The Selsdon Gazette Volume 73. No. 820 November 2020 THE SELSDON GAZETTE Editor: [email protected] Website: www.selsdon-residents.co.uk Advertising Enquiries: Carlo Rappa, [email protected] Advertising payments and Treasurer: Mrs Choi Kim, [email protected] Distribution: Enquiries to Wendy Mikiel, [email protected] 020 8651 0470 Copy for the Gazette should reach the Editor by 20th of each month and email attachments should be in Word or PDF format. Advertisements must reach the Advertising Manager by 15th of each month, with payment in full received by close of business that day. There is no August Gazette. The view expressed by contributors to the Selsdon Gazette are their own and are not necessarily those of the Editor, the Selsdon Gazette or the Selsdon Residents’ Association. All letters printed as received. The publication of advertisements in the Selsdon Gazette does not imply any warranty on the part of the Selsdon Gazette or the Selsdon Residents’ Association as to the quality of services offered by the advertiser. Residents should make such enquiries as they think necessary about any provider of goods or services. Front cover image credit: A thank you to four Street Champions from Selsdon Baptist Church. Advertising Space Available 1 SELSDON RESIDENTS’[email protected] ASSOCIATION Executive Committee 2019/2020 President: R. H. R. Adamson Vice-Presidents: P. Holden, R. F. G. Rowsell. Chairman: Sheila Childs Vice-Chairman: Linda Morris Hon. Secretary: Janet Sharp Hon. Treasurer: Iris Jones Committee: Sara Bashford Yvonne Huber Ernie Sweeney Su Yates Peter Underwood Ian Leggatt Phil Roberts Jenny Stawman Arthur Wilson One Committee Vacancy Councillors for Selsdon & Addington Village Ward Cllr Helen Pollard [email protected] 0207 617 7310 Cllr Robert Ward [email protected] 07783 152363 Councillors for Selsdon Vale & Forestdale Ward Stuart Millson [email protected] 07783 152376 Andy Stranack [email protected] 07816 123204 Councillors for Sanderstead Ward Cllr Lyn Hale [email protected] 0208 405 6721 Cllr Yvette Hopley [email protected] 0208 404 3462 Cllr Tim Pollard [email protected] 0208 251 8500 Full details of the roads falling within each of the Selsdon wards can be found on the home page of the SRA website http://selsdon-residents.co.uk 2 Please mention to advertisers where you saw their advert Editor's Note Welcome to the November edition of the Selsdon Gazette! As I write this, Croydon has just been classed as a Covid-19 high alert level area and subject to Tier 2 restrictions as the rates of new infections and hospital admissions have rapidly increased. We must all follow the new rules which are aimed at reducing our social contact to prevent the virus spreading in our community. Nevertheless, please remember to shop locally whenever possible to help our local shops and businesses through a very difficult time. These are challenging times and I would love to hear from you about how your lives have changed. Please consider writing an article for the December Gazette. This could be sharing your experiences of the pandemic or stories about the festive season, both past and present. Any contribution whether it is a recollection, poem or activity to try can be sent to me by email to ([email protected]). Our cover for the Gazette this month is a photo of a family I met one damp Saturday morning doing a fantastic job picking up litter along the Addington Road. They had volunteered as Street Champions with Croydon Council to improve the environment in our local area. They told me that they lived at Monk’s Hill and were members of Selsdon Baptist Church. Croydon has now signed up 510 volunteers as Street Champions doing a brilliant job for us throughout the Borough. If you are interested in joining get in contact with the team on [email protected] / 0208 726 6200 / 07825 103788. In this issue we have many articles about the great outdoors that, fortunately living in Selsdon, we can all enjoy. There is also a Christmas preparation theme with ‘Stir up Sunday’ on the horizon and our gardening feature looks at plants available in the Christmas period. I hope that you enjoy your read. Best wishes, keep safe and I do look forward to hearing from you! Chris Jones ∂ SUBMISSIONS FOR THE DECEMBER 2020 EDITION SHOULD BE WITH THE EDITOR NO LATER THAN 20TH NOVEMBER - PREFERABLY BEFORE! ∂ Advertising Space Available 3 SRA NEWS ‘n’ VIEWS Hawthorn Crescent We received amazing good news that the development by Brick by Brick on the green space in front of Hawthorn Crescent was refused due to the hard work of Andy Stranack and Ali Ball. This gives hope to other developments that residents object to. Purley Pool This is threatened with possible closure by Croydon Council and if anyone would like to object, they can do so at a non-political site as follows https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/croydon-council-please-re-open- purley-leisure-centre Gazette Finance Manager Our present Finance Manager is leaving her post at the end of December and we have placed an advert in this edition and posters around Selsdon but if anyone could help, we would love to hear from you. I or Linda are happy to answer any questions and our details are at the front of the Gazette. The Gazette Delivery team are always looking for volunteers so if anyone can help either on a regular basis or temporary to cover holidays (what are those?) or sickness please contact Wendy Mikiel whose details are on the back of the cover. Look forward to hearing from you. Post A number of residents have said they have missed postal deliveries so we contacted our MP, Chris Philp, and he sent us the response from the Post Office which just said it was all due to sickness and holidays but apologised for any inconvenience. Another consequence of Covid! Christmas Lights These should be shining brightly as you read this as we decided to have them switched on a little earlier this year to cheer us all up hopefully. To help raise funds you can order goods from several major retailers via https: easyfunding.org.uk/causes/selsdonchristmaslights Money is donated to the lights every time you shop at no cost to yourselves. Either download the app or use the site as your starting point. 4 Please mention to advertisers where you saw their advert BBC News The website has a very interesting article which I recommend you read about our borough. It reports that research carried out recently found that Croydon and Camden are in the top 20 places in England and Wales with the most tree cover. A third of the borough is covered in trees with tree lined streets and gardens helping to push up numbers. It said “60,80,100 years ago a lot of this area was open heathland and was managed and grazed”. Just proves what a lovely place we live in for outdoor spaces. Enjoy! Sheila Childs, SRA Chair ~~ COUNCILLORS’ NOTES SELSDON COMMUNITY PLAN There was another meeting of the Selsdon Community Plan Steering Group on 16th September. The Group is working towards the production of a Selsdon Plan which can be the basis of future investment in Selsdon. Work started on the plan last year and there was a consultation exercise in late 2019/early 2020. Over a thousand people were consulted through five community events and an online survey. They were asked what they liked about Selsdon, how they thought it could be improved and their priorities and ideas for the future. Based on this work, a set of ‘quick-win’ projects have been identified. The next step is to refine the draft plan, that has been developed by the Steering Group, by the end of the year. A follow up document, Part Two of the Selsdon Community Plan, will be developed focusing on longer term priorities and projects. We will include a link to Part One of the completed plan when it is finalised later this year. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the Selsdon Community Plan so far. We look forward to using this work to enable future investment in Selsdon. Advertising Space Available 5 59 HAWTHORN CRESCENT – SAVED FROM COUNCIL’S DEVELOPERS Cllr. Andy Stranack, Cllr. Stuart Millson and Ali Ball (Resident of Hawthorn Crescent) held a socially distant celebration on the green space at Hawthorn Crescent in September. This followed a famous victory at the planning committee on 24th September when plans to concrete over the precious green space were firmly rejected. This was the first time that an application by the Labour Council owned Brick by Brick property company has been rejected by the Labour controlled planning committee and represents a significant victory for residents and the local Councillors. Cllr. Andy Stranack said: - “This has been a tough fight to save this green space but it shows what can be achieved when we all work together. On Thursday night I thought Mr Ball’s speech outlining the impact the loss of green space would have on residents’ mental health was particularly powerful.” Cllr. Stuart Millson added: - “We now need to work with residents to make sure that this green space is preserved for future generations, 6 Please mention to advertisers where you saw their advert A J Taylor A J TaylorOn behalf of D J Taylor A & SonJ Taylor On behalf of D J Taylor & Son On behalf of D J Taylor & Son Local electricianLocal Electrician Local electrician Domestic and Commercial Domestic and Commercial Domestic and Commercial All works undertaken Rewires / Partial Rewires All works undertaken All Fuseworks undertakenBoard Changes