Outer London Fund, projects in Bexley and Bromley

The Outer London Fund, which Boris and I launched in Bexley a few months ago, has announced the first set of projects that are to be supported.

In Bexley the council will receive £270,500 for a series of improvements for Bexleyheath Town Centre and will help to spruce up area including painting and refurbishment to street furniture, bin replacement and recycling facilities, tree grills and guards, back rest for water feature and a deep clean for the high street.

It will also mean the CabSafe scheme will be extended into the market place and better signage will make it easier for visitors to find their way around the town centre and between Bexleyheath and Barnehurst stations.

Bromley will receive £308,700 to support its efforts to help Bromley rise to the challenge of competition from other centres and create the right environment for investment to support economic growth.

The supported projects include a Traditional Christmas Fayre, a marketting programme to highlight positive change in Bromley including a Street Theatre Festival and Poppy street festival.  It will also help fund designs to improve the High Street and links to the green spaces of Church House Gardens, support and mentoring for business in Bromley North and shop front improvements.


These projects build on the work that is already underway in Bromley North and South to help link the two halves of the town centre.

Penge Town Centre will get £70,000 to support events and celebrations on the high street and to fund targeted small scale public realm improvements like improved seating, lighting and power infrastructure for Empire Square and Arpley Square.  Local businesses will also be supported through training in marketing, shop window presentation, merchandising and crime prevention.

This will boost confidence in Penge Town Centre and help local businesses to make the most of its vibrant, bustling character.

In addition to the recent revamp that Orpington Town Centre got, £90,000 has been allocated to support a programme of entertainment and events as well as improvements to signage.

The programme includes an Orpington Christmas spectacular, new signage from the station to the high street, training in marketing, shop window presentation, merchandising and crime prevention for local businesses and vinyl graphics to improve the appearance of empty shop fronts.

London Waste and Recycling Board at the London Triathlon

Peter Jones, me and Peter Calliafas

At this weekend's Virgin Active London Triathlon the London Waste and Recycling Board was well represented.

On Saturday three members of the board too part in the team relay, me doing the 1,500m swim, Peter Jones OBE doing the 40km cycle and Peter Calliafas doing the 10km run.  Despite having a combined age of 157 we completed the even in 3hrs 08mins, the splits were as follows:

Swim:  00:39:56
T1:       00:05:00
Bike:    01:19:57
T2:       00:02:55
Run:    01:00:41
Total:  03:08:28

On Sunday Andy Holdcroft, in his last formal function as COO of LWARB, took part in the Olympics distance race and put us all to shame by beating our time. His splits were:

Swim: 00:35:26
T1:      00:05:30
Bike:   01:06:02
T2:      00:03:08
Run:    00:48:56
Total:  02:39:00