Minutes 1st February 2005

Minutes of Meeting on 1 February 2005:

CRYSTAL PALACE & NORWOOD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
HELD AT 1ST FLOOR, LORENZO'S RESTAURANT, WESTOW HILL

1. Present
Honorary Chairman - James Slattery-Kavanagh - Quotes
Honorary Secretary - Lucy Smith - MyMatiz.com
Honorary Membership Secretary - Mary Kennedy - The Tanning Shop
Honorary Treasurer - Peter Runacres - Thornton Springer
Iain Sim - London Borough of Croydon
Norman Whaley - London Borough of Croydon
Sharon Parry Baldwin - Town Centre Manager
John Payne - Crystal Palace Community Association
Frank Lissimore - Amphlett Lissimore
Kevin Carleton-Reeves - Transport Consultant
Yemi Dada - Palace Estates
Dr L K Bandlish - Gipsy Hill Dental Surgery
Mervyn Hing - Silk Route Dry Cleaners
Kanex Kanagarajnam - Pizza Express

2. Apologies
Peter Austin - The Norwood Society
Dr Nigel G Harris - The Railway Consultancy
Terry Marks - 2 Bob Café

3. Minutes of previous meeting
The minutes were proposed by Kevin Carleton-Reeves and seconded by Mary Kennedy.

4. Matters arising
There were no matters arising.

5. Chairman's Review

The Chairman circulated a few items:
- A letter from Kelsey Park School, Beckenham inviting the Chamber members to an employer's day on the 16th March. They would like businesses to be involved on preparing pupils for work.
- Crystal Palace Indoor Bowling Club are celebrating their centenary. They intend to do a celebration from September onwards. They are inviting local businesses to take up sponsorship opportunities. The handbook they will produce will have a circulation of 4000+, and there will also be sponsoring opportunities at venues/matches.
- Brochure from Bromley commemorations for VE/VJ day 2005 - shows what's planned and scheduled.
- Crystal Palace sport's centre hosted an event to back the Olympic bid on the 26th January. The aim was to get local businesses involved and behind the bid but it was not clear how they wanted them to do this.
- Crystal Palace Foundation has circulated information on the Victorian weekend (2nd/3rd July). They will be moving the location down to Penge gate at the end of the park. The Chamber will attend and there will be an opportunity for businesses to promote themselves on the Chamber stall.

5.1 Membership and Finances
The AGM will be held in April. Peter Runacres said we have spent more than we have earnt but that there was still around £3000 in the bank. The membership has been bolstered over the last year. The membership fee will be reviewed at the AGM.

5.2 Christmas Party
21 people attended and a good time was had by all.

6. CCTV
Norman Whaley (Systems Officer, Croydon) came to speak at the meeting. The Chamber's concerns were that cars are receiving tickets by cameras which are supposed to be a crime deterrent. Norman emphasised that he has nothing to do with parking enforcements.

There are six cameras in Crystal Palace. All are pan, tilt and zoom cameras and are monitored 24/7. There is also a police radio in the control room. There is one problem with the camera in mid-Westow Street as the power keeps tripping. Mary Kennedy expressed concern that police officers at Gipsy Hill police station said they could not request CCTV information from Croydon after an incident that happened last year. Norman said he has advised the police that they retain the images for 28 days. They operated under Home Office guidelines. Each tape is only used 12 times to avoid degradation of quality. No tape has ever been rejected at court. Norman invited any member of the Chamber to the operating room.

Sharon Baldwin has already found out the contact for parking using cameras and that person (Ade Banjo) is happy to come and talk at a Chamber meeting. The Chamber felt that there was no publicity on the effectiveness of CCTV in the area. Sharon said there was a plan to link in the radio scheme and then there will be big publicity.

There are three CRAC radio systems: Croydon town centre has been running for 8 years, there is a system in Norbury and there is one ready to go for Crystal Palace. It will be good for information sharing, it will start swinging cameras round to cover a situation if you are in the area of a camera, there is a panic device in the radio which sends an alarm to the operations room at Taberner House. If no response comes from the business the police are informed. The radio system does not replace 999, but it compliments the CCTV system.

There is only one radio at the moment which is in the library. The costs are £338 (inc. VAT) this also includes a guarantee if they go wrong. If the radio is dropped, broken or stolen there would be a charge. For more details contact Norman Whalley on 020 8760 5768 ext. 61987. Sharon and Alex Marshall plan to go round the triangle next week to make local businesses aware of the radio scheme.

7. Westow Street/Hill Junction

There was a meeting to discuss parking restrictions with Lambeth. Lambeth council has said the Chamber should speak to Croydon. The Chair welcomed Iain Simm to the meeting. The extracts of the minutes of a Traffic Management meeting held on the 8th January 2005 were circulated. There will be a build out on the corner of Central Hill/Gipsy Hill. They will look at the red stage to assist pedestrian movement on Westow Hill/Street. The on-street parking will be examined particularly in relation to lunchtime provision. The Chair expressed disappointment that there was no mention of the Chamber's proposal in the minutes of the meeting. This proposal does not propose a full red stage. 87% of traders want a safer way to cross this junction.

Iain said Croydon can't do the amendments alone and have put the proposals to Lambeth and have had a response back which talks about reintroduction of the banned turns. Croydon says the modelling points to delays if the turns are reintroduced, especially on Central Hill. He is trying to get Lambeth to agree to rephrasing the timings to give the equivalent of the red phase. Iain said the Chamber proposal was given careful consideration but it was not going to be taken further. Lambeth are also pro the un-banning of the turns because their residents are complaining about rat running but Croydon says pedestrian safety higher on their list than rat running. Closing Jasper Road is also not something Iain will be progressing without traffic phasing changes and consultation with Lambeth. Lambeth were against it because it would increase rat running. The one way system hasn't been in place three years yet, and Iain said that so far there have been improvements in collisions and personal injury. Some members of the Chamber questioned the validity of the statistics produced by Croydon on the effectiveness of the one way system.

Sharon Baldwin agreed to feedback information on the one way system to the Chamber over the coming months.

8. Any Other Business
8.1 Flooding around the triangle - Councillor Pat Ryan has asked for this to be looked at
8.2 Recycling bins - many people are objecting to the bins because of the conservation area. There should be alternatives that would be appropriate places for bins.
8.3 Digging up of pavements - contractors are removing paving slabs. There should be coordination between utilities companies. There has also been fly tipping in the areas.

Date of next meeting: Tuesday 1 March 2005 at 7pm, Lorenzo's Restaurant (First Tuesday in the Month)