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Daily Photo: 29/08/2012 – Paralympic Torch Relay in Greenwich

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London Paralympic Torch Relay

Here are a selection of photos from the arrival of the London Paralympic Torch Relay in Greenwich. The flame was carried, somewhat later than planned, along Creek Road, in to Cutty Sark Gardens and then down to the pier where it was taken on board Havengore.

With the Mayor of Greenwich following on board the Royal Nore, the torch was then taken over to Masthouse Pier accompanied by a small flotilla of ships.

London Paralympic Torch Relay

London Paralympic Torch Relay

London Paralympic Torch Relay

Paralympic torch on the Thames with Greenwich behind

Daily Photo: 20/08/2012 – Metro Drag Race

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The Metro centre’s Drag Race took place around the streets of Greenwich on Saturday night. Greenwich Mayor David Grant was on hand to see the drag queens take part in the annual event which raises money for the Metro centre in Norman Road.

Hugh Wright, METRO Head of Fundraising said:

We are so grateful to all of the participants, businesses and spectators for helping to make this year’s Metro Drag Race a huge success. We are especially thankful to the residents of Royal Hill and surrounding streets who kindly allowed the event to go ahead on their doorsteps – with many coming out to cheer on the runners and enjoy the entertainment. Sponsorship money is still coming in but we estimate that the event will raise £2.5k to support our work providing sexual health and HIV, mental health, community and youth services.

Photos (c) Teri Warke

Council moves flagposts to claim park target success

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GREENWICH COUNCIL has claimed victory in its long-held target of achieving twelve Green Flag Awarded parks by 2012. But did the council really meet its ambition for 2012, or did it shift the flagposts after failing to get awards it hoped for? Greenwich.co.uk investigates their claims…

Even more parks and green spaces in the Royal Borough of Greenwich have been awarded prestigious Green Flags this year.

The council boasted across two pages of last week’s Greenwich Time newspaper (above) that “thirteen parks and open spaces are flying the Green Flag.”

“We are delighted to surpass our target of twelve welcoming green spaces throughout the Royal borough,” said Councillor Maureen O’Mara.

Terry Powley, chair of the Greenwich Parks Forum, said: “The Forum is delighted that the ambitious target of 12 green flags by 2012 has not just been achieved but over-reached.”

But whilst the rising tally of Green Flags in the borough is good news for the council and residents alike, did the council really “surpass” the target it set itself of twelve Green Flag Parks by 2012, or did it simply change the way it measured its target after failing to get the Green Flags it planned to achieve?

Green Flags and Green Pennants

The Green Flag Awards are a nationwide scheme designed to recognise  high quality parks and green spaces in the UK. Greenwich Council set itself a target of reaching twelve Green Flag awarded parks by 2012.

The Green Pennant award – renamed this year as the Green Flag Community Award – is a different award given to community-run green spaces and has never before been included as part of the council’s target for twelve Green Flags by 2012.

When announcing its Green Flag awards in the past, the council has only counted the Green Flag Award parks in its headline figure and has never included the community-managed Green Pennant-winning parks.

What the council used to say

“Six [parks] in Greenwich have been recognised,” proclaimed the council in 2010. “Greenwich is now half-way towards its target of securing the Green Flag award for 12 of its parks by 2012.”

The two green spaces awarded the Green Pennant that year – Slade Ponds and Twinkle Park – were not included in the headline figure or the council’s stated target for 2012.

“Greenwich parks secure eight Green Flags,” was the council’s proud  in the summer of 2011.

“The achievement ensures that Greenwich is two thirds of the way to meeting its target of securing the Green Flag award for 12 of its parks by 2012,” the press release added.

Again, the two Green Pennant awarded open spaces were not included in their headline figure or their target for 2012.

So with the council “two thirds of the way to meeting its target”, how would it make the leap to twelve for this year?

New candidate parks for Green Flags identified

A report by council officers last year identified the four new candidate parks, and the work required in them, to “reach Green Flag standard as part of the Council’s commitment to secure twelve Green Flag parks by 2012”

Revamps would be required in Horn Park, Fairy Hill Park, Maryon Park and Eaglesfield Park to meet the requirements of the Green Flag Award, the report noted.

But while Horn Park and Fairy Hill Park did successfully get the nod from Green Flag inspectors this year, Maryon Park and Eaglesfield Park were not awarded, despite the Cabinet agreeing to spend £169,400 and £53,800 on them respectively to meet the target.

The failure to get Green Flag Awards for Maryon Park and Eaglesfield Park leaves the council’s Green Flag Award tally standing only at ten – two BELOW the their stated target of twelve.

Turning failure into victory

So how did the council manage to “surpass” its target while simultaneously failing to reach it? The answer is that they counted their total number of Green Flags differently.

This year, for the first time, Greenwich Council included the sites given the Community Award, now up to three, in the headline figure to allow them to claim that they have THIRTEEN Green Flag sites.

So despite two of the parks that were identified by the council’s own officers as new candidate sites for Green Flags failing to get them, and the tally being two less then had been promised, the council’s redefined target allows them to claim they surpassed an ambition they actually failed to reach.

Councillor Spencer Drury, leader of the Conservatives on Greenwich Council, commented:

“The Council’s confused and misleading planning for parks is laid bare in this deceitful claim to have gained 13 Green Flag sites when in fact there are only 10 reaching the proper criteria.

“The fact Greenwich Time is once again pushing out this propaganda reinforces our calls for this Council newsletter to be abolished.”

Greenwich Council had not responded to requests for a comment by the time of publication.

Green Flag Award 2012-13 winners:

1. Avery Hill Park

2. Eltham Park South

3. Horn Park

4. East Greenwich Pleasaunce

5. Blackheath (jointly held with Lewisham)

6. Sutcliffe Park

7. Fairy Hill Park

8. Charlton Park

9. The Tarn

10. Well Hall Pleasaunce

Green Flag Community Award, formerly known as the Green Pennant, winners:

1. Twinkle Park

2. Slade Ponds

3. Plumstead Common Nature Reserve

Bronze statue from Ancient Olympia heading to Royal Borough of Greenwich

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THE ROYAL Borough of Greenwich has been chosen as the recipient of a gift to London from Ancient Olympia – a new bronze sculpture.

The 700kg sculpture of Nike the Greek Goddess is almost 4-metres tall and was created at the Kaparos Foundry in Greece.

The gift from Ancient Olympia to London is for its staging of the Games of the XXX Olympiad. The Royal Borough of Greenwich was one of six Host Boroughs, with events held at Greenwich Park, the Dome and at the Royal Artillery Barracks, Woolwich.

The sculpture, which is currently in transit across Europe, is expected to arrive in the UK later this week and will then be moved to its new home at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich.

It had been hoped the sculpture would have arrived last week when the Mayor of Ancient Olympia, Efthymios Kotzas, attended a reception in Woolwich, but he instead presented the Mayor of Greenwich, David Grant, with a model of the sculpture (see below).

UPDATED – The bronze statue will be unveiled at the Royal Arsenal on 9th September.

London 2012 Equestrian events draw to a close, park reinstatement has begun

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LONDON 2012’s Equestrian events have concluded, with Team GB scoring a brace of medals in Greenwich Park. Although the Modern Pentathlon events are still to take place this weekend, parts of the park have begun to open up again and work is now under way to restore it.

Locog had previously published plans for the phased re-opening  of the park that indicated large swathes would be accessible from August 4th.

But when the day came, despite London 2012 posters on gates saying the park was re-opening “as planned”, many gates were still locked, the opening of the Observatory had been delayed by ten days and the expected crossing points between the East and West sides of the park weren’t present.

One local councillor, Matthew Pennycook, took to his blog to express his disappointment, adding that “the incremental opening of the park and the revisions being made … lie outside the spirit of the original planning permission.”

By Wednesday of this week, about 30% of the park had been reopened and Royal Parks invited the local media to learn more about the reinstatement ahead.

Royal Parks are already working on reinstating areas of the park on the cross country route. The final part of the park to be handed back to them will be in the stadium area which isn’t expected to be completely taken down until November.

These are a selection of images from the re-opened parts of the park followed by comments from Park Manager, Graham Dear, and Royal Parks’ London 2012 Project Manager, Derrick Spurr.

Greenwich Park reinstatement begins
About 30% of the park has now reopened – this picture was taken from the Crooms Hill Gate entrance.

Greenwich Park reinstatement begins
Areas of grass that have had heavy structures or trackway laid may be fenced off so that the ground can be protected as it recovers.

Greenwich Park reinstatement begins
The tennis courts will reopen in September – they have been used as a warm area for horses.

Greenwich Park reinstatement begins
The cross country course went past the Henry Moore statue. The photo shows where the course went through the now famous Acid Grass. Park bosses have previously described how they plan to use chemical solution Rescue on affected acid grasslands.

Greenwich Park reinstatement begins - Cricket ball jump
Park Manager shows where the Cricket Ball jump was on the cross country course.

Greenwich Park reinstatement begins
A London 2012 logo spray painted on for the benefit of an overhead cable cam is beginning to fad and grow out.

What work will be carried out on damaged grass in the park?

GD: All around the cross country route we are going around with a machine that we call Vertidrain. It’s a spiker that we use where the ground may be compacted. That gets air in to the soil to allow it to drain. It’s only a precautionary thing really.

Where the grass has gone yellow, if it’s going to recover we’ll just scarify it, mow it over, rake out any of the thatch, maybe put a bit of quick release fertiliser on to give it a boost and it will be fine. That is a lot of the reinstatement.

In other areas where you’ve had overlay, for instance underneath heavy concrete blocks, the grass  will be dead so we’ll have to scarify it, fork it over, put a bit of top soil and seed it. If there are very large areas, we may decide to turf it.

DS: Within one growing season, it will be very difficult to see where the events have taken place and I’m absolutely confident of that.

Will any special work be required at the “take off” areas before each jump on the cross country course?

GD: We will fork it, lift it, put a bit of top soil down and seed it, but on the course, it’s actually not that bad.

Why has the schedule for re-opening parts of the park slipped?

GD: We’ll open it as soon as possible in consultation with Locog but only when it’s safe to do so.

DS: We’ve opened up about a third of the park. We said we’d start to open up on the 4th and now it’s the 8th. We’re hopefully going to be opening up more later this week, I don’t feel like we’re too far behind. In that promise that was made, there was a caveat. Lots of big things moving around don’t mix too well with the public so we’re very anxious about health and safety and so is Locog.

The biggest issue is that there’s no East West connection which we’re pushing Locog hard to get because we’ve opened both sides but people want to come in one side and go out the other. They’ve not given us a clear date but we’re pushing hard.

When will the new Blackheath Gate be finished?

DS: The first phase has been done. The new gate and the central pillar will go in with work starting in November. Brick work can be quite weather sensitive but the plan is to start in November and carry on until January or February.

I was Park Manager here for 14 years and it was always one of my ambitions to get those gates done so it will be nice to see it whilst I’m still here!

With the perceived success of the equestrian events in Greenwich Park, will it be a once-in-a-lifetime experience or might other such competitions be staged there in the future?

DS: There’s no plans to have events of this type in the foreseeable future. You never know what will come our way as the Royal Parks and we consider events if it’s practical to put them on, but at the moment in time, the answer is there’s none planned.

Royal Parks have promised another briefing in September.