FIFTY THIRD ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE
CROHAM VALLEY RESIDENTS’ ASSOCIATION
Un-adopted Minutes of the meeting held at 8pm on Wednesday 20th October 2021
at St Pauls Church Hall
The meeting commenced at 8.p.m.
The meeting was presided over by the President of the Association, His Honour William Barnett Q.C.. Our local MP, Chris Philp, sent his apologies. Councillor Jason Perry provided a local update.
Committee officers present:
David Rutherford
Jeremy Gill
Jaffer Kapasi
Wendy Love
Sara Pevsner
Mahesh Upadhyaya
Linda Oram
Welcome
His Honour William Barnett addressed the meeting. He welcomed all attendees, announced apologies.
Minutes
The minutes of the A.G.M. held on Wednesday 11th 2020 were approved and adopted as an accurate record.
Matters Arising
There were no matters arising from the minutes.
Treasurer’s Report
The honorary treasurer, Wendy Love, presented her report with the Statement of Accounts for 2021/2022 duly audited and signed. Copies were distributed to those present and will be available on the website. Wendy’s report was approved and she was thanked for her work. The Chairman pointed out that Wendy puts in more work for the association than any other officer and it was appreciated.
Election of Honorary Auditor for 2021/2022
Mr Jaffer A. Kapasi OBE FFA was re-elected. Mr Gill proposed his appointment, which was seconded by Mr Rutherford.
Chair’s Report for 2020/2021
The Chairman updated the meeting. Please see the Chairman’s report at https://cvra.org.uk/chairmans-report-2021/.
Mr. Gill’s report was approved.
At this point Mr Barnett stood down from the chair and Mr Gill took over.
Election of the President of the Association and up to 4 vice-presidents for 2021/2022
His Honour William Barnett QC was proposed and seconded as President for 2021/2022 and the meeting approved his re-appointment nem. con.
Having been re-elected Mr Barnett once again presided.
Election of offices of the Association for 2020/2021
Mr. Jeremy Gill being the only nominee was proposed and seconded as Chair for 2021/2022 nem. con.
There was no nominee for the office of Vice-Chair. It therefore remains vacant.
Mrs. Wendy Love being the only nominee was proposed and seconded as Honorary Treasurer for 2021/2022 nem. con.
There was no nominee for the office of Honorary secretary. It therefore remains vacant.
Election of (no more than 9) executive committee members of the Association for 2019/2020
Linda Oram, David Rutherford, Sara Pevsner and Michael Somers were the only nominees. Therefore, all four were proposed and seconded as committee members for 2021/2022 nem. con.
There was no other business so Mr. Barnett thanked the meeting for their attendance and input. Thanking those present for attending and sharing their concerns the President brought the meeting to a close at 9.30pm.
Guest Speaker – Mr Jason Perry and Maria Gatland Ward Councillors.
Jason Perry (Conservative Mayoral Candidate) stated that Croydon residents had overwhelmingly voted in the recent referendum for an elected Mayor. He pointed out that any successful candidate could not just appeal to their base as but would also have to attract voters not normally affiliated to the candidate’s party – especially if they wanted to be re-elected later.
Jason said that regarding planning, his first action should he win next year would be to revoke the existing Supplementary Planning Guidelines (SPG2) bought in by the current regime as these guidelines (for residential areas) are too lax and allow too much development in residential areas.
Jason Continued that to fully reverse the current planning regime would require revision of the Local Plan 2018 which would be a two year exercise.
These comments were welcomed by the majority of attendees.
Jason then explained that Croydon Council’s financial position was not getting any better. They need to agree a certain level of cuts with the government appointed inspector and if unable to agree then a higher level of cuts automatically cuts in.
Maria explained that the reasons the verges are not cut is because of staff redundancies. Plain and simple.
Jason then detailed the results of the traffic survey undertaken in Melville, Castlemaine, Croham Park Avenue and Campden Road. Most residents in these roads were not happy with the levels of speeding traffic in their roads (77% to 23%). However only 37% of respondents wanted any kind of measures that would reduce access to these roads or make them one way and there was no agreement within those 37% as to what those measures should be.
However Jason pointed out that these are the only measures potentially available to us a the moment as other measures eg bumps or speed cameras are not available under the current regime.
Jason acknowledged that the situation was unsatisfactory but did not offer a concrete solution should he become mayor – which was fair enough given the financial situation explained above.
We thanked the Councillors for conducting the survey
Questions from the floor
Why can’t we use Conservation Area status to restrict development? Jason explained that CA protections were weakened by the current regime but he would consider reversing in Mayor. Jason advised us to consider whether we wanted to apply for CA status in anticipation of protections being reinstated.
How can we stop Front Garden paving over. Jason explained significant paving over of front gardens is a planning issue and if there have been breaches then Planning Enforcement should be informed.
How can we stop the flooding at the bottom of Croham Valley Road. Maria explained many times the Council come to unblock the drains they cannot access them due to (legal) parking over the drains. However Jason said he would remind the Council team of the problem
How can we stop congestion due to parking at the bottom of Croham Valley Road. Maria said she would ask the roads team to look at.
The issue of car noise – especially highly tuned cars backfiring – and crime levels in the area was raised. It was explained that these issues were covered by the South Croydon Met Police Team who met regularly at Emmanuel Church Hall. Contact is:
snmailbox.southcroydonsnt@met.police.uk
There were complaints that back garden play rooms/garages were been turned into residential units. Where this had happened and the Council believed they were being used permanently (as opposed for visiting relatives) then they were charging the owners a separate Council Tax for the annex.
Jeremy Gill thought that this would make owners think again about building such units.