Neil Littman on the main topics of interest arising from last week’s annual general meeting

Winchmore Hill Residents' Association AGM 2025 (credit Neil Littman) — Winchmore Hill Residents’ Association AGM 2025 (credit Neil Littman)

Winchmore Hill Residents’ Association’s annual general meeting (AGM) took place last Thursday (6th) at Waterhouse Hall and was attended by over 70 residents.

This was WHRA’s first public meeting of the year and was chaired by Ed Balleny and members of the WHRA committee. Other attendees included local Conservative councillors Maria Alexandrou and Lee Chamberlain.

The first half of the meeting covered statutory matters including reports on the events of the year. After the chairs’ welcome address there were apologies for absences including that of Edmonton and Winchmore Hill MP Kate Osamor, who was unable to attend due to a prior commitment.

Ed presented a review of activities and local issues since the last meeting including, the installing of planters on the platforms of Winchmore Hill Station as part of the station partnership scheme, the Autumn Dog Show in partnership with the N21 Sidings Market, planning applications, the reopening of the café in Groveland’s Park, the results of the inquest into the fatal accident involving a child at Compton Road in 2023, litter picking by local group Winchmore Warriors, removal of graffiti in the area, anti-social behaviour issues including indiscriminate parking around the local area, and plans for the coming year.

After a review of the association’s finances and a thank you to residents for donations, Ed gave a more detailed presentation, regarding planning applications to build new homes on sites in Winchmore Hill including Hoppers Road and Church Hill. A debate followed discussing the merits of a proposal in Church Hill to construct three houses on vacant land that had previously been forested.

This area had been the subject of various proposals since the mid-1980s. However, since then, owners have removed nearly half the trees and the current state of the land has become a cause for concern. Trees with TPOs have died, which is unusual and warrants further investigation. The whole issue of the removal of trees and the idea of developing this plot has caused much concern locally. Local residents will be kept up to date on these findings and when the application is submitted details will be shared for them to comment.

Ed also mentioned that in January this year as part of the station partnerships scheme in conjunction with Govia Thameslink Railway, planters were installed on the platforms at Winchmore Hill Station for the first phase and following this, a group of volunteers had filled these containers with plants and that sponsors had been found for all the planters. A second phase will include additional planters and platform artworks.

A call was also put out to the audience if any were interested in becoming WHRA committee members as there are several vacancies for posts including, treasurer, environmental and planning specialists.

The second half continued with an update by Cllr Alexandrou and Cllr Chamberlain regarding anti-social behaviour centred around the Salisbury Pub in Compton Road and measures taken by the council to deal with this including, changes to licencing hours and additional parking enforcement which resulted in nearly two hundred penalty charge notices being issued over a period of several weeks.

It was noted that there had been some improvements, but the matter was still ongoing and further engagement with the licensees of the pub might be required. There were also concerns about late-night noise issues including cars with replacement exhaust systems which are often illegal. Councillors said that these issues can only be dealt with if enough people report them. Cllr Alexandrou said improvements to The Green were still ongoing and there would be a short consultation on the recommendations.

Local resident Jillie Sutton presented an update on the progress of the Metropolitan Police’s safer neighbourhood teams where the police and partner agencies, work together with local communities to identify and tackle issues of concern with the priorities set by the community. Jillie also attended a meeting with senior police officers at a launch event for Met Engage – an online platform from the Met Police for community engagement, allowing residents to receive local updates from their neighbourhood policing team and share concerns with the police.

This was followed by a Q&A session with the audience. Many thanks from the WHRA to all who attended.

No news is bad news

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.

Choose the news. Don’t lose the news.

Monthly direct debit

Annual direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month. £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else.