NEW MALDEN RESIDENTS' ASSOCIATION

OUR AGM

The cold and wet certainly deterred a few people from attending our 10th AGM on 20th November. However it did not dampen the flow
of ideas stimulated by our speaker Robin Hutchinson, Director of Community Brain. Time to think out of the box as he has done in the
communities of Surbiton and Tolworth. He has been successful in harnessing involvement to foster ownership of projects.
If we are to find new ways to use our town and develop a togetherness in our community,  this should also be our guideline.

A slight shuffling of officers and three new committee members presents a team eager to achieve, but we need your input to prioritise
what matters to you, please let us know.

Meeting our members at the AGM is always a fruitful experience as is taking new and renewing subscriptions - forgive the nudge but
numbers are important when representing residents at meetings, with developers and our Council. Continuing the nudge, you are able to
join or renew HERE. We are aiming to revamp our website and should like to know how we could make it not only appealing but useful,
so please let us know.

A fuller report of the AGM will follow when the Committee have met in the New Year and using your feedback, make plans for 2019.

We wish you all a peaceful Christmas and a healthy and happy New Year.

URGENTLY NEEDED FOOD ITEMS

WE STILL NEED SOME

 Local Collection Points....HERE

TREE PLANTING AT KINGSTON ROAD - RECREATION GROUND

Well they say the sun shines on the righteous, but certainly on Sunday 2nd December, the rain disappeared and the sun did indeed shine on the tree planting.   With an input from residents, the Kingston Environment Centre, the New Malden Residents’ Association, the GoodGym people (a group of runners who run to a Community event to give a hand among many other things they do – amazing) and many children, a hedge of 50 or so bushes, went into the ground to provide, what we all hope, will be a variety of shrubs for the enjoyment of visitors to the Grounds, and the benefit of wildlife.

The growing band of enthusiastic supporters for the work being carried out on the Recreation Ground by local residents can be seen on days like this.   This is really just the start of improvements to the Ground, but with the input of a number of organisations such as Manor Park, Mencap, Cambridge Road Estate, our Association and the Kingston Environment Centre, not to mention Councillors and Council Officers, the Recreation  Ground can be brought back to what it should be, a space to be used and enjoyed by all in the Community.

Another enjoyable outing.... all the pictures HERE

On 9^th October NMRA organised and hosted a panel discussion on a vision for New Malden. It consisted of Cllr Malcolm Self, portfolio holder for planning policy, Cllr Nicola Sheppard, opposition spokesperson for housing, and two speakers on public involvement in planning: local resident Peter Karpinski who is pursuing the creation of an Urban Room, a venue where development schemes can be presented and debated, and Jean Vidler of the Kingston Environment Centre, who has participated in the consultation on the Tolworth Plan. In the audience were several other councillors and ex-councillors, and Robin Hutchinson, creator of the Community Brain and ShedX and well-known social entrepreneur.

Questions from our membership centred on development in New Malden, and we were pleased to hear that the SPD (outline planning document) for Cocks Crescent drawn up by the Conservatives will be adopted to avoid more time being wasted, and that we are likely to get a new leisure centre. We must keep reminding councillors that both the pool and adult education serve much of RBK, not just NM, so there should be investment from the rest of the borough, not just from profits from a joint development on Cocks Crescent.

A year ago at our AGM we asked Ed Davey MP for an Area Plan for New Malden. He doubted that we would see one before the local elections, but these have now taken place and the Lib Dems are in power. A Local Plan for the whole of RBK is now in prospect so we will not get an Area Plan, but we want NM to get the same level of detailed attention that Tolworth has had. We don’t want to end up as a dormitory of tower blocks. NMRA will also be pursuing discussions about the High Street (having had rather muted responses from the councillors on our panel). Councillors in Doncaster, surrounded by Amazon warehouses and much more deprived than NM, are working with local people to turn the centre of town into a ‘noisy, very human-focused place for socialising and collective experience’. If Donny can manage it, why not New Malden?