Portraits From Penge: Councillor Simon Jeal
While I doubt Simon Jeal would enjoy being called the most high-profile person I’ve spoken to so far, there’s little doubt when his name springs up constantly across Penge.
“Can you send me a list of things you support or volunteer for?”
Penge partners/Penge Festival
Bromley Homeless Advice Service
Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs
Penge Air Cadets civilian committee
Bromley Relief in Need
Journey to Freedom fund
Tiny Forest in Cator Park
Penge Youth Theatre
Maple Road Market
Bridge House Theatre Donor and Community Outreach Manager
As if that wasn’t enough, Simon also holds a more prominent role; that of Labour Councillor for Penge and Cator Ward (one of three Councillors for the Ward).
In a wide-ranging interview, we discussed his position within the Labour Party, the housing crisis facing Penge, schooling, planned developments in the area, how he manages Party vs Borough politics, and what it is about Penge that makes him care so much.
Talking to Simon was incredibly illuminating, and I’ve done my best to include his answers fully.
What Is A Councillor?
“I joined the Labour Party in 2015, just after the General Election, assuming I would be in Clock House’s Ward (I lived a five-minute walk from the station). Instead, I was in Penge and Cator. I was involved in the Penge community from that point onwards.”
In my ignorance, before speaking to Simon I had very little idea of what a Councillor actually does, nor did I know that it wasn’t a full-time role.
“Being a Councillor is something you do around the rest of your life, but actually where the role starts and stops depends on the individual. When I first started I tried to do way too much, but over time have recognised where I can add value.
“I call it the three Cs: Council meetings, Casework, and Community. As a Councillor you sit on several committees [Simon sits on the Pension Investment Committee which oversees the Council’s pension fund, The Executive and Resources Scrutiny Committee, which scrutinises the Council’s budget and more corporate-style functions, and the Health and Wellbeing Board, which looks at the long-term health-related priorities in the area].”
It’s Simon’s seat on the Health and Wellbeing Board that interests me the most. Bromley, he says, “skews disproportionately elderly” compared to other boroughs, which carries its own unique healthcare challenges. Penge, on the other hand, is “along with Crystal Palace, one of the younger areas across the borough and others nearby.”
While skewing younger, Penge also has one of the “higher levels of deprivation in the borough” which causes Simon and his fellow Councillors major concern. “While we don’t see as many residents affected by the classic long-term health issues that affect other parts of Bromley [heart failure, diabetes, cancer etc] we are seeing some markers of those conditions far earlier than we would like because we’re a less affluent area.”
The collapse in public services has led councils and remaining public bodies to become a catch-all for any issues people might be facing. Residents’ disputes with Housing Associations, which technically have nothing to do with the council (which has almost no ‘council housing’ now) dominate much of Simon and his colleagues' time, and he admits they're a “last resort” for people who don't know where to turn.
Penge’s Biggest Issue
When Simon and I spoke, the spectre of the General Election was looming. Away from Party and National Politics, I wanted to understand what the most common issues were facing the constituents of Penge. His answer was immediate:
“Housing.
“You’ve got a situation where house prices in Penge have soared, and rental prices along with them,” he said. “You’re seeing a huge number of people being priced out, particularly people whose parents, grandparents, or even great-grandparents grew up in this area. They can’t afford to live anywhere near Penge because there’s A. A Lack of affordable housing, and B. A complete lack of housing altogether.”
That has an enormous knock-on effect, especially on those within the Ward who are less affluent and being priced out. “What we’re seeing is young professionals and new families moving in. It’s good in many ways for the area because it’s stable, brings children into local primary schools and they're bringing disposable income with them to support local businesses, but if they’re selling and moving out of Zone 1 and 2 and paying whatever they have to to get a house or a flat, it’s driven prices up enormously, even past places like Beckenham.
We’re seeing two-bedroom houses sold for more than half a million pounds now, it’s obscene.”
As a casual onlooker to politics, I, like many others, often hear housing pledges as a part of Party Manifestos. What is so rarely mentioned, though, is where these new houses are going to be built. In Penge, we’re faced with the looming reality of a 16-storey block of flats dominating the high street despite facing mass objections from residents.
“Everyone agrees; we need more housing. But how? You can build on greenbelt, you can build on brownfield, or you can build more densely, or build up.
We don't have much greenbelt land compared to more rural areas of Bromley, so we have to keep what we have left. People would argue that leaves very little choice but to build upwards, but there's very rarely any meaningful consultation from developers, and they often don't care about meaningfully engaging with the residents or their concerns.”
A great example of this is the planned development on Oakfield Road. “Legally,” Simon tells me, “developers have to have at least one consultation. They did, but they only had one, from 4pm to 8pm, with one week's notice. There will be lots of people who didn't even know it was happening, or couldn't make it during work hours at such short notice.”
As an aside on the Oakfield industrial site development (which will not include housing) Simon tells me that “the developers are building loads of cycle parking, but there's absolutely no safe way to get to and from it cycling across Penge. So we could be faced with a developer building cycling parking because it's in a planning policy, which won't be used, which will take up space and is of no benefit to the community.”
This is indicative of these development processes and further highlights Simon's frustrations. “The whole system is a presumption that Councils have to approve something unless there are specific ‘planning ground’ with an overriding reason not to.”
However, with a process that requires so little thought or engagement from property developers, it’s inevitably the residents that suffer.
“We always ask ourselves what the impact on the community is going to be. We [The Labour Councillors] opposed it [the Blenheim Development] primarily because of the harm we think it’s going to do to the high street.
“They’re adding 230 units of housing with zero residential parking, and removing a large car park in the process. If you lose that parking, people simply won’t visit. We know that the shopping centre [which faces demolition to build the flats] brings people into Penge from Norwood, Lewisham, and even Croydon. These visitors are of real benefit to all the independent, local traders on the high street. Still, if these flats do come in, the impact of people not being able to park, so shopping elsewhere, could force many of our independent shops to close, and the increase in car traffic could make the road unbearable to drive on or walk along.”
The other challenge imposed by the construction of the block is the percentage of affordable housing within its walls. Simon tells me that “only something like 15%” would end up being affordable to anyone, with the remainder going to part rent/part buy or for private sale. “There has been a lack of council house building in Bromley for decades, and it's only now restarting because the temporary accommodation costs are so high [to house people on the Housing Register].”
Inevitably, most of that housing ends up being outside the Ward, including the Blenheim Centre. “It's the biggest issue we've seen in Penge,” Simon tells me, with thousands of people submitting objections to the proposal. “And yet,” he sighs, “the planning committee voted it through. Because the majority of people on it, the Conservative councillors who voted in favour, don't live in Penge, they and their residents won’t be impacted as we will.”
Would they have voted for it if it was in their own Ward?
“Obviously I suspect not. Conservatives want housing, but they don't want large developments in their Wards. Anything that comes up here, or in other Labour Wards, many of them seem to vote for without question.”
A Councillor’s Priority
Perhaps I'm naive, but the thought of councillors I didn't vote for, in a ward I don't live in, voting on policies that impact me and the people of the area seems unfair to say the least.
Simon has sympathy, but provides some much-needed context: “You're told to represent your own ward, but then when it comes to certain issues [like housing] you're asked to consider the needs of the the wider borough or wider national policy.”
“We're constantly having to ask ourselves ‘What is a Councillor's first priority?
But, to some degree, you are always going to have a risk where certain things are going to be unpopular locally. For example, let's say the Council is looking to develop and run its own children's home [which is very expensive to do privately]. This is unquestionably a good thing; it costs the Council less, and there's far more accountability around the levels of care, but if the residents in a particular Ward don't want it, what do you do?”
That, ultimately, brings us back to that question; what is a Council? What is it offering residents? What is the priority?
“In theory, every Councillor should support the idea [of building a children's home] and say “Well, if it's going to be in my Ward because that's the best location, I'll go and tell my residents that it's worthwhile and something we should all support.”
The danger, as Simon points out to me, is that “at some point, you'll run for re-election.” Unpopular decisions at the Local or National level can see the end of your political career, “but you can't think like that.
“You are a representative, not a delegate, and you will make decisions that some people won't like. I understand how that might disenfranchise some people, but there are a lot of times where no decision would please everyone.
Simon's words about people being disenfranchised have proven to be true. With the General Election now behind us, voter levels have dropped and, whatever the reasons for that, it’s clear people don't have faith in the system.
Regardless, Labour won Penge and Cator Ward in the General Election, and Simon and his fellow Councillors were elected in 2022’s Local Council Elections.
Community Spirit in Penge
That result is, he says, largely down to “being involved and active in the community.”
“We [as councillors] feel that we have to be involved. How can you possibly support and represent the people without being a part of the community? You have to actively try and do things, to help people, and that's a lot of the work we do.”
If you've glanced over Simon's extensive list of responsibilities you'll recognise that plenty of his commitments have nothing to do with the Council. That, he says, is part of what he brings to the area. “I'd like to think that plenty of the benefits we bring go beyond Politics. The Penge Festival, for example, gets no support from the Council. The Penge Councillors helped our local Friends group fund the tiny forest in Cator Park towards the start of the year [which raised £30,000], and we work with community groups, charities, or anyone local that we can.”
This is the crux of Simon's personal politics and beliefs. While we've discussed his responsibilities as a Councillor, his stance boils down to what he told me next:
“Fundamentally, we represent everyone regardless of who they voted for, and once every four years we ask people to vote for us- whether they voted for us or not (or voted at all) we'll represent and support them anyway.
We work for our Ward, and we work for the residents of our Ward.”
Anyone who has attended any of the events Simon has helped to organise, or interacted with him across the Ward, would recognise his claim that much of his and his fellow Councillor's work is “largely apolitical.”
But what is it about the area that engenders this kind of community response?
“It's the community spirit.
There is such a strong sense of community here, and a lot of groups and people that love and value the area. They put their time into it, into supporting it, into maintaining our parks, into running our community centres etc. Not many places in London have that.”
Does that make his job as a Councillor easier?
“Absolutely. It means A. We have people to work with and B. When you see these people putting in so much care and effort you want to do whatever you can to help them and enable them to succeed.”
The second reason is that to be a Councillor in Penge, it's almost expected of us to be involved. Because it has such a strong community, to represent the area, we have to be a part of it. Penge has lots of residents associations, lots of community groups, and lots of people who care about the area, and they expect that we care and are visible as well. That's incredibly motivating.”
But what is it about the area that engenders this kind of community response? Simon tells me it's “not common” across the Borough, let alone across South London.
“It's the people,” he says. “Without them, the spirit of Penge would die. Take Penge Festival for example, it's been running for 52 years and was set up to provide affordable and inclusive activities in the local area. It was set up by everything from Churches to Resident's Associations but has been kept going by volunteers and local businesses who run and sponsor it. It can't just be businesses, it can't just be volunteers, it can't just be community groups or Councillors – it requires everyone to work towards a common goal.”
Perhaps oddly, one of the key drivers of community in Penge, Simon tells me, is the pubs.
“If you think about it, the sorts of places where people come together and interact, those kinds of community spaces are disappearing. But what does Penge have in abundance? Pubs.
I can't think of anywhere else this size in London that has this many pubs still running, and coming out of the pandemic, I think that's amazing. Yes, they require people being able to drink, but these are places where people come together not to work, and to socialise with people they perhaps wouldn't in the rest of their lives.”
These spaces, aside from catering to different demographics across Penge, also play key roles in the many community activities across the area. Southey Brewing Co. provides community activities in a new space, The Bridge House has a theatre, and Goldsmiths Arms hosts numerous events during the Penge Festival.
“Beyond the pubs, Penge is also fortunate to still have places like Empire Square, and community centres. There are spaces and organisations across Penge where you can support people, and that organisations that aren't profit-driven can operate – that's incredibly important.”
An Hour A Week
With so much happening in the area, can it be challenging to reach and engage people? Or, for those who are engaged, how do empower them to become people who contribute even more to Penge?
“With my Councillor’s hat on,” he says, “if you have an issue, come to us. We simply cannot help people if we don’t know there’s a problem.”
“With my community hat on, I’d say if you see a group that you think is doing something great, can you find a way to support them? If you don’t have the disposable incoming, can you volunteer an hour a week of your time? Could you help garden once a week in one of the parks, or do some admin for organisations if you’re particularly tech-savvy?”
While Simon acknowledges being time-rich is a luxury that many don’t have, he emphasises that a lot can get done without a huge time commitment.
“Fundamentally, we [Penge Partners/ Penge Festival] have a volunteer committee of about 10 people, and some of those people volunteer throughout the whole year. But actually, if we have a volunteer of pool of 50 people who could do an hour once a year we wouldn’t have to ask the same people again and again. Most of the organisations in Penge run on a very small amount of people who do an awful lot of work.
And again, if there were a lot of people able to do a smaller bit, then that wouldn’t just help these organisations, but it would sustain them for the future. Because one of the major issues is that people move away, or people get older, or they can no longer volunteer. Without additional support, you risk losing these amazing organisations altogether.
“I'm not going to judge anyone for not being able to volunteer, or to not being able to afford to contribute or donate to charity. But if you have the opportunity, find an organization that you feel passionate about. And if there isn't one, look at setting one up!
I think there's a lot of goodwill in the community, and there are a lot of people that would want to do things, but often feel like there are barriers. And I think if people get in touch with us and we understand what those barriers are, and why people who want to get involved can't, then we can look at how we can make it manageable and how we can address them.
But often I think people go “I can't do that. I can't give three weeks in June, so therefore I can't be involved at all.” But actually, the message is more you don't need to spend your entire life doing this, if it's an hour a week, an hour a month, an hour a year! Yes, Fantastic. Great. Please come along. Please do give us that hour and let's see what we can do to help you. And if there's something that you'd rather do, and it doesn't exist, then let's look at how we can set that up.”
And that brings us back to what Simon’s role as a Councillor really is; supporting the people of our Ward, propping up organisations in need of support, and facilitating connections between us that preserve and maintain a community spirit that none of us should take for granted.
If you’d like to get more involved in the local area, check out some of Simon’s recommended organisations below:
Friends of Winsford Gardens, Alexandra Rec and Cator Park & Penge Recreation Ground