Emerging from COVID

Having emerged from the Covid lockdown Orpington CLP has been as busy as ever trying to restart much of the work done prior. In fact we have begun local activism to a level arguably greater than before lockdown with high visibility campaigning and community work.

We have also resumed conducting face-to-face monthly members meetings enabling us to conduct our business effectively once again. Commencing the year at St Paul’s Church in Crofton we have now moved our regular meetings to the Vernon Hall, The Temple URC in St Mary Cray (co-incidentally the venue of our most successful polling station!).

As a result of this stability and upon the suggestion of our Policy Officer Charlotte Grievson, we will conduct monthly Food Bank collections which began with our last Monthly Meeting of the Year.

Local Elections 2022

Dominating the year was the London Local Elections in May and Orpington CLP concentrated its efforts on the Cray Valley Seats (St Mary Cray and St Paul’s Cray) with the concentration of our efforts in St Mary Cray which was believed to be the most winnable.

We undertook a very active campaign with litter picking, leafleting, street stalls and above all door knocking across the target Wards. With our campaign described by many as one of the most active we have run in a very long time!

However, we did have electoral success with Chris Price and Rebecca Wiffen winning two of the three seats in St Paul’s Cray (and with St Paul’s Cray likely to be becoming part of Orpington Constituency in next year’s boundary changes, we’ll take this result!). We now need to continue to support them in their work to embed them into the St Paul’s Cray Community to ensure that they retain their seats in 2026 AND we win the third seat off the Tories, work which has begun and has already made significant progress with their tireless efforts dealing with casework and community issues.

Elsewhere across the Borough, with wins in Plaistow and our seats that we already held in the North West of the Borough returning Councillors with huge majorities Labour had it’s best overall result in 40 years, and the Tories severely reduced in number with further losses to the LibDems and Chislehurst Matters Independents, we have an amazing launch point to turn Bromley into a No Overall Control Council next time in 2026.

Local Issues

Orpington Labour also continue to speak out and report on other local issues, including that of road and pavement defects, flytipping and other such community issues that either we come across or are reported directly to us.

Successes in this area include the clearing of the Star Lane entrance of St Paul’s Cray Park of burned-out vehicles, a day of action in Kingfisher Close, the replacement of broken and missing benches in St Mary Cray Village Green, Riverside Walk and Tillingbourne Green, repairs to Sandway Park following Spring storms and much more.

We continue to monitor the situation regarding rubbish collection in overflowing bins on the Rookery Gardens and Mountfield Estates and we are continuing to encourage the Council to repair potholes in Elizabeth Way which, despite the deterioration and the vehicle damage they cause, the Council continue to refuse to fix.

We have also begun to attend community group meetings including the St Mary Cray and St Paul’s Cray Safer Neighbourhoods Panels, The Cray Forum and Old St Paul’s Cray Village Residents Group. We would like to encourage members to join their own community groups across the constituency (and let us know), so that Labour can positively influence other parts of our area.

We will be organising community clean-ups in the future including the Amherst Wood, and Crockenhill Road/Sweeps Lane area in 2023.

Walnuts Development Campaign

Over the last eighteen months, Orpington Labour has campaigned against the proposals from Areli – a development company –to knock down and rebuild much of The Walnuts Centre on Orpington High Street. We opposed their plans to build two tower blocks and demolish the Leisure Centre, and we were concerned about the high price of the flats they wanted to build, the lack of any provision of GPs or school places for the new residents they wanted to bring to our town centre, and the overall size and scope of the development and its aesthetic impact on our town.

Our opposition to the plans was reported in The News Shopper in June 2021, and over the autumn and winter of 2021-2 we and other community campaigners leafletted and petitioned shoppers at the Walnuts. We presented our arguments and the petition, with over 500 signatures, to a full meeting of Bromley Council in February 2022.

We campaigned against Areli’s proposals together with the ‘Nuts To The Walnuts’ campaign, and other local groups. When Bromley Council put Areli’s plans on their website, they got over 3,700 objections from local people, a record. As a result, Areli withdrew their plans in October. They are now working on a fresh set of plans for The Walnuts, expected in 2023. We await their proposals with interest as despite these problems we are aware of the need to provide additional housing to the area.

A huge thanks to Jeff Slee (Vice-Chair Membership) and John Pead (Political Education Officer) for their leads in this campaign.

Political Education Discussions

This spring saw the formation of the Orpington CLP Political Education Group, an informal and lively group meeting once a month to discuss a range of socialism-related issues. Organised by the CLP’s Political Education and Policy Officers, subjects so far have included class, the monarchy, green politics, the future of the Labour movement and Universal Basic Income. We were pleased to welcome members who hadn’t previously engaged with the Party at constituency level, as well as several attendees from outside of Orpington.

We hope that attendance at the meetings will grow in 2023. The next meeting will be on Freedom of Speech and Protest at the usual time of 7.30pm on Monday 16^th January at the Orpington Methodist Church, Sevenoaks Way, and all Labour members are welcome. For further details of forthcoming events please check our social media and events pages.

A big thank-you to John Pead (Political Education Officer) and Charlotte Grievson (Policy Officer) for organising.

Socials and Fundrasing

Again, in part due to the emergence from COVID we were limited in the number of Social Events that have taken place this year.

We did run a successful quiz night in November, and an open Pub Social in December, and we do have plans and ideas for next year including a return of the annual Gala Dinner on 4^th April 2023.

If you have any ideas for socials and fundraisers please get in touch and let us know.

However, of you are able, please feel donate to our fighting fund by clicking the button below. Even if it is just the cost of a cup of coffee, every little but helps to fund our campaigns.

In Conclusion

2022 has been a very busy year for Orpington CLP. Successful in some respects and disappointing in others. We continue to look ahead at coming elections and hope to plan for even more activities, both formal and informal in the coming year which will help our local residents with a view to increased electoral success.

We do not know what the national political scene will be like in 2023. There is the possibility that a snap general election will be called, but then many commentators suggest 2024 will be more likely. What we do know is we need to be prepared and we need to be ready with boots on the ground to fight for a Labour Government and increased Labour influence at the local and community levels.

Happy New Year!

Orpington CLP Executive Committee