MapRA email 5 December

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Christmas Carols

The Mapesbury Dell carols are back this year: 630pm on Tuesday 14 December, with usual excellent mulled wine, mince pies, Father Xmas and more. Sing with the Salvation Army Band and St Gabriel's Church Choir.

Also Cricklewood Library will be having a smaller carol singing event outside the Library on next Sunday 12 Dec 530-630pm. Mince pies and mulled wine. Download a song sheet to print at home because never have enough, and it's probably best not to share.

Free Community Christmas Dinner on Christmas Day

Cricklewood Baptist church are again this year doing a free community Christmas dinner on Christmas Day. People can join for the service at 10.30am or join for lunch at 1.00pm and stay for games, quizzes etc until 6pm. If you would like to volunteer, or attend please be in touch at: admin@cricklewoodbc.org espond to mapesbury.snt@met.police.uk

Scams reported by Which magazine

HMRC tax scams. HMRC has released a fraud warning urging all self-assessment taxpayers to watch out for fake tax communications ahead of the tax return deadline on 31 January. Many HMRC related scams are occurring – scammers will commonly text or email people to say they’re owed a tax rebate from HMRC, often with a link that asks the person to fill out their personal details in order to claim it.

Impersonation scams on WhatsApp. Fraudsters are posing as family members on WhatsApp in order to manipulate victims into transferring money. You receive an unexpected but genuine text message from WhatsApp containing a verification code. The text is triggered by fraudsters entering your number into WhatsApp in an attempt to log in to your account. Next, one of your 'contacts' will message you via the app to try and persuade you to give them the code you’ve just received. Some steps you can take to further protect your WhatsApp account.

Omicron variant PCR test phishing. Wasting no time at all, scammers are already sending fake emails about the new Omicron variant of Covid, with the aim of stealing personal data and bank details.

Bike from Burglary

Another member in Melrose Avenue had a similar experience about a month ago. She found a bike in the back garden belonging to their neighbour. Presumably thief trapped by lean-to shed, so abandoned it.

Density perception study

Jacob Karlsson from London School of Economics, thanks people who helped with his study of housing density perception and acceptance. After some delay due to the pandemic, the results of the study have been published. Link: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/111820/. Concludes that building design features can make housing devts more acceptable especially at low to medium density (At high density the perception and acceptability of density are more influenced by people’s views on, for example, the extent of London’s housing crisis. )

Current local Planning applications
(For details search Brent Planning. New items in red)

Appn: 21/4313 . 15 Hoveden Road. Comments by 30 December

Replacement of all windows to the front elevation in timber to match existing and replacement of all rear windows and doors with uPVC to block of flats

Other

Brent Vaccine bus and vaccination pop-up schedule. Link
Virus Support information. Book free covid test. https://www.brent.gov.uk/covidtesting
Guide to tradesmen and services. https://mapra.org.uk/local-traders
Ashford Place https://www.ashfordplace.org.uk/;
Cricklewood Library update; Including crowd-funder appeal for new cafe
Latest from Brent Council Local Business, Covid Variant
Culture in Brent: Celibrating multi-faith community
Brent Environment Network. Climate – what next
London National Park City Network Newsletter

MapRA Facebook page.https://www.facebook.com/mapesburyRA
Gerry Weston https://www.mapra.org.uk/