With the glorious weather this weekend, large numbers of people flocked to Hollow Pond for an afternoon out. Now, I wasn’t one of them, but driving along Whipps Cross Road around 4pm on Sunday I did notice that there were 4, yes 4!!! traffic wardens dishing out parking tickets. While the cars parked along the road weren’t causing any noticable problem, I guess there may have been concerns about ambulances getting through to the hospital. Surely a bit of forethought, maybe putting out police “no parking” cones for example, would be better than sending the vultures out to circle and hit everyone with a fine?
Went for a walk over the weekend, including crossing from Whipp’s Cross Road to Snaresbrook through Hollow Pond, with a push-chair. I know, I know, utter folly, stupid idea – parts of it were a quagmire, so a tractor would have been more appropriate.
Is it just me or would Hollow Pond benefit from some degree of formalisation though? At least some decent paths maybe. I know it’s relatively unspoilt (though the ponds are man-made I think) and it’s the last remnant of Epping Forest around here and I should have at least been wearing wellington boots etc. etc., but having a half decent park around here which parents with younger children (not to mention disabled people) could actually get around easily after its rained a bit would be nice.
Oh yeah, not that we drove there, but the car parks are a bit of a dogs breakfast too
After 27 years as MP for Leyton / Leyton and Wanstead, Harry Cohen will be stepping down in 2010 following the wide-ranging parliamentary expenses scandal. But has Harry done a good job for his constituents over the course of his career? Please vote in our current poll (see the sidebar).
A fairly wide range of topics were covered, but one in particular struck me as worth mentioning. In response to my question regarding the state of the High Road and its effect on crime in the area, Councillors Loaked and Pye mentioned the difficulties they have actually persuading property owners on the High Road to maintain their buildings. For example, the Independent Buildings in Church Lane have various bits of graffitti on them. The clock set in the buildings facade has also been broken for a long time. Apparently though the owners won’t allow the council to clean the graffitti or fix the clock, both offered free of charge. Quite what the reasons were for this I’m not sure, but it does seem a bit odd.
I’ve mentioned the “roof tree” problem on the High Road before, and the general run-down state of many buildings, but apparently the council are powerless to do anything about this either. There are no by-laws that can be enforced to make landlords keep their buildings in a presentable state. This seems ridiculous, those buildings will just remain as they are until they’re either sold, they fall down or by some miracle the owners decide to give them a lick of paint. With no investment money on the horizon, it seems the state of the High Road isn’t likely to improve any time soon. Maybe we should have a “Fix Leytonstone High Road Day”, we can all go armed with ladders, pots of paint and brushes to tart the place up!
One more thing – estate agents. Apparently, many of the “to let” signs around Leytonstone are just put up to attract business. Estate agents give landlords management fee discounts if they leave a sign up on their property. So the transient appearance of the High Street and many other areas of Leytonstone may not actually be a true reflection of the real situation. Unfortunately all of those signs give a bad impression. In recent years, schools have been brought into the equation as well – estate agents put up signs in peoples gardens advertising an event at a local school, but the boards look like their regular signs with just a tiny strip on the bottom actually mentioning the event. Bit cheeky really.
The council are looking at the possibility of installing a sports cage in Church Lane car park.
We ran a poll on the subject and the results were as follows:
Yes, five-a-side and basketball please. 29% (7 votes)
I passed these results on to the Leytonstone Ward councillors. Marie Pye responded:
Thank you very much, that is really interesting. On our website we’ve not had anybody raise concerns about young people hanging around in the car park and if residents are concerned about that we need to build safeguards into any scheme, for example making sure that the entrance is not near the car park entrance so that people don’t feel threatened (even when they aren’t).
Thanks to everyone who responded!
Yes, five-a-side and basketball please.29% (7 votes)
Leytonstone Councillors are proposing that a sports cage be built in Church Lane car park in reponse to young people telling them there’s nothing to do in the town. Good idea or bad idea? Respond to the poll in our sidebar or you can submit your comments to the council on their website.
There’s been quite a bit of discussion in recent months about street clutter (signage, advertisments etc.) and its negative impact on London streets. The guys over at The Wanstead Society had a link to a nice Guardian/English Heritage interactive tool which demonstrates some of these issues extremely well.
English Heritage also started the “Save Our Streets” campaign…
The towns and villages of England are being blighted by superfluous signs, haphazard paving and obstructed footways. As a result our streets are losing their local distinctiveness and character.
Save our Streets is a campaign to return England’s streets to places where people want to be, where all street users are accommodated and where communities thrive as a result.
A point was made at the recent Leytonstone Community Council Meeting regarding the state of Leytonstone High Road. The speaker had noted that 2 years ago the main uses for buildings on the High Road in South Leytonstone was…
Empty.
Fast Food.
Hairdressers.
He had spoken at a Community Council Meeting then about the state of the buildings there – badly run down with trees growing out of the roofs and had requested that the council do something about it.
Leytonstone High Road
So, since 2 years has passed what’s happened. Well, he’s done the same survey again and the new top uses for buldings on that part of the High Road are as follows…
Empty.
Fast Food.
Hairdressers.
Buildings are in a worse state than ever with even more trees growing out of their roofs.
Unfortunately when this point was raised the majority of councillors were out of the room deciding on Community Council Funding. However, Councillor John Macklin was present and spoke about the assumption made by the council that the Olympic Delivery Authority will be stumping up some cash to allow fund regeneration work on the High Road. Unfortunately it now seems that this money is not going to materialise and there’s no other money in the kitty. Hardly surprising given the current economic climate – Boris and the ODA are trying to cut back the main spend on the Olympics, never mind worrying about those of us on the periphery.
The tragic thing is that these are great Victorian buildings, letting them get into this state is absolutely criminal.
Driving down the High Road these days literally makes me cringe because its in such a sorry state. Surely something can be done – maybe the only way is to get up a ladder myself to chop those roof trees down!!!
After driving past a few times and noticing the packed tables outside, I finally popped into Begique, the new patisserie near Wanstead Tube Station on Cambridge Park Road. Seems to be rather good – very nice inside with a huge selection of cakes, some unusual sandwich combos, coffee and tea and some warm dishes too. Having googled them, discovered that they are in fact a small chain based in East London, with shops in Woodford Green, Epping and a new one opening up in Chingford. Well worth a visit.
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