How To Get Involved Representing Your Estate

On Thursday 20th February had a general meeting on How To Get Involved Representing Your Estate. Here’s what happened.

Present:

Chevon Edwards – St Martins Community Centre – StMartinsCCEvents@gmail.com
Shefali Khan – MTVH – shefali.khan@mtvh.co.uk
Grace English – High Trees CDT – hello@high-trees.org
Terry Curtis – Chair
Chris Blake – Minutes – StMartinsResidentsLambeth@gmail.com
Cllr Saleha Jaffer – sjaffer@lambeth.gov.uk
Jackie Crawford – Gardening – stmartinscommunitygarden@gmail.com
Eight other residents

Community Investment Activity

Shefali Khan is a community coordinator and deals with issues that affects many households. For 1:1 support please contact:

anoushka.ritchie@mtvh.co.uk the resident support manager
rachael.mensah@mtvh.co.uk, the housing officer.

The three housing associations organised an annual fair in 2023 and a winter fair in 2024.

The priority now is supporting young people and older residents living at home and not getting out.. No details yet but a survey should be coming out soon.

To get more involved please email shefali.khan@mtvh.co.uk

[Update: Southern Housing is planning a mural painting session behind Baldwin House. It runs between 14th and 17th April from 11am to 4pm. Details here. This wasn’t mentioned at the meeting but is a similar idea]

Comments from residents:

Cllr Saleha said there is a tender process for Yellow Qube on Christchurch Road to find out who would be best to run it as a youth club. She will forward details on tender process when she has them
Alex is setting up a community events group. If anyone would like to help please contact her on StMartinsResidentsLambeth@gmail.com

High Trees Community Development Trust

Grace said High Trees CDT have been on the estate for over 25 years. Their services include

Deliver adult education courses.
Free internet cafe.
Tulse Hill Adventure Playground for young people ages 8 – 16. This is on Greenleaf Close SW2 2EY and it open Monday to Thursday from 3:30pm to 7pm

The community action team and moving away from community organising and doing more to support community events. For example, they may be able to help advertise our Annual General Meeting

To get more involved please email hello@high-trees.org

Comments from residents:

Craig said he didn’t see any communications from High Trees CDT. Grace said people should find out about services then tell other people. [Minute takers note, you can join the relevant mailing lists by emailing hello@high-trees.org]
Stephen said we need courses to give people practical skills (for example, applying for benefits)

St Martins Community Centre

The St Martins Community Centre on Abbots Park are organising the following events

A stay and play on Monday (starts end of March, details here)
Social time for over 60s every Monday
St Martins Shed every Tuesday 1pm to 4pm
Exercise class for over 60s Mondays 12 to 1pm
Food bank every Friday

There is also a food bank on Friday and they are also working on upcycling children’s toys

To get more involved please email StMartinsCCEvents@gmail.com

Comments from residents:

Chris will give Chevon Rita Forrest’s details. Rita runs a nursery on the estate and would be interested in the program about upcycling children’s toys
Cllr Saleha will ensure Lambeth Food Bank liaises with Chevon

Gardening

The gardening team has

Vegetables plots in Challice Way
An orchard next to the fenced off sports area, near Kynaston House
A community garden in Abbots Park
They also maintain Huggins Corner (at the junction of Roupell Road and the South Circular). They’ve planted bulbs there and it should be a blaze of colour in a few months
Community Composting in Challice Way. This creates compost for the community garden

Constitutional Amendments – Equalities Officer

Proposal to replace: “The Committee will be made up of the following members; Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and nine other members” with “The Committee will be made up of the following members; Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Equalities Officer and eight other members”. Proposed by Peter Hurst. Passed unanimously

This meant there was a vacancy for an equalities officer. Cllr Saleha Jaffer was elected unopposed. Here is her opening statement.

Constitutional Amendment – Quorum

Proposal to replace “No General, Special General or Annual General Meeting shall take place if less than six members are present” with “QUORUM No General, Special General or Annual General Meeting shall take place if less than thirteen members are present (1% of the estate community)“. Proposed by St Martins RA Committee

There were nine votes in favour and three abstentions (including the chair’s abstention). The amendment passed

Here is our new constitution

Any Other Business

Alex’s group is trying to collate all events on the estate. Abdul will help. If anyone else wants to help please email StMartinsResidentsLambeth@gmail.com

Abdul led a discussion on how to increase attendance at meetings. Agreed to call other residents to remind them of meetings was important. Abdul can help with this. If anyone else can help please email StMartinsResidentsLambeth@gmail.com

ENDS

(Note: The picture shows our Annual General Meeting, not this meeting)