NOTICE OF LERA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

To be held on Monday 16^th May 2016 in St Andrew’s Hall (Main Hall), Burnt Ash Lane, starting at 7 30pm

We do hope you will be able to attend our AGM.  This year LERA is celebrating its 25^th anniversary and we will be marking the occasion in a special way with celebratory refreshments after the meeting.  Even if you are not currently a member of LERA, you are very welcome to join us.

The AGM will provide an excellent opportunity for you to get together with other members, as well as our ward councillors and other representatives of our local community.

My report of LERA’s achievements and other activities for 2015-16 can be found overleaf.  Copies of the Agenda and the Accounts will be available at the meeting. 

We look forward to welcoming you to our AGM.

Stephen Hodges

Chair

LERA Chair’s Report

A very special welcome to everyone to this 25^th Anniversary AGM. I am very pleased to be able to present my first report to the AGM as Chair of LERA. It has been an interesting and a sometimes demanding year and as Chair I have occasionally been on a sharp learning curve. I want to particularly thank members of the LERA Committee for their assistance and support, but especially to Pat Pattenden and Peter Skipp whose advice and help has been invaluable to me.

Over the last year the Committee has continued to work on behalf of members to ensure that the interests of residents are taken into account and to continue to ensure that we have a voice in community affairs and to promote improvements

on the Estate.

We have continued to work with our local Councillors and the Council on numerous issues. These include attending a variety of meetings ranging from a crime summit held in September 2015 to a meeting convened by Bromley Council in November 2015 to discuss budgets for the 2016/17 financial year. At this meeting Members of the Council outlined ways that they were proposing making further efficiency savings given the significant savings that have to be made between now and 2019/20. It was a useful meeting and LERA Committee members contributed to the discussions. We also attended a meeting of the Federation of Bromley Residents’ Associations in the middle of last year.

Crime and Safety

We have continued to be represented on the Safer Neighbourhood Panel (previously named the Community Advisory Panel). This group acts as a co-ordinating body with the police and local community groups, to discuss crime and safety issues and other matters of concern. It consists of representatives from local community groups, Neighbourhood Watch and Ward Councillors. It is a valuable forum, where we are also able to discuss issues with the local Policing team and the Dedicated Ward Officers. We are able to feed in members’ views and consequently can keep our Street Representatives up to date on local issues. We receive information on crime levels within the Ward and are also alerted to any trends or incidents that have taken place. Unfortunately, at the last meeting of the Panel there was discussion on the impact that budgets cuts were going to have on Community Policing.  This includes a reduction in the number of dedicated support which will include the loss of a dedicated Police Sergeant. Members of the Panel including LERA expressed considerable concern about this and the potential impact this would have on crime and engagement with the community. LERA is continuing to liaise with the SNP and Police to establish the implications for policing the Estate and will push to ensure our lines of communication are maintained.

Street Cleaning

We have had regular on-site meetings with the Council cleaning contractors. We liaise regularly with the contractors as necessary and we co-ordinated a deep clean in conjunction with them at Ridgeway Drive. We are presently looking at undertaking this at another location on the Estate. We carried out a successful manual clean-up of litter with volunteers at New Street Hill last year and are planning to do this again at some stage.

Developments on the Estate

LERA has continued to be active in ensuring that members are aware of the development proposed at the corner of Oak Tree Gardens and Portland Road. As a consequence of residents’ concerns about the development we submitted an objection and attended the Planning Committee meeting. I spoke at the meeting putting forward residents’ views. The Borough’s Planning Committee unanimously rejected the application and consent was refused. However, the developer has appealed to the Planning Inspectorate against the Council’s decision and this is presently being considered. LERA has circulated information on this to local residents and has made a submission outlining why the appeal should be refused.  The final date for final comments was 16 May 2016.

Communicating with LERA Members

LERA continues to inform members about news, issues of interest, through the regular Newsletter. Increasingly, we are also communicating through the LERA website and through Facebook. The website (www.leralink.blogspot.co.uk) is being used regularly to post information which we believe is important for members to see, and I would encourage residents to access the website regularly to check out what is going on. Members of the Committee can be contacted via the website using the Comments box or email address.

LERA’s Facebook site (www.facebook.com/groups/lerabromley/) is also becoming increasingly popular with members with nearly 100 residents registered to use it. Both the Website and Facebook allow LERA Committee members to provide quick and timely updates on a variety of issues affecting the Estate.

LERA 25^th Anniversary

This year is the 25^th Anniversary of the formation of LERA and I am very pleased that we are celebrating the Anniversary today in the St Andrew’s Hall. We shall of course be celebrating the event after the formal part of the meeting with, drinks, cake and a raffle. We are also intending to mark the event by doing a number of special things, these may include producing a commemorative booklet about the Estate later in the year for members to keep and we are looking at other ways to mark this significant event; this may include the planting of trees in some areas where they have either been damaged on need replacing. We will be consulting with residents on this as necessary. If residents have any other suggestions please feel free to contact members of the Committee.

I am also pleased that we have Andrew Martin with us tonight. Many of you will know Andrew, through his book, ‘Not a Mile from Milk Street’. Given the special occasion, we have slightly changed our normal format of speakers for the AGM and asked him to give us a local history presentation about the local area we live in.

Once again a very special welcome to everyone tonight. A strong Residents’ Association is crucial to be able to voice views on matters affecting our Estate. LERA has over the last 25 years been very effective in doing this and I have no doubt will continue to do so in the next 25.

Stephen Hodges

Chair of LERA