Meeting
The next ASPRA meeting is on WED 9th FEB 2022 (date change) and is now in the PAVILION at St Mildreds, which will give us a bit more space and not have the sound problems we have had.
Usual 7:30pm for an 8pm start, finish in time to be clear by 10:pm sharp.
Agenda attached, all the reports are on http://www.aspra.uk/meetings/meetings-list/
Ashburton Park
We try to keep ASPRA as positive and upbeat as possible. However, it’s dreadful for all of us when we have to confront the violent death of a young man in one of our local parks.
https://www.oasisuk.org/appeal/a-legacy-for-zaian/
Fairfield Halls
Fairfield Halls and Croydon Council in the news again.
Croydon Council has issued another Report in the Public Interest (RIPI). The RIPI was to declare Croydon Council bankrupt. A RIPI is extremely rare and is the most serious level of reporting, requiring the local authority to actively let the public know.
This one pertains to the refurbishment of Fairfield Halls, and the failings of financial control and governance of this project, between June 2016 and September 2019. The original budget was £30 million but £67.5 million was believed to have been actually spent.
You can read the report here. Suffice to say the Council does not come out of this very well.
Trams
From 22:00 on Saturday 29 until 08:00 on Sunday 30 January, there will be no service between Reeves Corner and Beckenham Junction/Elmers End, and between New Addington and West Croydon. Trams will run between Wimbledon and Reeves Corner only.
From Saturday 12 until Sunday 20 February, there will be no service between Wandle Park and East Croydon. There will also be no service between Arena and Elmers End before 07:30 and after 18:30.
Local Plan
The Local Plan consultation, as you may recall, ends on 17th Feb. The link below is to the full document set
https://www.croydon.gov.uk/planning-and-regeneration/planning/get-involved-croydons-planning/regulation-19-consultation The comments process is online.
The impact on ‘ASPRA’ appears to be ‘moderate intensification’ for the area of Cheyne Walk, Fryston Ave and Annandale, some changes to the definition of the shops at Bingham Road/Shirley road and the Shirley Roundabout and confirmation of the Local heritage status of a small part of Bingham Road.
Usefully the document also has some curbs on ‘hot food takeaways’ in high streets and some protection of 3/4/5 bedroom housing stock but the calculations for this are currently unclear. Worth a browse (it’s a LOT of pages) but the general info is useful background and there is an ‘Addiscombe place’ section which, in conjunction with the Croydon North map will allow a view of the specific areas mentioned for different things.
Very contentious are the numbers for the housing targets, set by Central Government (but interpreted differently by different Councils) and the way they have been spread across the 16 ‘places’ of Croydon.