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Chair: Diane de Jersey, Vice Chair: Jim Cantle, Secretary: Jim Finch, Treasurer: Malik Javed, Members: Lisa Berry, Barbara Govey, Keith de Jersey, Dee Jethwa, Umran Rauf
Enfield Vision full membership is free for visually impaired people. Enfield Vision honorary membership is free for supporters, carers and family members of visually impaired people.
Enfield Vision welcomes donations, no matter how small, as these help fund its activities for visually impaired people.
Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to our Newsletter Volume 49 to keep you updated on Enfield Vision's activities for the year 2024. Enfield Vision's Thursday drop–ins are going as planned at Park Avenue Centre. We are always pleased to welcome you at the drop–ins particularly if you are a newly registered visually impaired person with Enfield Council.
This newsletter is specially edited to remind you about the two events being organised for our members. As reported in the previous newsletter I am pleased to highlight here that Enfield Vision's annual Focus Day is fast approaching on Thursday 17th October 2024 at Community House, 311 Fore Street, Edmonton, N9 0PZ.
We are putting a lot of efforts to make the event a success so that our members can benefit from the equipment and gadgets exhibited at the event. Please don't miss it.
Focus Day 2024 flyer is attached with this newsletter. We will be providing refreshments and a light buffet, so to help us with catering, please let us know contacting our office on 020 8373 6260 or email on information at enfieldvision dot org dot uk if you intend to come. Your cooperation is very much appreciated.
Enfield Vision's Christmas Party 2024 invitation is offered to our members, carers and family members, please see the Christmas Party invitation within this newsletter.
Javed has included a report in this newsletter on Enfield Vision's office rent issue and your management committee decision to move into Hot–Desking in Community House. I regret to say that we have no other option but to vacate our office to continue our work for visually impaired people. I believe you would appreciate this decision keeping in view the long–term future of the Enfield Vision.
I wish to see you at the Focus Day on Thursday 17th October 2024. Please bring a friend or a family member with you if you need to do so.
Diane de Jersey
Enfield Vision was founded in 1995; it received charitable status on 7th August 1997. Enfield Vision set up its first office at 263 High Street, Ponders End, EN3 4DW in 1998 at a very low rent of £200 per month. Enfield Vision had to move out of its old office in March 2016 when the property was auctioned by the landlord.
The new landlord was very unreasonable who demanded the rent which we could not afford, therefore we had to leave this office.
Under this situation, with the assistance of Nicky Nicolaou, then Manager Enfield Council Community Development Team, we leased the current office premises at the annual rent of £3,930 from Enfield Council at Community House from March 2016. It has been one of the terms of our lease that office rent will be increased at the rate of Retail Price Index called RPI every year. However, Enfield Council did not increase the rent from March 2018 as stipulated in the lease agreement. Now the Council has increased the rent at the rate of RPI backdated from March 2018 to be enforced from April 2024.
We have reported in the May 2024 newsletter that Enfield Council is increasing our office rent by 47% from April 2024. During the last three months we had meetings with Council officials managing the Council properties, lease and rent issues. We regret to report that Enfield Vision did not get a positive outcome from these meetings. Therefore, Enfield Vision is now liable to pay the new rent rate of £5,759 per annum from April 2024. In addition to office rent Enfield Vision has to pay for room hiring charges at Park Avenue Resource Centre for its Thursday Drop–ins.
A further blow to Enfield Vision is that Council is determined to recover the rent arrears accrued due to their own negligence for not enforcing the rent increased at RPI rate from March 2018.
With this predicament, Enfield Vision's management committee deliberated over the issues related to the office rent and rent arrears on 16th July 2024. The committee fully analysed the impact of rent arrears, rent increase by 47% on Enfield Vision's future, on its limited financial resources and current reserves.
Keeping in view the Enfield Vision's annual estimated income with annual estimated cost the committee regretted that Enfield Vision will not be able to continue its work for Visually Impaired People at current office premises due to annual rent liability. Enfield Vision is not in receipt of any statutory or local authority funding to carry out its work for Visually Impaired People. It means the charity will be closed down with in next couple of years due to the burden of current rent of £5,759 per annum that will certainly continue to be increased every year at RPI rate.
To avoid the above scenario of closing down the charity entirely, the committee unanimously agreed to explore the option of moving into Hot–Desking offered by Enfield Council Community Development Team. What this means is that Enfield Vision will vacate its current office premises at the second floor of Community House before the end of the current financial year, March 2025. Instead, Enfield Vision will use a shared office in Community House at the first floor, of course with a pro rata, day and time allotted to Enfield Vision.
We believe that Hot–Desking will free Enfield Vision from annual rent payments and the funds saved by moving into Hot–Desking will enable Enfield Vision to continue its activities for Visually Impaired People e.g. Park Avenue Thursday Drop–ins, annual Christmas Pary, annual Focus Day, and annual summer day trips.
Now Enfield Vision has initiated the process of moving into the Hot–Desking as described above with Enfield Council Community Development Team. There may some changes you would notice in the future due to the consequence of Enfield Vision moving into Hot–Desking that our contact telephone number may be changed.
We will keep you updated with all the changes as and when these happen. We are sure that Enfield Vision's members, supporters will stand with it through thick and thin to keep the charity going as they have done since 1995 when it was founded.
This is a little early Christmas Party invitation for readers of this newsletter. We send you a reminder in November for the party, if not please keep save this date in your diary.
On behalf of Enfield Vision's management committee, I would like to invite you to our Christmas party, which will be held on Monday 2nd December 2024 between the hours of 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm at Park Avenue Resource Centre 65c Park Avenue, Bush Hill Park, Enfield, EN1 2HL.
There will be Food & Drink, a Grand Raffle and entertainment by the singer "Jackie" and all are welcome.
To help us with catering for everyone, please contact us on 020 8373 6260 and leave message on the answer phone to let us know if you are coming.
Yours sincerely
James Finch
Secretary
We posted you member's contact details forms in May 2024 along with our Newsletter Volume 48 to update our database. Nearly sixty members have responded by providing their up–to–date details. We appreciate your cooperation in assisting us to update our database.
However, we have observed that only 30% of members have provided their email contacts to communicate with them. We only use your email contact for providing you an electronic copy of Enfield Vision newsletter and other various pieces of information which we receive from external sources for the welfare of visually impaired people. Therefore, we request you to provide Enfield Vision with an email contact, provided you have one, to communicate with you. Please send a message with your name to information at enfieldvision dot org dot uk. We will add your email contact to our email contact list. We look forward to your response in this matter.
Dial–a–Ride is a service run by Transport for London (TfL) which is mainly free a door–to–door community transport service for people with a permanent or long–term disability or health problem who are unable, or virtually unable to use public transport. In 2019, there were around 40,000 members of the scheme.
For more information, please visit the Dial–a–Ride website.
You have to become a member to use Dial–a–Ride.
You must have a permanent or long–term disability which means you are unable to use public transport.
You are automatically eligible for membership if you are:
If none of the above apply to you, you may still be able to join Dial–a–Ride but you will have to undergo a paper–based mobility assessment to establish your eligibility for the service.
You can apply for Dial–a–Ride if you are a permanent or temporary resident of a London borough. If you are applying for a temporary membership, you will need to provide evidence of using a similar service at your place of residence.
To apply, download the form from their website at
https://content.tfl.gov.uk/dial-a-ride-application-form.pdf
complete it, and post it to:
Dial–a–Ride
Assisted Transport Services
PO Box 68799
You can also phone them on 0343 222 7777 (call charges may apply) to request an application form.
Held at Park Avenue Disability
Resource Centre, 65c Park Avenue,
Bush Hill Park, Enfield, EN1 2HL
Drop–ins run from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm
Thursday Drop–ins at Park Avenue 2024:
We are a self–help group run by volunteers who are blind or partially sighted.
The group aims to promote awareness and understanding of the needs of visually impaired people resident in London Borough of Enfield.
Please call us at the Enfield Vision office if you want:
