Dear All,
The year has gone very quickly and the AGM and Christmas Social is upon us again. I am pleased to say that the choir of St. Thomas Moore Catholic Primary School is returning to sing for us.
All the events we have organised this year have been very enjoyable and successful. The Race Night and Summer Fete were joint projects with other local organisations and helped to foster a wider community outlook for us.
I have enjoyed my year in office, but for personal reasons am stepping down. I wish the committee and you all my very best.
Robert Ledgerwood
robertledgerwood02@hotmail.com
Matters Residents want to be considered at the AGM are called Resolutions. These include
nominations for people to serve as Committee members, which must be seconded by a Resident who is present at the meeting. Resolutions will be passed if a majority of Residents voting vote in favour.
Resolutions must be in writing and be received no later than 7 days before the AGM. They should be sent to the Secretary, Margaret Oliver, ideally by email to calnan7@btinternet.com by 3rd December, 2016. Those without access to email should telephone her on 020 8856 5280 to be told the address to which they should write. Letters must be received by her by the same date so please allow time for postage. Please include your name and address in your email or letter.
SOCIAL SUB-COMMITTEE
We held three very different events this year, a children’s Easter Eggstravaganza, a Race Night to celebrate the Queen’s 90th Birthday in conjunction with the Irish Community Services and our Summer Fete in conjunction with the Greenwich Heritage Centre. Our final event for the year is our AGM and Christmas Social with the choir of St Thomas Moore Primary School again coming to sing for us.
The sub-committee was originally formed in mid-2014 as the 2015 Group because we needed a team of people focussed on the work that would be necessary to make our centenary a success. Other than for the book about the Estate (currently expected to be published by mid-2017) all that is now behind us so the Social Group will be wound up. Its members have been invited to stand for election to the main committee at this year’s AGM.
Rita Billinghurst
tel: 07947 043479
SOCIAL MEDIA GROUP
The creation of our website, an active email address list and the option for people to ‘like’ us on Facebook and/or follow us on Twitter have been significant achievements in the development of the Association since they were launched in the Summer of 2013.
As at the beginning of 2016, we had 195 pages of information on our website. The most popular are those dealing with Planning permission, the Cinema development in Eltham High Street, and the Summer Fete/Family Fun day. The site had had pages viewed 57,800 times to date.
A number of the page views were from other countries:
USA 9,741
Russia 1,737
Germany 1,106
Ukraine 951
France 877
Brazil 229
Australia 179
Japan 124
Spain 117
Our Twitter followers number 543, to whom we have issued 490 Tweets.
We are ‘liked’ by 330 people on Facebook.
During 2015 we created our own YouTube channel (search for “Progress Estate”) – with nine videos therein. The videos have been viewed 3,695 times. They also appear on our website.
Two hundred and seventy-four Residents subscribe to our email newsletter. About a half open each mail which is at least twice the number for most lists where the average is less than a quarter.
Anyone may email us at theprogressestate@gmail.com. Messages will be forwarded to the person best able to deal with each query and (s)he will reply directly to you.
Email, Facebook and Twitter are the only forms of communication that enable us to communicate pressing matters to Residents. These range from local events we believe might be of interest, to bogus fund-raisers and door-to-door callers who have been reported as being active on our Estate.
To join one of these communication streams, scroll down down the right-hand side of this webpage to ‘Connect’.
If you are already receiving communications from us in one of these ways, perhaps you would be kind enough to check that your friends and neighbours do so as well. There are 1,298 homes on our Estate so we estimate there up to 1,000 homes who do not yet receive our electronic communications in one form or another. Those without computers at home could sign up at Eltham Library.
James Garner
TREASURER’S REPORT October 2015 – September 2016
The funds received by the Association in this twelve-month period have been from three sources; grants, income from social events run during the period and fund-raising activities undertaken by committee members. We received a grant in the year from Hyde South East for £350. Other funds raised were:
Raffles and donations £ 574
Sales from social events £1,529
Fund raising activities £ 318
Income released from
Co-op grant £ 230
Total income for the 12 months was £3,001
The main purchases were:
Hiring of venues £473
Hire of entertainer/equipment for social events £640
Centenary tree/ plaque £371
Raffle prizes £284
Admin. expenses £309
Miscellaneous items included revenue from the Halloween event where income was shared with affiliated groups including Royal Eltham West Guides and Eltham Arts (£431).
Total expenditure for the year was £2,508 so income exceeded expenditure by £493.
At year end assets, represented by cash or cash equivalents, were £3,896 and liabilities totalled £2,143.
Copies of the Association’s accounts will be available at the AGM. Any Resident who would like a copy beforehand should write to the email address below stating their home address and postcode.
A huge thank you is due to all the volunteers and to the community who continue to show their support through attendance at our events
Lisa Jonker
Treasurer
NON-FINANCIAL SPONSORS
Non-financial sponsors are those who have provided us with goods and services whose value is not reflected in our accounts.
Donors of raffle prizes
We are very grateful to all those individuals who have donated raffle prizes during the year.
Conran Estates
Conran Estates has continued to print our publicity material during 2016, undoubtedly saving us a great deal of money.
David Evans Property Services
David Evans delivered flyers throughout the estate publicising our Summer Fete.
Greenwich Heritage Centre
The Centre helped with the costs of the Fete as part of their project Here Come the Girls.
The Hyde Group
As well as the direct financial support noted in the Treasurer’s Report, Hyde South East has continued to print our quarterly Newsletters.
PLANNING REPORT
Sixty seven planning applications were decided in the 12 months to the end of September 2016, an increase of 7 on the previous 12 months.
The Association has four options in deciding how to respond to any particular application:
• Support it
• Object to it
• Comment on it
• Do nothing
Our sole concern is whether or not, when judged by reference to the relevant planning and conservation guidelines, the proposed works will have a neutral or positive effect on our Estate. We support those that do and object to those that do not.
We do nothing if an application is for works that will not be visible from the Public Highway. These are commonly for the removal of trees in back gardens that are not visible from any public highway or for the construction of rear, single storey extensions behind mid-terrace houses.
We supported 34 of the applications received in the twelve months to 30th September, 2016, objected to 11 and made no comment on 17. For reasons beyond our control, we missed the deadline for responding to the remaining 5.
Martin Jonker
HOUSES CHANGING HANDS
During the 12 months to the end of August 2016 (Land Registry data is published approximately 5 weeks after the end of each month) 48 houses changed ownership, 14 more than in the preceding 12 months although only 4 more than for the 12 months to August, 2014. New families moved into 35 Hyde homes. We have delivered Welcome letters to all concerned.
Keith Billinghurst
tel: 07962 877389
SAFER NEIGHBOURHOOD PANELS
The Association is represented on both Eltham West and Eltham North Safer Neighbourhood Panels. These Panels are made up of a local police team, led by a Sergeant, and local representatives including residents, teachers, youth workers, council employees and sometimes councillors. They meet about every 6-8 weeks. The Panels discuss local crime statistics, Borough crime trends/initiatives, police staffing levels and other police concerns together with issues raised by residents. Obviously individual cases are not discussed by the meeting but general information is exchanged.
The priorities for the local police team are discussed and agreed with the panel members and in Eltham West these are burglary, anti-social behaviour and drug dealing and using. Motor vehicle crime, that is theft from or of motor vehicles, is also a particular problem in Eltham West so the Police team stress over and over again that people should not leave any valuables visible in their cars. Berkeley Homes have paid for 4 new bicycles for the team and because Eltham West is one of the largest wards geographically these bikes allow larger areas to be patrolled daily.
Some of our Teams’ successes this year include the closure of two large cannabis factories; the seizure of a considerable amount of a drug dealer’s money; the enforcement of CBOs (Criminal Behaviour Orders - these replaced and are more flexible than ASBOs) with many arrests and one person being given a custodial sentence. Due to a number of moped problems across the Ward the Team have issued numerous Section 59 orders in an attempt both to control the problem and educate the perpetrators (Section 59 of the Police Reform Act, 2002 deals with vehicles used in a manner causing alarm, distress or annoyance).
The Police Teams are also constantly trying to improve communications with the local community and some initiatives were a very successful Summer Community Event held at Kidbrooke Village which over 600 people attended; Police drop-in surgeries and street briefings have also been relaunched. MetTrace, a burglary reduction initiative, helps residents make their homes more secure by providing crime prevention advice and provides free Smartwater forensic property marking kits which have proved much more effective than those they replaced.
Both Eltham North and Eltham West Panels welcome local residents to their meetings. Alternatively, any Progress resident may report his or her concerns, by email, to theprogressestate@gmail.com for a member of the committee to raise at the following Panel meeting. Reports of all meetings are emailed to those on our email list.
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