Still some hope for the Standard Music Venue?

There’s an unexpected glimmer of hope for both local bands and live music fans hit by the closure of the borough’s one remaining dedicated venue, The Standard, in December. It was bought by TFC Supermarkets, a Turkish supermarket chain and the site was boarded up in Mid January. The retention of The Standard was a [...]

£1 Million for lifts at Blackhorse Road station

Thanks to the Higham Hill blog for pointing us in the direction of news that Blackhorse Road Railway station has been awarded funding to install two new lifts. The improvements are being made as part of the Department for Transport’s Access for All scheme which aims to improve access to railway stations. 980k will be spent [...]

Fruit tree planting day @ The Mill

The garden squad will be planting fruit trees in the small garden of The Mill on Saturday 3rd of December from 11am – 1pm. Everybody is welcome to join and help with the planting! As part of the vision of creating an edible and wildlife garden we are planting a redcurrant bush and an apple [...]

TFC Turkish supermarket confirmed for Standard Music Venue

Since the summer the rumour has been that the much loved Standard Music Venue had been bought by a Turkish Supermarket chain, but BAG can now confirm this. Waltham Forest’s only dedicated live music venue – serving the area for over 25 years – is destined to become a TFC supermarket. Where this leaves the [...]

Blackhorse Lane Area Action Plan Meeting + Deadline Extension

If you want to send your views to the council with regards the Blackhorse Lane Area Action Plan, please note that the dealine has been extended untill Friday the 14th Oct at 5pm. The planning department have granted us an extension till then. This was agreed at the meeting we had on Wednesday (5th October) [...]

£10 million plan to open up Walthamstow reservoirs

The BBC have announced that Thames Water in conjunction with Hackney, Haringey and Waltham Forest Council are hoping to raise 10 million pounds to open up the Walthamstow reservoirs as a nature reserve and wetlands centre. The reservoirs are already open to any member of the public willing to trek down Forest Road with a [...]

Residents Survey 2010-11 Results

It seems surveys are like buses, the national census campaign is underway and last week the council asked for your views on the future of the Blackhorse Lane area. Now BAG can finally reveal the results of its first large scale survey of residents. We distributed over 2000 questionnaires in the area as well as [...]

Tesco say “Express store planned for December 2011″

A number of residents have been in touch asking for the latest news regarding the former Essex Arms site, and Tesco’s plans to build an Express store and flats on the site. Since the pub itself was demolished in early 2010 there has been no information about the opening date or when building work would [...]

Trio of upto eight storey flats planned at St James Street

UPDATE: The Waltham Forest Guardian says objections to the plans can be submitted up until the 31st of Jan. “Private company PHCC East London Ltd wants to build a health centre in one of the units with 19 flats above, with shops and 45 flats in the other structure. The application states that both blocks, [...]

Merry Christmas and a happy new year

Residents Survey 2010

Loading… Many thanks for taking the time to complete this survey

St James St Library Public Meeting – Sunday 28th Nov

Find out about this last chance to save the building for the community and have your say…What do you think should happen to it? We need the community to come along and show their support. The meeting is organised by a collective of residents groups working to try to secure a future for the St [...]

Library campaigners banking on the Big Society

Walthamstow campaigners are racing against the clock to save their former library. And they’re calling on David Cameron’s planned Big Society Bank to back them. Waltham Forest council wants to auction the St James Street Library building, valued at £350,000. But it has given protesters till the end of the year to offer an alternative. If they [...]

Community bid to buy or share St James St Library building

Questions in Parliament, delayed auctions, Lib Dem protests, community council bids rejected, plus meetings with councillors and potentially government ministers… its been a busy month for resident groups campaigning to keep the St James Street Library building as a community facility. Politicians from all three main parties are now all – to differing degrees – [...]

Walthamstow Dogs – Independent survey

Having left Walthamstow’s much loved stadium to rot for two and a half years, L&Q recently decided to conduct a survey into residents views. Why they needed to do this when residents have made their views clear time and time again is unclear. Now Save Our Stow- the campaign group for the dog track – [...]

Still waiting… Residents frustrated by lack of answers on St James St Library

After persistent campaigning for over 3 years, residents were told this summer (pre-Election) that Waltham Forest Council would like the St James Street Library building to be a space for the whole community, just as residents have been asking for years. Campaigners from St James Street Library campaign and Blackhorse Action Group organised a ‘Love [...]

Coppermill Park – update on work

Firstly apologies to all the residents who got in touch back in late May/early June to ask about the new Coppermill play area.  The whole site was strewn with rubbish, while work on finishing it had ground to a halt. Thats before mentioning the completely mishandled consultation process. We got in touch with all 3 High Street [...]

New Willowfield school scrapped

Two months after pupils exhibited their ideas for the new build PFI Willowfield school, the scheme has today (July 5th) been scrapped by Education secretary Michael Gove. All other BSF projects in Walthamstow were also halted. FULL LIST OF BSF PROJECTS SCRAPPED (PDF) While residents were concerned at possible plans for housing above the school [...]

Come along and Love St James St Library on the 3rd of July

WE NEED YOUR HELP! Come along on Saturday the 3rd of July for a “Love the St James St. Library“ event. 11am to 4pm at the Library building on Coppermill Lane. Kids (and adults) can decorate the building with pictures and ideas for how it could be used for the benefit of the community.  There’ll [...]

Walthamstow Central public exhibition of plans

Plans for the redevelopment of Walthamstow Station were unveiled to the public at the weekend (14th/15th May). Considering the scale of the development, there appears to have been barely any publicity for the event held in Walthamstow Library. Its part of a 500 million pound deal for Solum Regeneration (a partnership between Kier & Network [...]

Vote Library!

The Walthamstow Cinema campaign recently published a list detailing the views of all candidates & councillors on the EMD.  Anyone who wants a cinema in E17 should visit here and vote accordingly (in short most MP’s in favour,  Labour councillors want EMD building restored but not necessarily as a cinema, All High Street Lib Dems for). Now, the [...]

Walthamstow Wide Web #1

In this – the first of an irregular feature highlighting Walthamstow on the World Wide Web – we look at some of the videos uploaded in the last month or so. First up a lovely music video by the much hyped band Temper Trap, filmed on Walthamstow Marshes during the recent cold spell. Its odd [...]

Walthamstow Election 2010

Local & National elections take place on the 6th of May. WALTHAMSTOW MP CANDIDATES Farid Ahmed – Liberal Democrat (Website/Facebook) Daniel Perrett – Green (Website/Twitter/Facebook) Stella Creasy – Labour (Website/Twitter/Facebook) – Youtube Film / Stella on Brown Andy Hemsted – Conservative (Facebook) Nancy Taaffe – Trade Unionist and Socialist (Website/Facebook/Twitter) – Youtube video Judith Chisholm-Benli [...]

Seed Sowing and Swapping: Sat 10th April

Dear local gardeners, Please come to BAG’s next gardening event – a seed sowing and swapping event. Saturday 10th April from 2.30-4.30, next to the Douglas Eyre Sports Pavilion, Coppermill Lane, E17. (Go along the side of the Pavilion and the community garden is to the right of the football pitches) Come along and: Find [...]