On Saturday the 16th of August a few thousand of Walthamstow and Chingford’s diverse community enjoyed a cheap, fun and family night out at the dogs for probably the last time. For over 75 years “The Stow” has been Walthamstow’s flagship, a source of local pride and the constant reply of people when told you live in Walthamstow… “Oh with the dog track…that’s a great night out!”

The footage above from 1937, 1968, 1986 and this year looks back at some of the people that graced Walthamstow Stadium during its 75 years.

BAG will continue to support the fight to reopen the stadium and stop it being turned into highrise flats but for the latest news head over to Saveourstow.co.uk.

The final Saturday was marked by hundreds marching on the town hall to present the 15,000 signatures gathered in just 2 weeks supporting the campaign to keep the stadium open.
Local MP’s Neil Gerrard and Ian Duncan Smith condemned attempts to portray the closure as unavoidable or as The Chandlers span it “regrettably we had no choice“. Echoing those that saw last years closure of Charlie Chan’s night club as a sign the owners wanted the stadium closed, they said the track had been under advertised, and systematically run down in order to portray its sale as tragic but financially unavoidable.

Campaigner Ricky Holloway saved the final shock till last, revealing that the Chandlers had agreed to sell the stadium on July the 6th 2007. For the following 9 months they (I’m struggling not to use the word lied here) denied there was any plans to sell when asked by MP’s (both local MP’s confirmed this), trainers and race goers. Trainers renewed leases on their kennels, remortgaged their homes and bought new dogs as a result of an emergency meeting in November 07 where Charles Chandler told them the track was not for sale, having agreed to developers “right to buy” some five months earlier.

WHERE DO THINGS STAND NOW?

London and Quadrant will take formal ownership of the stadium on September the 1st and plan to turn the site into flats, some of which will be “affordable“. A consortium wishing to continue dog racing at the Stow have already offered the developers a 1 million pound profit on their purchase are meeting with L&Q and their legal team on the 17th September.

Local filmmaker Jonathan Brind reports that over the last week “seating and fixtures have been systematically stripped out of the stadium. It would now cost a relatively large fortune to refurbish it“. Not exactly the actions of people who have any interest in the Stadium remaining open, even on a short term lease, rather than let the site sit and rot while the current housing market collapse makes quick redevelopment very unlikely.

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The following is republished from Save Our Stow’s website detailing what you can do to help:

Things you can do to help and issues at stake
Every London Borough is extremely challenged for housing that the local population can afford and any chance to build affordable housing is jumped up. However, we feel the loss of the Stadium far out weighs the gain…

What you can do:

Please email info@saveourstow.co.uk if you have any questions at all.

The level of support is growing, together we can make a difference, thank you

Remember in 2007 when the dreaded early closure of the Victoria Line was due to end, then 2008 arrived and it was announced it would be closing at 10pm again all the way until November. Now BBC London has revealed that the early closures are likely to restart after a brief pause for Christmas and New year.

No details are available yet, but expect pretty much the same as this year, and BBC London reports that upgrade work will not be fully complete until 2012.

Read the full story on BBC London, including a look at the new trains, although there are no answers as what to do when you forget and turn up at the tube station at 10.01 expecting to get home.

With Walthamstow Dogs scheduled to hold its last race on Saturday 16th August, the fight to save the stadium from the bulldozer has received extensive press and TV coverage. Consortiums who want to continue racing at The Stow have put in bids to buy or lease the track from the housing developers who have no planning permission and in the current climate are likely to leave the track to rot for years.

The fight continues with a march from the stadium to the town hall this Saturday. A message from the Save Our Stow team:

Please join us at the track before 12pm on Saturday 16 August 2008 for a march to the Town Hall in Walthamstow.
There is a real chance of winning this if we all pull together. Please promote this march as much as possible and as quickly as possible using all means available.

You can get more news from the Save Our Stow blog or by joining the Facebook group.

The Guardian has run several stories on the proposed closure, including the superb short film below, and the story of the effort to save it here.
There’s more, click here to read more…

The Walthamstow Town Centre big screen was plugged in at lunchtime today (6th August) with environmental health officers overseeing the turn on.  Officials wandered around the square to test what the sound levels were like at various points. Workers in Nat West bank told them they could hear the TV in their upstairs offices but it “wasn’t intrusive“. A small child commented “Mummy Look at the massive telly!”

Permission was granted by the council for the screen to broadcast video and sound of major sporting events, cultural activities and council information between the hours of 7am and 11pm. Keep your eyes peeled for a big advert informing passers-by they can have a pee in McDonalds.

The Waltham Forest Guardian reports that “Officers urged councillors to vote in favour of the proposals, saying that the screen would put Walthamstow on the map“.  So stand by East17, coach loads of tourists are heading this way to watch BBC News24 on a big screen. Much better than having something silly like a globally famous dog track putting us on the map!
There’s more, click here to read more…

Tesco have leafleted residents of the Blackhorse Road area about their plans for a Tesco Express store on the site of the former Essex Arms pub on Forest Road. For those that don’t know the location it’s about a 2 or 3 minute walk up Forest Road from Blackhorse Road tube (or about 0.1 miles) (see map).

We’d like to know what residents think? Are you pro or anti Tesco building a 3,000 sq ft store in the Blackhorse Area? Let us know your views either by leaving a comment or emailing us. Tesco would also like feedback either by returning the form on the questionnaire or for more information email Carol Leslie.

The proposed store would have 9 car parking spaces, secure bays for 14 bikes and would be open between 7am and 11pm.

“We want to bring this site back into use for the local community to use and enjoy”

The leaflet is obviously designed to sell the store to the community, Tesco say up to 30 full and part time jobs will be created and that the new store will regenerate what is a semi derelict site. Deliveries would be restricted to two or three lorries a day, between 7am and 4pm (this does not include deliveries by other suppliers e.g. milk, newspapers etc).

More questionably they claim the local store will “boost local businesses”. In their view, new Tesco stores give other local businesses a boost by encouraging more customers to the area.

For a balance to the Tesco PR side its worth visiting the Tescopoly website. It was set up in 2005 “to highlight and challenge the negative impacts of Tesco’s behaviour… on small businesses, on communities and the environment“.

Their view would be that Tesco destroys small independent stores, that the money spent in Tesco’s does not remain in the local community and independent stores have a greater bond with their area:

“A shopkeeper is likely to notice when the old lady from number 26 doesn’t come in to pick up her paper. But checkout 13 is not going to do that.”

As a community group we want to represent the opinions of the local residents, so let us know what you think?

Six fire engines and around 30 firefighters dealt with a blaze on the proposed site of the 23 storey tower block development at the top of Douglas Eyre playing field on Wednesday (30th July 08).
There’s more, click here to read more…

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:
There’s more, click here to read more…

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 consultation, then “forget” to deliver the questionnaire to many residents blaming “heavy rain”.
Fail to mention the library you’ve been told to consult about anywhere on the consultation form, and to put the cherry on top, give people 1 week to post it back.

Yes you’ve guessed it, the answers B.
Welcome to consulting the community, Waltham Forest Council style.
There’s more, click here to read more…

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.
There’s more, click here to read more…

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 WE NEED LOCAL PEOPLE TO SUBMIT THEIR VIEWS, ALONG WITH THEIR NAME AND EITHER AN EMAIL OR HOUSE ADDRESS. WE CAN THEN PROVE TO COUNCIL PLANNERS THAT THE LOCAL COMMUNITY WANTS MORE THAN JUST HUGE TOWER BLOCKS.
WE WILL NOT CLOG UP YOUR EMAIL OR DOOR MAT WITH JUNK! ALTERNATIVELY BECOME A MEMBER OF BAG HERE.

Here’s a taster of the comments you’ve been sending us (we’ve shortened some to fit. Please let us know if we’ve altered the meaning in any way!):

“I know housing is short,but this is the most stupid thing I have heard for a while…its hideous.”

“I’m especially concerned that there seems to be nothing socially useful to the wider community being planned. we need facilities for the young people, shops, green spaces. somewhere to eat would be nice!”

“It seems to answer a brief that called for the design of a sink estate. It needs to be stopped in its present form and redesigned to reflect the nature of the surrounding houses and neighbourhood.”

“Will be out of keeping with the areas renowned Warner style of two-storey terraced dwellings“

“I will do all that I can to help stop these ludicrous plans.”

“Offers nothing to the existing community. It will put further strain on transport to have thousands more people living in the tower blocks”.

“We simply don’t want to see these monstrosities… huge ugly buildings that will look out of place in this community. We are worried about the additional traffic, both foot and mechanised that will be part of this”

“This is not an acceptable development for the area. Tower blocks are an awful addition… but also have been the cause of much social living discontent, that is why most of them have been knocked down. No logic to this.“

“If this is really what is planned… then this is appalling, and will cause serious problems for the area. How can the plans have gotten this far without addressing the issues of capacity, services etc?”

“I agree with developing the area but only with low rise accommodation (4 stories max)“

“Too many blocks built in a small area and will add to overcrowded transport.”

Please keep them coming! Here’s the Fight the Height Demo on BBC News, for more pics visit our flickr site.

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