PHRA AGM 2023 a huge success !

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A turn up for the books ! With the venue being the Norbury Library Community Room, doors opened at 6:30pm, a queue formed to get in and we reached the maximum venue capacity by 7:00pm, far exceeding our expectation’s. A fantastic evening, enjoyed by all - Tea, Coffee and biscuits provided and guest speakers on the night Mayor Jason Perry, Ken Hume of James Alexander (local estate agents), Local Safer Neighbourhood Team and an impromptu bonus guest speaker, Cllr Roche Cabinet member for Streets and Environment. Pollards Hill, is once again a buzzing community. A lot of ground was covered on the evening by our guest speakers - the feedback has all been positive. Thanks must go to all of the amazing guest speakers on the night, to the PHRA Committee for making it happen and most importantly our members.

Norbury Street Safety Walk

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A street walk was organised by our local ward councillors and held on the 16th March. Its aim was to focus on the safety aspects of inadequate street lighting and the subsequent threat posed to women and girls. Apart from mainly women attendees, also participating was the principal Croydon Street Lighting officer, the Croydon Street lighting contractor, Skanska, and members of the local SNT team plus the attendance of the specialist dedicated Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) officer.

Interestingly, as an experiment one of the streetlights was reduced to half power but its brightness was considered acceptable by most of the group.

Actions agreed were recorded by our local councillors with the aim to both publish them and their outcomes. One of the major actions was for the lighting team to carry out light level tests in the Pollards Hill East and Semley Road areas. Both areas were passed as being compliant and therefore Croydon plan no further action.  A concern is that when trees are in full leaf, they can reduce light levels. Our councillors will be requesting Croydon to carry out the same tests during summer.

Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Safer Neighbourhood SN unit

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Many of us, whilst familiar with the SNT role, will be unaware of the VAWG role. The SN BCU area covers Bromley, Croydon, and Sutton boroughs and consisting of a dedicated Violence against women and girls (VAWG) unit with a dedicated engagement officer. Their role is to work with local partners, key community stakeholders and the local community to prevent violence against women and girls. They run various initiatives such as Walk and Talks (a walk around with local officers about where you do not feel safe) and have set up new ways of reporting where you do not feel safe through Streetsafe (an anonymous non-crime reporting tool: www.met.police.uk/notices/street-safe/street-safe/

 Contact details for VAWG mailbox: SNMailbox-.VAWG@met.police.uk

Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) and PHRA February 2023

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PHRA resumed participation with the local SNT police quarterly ward meetings by attending an on-line meeting on Wednesday 8th February.

Points of note:

• PHRA ward listed about halfway down in table of Croydon wards recorded crimes by volume

• Fraud is mainly internet related and dealt with by a specialist team

• Violence – much consists of domestic abuse and is handled by a specialist team

• Sexual offences peak in summer time but no rapes recorded

• Speeding – SNT suggested selecting two 20mph roads (not located in Pollards Hill ward) for monitoring by MPS trained residents to capture volume of offences committed.

No date set for the next quarterly update.