The LERA Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting of the the Links Estate Residents' Association was held yesterday in St Andrew's Church, Burnt Ash Lane.

The alter and window of St Andrew's Church

Due to the closure of the Community Hall the Reverend Liz Davis opened the church for the meeting. Liz welcomed the Association members to the church and gave an update on the progress of the new community hall. It is hoped that the demolition of the old hall will begin in June and that the work to replace it will begin in July or August. A model giving an idea of the new one can be viewed in the church. Liz also reminded us that the Community Fun Day will again take place this year in King's Meadow on Saturday 13th July. More details are available in our previous post at the following link:- community-fun-day-2013

Once a good number of members had turned up the meeting was opened by the chairman, Peter Skipp, seen in the picture below with the Treasurer, Diane Bex.

Peter led us through the items on the Agenda. The meeting approved the minutes of the last AGM which can be viewed on this link:- Minutes of the 2012 AGM

The meeting thanked Kath Goodwin, Shirley Rogers and Marion Glass who have given their time freely to the Association for many years but who have now stepped down. We also need to give thanks to John Paterson who acted as a street representative for part of Ridgeway Drive even though he did not live in the road. An appeal for volunteers to act as street representatives was successful and three members will take over a part of Ridgeway Drive and Upper Portland Road. Full details of the meeting will be provided in the formal minutes to be published later.

Following the formal part of the meeting there were presentations by one of our councillors, Ellie Harmer, and by members of the Safer Neighbourhood Team seen here in the picture below.

The SNT team, Diane Bex and Councillor Ellie Harmer

Councillor Harmer described some of the local initiatives involving Bromley Council including the Brook Lane Community Garden, Dangerous dogs in parks, the proposed Community Walk planned for 1st June and Careplus, which is a volunteer service helping older people in Bromley. More details of Careplus are available on the following link:- careplusbromley.org.uk/.

The SNT provided information about their initiatives and about crime in the area. They had also provided leaflets and booklets advising about shed security and how to avoid the many scams that operate via the internet, phone or cold callers.

There was then an open discussion which will be reported later but there was also an appeal for members to write to the Mayor of London opposing the closure of Downham Fire Station which will leave the area with a greatly reduced cover. To make your feelings known please complete the survey on the following web page:- london-fire-brigade/lsp5/consult_view

Click on the image to enlarge it

Following the meeting the members enjoyed refreshments and nibbles and were able to talk to Councillor Harmer, to members of the SNT and of course to each other.