Again apologies for the long silence. At the AGM on the 21st Feb the Board Chair Mike D’Souza and Vice Chair and Secretary Jill Preston were unanimously re-elected. Our Treasurer reported that the finances for last year were healthy.

The Chair gave our annual awards for service to the Community to Liz Bishop and Tom Bremner.

A quick reminder that our One Norbiton AGM is scheduled for 7.00 pm on 21st February in small Piper Hall. It will not be a long meeting and hopefully a reasonable number of members will attend. Apart from election of officers, Accounts etc the main business will be to hear your views on the future direction of our organisation. To refresh your memory these are our Terms of Reference, Code of Conduct and Draft Constitution. Hopefully we’ll be able to finally approve the latter draft constitution at a subsequent meeting. The rest of the paperwork will be on-line shortly.

We are going to hold our AGM on Thursday 21st February in Piper Hall. The doors will open at 6.30 and meeting is scheduled to start at 7.00pm.

The purpose is to elect Officers and Directors and to update the community on local activity. If you would like to contribute please come and join us. If you would like an item on the agenda please email sat [email protected].

As we begin the New Year, Achieving for Children are starting up a much needed new Youth Club on the CRE. This will be free and held every Tuesday between 6.00 and 8.00 in the One Norbiton run Piper Hall. If you know any families who may be interested let them see this advert.

         One Norbiton would like to wish our 10,000 members a very happy Christmas. 

         Despite the divisions and uncertainties in the National arena, locally, we have had a very good year. We are now working in harmony with our new Council and their Officers. Our 2011 mission to promote Localism is now not only surviving, but at last  prospering. 

          Kingston has always been a very liberal and generous place and as Kingstonians, we continue to show willingness to care for our neighbours, irrespective of political, cultural, religious and other differences.

One Norbiton has reflected this and worked constructively with the two other local representative groups CREst and CRERA. Our joint aim to ensure that all of our members who may be affected by Regeneration will be properly informed in time for next year’s ballot.

           Our 2018 priority has been to help the most disadvantaged in our Ward. To this end, we have supported CREst’s Tuesday Group in providing hot meals and Community Support for over 50 of our Homeless and needy every week. 

         Now, with the support of the Council,  we are in the process of setting up a Community Pantry next door to our Hub on Madingley Green, where we distribute Food Bank vouchers and run our branch of the Boom Credit Union.

From the beginning of January we will be piloting the Community management of Queen Mary’s and Piper Halls. During 2019 we hope to see Boxing and other youth clubs set up and hope to foster more Localism via organising Post Code (Street) Parties. Any reader interested in helping, particularly with the latter, should contact us.

Best wishes for 2019

PLEASE HELP US TO WIN SOME FUNDING TO HELP OUR COMMUNITY

“One Norbiton hopes you’ll be kind enough to give us your ten votes to win an Aviva Community Grant. These funds will be used to hold localised events to promote the idea of ‘Community’.

As you will have heard, our Cambridge Road Estate is among the 10% most disadvantaged in the UK and may shortly be facing Regeneration. We are anxious to increase neighbourliness to help reduce loneliness and isolation during these uncertain times.

NB: For One Norbiton to be in with a chance of winning all votes have to be in within the next few weeks and so it would be great if you could forward this to any family and friends who may be willing to help as well.

To vote click this link

CREATING MORE REAL COMMUNITIES IN NORBITON

Thanks a lot

Dr Mike D’Souza
Chair of One Norbiton

On Wednesday the 4th of October the three Chairs of CRERA, CREst and One Norbiton individually invited all CRE residents to a meeting in Piper Hall to discuss the new Council’s decision to hold a Ballot on regenerating their Estate.
Holding a ballot is apparently not compulsory because Kingston has already received its donation towards Social Housing from former Mayor,Boris Johnston. However the fact that they are going to do so is very welcome because this Regeneration Project is likely to cost over a billion pounds and take ten to fifteen years to complete. it Therefore it would be foolhardy to proceed if it does not have the backing of the residents as well as the support of all political parties who could possibly be in power in the next decade or so.
The ballot itself, will not be taking place until the Autumn of 2019 when a Masterplan worked out with RBK’s (still to be chosen) development partner is ready to be shown to the Residents for their acceptance or rejection. The purpose of this meeting was to explain the Mayor’s current guidance on how such ballots should be held and to find out how much our residents agreed with his suggested process.
There were over seventy attendees including Cllr Emily Davey (Portfolio holder for Housing) Cllr Olly Wehring Council officers and the Three Chairs. The proceedings were very ably led by Tom Brennan who gave a Presentation Interesting the current estimate of the numbers that may be balloted is 705.
Following Tom’s formal presentation, all participated in a workshop to raise questions and issues that the residents had with these arrangements. These will be further discussed at a follow-up meeting on the 17th of October.

Last Saturday’s Fun Day organised by Jill Preston, Chair of CREst, was a great success. More people attended than last year and for a change the weather was kind. The Barbecue was well cooked by our new Councillor David Ryder-Mills and our MP Sir Edward Davey attended. The Donkeys and the funfair rides made a lot small children happy as did the excellent face painting by Hayley.
One Norbiton is continuing to support these Fun Days and we hope to start promoting other social events in the Ward such as Post Code Parties. Any one interested in helping with these activities can contact Jill Preston.

One Norbiton News Update

So much has been happening that we have not had time to update this website till now.
The fiercely hot weather and recent tragic murder have caused general stress but our optimism about developing a useful collaborative relationship with RBK remains undimmed.
We are now in active discussions on how we might pilot the Community management of the Halls on CRE and Cambridge Gardens.
Our joint working with CRERA and CRESt under the “Three Chairs” banner continues to enable us to represent the interests of all our members both on and off the Estates, particularly in respect of Regeneration.
Our work with CREst to assist those who are homeless and have mental health problems in Norbiton continues and we are are providing meals and support to about fifty every Tuesday from 12.00 to 15.00 in Piper Hall.
Out of this has come the initiative to set up a Community Pantry and RBK has generously just opened up the unused room next to our Madingley Hub for this purpose.
The next major event on the horizon is CREst’s Fun Day on September 8th

One Norbiton would like to congratulate our three new Councillors on their recent election. One of our own Directors, David Ryder-Mills was elected as was Emily Davey, our MP’s wife and Olly Wehring. They have all helped us with our mission to improve quality of life in Norbiton. As many of you know it has always been our hope to be able to collaborate with our Council in addressing the many problems experienced by our members who number all those who live, work and study in Norbiton.

We wish the new Council, now led by Cllr Liz Green, all the very best in coping with the many difficult tasks they have ahead of them.