Additionally, I’m not sure if people are on the Sydenham Society newsletter (or involved in the group) but wanted to flag the slight smear piece they’ve put out in the newsletter. I know they are volunteers and I know they have done some fantastic stuff but I’ve always felt they don’t actually represent most of the community yet say they are and their lack of balancedness in providing info totally the community is pretty disappointing - this is the writing in the newsletter:
PROPOSED RADICAL CHANGE TO RUNNING OF
THE SYDENHAM CENTRE
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MAKE SURE YOU ATTEND THIS MEETING!
The Assembly will discuss a radical change to the Sydenham Centre and how it operates.
Currently, the Centre is owned and run by Lewisham Council.
The proposal is that Lewisham will still own the building but that the building will be leased to Brighter Horizons, an independent charity that provides support services for neurodivergent adults and those with learning disabilities in southeast London.
The length of the lease is yet to be determined but it is likely to be for at least a decade, probably longer.
This would mean that community activities will be restricted in the main upstairs rooms duing the day, Monday to Friday and that Brighter Horizons would determine who could use the building.
CAN THE SYDENHAM CENTRE STILL CONTINUE TO OPERATE AS A "COMMUNITY BUILDING?" UNDER THIS NEW OWNERSHIP?
Back to me! Now the reason I wanted to flag tjis were for the following reasons:
- it’s not “radical”
- they fail to mention Brighter Horizons run Ignition brewery/tap room who have done so much community focused stuff in the building
- they fail to mention that a lot of the use of the upstairs rooms are in the evenings (present Pilates, other) and weekend (spontaneous/markets)
- they fail to mention why they are so keen to keep it running as it has done (very poorly for years) rather than another running it better/more successfully (such as the library run by V22/Calico)
Anyways - a slight rant I guess but just wanted other to have a fuller picture and I would encourage anyone with the time/effort to get involved with some of these local issues as the Sydenham society don’t truly represent the demographic that Sydenham is and the links/long standing controls they had with the Labour people in charge has massively shifted so now is a good time to get involved for hopeful positive change and the society better representing the areas wants (if you join any SydSoc things)