NOTICE
OF LERA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
To be held on Monday 16th
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 25th 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 25th 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
25th Anniversary
This year is
the 25th 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
