Sorry about the short notice. It’s been a rollercoaster ride since we announced that Waltham Forest council was allowing us to return the former library to community use.

Our original partners had to drop out, for reasons beyond their control. They had been going to sign a lease for the building and allow us to use part of it. Faced with losing our chance, we took a deep breath and jumped in.

Now we’ve persuaded the council to let us rent the building ourselves, on a 15-year lease. We’ve given it a new name – The Mill — to reflect the activity that this community hub will bring to Coppermill Lane.

We picked up the keys this week and, though the building’s not ready for use, we couldn’t wait to fling the doors open. After all the paperwork and negotiations, we’re entering the new phase we’ve all been waiting for.

So come to The Mill this Saturday 16 April, from 11.30 to 1.30.

We’ll be taking photos at noon and you’re welcome to do the same.

Bring your ideas. Tell us what you want to do in the Mill. What are your skills for helping maintain the building? Your interests, for running groups and activities? Your expertise, for sharing or teaching?

If you miss this spur-of-the-moment celebration, don’t worry – there will be an official launch when the building is ready for use again.

Big thanks to all our helpers. And thanks to the council too, for dropping its plans to auction the building and giving us this chance.

We were up against more than 600 other groups but our plans were chosen for one of 17 NESTA Neighbourhood Challenge grants. So we’ve now got £150,000 to set up a community hub and run it for the first year.
The money is allocated for specific uses; unfortunately not for refurbishment, and the building has deteriorated in the year since we last saw inside. But we’ve come this far, so we’ll be fund-raising like mad and everyone’s welcome to help with redecorating!

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Janet Wright
The Mill - Website / Facebook

PS: Here are some pictures of inside the building and some of the work that needs done. If you can help out in any way with time, skills or know someone who might be able to help us get the building ready for community use please get in touch.

Blackhorse Road area residents gathered together on Saturday (April 10th) to learn how to grow vegetables from seeds, at BAG’s new community garden site off Coppermill Lane.
Thirty participants of all ages, from toddlers to pensioners, sowed pumpkins, tomatoes, beans, lettuces, herbs, and also ‘companion’ flowers like sunflowers and nasturtiums.  They then had the chance to swap seeds, cuttings, and gardening advice with each other, whilst enjoying a cup of tea and the spring sunshine.

Residents have been asked to raise the seedlings at home, and then bring at least some of them back to the next workshop on 15th May, where they can learn about the next stages, potting on, and planting out.  We hope to have some raised beds ready so that some of the seedlings can be planted out in the community garden.

The next workshop will take place on Saturday 15th May from 11am til 1pm at the Douglas Eyre community garden, next to the sports pavilion, off Coppermill Lane.

The gardening group also hopes to start regular Saturday morning work days from May onwards, so that people can just turn up and get involved.

For more information, or if you have a source of topsoil / compost  / scaffolding boards (!) contact Caroline on 07958 058677 or gardeninginfo@blackhorseactiongroup.org.uk.

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 out how to grow vegetables from seed
Sow some seeds to take away
Bring some seeds to swap with each other (if you have them)
Learn more about the plans for our local community garden on the playing fields, and have your say.

The event is free and open to all local residents – children are welcome if accompanied by an adult.  Hot drinks will be available.  We will be outside so please dress warmly if it is chilly.

The date for this meeting has been shifted and is NOT now on the 13th. Apologies for any confusion or inconvenience. 

Have your say on THE FUTURE OF OUR CHILDREN AND OUR LOCAL AREA

Public meeting about the relocation of Willowfield School

Wednesday 18th of March @ 7:30pm

At Willowfield School, (main hall, entrance through the car park) Clifton Avenue, E17 6HL

Your chance to question councillors and officials about the quality of their plans 

Key issues:

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IMPACT ON TRAFFIC AND ENVIRONMENT

IMPACT ON SURROUNDING HOMES

HOUSING ABOVE SCHOOL

ARE THEY PLANNING A HIGH-RISE SCHOOL?

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Contact BAG :: mobile: 07847 059 164 / email: chair@blackhorseactiongroup.org.uk

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The Council plans to relocate Willowfield School to the area at the northern side of the playing fields and south of Blackhorse Road tube station (the old goods yard area).

The Council is consulting parents, residents and others on the planning brief, which will then shape the plans for Willowfield School. The current brief proposes the following:

• A much larger 1000 pupil school with a small provision for post-16s.
• The council has identified a limited site of 1.83 hectares of which 0.17 hectares are green belt land. The site is next to a very high-risk flood area and also right next to the overland railway line, green belt land and residential streets.
• Possibly, flats above the school development.
• Provision of a prominent ‘landmark’ building  -which usually is taken to mean a high-rise building.  No upper limit on height in current plans, though probably ‘more than 3 storeys’ high.
• A one-way traffic system to be introduced to Cornwallis Road, Lloyd Road, Hawarden Road and part of Edward Road.
• Car parking restrictions in the area.
• No guarantees that the building will provide any free or affordable facilities for community use, despite vague promises.

Walthamstow is a suburb in North East London. Since it is the terminus of the Victoria Line and has suburban rail servcies too is is one of the most accessibe places in London. However most of it was developed in the late nineteenth century with mostly two storey buildings. The plan was to make Walthamstow a reception area for higher density to capitalise on its accessibility but this was met with a storm of protest against high rise developemnts. Earlier developemnts in the East End had imposed tower blocks which were not only very unpopular but had also become very unsafe. They held an enquiry by design which showed that mansion blocks of 5 to 8 storeys with internal courtyards, and terraces with more than 2 storeys woudl be acceptable and increase net resiential density. They also developed a plan to rebuild the existing one storey shopping mall into a 5 to 7 storey building with retail on ground floor. They also “increased permeability” of the centre to create easy walk to station. In a survey this design was preferred by 60% of the respondents. When built out they will have added 2,438 new households and also reduced emissions of CO2 by 4,654 tonnes.

Opposition to development is based on the impact that people have experienced. Development has usually made the place worse. The aim now is to produce developments that enhance the quality of people’s lives.

There was so much going on, it was amazing. We had jugglers, a Kids’ corner knee deep in paints, paper and scissors, stalls giving away goodies -even bikes!- right left and centre, face painting (THANKS Carol!) and everyone had a really great time. We’ll post a fuller report and some of the fantastic pictures taken once we’ve finished the washing up!

But right now, a great big THANK YOU to Colin, Keeper at the Douglas Eyre Playing Fields, who made the pavilion available to us for free. We promise, Colin, that we’ll organise that quiz/karaoke/barn dance soon!

And a whopper of a THANK YOU to Irina (and Caroline, Nuria and others from BAG) for organizing it – I’ve not seen smiles that wide on so many kids’ faces in a long time! And there was so much community spirit that we had heaps of people sign up to our initiatives, such as timebanking.

(Oh, and THANKS to the Singh family who brought a vast and delicious chickpea curry with accompaniments at just the right time at the end of the evening, and then helped us carry all the day’s debris home!)

Signing off now, but we’ll get more about Super Saturday out soon!