Calling all those in the south of the borough!
Your local Liberal Democrats have an website set up just for you! The site is regularly updated and covers some of the issues in your area that are raised in FOCUS but might not be covered in such detail here at the online home of the Waltham Forest Lib Dems.
So head here if you want to know more about what the Liberal Democrats are up to in Leyton and Leytonstone!
The local Waltham Forest Guardian is reporting that Labour councillors tried unsuccessfully “to force the sale of the fomer St James St library building on to a Cabinet agenda”.
The Guardian reports that the attempt to push through the sale of the former St James St library building was stopped when Liberal Democrat Leader Cllr John Macklin refused the request and withdrew the report from the agenda. The move came at the same Cabinet meeting as the controversial decision to go ahead with plans for an Arcade site development which raises doubts over the future of the Pool and Track facility.
Click here to see what the local press are reporting.
The local press are reporting resident reaction to Liberal Democrat opposition to Labour plans that cast doubt over the future of the Walthamstow Pool and athletics track. Click here to see the full coverage!
The plans being pushed through by Labour councillors will see millions of pounds borrowed to fund a leisure pool on the Arcade site in Walthamstow. £10 million will be raised through the sale of land at the Pool and Track site or another site that has not been named.
Local users of sports facilities are already voicing their own opposition to the proposals.
Your local Lib Dems want to know:
· What do the plans mean for the future of our competition pool and the borough’s only athletics track in the run-up to the Olympics?
· Why do Labour refuse to allow a full financial check of the plans to borrow millions of pounds to fund their plan?
· Why haven’t local people been asked whether they want a leisure pool at the Arcade site?
Explaining the opposition to Labour’s plans, local Liberal Democrat leader John Macklin said:
“These latest plans will have a serious impact right across the area, affecting the future of our sports facilities and maybe even the planning application for the former EMD cinema.
“Creating such uncertainty for local sports users is completely unacceptable for an Olympic borough”.
Liberal Democrat Hale End and Highams Park councillors have moved to set the record straight after the defferal of Tesco’s planning application to build in the area.
And despite claims of a ‘victory’ for residents, the local Lib Dem team fear that the decision may actually lead to councillors – and residents – losing control over the outcome of the Tesco proposal.
The application was deferred after committee members voted by 5-4 to ask for more information on the proposal. No councillor voted outright for or against the plans.
In their latest Focus leaflet, the Hale and Higham team – Jane Morgan, Sheila Smith-Pryor and Nick Bason – say:
“This deferral actually means that the decision on the planning application may be taken away from Waltham Forest Planning Committee. Tesco have the right to appeal on the grounds of ‘non-determination’, which means the council have not made a decision on the application in a timely fashion. The application could now be decided by another body unconnected with Waltham Forest.
“The Planning Committee did not get a chance to discuss resident concerns on the impact of the Tesco application on traffic congestion in Highams Park and access to education and healthcare in the area.
“We are also very concerned that the decision may now be taken out of the local council’s hands.”
See the latest issue of Focus (below) for the full story:
Liberal Democrat councillors have voted against controversial plans that local sports groups fear could spell the beginning of the end for the Pool and Track facility in Walthamstow.
And despite reccomendations from the Council’s own Scrutiny committee that the plans should be delayed whilst a financial appraisal of the proposals be carried out, Labour councillors voted to ignore the reccomendations and approve the Cabinet Report.
Local Lib Dem Leader Cllr John Macklin led the opposition at the meeting, calling the proposals “an inappropriate report brought forward at an inappropriate time”.
The report voted through by Labour councillors last night outlines plans to fund part of a proposed leisure pool on the Arcade site through the “disposal of either land at the Pool and Track site or alternative assets to the same value that have not yet been identified”. The sentence replaced an earlier proposal, which was removed, which clearly reccomended that the planned pool at the Arcade would replace the indoor facilities at the Pool and Track. The lack of clarity over the future of the track is compounded by the fact that proposals for its surrounding land – behind the Town Hall – are not due to be presented until early next year.
User groups of the Pool and Track – who were present at the meeting – joined the Liberal Democrats in expressing concern about the future of the facility.
Click here to read the Waltham Forest Guardian’s report on the controversy at the Cabinet meeting.
Councillors last night voted to delay their decision on whether to allow a major new development in the Hale End and Highams Park ward.
The planning application by Tesco includes a supermarket, housing and car parking. With all three Liberal Democrat ward councillors in attendance at a packed Town Hall meeting, Cllr Jane Morgan (pictured left with Nick Bason) spoke on behalf of local residents, detailing the many letters and emails the local Lib Dem team had recieved on the issue and detailing resident concerns about the development.
Adressing the planning committee, Cllr Morgan said:
“We’ve had many communciations from those who do not neccesarily object to the idea of a Tesco, but who have expressed concerns about the scale of this particular application.
“Any scheme of this nature will produce costs as well as benefits. The proposal aims to create houses and jobs, and they are needed in our area. Investment in the Highams Park economy is also needed.
“But do these possible benefits outweight the costs of the current scheme? many of our residents our concerned that the current scale of the development means they do not.”
The planning application will now come back before councillors at a later date.
See the full text of Cllr Morgan’s speech to the committee below:
Local Liberal Democrats have confirmed their opposition to plans to close the Pool and Track in order to fund the long-awaited Arcade development before a consultation on the area has been completed.
A new report, which will go to Cabinet on the 15th September, asks senior councillors to agree to authorise officers to find a developer for a “mixed use scheme” on the vacant Arcade site, using £10million from the disposal of the Pool and Track, plus an option of Council borrowing, for a replacement facility on the site at the top of Walthamstow High Street.
And despite forcing last-minute changes to the report – which had already been published for consideration by the Council’s Scrutiny panel – Local Lib Dem Leader Cllr John Macklin has again expressed his concerns that the plans for the Arcade site will have serious knock on effects for a series of redevelopment projects in the area that are not sufficiently covered in the plans.
In March this year Liberal Democrat cabinet members voted against an earlier report laying the groundwork for the plan, with Cllr Macklin telling a cabinet meeting that the Council had “a history of knocking things down and leaving them derelict and I am worried about swapping one piece of derelict land in Walthamstow for another near the town hall”.
Outlining his concerns, Cllr Macklin claimed that the report would have serious knock-on effects both for the future of the Pool and Track facility and the planning application recently submitted for development of the former EMD cinema. Cllr Macklin added that, despite last-ditch efforts within the Town Hall to urge Labour cabinet members to postpone the plans, the report will go forward.
Cllr Macklin said:
“I just cannot see the logic in bringing these proposals forward at this time.
“The report regarding the future of the Pool and Track site has not even been completed and an outstanding planning application for the former EMD is yet to be heard. The approval we are being asked to give in this report will obviously have massive implications for both these developments.
“First and foremost, as a Chapel End ward councillor I am really unhappy with the lack of clear proposals for the area behind the Town hall, including the Pool and Track, the allotments and the playing fields.
“It seems obvious to me that any decision to shut any of the Pool and Track facilities as part of the Arcade development should only be taken when we know what alternatives are being proposed for the Pool and Track site. I have already met with allotment holders and other site users who are really worried about development on the site.
“What effects will the closure of the leisure centre have on the athletics track? The plans for that area currently laid out in the report seem almost laughably vague”.
The report suggests that the land “could become more fully utilised and provide an important resource for residents, and provide a wide range of facilities”. It also claims that the decision whether to agree to the funding of a leisure centre on the Arcade may be influential to the likelihood of a new cinema being built on the site, a proposal that could have an impact on the outstanding planning application to renovate the former EMD cinema.
Cllr Macklin added:
“I would love to be reassured that the pieces of these various development plans fit together, and that this report isn’t simply part of a financial gamble to get a development of any sort built on the Arcade site, but that is increasingly what this looks like. The goalposts appear to keep shifting and the reassurances we have repeatedly asked for have not been forthcoming.
“The development of these various sites needs to be part of a clear overall plan for our area, not simply piecemeal building projects that give the impression that the Council is simply chasing its own tail.”
What do you think of the plans to close the Pool and Track? Do you think the Arcade proposals will have an impact on the EMD planning application?
Below is the original report published on the Council website. Let us know your views!
Hale End and Highams park councillor Jane Morgan has criticised changes in the running of the local council which she believes are being forced upon residents by the government.
Cllr Morgan has hit out at both the ‘Strong Leader’ and ‘Directly Elected Mayor’ models – one of which must be introduced locally in May next year – suggesting they are “set up to place a disproportionate share of influence in the hands of just a few members”
Below is the full statement from Cllr Morgan, extracts of which are being carried in the Waltham Forest Guardian.
“I was elected to the Hale End and Highams Park ward in December last year after the sad deaths of John Beanse and Noel Penstone. I have been involved on the fringes of politics all my life — my father was a Liberal and then a Liberal Democrat councillor for my hometown of Sittingbourne in Kent, becoming town mayor, a county councillor and eventually Chairman of Kent County Council. You could say I have been as prepared as is perhaps possible for what comes with the role of a local councillor.
“By the time my father retired from politics, he had become increasingly disillusioned with the local political system. He saw the dissolution of the committee system of governance, which was then replaced by the current cabinet form of local government. He was so worried about the possibility of diminishing input from those elected to the council that he wrote an article to his local paper voicing his concerns.
“Of course, as a councillor, it is possible to help local people with specific problems through our advice surgeries and when meeting them around the ward. In many ways this part of the role is the most satisfying. I am lucky that I belong to a Liberal Democrat group where all councillors’ opinions are listened to and considered when our decisions are made. However, as far as policy decisions with the local government framework is concerned, the system thrust upon local government already seems set up to place a disproportionate share of influence in the hands of just a few members.
“Therefore I am absolutely opposed to both the new systems that are going to be imposed on Waltham Forest from next year. Both the ‘Elected Mayor’ model and the ‘Strong Leader’ model concentrate power in the hands of even fewer people. Whilst the Elected Mayor model does it more explicitly, the Strong Leader model simply acts as an even more concentrated version of our current cabinet system. As a borough, we have to decide which of these models we prefer. We cannot simply refuse to implement them.
“I believe this is another example of the way in which local democracy is being centralised and local power being shrunk. Politicians and commentators regularly moan about low turnouts at local elections, but is it surprising when the role of the local councillor within the Town Hall appears to keep diminishing? Any system should provide local people with a much better idea of the link between their local ward councillor and the decisions that are made within the Town Hall.
“I will continue, alongside many of my colleagues, to voice my objections to these imposed models of local government.”
You can learn more about the options being considered to change the way your lcoal council is run – and have your say – by speaking to the Council’s Community Engagment Team on 020 8496 3000
Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate Cllr Farooq Qureshi has organised a public meeting in response to resident complaints about noise and pollution from City Airport.
The Leyton and Wanstead candidate is angry that the expansion of the airport has been kept from residents, and has seen a rise in complaints from residents about noise and pollution from the increase in planes over the local area.
Local Liberal Democrats have revealed that Newham Council granted permission for an increase in flights from City Airport from 76,000 to 120,000 a year.
The meeting will be held at the Quaker Meeting House on Bush Road (off the Green man roundabout) at 7pm on Friday 2nd October. Feel free to come along!
Local Liberal Democrats are urging the owners of the Walthamstow Stadium site to meet with campaigners who want to bring greyhound racing back to the venue.
Plans being drawn up by a group led by local ‘Save Our Stow’ campaigners set out how they believe the site could be used to accommodate the development of housing whilst retaining the dog track and leisure facilities on the site — and a resident petition is being collected backing the reopening of the site as a greyhound racing venue.
After expressing his interest in the plans last year, local Lib Dem leader Cllr John Macklin has met again with campaigners to hear about their alternative proposals for the future of the site, and their concern at a perceived lack of response from site owners London and Quadrant Housing (L&Q).
Cllr Macklin (pictured above with save Our Stow campaigner Rick Holloway) said:
“I’ve been very impressed with the plans suggested by the Save Our Stow group.
“They are looking at a way in which the stadium could be retained and updated to provide a modern greyhound-racing venue whilst using part of the land around the site for development in order to provide some of the housing that it is now earmarked for. As such they are in line with the trend for mixed leisure and housing developments used at many modern sports venues.
“Obviously an awful lot of goodwill and ambition would be needed to bring such a project into fruition. But the Lib Dems demonstrated through our assistance in bringing local post offices back into use that when we work with residents who come up with ambitious and innovative proposals for our area, we can produce results.
“What concerns me is that campaigners have the impression that they are being ignored by L&Q and that any alternative proposals which could lead to the stadium being retained are being rejected out of hand.
“I will be meeting with L&Q to discuss their plans for the site and to urge them to meet with campaigners.”
Cllr Macklin also expressed his concern that the closure of the track was symbolic of a wider trend concerning the boroughs leisure facilities and heritage sites.
He added:
“The stadium is an iconic venue and gives Waltham Forest something that distinguishes us from other London boroughs. We should be prepared to listen to those who have viable plans to modernise and reopen the site.”