Council Tax up 15%: Many of you will have heard that the Council is proposing to put Council Tax up a whopping 15%. Usually, if a council wants to put the Council Tax up by more than 5%, there has to be a referendum. The Government has given Croydon permission to make this increase without that referendum. Here is a link to the petition against the rise –
https://www.change.org/p/no-to-15-council-tax-hike-fund-croydon-fairly
You maybe able to use a computer at the Library to sign the petition if you don’t have online access at home.
There is a demonstration against the huge rise at 6pm, 1st March, outside the Town Hall in Katherine Street. Everyone is welcome.
Bank Closures: The Halifax and Lloyds Banks have announced that they will be closing shortly. Following that announcement, the Post Office is offering cash and cheque payments in and cash withdrawals for all banks other than Monzo. Closure of the banks is perhaps inevitable given the move to internet banking by many, but it is making life difficult for elderly and disabled people. It is to be hoped that NatWest will continue to keep its outlet in Norbury.
GP/Hospital Consultation Survey: Many thanks to those of you who completed last Summer’s survey about your experience of telephone and face to face consultations with your GP. The survey was undertaken because the NVRA Committee was concerned about local residents’ worries about the frequent switch to telephone consultations during COVID and that this would continue post COVID. 25 members responded to the small survey. The major findings were as follows –
- Many elderly and people with physical and hearing disabilities find telephone consultations difficult.
- There are problems getting through on the telephone;
- Face to face consultations allow patients’ symptoms to be examined which cannot be done over the telephone;
- Telephone consultations are acceptable in certain circumstances depending on the medical issue;
- There can be long waits to get through on the telephone at GP practices and sometimes the system shuts off;
- The GPs who ring do not necessarily know the back story of the patient.
The NVRA Committee is presenting the survey results to the GP Practices and to Croydon University Hospital. It is recommending that they consider their policies on telephone and face to face consultations with a view to giving priority to people with physical and hearing difficulties. The Committee will report back on the response later in the year.
Bus Shelters: Many of our bus shelters disappeared sometime back and bus users are facing a second winter without shelter. The delay to the replacement bus shelters is a supply issue. There doesn’t seem to be any news about when the replacements can be expected.
A Warm Space: With energy and other costs of living spiralling, some churches and other community centres are opening their doors. St Oswald’s in Green Lane is open until 10 March.
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International Women’s Day is a global celebration of women’s rights and achievements. On March 9th, the Cassandra Centre is holding a celebration from noon-3pm with food, talks and music at the Norbury Methodist Church, 2a Pollards Hill North, SW16 4NL. Everyone is welcome -including men!! And look out for displays by Knitting Norbury Together which will also be celebrating International Women’s Day.
Literary Festival: Centred on the Library, Love Norbury will be holding a Literary Festival starting on Saturday 13 May. Talks by local authors, exhibitions, events for children and bookstalls will all feature. Details to come, but do keep the date free. And if you are a local author or have books you’d like to sell, please contact Sean – [email protected]
Library: The Library remains open three days a week, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday, 10am-6pm. The Mayor, Jason Perry, is currently reviewing the libraries and it is feared that the outcome will be some closures and possibly outsourcing. Sadly, the upper room which was part of the £1million refurbishment is still not available for hire.
Councillors’ Surgeries: Our ward councillors., Matt Griffiths & Leila Ben Hassel, hold monthly surgeries on the first Saturday of each month at Norbury Baptist Church (address above), 11am-12.30pm. Their next surgery is Saturday 4 March.
Committee Members:
It’s been a while since the last round up. Apologies. Most of your committee have been long term unwell. New, active members are really needed for the Association to survive. It doesn’t take a lot of time – an hour or two a month. If you are willing to join the committee or think about standing for election at the Annual General Meeting, please get in touch with Ann – [email protected] Thank you.
The Committee Members are: Mike Mogul; Ann Creighton; Jayne Elden; Jeff Slough; Sean Creighton & Ruth Heindl
