Plan to get people to take pride in St Mary Cray (From News Shopper)

Plan to get people to take pride in St Mary Cray

1:42pm Sunday 24th June 2012 in Bromley By Robert Fisk

A BETTER future is planned for a village which is known more for flytipping and anti-social behaviour than its heritage.

Cray Village Community Forum wants to change people’s opinions about St Mary Cray and to make it a more attractive and safer place to live.

To kick this off it commissioned community interest company SGS Spectrum to compile a report and come up with recommendations about how the area can be improved.

And after a consultation process SGS came up with nine main areas of improvement.

They include restoring the architectural features on the older buildings in the conservation area and establishing small pedestrianised areas which could be used for markets and events.

And the report also suggests taking action to tackle litter and flytipping, improving the parks and running awards for people who improve the area and promote pride in it.

The forum’s chairman Councillor Peter Fortune said: “We commissioned the report to help to change the perceptions of the area and to start to tackle the challenges it faces.”

The report is backed by the Cray Valley East safer neighbourhood panel whose chairman Harold Barker said: “We are going to pull people up by the bootlaces and we’re going to make it work.

“We will lower the crime rate and we will retake the streets so people feel confident in walking round the streets at night.”