Woman secures £5k for jubilee decorations (From Sutton Guardian)

Businesswoman in North Cheam secured £5k to decorate the area

7:40am Saturday 19th May 2012 in News By James Pepper

A businesswomen dressed head to toe in the Union Jack secured £5,000 to decorate North Cheam ahead of the Queen's Jubilee.

Ushma Amin, a director at Londis supermarket on London Road, successfully applied to Sutton Council for a Participatory Budget.

Dressed in a Union Jack-themed outfit, Mrs Amin wowed a committee on May 5 with her enthusiasm and managed to convince the panel to give North Cheam £5,000 to "spruce things up".

The plans include bunting and hanging baskets for the shops on London Road and also some huge Union Jack banners for the destitute Victoria House building.

It was announced last month a buyer had been found for Victoria House, but Mrs Amin said the building, which is a blight on the landscape, needed decorating.

She said: "The whole road needs a revamp and I really wanted to help. I have been involved in the trading association for 20 years and I thought with the jubilee coming up and also with the Olympics around the corner, I thought we should celebrate."

Although the money is yet to come through, Mrs Amin, along with Steve Eldridge from Steve's Card Shop on London Road, will assess how the money should be spent.

"There are at least 100 shops on this strip and we want to get them all involved."

After watching short presentations from around 20 organisations, about 50 local people voted using electronic keypads on which projects they thought deserved funding.

Councillor Adrian Davey, Chair of Cheam North and Worcester Park Local Committee, said: "This was a great opportunity for local people to tell us directly what their priorities are and how we should be spending their money.

"I’m delighted so many people got involved and I was really impressed by the ideas they had."

Among the other recipients of the funding were local Guides for a new mini-bus, also seats bins and a path in a popular park and a school crossing

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