With the current complete lock-down because of the Corona Virus I’ve plenty of time to update our website. Such a lot has been happening .
The One Norbiton AGM
This went ahead on 12th of March as planned and all current officers were re-elected.
The CREst/ One Norbiton Tuesday Club
This has continued to prosper largely thanks to Jill and her Team (See picture below).plus Joseph Asghar not in the picture.
Throughout this year this team have continued to provide about 50 hot meals every week for Norbiton’s needy and Homeless. This was all helped by a grant from “Love Kingston” and donations by the customers of Sainsbury’s Sury Basin, “City Harvest” and “Save the World”. This voluntary service is now in its third year of operation and to date over 2500 meals have been served to over 500 different visitors. (We’ll be publishing a fuller report on this website soon but click here for a summary of who have been attending).
In addition, we hand out Food Bank vouchers and clothing and occasionally bedding etc. We try our best to collaborate with other agencies such as Wellbeing, Spear, KCAH, and the local churchs who are doing similar work. Sadly, newcomers are still arriving nearly every week. Helping this group of Norbitonians remains one of our priorities and we expect to be doing this for some time.
One Norbiton Pantry
Since RBK confirmed our short-term lease of the Community Hub (Shop) at a peppercorn rental we have used our own pre-existing grant resources to reconfigure and refurbished it. Furthermore, Lix Bishop and her RBK Team have helped us re-commission the adjoining room to the Hub as a Community Pantry (this contained only old domestic cookers rescued from the Madingley fire). This previously underused public space has now become a valuable resource for storing food for the Tuesday Group meals and for use as an emergency Food Bank etc. This could also be real value in the present crisis.
Administration of the Community Halls
As many of you may know, on 1st if Jan 2019 we accepted a two-year contract to test whether our Community Group could do a better and more economic job of administering Queen Mary and Piper Halls than RBK as well as possibly generate savings for a “Community Chest”. A review of 2019 reveals that so far this has been a big success both in terms of increasing the use of the halls by local residents, maintaining Hall user satisfaction and reducing RBK’s Staffing costs.At a conservative estimate our 2019’s earnings were over £30,000 delivering an 80% rise or an extra £13,500 to RBK Housing’s account and they have agreed to continue funding us at 20k p.a.
Regeneration approved by CRE Residents
Over 76% of the CRE residents have now voted in favour of regeneration. Hopefully the current pandemic will not greatly delay building work starting.
