Crystal Palace and Norwood Chamber of Commerce Main Meeting Held at Little Palace Cafe 42 Westow Hill on Tuesday 21 June 2011

Present at meeting:

Hannah Bougen chair of meeting (Executive Officer of the Chamber)
George Filbey (Minutes Taker for the evening-local trader)
Ann ------------------  (guest speaker from Amphlett Lissimore)
Noreen Needham (guest speaker organiser of Crystal Palace Festival)
Andy Bodycombe (Guest speaker from Transition Town)
Kalina Palka (Transition Town)
Donald Madgewick (local trader, sports writer and festival organiser)
Andy Stem (Local trader)
Tim Sharville(Local trader)
Ann-Marie Baptiste(Local trader)
Chantelle -----------------  (St.John Ambulance service SE19)
Joan ------------------------ (Local trader)
Mark ------------------------ (Local trader)
Chris East (----------------)
Others ------------- ------------------ ----------------------- ----------------------- ----------------------

Apologies for absence were given by
Paul Bartholomew
Frank Lissimore

Hannah Bougen explained that there would be three presentations which were as follows:-

Ann --------- gave the first talk concerning “Will your business survive without you?” She introduced herslef as working for Amphlet Lissimore for 6.5 years and she specialised is wills and estate planning. She stated that she preferred to take specific questions about will and estate matters over the telephone rather than at the meeting and that this service would be conducted free of charge.

She asked how many people present had a will and the appropriate (majority) showed hands. She explained that a will deals with all your assets when you die and an executor, specified in the will, is specifically mentioned, or should be, in the will.

For security reasons it may be necessary to have more than one executor. She pointed out that a poor or no will may cause serious agitation in the families especially where children are involved. The children may lose their inherited money if the will was not made properly or not at all. A will must be executed in a particular way to ensure fairness and exactness and minimise the stress in the family after ones death. Whatever rthe type of will there were some basics, such as the signature of the bequeather and two witness’ signatures are required in addition and they must be people who can be checked to make sure that they are genuine.  She also pointed out that business inheritance has even more legal complications espeially when limited companies and specific property was involved.

If a will was not made within correct legal framework it could be subject to challenges and resulting family stress .

Anne explained that taxation issues for limited liability companies and traders were more complicated that those concerning small or sole traders. Mark ---------- asked about Power of attorney issues and what checks were made cocerning the honesty of appointees. Anne mentioned that this issue was more comprehensively tackled with limited liability companies than with those of individuals. Don Madgewick asked if video wills were valid. Anne answered that they could be valid but they are rare. Neither video wills nor Email wills were legal documents. Anne Marie Baptiste asked about the validity of ready-made will one could buy in shops or the Internet. Anne suggested that they could be legal but would not accommodate willmakers with complicated lives. Anne-Marie asked about the average cost of a will and Anne replied that this was £150 plus VAT. Other questions were asked about readymade wills and homemade wills. Anne warned that such wills were unsuitable for any complicated bequeathing.

The larger the estate and the more  beneficiaries there are the more important it is that the will is made within an exact legal framework. The will making becomes even more complicated when limited companies and limited liability partnerships are involved.

Andy Bodycombe asked if Anne or Amphlett Lissimore participated in Will Aid. The answer was no.

Kalina Palka asked who checked on the behaviours of an executor. Anne answered that courts and the Probate Service were responsible for this. George Filbey mentioned that he had been intervued for over an hour by a member of the Probate service when his father died and he was the sole executor of his will. Anne further mentioned that the executors are often checked for honesty especially if the wills are likely to be challenged or large assets are involved.

Hannah Bougen then invited everyone to put in their business or calling card into the draw hat for the prize of a will from Amphlett Lissimore for the winner.

The second was a talk given by Noreen Needham. She introduced this year’s annual festival by stating that it would be more family orientated being also held in Westow Park as well as the Crystal Palace Triangle. Local Community groups could contact Noreen and her team to become involved in the festival, which would be centred around the 4th of August 2011 but preparations etc would begin weeks ahead of this date. Since Norwen last spoke to the chamber members there had been fund-raising, infrastructure improvements and fundraising. Collecting donations and grants had been successful, she reported, and among those who had contributed were businesses Acorn, Amphlett Lissimore and the Transmitter,  Joanna’s, Willy Smarts, Bambinos, ---------------------, Crystal Palace ---------------. Croydon Volantry Action had donated £2000.

Further sponsoring from other groups and business has been promised. There will be a “what’s on” guide around the Triangle and district for this festival. She also stated that London Overground were Media Partners and posters advertising the festival would be erected in rail stations from Croydon to Canada Water. The usual internet features such as Facebook, Twitter etc would also be used for publicity. Techniques such as tee-shirt issuing were mentioned to attract donations from individual members of the public. Licensing and banner erection around the Triangle were also mentioned under the topic of Infrastructure. There will be a main music stage in the park for various types of live music etc.

She stated that Respect Music and Antenna will be contributing on the day. There will be other venues for staging events music etc available locally. There will be a Food Village in the (Crystal Palace?) park. Noreen also mentioned that she weas getting a lot of applications in for craft and soft furnishing sales. There will also be sports activities and an art workshop.

Responding to the questions she has had concerning were the funds were going to be spent, Noreen gave £2000 to obtain an electricity generator as an example, also insurance costs.

Noreen then explained that a Customer Satisfaction Survey in various forms was in place at the events to obtain information on how successful the festival was for future reference. She also appealed for volunteers on the day, stewards for instance, leafletting and customer feedback collection on the day. She mentioned information for those present had been left.


The third talk was given by Andy Bodycombe on the Transition Town and why it was called this and not just a Green Group or something similar. He explained that concentrating on the idea of transition would make the people in towns and even larger cities more resilient to the inevitable changes brought on by the end of the era of cheap supplies of oil and  further climate change.

He pointed out that some people feel they will not be affected by lack of oil fuels because they use bicycles etc but he showed that in the meeting place now there were many products that had relied on oil for their manufacture. Medicines, agriculture and bulk transportation are heavily dependent on cheap oil and we should all be familiar with the effect of rapid price change as has occurred some time ago. Andy stated that, whether we like it or not, we are heavily dependent on oil for most of our transport and products. He explain the conception of “peak oil” as being the point in time when the availability of oil reaches a maximum and this adversely effects transport and most other matters in our lives.

Andy explained why he was linking with the Chamber of Commerce and certainly not to tell the chamber and its members what and what not to do! Discussions could, however, occur in the areas concerning restaurant sourcing policy for instance or waste disposal. He explained that the present Transition Town group in the area gathered together as they were concerned withsustainability issues. Within the Crystal Palace area it would be a matter of discussing what the issues were and having a common programme to deal with them to make the CP area more resilient to future effects of depending on oil and oil consumption related matters.

He mentioned that a group of 15 people in the area, the Transition Town Steering group, has been formed. Some members of this group were present at the Chamber meeting or were both members of the steering group and the chamber. The TT steering group, he mentioned is encouraging local growing of food like herbs in Westow Park, or local skill-swapping so we become less dependent on sourcing materials from beyond the area which involves transportation and much use of oil.

He mentioned two members of the Steering Group in particular who were promoting these matters, also Chamber members, Rachel Dethample and Catrina Gilliard.
On Fourth of September local skills will be demonstrated at the Antenna Studios, making and repairing clothes for instance. He mentioned the website crystalpalacetransition.org.uk for viewing for information on Transition Town. On 17th September the Sterring Group is officially launching the “big launch” of CP Transition Town which will bring together 15 or so groups in the local area. Waste disposal was stated as an example of an item for discussion.

Chris East asked if the big stage in the park could be used for publicity for the discussions and activities but, although this could hopefully happen in the future, the venue was in the wrong park! It was stated that there were also healthy and safety issues that needed sorting out if such as stage were built in Westow Park.
Andy Bodycombe poited out that his work was concerned with solar power and he wanted or organise a workshop for people concerned with any points in this field, especially the relationship with solar generating and the energy companies.

Don Madgewick, a visitor from the Steering group, mentioned that he had access to a portable stage from a friend of his who was close to retirement and would really only help with the stage if  he obtained certain assurances etc.

Kalina Palka mentioned that Rachel DeThample, of the Transition Town Steering Groupwas intending to screen a film called “The Economics of Happiness” at the Gypsy Hill Tavern which apparently is about local communities supporting their local businesses. Local business people are invited with discussion at the end. The introduction of local currencies was mentioned by another visitor member of the Transition Town steering group. Andy then mentioned that the TT website was available for intercommunication between TT and the Chamber.

Don Madgewick reiterated the serious importance of the oil expense issue and how the community could help itself by its use of wasteland and derelict garden space to grow food locally insead of transporting it from far. The gravity of the peak oil issue was also mentioned by Kalina. Andy then mentioned Cuba where the oil was suddenly cut off by the US embargo and how that incident illustrated what could happen to anyone when the oil finally runs out.

George Filbey pointed out that a recent televison programme showed Germany to be way ahead of UK in domestic solar energy use and Don Madgewick also pointed out that the German project had been funded by huge government grants that were eaten up by the Large energy company and both hoped that this dual situation would not occur if the Transition Town movement gained more influence as a lobbyist.

Hannah Bougen then mentioned future events for the Chamber including a possible Barbeque. She reminded those present that the Chamber has a website and information on events etc can be found there.

She thanked Gabhi the proprietor of  this meeting’s venue,Little Palace Cafe and thanked him also for providing food for attendees. She then reminded everyone to put their business card or calling card into the draw. Gabhi then was asked to perform the draw for the free will and the winner was Kalina Palka. She then closed the meeting.

End