Hi all,

It’s taken us an age to produce a first newsletter, so apologies for that. The good news is that BAG now has over 120 members and hopes to continue growing and getting stronger.

Contact us or join here.

Without any further ado here’s what’s been happening in the last few months:

FUN DAY

A big thanks to everyone who came to the first Blackhorse Action Group Fun Day a couple of months back.  It was great to see people learning juggling skills, painting flowerpots, making badges, having a go on the ‘energy bike’, and having their face painted by Big Brother’s Carol Vincent.
We hope you also enjoyed the opportunity to find out a bit more about what you can get involved with in the local area, from community gardening…
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Question: You’re a council caught closing a local library without bothering to tell the community who use it, all to save £70,000. The governments audit commission savages your actions, the lawyers point out it breaks legal guidelines, local residents mount open air libraries in protest and the scrutiny committee gives you 6 months to consult the community.

Do you?
A: Apologise profusely while speedily conducting a consultation with simple no-nonsense questions like… oh let me think… how about… “Do you want St James Street Library reopened?” or even “How often did you use St. James St Library”?

B: Spend months avoiding any form of…
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The council wants your views on the Blackhorse Lane re-development, and more importantly who pays for and is obliged to provide what. Here’s what the council says:
“The draft Planning Obligations Strategy for Waltham Forest has now been published for consultation. As part of this there is a specific area based strategy for Blackhorse Lane which sets out how developers will be expected to contribute to the cost of schools, parks, public transport and street improvements through ‘Section 106’ payments”.
Fully understood..? Don’t worry its much less clear than it at first appears!

Essentially building lots of housing is guaranteed (it’s where the money is (or at least was). Everything else like access to green space, improving the night time economy (the…
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“New York, New York, It’s a wonderful town” (youtube clip)

Walthamstow Town Centre’s the place to be on Saturday the 12th July for a free open air big screen showing of the classic Hollywood musical “On The Town”.

Starring Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Betty Garrett and the music of Leonard Bernstein, it features some of Hollywood’s most celebrated dance sequences and routines. The film follows the exploits of three young sailors looking for love on an eventful day’s shore leave in New York.

The event will commence with a live appearance by the John Garfield Swing Band performing classic songs of the period including their own tribute to Frank Sinatra.

Bring blankets, picnics, friends and dancing shoes for a relaxed evening of…
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The Hornbeam Organic Veg Box Scheme is ready to go!
Locally run and supplying local produce every week. Sign up from July 2nd 2008.

How will it work?
You can pick up your box every Wednesday, from 3.30pm – 7.30pm, at the Hornbeam Centre (at 458 Hoe Street, close to the Baker’s Arms junction). The scheme is collection only, but if enough people in the Blackhorse area are interested they may consider delivering en masse. They can also make alternative pick up arrangements if you can’t make it on a Wednesday.

A few BAG members used the scheme when it first ran, and reported back very favourably.

Which box should I order?

Here are the box choices, with options for every size of household.

Standard veg bag - £41 per calendar month (equivalent cost per…
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The North London Waste Plan have declared their consultation period with residents to be over.

The results are summarised in a whopper of a PDF file on their site; you can look at it here.

There are several references to the Blackhorse area including this about residents opinion:
A significant number of respondents expressed specific opposition to the use of the Blackhorse Lane area for new waste facilities because of potential negative impacts on residential amenity, health and the local transport network. In addition, the development of waste facilities in this area is seen by some to be incompatible with the current and proposed future regeneration of the area…
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45 GRAND TO SPEND

If you had a few thousand pounds to improve your area, what would you spend it on? That was the question put to residents at the Walthamstow West Community Council this month. Each of the four wards in Walthamstow West have £10,000 to spend this year, along with an extra £5,000 to spend on projects that cover the whole ward (Total: £45,000).
Residents have until June the 23rd to submit their ideas (see here for details). In previous years the money’s gone on projects as diverse as Basketball hoops for kids to a charity providing motorised scooters for the elderly. So what would you spend…
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A couple of hundred people, tv crews from BBC & ITV News, and lots of feedback from locals concerned about the glut of tower blocks planned for Walthamstow. Sunday’s demo (June 1st), organised by Fight The Height was a resounding success.

With leaflets winging their way around the area, the first part of BAG’s campaign against the 23 storey (230ft high) tower block at Blackhorse Road is also well under way and we have to say a big thank you to all the appalled and mostly unaware residents who have submitted comments. PLEASE KEEP THEM COMING (see a selection below the form)!
TO STOP A 23 STOREY TOWER BLOCK BEING BUILT AT BLACKHORSE ROAD…
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Do you want the future of Blackhorse Rd to be tonnes of high-rise concrete and more congestion?

The 23-STOREY, 230 FEET HIGH BLOCK is part of a planned ‘super-density’ housing development near the station, with OVER 400 FLATS for up to 1,000 people in 10 TOWER BLOCKS, squeezed into only 1.7 hectares (thats less than two football pitches).

The huge buildings are far higher than any other in the area (mostly two storey Victorian terraces) and will create a precedent for more tower blocks in Walthamstow. It will also add hundreds more people to the rush hour crushes in cars, buses, tubes and trains. There’s also a much larger development planned for the area north of Forest Road, adding even more people and cars…
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Join Fight The Height for a demo against the councils plans to cover Walthamstow with numerous huge tower blocks.

It’s at noon this Sunday, 1st June in Walthamstow town square so why not combine visiting the demo with a trip to the farmers market (10-2pm).

Buy some organic preserves, and preserve the Victorian skyline at the same time!…
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