AGM Update
Apologies for the delay in reporting back about the AGM. The AGM was well attended with around 50 residents in attendance. There is a great article that was written by a member of our committee Neil Littman summarising the meeting that can be seen on the Enfield Dispatch website. Please take a look at this to get a good understanding of what was discussed.
Please take a look here: https://enfielddispatch.co.uk/discussing-the-big-issues-in-winchmore-hill-2/
In summary (minutes to be provided shortly) there were the usual nomination elections and all current committee members and officers were elected unopposed. The accounts were available and briefly discussed. You can see the audited pdf copy of the accounts by clicking here.
A big thank you to Paul at Mostons who are the accountants on the Green for very kindly auditing our accounts. Please support local businesses and if you have any accounting, payroll or bookkeeping requirements please get in touch with him.
The key issues over the last year that are still ongoing are +355 Cafe and their licensing situation, the Grovelands Park Cafe and the Green.
+355 Cafe
In terms of the +355 Cafe, their licence was awarded as you will probably know despite over 50 objections, they put out tables and chairs without a licence and were told they couldn’t do so, then applied for a pavement licence that was refused. They had at the time of the AGM applied again for a pavement licence from 8am to 11pm, we have since learned that this application has been refused with over 20 objections coming from residents.
As an added note on this the Cafe will at some point (not clear on the deadlines for this) have to apply for full permission to become a “bar”. This is because they were required to only serve alcohol when accompanied by food, they were seen to be serving alcohol without food and therefore were in breach. We will let you know when this planning application is made.
Groveland’s Park Cafe
There seems to have very little action on this since February when the tree fell on the cafe. We understand there have been a couple of surveys done but the delays have caused more damage and allowed vandalism to occur increasing the cost of any repairs. We were informed by Lee Chamberlain at the meeting there was some movement on this the week of the AGM. We need to liase with Lee to get an update three weeks on from the AGM and we will be pushing hard with Lee to get the council to outline their plans. We will keep you updated with any news on this.
The Green
There has been no contact with Enfield about plans for the Green. It appears they will not be releasing information from the consultation on the basis the project does not have funding and therefore they will not consider looking at any element of it until it does get funding. We are hopeful that we can push for some funding in the next financial year. We are looking at whether the bins put out by Going Greek should be allowed to stay. They solve the issue of foxes ripping the rubbish bins and spreading rubbish but we feel these should be brought into the business during the day as they are an eyesore. We hope to fill the half empty troughs shortly and plant these up which would make a big difference and is one of the few things we can do currently to improve the way things look there.
As a final note, it was great to see our councillors and our new M.P Kate Osamor who came to the AGM. I think everyone was very pleased that she was there, she understands local issues, is actively engaged in some currently and took on board other issues such as the Grovelands Cafe as something she will monitor and get involved in. She says she is prepared to question and challenge the council on issues she feels are not being dealt with correctly, this is refreshing and will hopefully help Winchmore Hill gets the attention it deserves from the council.
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