Labour’s Attack on Sports!

Despite all their proud boasts that Waltham Forest is an Olympic Borough, and with hire charges overall increasing by 3 to 5%, hire of sports facilities is set to soar:

  • School hire of football and cricket pitches – up 12%
  • Saturday pitch hire – up 23%
  • Leyton cricket ground – up 25%
  • Running a school sports day – up 25%

This is on top of selling off Drapers Field to the Olympic Authority for nearly two years. This is a direct attack by Labour councillors on sport in direct contrast to their claim of ‘more investment’ in sports.

Leytonstone Fire Station – update

Architects impression of the new fire station 

FOCUS reported plans to redevelop the Fire Station in High Road Leytonstone.

An online report by the Waltham Forest Guardian confirms that funding has been approved. This will see the existing buildings demolished, and replaced by a modern facility as part of a £60 million scheme to rebuild fire stations under a private finance initiative. The scheme is due to start late next year, with Leytonstone being part of the second phase.

The fire engines and staff will be relocated to other local stations while the work takes place. A London Fire Brigade spokesperson is reported to have said, “Temporarily transferring fire engines to different stations during construction will not lead to a reduction in our service and allow us to maintain good attendance times.”

Leytonstone High Road to get a ‘facelift’

As you may have heard, after having been left out of the first round of pre-Olympic ‘sprucing up’ funding, High Road Leytonstone has now been allocated £2 million.  

The plans, extending from the Green Man through to the Thatched House, can be viewed on the Council’s website at: www.walthamforest.gov.uk/traffic-schemes  

Local campaigner John Howard was pleased to see, at last, there is a proposal to demolish the disused public toilets in Kirkdale Road  

CHURCH LANE – he queried the removal of the turning circle and the apparent disappearance of the public car park, while a proposal still remains for a ‘play area’.  

The Council has advised that this plan is to be redrawn to show continued access to the car park.  

The Plaza showing the distance between the sculpture and the flowerbed   

THE PLAZA – John questioned the suggestion to reroute the road to run between the sculpture and the flowerbed. Regular users of this area will know that there are aften more than one bus at each bus stop, and the W16 drivers have a break before returning to Chingford. Additionally, the vehicle access routes to the car park and the LT building were not shown. 

He has now been advised that London Buses supported concerns about the reduced road layout on The Plaza, and a site meeting was being convened to resolve the problem.  

The FOCUS Team is watching developments.

Primary School place shortage

As the Liberal Democrats warned in March Waltham Forest faces an explosion in demand for primary school places and a shortfall in school places.Across London more than 5,000 primary school pupils could be in temporary classrooms in the 2010/11 school year, according to London Councils. The BBC yesterday reported about a pupil from Walthamstow who had been rejected by the seven schools closest to her home.This will continue to be an important issue for our area.

Labour very slow in appointing to City Airport watchdog

Local Liberal Democrats have discovered that Waltham Forest went unrepresented at an important committee discussing flights from London City Airport because it took over six months to appoint the council’s representative.

This is despite local residents’ concern about the noise and disturbance caused by flights from London City Airport, which have increased since changes to the flight paths used by aircraft . Residents have expressed serious concerns recently following  a near miss at the end of July  between a Boeing 777 flying into Heathrow and a Business jet leaving London City.

Waltham Forest, Redbridge and Havering Council’s were invited to appoint a councillor to sit on the London City Airport Consultative Committee in a letter sent by the committee’s secretary on 21st January 2010.The invitation was issued after Liberal Democrat councillor Farooq Qureshi put forward a motion to Waltham Forest Council about the expansion of London City Airport in October 2009. As a result of the motion the council wrote to the consultative committee requesting representation on behalf of local residents affected by flights from the airport.However the name of the council’s representative, Cllr Clyde Loakes, only emerged last month (August). The council has missed two meetings since the invitation was issued on Tuesday 13th April and on Tuesday 21st July.Even if the appointment had to be delayed until the results of May’s council elections were known this does not explain why no appointment was made in time for July’s meeting.

Drapers Field – UPDATE Labour council plan ‘secret’ meeting

Drapers Field – MEETING MONDAY SEPTEMBER 13th 6pm till 8pm

The Olympic Authority and the Council are going to hold a drop in meeting at Drapers Field on Monday 13th September 6.00pm to 8.00pm.  It will be held in the Sport England pavilion next to the astro turf pitch. 

Apparently the Olympic Authority/Council will explain what they intend to do with Drapers Field when they close it down from September 2011 to December 2012.

Secret meeting–  This initial meeting has only been notified to the residents around Drapers Field.  They obviously believe that only local residents are concerned about the loss of the only sports and leisure facility in the area.  We have only found out by local residents telephoning us.

MAKE YOUR VIEWS KNOWN – If you are concerned about what is being planned for Drapers Field then please go to the meeting and make your views known.

 Other Draper’s field news : – Bob Sullivan and John Howard had a useful meeting with two representatives from Sport England on Friday morning.

Sport England has poured hundreds of thousands of pounds into local sport facilities, including Drapers Field and Score. Sport England is concerned to make sure its investment is protected and that the conditions attached to its grants are not broken. It also has a statutory duty to protect playing fields. The representatives told us that their starting position is to oppose any loss of playing fields unless the facilities are re-provided.Both Sport England and the FA believe there is a demand for playing pitches in the area.The local Liberal Democrats will continue to campaign to protect local sports facilities, not just at Drapers Field but also when the future of other sites such as the Pool and Track in Walthamstow is considered. We already know that the Pool and Track appears on Labour’s ‘hit list’ of possible property disposals.

Underground ticket offices – broken promises

During the Mayoral election campaign Boris Johnson campaigned to keep permanently staffed ticket offices at every station. The promise was in his manifesto and he even signed a petition in 2008 against Ken Livingstone’s plans to shut ticket offices. However the Mayor has now announced that from February 2011 nine out of ten London Underground stations will have their ticket office opening hours reduced, including all four tube stations in Waltham Forest.The reductions in hours were strongly opposed by local Liberal Democrats when the idea was first proposed in March.At the time TfL said that ticket office staff would move out from behind their glass screens to help passengers. But now the Mayor has confirmed that the jobs will be axed instead. Consultation on the proposals has been poor with the information hidden away on TfL’s website.Any reduction in ticket office opening hours is likely to hit those most vulnerable such as the elderly, disabled and tourists the hardest. Across London, Liberal Democrats are stepping up the campaign to protect ticket office opening hours.

Boris’s plans put pedestrians at risk!

Transport for London is proposing the removal of pedestrian crossings at two busy locations in Waltham Forest as part of Boris Johnson’s attempt to increase traffic speeds.§  Forest Road by Hill Crest Road (Hale End and Highams Park ward)§  Hatch Lane by Ashwood Road (Hatch Lane ward)The Forest Road proposals seem particularly odd as the crossing forms part of the roadworks currently being carried out along Forest Road towards the Waterworks roundabout.TfL is consulting London boroughs at the moment so there is still time to campaign and influence the decision.

London City Airport – Noise campaign update!

rj100

Following residents protests and the Liberal Democrat led campaign about aircraft noise, Cllr Farooq Qureshi has been advised by the Town Hall that Waltham Forest has been granted membership of the London City Airport Consultative Committee. 

Leyton and Wanstead Liberal Democrats and your local Focus teams say: “We hope that our membership will help us represent the concerns of our residents. Through this membership we should be able to make a case for our residents who have been adversely affected by the air noise pollution connected with London City Airport.”

Draper’s Field – Update

Drapers Field

As you may have read the Labour Cabinet has agreed in principle to close Drapers Field for 16 months from September 2011. The Guardian archives show that over £1.5 million was spent installing the all-weather pitch (the only one in the borough), and upgrading the other sports facilities.
The Council Leader is reported to have said: “We would be able, through the compensation package, to completely refurbish Draper’s Field … we could turn it into a very special park.”
Leyton and Wanstead Liberal Democrats  believes that we should not be closing a valued sports facility, which is used by 100,000 people a year, including Norlington School, which uses it 4 days a week.
If you believe that, as an Olympic borough, we should be cherishing our sporting facilities. Please sign our on-line petition at:
http://ourcampaign.org.uk/DrapersField