planning

Danny Nicol wrote to almost all of those in key Council positions about how PCEG was not being consistently informed about Planning applications. He received supportive response from Cllr Pete Challis, Cllr Angela Cornforth and Cllr Vicky Morse. Hopefully, the Group will now be automatically consulted when applications are made public.

Greenwich Debate

Susan Bullivant reported back to the Group about the day spent at Eltham Palace in July. The purpose of the event was to bring together the Council, key partners and stakeholders to identify ways to achieve the Council’s vision for Greenwich – improving the quality of life for those who live, work, visit and learn in the borough. After presentations on the future of the Thames Gateway and Greenwich Voices, everyone was divided into workshops to look at different areas such as Health and Social care and Education. Susan was placed in the ‘Public Realm’ (waste, graffiti etc.) workshop. It seemed that the event was an expensive publicity exercise, aiming to show how wonderful the Council is, rather than containing much of substance.

Any Other Business

PCEG Calendar

There will not be a calendar produced for the year 2004. If we produce a calendar for 2005, a small group of members will need to meet sometime early next year to start the process – watch this space…
In the meantime, please keep taking photographs of Plumstead Common.

Reprint of Our Common Story

Please contact JC if you are interested in joining her and Anji in working on getting the reprint ready for publication. Frances Ward has suggested that money raised from one of her future talks to the Group could go towards the book. JC will contact her about a date.

Gardening Tips by Monica Meeneghan September 2003

Buy some plants now Don’t forget to contact me if you would like to buy plants now that have grown so fast this summer that they will benefit from planting now rather than to wait for the Make Merry. There are lavenders, orange-scented thyme, Sedum spurium and cowslips in particular.
Roses Before I can give a few pruning tips for roses in the winter months, it is necessary to describe some of the main groups. It can be confusing to sort out the differences between the ever expanding number of groups and sub-groups of roses which are inclined to change and merge into new ones. I will describe a few of them.
Climbers Along with ramblers these are used to cover walls, pergolas or other garden structures. The flowering ability of climbers will increase if their stems are trained to grow horizontally. The flowers are generally larger than those of ramblers, grow singly or in small groups and are often scented. They have stiff stems and some are remontant, that is, they repeat flower at a distinct time in any one season. They flower on 1-year old wood whilst some only flower once on 2-year old wood. They have dense, gloosy, mid- to dark green leaves.
Ramblers The shrubs are often very vigorous and useful for covering large areas. They can throw up long, thorny arching stems from the base of the plant. They flower abundantly once a year with many large clusters of small, sometimes scented flowers on 2-year old wood. Their leaves are often glossy with small lance-shaped leaflets.
Shrub A varied group of roses usually remontant (see above) 5-6 foot tall. The flowers are usually scented, single or double, borne singly or in few to many-flowered clusters. They’re suitable for borders, beds, hedges or as specimen plants.
Hybrid Tea These are remontant, free-branching shrub roses suitable for formal beds or hedging. They have thorny stems bearing large, often scented and double flowers borne singly or in twos or threes.
Floribunda Similar to hybrid teas except that the flowers are borne in clusters of 3-25.
Miniature These are remontant, suitable for small gardens, edging, raised beds, rock gardens, window boxes or containers. They’re 12-18 inches tall with tiny flowers in clusters of 3-9.
Patio Also remontant, they’re hardy, compact bushy shrub roses with usually unscented flowers borne in clusters of 3-11. In size the plants are between the miniature and floribundas. Suitable for beds, borders, low hedges or containers.

Botanic names

Sinen’sis-is, -e = Chinese e.g. Magnolia sinensis.
Si’nicus, -a, -um = Chinese.
Sino- = China.

What do you know 2003? What is a standard tree or shrub?

July Answer A hybrid is when applied to plants means something similar to a mongrel in dogs. They are the offspring produced by crossing two genetically different parents usually belonging to a distinct group.