Yes, I helped to establish the Brunswick Park Tenants and Residents Association, and I believe it is working well. (Well, it’s still surviving beyond the initial rush of enthusiasm, which is promising!)

But the group is focused on the immediate area around the park, rather than the Green and its shops.

I must say, Ian Wingfield and Kevin from the Council have both been wonderful with helping the association work their way through bureaucracy and so on, from what I gather. And Ian seems to attend many of its meetings, which is nice — nice to see support for the group from the council at a senior, councillor level.

I only attend the open meetings due to time commitments but the last one I attended we had a Council man in charge of area housing talk to us about things that are going on in that area. And a couple of ladies talking about the Camberwell Baths campaign.

All positive stuff, which we probably wouldn’t have heard about otherwise.

We are also planning a festival in Brunswick Park in August, I think.

The idea of the association isn’t just for it to be a forum for people to moan at, and a vehicle for channelling community complaints to the council and such, but to help build and support our community in simple ways, doing fun things, arranging interesting speakers, sharing information and I guess really just providing a little bit of support for the less vocal among us.

Seems to be working well, from what I can see, and I’d encourage anyone who lives in the catchment area to at least give it their support, if not attend some of the meetings.

Contrast this with my own approach, which is that people should have a fair free market choice of how they shop.

In your grocery example, you claim that a business should be able to rely entirely on local patronage. Could Tesco on Old Kent, Sainsbury on Dog Kennel Hill or any of the Lordship Lane quality shops subsist on local patronage alone? Hardly. But all have different parking rules, enabling customers to visit with ease.

That they went out of business proves nothing, as most businesses go under inside 2–3 years. It doesn’t even prove they can’t cut it, as failure is simply a business rite of passage. They got something wrong with the location, frontage, selection of goods or how they targeted their clients. Most shop owners would disagree strongly with you, with experience of pavement parkers and resident drivers blocking off their suppliers and clients so that the latter get fined.

I reiterate — any claim that a small, large or medium sized retail business should rely purely on local patronage is open to ridicule from anyone with any business experience.

Off to the Art College degree show. As ever, the challenging part is negotiating the corridors — it is this that makes us question… everything.

SG I recall you are quite positive about the area and I like that. A few tweaks but not all bad. Didn’t you all start a neighbourhood group with the Council? Is that working? I think that sort of voice can help.

There is also a culture at the Councils of rubber-stamping retrospective planning applications. I can see the logic of this where an extension has been built and it would be environmentally wasteful to knock it down. However, with shop conversions, each new business occupant tends to strip down the interior and customise it for their tenure in any case. It is wrong for planners to lazily approach a change of use just because someone has installed a shower and net curtains. Because commercial property away from the Green is generally less viable, landlords gun straight away for the conversion and only solicitors and estate agents can make it worth their while. The Councils can stop this any time they like.

I have seen no sign of serious concern from Council leaders on this issue, but Southwark Labour in opposition do not even mention the subject, so any debate will need to be cultivated directly with the Lambeth Cabinet and Southwark Executive.

We can have quality and a full range of choice, but need to get our priorities straight.

Someone who can try and attract a good balance of businesses across the Camberwell shopping area (from Denmark Hill through the Green and east to the College, say) and improving the number of shops that passers by might actually shop in, rather than just letting the same sorts of pointless or unappealing shops pop up like mushrooms.

I’ve always said there are too many businesses in Camberwell with “wasted” shopfronts. Either those that are permanently papered over (e.g. the hotel restaurant), boarded up or used for services that I think should really be “first floor” businesses. I don’t know of many places where solicitors have ground floor shopfronts for example.

Hardly the sort of businesses that commuters would want to visit even if they had time to.

I think we need to recognise Camberwell for what it is — a commuter junction — and get some of the sorts of businesses there that these people would visit. The only sorts of businesses we currently have that are probably relevant to these people are pubs, I’d guess. Which is why Friday nights are busier, as workers and commuters might stop off for a drink after work or on their way home.

Think of other commuter junctions and the businesses they have / don’t have. I’m thinking of Vauxhall, for example.