Held at the Colliers Wood Community Centre.
All present at the meeting introduced themselves.
Taken as accurate.
Update on local parks: Cllr Andrew Judge took our views to the (Council) Cabinet and it has been decided that the parks will be kept locked at night.
The new nursery/centre on the High Street has not yet opened because of delays to the building works; hope to be open in 5-6 weeks’ time.
Census: completion rate from Colliers Wood ward has not been very high.
The car park has finally gone. Re-negotiations are going on in relation to Section 106. Mr Aziz wants to postpone payment to the community until after the proposed second tower is completed. Fears were expressed that this would result in no Section 106 money in fact being forthcoming, so there is currently a stand-off situation.
A solution is being sought. Watch this space.
Planning permission has been given for a health centre on the first floor of the building, to combine two current GP practices in Colliers Wood and Lavender Hill.
No planning applications have been received by the Council.
A lot of new trees have been planted locally – this was decided by GLA not Merton and the money was not from Merton’s budget. Mixed views were expressed – new trees are generally to be welcomed, but some are very near the front of houses and there was bemusement at the lack of consultation. It was felt to be an own goal instead of what could have been a ‘good news’ story, and potentially misleading at a time when Merton is cutting services. Residents were encouraged to write to the Chief Executive of Merton to ask why there had been no consultation.
Lack of free collections is causing problems and garden waste is mounting up. Deemed to be a false economy since likely to end up in landfill. However, this service has not always been provided free by the Council. Local residents with cars are requested to volunteer to take garden waste to Garth Road for their neighbours.
It is proposed that the library will close on Fridays from 1st July. A Friends group has been set up to support and promote the library. Next meeting will be on Tuesday 10th May at 7pm.
May close from 1st July unless extra funding can be found. Laxmi Attawar will find out the situation and report back.
Has lost £15,000 of funding. A small donation had been sent to the farm from the recent Cavendish Road table top sale and was received with gratitude. The farm is very reliant on council funding. The Council is working with the farm to put them in touch with companies which may provide financial support and to find ways of reducing the farm’s electricity costs. It was suggested that schools that use the farm could make a donation to it. More general fundraising is needed to keep the farm operating. An online petition has been started to save the farm: see http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/keep-deen-city-farm-open-free-to-all-the-community/.
PC Nick Hill reported on recent crime levels:
Other points:
CWRA has been granted £6,840 by the Big Lottery Fund to set up a Community Gardening Project in Colliers Wood. There will be free gardening classes run by Jenny Mortimer from Merton Adult Education on four consecutive Thursday afternoons starting on Thursday 5th May at St Joseph’s Church hall from 2pm-4pm. To enrol, contact Keith Spears on 07982 721496. The project will be managed by the Parks and Open Spaces sub-committee of the CWRA. The first area to be worked on will be the walkway between Myrna Close and Devonshire Road.
Sheila Knight spoke about the situation of some of the residents in Trellis House (near M&S) – flats built for those with mobility problems. Some residents are known to be somewhat isolated and depressed and this project has arisen out of the work of Merton Mind. It is hoped that help might be offered to assist some of the residents to come to MCWH activities, or that friendship and conversation might be offered at coffee mornings at Trellis House. Volunteers are sought, who would need to be CRB checked (but this can be achieved quite straightforwardly). Anyone interested should contact Jonathan Bryant at Merton Mind (Jbryant.MertonMIND@googlemail.com, 020-86486565 or 07746 263258).
Joyce Pountain spoke about this project that started in Wimbledon a couple of years ago. Over the last five years hundreds of ‘transition towns’ have been set up in the UK with the aim of improving the local environment, making local communities more resilient and self-sufficient and better able to cope with environmental changes, and more pleasant places to live in. Transition Town Wimbledon is supported by Sustainable Merton. It has shown films on sustainability and developed relationships with existing environmental and community groups as well as with Merton Council. It has set up a Food Group to look at localising the food chain and an Energy Group to focus on reducing energy use in the home by e.g. encouraging insulation and draught-proofing. It focuses on fun and useful activities that also save residents money. A couple of community gardens have been created – on Kingston Road and at Christ Church (West Wimbledon). A school gardening club has been set up. They are looking at adopting small plots of land for which the Council is currently responsible. Fruit from trees is being distributed that would otherwise go to waste (the Abundance Wimbledon project). A jewellery-making group has been set up, and a rug-making group (using recycled material to make rugs). ‘Green Coffee’ is a coffee morning set up for information-sharing. Mutual encouragement, assistance and participation between Transition Towns Wimbledon and Making Colliers Wood Happy was hoped for on both sides. For more information see http://www.sustainablemerton.org/projects.htm, email ttwimbledon@yahoo.co.uk or ring Gareth (07732 122342 or 020-85405821).
A local resident spoke about a training and consultancy programme being established in Colliers Wood, using the Community Centre if possible but also going out into the community where necessary. It will offer teaching, training and tutoring in a range of skills at competitive rates and tailored to individual needs. For further information email stratageetraining@london.com or ring 07914 964877.
A coach is being sought so that basketball coaching can start up again on Saturday afternoons.
Christopher Killerby has given up the editorship of the newsletter due to other commitments, so a new editor is being sought and also volunteers to be on the editorial board. For further information contact Keith Spears (keithaspears@hotmail.com or 07982 721496).
For other events and local groups and activities, see http://makingcollierswoodhappy.org.uk/
None.
Chair – Keith Spears – 07982 721496/keithaspears@hotmail.com
Vice-chair – Fiona Sydney
Secretary – Myra Sae Heng
Treasurer – Keith Allen – 020-85425801