Save The Bell Campaign

The Bromley Arts and Community Initiative

The Bromley Arts and Community Initiative is organising a campaign to revitalise the Royal Bell. The aim is to convert the ground floor to a café or pub serving food and to remodel the first floor as a performance area with a theatre and function rooms. They also hope to convert the stable block to host art displays and workshops. They have received £10 000 from the Heritage fund to begin a feasibility study and produce costings. They need more volunteers and are working hard to get people involved actively. One way to help is to send them any “heritage” connections you know about. They have already cited Jane Austen, Charles Darwin, H.G. Wells and David Bowie. 

There are more details on their website :- 

http://bromleyartsandcommunity.blogspot.co.uk/         Or by emailing    Amanda.c.hone@gmail.com

Doorstep Crime

The Police have recorded an increase in doorstep crime recently.

There have been incidents of residents being approached by cold callers offering to clean out guttering, repair or maintain roofing. They then charge inflated prices and occasionally the residents have felt intimidated into agreeing further work.

With the  recent  bad weather there may be opportunist cold callers offering to sweep up leaves, take away trees, etc. and the message is to not accept offers of help from callers, unless they are known to you. A reminder that the council will always have ID and drive liveried vehicles.

We have also had victims of telephone fraud in the borough, where the resident has been persuaded to give over their pin numbers, and handed their credit/debit cards to persons impersonating Police officers.

The Police will NEVER ask for your credit/card details, either on the 'phone or in person.

If you are unsure who the caller is, engage your security door chain before you open the door. If you see anyone suspicious, and it is happening now, please ring 999. If you have recently had suspicious activity in your road, then please report it to ring 101.

Theft of a Catalytic converter in Ridgeway Drive

A resident in Ridgeway Drive has had the catalytic converter stolen from their car whilst it was parked on their drive. This happened between Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th November.

On 22nd November Police in Bromley alerted residents to a recent rise in the theft of catalytic converters across the borough. Over recent months there has been a significant increase in these thefts, with Bromley suffering from the highest number of these thefts across London - over 60 in the last nine weeks.

The Mercedes Sprinter van, VW Sharan, Seat Albrahama, Ford Galaxy and Peugeot 406 are the most targeted vehicles, with the thieves favouring vehicles such as people carriers, 4x4’s or commercial vans as the ground clearance of the vehicle makes it easier to access the catalytic converter.

The thieves are stealing converters – located in the exhaust system under the vehicle – because of the high value of the precious metals they contain and while the theft of the converter can net the offender around £60.00 per vehicle, the costs to the owner to replace the item can run to several hundred pounds, particularly if substantial damage has been caused to the vehicle by the removal of the converter, and there’s the inconvenience of the vehicle being off the road.

PC Mark Russell from Bromley Police said "To reduce the risk of theft of your car's catalytic converter, please garage your car whenever possible or park in well-lit busy areas. Park your vehicles defensively - if you own multiple vehicles use those with the lowest ground clearance to block those with a higher clearance. If all your vehicles have a high clearance park them very close together."

Etching a catalytic converter with a serial number will help police link a stolen converter to a specific vehicle and overtly advertising that a vehicle is protected by property marking may also deter offenders, as it will reduce the opportunities for selling the converters to reputable scrap metal dealers. Advice on marking converters can be seen on the AA website at http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/security/catalytic-converter-theft.html

Please be vigilant in your neighbourhood and report any suspicious activity straight away to your local neighbourhood team on 101 or if you believe a crime is in progress call 999.

If you would like to pass on information but wish to remain anonymous then call Crimestoppers on 0800-500-111"

Burnt Ash Primary Christmas Fair 6th December

Chrismas!!! Burnt Ash School got an "excellent" in their OFSTED report see Burnt Ash OFSTED report.

Even the best schools make mistakes.

Brook Lane Community Church Christmas Crafts

Click on each image to enlarge it

Council forced to find further £60 million savings

On 20 November the Executive agreed to make a recommendation for a 1.99% increase in the Bromley element of the council tax.

This was part of the process to finalise the 2014-15 budget, which will be considered by Full Council in February 2014. This recommendation was in recognition of the need to achieve a balanced budget in 2014/15 and to partly address the increasing ‘budget gap’ in future years, while protecting front line services.

Said Council Leader, Stephen Carr about the recommendation:

“This council is proud of its reputation for the robust way we manage our finances and refuse to resort to short term gimmicks.  Over the past three years we faced drastic reductions in government funding, high inflation and low interest rates and had to make savings of over £57 million. This was done through sound financial planning while protecting quality front line services - often to some of the most vulnerable in our borough. Demand for our services is increasing, at the same time we face further significant funding reductions and must find another £60 million savings over the next four years.

“We are determined to continue to take a long-term view and achieve a sustainable budget for 2014-15 and beyond.  As part of setting this budget we consulted with residents at our annual public meetings.  Their views informed the choices we have made in the last three years and this year many of our residents told us they accepted a rise in council tax is unavoidable. Be assured this recommendation to increase council tax is not taken lightly. Our record speaks for itself - over the years we have consistently had the lowest council tax in outer London . We will turn down the one-off bribe from government this year to freeze the tax because accepting would only store up major financial problems to be faced in future years and is not the financially sound thing to do.

“Residents also said they want us to continue to press home our argument with government about Bromley’s historically low levels of funding. Our council receives one of the lowest levels of overall government grant.  It has faced the biggest reduction in formulae grant in the last three years.  If we received the average level of funding for London our income would increase by a staggering £98 million.

“In refusing to take a short-term and arguably easier approach to managing the budget, difficult decisions must be made.  We are determined to make it the right decision on behalf of our residents.”

Burnt Ash Library Christmas Coffee Morning

For more details visit the library or contact the librarians on 020 8460 3405 or by email at burntash.library@bromley.gov.uk

For details of other activities at the Burnt Ash Library see the following link:-
http://www.bromley.gov.uk/directory_record/34386/burnt_ash_library