A website to voice the views and concerns of people living around East Croydon Station has been launched.
The people behind the East Croydon Community site are Rod Davies and Sasha Konechni, residents of Lebanon Road, who say that they aim to “help develop the voice of the East Croydon community and to represent its interests”.
They define the area of coverage for ECC as Cherry Orchard Road, Addiscombe Road (north side to The Cricketers), and Colson, Blake, Brickwood, Bisenden, Chisholm, Cedar and Addiscombe Court Roads, plus Tunstall, Oval, Leslie Park Road and Cross Road, Leslie Grove, John’s Terrace, Jackson’s Place, Leslie Grove Place, Edwin Place, Alpha Road and Bridge Row.
“We want everyone to feel included and to contribute to the development of a strong coherent community voice,” Davies said.
They distinguish their patch from the rest of Addiscombe, the council ward in which the station lies: “East Croydon has suffered from a lack of an effective voice to argue its case, whereas other areas across Addiscombe have established residents’ associations. A significant part of this is due to the high level of rented properties that has led to high turnover of population.”
The site professes to be apolitical – Addiscombe ward is one of the two most marginal in the borough, and is expected to be key in the 2015 parliamentary election for the Croydon Central seat – and it provides links to the Tory MP and Labour councillors, as well as political parties from the Communists to Plaid Cyrmu.
Davies believes that the absence of a strong community voice for the neighbourhood has allowed the local authority an easy ride when it comes to planning matters and other developments: “The absence of a residents’ association or other coherent community representative body means that the council can largely ignore our concerns. It is very noticeable, for instance, that Addiscombe retail centre has received considerable amounts of public money to improve the street scene.
“Cherry Orchard Road has been abandoned, and seems to be left to decay,” he said.
Cherry Orchard Gardens: eight years after demolition work began, no homes have been built on either of side of the road
“The proposed developments along Cherry Orchard and Morland Roads will bring in large numbers of new people and create a significant increase in demand for public services, such as health centres and schools. In addition the very large numbers of new residential properties proposed or under construction in the centre of Croydon will have an impact upon the East Croydon area.
“We are all aware that we all work longer and longer hours and it leaves little time to get engaged with the community to voice our concerns and support each other. It is for that reason that this website has been launched.
“While we all may be frustrated that the council does not appear to take our interests into consideration, if we do not put forward our views and provide a means to engage with us then the council officers cannot help us. I hope we can all make this website a valuable forum for the East Croydon Community.”
Coming to Croydon
- Mrs McMoon and Signor Baffo at Stanley Halls, May 17
- Croydon RFC charity memorial day, May 17
- Warehouse International Palywriting Festival, May 17-18
- Riverside Animal Centre Open Day, May 18
- Coulsdon East local election hustings, May 19
- St Giles’ primary school open morning, May 21
- David Lean Cinema: The Rocket, May 22
- Songs From The Ledge, Spread Eagle Theatre, May 23
- Greek Myths: stories and mask-making, May 27
- Howard Marks: Scholar, Smuggler, Prisoner, Scribe, May 29
- David Lean Cinema: Dallas Buyers Club, May 29
- Tales from Ancient Greece, Upper Norwood Library, May 29
- Upper Norwood Library Book Club, May 31
- Stitch Pitch quilting workshop, Upper Norwood Library, June 2
- Croydon Tech City “summit”, June 6
- An Improvised Murder, Spread Eagle Theatre, June 7
- Lakes Playground Action Group fun day, June 14
- Elm Tree Cottage garden open day, June 15
- Norwood Society Talk: The Concrete Church, June 19
- Classic Car Show at Purley Rotary Fields, June 22
- Crystal Palace Overground Festival, June 26-29
- Warnings to the Curious, Spread Eagle Theatre, June 27
- South Norwood Allotments open day, June 28
- Fragile, Spread Eagle Theatre, July 24-26
- Elm Tree Cottage garden open day, Aug 10
- Norwood Society Talk: War Memorials, Sep 18
- Norwood Society Talk: From Fire Station to Theatre, Oct 16
- Norwood Society Talk: Lambeth’s Archives, Nov 20
Inside Croydon: Croydon’s only independent news source, based in the heart of the borough: 72,342 average monthly page views (Jan-Mar 2014)
If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, a residents’ or business association or local event, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
Thanks Steve for featuring the East Croydon Community website.
It has been our intention from the beginning that the website is apolitical. East Croydon faces far too many challenges to be divided by political allegiances. Outside of the election period we have to work together for the benefit of the community and we need all the talent we can get hold of.
This is the beginning we hope to create a coherent voice for everyone in East Croydon, and we invite everyone to get on board and share their views.
If local residents have any ideas how the site could be better just post your ideas.
We wish Inside Croydon all the best and look forward to working together for a better brighter Croydon!
Sasha & Rod
I disagree with you slightly Steve (but thanks for the feature!) the site is not apolitical, rather it is pro-political. I hope my neighbours do get political, do get involved and do make their voices heard.
We can get involved by joining political parties or getting involved in community groups, what matters is that we don’t just sit behind our computer screen and berate the declining condition of mankind.
I listed all the political parties that anecdotally various canvassers had indicated people had said they supported. As long as the parties do not promote racist, sectarian or other offensive & illegal ideas then I welcome them all!