ANNOUNCEMENT

We held the Chafford Hundred Community Forum AGM on Monday 1 June 2015 which had a very low attendance.  We have noticed over the past couple of years, since the council removed all funding to forums apart from a small budget for administration, the interest in the Chafford Hundred Community Forum has declined to almost nothing.  Years ago we played such a pivotal role in bringing the community together as a whole and supporting local projects, groups and clubs.  We have also seen in recent years independent meetings happening more and more frequently, which at one time would have been part of the bi-monthly Community Forum meetings, such as Police/Neighbourhood Watch.  As a result, unless there is a major issue happening at the time where we can bring residents and guest speakers together, people no longer attend our meetings in the numbers they used to.

Since I took the position of Chair, my team and I have accomplished so much.  You will see planters across Chafford Hundred which are maintained by local residents.  We have built the new park on Rainbow Road – we the Forum took control of this land, we changed the use to “Leisure”, we personally applied for funding from a variety of sources, we organised clearing days for the land, we chose the equipment and oversaw its installation, and once finished we handed the park to the Council who will now maintain it.  At the time there was much negativity from a handful of residents which was disheartening as this project was an ongoing project by a group of volunteers.  We are proud of how the park looks today – it is great to see children playing here and that we saved this last piece of land from being built on.  We still have a couple of ongoing projects, including an all-weather table-tennis table which we aim to get installed this summer.

We have worked with residents on a variety of initiatives – ones that come to memory are the antisocial behaviour due to the Bar n Bus that used to park up by the Armada Centre – after so many complaints from residents and Tesco staff, the bus stopped coming here on a Friday night.  We also helped put a temporary weight restriction on Devonshire Road which was sadly removed. We funded various clubs and community groups, providing them with vital equipment that they needed.  Our Forum committee members used to attend monthly NAP Police meetings, Neighbourhood Watch meetings and TRUG meetings where we would take concerns of all Chafford residents and share feedback each way.   We would also represent Chafford Hundred at neighbouring Forum meetings to discuss wider issues that would concern us.  We also dealt with regular spats of antisocial behaviour and grafitti, ensuring the community worked together with the Police and the council to make Chafford a safer and more pleasant place to live for everyone.  We organised graffiti clean up days involving local residents and councillors and our local PCSOs.

We have decided to stand down from the Forum as we feel it has reached its natural end.  We wanted to thank all residents for their support over the years and also to our amazing councillors and local policing team who have attended every meeting.  Regular annual events such as laying a wreath for Rememberance Sunday and of course the New Years Family Disco will continue as normal.

Philomena, Jamie, Yvonne and John