Magazine

Hurrah.  The Winter issue of our Magazine is now back from the printers.  Road reps are collecting mags for all of ‘their’ members, so watch your letter box for 64 pages of amazement.

Produced this time by a small (but perfectly formed) team for this issue.  Please do think about (or encourage another..) to email ads@aspra.uk or editor@aspra.uk to get a bit more info on these exciting roles that are still waiting to be filled.  No ‘special skills’ required, just ‘normal office’ stuff that we probably have already on our home machines and a bit of organised thinking.

Page 3 (!!!) of this latest magazine does also have vacancies listed  for secretary@aspra.uk and planning@aspra.uk and now includes Deborah at events@aspra.uk.

Arthurs

Confirmed today with the new owner, Arthurs is not closing after 40 years, but there is a change of ownership to another ‘nice chap’.

Plans

Interesting info from a member who keeps an eye on RightMove
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/129069251#/?channel=COM_BUY

an option to add another floor on top….. this is Domino Pizza and the adjoining supermarket building

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/129235703#/?channel=COM_BUY

this one looks like it is next to the new build at the bottom of Sherwood?  VERY small site.

Xmas Fair

St Mildred’s fair is this coming Saturday, 12:30 to 4:30.  Come and see the donkeys, or the festive stalls, or indeed just pop in to say ‘hi’ to various of the ASPRA committee on the ‘ASPRA stall’ somewhere in the foyer.

ps

Did I mention the vacancies for advertising ads@aspra.uk and an editor editor@aspra.uk for the next issue of the Magazine?

Please do get in touch soon to get all the info you are dying to know, next issue due April/May.

Page 3 (!!!) of the latest magazine does also have vacancies for secretary@aspra.uk and planning@aspra.uk

Our final scheduled session of the year is Saturday 1st October 09.30 – 12.00.  This is the time when we will be getting the beds to bed for winter!  Although I am sure there will still be some jobs to do during the winter months.

I hope as many of you as possible will be able to come along for some weeding, pruning, turning the soil and who knows, if we have some plant donations, doing some planting.  A kind resident donated several plants and seeds at our last session.

All good wishes,

Lyn; gardening@aspra.uk

Gardening

The Bingham Park gardeners will be back in action this coming Saturday (7^th May) between 09.30 and 12.00, do come and join in.

Message from Lyn, our ‘gardening guru’…..

The flowerbeds are looking very colourful with a variety of plants in flower, and with plenty of ground cover there isn’t  too much weeding to do, some suggestions!

Northampton bed

– dead head the camellia  i.e. where the lovely white flowers have turned brown

– a little bit of weeding in front of the bird bath

Carlyle bed

– trim and weed the grass that is, as ever, encroaching into the flowerbed

– weeding underneath the bird feeder

– pulling up any bindweed that has started to pop up

Some lovely wild flowers bordering the boundary fence to Northampton Road gardens have emerged which has added extra colour to the park and is encouraging bees and butterflies.

Do come along on Saturday.  We’d love to see you.  gardening@aspra.uk

AGM

Held last week, turnout was a bit ‘thin’.  Minutes are currently in production, and will be available soon.

Subscriptions held at £4 with additional donations for our projects made by many much appreciated and a great help in supporting Hanging Baskets, Festive Lights, Poppies etc

No one has, yet(!), stepped forwards to help with our existing vacancies (Projects, Social Events and Planning Monitor), do make contact if you wish to know more.

Phil (Editor) and Colin (Advertising) have decided to step down after more than 6 years producing the ASPRA magazine, their last edition (currently in production) is aimed for the end of May.

Many thanks and congratulations to them both for all of their hard work over the years.

Please do have a think about stepping forwards for either of these vacancies, the Committee has already discussed how the roles could perhaps be split into smaller parcels to help share the load so do get in touch to chat about either of these roles. editor@aspra.uk and/or adverts@aspra.uk

Membership

Your membership subscription is, as always, due ‘after the AGM’.  Traditionally a ‘subs envelope’ is delivered, along with the latest magazine to all of the circa2000 households in the ASPRA area, by your hardworking road rep.  These then find their way, suitably filled with perhaps a ‘little something extra’ towards our Projects, back via your reps to keep our records up to date.

Increasingly, more and more members are making direct payments to the ASPRA account, (20-24-61  50802549) which is a great help for all involved.  Please do therefore consider making your payment directly (remembering to include your house number and road as a reference) rather than perhaps waiting for the envelope to arrive.  For any updates to your information, email address etc please let your rep know or email contacts@aspra.uk

New events added to our events page:

• MHA Communi-Tea Party at the Wilderness Garden
• Messy Church at Christ Church Addiscombe
• Addiscombe Litter Action group starts spring events on Monday 11th April at 6.30pm

Meeting

The next ASPRA meeting is on WED 9^th 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 17^th 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.