In the local elections, Labour pretty much swept the board in Leytonstone, with the Conservatives doing likewise in Snaresbrook and Wanstead.
Bit of strange constituency really Leyton and Wanstead, with such a big political contrast across it. The folks in Wanstead must be pretty frustrated – they return a full house of Conservative councillors every election but have no chance of ever voting in a Conservative MP … made more sense when it used to be Wanstead and Woodford really I guess.
Interesting article regarding Olympic money handed to Waltham Forest Council for improvement to South Leytonstone. Strangely none targeted at the High Road though, which is certainly in desperate need of some attention. Maybe the council are hoping to get some separate funding for that? It’s pretty poor that we have to rely on Olympic money to actually do something about the state of some parts of Leytonstone. However, the council can’t be held solely to blame. If all landlords, home and shop owners took good care of their property, we wouldn’t have a problem.
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)
Andy McQueen from Leyton, has been named Waltham Forest Photographer of the Year after scooping the top gong in the Love your borough photographic competition.
Andy’s picture was selected from nearly 200 received, and will receive £300 in vouchers as his prize.
The independent report into Waltham Forest Council’s failure to deliver government funded projects has been published…
The report points to failures in the Council’s ability to procure and manage contracts and finds “systemic and cultural issues” have led to repeated failures in the way in which the Council procured and managed community projects.
To be honest, I started losing the will to live on my first attempt to read it – couldn’t they publish a concise summary of the findings, maybe a couple of pages? Why the hell is it spread over numerous reports containing what just read like snippets from some hideous HR Management training manual.
Maybe its just me
If anyone has the will power to decipher the thing and work out what actually went on, please feel free to post a comment!
Garden City Restaurant on Leytonstone High Road has been close by the council due to a cockroach infestation and generally poor hygiene.
Senior Environmental Health Officer Pip Broad, who closed the premises, said:
It was one of the worst cockroach infestations I have ever seen. The cockroaches were crawling all over the work surfaces and it would have been impossible to miss them. I could hear them scurrying round my feet as I was inspecting the restaurant.
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.
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