Amersham Together March/April 2020 Issue

COMMUNITY NEWS
Friends of the
Chalfont St Peter
Community Centre
Fundraising has begun to try and re-build
a new ‘Community Centre’ for Chalfont St
Peter (CSP). Since launching their new
Friends of the Chalfont St Peter Community
Centre scheme in January, the trustees have
been hard at work organising Open Days,
applying for community grants and trying
to draft in more volunteers to assist their
fundraising.
‘Local authority bodies are not funding capital
builds, and CSP is not receiving any financial aid
from the district or county councils to re-build
their centre.
‘Our village keeps growing and our facilities are
stretched to the maximum already. It is going to
be up to us as residents to raise the funds for this
re-build, if we recognise the value of community
Picture of centre when it was first build in 1962, from the Francis Frith
Collection
space. CSP residents raised £15 000 in 1962 to
build the beginnings of what we have now, and
we are going to have to, in 2020, encourage
our whole community to contribute something –
even if it is something small - towards making
a fit-for-purpose centre for our village a reality,’
says local parish councillor and community
centre trustee Karen Dickson.
CSP’s Community Centre is a busy place with just
over 2000 residents using it weekly. If you do the
maths and calculate how many CSP residents have
used the building over the last 60 years, you can
easily see that it is time to invest wisely in a centre
for our community again!
Please visit: www.cspcc.org.uk for more
information and if you would like to donate.
Neighbourhood Watch -
SIMPLY SAFER
They say there are only two certainties in life
– death and taxes. So, having the security
of a Neighbourhood Watch (NHW) scheme
in your road doesn’t guarantee you will be
protected against burglaries and other crime.
But it certainly helps.
Insurance companies don’t waste money, yet
most offer a discount on household insurance
to NHW members. Why? Because they know
that you are less likely to be a burglary victim
with a NHW scheme in place. A typical 10%
reduction is a good indicator of the reduced
risk. Joining NHW costs nothing, and you can
probably save money, as well as improving
your peace of mind, so what’s stopping you?
Joining is easy at ourwatch.org.uk.
NHW is about more than security though, even
if that is the strongest incentive to join. A NHW
Scheme tends to bring people together socially,
and many members
consider this the main
benefit. It’s often difficult
to get to know neighbours
these days, so NHW provides a
simple means to make contacts and develop your
local community.
The police rely on the public to keep them
informed of their concerns. NHW provides a
two-way channel of communication. Scheme
members look out for each other, as well as
feeding back information that could help the
police fight crime. And Coordinators ensure
members are aware of crime-prevention
information coming from the police.
To be simply safer, join NHW right now at
ourwatch.org.uk. If you have any questions at all,
please write to chilternnhw@gmail.com.
10 Amersham & Chalfonts Together is part of Community Together