Thank you for continuing to support us on our journey as we create a new green space for Peckham. 2020 has been an enormous challenge for everyone. The pandemic has shown us just how much we need both our open spaces and our community connections.
There has been movement on several of the Peckham Coal Line sites. Below is a round-up of the latest news…
Stable Yard
In April, at the height of the lockdown, it was brought to our attention that the Victorian stable blocks you had fought so hard to save had been demolished. Sadly, that historical building is now lost and with it our trust in the developer’s commitment has been compromised. The replacement building is under construction and planning permission has been sought retrospectively. Despite this setback the PCL team concluded that a constructive approach would still have the best chance of securing some benefits for the community. We are currently talking to the council and developers about what form this might take. PCL will press for a community resource as part of this section of the route, so please share what sort of community resource you’d be interested to seeing there.
Kirkwood Road: the first taste of the Coal Line
Further along the line, at the Kirkwood Road entrance to the nature reserve, some of you may have spotted changes to the road surface with new planters and landscaping. This work is ongoing and, thanks to the friends of Kirkwood Nature Reserve and Cossall Park, we have secured funding for phase two. Work on phase one should be complete by the end of September when the plants are in place. Here is an impression of the finished result.
Thank you for supporting us through the council’s new Community Infrastructure Levy nomination scheme. We hope this will help us to access funding to deliver more of these smaller changes along the route too.
Reimagine Bidwell Street
In other good news we have secured a £50,000 funding grant from the GLA for works at Bidwell Street, close to Queen’s Road Peckham Station. This will allow the PCL community to develop plans to link the Nature Reserve directly with Queens Road by breaching the wall between the reserve and the Cossall Estate, giving local residents better access to nature. We are working with Southwark Council to deliver this exciting phase and we are grateful for their support. We’ll be sharing more on this site in the coming months, including an invitation to local people and architects to collaborate and bring the vision to life.
Black Lives Matter
One of the principal aims for the Coal Line is to be a platform for our neighbourhood’s diverse communities to meet, discuss and better understand each other through progressing a shared vision.
The institutional racism and discrimination that sadly, once again, was highlighted by the tragic death of George Floyd, demonstrates the vital relevance of these aims. The PCL team is committed to continuing to support the creation of spaces to meet, connect with each other and face hard truths. Where we can pull together we believe the diversity of experiences are our strength.
We welcome the proactive approach taken by Southwark council through the ‘Southwark Stands Together’ review. And the PCL team knows that it needs to do much more to ensure that the Coal Line’s governance is as representative of our community as it needs to be. If you’d like to be part of this or involved in any way, please do get in touch.
Thanks again and we’ll be sharing more updates soon,
The PCL team
