Open Meeting 2019

MINUTES OF THE CONEY HALL VILLAGE RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION  OPEN MEETING HELD AT THE ASSEMBLY ROOMS AT 7.30pm

ON TUESDAY 8th OCTOBER 2019

Chairperson, Stella Etheridge, welcomed everyone to the Meeting, including Cllr. Neill Reddin, PCSO Adam Lighternesse, P.C. Jim Watkins and Mr. Nick Hagon, who was the Garden Competition Judge.   She also officially introduced our new Treasurer, Rodney Bennett.

SE then introduced PCSO Lighternesse, who was with P.C. Jim Watkins, a new member of the Police team.   He said that burglaries in the area were down, but there were more thefts from vehicles and thefts of vehicles.   He was concerned because there is lots of building work going on in Coney Hall, therefore more opportunity for thieves to steel from builders vehicles.   He also spoke about the many scams still going on, with one in particular being false tree surgeons.   He showed the audience the type of flyers they were putting through letterboxes.  Some residents had lost lots of money through this scam.   Also to beware of the usual phone scams, purporting to be from the bank.

P.C. Jim Watkins said he had been a P.C. for 16 years and his role was mainly neighbourhood disputes and general crime in the area.  There is so much police work that goes on behind the scenes trying to deal with the many problems, including mopeds/cars speeding, etc.   They try to get out on the beat as much as they can.   A resident asked about drugs in the area and proof of this was often left in rubbish nearby or outside their house.   Other residents also had this problem.   The police know this is an issue but always want details so that they can police those areas more often.   Another resident asked about licensing laws and specifically spoke about the Coney Pub.   There is a lot of noise after hours at weekends and also vehicles racing up and down along the dual carriageway in Croydon Road.   Again the police want details and said they would talk to the owners of The Coney Pub about this.

SE then spoke about the Christmas lights appeal and collecting boxes for this purpose would be on the counters of many shops in Coney Hall.   She said fund-raising for this would be very welcome and some residents are already involved.   She thanked JH very much for all his efforts in trying to raise money for the lights.

Alison Regester is the Chair Person of Friends of the Park.   She addressed the meeting respecting the need for a small ball court in the park or gym equipment, to be placed near the skateboard area.   This will cost a lot of money but they will apply for a grant.   She is trying to raise money for this project by having a Ball at the Warren, as well as other fund raising events.    She has already raised some money.

Cllr. Neil Reddin then asked if there were any questions from the floor.   One resident asked if there would be a 20mph speed limit imposed in our area to maybe stop so many speeding cars but Cllr. Reddin didn’t think this would happen in the whole area, however they may look at individual roads.   The resident spoke about a lot of speeding in Birch Tree Avenue, which is a cut-through to Layhams Road and Cllr. Reddin made a note of this.   He said perhaps speed checks by Police could be carried out  in that area. 

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A resident asked about the failure to collect wheeliebins.   It was very confusing as to when this would happen as the whole timetable of the bin collection had now changed.   Cllr. Reddin asked that residents be patient as it would eventually sort itself out and would be up and running correctly as soon as possible.   The new bin vehicles are smaller, therefore less can be collected at a time.   He felt this would work much better when the teething problems were sorted.   It was also discussed about the reversing system on the trucks as small children could be in the path.   It was felt to be very dangerous.  Cllr. Redding said he would look into this.

A discussion took place about the grass cutting around the trees and the damage strimmers and cutters were doing to many of them, especially the newly planted ones.  Many have been killed and new ones have been bought to replace them, costing more money.   Cllr. Reddin said he would look into this.

A resident spoke about the parking in Layhams Road, alongside the park, which is very dangerous when cars come round the corner in the other direction.  This happens mainly at the weekends when football matches are taking place.

Sarah Chant, organiser of the Garden Competition, then made the presentation of the Garden Competition Trophies/Certificates and Nick Hagon handed them out to the recipients.   Photographs of all the winning gardens were displayed in the hall. 

SC then spoke about a new organisation she is running called “Environmental Action in Coney Hall” and hoped many residents would join her in this venture.   Many have already done so.   She then introduced Nick Hagon, who said what a pleasure it was for him to judge the Garden Competition and he was pleased that more people were aware of the environment and planting wild flower areas, which attracted wild life and insects.

Large poppies were on sale and also nets for the recycling boxes.

The Meeting closed at 9.15pm and refreshments were available.