WHAT LOCAL BUSINESSES WANT FOR CHRISTMAS!

LIB DEMS CALL FOR COUNCIL RETHINK OVER PARKING IN THE BOROUGH

With problems over the CPZ consultation and plans by Waltham Forest Council to sell off the Stanley Road Car Park in Bakers Arms shopping area, parking is fast becoming a big issue in the Borough.

Lib Dems are opposing plans by the council to sell off the car park at Bakers Arms. And have gone further by asking the council to extend free parking times over the Christmas period to help local businesses.

Cllr Mahmood Hussain, Lib Dem Environment spokesperson said:

“With Christmas coming up, now would be the perfect time to help local businesses by extending the 15 minutes free parking time up to 30 minutes for the remaining few weeks. This would help our local shops compete with supermarkets and the big shopping centres nearby.

“And selling off the Bakers’ Arms car park is clearly the wrong decision. The car park is badly signposted at the moment but if we could bring it back into proper use it could be a great asset for local businesses.

“Cabinet members need to rethink parking in the Borough and focus on how it can help local businesses.”

Chair of the Bakers’ Arms Business Forum, Suleman Ahmed said:

“We should be taking advantage of the resource that we have in this car park at Bakers’ Arms. If the car park was better managed and better signposted by the council then it would not need to be sold off.

“Extending free parking would also be a great boost to local businesses in the run up to the Christmas period.”

Olympic Temporary Parking Zone consultation

The Council has decided to issue a Consultation Document asking residents in the temporary Olympic Parking Zone (G01-G10) for their views on the proposal to introduce an indefinite Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) in their roads.

The consultation document is due to be issued on 24 September and has to be returned by 19 October.

 

PLEASE NOTE: The Closing date is now 22 October

The Council’s policy on the introduction of a CPZ is based on the views of the majority of residents, who return the questionnaire.

Whatever your views the Lib Dems stress that it is vital that the Council receives a response from every household regarding this important consultation.

When you receive the consultation document, please complete and return it without delay.

Open Day at Leyton Bus Garage

Leyton Bus Garage, at Leyton Green, is celebrating its centenary this year.

It will be open to the public from 10.30 am until 4.30 pm on Saturday 22nd September as part of the national Open House event.

There will be a display of vintage buses as well as displays of the history of bus travel.

In addition there will be vintage bus tours to Stagecoach London’s newest bus station in West Ham, which will depart every 15 minutes.

The Olympic Legacy

As the Paralympics has drawn to a close, local people will be thinking about what is going to happen to the venues and the Olympic Park as a whole. The following update has been received from Caroline Pidgeon, Liberal Democrat Leader on the London Assembly:

Earlier this year the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) was established to deliver the physical, social, economic and environmental regeneration in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and surrounding area after the 2012 Games. This new mayoral body takes over from a number of organisations and will have planning powers from October 2012.

Much work has been carried out to ensure that there is a permanent future for each permanent venue in the park.

The Stadium has received four bids: from West Ham United, Intelligent Transport Services in association with Formula One, UCFB College of Football Business and Leyton Orient. They are now being evaluated ahead of negotiations. These bids would add to the legacy uses already secured for the Stadium such as host to the IAAF 2017 World Athletics Championships.

The Aquatics Centre will be operated by Greenwich Leisure Limited and will cater for all levels of swimming ability and aquatic disciplines for the community and training athletes. Similarly the Handball Arena LINK will be transformed into a multi-use arena used for a wide range of indoor sports training and competitions as well as cultural and business events.

The Velodrome will be owned and managed by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and will be known as the Lee Valley VeloPark. The velodrome will need very little transformation and will become the hub of the VeloPark. The BMX track will remain, but be reconfigured, and a road cycle circuit and mountain bike courses will be added.

The Press and Broadcast Centre now has a preferred bidder iCITY to become the long term tenant. iCITY aims to create a leading centre for technology, design and research with the potential to generate more than 4,000 jobs. The digital hub would harness innovation and creativity in east London. The iCity vision also has a community focus including a conference centre and a pedestrian square for broadcasting major sporting events, along with cafes, restaurants and bars.

After the 2012 Games, the park will be closed and works will start to take down temporary venues and to adapt some of the existing venues for future use, as well as building more housing. The park will be re-opening in phases starting in 2013.

VIEW TUBE AND ACCESS ALONG THE GREENWAY – this facility is due to reopen towards the end of the year.

October 2012 – Summer 2013

During this period the following temporary buildings are scheduled to be removed:

  • Basketball Arena

  • Temporary bridges

  • Riverbank Hockey Arena

  • Water Polo Arena

  • The temporary seating wings at the Aquatics Centre

The new Waterden Road will be connected to give access to Park facilities and the neighbouring boroughs

Similarly a series of new bridges will also link the Park with the communities

Completion of building work on the following projects is scheduled:

  • North Park Hub is to be a community centre dedicated to nature, in the green landscape of the North Park

  • South Park Hub and Plaza will be the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park’s main destination for events, culture and entertainment

  • Lee Valley Velopark will be adapted for public use, with alterations to the cycle circuits as well as surrounding amenities

  • Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centres will be adapted for public use

  • Chobham Manor housing development

February 2013

  • Canal Park scheduled for completion

July 2013

  • Multi-Use Arena and North Park are scheduled to open

August 2013

  • London Cycling Festival, a 100 mile route followed by up to 30,000 participants is the first major event schedulede to take place in the Park

Summer 2013

  • East Village – the first housing development scheduled to open. This is the area that was the Athletes’ Village.

End 2013 – Start 2014

  • Lee Valley Velopark due to open in December 2013

  • Lee Valley Tennis and Hockey Centres due to open

  • White Post Lane and Carpenters Lock will provide key access routes

  • Waterways – cleaned and refurbished before the Games – will open

Spring 2014

  • South Park and Hub due to reopen

‘Plot’ to extend Olympic Parking Zones GO1 – G10

Temporary Olympic CPZ sign

This applies to residents south of Lea Bridge Road only.

When the Council and the ODA decided to implement the temporary Olympic Controlled Parking Zone, it was clearly stated that it would be withdrawn on the 9th September following the closure of the Paralympic Games.

The Council also stated that they would be undertaking a consultation with the residents to find out if, in the light of their experience during the Games, they wished to make the Controlled Parking Zone permanent.

The Lib Dems have now discovered that the Council has already published a Traffic Order allowing them to extend the temporary provision for 18 months. It also states that the Council will be considering ‘in due course’ whether the provisions of the experimental orders should be continued in force indefinitely by means of permanent Orders.

Liberal Democrats feel very strongly that there is no need for permanent parking restrictions in most of the roads in areas GO1 – GO10, as they do not have a history of parking problems.

All residents are urged to send in written objections to both the temporary 18 month extension and the permanent CPZ to the Council at:

Traffic Orders,

Environment and Regeneration,

London Borough of Waltham Forest,

Low Hall,

Argall Avenue, London, E10 7AS

quoting reference: Traffic Orders T20.

Closing date for objections: 8th February 2013

RESIDENTS DELIVER IVE FARM PETITION TO THE MAYOR

Bob Sullivan with local residents at Ive Farm talking to a Guardian reporter

 

Last week Leyton ward Councillor Bob Sullivan arranged for residents to present their petition to the Mayor.

The Council is still negotiating turning Ive Farm Playing Field, in Leyton,  which they have left derelict, into a campsite for the Olympics.

Oliver Close, Villiers Close and Ive Farm Close residents whose homes back onto the site have objections and organised a protest on the field.

Leyton Ward Councillor Bob Sullivan said:

“It’s now less than two months until the Olympics and the council still can’t give us a decision. This will cause untold disruption if it is allowed to happen and the council need to think again.

“I’m pleased that residents were able to deliver this petition to the Mayor. The council must now take this issue seriously and listen to residents’ concerns about posting a campsite at Ive Farm in a heavily residential area.”

 

 

 

Cllr Bob Sullivan joins residents’ protests over Ive Farm Playing Field

Councillor Bob Sullivan (foreground left) with concerned residents

The Council is negotiating turning Ive Farm Playing Field, which they have left derelict, into a campsite for the Olympics.

Oliver Close, Villiers Close and Ive Farm Close residents whose homes back onto the site have objections and organised a protest on the field.Leyton Ward Councillor Bob Sullivan said: “The council is becoming like a secret society. Council officers can’t even tell me what the plans are – the Guardian is the only way of finding out what’s happening.”

Leyton Ward Councillor Bob Sullivan said:

“The Council is becoming like a secret society. Council officers can’t even tell me what the plans are – the local Guardian is the only way of finding out what’s happening.”

Ive Farm Playing Field

Ive Farm Sports Ground - left derelict by the Council

The Council is negotiating turning Ive Farm Playing Field, which they have left derelict, into a campsite for the Olympics.

Is the Council keeping local residents in the dark about this, hoping that they can sneak it through without proper consultation?

Oliver Close, Villiers Close and Ive Farm Close residents whose homes back onto the site will certainly have objections particularly if, like the site in Walthamstow, it has live entertainment and bars serving alcohol.

The Liberal Democrat Group Leader and Leyton Ward Councillor Bob Sullivan says:

“There must be proper consultation with local residents, If the Council forces this through all proceeds should go towards bringing the playing field back into use.”

Church Lane Car Park – UNDERUSED?

 The report into Parking Provision across the Borough indicated that the Church Lane Car Park(in the shopping centre – next to Leytonstone Tube Station) was underused, and recommended that measures be taken to improve occupancy. It seemed strange, at the time, that this report should also include the provision of a multi-use games area (MUGA). Surely not a practical way of improving use by drivers!

FOCUS Team campaigner Mahmood Faiz believes that ideally a town centre car park should not necessarily be full every day, as it is a facility to encourage motorists to patronise the smaller local shops that do not have off-street parking of their own.

The photograph was taken on a normal weekday morning, and shows just two disabled bays vacant – hardly underused!

Call for Safety Improvements!

Gainsborough Road footbridge in the background taken from the road bridge

At a recent visit by Caroline Pidgeon, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on the London Assembly, the FOCUS Team took up concerns expressed following the tragic recent event on the Gainsborough Road footbridge, urging her to press Transport for London (TfL) for urgent action to make the bridge safer.

FOCUS also proposed that the height of the sides of the road bridge should be increased.

It is understood that Liberal Democrat councillors in Redbridge have also raised similar concerns about other bridges spanning the A12 as it runs through their area.

To date, TfL, responsible for the A12, has agreed to look at what measures may be possible on the bridges.

FOCUS will keep you in touch with developments.