What’s on See centre Your guide to activities, clubs and events pages in the borough Your Council keeping residents informed Issue 156 22 February 2016 www.walthamforest.gov.uk @wfcouncil { QUALITY SHOPS, RESTAURANTS AND LEISURE FACILITIES } { 3 NEW MEDICAL CENTRES } { NEW CAR-FREE DEVELOPMENTS } INTRODUCTION We have ambitious accommodate new developments In the coming months you will begin plans to continue to we want to create places where you to see more signs of change and shape our borough enjoy spending your free time. you’ll get the chance to have your say to meet the needs of And more shops, restaurants and on plans that will shape the borough. our residents. As we leisure facilities not only provide you Keep up to date and find out how to deliver 12,000 new with things to do but help provide have your say: council, affordable more jobs for residents. www.walthamforest.gov.uk/shaping and private homes, we are making One of the growth areas in our sure we have the facilities and borough is our creative industry infrastructure to meet the needs sector. This received a huge boost last Cllr Clare Coghill of our existing and new residents. month with a £1.1million grant from Lead Member for Economic Growth and High Streets That means making sure we have the GLA for a Creative Enterprise Waltham Forest Council the school places, health facilities Zone in Blackhorse Lane. This will and transport connections that are provide space for emerging ‘tech’ needed to make these changes work. and creative entrepreneurs and additional space for the successful Across the borough, alongside creative start-ups already outgrowing making sure that we have the Blackhorse Workshops. services and facilities in place to 3 NEW MEDICAL CENTRES As part of our work to shape a borough medical centres planned for the borough for everybody work has started on half a including brand new medical centres at million pound upgrade to a medical centre Thorpe Coombe Hospital, Walthamstow in Highams Park to help new and existing and Sutherland Road, Blackhorse Lane. residents access medical care. As part of our efforts to help you lead a Funded by the council, together with healthy life, we continue to invest in our the NHS Property Services’ Asset and sports and leisure facilities and physical Investment Committee, the Handworth activity programmes. These include the Avenue Medical Centre will feature an opening of the new Waltham Forest additional three consulting rooms, extra Leisure Centre in autumn 2016, spring treatment room, training room and other tennis programs, and free fitness sessions new facilities to benefit patients and staff. in our parks and open spaces as part of The funding for the project was secured the Our Parks initiative. by an agreement known as Section 106. For more information visit www.ourparks. Negotiated by the Council, it demands org.uk/borough/waltham-forest that developers contribute towards improvements in the communities in which they build. The works to the centre will deliver much needed extra capacity for growing demands on services in the area. To be complete in late 2016, this is one of a number of new and upgraded 3 NEW MEDICAL CENTRES New and improved medical centres help new and existing residents. {New facilities will benefit patients and staff { see oUR PLANS TAKE SHAPE www.walthamforest.gov.uk/shaping What’s on See centre Your guide to activities, clubs and events pages in the borough Your Council keeping residents informed Issue 156 22 February 2016 www.walthamforest.gov.uk @wfcouncil New station is on track Lea Bridge Station is set to reopen this Spring Pupils from Thorpe Hall Primary really looking forward to welcoming School in Walthamstow joined our first passengers in just a few Council Leader, Chris Robbins, months, especially as the reopening on a tour of Lea Bridge Station has been our vision for over 15 earlier this month, as construction years. on the site continues. “Lea Bridge Station will form such After 30 years of closure, the an important lynchpin in this part of Leyton station is reopening to Waltham Forest, providing existing passengers this Spring, marking the residents and businesses with a culmination of a 15 year vision for much-needed station and stimulating Waltham Forest Council. more new homes in the area. Works are well underway and “It’s been a project we have when the station is finished, committed to make happen, and residents will have direct links to both it will form the centrepiece of Stratford and Tottenham Hale and wider plans to rejuvenate the area journey times of just five minutes in and create a new Leyton Village, either direction. spurring even more regeneration and The station closed to passengers change.” in 1985 and in that time had fallen Thorpe Hall’s pupils visited the into disrepair, but thanks to £5million site to see artwork they designed for from the Council, £1.1million from hoardings which surround the station the Department for Transport’s New while construction takes place. Stations Fund and £5.5million from The pupils saw their artwork in situ Section 106 contributions (managed and learnt about how the station is by the Stratford Implementation being built, and what it will mean for Pupils from Thorpe Hall Primary School visited Lea Bridge Station for Group) it has been possible to see Leyton. a tour of the site, and to see their artwork on the station hoardings the route reopened. Abellio Greater Anglia will run the According to Transport for station’s train services when it re- London (TfL), it is estimated the new opens. More information about the station will service up to 352,000 official opening and the station’s first passengers a year by 2031. services will be available soon, so More info Council Leader, Chris Robbins, keep an eye out in Waltham Forest For more information, visit www.walthamforest.gov.uk/leabridgestation. Free internet access is available at told Waltham Forest News: “We’re News. Waltham Forest Libraries. You can help the Council tackle housing fraud by reporting it if you believe someone claiming social housing: 2 News New flight paths begin n Narrower flight corridors are operating over the south of the borough n Planes fly overhead as often as every three minutes “I am disappointed yet sadly and Leytonstone in particular.” unsurprised that the new flight paths City Airport is currently appealing have begun with no attempt from the Mayor of London’s decision to City Airport to inform the thousands refuse planning permission for their of residents and households expansion plans that would see affected by this further noise blight passenger numbers double over and increased air pollution caused the next eight years. The Council Waltham Forest Council has objected to new narrower flight by this change”, said Cllr Clyde has already written to the Planning corridors being used over the south of the borough Loakes, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Inspectorate urging them to reject Member for Environment. the appeal. “We raised serious concerns at A new narrower flight corridor The changes have been made London among others. Despite the time around the manner in which is now in use by London City in spite of an outcry from Waltham this opposition, the Civil Aviation the consultation was carried out, More info Airport, subjecting residents Forest Council, local residents and Authority (CAA) gave permission in and I will continue to let City Airport For more information, visit in the south of the borough to interest groups, and a consultation December 2015 for the use of new know how increasingly angry I am at www.londoncityairport.com. planes flying overhead as often exercise that was criticised by local technology that creates a much their attitude towards the quality of Free internet access is available as once every three minutes. MP John Cryer and the Mayor of narrower flight corridor. life of so many residents in Leyton at all libraries in the borough. Tamara In my opinion Kaminsky Leyton resident and Trained Reading Helper, Beanstalk Charity I wish I could say that I have you. I would not have known what skills to offer. I was not a gardener, with my first pupil was such a now applying for teacher training always wanted to work with to say to a five year old, let alone an artist or a teacher and I did not pleasure. They felt special reading courses. children. But it is simply not the been able to read with one. have any foreign languages under one-to-one with me and the school Beanstalk is a literacy charity case. In fact, until a year ago, I had lived a sheltered, child- my belt. Then I saw Beanstalk listed told me the work was invaluable. which places volunteers in local I had not given children much free life for over two decades as as a ‘reading charity’. Many parents are unable to primary schools to help children thought at all. I was aware of a journalist and author. Travelling Reading is, first and foremost, my read with their children at home, who have fallen behind with their them, of course. Especially between New York, Los Angeles, favourite occupation. So I signed so our twice-weekly time together reading. They work in a number of as over half the population of London and Dubai, writing about up to join the Beanstalk family, is everything. I can see their schools in Waltham Forest, and are Waltham Forest seems to be Hollywood, celebrity, fashion and not knowing what to expect, but improvement in reading along with looking for more reading helpers.