News

Christmas is a very expensive time for many households. Presents, special foods, visiting family all add up and for those already on a tight budget, it can push us into, or further into debt.

If you’re feeling the post-Christmas hangover of debt weighing down on you, then now is the time to do something about it. Ignoring mounting bills or rent and council arrears won’t make them go away. There are many useful websites offering good advice and very useful information on how to deal with debt. You can also make an appointment to see a local Debt Advice worker at one of the advice centres in Lewisham. For an appointment to see a free local debt advisor contact: Advice Lewisham – 0800 231 5453 or visit https://www.advicelewisham.org.uk or Lewisham Plus Credit Union: 0800 138 7777 or 0208 778 4738 email admin@pluscu.co.uk. If you are a Lewisham Homes resident and struggling to pay your rent, visit www.lewishamhomes.org.uk. 
For general advice and information try the advice website: www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk

From 1 January 2018, the New Cross Gate Trust is going Sugar Smart. Consuming too much food and drink that is high in sugar is causing high levels of tooth decay, obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Lewisham is currently working with local businesses, schools, children’s centres, hospitals and other organisations to promote healthier, lower-sugar alternatives. 
 
The New Cross Gate Trust has joined this campaign by making the following pledges: 
– From January, we will no longer be providing biscuits to our volunteers or adult learners when they attend courses. Instead we will aim to provide fruit and nuts, wherever possible. Tea, coffee and water will still be provided. 
– We will be asking our users not to bring fizzy drinks on to the site. We do however have drinking fountains available, in addition to tea and coffee- Read more: 
 
For more information on the Sugar Smart campaign, please visit: www.lewisham.gov.uk/sugarsmart or https://www.sugarsmartuk.org/about/
For more information and tips on on healthy eating, increasing activity levels, recipes and much more, visit Change4Life. 
You should also watch this short  film by Jamie Oliver which illustrates the real dangers of maintaining a high sugar diet.

There are a number of large developments due to take place in and around New Cross in the near future. As a result, Lewisham council have commissioned the development of a masterplan for the area around New Cross Gate station. If you would like to feed into this master-planning process, then please contact Hannah at ‘We Made That’, email: hannah@wemadethat.co.uk or Tel 0207 252 3400: There will be a drop in event on the 18th January at the Albany, Douglas Way, SE8 4AG from 6.00pm-9.00pm where you can come along and give your views.

Run the ‘Big Half’ for the New Cross Gate Trust. If walking seems a bit tame for you, and you are already a budding runner looking for a new challenge, then how about running the ‘Big Half’. This is a new half marathon event, taking place for the first time on the 4th March 2018, starting at Tower Bridge and ending in Greenwich. For more information on the run itself, click here. The New Cross Gate Trust has secured 4 community places on this run, so if you’d like to get fit at the same time as raising some funds for a local charity, then please get in touch. Jenny Couper, our Strategy and Partnerships Manager will also be running, and will be able to help set you up a fundraising page to share with family and friends. Email Jenny.couper@nxgtrust.org.uk for more information or to request a place. 

What’s free, what can be done anywhere? Can make you feel better both physically and mentally in just a short space of time, and can be an enjoyable social activity? 
Walking!! 
All the evidence shows that regular, brisk walking can significantly improve our physical and mental health. And even if we’re not very fit at the start, within a couple of weeks of regular, brisk walking we can turn it all around. 
Walking with other people can help combat depression, can help manage and even reverse Type 2 Diabetes, can help you make new friends, improve your spoken English and break out of isolated situations.
Alicia Pierre, our fabulous new Walk Leader (funded by London Sport) will be leading three weekly walks around New Cross. Please join her (no booking required). Walks are as follows: 
Mums with young Babies – Let’s Get Fit Together
Every Thursday 2pm-3pm from New Cross Learning, 283 – 285 New Cross Road, SE14 6AS. 
Walk your Way to Fitness – Every Thursday 12.15pm-1.15pm from the Waldron Health Centre, Amersham Vale, SE14 6LD
Walk and Talk – If you want to improve your spoken English or want to help others to do so, join this walk. Every Thursday 10.15am to 11.15am from Besson Street Community Garden, SE14 5AS. 
For more information on all of these walks, call Alicia on 07990 444 905 or email Alicia.pierre@nxgtrust.org.uk. And a big thank you to London Sport for funding this project. 

And if you can’t make these walks for whatever reason, GCDA also run a much wider range of community health walks on different days and in different parts of the borough. Click here for more information. 

The New Cross Gate Trust is really pleased to see that the Besson Street site is now moving forwards. Please find attached a press release from LB Lewisham setting out further details of the scheme. We are told that consultation events are currently being planned for early in the New Year. Further details will be distributed as soon as we have them:

“Lewisham Council selects Grainger as its partner to deliver a major, ground-breaking new rental housing scheme”
Lewisham Council has announced that Grainger plc, the UK’s largest listed residential landlord, has been selected as the preferred bidder for a partnership to develop and own 232 new purpose-built private rented homes and provide a new ethical rental offer to Lewisham residents including long-term, family-friendly tenancies.

The partnership will develop around 232 homes, including 35% affordable homes to be let at the ‘London Living Rent’, on a site at Besson Street in New Cross. In addition to the 232 new homes, the partnership will also develop a health centre for the local community, new office space for the New Cross Gate Trust and an outdoor gym.

Grainger is a leading professional landlord with around 9,000 rental homes currently in its portfolio. Established in Newcastle in 1912, Grainger has been recognised as the market leader in the emergence of a professional private rented sector in the UK. It has won numerous awards as a leading and responsible business and the company is investing over £850m over the next three years to create new rental homes across the country.

Lewisham Council and Grainger will now finalise the legal agreement and will make a further announcement in the spring of 2018, when the partnership is expected to be formally launched.

From January, we will be running three community walks.

Thursdays 10.15am-11.15am from Besson Street Community Garden (focussing on people with English as a Second Language)

Thursdays at 12.15pm to 1.15pm from the Waldron Health
Centre – The Waldron Walk (general walk, but particularly targeted at those who have been least active before getting involved)

Thursdays at 2.00pm (focussing on mums with buggies), starting from New Cross Learning. 

For more information, call Alicia on 07990 444 905 or email Alicia.pierre@nxgtrust.org.uk. 

 

Besson Street Community Garden, home to some of the cleanest air in New Cross and many beautiful and rare trees and plants (there is a connection here), is a Charter Branch of the the new Charter for Trees, Woods and People launched at Lincoln Castle to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the first Tree Charter in 1217.

At Besson Street Community Garden we celebrate and treasure trees recognising just how essential they are to life on earth. Trees have been on earth for over 300 million years, long before dinosaurs and humans, there are over 65,000 different species of trees and a third of dry land on earth is covered in trees. We simply cannot survive without them. As any primary school child will tell you ‘…trees breathe in the carbon and store it and breathe out the oxygen’. It takes two mature trees to produce enough oxygen for a family of four. So living in green towns and cities is not just beautiful but essential. The oldest living tree in the world is over 4600 years old, the Bristlecone pine in California. Though there are many other ancient trees, some as old if not older, yet to be discovered or their age be scientifically proven.

At Besson Street Community Garden we offer 10 week environmental learning courses, ‘Trees. Leaves, Birds and Bees, to primary school children in the local area. Last year we worked with 5 different primary schools, this year we will be working with 6 different schools with a total of 360 children. We have two gardening clubs each week, rain or shine. We offer three beeking courses each year (the next one is in April 2018) and we encourage anyone who is interested in plants and trees to contact us to find out to get involved.

We are, right now, developing an orchard in the garden. We have just taken delivery of a Morus Nigra (a Black Mulberry) very generously donated by Mount Anvil, a Damson very generously donated by The London Tree Walkers Group and a Ficus C (Brown Turkey) to grown fanned against the side of our brick building, this was partly funded by a contribution from Goldsmiths.

We are also planting apples, pears and gooseberries with other fruit trees being planted soon. We are now developing tree identification and appreciation workshops for local residents in Spring 2018 and over the coming year are planning a variety of tree related workshops and projects.

For more information on our work around trees, volunteer gardening or our schools environmental curriculum please contact: jill.mountford@nxgtrust.org.uk

We are asking all our centre users, supporters and local residents to sign the Tree Charter https://sign.treecharter.uk/page/6023/petition/1.

1. Thriving habitats for diverse species
2. Planting for the future
3. Celebrating the cultural impact of trees
4. A thriving forestry sector that delivers for the UK
5. Better protection for important trees and woods
6. Enhancing new developments with trees
7. Understanding and using the natural health benefits of trees
8. Access to trees for everyone
9. Addressing threats to woods and trees through good management
10. Strengthening landscapes with woods and trees

Trees and woods capture carbon, lower flood risk, and supply us with clean air, clean water, shade, shelter, recreation opportunities and homes for wildlife. We believe that the government must adopt policies and encourage new markets which reflect the value of these ecosystem services instead of taking them for granted.

Mount Anvil are currently undertaking a consultation in relation to proposals around the re-development of the New Cross Sainsbury’s. Please find attached further information. 

 

Somerville Youth and Play Provision have recently launched a petition to save the Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) next to the adventure playground from likely re-development. You can find out more about the issue and sign the petition here: 

 

LB Lewisham have commissioned the development of a masterplan for the area around New Cross Gate station. A consultation event is taking place on Saturday 9th December. Go along to New Cross Learning to have your say. 

 

Please come along and join our health walks – Tuesdays at 2.15pm and Wednesdays at 9.45am. There will also be a new weekend walk starting in January. These walks are particularly targeted at those just getting back in to exercise. 

On Monday 23 October, we had some fabulous help from 25 GoodGym Lewisham runners. They helped us to prepare the ground for a new shed, dig in several tonnes of compost to re-nourish the soil, create a nutrient dense bed for a new mulberry and fig tree, and rake and gather leaves. Thank you so much for all of your hard work. 

Thank you also to those people who responded to our appeal for compost. We raised £146 towards the cost of the compost, £40 of which was match funded through Local Giving. Your support is really important in enabling us to maintain the garden and providing a little oasis of green for the local community in this very urban area. 

There is never a good time to go hungry, but with winter drawing in, it is even more important to be able to access food – particularly hot meals. Community Connections have recently collated the attached list of local food banks and places that provide hot meals. Please forward this to anyone that you think may need this support.

From January, the New Cross Gate Trust will be going Sugar Smart.
Consuming too much food and drink that is high in sugar is causing high rates of tooth decay, obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Lewisham is currently working with local businesses, schools, children’s centres, hospitals and other organisations to promote healthier, lower-sugar alternatives.

The New Cross Gate Trust has joined this campaign by making the following pledges: 
– From January, we will no longer be providing biscuits to our volunteers or adult learners when they attend courses. Instead we will aim to provide fruit and nuts, wherever possible. Tea, coffee and water will still be provided.
– We will be asking our users not to bring fizzy drinks on to the site. We do however have drinking fountains available, in addition to tea and coffee.  

For more information on the sugar smart campaign, please visit: www.lewisham.gov.uk/sugarsmart 
For more information and tips on on healthy eating, increasing activity levels, recipes and much more, visit Change4Life. 

And if you need a reason to reduce your sugar intake: