Our aim is to help residents in West Coulsdon, and make Coulsdon a great place to live.
We work in coordination with our sister RAs, as well as other local groups which share common interests, such as Friends of Rickman Hill Park.
To achieve our aims we need more general members as well as volunteers to join or assist the Committee.
We are stronger together.
We have invested in some hi-visibility vests, gloves, litter pickers and bag hoops. This will enable us to run some litter picking events around Coulsdon without being
reliant on the Council to provide their equipment on the day.
Contact us via the Info@ email address if you would like to organise your own community litter pick.
Aldi have managed to get rid of the original planning permission condition that required their car park to be available for all of Coulsdon - not just for Aldi shoppers.
Thank you, Croydon Council!
Our understanding of the new regime is this: so-called 'intelligent' automated number plate recognition cameras capture your vehicle number plate on entering the car park.
On finishing their shopping, users of the car park are required to use one of the terminals inside Aldi to enter their car number (or part of it). This is then matched against a list (generated by the entry cameras), and you confirm your car number.
These terminals are situated beyond the checkouts, on the packing area shelf, and if you leave without having 'confirmed' that you have been inside Aldi in this way, you will probably get a ticket through the post.
There doesn't seem to be any check that you have purchased anything in Aldi, but new signage in the car park does state that the car park is for Aldi customers only.
Other parking
This letter was received by CWRA in July. It is reproduced here without modification, together with the attachment.
From: [email protected]
To:
Dear Resident Association [sic]
I am writing to let you know that from tomorrow, Tuesday 23 July 2024, we will be switching off the pay & display machines in local and district centres where we have free 1-hour machines. The machines in central Croydon are already switched off.
The attached letter gives further details.
click here (opens in new page).
In addition, the charges for parking permits and on-street parking changed from Tuesday 16 July 2024 to make parking fairer, simpler, and more consistent for residents and visitors.
The council’s new parking charges offer a balanced approach for parking, taking into consideration all vehicle types, while still recognising the environmental impacts of vehicles, and retains the emission-based parking charges for on-street parking. With the changing vehicle fleet since 2019, the uptake of electric vehicles has increased and as such the council has reviewed the discount offer for this vehicle type.
The discount offer now more fairly reflects the vehicles parking on the borough’s streets, while not penalising less efficient vehicles that are often used by those that are less likely to be able to upgrade their vehicle.
The new policy will see shoppers benefit from one hour’s free parking at district and local centres. The maximum stay has increased to two hours, with reduced fees for the second hour, encouraging residents to enjoy more time at their local shops. The no return period at all on-street parking spaces will be standardised to two hours.
Regards
Jayne Rusbatch
Head of Highways and Parking
What it fails to mention, is that there is no grace period to get signed in or find a Pay Point shop.
Even half or one hour free parking will need an 'electronic registering', so pay careful attention to notices.
PayPoint outlets can be looked up via this website: https://consumer.paypoint.com/
Or click this link (opens in new page).
As of 1st October 2024, these are the three PayPoint outlets in Coulsdon Town:
Two are in the town centre (almost opposite each other):
Best Save Food & Wine: 214 Brighton Road, CR5 2NF
Near Pets Galore, next to footpath 52c.
Thirsty Work Food and Wine: 175 Brighton Road,CR5 2NH
Between Los Arcos and Coulsdon Autos.
And this one towards Banstead, half a mile from Aldi
Esso Coulsdon: 189-191 Chipstead Valley Road, CR5 3BR
(Formerly the Murco garage).
At our AGM in July, 2024, Victoria Kleanthous gave a presentation about the work of Greenspace Information for Greater London, GiGL, which coordinates and collates information about wildlife sightings in and around the capital.
You might well have seen something rare or threatened... but how do you find out?
There is a list of 'priority species' for London, accessible
via this link. It can sometimes take a while to load!
It indicates the status of birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals, as well as other fauna and flora.
You can contribute to the record books by reporting your sighting to GiGL
via this link
Sightings of any wildlife can be submitted, and these will feed into creating a more complete and
accurate picture of our environment.
Slow worms, common toads, bats and cuckoos, all feature in the priority list; if found near new developments, they require special treatment, and so sightings of such creatures are more important.
GiGL have provided an article about Coulsdon sightings that they hold, and the text and graphs are published in the Summer 2024 newsletter, but the article with all its internet links is available
here.
See the GiGL presentation at our AGM this July:
see the AGM page here.
The Winter 2024 Newsletter is now available, and is being distributed to members at the beginning of December.
The newsletter is available here (opens in new page).
All previous issues are available in digital form on the newsletter page, here
Admiral Minicabs,
Auto Fix,
Coulsdon Auto parts and accesories.
des res blinds,
Express Copy,
Pristine Moments oven cleaning,
Puzzle Kitchens.
If you do use the services of any of our advertisers, please let them know that you saw their ad in the CWRA newsletter!
Members who have not received any newsletters, please contact us!
Help spread the Word!
We only have around 300 members - so there is 'room for improvement'!
We desperately need new road stewards, to get to know all of their neighbours, and to encourage them to sign up and join CWRA, whilst thrusting a newsletter at them!
We also need more members and committee members... and, if you would like to help without the formality of being on the committee, please let us know.
Any ideas on how to achieve this, or assistance in delivering newsletters, would be most welcome.
Planning
Sadly, the Council's planning department is in disarray: no attempt is made to verify that the building matches the plans that were submitted.
There is effectively no enforcement being undertaken at all.
If you are affected by nearby developments which aren't following the approved plans (or don't have permission at all), then I suggest writing to Jason Perry directly.
For details of recent planning decisions that CWRA has been asked to object to, and for advice on how to write objections,
including the new advice on wording ecology-based objections
see the Planning page here.
Our MP, Chris Philp.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.
Our Greater London Assembly Member, Neil Garratt
The Executive Mayor of Croydon, Jason Perry.
Our local councillors: Luke Shortland, Mario Creatura, Ian Parker.
Croydon Council's planning department.
Council officers.
Decision makers in the NHS.
The London Green Belt Council.
Transport For London (TFL).
The East Surrey Transport Committee.
The Safer Neighbourhoods Team.
GDPR: We encourage all members who don't remember sending us a consent form
to read the statement here and send us a new consent form.
The email links below do not always work, depending on the configuration of your own email system.
In that case, just copy the highlighted email address without the spaces into your email software.
To contact us about general enquiries:
To ask about membership details:
Visitors: