WALTHAM FOREST - ONE COMMUNITY This Blog provides information about our Community in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. Please send your contributions to wfoc10@gmail.com
Friday, 24 February 2017
Marlowe Road
Work has started on rebuilding the whole estate. The recently installed play areas and plaza have been removed and work starts soon on building new shops to replace the existing ones.
Mini Holland 24-2-17
MINI HOLLAND
Healthy Streets
Campaign to reopen our streets
Sadiq backs MH
Lea Bridge Road update
Markhouse Village work is underway despite the web site denying it!!
Markhouse Village
Forest Road
Highams Park
Healthy Streets
Campaign to reopen our streets
Sadiq backs MH
Lea Bridge Road update
Markhouse Village work is underway despite the web site denying it!!
Markhouse Village
Forest Road
Highams Park
Spring Clean Time
Dear Councillor
RE. Spring Clean 2017 Friday 17th, Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th March
Waltham Forest Council is running its 7th Spring Clean next month and we’re looking for local schools, resident groups and businesses to roll up their sleeves and help improve their local community. Since our first Spring Clean in 2011 we’ve had over 10,000 volunteers planting flowers, painting, pruning trees and litter picking in our local areas and this year we’re looking to get more people signed up than ever before. We provide all of the tools, materials and support on the day and even clear away any waste afterwards, now we just need some keen volunteers. Friday is set aside just for school-run projects and Saturday and Sunday are open to everyone else.
If you know any community groups in your area who might be interested please pass on this information as well as the attached poster. Likewise if you’d like to organise your own event, then please get in touch! All entries should be emailed to mcdu@walthamforest.gov.uk by Friday 3rd March with the date and what equipment you need, for more information please visit https://www.walthamforest.
Kind Regards
Paul Tickner
Neighbourhoods & Major Contracts
Contracts Compliance Manager
London Borough of Waltham Forest
Tel: 020 8496 1044 | Ext: 1044
Mob: 07583904057
Carefree Kids
Dear All
As you might know, Carefree Kids charity recently held our first poetry competition, and have produced a beautiful booklet of the winning poems, kindly financed by Stow Brothers, the estate agent in Walthamstow. It is called 'Crying for the Lost Tigers' - a poignant line from one of the poems.
We will launch the booklet on Saturday 18th March from 2pm - 4pm at Ye Olde Rose and Crown pub, 53 Hoe Street, Walthamstow E17 (downstairs room, child friendly). You and your friends and family are warmly invited. There will be light refreshments.
Every poet who entered (aged 6 years upwards to mature adulthood), whether or not they won, has been invited to read out a poem. You are also invited to bring something to read out or say.
There will be a chance to buy a booklet, meet the poets and learn more about Carefree Kids. We will also have handmade cards and other handmade goods for sale.
We do hope you can come. (John Hegley has been invited - no word yet.) Let me know if you would like a booklet but can't come.
Poetic greetings
Ros
Please note: I do not look at emails all the time, so if urgent, please phone me on 0208 555 5248.
Also, emails do not reach me. so please phone if I have not responded within a few days.
Response to Town Centre Exhibition
WALTHAMSTOW
TOWN CENTRE EXHIBITION
Having visited the Town Centre exhibition in
the Mall (24th and 25th
February) we were very disappointed to see the lack of detail. It was more like
the regular update the council has been providing for decades about their plans
for the Town Centre. This was the second public consultation by Capital and
Regional and was not of the standard we have come to expect. It covered far
more than their scheme so why was the council not leading the exhibition? It
also lacked any detail of what is proposed which then begs the following
questions:
- One of the display boards reporting on the
last consultation stated “55% indicated overall support”. We petitioned
the public and got 2,000 signatures during the summer and we would argue
most people that bothered to stop were against it. Because Capital and
Regional (C&R) have been sparing with their information most people do
not have the information to have an informed view.
- Design – C&R state Walthamstow has a
“unique character” which is why people want to live here. Their plans will
ruin this feeling. There is very little detail available but the design is
not compatible with the Victorian nature of the High Street and a 29
storey tower block will be an eyesore as the highest building nearby is 14
storeys. The council’s Design Supplementary Planning Document on tall
buildings warns about the “impact and local and strategic views” – there
was no information about this impact. The Design policy also states
“Impact on microclimate for example wind, sun and reflection”, we know
this information will have to be provided when the planning application is
submitted but surely they could reveal how much work they have done to cover
off these points?
- Entrance – because the detail has not been
provided it was not entirely clear but it seems the entrance to the
shopping centre will be between two 6 storey buildings giving it an
unattractive tunnel like feel.
- Congestion – the Town Centre and market
are already very congested and busy. Creating over 500 homes for a 1,000
more people will just make it far worse.
- Construction – we managed to establish there will be 6 tower blocks built over the existing shopping centre one of which will be 29 storeys high. We are not engineers but how do they intend to do the piling work to support these blocks while the shopping centre continues to function? Even if the engineers have come up with some clever way of piling quietly surely parts of the shopping centre will need to be closed while the work is in progress? This will mean serious loss of business for the shopkeepers.
- Access to the site – as everyone knows the roads around the Town Centre are clogged with traffic so how will the vital supplies for the building work be brought to site? Drivers are already being told to keep clear of the area while the gyratory system is being rebuilt, will it be necessary to keep people away for even longer which can only have a detrimental effect on the economy of the Town Centre? Shopping Centres are already under threat from online shopping and increase in Business Rates this is likely to be the final nail in the coffin for the Town Centre.
- Bus Station – for years there has been talk of improving the bus station but this plan clearly leaves no space to expand the bus station so the overcrowding will just get worse.
- Open Space – C&R state there will be “over 2 acres of enhanced public space” but that is a significant reduction as they will be building over a large part of the existing open space which is well used during the summer.
- Cafes – the plan shows cafes in front of the old BHS building which will be a good thing as it will bring alive this dead frontage.
-
We urge you to demand C&R come back with a proper display to show the detail of what the new scheme will look like in its context, how they propose constructing 6 tower blocks on top of a working shopping centre and what they intend to do to mitigate the traffic disruption accessing the site. This scheme is very expensive and will have marginal benefits to the economy of the Town Centre and will not create a pleasant place to live.
Town Centre 29 Storey plans exhibition
Town Centre Plans
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