new twitter account

The proposal to open Abington Street to traffic is very unpopular. We have started campaigning against this proposal. One tool in our armoury will be Twitter. We have started an account which can be found at @stedmundsRA. Join it and keep up to date with our news.

Shared Space

The re-opening of Abington St to traffic is a very unpopular policy. If it  had to be opened to traffic then this is the sort of environment we should be looking at. It is great, and exciting!

This backs up your chairperson's guerrilla gardening!

Visit this Ted site to see an inspiring 15minute talk about community gardening.

We have a high proportion of rented properties...

so Shelter's campaign to improve the situation for people who rent is very welcome. You can join in by clicking here

Regain our streets for pedestrians and cyclists

One way to improve our surroundings is to make it a place where we can walk or cycle peacefully. Click here to find a great website that encourages people to organise things so that we can do just that.

Tenants:- How to protect your deposit

Shelter have produced a very useful guide/tool kit to help tenants protect their deposits. It can be found here.

An article and video clip about street play

Our residents meeting agreed to look into a strategy of Street Play. Here is a short article and video clip that explains the concept. Enjoy.

Improving life in St Edmunds

Click here for a video clip that depicts a town life that is extraordinary. It is different to the UK scene in that traffic moves quietly and slowly and cycling and walking is safe and pleasurable. Is this possible in the UK? If enough people find out and think about it then maybe...

A campaign to promote 'walking to school'

The campaigning body 'Living Streets' is aiming to assist a prospective Bill in Parliament which tries to improve the streets in our cities so that walking to school is more acceptable.
It involves contacting your MP and asking him to vote for the new Bill.
Details can be found here
I recommend it,
regards,
Jim Wishart

An excellent resource for community action

Groundwork is an organisation that helps groups like ourselves. Here is what they say on their website:-

GROUNDWORK
Changing places, changing lives
Groundwork, the community charity with a green heart, is 30 this year. We believe bleak, grey areas lead to bleak, grey societies. We want to empower more people to change under-utilised bits of land into parks, gardens, playgrounds and allotments that people can enjoy with their neighbours. If you or your organisation agree that everyone deserves their own urban oasis to grow food, play, garden or just to sit then get involved.
click here to visit the site

They are coming to help on Monday 10th June with our preparations for the RHS flower festival Britain in Bloom.

A newspaper editorial recommending 20mph zones

At the March meeting of SERA the case was put to improve our area by various means one of which was by reducing the speed of the traffic in our narrow streets. Click here to read the case for change well put in the Independent newspaper.

Neelam Aggarwal voted Northampton's Inspirational Woman 2013

Councillor Anna King, Northampton Borough Council assistant cabinet member for community engagement said: "International Women’s Day is a global celebration of women’s achievements.  Every year in Northampton we mark the day and this year we wanted to acknowledge the work of local women with this new award.

"Neelam, who was recently awarded the MBE for her cross-cultural community work, has made an important contribution to the lives of people in Northampton and we were delighted to present her with this award.”

Congratulations to Neelam who is a member of our Residents Association and a credit to Northampton.

Streets as 'places'.

The campaigning group 'Living Streets' produces a regular newsletter explaining their work on improving the environment in towns. I have signed myself up as the cause parallels to our association's objectives. There is an interesting article HERE

The housing charity Shelter discusses the importance of residents associations

Shelter says:- "Residents' associations can help to improve neighbourhoods by putting pressure on bad landlords and freeholders, improving the local environment and community spirit and helping local residents to tackle problems like antisocial behaviour, noise nuisance and vandalism."
The list of contents of the site:-

• What is a residents' association?
• How do I get involved?
• What if there is no residents' association?
• Recognised tenants' associations
• What if an association doesn't want to be recognised?
• How are residents' associations funded?
• Residents associations for mobile/park homes and houseboats

You can see the full article here
Jim

Shared space in streets

I campaign for streets in towns to be treated as 'places' rather than traffic conduits. Here is a talk, illustrated by video and slides that explains the concept.  It is delivered by a professional town planner and though its examples are from London it is relevant nationwide. It lasts fifty minutes and is a mine of ideas. I look forward to the time when our local town planners adopt some of them.
It is a bit fiddly to get it working. I found that I had the commentary but the picture wasn't changing to suit. After further investigation I discovered that the slide show was behind the introductory picture.
You can access the site here

Here is something for the more adventurous of you to do. Your chairperson is an ordinary 'guerrilla gardener' but this tutorial is about how to be a pot-hole gardener. Why not try it out?
Click here

A Report on Enterprise

The cleaning of our streets:- A report on the performance of the contractor engaged to collect and dispose of rubbish and keep the streets clean-- Enterprise.

The report can be found here.

Town centre planning suggestions

I put a motion to the Central Area Community Forum a few years ago for a town-wide 20mph zone. The motion was passed unanimously by about fifty people attending a meeting in a Guildhall room.  Since that time no work has been done on the campaign.  However I suggest that as that the campaign should be revived. The idea could be presented under the umbrella term of  'shared space' with the explanation that a 'concerted effort should be made to improve the town's roads for the use of cycles and pedestrians at the expense of the motor car in residential streets, all in accordance with the latest thinking of urban planning. It should be possible to make big improvements at reasonable cost if the 'default' situation is taken to be a lower traffic speed and only the faster speed is signposted. This would take a bold initiative from the appropriate local authority department which would need the sanction of the DfT. The town should be determined to be in the forefront in new urban traffic approaches.

It should be accepted that given the finite space available there is no 'solution' to the parking problem in the town other than tinkering with the rights of access to parking of different groups of motorists. The situation for the users of other forms of transport should be improved.

The built environment is also crying out for attention. Paved areas are derelict and dangerous, the signposting for traffic has been provided with little thought to the visual impact.

Anticipating the Park

A beautiful sunny morning looking into the 'park' from Palmerston Road. Make sure you have the sound on when you watch it here.

A 'sortie' to some pocket parks.

Three members went on an exciting trip on Saturday to several pocket parks in the county. The weather was perfect and some photos can be viewed here