Southgate Sunday Market Finally Starting!

Sunday Feb 2nd - help spread the word!! :)
http://www.kingsmarketn14.co.uk

Full update to follow..!

Arts Update

About the school / arts / community side of things we have provisionally agreed a date of 8th December for a Christmas choral performance at Kingsmead School in Enfield. This will involve a performance by Kingsmead school students, but also the Elders Voice Singers who have pioneered successful singing projects involving elders and primary school children in Kilburn. We will be inviting Primary and Secondary school teachers, and also individuals from local Enfield Age Concern and the Over 50s Forum in the hope that Elders Voice can inspire a cross-generational choir to get started in area. Additionally I am in talks with the Enfield Race and Equality Council about a new play to be written about world creation stories, as told by local residents and responded to by students, and then performed at Forty Hall in 2011-2012. For full updates on this, join Enfield Network 21.

Market Update

The local council here has changed from Tory to Labour so I have been looking into what difference this might make to the campaign. I went to an Enfield Stakeholders "Characterisation Study" meeting last week, at which members of the public were invited to put forward their opinions on the character of Enfield, for better or worse and how they see it might best move forward in the future. Emphasis was placed by participants on the tragedy to community spirit of the building of the A10 and A406, the dangers of traffic/ need to reclaim the borough from the logic of the car via "shared space" initiatives and other traffic calming, pedestrianisation, bike and more generally community spirit friendly measures. Also the subject of Enfield being far removed from eg Palmers Green, Southgate and other peripheries of the Borough, and that this also adversely effects services and increases the need for community based initiatives to increase a sense of belonging.

Lots of talk also of its unique, mixed rural (ie farmed) and urban character, and the need defend green spaces from further concrete encroachment and indeed to actually re-green parts which are presently cemented. Within all these contexts - aswell as the wider one of economic stagnation and local food - the idea of community owned street markets which I put forward in a low key way was warmly received so that is a good sign. I am also in talks with a media advisor about the possibility of a documentary on Big Society / Big Idea which could possibly include our campaign...

pause for thought

UPDATE: We hope to resume public meetings, and with an improved structure and schedule shortly. At the moment, core team members are liaising with Stefan Cadek at Enfield Youth Services, with a view to visiting local schools to introduce ourselves and the Anchor project. Also, today I had an encouraging and pleasurable meeting with David Byrne, Principal of Southgate College. David's keen to develop ties between college and local community, and among other things we discussed ways the Southgate Community Anchor and College might work together in the future. Later on I spoke with Palmer's Green resident Francis Sealey of the 21st Century Network (or '21CN') about how to move forward with the Local Sovereignty social action work we've been developing together, ideally in the context of Southgate. More on this later, with relevant announcements and/or discussion on the email list.

gardeners are go

Just to let you know today's Gardening Club was a success, and everyone had a good time. We did a bit of tidying up of the spot in front of the Alan Pullinger centre, aswell as the TfL green space (where we held the Christmas market) litter picking, raking and so forth. I took a beautiful sunrise trip to Columbia flower market in the morning, so we had some bedding plants and tulip bulbs to plant. We're unclear about how to proceed with the path (to block or not to block, that is the question) but nevertheless after some discussion about how to go about planning the garden (we are thinking to go for a picnic table centrepiece with a mix of flowers, medicinal herbs, other sensory stuff and veggies, possibly with a wee labyrinth of some kind) we got right stuck in with some digging. In the end we planted a 21st century fairy ring (of primroses) around one of the larger trees in the space.

Joe turns out to be a champion digger, as does his son, Archie! Great contributions also in the realm of planting aswell as hole digging, treasure hunting, leave moving and football kicking also by the other Southgate Bash Street kids, Jordan, Zainab, Amina, Michael, Anthony and Leo. Big ups to Sinead for sorting the all important water out, and to Sarah J for coming in all the way from Tottenham. And to everyone who helped to make it a lovely day: cheers!

Looking forward to the next one, let's hope the weather is as good as today.

Peas on Earth and Goodwill to all Men, Women and Children. From Han Solo, no less

Quick Update

Arul and I have just put a funding application in for the proposed Health Centre project. Joe, Anne and I will be putting together Southgate Phoenix edition 2 in the coming month or so. About the market we are awaiting the Council's decision on street trading, due very soon. 9th September meeting was attended by Cllr Edward Smith, the leader of the Southgate Residents Association SRA, Anne, Joe, Mark and Archie and 7 apologies. The main topics of discussion were the market, our relationship with the SRA, the health project proposal, the newsletter and the possibility of a dedicated Southgate Town website. Next Anchor meeting date, tbc (in newsletter if not before).