Deptford news

Deptford was featured in the Mail on Sunday this week after its personal finance section raised the issue of betting shops taking over from high street banks.

The article is here if you want to read it and/or comment. It touches on the planning issues and focuses more on the loss of facilities for bank customers than anything else, but I guess that's the remit of the personal finance team. Keeping the issue live is vital, and this article is important in doing so.

On Friday a tug boat capsized just off Convoy's Wharf and one crew member was lost - at time of writing the body has still not been recovered. I had walked to Greenwich to catch the Thames Clipper into town with some visitors, but the river was closed to boats and we had to head along the river to one of the piers closer to town. It was a grim walk with the river path lined with fireman and rescue crews looking out for the missing man. Following the recent death of a crew member on the Woolwich Ferry, a sad reminder of the dangers of the river.

To add to the general gruesomeness of the week, a decomposing body was found in a suitcase on the estate near Bridge House Meadows, on the fringes of New Cross.

In New Cross, the volunteers behind the New Cross People's Library have just been given a licence to hold activities for learning in the New Cross Library. I was too late to blog about the open day that took place yesterday (Saturday) but they were intending to open up for four hours and have some children's literacy activities and get people signed up to participate in future events. As of yet they do not have the facilities to loan out books, but have plans for other events. If you want to volunteer please contact newcrosspeopleslibrary@gmail.com

Also in New Cross; a press release from The London Theatre:

The London Theatre - New Cross is a new 36/50 seat fringe theatre at 443 New Cross Road, SE14 6TA which is due to open at the end of September with a weekend of plays and a stand up comedy club night hosted by The London Comedy Course who are also based at this venue.
Opening plays include 'The Bear' by Chekhov which will be performed in Russian and the hit aviation comedy 'Club Class'. The venue is also a rehearsal studio for local theatre groups and home of 'Shakespeare in The Park' who undertake large scale UK tours in major theatres. Next door a new art gallery is being built.
The artistic policy of the theatre is to bring well known but rarely-performed plays to the stage and provide cheap theatre hire space to theatre companies.
The venue is a former sound studio and nightclub and the new theatre obtained its licence a few weeks ago for entertainment from Lewisham Council.
www.thelondontheatre.com

Finally just to point out that there is a new website for the campaign against plans by Thames Water to dig a shaft on the green site next to St Paul's Church, as part of the Thames Tunnel proposals. The meeting planned for last week was cancelled after the rioting, but a new date is expected to be set soon. More information here.