Review of SKNPRA's year

It has been another active and engaged year for the Seven Kings & Newbury Park Resident’s Association.

We held two successful walkabouts this year. The first was in Newbury Park and resulted in a number of immediate repairs followed by a fuller inspection of the roads covered by the Council. The second walkabout was a community audit of Aldborough Road South carried out with the Fitter for Walking project run by Living Streets. This has resulted in a report which has been sent to Council officials and which will be discussed by the Area 5 & 7 Committees and Downshall Primary School. Some of the initiatives which are supported by or beginning as a result of this report include: St John’s community garden project; SKNPRA’s offer of a new bench at both the Aldborough Road South shops and Seven Kings Park; and the creation of an Art Trail involving the local churches.

Issues we have specifically raised this year have included: the path from Seven Kings Park to the Eastern Avenue (which is now complete); opening of the park toilets on Sundays; a range of streetscape issues (including graffiti, road signs, and potholes); the reopening of Downshall Avenue (which was unsuccessful); together with issues and ideas relating to the Crossrail Corridor Area Action Plan.

We have supported the establishment of the Friends of Seven Kings Park group and the St John’s Neighbourhood Watch through the active involvement of Resident’s Association members in these groups.

We have also supported community campaigns led by the Aldborough Hatch Defence Association, Oaks Lane residents, Seven Kings & Goodmayes Allotment Society, Take Action for Seven Kings and Vicarage Lane Play Park. The campaign for a new library in Seven Kings has been successful. It is hoped that the new library on the High Road will open in July and SKNPRA has contributed to the community group with which the Council has consulted in planning for the new library.

We have actively publicised SKNPRA through the production of new flyers and posters, leaflet drops, and a stall at the Our Community Festival. As a result, we have seen our membership grow.

Our thanks go to: Mark Kennedy, our Membership Secretary, for overseeing this expansion of the Association; Audrey Shorer, our Secretary, for ably recording our meetings and taking forward much of our work; and all committee members for their continuing support and input to the Association.

Our thoughts are particularly with Audrey at this time when the funeral of her husband Peter, who was Vice-Chair of the Association, is to be held here at St John’s tomorrow. We record now our appreciation of and thanks for the contribution that Peter made to the Association, for the engaged and unfailingly polite manner in which Peter’s contribution was made, and, perhaps most of all, for the friendship that we enjoyed with Peter. Our thoughts and prayers will continue to be with Audrey and her family in their loss.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Runrig - Protect And Survive.