Interested in joining a Manor Park User Group or Friends of Triangle Nature Reserve?

We are holding an inaugural meeting on Tuesday February 12th, from 7pm in the Parish Room of the Good Shepherd Church in Handen Road, for all those who are interested in becoming members of either a 'Manor Park User Group' or a 'Friends of the Triangle Nature Reserve', or both! User groups are the best way for local residents to interact with the Council and their service providers, and can be crucial in raising the additional funding that is often needed for improvements to local facilities. In the 2007 round of the Ward's Locality Funding we put aside start-up funds in order to establish these two groups, and we have to get them up and running and the funding allocated by the end of March 2008.

Manor Park re-opened last year after a comprehensive refurbishment but there's a lot still to do, such as:

• finding the funding for, and establishing an entrance into the park from Longhurst Road perhaps
• bringing the building in the park back into use, perhaps as a café or teenagers den, or toddlers play group
• lobbying for a permanent park keeper

If you use Manor Park this is a perfect opportunity to influence the development of the park and make a real difference to the community.

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One of Lee Green's best kept secrets is that there is a nature reserve, which we refer to as the "Triangle" because of its shape, hidden away between platforms 4 & 5 on Hither Green station. When I first moved into Manor Park more than twenty years ago, the reserve was managed and sign posted but over time it was abandoned and became overgrown. One of the things I've done since becoming a councillor is to put the nature reserve back on the Council's agenda and working with Nick Pond (Ecological Regeneration Manager at Lewisham) and Tertius Beneke (Environment Specialist at Network Rail) over the last two years we've installed a maintenance entrance down into the reserve, commissioned a report into the plants and animals that live there, and with the generous help of Envirowork have done some provisional tidying up, but there's a lot more to do before we can re-open the nature reserve to local residents.

Once again establishing a 'Friends of' group is absolutely crucial for raising the additional funding this project will need, as well as influencing the direction this refurbishment will take, and for ensuring that hopefully the reserve will never be abandoned again.

This is an extremely exciting opportunity to work with Lewisham and Network Rail on bringing this reserve back into use for the local community.

If you're interested in either of these projects why not come along on the 12th? Hope to see you there!