Liveable Streets review

There is a review going on for the Bethnal Green area, which I publish here, as it also concerns us what happens in our area.

The following message was sent by Becca Jordan to the Weavers Community Forum:

“You will have likely have seen improvements to Bethnal Green’s streets, leading to a significant reduction in traffic. There are however increases in traffic where approved closures have been paused and concerns have been raised from residents regarding severance, particularly for north south journeys.

We are therefore undertaking a review and are speaking to residents, businesses and the emergency services to assess the impact of the scheme and see how we can make amendments to address concerns, whilst retaining the benefits of reduced traffic secured by the scheme.”

Key areas of focus are:

• emergency service access throughout the area
• Warner Place/Squirries Street
• The closures at Pollard Road, Barnet Grove, Old Nicole Street
• Ropley Street
• Arnold Circus

Tower Hamlets would therefore like to invite your group to attend a drop-in consultation session on the local Bethnal Green Liveable Streets scheme.

Session 1

St. Peter’s Mission Hall, 56 Warner Place, E2 7DA,
Saturday, 13. November 11:00 – 14:30

Session 2

St. Peter’s Mission Hall, 56 Warner Place, E2 7DA
Wednesday, 17. November 16:00 – 19:30

Help choose electrical charging points

We contacted the Mayor of Tower Hamlets last year to ask for more electrical charging points, also for houseboats because our residents suffer from the effects of coal being burned in boats on the canal.

It has now been announced that Tower Hamlets council has approved 400 new Electric vehicle charging points and residents can suggest the installation locations.

Residents can suggest a location for a new EV charging point as part of a consultation launched on Tuesday 5 October.

We assume that is in addition to the built in lamp post charging points.

Club Zone One

Trapped in Zone One returns to Bethnal Green this autumn with Club Zone One in partnership with Parkview TRA.

Club Zone One Website and further details here:

As part of our continued youth provision programme we’re hosting a 3-month programme following the governments Covid-19 guidance from 16 October – 18 December 2021 for young females aged 11-18 from Tower Hamlets, providing creative workshops and fitness session with FREE lunchtime nutritious meals provided by a local food provider.

Every Saturday, 12:00 – 14:00
Glasshouse Community Centre, 161 Old Ford Road, E2 9QB

To register a young person to the programme, parents and guardians need to complete the registration form here.

Guidance for parents and carers of children attending out-of-school settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, click here

Design and win a tree house

In partnership with Universal’s The Croods 2: A New Age and Co-op InsuranceNeighbourhood Watch Network are super excited to launch a competition to design a CROODS 2 INSPIRED TREEEHOUSE and WIN IT for your LOCAL COMMUNITY.

We want children up to the age of 16 to design their very own #Croods2Treehouse for their local community. What’s more, the winning entry will be brought to life and built within a nearby Wildlife Trust location to be enjoyed by the public for years to come.

Visit co-opinsurance.co.uk/croods2 for details on how to enter! Visit ourwatch.org.uk/croods2 for more information on the partnership and how to share this campaign within your area

repair service is getting worst.

One of our residents in the ground floor is constantly having problems with drain blocckage when it rains hard for a while.

Whilst just on New Years day a drain in the bath completely blocked, which also affects all waste water from the kichen, the repairs service does nothing to fix the situation. They sent a man with a large palstic plunger, which didn’t help, than a man with a drill, that couldn’t go around the bends of pipes from the kitchen to the bathroom. The tenant has been told they can still use the bathroom sink, to do

• washing
• washing up
• laundry
• personal hygiene
• and all other things you need to do.

Apparently even the washing machine is connected to the same wastepipe as the bath, so that kitchen sink, washing machine waste flows into the bath/shower, making them unusable and THH wants to leave the tenant waiting for 9 days to have this repaired.

This is intolerable as the tenant is elderly with arthritis problems.

The councillor Eve McQuillan promised to contact Head of Repairs but why should we have to go to that lenght to get a blockage removed that is not due to negligence by the tenant?

Obviously the architecture of the block is complicated and out-dated and makes it very difficult to carry out repairs. A kitchen unit has been built in by the landlord to cover the waste pipes, which now needs a carpenter to remove to carry out pipe repairs.

Who suffers the endeffect? The resident.

St. George’s swimming pool

There is an ongoing petition to help St. George’s swimming pool re-open. St. George’s is used by many schools in the borough. My daughter won a gold medal there in the primary schools’ yearly borough championships, in which also Gatehouse pupils take part.

Please support this petition.

Primary school pupils at the yearly borough competitions

Door functionality

After writing to councillors, MP and THH, to alert them to design features of the new doors, THH have now confirmed that they will speak with AD about options. Our local Member of Parliament Rushanara Ali has also confirmed she is supporting this issue.

Fight to save Raines Foundation Secondary School continues at Call-In Meeting Tuesday 18th February 6.30 p.m.

The local community won’t stop fighting for our local Church of England Secondary school located in Approach Road, just around the corner from our estate.

We have a few pupils from local families attending and we would all be very sad to see the school close.

The Mayor has decided on the closure on 29. January 2019 but two members of the Childrens and Education Sub-committee Scrutiny Panel, Dr. Phillip Rice and Councillor Ahmed Hussain, have called in the decision.

Any member of the public can attend this meeting at the Town Hall.

As your parent representative on the Steering Group, you may contact me with your concerns about the planned closure via the contact page.

Parents are concerned that the planned amalgamation is not going ahead as thought because the Lower School building is as yet not available for Oaklands pupils to use. Parents need to make their preferences available by 28. February.

I would be very happy if the planned closure was cancelled.

Source: Fight to save Raines Foundation Secondary School continues at Call-In Meeting Tuesday 18th February 6.30 p.m.

Worrying breakdown in local services

I have never experienced such a breakdown in local services.

1. Our local secondary school, Raine’s Foundation is under threat of closure
2. 2. Our local GP, The Mission Practise is refusing* to give patients appointments.
3. The London Chest Hospital was closed some time ago.

Taking this as a sign of a reduction in local services, residents should be concerned and make enquiries to their local Member of Parliament, their Councillor and perhaps the Mayor of Tower Hamlets as to why our local services are not delivering the care our community needs.

*Online appointments are normally not available and when ringing, one can not get an advance appointment all times.

local health services

I am writing to ask residents wether they have problems getting GP appointments or other local health services.

Health services are very important for our community and when I was told by my GP, with whom I am registered since a very long time, that they do nto have any appointments at all, I found that very concerning.

Situations like that call for formal complaints. If any other residents have problems of that sort, please complain and raise the issue with a local councillor.