AUTUMN 2007 EDITION

I write this at the end of a glorious September - Mother Nature making amends, no doubt, for the earlier dismal Summer months! There is now an Autumnal nip in the air and by the time this reaches you we will be well into the season. With the Autumn season also comes our Annual General Meeting details of which follow.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

This will be held on Tuesday 20 November 2007 at 7.45 pm at our normal venue - St John's Church Hall, Lynwood Grove (close to the junction with Mayfield Avenue). The meeting will, as is our usual practice, be followed by a reception with light refreshments - decent wine, soft drinks and tasty snacks. Your Committee feels this makes for a pleasant end to our Annual General Meeting which we aim to make informative as well as conducting the formal business of the Association. Last year some 120 members attended and from the feedback they certainly found it worthwhile to make the effort to turn out on a dark November evening! So we look forward to seeing you all again this year. We hope to have a number of speakers who will report on their activities and answer any questions you may wish to raise. These will include our Town Centre Manager Cheryl Curr, our Safer Neighbourhood Team leader Police Sergeant Kemp, Tony Kemp the new Chairman of the Bromley Federation of Resident Associations and invitations have gone to all our local Councillors.

The agenda for the meeting is attached at the end of this newsletter together with the minutes of last years AGM. It would be helpful if you could bring these to the meeting together with the nomination portion completed if you wish to propose somebody for the Committee. The Annual Accounts of the Association are not completed and audited in time for advance circulation with this newsletter as our financial year does not end until the last day in September. However, I can assure you that the Accounts will be available for all at the AGM together with our new Treasurer, Ian Black, to present them and deal with any questions arising from them that you may have.

Please do try to attend; we do aim to make it an informative evening with a pleasant social ending.

CHAIRMAN'S REPORT

This report, as is our practice, is presented as a basis far consideration at the AGM. I will cover the main points at the meeting in my opening remarks and then deal with any matters arising in the Open Forum session of the meeting.

ROLE OF THE ASSOCIATION

This has been another active year for your Association as we have been involved in a number of matters and issues concerning our locality and surrounding area. Your Committee has met regularly throughout the year at around six weekly intervals to consider and discuss a range of subjects most of which have been have been reported back to you in our Seasonal Newsletters. We continue to participate in a service provided by Bromley Council whereby we receive copies of meeting papers and minutes of the Committee meetings covering most of the matters under consideration by the Council. Fortunately, we get these on a cost-free basis as Bill Daniell, as previous Treasurer, collects them on a regular basis from the Civic Centre on his trips into Bromley which saves us quite a sum by not having to contribute to the postal delivery service.

We have been consulted by the Council on a number of subjects, have pursued matters raised with us by members of the Association on an individual basis and drawn attention to local issues with public service providers. We also keep in touch with our neighbouring resident associations and more generally through our attendance at meetings of the Bromley Federation of Resident Associations where a number of Borough-wide issues are discussed.

We have had a full complement of Committee Members throughout the year and I can report that they have worked together in a positive and constructive manner. I am grateful to them all for their help and support.

GENERAL MATTERS

PLANNING

We subscribe to the service provided by Bromley Council whereby we receive details of all planning applications in our locality including the High Street. Carol Gray, our Planning Secretary, keeps a close eye on these and submits a written report on all of them to each Committee Meeting. In addition members do from time to time seek her advice about planning applications which they consider may have an adverse impact on their property or neighbourhood and where the Committee thinks it appropriate we make representations to the Planning Committee of Bromley Council. Whilst we rarely comment on individual house extensions we have made representations about concerns raised with us about plans to demolish existing properties and "in-fill" with a larger number of properties. As reported in the Summer Newsletter the biggest development recently is the plan to demolish practically the whole of one side of Orchard Grove (numbers 1-23) and replace these properties with blocks of flats and houses. This proposal was rejected by Bromley Council but on appeal and following a planning inquiry the Planning Inspector has decided the development can go ahead. This was despite our further representations and those of Bromley Council. The outcome will result in a massive change in the character of Orchard Grove and the surrounding neighbourhood but the Planning Inspectors decision is final. However, a planning application to demolish 16 Station Road and replace with flats, to which we also objected, has been rejected by Bromley Council. An unusual application to construct an office block at the rear of a house in The Drive has been rejected both by Bromley Council and by the Planning Inspector on appeal. On a different matter the new owners of the Blacksmith Arms public house on the High Street had made an application for a license to enable them to open until 2 am. This caused considerable concern to those residents who lived nearby as well as creating a dangerous precedent and we made representations accordingly. The Licencing Committee accepted these and granted a license until 11.30 pm in line with the other public houses on the High Street.

TOWN CENTRE DEVELOPMENTS

Our Town Centre Manager, Cheryl Cuff, has been busy on a number of fronts and certainly the floral displays which she arranges have been a very attractive feature of the High Street. We understand that there is an outline planning application to demolish the Village Hall and replace it with a new facility together with residential flats above. As this is only an outline application at this stage details are sparse but we will be monitoring the situation closely and report on any new information at the AGM. Most of you will probably know that the planning application from Tesco's to increase the size of their new store by up to a half again was approved by the Planning Committee as a result of the Chairman exercising his vote in favour after the Committee split by 4 votes to 4. Work on the site is now well under way and is expected to take 18-24 months. l reported in the Summer Newsletter that Bromley Council had commissioned work on an Orpington Town Centre Master Plan. The Master Plan is intended to provide a planning framework to develop a vibrant, safe and thriving town centre. We attended a further workshop held by the team on 20 July along with some 50 other local representatives where views were sought as part of the consultation process on how the plan should develop. The next stage is for the team to produce the draft Master Plan by November and then there will be a public participation process from December to January 2008. I am sure members will be keen to be involved as will your Committee. We hope to have further details by the time of the AGM.

NEIGHBOURHOOD SAFETY

Sergeant John Kemp, the leader of our Petts Wood and Knoll Team, has been invited to address the AGM as he did last year. There is no doubt that the creation of the Safer Neighbourhood teams has been a most successful innovation in community policing and certainly the results by our team and the teams in adjoining wards in terms of crime reduction have been very impressive. Should you need any advice on crime prevention or wish to report any policing matters ( other than emergencies) then the contact telephone number of Sergeant Kemp's team is 0208 7212609 or mobile number 07920 233853.

HARRIS HOSPICECARE

We have received from Marisa Gifford of Harris HospiceCare details of various events taking place up to December 2007. In particular:

If you require further information on these events just contact Marisa via our Contact Page. Remember, Harris Hospice Care is a local charity providing care for over 1200 patients living with life threatening illness and their families from within the Borough. They strive to provide the best quality of life for patients and their families. All their services are provided to patients free of charge - but the services still have to be paid for, largely through donations and fundraising activities like those above. They need over £2.4 million each year to carry on caring across Bromley so they are really worthy of support.

ST JOHN'S URC CHURCH

There will be a concert in aid of the Cystic Fibrosis Research Fund at St John's Church Lynwood Grove, Orpington on Saturday October 27"commencing at 7.30 pm. Janet Godden and her senior music pupils will give a concert of light classical music including piano, organ, violin, viola and flute pieces. There will be a buffet supper in the Hall and a raffle. Tickets are priced at £7, including the buffet supper so all tickets have to be bought in advance and will not be available on the door. Tickets are available from Janet via the Contact Page.

ALL SAINTS FESTIVAL CHOIR AND ORCHESTRA

The next concert of this eminent local choir and orchestra will be at 7.30 pm on 17th November at All Saints Parish Church in Bark Hart Road. There is plenty of parking space on both sides of the Church and adjoining roads. The programme includes Vivaldi's Magnificat andMonterverdi's Psalm 112. Tickets are £38.50 at the door (advance bookings £7.50, students/children £3.50 ) which includes a comprehensive programme and a glass of wine. Bookings and enquiries via the Contact Page.

ROAD WARDENS

We are looking for a new road warden for part of Knoll Rise as Mr McCarthy has had to relinquish his position. We are very grateful to him for being one of our road wardens for a number of years. We are now seeking a volunteer, preferably from Knoll, Rise to take over this role. Being a Road Warden is not particularly onerous. It entails delivering the Newsletter three times a year and collecting/receiving the annual subscriptions. However, the role is vital to the work of the Association so we do need to fill this vacancy - it covers numbers 17A-31 & 34-50 - all you have to do is Contact Us!

ENVIRONMENT

The graffiti team have cleaned the pathway from Eastcote to Broxbourne Road and we are now hoping they will tackle next the stretch from Broxbourne Green all the way down to Broomhill Road. We have also been in contact with Bromley Council about the state of the pathway from Stanley Road to Oatfield Road which has quite an uneven surface and is a little overgrown We hope that this can also be rectified in the near future. We have been informed that Bromley Council intend to replace some of the street lights in our locality. Apparently the new steel lamp standards will give a better quality of light with most of it being projected downwards and with more even coverage.

AND FINALLY

Don't forget the AGM on Tuesday 2& November at 7.45 pm - I look forward to seeing you.

This page was last updated on 21 Jan 2008 . Unless otherwise indicated, all information on this site is the copyright of the Knoll Residents Association.