MENU

Winchmore Hill Residents Association is a non-political group run by residents, who seek to protect the quality of life in Winchmore Hill, now and for future generations

Recent News

Christmas 2024

We wanted to let people know if they didn’t already that there will be the usual carols on the Green event hosted by St. Paul’s Church on Wednesday 18th December. Please support and attend this great event. 

Update on the Green

There has been some very welcome news in relation to the Green. The council plan to implement the most recent plan for the Green (scaled down from the very first versions). At the AGM it seemed the message was, “there is no money so we will not discuss the findings of the consultation on the Green”, the consultation took place over two years ago which is a reminder of how long we have been asking for some changes to the scheme.

Essentially as you can see below and here (link to actual pdf to see this in more detail) the plan is to move out the planters at the top to stop the illegal parking by cars and at the bottom to do the same to stop the parking that goes on outside Hopper and Bean. An example of how bad the parking is can be seen below the plan

The WHRA was also asked if we would plant and maintain the planters at both ends which we were planning to do and with the planters in the right position and nicely planted and maintained should make a huge difference to the Green.

 

 

AGM Minutes

If you would like to read the minutes of the AGM, then they can be viewed by clicking here (this will open a pdf in a separate tab).


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.


October news

Update on fund raising for planters and plants at Winchmore Hill Station

We have raised almost all of the money we need for the planters, hanging baskets and plants for the station thanks in part from a couple of very generous donations, those who donated know who they are and we would like to offer our sincere thanks to them for this and of course all the other smaller donations that have been crucial to get close to our target.

There is still money needed and we hope to go beyond the original brief to add extra planters and to liase with Holly Francesca, an artist who has already created a while ago a beautiful hand illustrated map of Winchmore Hill (see below) with key local landmarks and places. We need to get it updated and printed on to aluminium and to have one on either side of the platform.

 

 

We will also be considering more planters as well a feature planter with the station name.

If you haven’t already (there are a lot of you on this mailing list who haven’t donated) then please donate what you can, £5, £10, it all counts. You can either donate using Paypal (here is the link: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=4NCZWEG6LE2A8 ) either with a Paypal account or with a debit or credit card.

Alternatively if you want to make a bank transfer then our bank details are as follows (please put “Planter donation” in the reference)

Winchmore Hill Residents Association
Account number: 20293180
Sort code: 20-29-77

 

A number of local petitions we think you should know about

Grovelands Cafe:

As many of you know a tree fell on Groveland’s Cafe a while ago now and as a result there isn’t a cafe or toilet facilities available currently. There is a petition on change.org to show support for the cafe and to highlight the situation. It has only been going over two weeks and already has 1,294 signatures.

Enfield say they are investigating costs but it does seem to appear that they are not willing to pay the costs and start the work to allow the cafe and toilets to reopen.

This is a much loved place and many people visit the cafe and use the toilet facilities so please sign the petition to support the campaign to get these facilities mended and operational again.

https://www.change.org/p/repair-the-roof-of-grovelands-park-cafe-immediately/

Speed cameras on A10:

There has been a campaign to get speed cameras put on the section of the A10 between the A406 junction and the Southbury road for a long time. There were average speed cameras installed in the section north of this to M25 and it is understood to have been very effective.

A campaign to bring this to TFL’s attention again and get them to act has been started in memory of Laura Sone-Demetrious who many of you might have read at the time was killed in January of this year along with her two dogs by a young driver when crossing the A10. The petition calls for a number of measures for the A10 to increase safety alongside other national measures aimed at reducing deaths and injuries caused specifically by younger people driving dangerously and seeks to limit their ability to own and drive fast and powerful cars.

https://www.change.org/p/improve-road-safety-measures-on-the-a10


Raising money to install and fill planters at Winchmore Hill Train Station

We have mentioned it previously but we are now ready to raise funds and get this project going. Below is the flyer we have created to hand out and deliver to businesses and residents in the next few days. We need to raise at least £1300 on top of the money provided by Great Northern, this is to make sure we can get good quality planters and hanging baskets. We also need enough of them to make a difference plus of course compost, plants and flowers. If you want to share this flyer you can download the pdf by clicking here or on either of the images of the flyer below.

There is a full proposal as well so if you want to read this you can do so here. It doesn’t matter how much you can contribute, all donations gratefully accepted. You can do so via this Paypal fundraising link here where you can pay with a Paypal account or just with a card as you would for any other online purchase. Thank you. We will update you with the amount raised later in the month by email and on this page.