HIGH STREET REGENERATION FUNDING

[leenewham]

You may or may not have read me banging on about the Outer London Fund (Sydenham didn't gain funding for round 2 unfortunately although the bid for the front of Home Park impressed Lewisham, as they should, they were excellent).

This may be of interest:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/newsroom/2082140

Struggling towns and cities across England are being handed the chance to breathe new life into their ailing high streets.

Mary Portas and the Local Government Minister launched a competition to choose 12 towns to become 'Portas Pilots', with the winners benefiting from a share of £1 million to help turn around their "unloved and unused" high streets. Of course this appears to be nationwide, but don't try don't get and £1 million wont go far.

High streets are a hot potato right now and another reason why we need to sort out our traders group and quick!

[G-Man]

What's the progress on the traders group?

I see a new beautiful interiors shop has opened near the station...awful.

G-Man

[leenewham]

Eh, where is that G-man?

What's it called? Which shop was it before?

[G-Man]

It was the er...Persian (?!?) shop called Al Awalhi or something? The one that was shut for a while. Used to sell lots of Baklava and general groceries, as well as Apple Tobacco for your Hookah, which was lovely.

G-Man

[leenewham]

Ah, I thought that turned into INSPIRE BEAUTY. The shop you are talking about I always thought was a pound shop that sold mostly mobile phone cards and accessories that turned crafted bits of design into naff bits of tat that, if they looked like that in the first place, no-one would ever buy them.

Obviously I never went in there, but I've never had a hookah.

I know you shop you mean now…I think. So it's now an aspirational shop selling items to make your home a more beautiful place, so naturally what they have done with the shop reflects this?

[poppy]

That shop was ok until they ruined their shop front (against conservation rules) and installed one of those tacky mobile phone kiosks. (can our councillors really be local if they don't use the high street enough to notice when these things happen and act on them?)

How can Sydenham apply for the Mary Portas funding Lee?