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 up to £10,000 on? You can suggest smaller ideas, i.e., ten £1,000 ideas might get chosen.
A youth project? Benches for the town centre? Its up to you.

My own unnecessarily flippant suggestion was a fish tank for St James Street Library - the one in the main library was a snip at £7,263 - there’d even be a few thousand left over for … oh what’s that other thing libraries are meant to have…?

Groups can apply for funding for projects which will benefit residents, with a deadline of August 4th.

BLACKHORSE ROAD NEWSLETTER

One resident brandished a copy of the June “Blackhorse Lane Newsletter” (Read here) and questioned why the council were forcing “super-high density” tower blocks into the cramped space by Blackhorse Road tube (with no community space or gardens) when redevelopment’s at Sutherland Road & Paper Mill boasted community gardens, and much lower heights.

WILLOWFIELD SCHOOL

At a previous community meeting BAG asked why the council preferred building the new Willowfield School on a greenbelt flood plane (Douglas Eyre Playing fields) rather than at sites opposite its present location or on the same site as the George Monoux College?
Simon Newland, Head of Capital Strategy & Planning has this reply:

The Council has undertaken an extensive search for sites, which meet requirements for a school site for a 900 pupil school. This search is continuing. One criteria is that the site is reasonably close to the current school site. Monoux College is not. All the land adjoining the current Willowfield School site is heavily developed and owned by a range of different parties. The Douglas Eyre Playing Filed has a number of disadvantages, but in terms of location and access to open space and playing fields, would be very suitable for a school.
We have provided thousands of pages of information to various local residents under Freedom of Information Act, linked to the Blackhorse Lane Action Group.

BIG SCREEN / BIG NOISE?

Not content with chairing the community council, Philip Herlihy also knocked up an “artists impression” of the big screen planned for the grass by the children’s play area in Walthamstow Town Square. Despite 39 letters of objection, the screen was conditionally approved this week although planning permission is only until the Olympics.
The 7am to 11pm operating hours were rejected, and new times will now have to be resubmitted (I imagine the operators submitted such ridiculously long operating times in a bid to look as if they are being flexible by cutting them down).

BLACKHORSE ROAD CYCLE RACKS

At Januarys Community Council meeting Stella Creasy asked if Tfl could both install more and fix the existing cycle racks at Blackhorse Road tube station. A resident expressed his shock at the council’s response that a secure shed would cost a quarter of a million pounds!!

Here’s the response in full:

Gina Harkell, Principle Transport Officer:
We could replace the existing stands with Sheffield stands but we have been bidding for funding from TfL every year for the past four years for a secure bike shed here. One of our arguments is the poor condition of existing bike stands so we are loathe to put in new ones as this will reduce the strength of our argument. We think our best chance is to build the new shed with Section 106 funds as part of Blackhorse Lane regeneration. A secure shed would cost about £250,000 as it would need to be built on the embankment.

Visit the excellent unofficial Walthamstow West Community Council website for details of the next meeting, and minutes for previous community councils.

The meeting will be at Chapel End Junior School, and you can download the agenda here: http://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/280108-agenda.pdf It would be great to see as many residents as possible there!

It would be great if as many people as possible went along to the next Community Council meeting. It’s a great opportunity to raise our concerns about the Willowfield School proposals, and the development at BHL2.

All meetings start at 7.30pm. Refreshments served from 7.15pm.

You can see agendas and minutes here. When the council gets round to posting them. Otherwise, contact:

Alessandra Awolowo
Committee Management Team
Waltham Forest Town Hall
Forest Road
Walthamstow
LONDON E17 4JF
0208 496 4862
Alessandra.Awolowo@walthamforest.gov.uk

Next Monday sees a Walthamstow West Community Council meeting at Walthamstow Academy on Billet Road. (Map) Take a look at the agenda. It kicks off at 7:30pm, but you can arrive earlier and have a cuppa at 7:15pm

Community Council meetings are an excellent way to try to hold the council to account. We’ve been asking them to tell us what they know for some time, and their evasive responses have drawn censure from everyone that heard the, including the Chair.

It’s vital that we keep the pressure up and put as many of us as possible should try to go along so that they know we’re watching! And if you do go, why not email us a report of how you thought it went…

You can also put your questions to:

Shirley Haynes
Community Council Officer
Tel 020 8496 3000
Email shirley.haynes@walthamforest.gov.uk