Redbridge Olympic Snoozebox

Click here for larger version. 

And here is a report in the Ilford Recorder including a quote from our Secretary.

No, No U-Turn Enforcement

It is now nearly a year since I reported the existance of the infamous Clayhall Eye, a CCTV Camera located at the 128 Bus terminus in Clayhall Avenue. The problem was that whoever was viewing the pictures back at Head Office did not understand the traffic rules that apply at this location. Consequently loads of PCNs (Penalty Charge Notices) started turning up on local residents doormats when all they had actually done was to perform a perfectly legitimate manouvre – i.e. a U-Turn at a point on the highway where it is permitted. This caused a bit of a rumpus, as you can imagine. I recall a rather heated meeting in the local Rugby Club with the local Police SNT where local residents had arrived armed with print outs from this blog.

The camera, whilst remaining operational, ceased to be used for the enforcement of traffic violations while the Council went about its own U-Turn of refunding those false fines that had been paid and cancelling those that had not. There was a suggestion that the TMO (Traffic Management Order) relating to illegal U-Turns at the Claybury Broadway Junction should be extended to cover the gap opposite the rear alleyway to the shops just before the width restriction. Unsurprisingly this was supported by those drivers in the traffic queue watching others jump that queue in front of them, and opposed by those doing the legal U-Turns at that point. And then it all went quiet.

I asked if the camera had resumed its enforcement duties with the correct information on traffic rules for that location? Highways Officer says No! Councillor says Yes! Hmmmm. So, I leave it alone for a while.

Then, quite recently, I thought that there’s one good way to find out and that is to submit a FOI (Freedom of Information) request on the number of PCNs issued by that camera. This is the reply.

Since May 2011 there have been 7 PCNs issued for illegal use of the “emergency access only” part of the width restriction, so we know the camera is being used to issue PCNs for traffic violations.

However, since May 2011 there have been no (that’s Zero) PCNs issued for illegal U-Turns into the “keep Clear” section opposite Claybury Broadway. Now, I have personally witnessed several occurances of this offence during that time and not in the rush hour when this practice, I am told, is at its peak. Indeed, I have found it rare to sit in the traffic queue waiting for the lights to change and NOT see an illegal U-Turn at that point.

So, the question is, why is Redbridge Council not enforcing its own TMO at this location?

Your Guide to Redbridge 2012

It’s such a busy year this leap year that I thought I’d write it all down, as much as for my own benefit as yours. Here it is. Undoubtedly more to follow and details too, so keep your eyes peeled …

Fairtrade Fortnight: 27th February – 11th March

Climate Week: 12th - 18th March (Inc. our coffee morning on 15th)

Queen visits Valentines Mansion: 29th March

GLA Election: Hustings and our AGM on 4th April, voting on 3rd May

Jubilee Weekend: 2nd – 5th June

Redbridge Green Fair: 4th June

Fun in the Park @ Barkingside Rec: 9th June

Redbridge Music Festival: 23rd - 24th June

EURO 2012: 8th June – 1st July

• England v France 11th June
• England v Sweden 15th June
• England v Ukraine 19th June
• Welcome home 20th June
• Manager sacked 21st June

Fairlop Fair: 6th - 7th July

Olympic Torch in Barkingside: 22nd July

2012 Olympics: 27th July - the glorious twelfth (12th August)

2012 Para Olympics: 29th August - 9th September

Night Lights on the patio outside the Library: 8th September

Save Glasbury House

Cross post from http://www.save-glasbury.org/index.php

Redbridge Councilors plan to close the Glasbury House Outdoor Education Centre. Since the Centre opened in 1963 some 60,000 young people from Redbridge have experienced the unique life-affirming (and for some, life changing) challenge and adventure that Glasbury offers.

If the Centre closes, this asset for the people of Redbridge will be lost forever. 1,000s of Redbridge young people will have this opportunity taken away from them.

All the schools that use Glasbury House agree that the quality offered by the Centre cannot be found elsewhere from commercial providers.

Redbridge Council are about to withdraw funding of around £255K and have issued redundancy notices to the staff. The Centre management have identified over £115K of saving that they can make in the coming financial year. However, they need more time to make the Centre fully sustainable. Once the Centre is closed and the house and land sold there will be no going back.

Despite the difficult financial climate for the Council the revenue commitment of around £140K for a year is small in comparison to the irretrievable loss to future generations of young people in the borough.

Schools in Redbridge have been asked to make a contribution of £1K each towards the shortfall to help keep the Centre open. Will your local school contribute?

Please join the petition – don’t let Glasbury go

More on the Glasbury Centre here.

The Politics of Illusion

The square A is exactly the same shade of gray as square B

Some people, who I’m not going to link to, are having a moan about that nice but dim Gordon Brown “earning” £1.4 million since his retirement from Number 10 Downing Street. However, we should point out that it has all been donated to that nice but dim Mr Cameron’s “Big Society” Project.

We should also point out that in the same period, just under 2 years, the AVERAGE Premier League footballer has “earned” £10 million and the more petulant a mere £20 million despite refusing to play. But that’s not all, our gold studded stars have arranged to have the bulk of their “pay” designated as “image rights” which attracts a mere 25% in Corporation Tax as opposed to the 50% on “income”. Well, you would wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t you? Still, I suppose it means they have more cash to pay the home help and security staff a minimum living wage.

Then we have our good friend Cllr Paul Canal, Conservative, bemoaning that Amira gets £40k in Housing benefits + Income support. Now take a look at the Guardian article referred to.

Amira is paying £812 per week in rent to a private landlord which = £42,224 per year. Average pay is about half that amount. Why is this?

It’s because Paul’s heroine, Mrs Thatcher, sold off most of the council housing so the poor have to rely on the private sector and thus the state [taxpayer] picks up the tab. And now, when times are hard, the Conservatives are complaining about the bill, you have to have a larf, don’t you?

You don’t have to be an Eton educated half-wit to work that one out. What’s that saying? Oh yes – Beware of unintended consequences!

It’s going back a few years now (1999) but my Dad paid about £65 per week for his council flat. Admittedly he was probably the only person in the block actually paying out of his own funds, but nevertheless that money went to the Local authority who were able to keep that money within the local economy.

So, where is Amira’s £42,224 Housing benefit going. Er, it’s going to a private Landlord’s off-shore bank account. It’s not in Amira’s purse to buy food or clothes for her children in the local economy.

Who exactly is profiting from Housing Benefit? It’s not the poor for sure! It’s the rich.

Our economy is being sucked dry (by the already rich) of the means to sustain itself with the complicit sanction of successive “establishment” governments populated by educated idiots.

Rant over! Discuss.

Oh! By the way, the proof of the illusion above is here.

The Austerity Street CRASH

Yesterday, Saturday, I was subject to a cyber-attack – a piece of Malware had got onto my hard drive after visiting none other than the BBC football pages (the text stream of which hasn't worked since the “upgrade” some weeks ago) for news on the Chelsea match, Grrrrrr! I had to re-boot my system in “Safe mode” and do a system Restore to the week before. I wouldn’t mind but I have got Trend PC Cillin installed for protection. I might have to review that.

Which leads me on to the CRASH report. (CAST Report on Application Software Health) – don’t bother clicking on the link, you have to pay for their report. But there is some news coverage from the Europe Tech blog of the Wall Street Journal, how aposite!

And you thought it was just the World’s economic system that was suffering from the aftershock of a debt bubble! Wrong, there is also a computer code debt bubble – that is the cost of putting right all the crap code in Business applications as a result of cutting corners in the overpaid Chief Executive’s drive to maximise profit (and his bonus) at the expense of resilience and long term stability and security. If you thought that government sponsored Public Sector computer projects were bad, and they are, see Redbridge-i (faults reported months ago still not rectified), then this is where we are being led by the UK government’s drive to Marketise Public services. Facepalm!

But that’s not the half of it.

According to an email from Paul Maher at Positive Marketing and I presume he has read the report but I can’t find anything on this via a quick Google search (probably behind the paywall) ….

Energy and utility industries are in danger of significant failure according to data from the CRASH report, the largest study ever conducted on the quality of software applications. This comes at a time when the level and ferocity of cyber-attacks on national infrastructure is at an all-time high, with energy and utility companies being targeted in particular.

The report’s findings may go some way to explaining the blackout that hit Soho last December on the busiest Friday of year, affecting over 100 local businesses and costing some upwards of £10,000 each. With shops being forced to cease trading and Oxford Circus, the second busiest tube station in London, being left without power maybe this is a taste of things to come if software security issues are overlooked.

The CRASH report showed that a high number of applications in the energy and utility sector had structural quality violations, which leave them vulnerable in terms of outages, performance degradation, breaches by unauthorized users and data corruption.

And still our ConDem government pander to their paymasters, the big 6 energy companies, amongst others, and do all they can to dampen down and prevent emerging distributed energy generation projects from taking an equally subsidized share of the market.

Never, in human history, was the need for Agenda 21 and Transition more apparent, but only if you have eyes that see.

A Right Royal Request

Sadly, it looks like Redbridge Council will be letting their status as a Fairtrade Borough fall by the wayside of Austerity Road, Ilford, IG1 1DD. But that doesn’t mean Fairtrade has gone away and it doesn’t mean Fairtrade is just for farmers in Africa. Farmers, here in the UK, are also being squeezed by the mega multi-national bullies we know as Supermarkets.

That’s why Fairtrade Foundation are lobbying government right now to introduce a Watchdog for farmers and suppliers.

Four years ago the Competition Commission, the official body for market fairness, called for a regulator to protect all supermarket suppliers from unfair treatment. This year - with your help - we finally have the opportunity to make this happen.

In a matter of weeks the Queen will give her speech on the government’s programme for the year ahead. Sitting in ministers' in-trays is a Bill to create a Grocery Code Adjudicator – a watchdog to hear complaints and take action. The proposals are not perfect, but it's a good first step to providing farmers and suppliers with a mechanism to ensure fair dealing.

The watchdog, called the Grocery Code Adjudicator, will ensure that supermarkets do not break the Grocery Supply Code Of Practice (GSCOP). This code bans a number of unfair practices, such as:

• Supermarkets changing the price paid to the supplier of goods, even after they have been delivered and sold in store
• Making suppliers pay for goods stolen from stores
• Making suppliers pay for refurbishment of supermarkets.

Some shoppers would be quite surprised that some of these practices existed, let alone needed banning.

You might like to help by dropping a note to your MP. Every little helps!

Supporting Victims of Hate Crime in Barkingside & Hainault

Redbridge Equalities & Community Council has secured funding to do some work in Hainault and Barkingside involving the community in opposing hate crime. We will be seeking to re-establish our Community Witness & Support Team – volunteers who visit victims of hate crime to support them, take down reports of incidents, deter and witness things that happen. In our experience other perpetrators tend to focus on people that they feel are isolated. So regular visits have a deterrent effect.

We will also be leafleting in hotspots in that area asking for victims to come forward with a view to setting up a mutual support group so that victims can gain from solidarity with each other and also develop a collective voice with which to engage with the appropriate enforcement agencies. We will be glad of any assistance in leafleting also.

We also want to speak to community groups, residents groups and places of worship in that area.

If you would like to be part of our Community Witness & Support Team please email your details to David Landau.

Simon's Valentine Message

This is a guest post from Simon Smiler. He’s miffed because he can’t use, again, his prefered walk through Valentines Park, and has pre-empted the reply from Redbridge Council, below:

Memo to residents and visitors using Valentines Park,

From LBR Engineering and Building Services.

Please note that to permit what we see as essential footpath widening works the park entrance in Perth Road (opposite Lynton Crescent) will be closed for a while. This might be 3 weeks, it might be 6 - as yet we don't know but in common with other recent works in Valentines Park we expect things to take longer than originally anticipated, so for a change would rather not quote short timescales which prove to be widely over optimistic.

We accept that for over 100 years the existing footpath's width has been seen as satisfactory, but since the park already has the most magnificent flora and fauna, everyone in the borough is housed, all public buildings are in perfect physical shape, our schools are in perfect order / feature small class sizes / equipped with the latest hi-tech wizardry / provide nutritious & wholesome hot lunchtime meals and all local volunteer groups fully funded so LBR officials are at a loss as to a better way to spend its overflowing pile of our money.

Regular park users will remember that it is barely a nano-year since similar works resulted in a protracted closure of this gate, however that was for a different section of footpath. The works are being phased because it is more than anyone's job is worth to minimise the inconvenience to park users and complete the whole project at one time.

During these works people wishing to enter or leave Valentines Park must either use the gate on Perth Road near to Milton Crescent or the Cranbrook Road gate next to Valentines High School.

We recognise that people who walk through the park as the shortest route from a to b will find that these these alternatives will make their journeys longer, especially when diverting via Bramley Crescent, but hey - such is life! Of course this will be especially hard for those who walk through the park between the closed gate and the Cranbrook Road gate and who are now effectively denied the chance to use the park at all (such as your esteemed author).

As it represents an easy way to absolve us from all consideration of the consequences to others we are citing the 'catch-all' excuse of Health and Safety as being why this gate cannot be used by the public.

We thought about apologising for any inconvenience caused to park users by this gate closure, but decided against such an untruthful activity. In saying this we are following the usual 'mind over matter' mantra which applies to all works that result in unwanted and inconvenient enforced changes to the lives of 'other people'. We do not mind, and you oiks do not matter.

Go away, don't complain and try to have a nice day. Failing that we recommend that you make urgent contact with a taxidermist, explaining how much you are in awe of their work and how with their help you wish to achieve the holy grail of immortality.

The First Friday in July

Last Tuesday we had the first prelim planning meeting with Council Officers and other local groups for this year’s Fairlop Fair. It will be held at Fairlop Waters and will start on the traditional date, on the evening of Friday 6th July and continue on Saturday 7th July. Put it in your diary now! It’s gonna be Awesomely Mega! We have since invited our local Ha’penny Brewery, who have reserved the dates, in keeping with the traditions of this event …. Now need to get someone to supply the bacon and beans.

Here’s a brief history from our Chair.

FAIRLOP FAIR. ( c 1750 to 1900)

It is hard to comprehend, when appreciating today’s peace and quiet on Fairlop Plain, that annually two hundred years ago thousands of people visited a fair there, with all the resulting noise and mayhem.
The story starts when Daniel Day travelled to Fairlop on business and picnicked under a large oak tree with his friends. He was there to collect rent on the first Friday of July for the Berry Hall Farm at Little Heath which he owned. Consequently he is credited with being the founder of Fairlop Fair.

The plain is situated near Barkingside so named for being situated on the boundary of Hainault Forest and the monastic lands owned by Barking Abbey.

Daniel Day (1683 to 1767) was a popular man which gave rise to his nick-name ‘Good Day’, he owned a ship’s pump and blockmaker’s business in Wapping, part of the busy area along the River Thames and its tributaries. Another such town was Barking at that time England’s main fishing port.

As acorns grow into an oak, the picnic grew into a fair, with Daniel’s journey developing into a carnival, crowds lining the route and the resulting congestion causing many incidents and accidents. Because of Daniel’s background, boats were a feature of the procession. In the early days upturned rowing boats with wheels were dragged along, and later on bigger wheeled ships, drawn by up to six horses with people seated in the bow (like a coach) were a common sight.

It is difficult to describe a typical Fairlop Fair because over the 150 years of its existence it grew from the traditional fry-up of beans and bacon (bean feast) in the forest to something like this eye witness account of 1840: ‘The most prominent exhibition was Richardson’s Travelling Theatre, and there were of course numerous smaller shows; swings, roundabouts, gypsy fortune tellers, thimble and pea rig cheats and scores of drinking booths.’ It was estimated that there were at least 200,000 people in the forest or attending the fair. During this period of the Fairs history, it was regarded as the greatest drinking bout for East Londoners. The Religious Tract Society at one of the fairs counted 72 gaming tables, 108 drinking booths and distributed 45,000 tracts. These ‘goings on’ did not endear the event to the powers that be.
In 1851 Parliament, endorsed the disafforestation of the plain, turning it into arable land. Although it continued for another some 50 years in differing guises things were never the same again. The last fair of any size was in 1900.

The huge Fairlop Oak (whose shadow covered nearly an acre), was the pivot of the gathering and could well have been up to 700 years old. The last vestiges of the oak were removed when the roots were grubbed up at the time the plain was cleared of trees. Before that it had suffered from wind, lightening, fires and vandalism and in the end its wood was put to good use in such things as coffins, pulpits and mementos.

1951 saw an oak being planted on the Fullwell Cross Barkingside round- about opposite the Fairlop Oak pub. On the first Friday in July 2011 the London Borough of Redbridge held a get-together at Fairlop Waters in the spirit of Daniel Day’s picnics, and hopes are that this will be the start of many more.

John Sharrock.

Aldborough Hatch: The Village in the Suburbs – A History

Change of plan – Shirley Rudge cannot make our coffee morning next week on 16th February so we will be welcoming Ron Jeffries instead just in time for the launch of his new book.

This book is the culmination of many years of delving into the life and lives of a unique community on the edge of the Green Belt in the London Borough of Redbridge. Born here, the author is one of many who have campaigned locally to keep the countryside of Aldborough Hatch open for all to enjoy.

This is not an official – nor is it an unofficial – history of Aldborough Hatch. Rather it is a lively, often amusing and sometimes revealing journey across the centuries – from the time when the forest of Essex covered much of Fairlop Plain to the present day when the traffic on the A12 on its southern boundary roars past on its way into mainland Europe and far beyond. If St. Peter’s Church features large in this book, this is because it has been at the very heart of Aldborough Hatch for the past 150 years and much local history is tied up within its walls.

But this is no dull catalogue of the past, for the pages bring to life little-known facts such as that Aldborough Hatch had its own “Lover’s-walk”, that the Dick Turpin has its roots in a Beer House in a cottage, that diarist Samuel Pepys visited, and poet John Donne and politician George Lansbury lived here, that Lulu’s Boom Bang-a-Bang started life here, that in 1862 villagers hereabouts spent the evening engaged in “rustic sports”, that the first lady Churchwarden at St. Peter’s was elected in 1915 (three years before women had the vote) and that actor, producer, director and author Bryan Forbes lived here and Hollywood superstar Rock Hudson visited a home here.

Published in 2012 to coincide with the 150th Anniversary of the Consecration on 6th March 1862 of St. Peter’s Aldborough Hatch, the book includes maps dating back to 1777 and in addition to the history of Aldborough Hatch Chapel, St. Peter’s and St. James, the stories behind Cuckoo Hall, St. Chad’s Well, the farms in Aldborough Hatch, Fairlop Airfield, Fairlop Waters, Newbury Park Station and the Ilford War Memorial Gardens.

Aldborough Hatch: The Village in the Suburbs – A History

120pp in full colour with 143 photographs, 13 illustrations and 10 maps

Publication March 2012 – ISBN 978-0-9561877-2-7

£14.99 plus £2.50 postage and packing in UK

Pre-Publication Offer £12 (plus £2.50 postage if sent by mail in UK)

Orders and enquiries via email.

Missing: Now Found

Emmanuel Paun, aged 13, missing from Ilford since 30 January 2012.

click on image to enlarge

Now found.

Feeling Cold?

Well, the snow has hit Barkingside so it has. So now is a good time to pop outside and look at your roof to see how efficient your loft lagging is.

Apart from that it is the cue for the usual Climate Change sceptics to drag their knuckles off the floor and expound their views, via a rather abused keyboard, to such scientific luminaries as the Daily Mail.

So I thought this might be an opportune moment to share this video from NASA via RSPB. Keep Warm.

Heritage Walks

I was rather disappointed to learn from Cllr Mrs Clark that she is no longer the Borough’s Heritage Champion and that there is no longer any central budget to add to the Aldborough Walk put together by herself and Ron Jeffries a few years back. There is an outstanding item on the Area 3 outstanding item list for a Heritage Walk but it’s been there so long it is in danger of becoming a heritage item in its own right.

Anyway while out walking today we stumbled upon this Heritage Pump located at Woodford Bridge where the River Roding used to pass underneath Chigwell Road before it was canalised when the M11 was built.

This is the inscription which mentions former councillor Peter Lawrence and still present and correct councillor Richard Hoskins who was then Mayor.

We were thinking that we should put together a Heritage Walk ourselves but we are not quite sure what to do with this …..

City Gates Church Collapse

At around 4:30pm yesterday the infrastructure for the City Gates Church in Clements Road, Ilford, collapsed. Nobody was seriously injured.

However the area remains closed while Health & Safety investigate and the site is made safe.

The Clements Road Car park and the surface Town Hall Car park are closed. Buses are being diverted and there is serious congestion – advice is to avoid Ilford Town centre if possible.

The Royal Mail sorting office is closed so post will be delayed.

Council services are being re-located.

For updates see the Council Website.

Also see latest tweets in the right hand side bar.