Annual General Meeting 2026

Last updated on 17 June 2026

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our Annual General Meeting on 10th June. This year we moved to St Catherine of Siena Church Hall on Leatherhead Road. The hall offered more parking and gave us the chance to meet in a different part of our neighbourhood. We were delighted to welcome two knowledgeable and engaging speakers: Daniel Sykes of Surrey Police and local historian Mark Davison. Below is a round up of the evening’s discussions and updates.

Chairman’s report – Colin Punch

Colin opened the meeting by reflecting on a busy year of community action. Much of CDRA’s work has focused on the major development proposals affecting Chessington:

• Hook Park (Clayton Road) – 2,000 homes
• Former Chessington Golf Centre – 256 homes

CDRA continues to strongly oppose both developments, which would place significant pressure on local infrastructure and alter the character of our area.

Colin also highlighted growing concerns about the rise in Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs). We fully support Kingston Council’s efforts to introduce an Article 4 Direction, which would give the council greater control over conversions that currently do not require planning permission.

Another ongoing issue is the former coal yard at Chessington South, now occupied by Express Concrete. CDRA is actively engaging with the owners and operators to address residents’ concerns.

Colin then spoke about the long-standing problems at Charles Lesser House, the borough’s only council owned accommodation for residents aged 55+. Safety, communication and maintenance issues continue to be raised by tenants, and CDRA remains committed to advocating for improvements and proper oversight.

Community project and positive news

Despite the challenges, there has been plenty to celebrate this year.

• 50th Anniversary Projects: Our Chessington Memories initiative for our anniversary year in 2025 was a great success, and two new public benches have now been installed: one at Hook Parade and another at North Parade.
• Barn Owl Box Project: Working with the Men’s Shed at the King’s Centre, Champion Timber at Malden Rushett, and Citizen Zoo, we helped deliver three new barn owl boxes for Tolworth Court Farm Fields. Now we just need the owls to move in.
• Local Election Hustings: In April we hosted a well attended hustings ahead of the local elections. Thank you to all residents and candidates who took part.
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• Celebrate Chessington: We were delighted to run a stall at this year’s event on Churchfields Recreation Ground. Attendance was excellent, the atmosphere was lively, and—thankfully—the weather was warm but not as extreme as last year’s heatwave.

Treasurer’s report – Diane Brannan

Diane presented the financial accounts for the year. Membership subscriptions were slightly down on last year. The accounts reflected the investment in the two community benches. Diane mentioned that some expenses are biennial e.g. website hosting and therefore would be met in next year’s accounts.

Speaker 1: Daniel Sykes, Cyber Protect Officer, Surrey Police

Daniel gave an accessible and engaging session about how to keep us and our families safe online, offering practical, easy-to-follow tips to keep one step ahead of the cyber-criminal.

Here are Daniel’s top ten tips for keeping safe online:

1. Secure your email and bank accounts as a priority.
2. Have separate passwords for each of your accounts, apps and websites; keep them in a notebook – it’s OK to write them down.
3. Regularly update the operating systems on your devices and apps.
4. Never trust a phone number you don’t recognise.
5. Set up Passkeys where available for all your devices. Go to Settings and then Security/Privacy to do this.
6. Phishing: if a call or message is unexpected – don’t believe it.
7. Check suspicious email and web addresses. Is the ‘s’ on ‘https’ missing? Do not visit the website.
8. Don’t pay for things or read out codes over the phone.
9. Never enter sensitive or personal data on AI tools.
10. Use the Police Cyber Check for step-by-step guidance to improve your cybersecurity.

Read our guide: A plain-English guide to avoid online fraud

Speaker 2: Mark Davison, historian and author

Mark has become a popular and entertaining speaker at our AGMs for the past two years. This year his talk was about Old Hook, from rural farming hamlet to busy suburb of Kingston borough. He shared some fascinating insights into the area and the characters who lived there.

Read more about old Hook and Chessington