Minutes 2012/07/19

Thursday 19 July 2012, 7-8pm

Thanks so much to Deborah for hosting, for her delicious chocolate cake with the mystery ingredient, and to everyone who was able to attend.

Here is what I think we decided (not necessarily in the order we decided them). If I've misremembered anything please let me know and I'll change it.

1. We decided to call ourselves the Cantwell Road Association

2. We organised a door to door canvas to do (I think) in the next couple of weeks if possible

Odd numbers

1 - 17 Dora (and Jane C?)

19 - 21 Katie

23 - 47 Geoff and Pauline

Even numbers

Cantwell House Alan (if that's OK Alan)

2 - 22 Siân

24 - 26 Geoff

28 - 48 Sarah

50 - 78 and the wiggly bit that joins with Brent Road! Robin, Deborah and Jude

Geoff will contact the local neighbourhood police team to see if we can get some leaflets to take round. I'll let you know as soon as I get a reply. [There are no official leaflets apparently. I'll circulate a possible flyer we could use]

We agreed that we would collect House number, Name of person, If the person would join or is supportive, email address (if they have one), mobile number (optional and for use for emergency texts), any other relevant information and then collect it using this form

I attach a paper form you can use when you're going round if you find it helpful.

If you have a chance to go back and revisit people who aren't in that would be great otherwise email me the numbers you haven't got a response from. Similarly if there are numbers you don't want to visit, let me know. We'll organise any necessary follow up.

3. We thought it a good idea to organise a launch event, probably in early September. We'll discuss this once we've done most of the canvas in a couple of weeks with whoever is around and share the suggestions via email with those who are sunning themselves on a beach somewhere. The Shooters Hill Neighbourhood Watch at the top of the hill have offered to help if requested.

4. We talked about various ways of keeping in touch

We've agreed that email will be our main way of keeping in touch though we'll print things off for people without email. Other local groups seem to have a newsletter about once every two months which we can mainly distribute via email.

Geoff will create a website. The url cantwellroad.org is available so he'll buy this. It's about £8 per year [Update: url bought, website started]

Although we could see advantages in using Facebook and Twitter we decided we needed to see if enough people wanted it before using this

We could see that in an emergency the ability to text people would be really useful. Sarah thought that WhatsApp could do this.

5. Other things the association could do

A number of incidents of crime were shared.

Foxes. The children were concerned about the condition of some of the local foxes

Wood on the corner of Cantwell and Eglinton Hill. The children wanted to clean it up and use it. They are going to put together a case with pictures, text and photos. We will try to put it onto the website and we will see if we can get our ward councillors' support to take this forward.

Dog mess. The children created an A3 poster. We'll see if we can get it laminated and put up, maybe with some plastic bags, in the worst stretch for fouling.

Trees in the garden on the corner of Brent and Cantwell. Several people feared these were unsafe. I guess an email, a letter or phone call from the Association to the Council would be helpful. I'll try to do that tomorrow. [Update: Emailed council on 20th. Awaiting reply]

People mentioned a range of things that certain people in the street might be interested in doing together: book clubs (there are some apparently), wine tasting, kids activities, getting reductions at events by booking as a group, helping with the upkeep of the garden on the corner of Cantwell and Brent. It will be easier to explore these once we have a website and an emailing list.

6. Costs. If we use email rather than printing things we won't have great costs. People felt we could charge a small annual fee e.g. £1 or have a fund-raising event from time to time.

7. Signs. Once we join the Greenwich Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association we get two signs for lampposts free. We can buy extra ones for £2.50 each. I will find out how to get house stickers for those who would like them.