Annual General Meeting

The Village Association will be holding its AGM at 7.30pm on October 26th 2016 at the Linden Office building.

Formal notices, agenda and voting papers will be sent to all members of the VA around the end of September.

Gardening Contract Re-tender

One matter that will be a key vote which will be put to members at the AGM in October will be on the new 3 year gardening contract at the Village.

The re-tender process has been ongoing for the last few months and a position has now been reached whereby 2 potential contractors remain. These are Acacia, the current gardeners at the Village, and ProGround who are a gardening company based in Edenbridge.

More detailed information on this will be made available in the pack of information residents receive prior to the AGM.

Warden Survey

Overall 65 households responded to the recent Warden Survey and of these 89% are home owners in the Village. The key findings were as follows:

- 75% of respondents agree the warden service makes the Village a safer and better place to live.

- 78% agree that the warden’s hours are OK and 94% feel that the wardens should handle breaches to the Village Code ( see below )

- 97% agree that on-foot patrols should be an essential part of the warden’s job and 77% think the wardens should carry out litter patrols at weekends and do odd jobs where possible.

- 72% do not want patrols by an outside security firm instead of a warden service.

- Nearly 90% of respondents think a good warden service is important for the future of Caterham Village and that the service needs to have a greater presence around the Village than currently.

We are now redrafting the job description for the warden service in light of the survey results and are about to begin the selection process to find the next contractor.

IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN PROVIDING A WARDEN SERVICE AT THE VILLAGE THEN PLEASE EMAIL office@thevillageassociation.org

The Village Code

As part of the recent Warden Survey for all residents we reintroduced the Village Code which has been in existence since the Village started. It seems like a good moment to highlight it again in this Newsletter:

• Undue noise and nuisance is not acceptable.

• Dogs to be kept on a lead at all times, any dog fouling must be removed immediately and placed in the appropriate bins.

• Do not litter. Please put all litter in the bins provided.

• Garden waste etc. should be taken to the Chaldon Rd recycling centre, unless you subscribe to the Green Waste scheme.

• Rubbish bins and bags not to be left on street other than collection day and stored sensibly at all other times.

• Graffiti and other acts of vandalism causing damage are not permitted.

• Please drive responsibly, children are playing around the Village.

• Please park responsibly, particularly at junctions and on pavements.

• Visitor parking bays not to be used for more than 48 hours continuously.

• The Village Association reserves the right to move on individuals or groups whose behaviour undermines or challenges the ability of legitimate users to use the area.

• In the communal areas if requested by the Wardens you must follow their instructions.

The Village Association reserves the right to move on individuals or groups whose behaviour undermines or challenges the ability of legitimate users to use the area. In the communal areas if requested by the Wardens you must follow their instructions.

CBCT Update

We still await the transfer of the lease of the children’s playground from CBCT to the local Parish Council. We hope this will happen very soon and once completed the VA will arrange for the transfer of withheld CBCT monies to the Parish Council to help fund the new equipment. £1500 pa is now being deducted from ongoing CBCT monies via the Village Assoc. in respect of the various annual safety inspections that need to be completed on the playground.

We understand that the cricket pavilion refurbishment has been completed and now await its sign off by Linden along with an update on the Japanese Knotweed treatment on the rifle range which CBCT undertook to do.

We continue to press CBCT for a meeting but have been unsuccessful as yet with our requests, we remain committed to pursuing an ongoing relationship with them. When we do meet we will be discussing the event at the Arc on the night of 16th/17th July which created disturbances beyond 2am as well as their continuing maintenance obligations to residents.

Maintenance Issues

Following the terrible storms and floods in June we checked and cleared the Village Assoc. drains as necessary. Rather than wait we also agreed to clear the council drains at the low point of the site, around Grenadier Place, which were also blocked. The council drains in all other adopted roads we are advised are OK so no further VA money was spent on what is effectively Surrey County Council’s responsibility.

We felt this was a prudent course of action, to do what we could to limit the most “at risk” properties’ exposure to drains being overwhelmed. Please note that all drains on your property are your responsibility. Repair works now almost complete to fix the damaged areas in the middle of Brigade Place.

Sports & Social Committee

A Social Committee has now been formed consisting of 5 resident volunteers. Lots of ideas were discussed at our recent meeting and we have decided that our first aim will be to hold a Christmas event, this has to be self - funding and we are investigating various possibilities. Watch this space!

Better still email us at office@thevillageassociation.org with any suggestions.

Future Communication

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