Ladywell’s councillors with mayor Damien Egan: (from left to right) Liz Johnston-Franklin; Carl Handley; the mayor; and Bill Brown.
What is the Local Assembly?
Local Assemblies have been a feature of Lewisham’s work with communities since 2008 and form part of the Council’s Constitution, write Ladywell’s Labour councillors.
The Local Assembly represents an ideal opportunity to engage with local people who have an interest in the ward.
This will include residents, businesses, students, statutory partners such as the police and the third sector.
The assembly can act as a conduit to identify, discuss and act on local issues as well as consulting on borough/local matters and promoting the ward.
Each assembly will meet up to four times a year at local venues within the ward.
Local Assemblies offer you the opportunity to
- Find out what is happening locally
- Discuss and share what matters to people
- Work with your neighbours, councillors, local groups and organisation, Lewisham Council and its partners
- Try out an idea locally
- Influence decisions that affects you and the community
- Have a say on which project get funded with the Assembly fund
- Meet new people and get answers about local issues
The assembly fund
The Assembly Fund is a budget allocated to each ward to meet the local assembly’s priorities.
- The fund supports chosen assembly priorities for each ward. The fund helps each assembly make decisions and bring about change.
- The fund may be used as ‘seed’ funding to attract other sources of finance.
How much is available?
In 2008 when the Assembly programme was launch £50,000 was made available to each ward to spend on projects which benefit or enhance the local community over a two year period.
The fund was reduced to £12,500 in 2010. In addition a Locality Fund of £2,500 known as the councillor discretionary fund was also available for community activities or projects of a one-off nature.
As a result of the current funding challenges faced by the council the assembly fund faced further cuts in February 2019 with the entirety of the Assembly fund (£12,500) taken away.
After much consultation with councillors the mayor has agreed to retain the £2,500 councillor’s discretionary element of the assembly grant which can be spent to benefit small projects in each ward.
How the Ladywell Assembly spent their fund last year
The assembly funded the following projects from the £15,000 fund available in 2018-19 financial year:
- Brockley Better Streets – Ladywell & Brockley Streets – £1,872.16
- Max Media Art CIC – Art in the park – £2,500
- Frances Drake Bowling Club – Assembly Point – £2,600
- St Andrews Centre – Cooking Project – £2,190
- Street Trees for Life – Street Trees – £2,487.84
- Youth First (Ladywell Adventure Playground) – Garden Project & Residential – £2,850
- Friends of Hillyfields – Drinking Water Fountain – £500
Total fund allocated in 2018-19 was £15,000
How can I get involved?
It’s as simple as 1, 2, 3…
- Come along and bring a friend to one of the local assembly public meetings. Look out for the leaflet through the letter box. No need to RSVP!
- Sign up to our email mailing list to receive information on issues that interest you. Email your assembly coordinator Adeyinka.joseph@lewisham.gov.uk
- Be a part of the coordinating group of residents, businesses and councillors. This group meets 3 times a year to plan the public meetings and assess applications for the local assembly funding pot (currently £2500 per ward) and set the stage for wider community to make the decisions.