The Road Stewards will shortly be collecting the 2006 subscription of £3.00. We also encourage members to make a donation to our Charity. In recent years donations have averaged a similar amount to the subscriptions but are totally at your discretion.

Our donations will again go to Grangewood School. A copy of the acknowledgement of the 2005 Donation is circulated with this newsletter.

Should you wish to pay,before the road Stewards call, please make a payment by cheque payable to the Eastcote Park Estate Association to 33 St Lawrence Drive before Sunday 10^th March 2006.

Approximately 90% of the subscriptions for 2005 were collected by the road stewards. Thanks are therefore definitely due to them.

The Fish and Chip quiz evening took place as planned in November. This again proved to be a popular event. Special thanks go to Richard Maude for the hours of preparation and charismatic presentation of the quiz. Thanks also to Margaret Bacon for much of the organisation and to Chris Head for the (probably) fair marking

The Carol singing was well attended this year and set the scene for what we hope was a happy Christmas for all.

The Bulb planting also took place as planned. Many thanks to the few who came to help Margaret Bacon this year. Thanks also to those who have carried out subsequent planting notably on the island in St Lawrence Drive. We will, however, mainly have Margaret to thank for the spring flowers on the estate. Should you like to carry out any planting on the estate during the year please contact Margaret and the association will consider funding the cost of plants bulbs etc to make our estate attractive.

The Annual General Meeting will take place mid May 2006. Confirmation notices and nomination forms for committee members will go out in due course.

Winners of the 2005 awards were:

Many congratulation the winners and thanks to all those who make the estate attractive.

This will take place on Easter Sunday again with the same £1.50 cost per egg.

We would appreciate the help of some parents. There is no specific age limit but very few of the committee have families whose age attracts them to this event so help is needed to ensure this continues in future years.

This event was very popular last year with more people attending than there were eggs available. Please contact Richard Maude by Thursday 6^th April to secure a ticket.

A video of the estate was made by residents in 1997 to mark the Diamond Jubilee of the Estate. The video gave an account of the history of the Estate from 1937-1997. This was done exceedingly well both by the residents and with the assistance from some professionals. The video provides interesting details on the history of the estate. We feel this is a valuable record for any residents both from an interest point of view and as an advertisement for our Estate.

This video is now available in DVD format priced at £12.50. Please contact Richard Maude for your copy. (Every home should have one).

Further to the questionnaire circulated by the council we understand that it has now been presented to the council’s planning committee. The results were that 52% were opposed to the scheme which was a marked reduction in those against compared to previous consultations. Clear pockets of support were shown and a new consultation was requested to see if certain roads should be protected if some people were still opposed in pockets of the estate. It was discussed that some of the extensions carried out under permitted developments rules were the main reason for commencing research on demand for an article 4 direction. It is of note that our Chairman Scott Seaman-Digby did not take any part in the meeting which discussed the issue being precluded as a resident in the area concerned.

We now have a volunteer to manage our WEB site. Many thanks to Robin Pyburn who we hope will also be joining the committee this year.

The web site is now available again at: http://www.eastcotepark.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk.

We do however plan to move this to

The email contact will be advised in due course. The site is reinstated to its previous state and will be updated by Robin.

Thanks must also go to Tony Moore for so much work on this when he was our web master.

I am sure the security of our homes is a priority for all of us. Neighbourhood watch is something which can help.

At the AGM on 12.5.05 our current Neighbourhood watch coordinator Jenny Buckmaster expressed a wish to stand down as coordinator. We thank her for several years of fulfilling this role but now need someone who is interested in taking this on. Please contact Jenny Buckmaster on 020 8866 6554. Jenny’s comments on her resignation are as follows.

Although I am resigning in May I would like to point out that is definitely not because the job is arduous.

The main responsibility of a Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator is to make sure messages from the police received through Ringmaster are circulated via the established cascade system to the Street Co-ordinators, who pass the messages on to their local neighbours.

They are expected to pick up the newsletters from Ruislip Neighbourhood Watch Office once a month. This can also be viewed on their website. Any relevant information should then be passed to the Street Co-ordinators.

It is advisable to arrange one or two informal meetings a year with Street Co-ordinators so that any problems can be discussed.

The police arrange a seminar for the co-ordinators in the Hillingdon area once a year, usually in Uxbridge. This meeting can prove to be very interesting and gives local people a chance to discuss with the police local problems and possible solutions. They also provide lots of information on crime prevention and security.

Best of all the EPEA co-ordinator is invited to a thank you party for the Neighbourhood Watch officers and Road Stewards by the Eastcote Residents Association!!

Please do contact Jenny if you feel you may be able to help.

We no doubt all saw the photographs in the Gazette last year of a rocket through someone’s caravan roof and wondered what would have happened had it hit a person. There were in fact a number of rockets which landed like spears in the St Lawrence Drive area.

The young lady pictured below was toasting marsh mallows in St. Lawrence Drive when the rocket shown shot down just behind her. I dug into the ground approximately 3 inches deep. Firing the rocket in the general direction of the park was not safe enough. Had it hit her or any of the other children on the way down the results are unthinkable.

Rockets of this size do not disintegrate in the air but come down, often with the main body of the firework still attached. They represent a hazard to people and property. Just launching them away from your house does not alleviate the problem but just puts others at risk.

Whatever you celebration please consider the safety of your neighbours

We are currently 2 short of the 10 required committee members. Should you be interested in joining the committee please contact one of the existing members. The secretary will normally be happy to invite 1 or 2 guests to our meetings to give them an idea of what goes on prior to officially joining the committee.

As with most people the existing committee has limited time to spend on estate matters so additional members would help us do more. Joining the committee will improve your knowledge and contacts around the estate.

Whilst there is a certain amount of business for the committee to conduct, the meetings have proved to be friendly, interesting and enjoyable events. The Eastcote Park Estate Association is part of what makes our estate special so we do hope that more members will step forward.

Our road stewards play a vital part in the existence of the Association.The tasks of the road stewards are to circulate newsletters and other leaflets (approx. 4 per year), to collect the subscriptions and to welcome new residents to the estate. There is a Road Stewards and Neighbourhood watch social evening in March every year to enable the volunteers to meet each other and also meet the committee. Should you be interested in carrying out this role please advise a member of the committee. You need not be restricted to your area of the estate but there is currently a specific need around the lower end of St Lawrence Drive. John Brown has recently resigned as a road steward for this area following innumerable years of service to the Association in a variety of roles. We thank John for all his work over the years. There is also an area in Burwood Avenue which one of the committee has been covering for 2 years having taken it on until a new road Steward volunteered.

We thank Brendons for their support which will reduce the administration cost to the association of producing our newsletter.

We encourage residents to raise any issues concerning the estate with the council as and when they have a grievance. Consistent pressure from residents usually bears results. Some useful contacts are:

http://www.brendons.co.uk