The following was emailed out to opt-in subscribers by Cllr Clyde Loakes on the 21st Sept 2005. The document has been posted in its entirety.
Lincolns
The Crown Court Appeal hearing by Lincolns will be heard on 27th and 28th October at Snaresbrook Crown Court.
We are arranging for a briefing session to be held at a venue in Leytonstone. If you were planning to come to the Court it would be useful if you could attend this briefing session. We will send out details shortly.
Lincolns have also put in for a further extension of their hours. We are of course opposed to these and have objected on behalf of residents, as have the police. We are still waiting a date for the License Committee to meet to hear this application, but it could be very shortly. Again we will let you know.
With the very real knifing incident at the pub still in our minds let us hope that this establishments late license is thrown out once and for all.
Leytonstone Library
At Leytonstone Community Council on Monday plans for the £2m refurbishment were unveiled to the public, as well as the previously reported plans for the new Waltham Forest Direct (WFD) Shop to replace the First Stop Shop.
This investment in a key and fundamental public service will be the largest investment to Leytonstone Library for a generation. It will ensure that we retain the aesthetics of the architecture (even the shelves are Grade II listed!), as well as creating a larger area for books, a large and new computer suite and a much-improved children’s area and homework facility. The Theatre Hall will also receive a good spring clean and lick of paint.
As well as this refurbishment your ward councillors will be lobbying for even later evening opening and Sunday opening. This will compliment the recent initiative of opening on Wednesday afternoons and staying open during weekday lunch times, which has contributed to a significant increase in library usage.
A number of meeting rooms will also be provided in both the library and the WFD facility for community groups and individuals to hire.
Discussions were held with Starbucks, to see whether there was an opportunity for them to move into the building, to see if they could replicate in a library surrounding what so many coffee franchises have done with bookshops. However the idea didn’t get any further than initial expression of interest.
Instead the Council is keen to develop a small Gallery within the area of WFD, which could display exhibitions by local artists, schools and even take pieces from the William Morris Gallery.
The WFD facility is due to be open by March 2006 and it is hoped the library works will begin next summer.
Attached are the final Library floor plans [514KB], along with the final 2 options being considered for the WFD facility on the ground floor [408KB] (this incorporates the former pound shop in Church Lane into the floor plans).
Weekly Recycling
The weekly average collection weights on the Get Sorted kerbside collection are up 50% for the first two weeks of the new weekly collection initiative. This reflects a combination of the hard work put in by our door knocking/ participation team and the switch to weekly collections and the addition of cardboard, but it is a very promising start. To put it into perspective, our
weekly average prior to the change was 114.23 tons; our average after the change is 171.26 tonnes, an increase of 57 tonnes per week. It is only the start and we expect the weights to settle back a bit as it beds in and then to provide a more stable base from which to build on. But all the same this is a significant improvement and will contribute to Waltham Forest being at
the forefront of recycling in London.
Car Free Day
Was another huge success, thousands of people flocked to the event and a huge array of Council Services, community and voluntary sector and business stalls joined the hugely popular and successful French Market, to turn Leytonstone into a real hive of activity.
Music, bouncy castles and environmental activity helped keep people of all ages entertained and of course the rain held off!
We hoped you enjoyed it. But do you have any thoughts/ suggestions/ comments for next year to make it even bigger and better?????
Neighbourhood Watch
We are organising a meeting in the St Johns Ambulance building in Kings Road (date and times to be confirmed) to help residents set up a Neighbourhood Watch Scheme, to deal with particular anti social behaviour problems around the Kings Road, Kingswood Road, Wallwood Road and Kings Passage area.
Would like us to help you set up a Neighbourhood Watch in your area? If so please get in touch. We’ll arrange for the Council’s Neighbourhood Watch officer to attend, arrange the meeting venue, do the leafleting for you and help you get going.
New Lighting
Leytonstone Community Council agreed to fund and arrange new lighting columns and developments to improve the lighting levels in- Davies Lane, Kings Passage, Leytonstone Plaza and around the Church Lane/ Kirkdale Road area.
Traffic Contraventions
From the 1st April 2006, Waltham Forest Council will take over the responsibility for enforcing the rules around amongst other things ‘yellow box junctions’ for example at the High Road/ Church Lane junction and at the Bush Road/ High Road/ Green Man Roundabout junction.
Where local authorities have been allowed to enforce these rules it has lead to significant improvements in traffic flow.
Street Services Inspection
As mentioned in previous Residents Reports I can now bring you the details of the recent Street Services Inspection.
- Inspectors praised the Council for innovative initiatives, which have helped to keep the borough cleaner and greener.
- The inspection highlighted the Tango teams scheme, the Mobile Tip, the Beat Sweep programme and changes to street cleaning schedules for contributing to a “visible improvement to street cleanliness”.
- The report also praised high customer satisfaction with services such as recycling facilities, street cleansing and refuse collection which exceeded the London average, noting that Waltham Forest achieved the national recycling target for 2005/6 a year early.
- The Audit Commission’s report, published this week, assessed the Streetscene service as providing “a fair one-star service with excellent prospects for improvements.” Our previous inspection in this area just gave us one star.
- In the report, inspectors praised the Council’s performance on recycling which has increased from 11.71% in 2003/04 to more than 18% in 2004/5.
- Praise was given to the low number of missed refuse collections and that this “much improved performance” was achieved at a reduced cost to the tax payer.
- Also highlighted were quick repairs to dangerous defects on streets and pavements, reductions of fatal and serious injuries in road accidents as a result of the implementation of road safety schemes and other traffic calming measures, work with businesses on trade waste collection, and environmental improvements.
- Plans for future improvements, which impressed the inspectors, include:
- the introduction of a new Customer Relations management system which will improve our ability to deal with queries and complaints
- integrated plans to address “crime, grime and anti-social behaviour” through cross-council and inter-agency enforcement
- the Council’s track record of delivering environmental priorities
- detailed plans for graffiti reduction, planned highways maintenance, and improved general service planning
- Inspectors noted the high level of commitment of the Leader, other senior Councillors and senior officers to improving the Streetscene services.
The Audit Commission has made recommendations for improvements for certain areas that could affect future progress. For example-
- Improving the consistency of customer service, better communication of service standards, increasing the ways that people can pay for parking services, removal of chewing gum from pavements.
- The Council also needs to show greater community leadership in its approach to waste reduction and reuse, and needs to develop a detailed action plan to support its aspiration for a 50% recycling rate by 2012.
The Council will now develop an action plan to tackle issues raised in the report, and this will be taken forward as part of the ongoing improvements programme for the service.
If you want to view the full report use the link below.
http://tinyurl.com/8uv27
WFD Phone Line
Many of you may well have had problems contacting the Council through the 020 8496 3000 number lately. I have asked the Cabinet member with responsibility for this service, to resolve the problems and outstanding issues as a matter of priority.
If you are struggling to get through WFD then please contact your ward councillors, as we may be able to help you.
School Results
Initial feedback for Leytonstone schools GCSE results shows those receiving 5+ A- C results as follows-
Connaught- 59%- increase of 8% on the previous year
Leytonstone- 55%- increase of 3% on the previous year
As a whole the Borough achieved an average of 49.3% an increase of 2.2%. We still have a lot to do but we are making the right progress.
Phone Masts
Your ward councillors have met with 3G to discuss the issues surrounding the siteing of a mast in Fairlop Road. We are due to meet with them again, with residents, as we believe that they may have not considered fully a number of more neutral sites in other parts of the area.
The Borough shall also shortly be receiving the list of sites that all the phone companies have identified as possible sites for the forthcoming year. We shall be checking for the sites in Leytonstone.
Independent Clock
This relates to the clock that faces the Church Lane entrance to the tube. We have now secured the monies to bring this much talked about clock back into use. We are currently in discussions with the owners of the building about getting the right level of access to work on the clock and bring it back into use.
Tube Subway Smoking Ban
We mentioned in Residents Report 12 about meeting with management of Leytonstone Tube Station to discuss a smoking ban in the subway entrance to the station. They have agreed to put up notices to this affect and we are currently discussing how we can enforce the ban, although we do hope that the signage in itself may actually lead to a reduction in those hanging around just outside the ticket hall smoking and creating a ‘nicotine fog’.
Alley behind Burghley Road
We have again drawn council officers, the police and street warden’s attention to this alley, which currently the Council does not have responsibility for as it is privately owned.
The alley is repeatedly fly-tipped and seems to be an area where increasingly a large amount of anti social behaviour and street drinking is taking place.
We have asked Council officers to investigate our taking responsibility for the alley or at least come up with a solution to the continued problems, relating to this alley.
Street Trees
Due to pressure from your ward councillors the Council has identified some funding to replace a number of trees lost through disease or vandalism. These will be planted during the coming weeks.
Bulbs
Don’t forget to contact Terry Finney on 020 8496 2602 if you want some free bulbs for your community group to plant to liven up the Borough for next spring.
Free Swims
Some 40,000 free swims were taken up by our young people during the last 4 weeks of the school summer holiday. The funding was provided by the Council as a means of saying ‘Thank You’ to our young people for the support they showed the successful Olympic bid.
……and over to you………any problems? Any issues? Don’t forget to forward Leytonstone neighbours, friends and families e-mail address’s to us so that they can be copied into this report.
Cheers
Cllr Clyde Loakes Cllr Marie Pye Cllr Jenny Gray