EastSheenMatters

On 24 September 2024 attention was drawn here to the Mission Action Plans for the Parish of Mortlake with East Sheen. The Plans are still under discussion but an initial list of the congregations’ priorities has been published.

In order of priority these are:

Responding to the needs of our community
Reaching out to younger generations
Growing in numbers in the congregation
Strengthening community links
Sharing our Christian faith with others
Further developing / resourcing our music (including the choir)
Deepening our Christian faith through prayer
Deepening our Christian faith through study
Growing our understanding of our purpose
Developing environmental initiatives here

Developing environmental initiatives was the lowest priority by a large margin.

Forthcoming Events

• a Macmillan coffee morning at All Saints on Friday 15 November (10.00am onwards)
• the Grand Auction and Dinner at All Saints on Saturday 16 November (7.00pm for 7.30pm), in aid of Glass Door and All Saints  Now Sold out
• the Community Ventures Lunch at All Saints on Thursday 21 November at 12.30pm
• the Flower Team’s Festive Florals for Christmas event on Friday 29 November (11.30am onwards)

The Glass Door is a London Charity offering shelter and support to people affected by homelessness.

Jonathan Haynes was instituted as Team Rector for the Parish of Mortlake with East Sheen at Christ Church on Monday 4th November 2024. An important part of the service was the formal Insitution. Jonathan has kindly provided a copy of the deed.

You might have thought that a collation was stapling papers or getting your salami together but there is a more ecclesiastical interpretation.

For futher information see ‘Welcoming the New Vicar: institutions, collations and inductions’ at christhum.wordpress.com

Alastair Grant fits in a trip to Waitrose after his sojourn in Ukraine and before an appearance at the War Memorial for Remembrance Sunday tomorrow. He is joined by Duncan Rasor, who is wearing medals for service in Northern Ireland and Kosovo.

If asked (or perhaps even if you don’t) they will tell you about their Plymouth Argyle association.

And to end your brewery week if you have been looking at the livestream, go to about one hour 50 minutes in, in the session headed Local Representation. It shows a videoclip of a lorry rolling backwards from the northside parking area at Mortlake Station across Sheen Lane and to the gates of Thomson House School. It is about 830am when children were arriving at the school.

The incident was reported to Richmond Council, Achieving for Children, the police, Sarah Olney MP and Network Rail. Kelly McEvoy from the school gave evidence that they ‘had had no engagement on this at all’.

Sounds familiar? Anything the authorities do not want to hear that might relate to the Stag Brewery, they ignore?

East Sheen Remembrance Service and Parade: Rolling Road closure from outside the entrance of East Sheen Library Car Park to its junction with Muirdown Avenue from 10.40am to 11.20am  on Sunday.

I have by and large tried to provide factual information on this blog and expressed third party opinions. Having this morning given evidence to the Inspector about the false letters of support for the planning applications filed on the Council Planning Portal by the developers’ agents, I feel I should briefly turn to the first person.

I am assured that my full speaking brief and its exhibits will be uploaded to the Inquiry website. You can also see my evidence on the livestream – and significantly the responses of Counsel for the local authority.

Counsel for Richmond merely said that they had reported the matter to the Inspectorate and the letters would form no part of their case. He ignored any question of whether they should have further investigated how the false letters came to be on a Council website.

Counsel for the developers basically said these allegations should be ignored for the purposes of the Inquiry, and in the same breath as making comments about costs, referred to Professional Codes of Conduct stating that unproven allegations should not be put before the Inquiry. He misquoted me in relation to ‘malfeasance’ where what I said, and have always said, was that the false letters raised questions about malfeasance which should be investigated. They never have been and I fear we have to assume they will not be. I took his comments as veiled threats.

So just what is the truth about thse letters? We may never know. The outcome is that both the Council and the developers have simply brushed this under the table.

And while I am writing I note that there has been no-one present from the local press. So your only source of news is on this blog!

Don’t forget Remambrance Day at the War Memorial in Sheen this Sunday. Be there by 1040 am to see the orchestrated marching.

Poppies can still be bought at Waitrose on Saturday. A little way to go to get to last year’s £10,000.

A roundtable discussion took place on environmental matters. That means that the experts give their views on a range of questions put by the Inspector. These were on air quality, flooding, trees and bats. More on that at the weekend.