Candy Blackham, writes extensively about parks and gardens in Greenwich and Lewisham, across London, the UK and overseas.
Candy’s lockdown visits to green spaces across Lewisham borough led to her book Green Lewisham: Our Treasured Open Spaces (Clink Street Publishing), which has already sold out one print run.
As QWAG provided some advice on the book, not least because local rivers flow through and take water from many of the area’s green spaces, we thought it would be good to invite Candy to present and take questions.
This meeting is a chance to celebrate existing green spaces ahead of Lewisham Council’s opening up its consultation on its Local Plan, the masterplan for the borough which will set out what development will occur, where and how over the coming decades, including implications for green spaces.
Context to Candy’s talk and book are:
- The huge pressure on existing green spaces from development and neglect.
- The love people have for existing parks and green spaces and the desire for more, especially in areas where there is a lack of quality green space.
- Without firm and proper policies to protect existing spaces – and to ensure new high-quality spaces are created and maintained, especially in areas of the borough where existing residents lack access to quality green space, the borough could see ‘natural assets’ at risk.
- A 2019 assessment of the quality of 349 greenspaces in the borough found 10% being ‘good’ quality, 59% being ‘fair’, and 30% being in ‘poor’ condition.
- The financial benefit of Lewisham’s green spaces has been put at £2.1 billion a year, equating to £393 per resident. But too many residents in parts of borough lack access to quality green space, district and local parks and trees.
To join this event:
- Book your space by emailing qwag@qwag.org.uk.
- Joining details will be sent to those who have booked, usually on the day of the event.
- The meeting will be held online via Zoom probably in two parts: 7.45pm to 8.25pm and then 8.30pm to 9.10pm
