Sydenham, Kirkdale and Forest Hill bid for Portas Pilot status
Lewisham Council is supporting a bid by community groups in Sydenham, Kirkdale and Forest Hill to secure funding from the Portas Pilot pot, intended to regenerate local high streets across the country. Following the review by Mary Portas, which explored how local high streets might be regenerated, £1.5m has been made available for 15 projects across the country and a further £300,000 has been committed by the Mayor of London to support three London projects.
Here's the bid video:
The successful bids will be selected at the end of this month.
5 comments:
I wish them the best of the luck with this. Sydenham especially could benefit, as the vibrancy of its high street has most markedly depleted in the last ten years. The cause of which I heard attributed to the massive Sainsbury's at Bell Green.
With Forest Hill I'd agree they've got a lot of 'make it happen' people living there and it feels like "It"; revitalisation is already happening... in terms of the arrival of Canvas & Cream, From the Hill, the Overground the Horniman Museum refurb and the influx of people because of the new flats by the station.
So let's hope that the Portas Pilot gives these places the extra push they need!
Brockley needs this more than Forest Hill!
I don't think Brockley does to be honest, I don't even think Forest Hill really needs it but hope they get it as extra money and support with speed the already ongoing process up.
One of the nice aspects of the 2nd funding bid is that it includes matched funding from the next phase of the Bell Green development which will provide £100k for Forest Hill and Sydenham Town Centres.
But Bell Green is scheduled to become a larger retail centre putting more pressure on the local high streets.
Forest Hill has improved massively in the last few years, but there are still many empty shops and poor quality streetscape that has not been improved significantly for 20-30 years.
Sydenham Gateway will make some improvements to this high street, but the challenge around the South Circular is even bigger.
Great news, the bid was successful.
http://www.foresthillsociety.com/2012/07/forest-hill-wins-portas-funding.html
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