Sunday 11 December 2011

STOKE NEWINGTON COMMUNITY ADVISORY PANEL (CAP)

If you'd like to help set the priorities for the work of the police's Stoke Newington Safer Neighbourhoods Team , why not come along to the Stoke Newington Community Advisory Panel ?

The next meetings are at 7 30 pm on :
Wednesday 11th January
Wednesday 14th March
at
Yorkshire Grove Community Hall
Yorkshire Grove Estate
Gunstor Road
N16 8HF
If you can't attend the meetings you can still help to set priorities by going to StokeNewingtonCentral.snt@met.police.uk and completing a short survey giving your views online.

Sunday 4 December 2011

Protect Your Local Railway Station

Hackney Unites
Hackney Unites is proud to be supporting the Together for Transport initiative which wants to protect Hackney’s local railway stations from staffing cuts. There is a public meeting on Monday 12 December, at 6.30pm at the Old Fire Station, 61 Leswin Road N16 7NX.

There will be speakers from:
  • Disability Backup (highlighting the value of station staff to disabled people using rail transport)
  • The TSSA (rail workers’ union),
  • Jennette Arnold (Labour Party GLA member covering Hackney) and
  • Anna Hughes (Green Party candidate for the GLA).

This will be an opportunity to hear about the government’s ‘McNulty Report’ and its recommendations which if carried through will see the closure of ticket offices at six of the borough’s railway stations and reductions at a further three (the government is also planning above inflation fare increases).

However, this meeting is not intended to be just a ‘talking shop’ we want to establish rail user groups (similar to the park user groups already active in the borough) for each railway station in Hackney. Elsewhere, rail user groups have been active in their communities and have worked with train operating companies to win improvements to stations, and have campaigned successfully to maintain staff on their stations.

This meeting will initially focus on Stoke Newington, Stamford Hill and Rectory Road, and we have invited speakers from the company Abellio which will be operating the train services through these stations from next year, (but if you use any station in Hackney and want to get involved, please come along).

Bring your friends and bring your ideas about how we can create a voice for passengers in the borough.

The meeting is supported by the N16 Magazine: http://www.n16mag.com/news/latest-news/974.html

Help us promote this meeting by forwarding this email onto friends, neighbours and colleagues who you use Hackney’s rail stations, by forwarding this email on, by sharing it on social networking sites, and by promoting our facebook event https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=552496836&ref=notif&notif_t=friend_confirmed#!/events/248155985240504/

If you have any time over the next week, and can help by leafleting outside one of the stations, then please email woodsg@tssa.org.uk

Please consider forwarding this email to Hackney people who may be interested. Hackney Unites is a coaltion for social justice, if you are not already on our mailing list, you can sign up on-line (http://eepurl.com/bPJDH) to receive regular updates.

Many thanks

John Page
Secretary
Hackney Unites

Sunday 27 November 2011

A Family Friendly Concert

Recommended by one of our residents:

Sunday, December 18th 2011 Elements of surprise: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
Venue: Assembly Hall, Stoke Newington Town Hall, Stoke Newington Church Street, London
N16 0JR
Elements of surprise: Vivaldi's Four Seasons

Hackney Proms present a family-friendly, Sunday morning
concert in the Assembly Hall of the beautifully refurbished
Stoke Newington Town Hall.

In this original programme, period-instrument ensemble
Battuta explore the four Classical elements—Air, Fire, Earth
and Water—and their representation in the Baroque period.
Thunder, lightning, storms at sea and the fiery descent into
hell are depicted in thrilling music by Rameau, Rebel and
Telemann, and the more earthly delights of nature by Vivaldi's
most famous work, Le quattro stagioni (The Four Seasons).

Hackney Proms are relaxed, informal Sunday morning
concerts, with coffee and croissants available at the interval.
Children are welcome.

For tickets and more information about Hackney
Proms and Battuta, visit www.hackneyproms.co.uk

Ticket prices:

Adults: £12 • Children over five: £5 • Children under five: free
Senior citizens, full-time students, disabled & unemployed: £8

To book tickets:
Online: www.hackneyproms.co.uk
In person: Bridgewood and Neitzert, 146 Stoke Newington
Church Street, N16 0JU
The Workshop, 77A Lauriston Road, E9 7HA
Broadway Bookshop, 6 Broadway Market, E8 4QJ
Or pay by cash or cheque on the door

Wednesday 23 November 2011

Upcoming Events and Local News

Our latest newsletter has been sent out to over 80 email addresses and the number is slowly climbing which is good news! You can also read them here on the blog - just click on the Newsletter heading above.

A few dates for the diary this month:

Last chance to catch -
- Concrete Skin - 5th - 27th November
Address: Unit A, Leswin Place.
This autumn BHVU Gallery presents Concrete Skin, an exhibition exploring domestic dynamics and ways in which our behaviour within the home is motivated by social expectations. Concrete Skin brings together four internationally recognised artists whose selected works explore the intimate and emotional experiences that we often struggle to put into words.
For more information on this please visit their website www.bhvu.co.uk


This Saturday sees the first of the School Winter Fairs:

- Benthal School Winter Fair - Saturday 26th November 1.30-4pm
- Jubilee School's winter fair is on Friday 9th Dec 3.30 - 5.30 pm,

- William Patten School Winter Fair is on Saturday 11th December from 12.30 - 3.30pm

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- West Hackney Recreation Ground
Do you want to get involved in the future of West Hackney Recreation Ground?
Come along to a meeting of the West Hackney Recreation Ground User Group
The next WHUG meeting with mince pies and mulled wine is on
Monday 5th December at St. Paul's Church Hall. 7.30pm start.
Everybody welcome.
St Paul's Church, Hackney Council and Groundwork are worikng together to bid for the second stage of Heritage lottery funding to transform the park and surroundings of St Paul's Church.
Please contact the User Group on whrgusergroup@gmail.com or 07794 637870 for more information. We want to hear your views and get more local residents involved with the park.
From one User Group to another, it's good to hear from Clissold Park User Group that the Mansion House and Cafe will finally open on the 3rd January.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you haven't discovered it yet - go take a peek at The Chocolate Factory Open Studios....

- The Chocolate Factory Open Studios Weekend - 3rd/4th December 11am-6pm; Private View - Friday 2nd 6.30-9pm all welcome!


Farleigh Place, N16 7SX www.chocolatefactoryn16.com

Good news from Hackney Unites about the Sainsbury controversy:

Stoke Newington has been up in arms about the proposals for a massive Sainsbury development in Wilmer Place. Now, following intense local pressure from the community, the developer of the Wilmer Place site has shelved their original plans and is developing new proposals. We also have confirmation that the housing association One Housing will not now be involved in the development. The new proposals will be subject to public consultation before the developer submits a planning application. This is fantastic news, although it does not guarantee that the revised proposals will be acceptable, it does demonstrate that as a community we can have an influence on what happens to our area. Hackney Unites will continue to work with the Stokey Local campaign, but you can get more info from their website: http://stokeylocal.org.uk/latest-news/

...and finally a word of warning from one local Tyssen Road resident:
'I'd just like to alert everyone in the area to something that happened to me last week. I was at home, having just seen my daughter off to school. the doorbell rang and and I answered it. There stood a stocky-looking guy in a high-viz jacket, apparently rather agitated, who told me that he was doing some work on the road on the high street and they had gone through a gas pipe and didn't know how many houses were affected - would I run the tap to check my gas supply was OK? I went down to the kitchen and did as he asked. By the time I got back to the door, having shouted back that the gas was fine, he was gone. And so, as it turned out, was my iphone which had been on the hall shelf.

I failed to ask for ID; someone I told this story to suggested as an alternative simply shutting the door in their face while making the check, and then reporting back to them. It's not how most of us would choose to behave towards other people, but this kind of experience does make one more wary of doorstep requests.

Anyway, please be alert to lightfingered, opportunist, bogus workmen. This one probably won't risk returning to the area, but others may.'


Monday 24 October 2011

AGM - Minutes

Apologies for the delayed posting of our AGM minutes - but here they are. Letters have also gone out across the neighbourhood - so please feel free to get involved and send us your email address for updates:

Leswin Area Residents Association (LARA)
MINUTES

AGM
St Paul’s Hall, Amhurst Road, N16
7pm, September 2011


Present Jim Westwood (Chair), Guada Marengo (Treasurer), Fiona Fieber (Secretary), Andrea Jung, Anne Towndrow, Maureen Diffley, Helen Rawlinson, Jamie Elliott, Gavin Smith, Niall Weir
Apologies Chris Dennis


Election of Officers

Chair Andrea Jung
Secretary Fiona Fieber
Treasurer Guada Marengo

Heartfelt thanks were expressed to the out going chair, Jim Westwood, for all his hard work in setting up and leading LARA since 2009.
Congratulations to the newly elected Chair, Andrea.
Gavin Smith joined the committee as a member.


Agenda

Big Lunch
Fiona reported LARA’s second Big Lunch on Sunday 5th June 2011 had been a great success. Individual contributions had covered the costs. Agreed LARA will create some events to fundraise.
Big Lunch 2012 is on Sunday 3rd June.

20 mile an hour zone
Consultation – recommend keep on putting views to LBH re the consultation.
LBH Cycling Officer has acknowledged LARA’s views and comments.
The traffic lights at the Evering/Rectory junction are problematic, especially for children.
Suggested LARA teams up with Friends of Benthal School.
Involve Cllr Louisa Thomson.

Sainsburys
No news yet regarding planning permission.
Jamie outlined some of the issues and controversies re the process.
Proposal: LARA takes a position against the proposed development for Sainsburys on Wilmer Place.
Tell Stokey Local - Jamie

West Hackney Rec
Niall said Stage One of the application to Heritage Lottery Fund has gone through and provided some funding to support a consultation and development period.

AOB
Gary reported a spate of late night muggings around the Brooke/Bayston Road area.
Call for greater neighbour awareness and engagement.
Contact the Safer Neighbourhood Police Team.
Anne said she would take it to the next CAP meeting.





If you wish to add any comments or want to raise any issues within the LARA area, please write below - thank you!


Friday 21 October 2011

Latest Newsletter delivered through your door.

Hopefully LARA residents received a letter through their door this weekend.

We are requesting residents to submit an email address or adresses for each household. We can then put you on our mailing list. We intend to send monthly updates on developments in the area, highlight points raised by other residents and publish any events happening in the local area.

You can play as little or as large a role as you like. We know and understand that everyone has busy lives, but we feel it is important for residents to at least know what is going on in the local area and this is where the monthly email update comes in. Please get in touch!

If you have not received the newsletter it reads as follows:

Dear Neighbour,
My name is Andrea and I am the new chairperson of LARA (Leswin Area Residents Association). The key aims of LARA are to foster a community spirit among the neighbours, to help make improvements to the area, to tackle traffic problems, planning issues and other local concerns. You may have come along to the ‘Big Lunch’ we organize each summer?
We want every resident in our neighborhood to know what we are doing to help improve the community we all live in. And we are keen that everyone who wants to, can get involved with LARA as much or as little as they wish.
To do this we really would like you to provide us with an email address so we can then update you monthly with current campaigns and events happening in the local area.
Also we would like you to get in contact with us if you need any local information, local business contacts or if you would like to voice concerns on any neighborhood issues.
Please reply to us via email to the following address. In the title just state LARA contact email. Please send email to lara.n16@googlemail.com Please note: your email will not be passed on to any third party.
If you are a local business and want to pass information on to us that could be a benefit to others in the neighborhood please do so.

Also if you would like to get involved with LARA and help build our community please let us know.We are working together as a committee (see below for members’ details) and would like more residents to get involved on the committee. We want to hear your views and we need your participation to help LARA succeed.


Thursday 13 October 2011

Apple Day, Shopping and Bread Making!

Local things to do this weekend:

Celebrate Apple Day at Stoke Newington Farmers' Market with apple bobbing, food film show, display of rare fruit varieties, bee experts and more.
Kids Welcome
10am - 2:30pm
Stoke Newington Farmers Market
St Paul's Church,
Stoke Newington High St,
N16 7UY
and yey...the market is here to stay!
Website

A new little shop has opened up just opposite on Evering Road - Committee of Taste.
Some great vintage finds and local top designers!
Website

And this sounds like fun.....
BREAD HEAD is a two day participatory bread making workshop / performance.
Sat 15th 12. 00 - 6. 00 and sun 16th 12. 00 - 8. 00pm.
Sat 15-Oct to Sun 16-Oct
Kids Welcome

Campbell Works
27 Belfast Road,
N16 6UN
020 8806 0817
Website

On Sunday Belfast Road will also be having their annual Street Sale, which is always a lively event!
Sunday 16th 1pm - 6pm

More events to be found here: LiveAtYourLocal.org.uk

Anything else going on in the area you'd like to shout about?  Just leave a comment below!
Enjoy your weekend!

Friday 16 September 2011

Latest Newsletter September 2011

LARA AGM and Full Meeting
Thursday 29th September, 7pm, St Paul's Church Hall

(Corner of High Road and Evering Road)
This meeting will have a discussion on the proposed 20mph zone, the Sainsbury’s issue and give an update on the years events. We will also be electing the committee and officers for the coming year.
All residents of the LARA area welcome
Help build your community. We need residents to get involved on the committee. We want to hear your views and we need your participation to help LARA succeed.


Would Sainsbury’s plan destroy local shops?
Local traders, politicians and residents are joining forces to oppose plans for a big Sainsbury’s store at Wilmer Place (where Church Street meets the High Street).
They fear the giant supermarket would devastate local businesses by taking away customers and undercutting smaller traders on price at a time when deserted shop fronts are scarring high streets up and down the country.
Our three local councillors plus Diane Abbott MP and Jennette Arnold of the London Assembly wrote to Sainsbury’s last month, expressing opposition to the firm’s plans, and demanding they attend a public meeting before submitting a planning application.
But Sainsbury’s snubbed the politicians and refused to face local people in a public forum.
The firm’s response follows criticism in the Hackney press of a ‘consultation’ event where residents were asked to complete questionnaires which asked them to comment only on positive aspects of the scheme.
Earlier in the summer it was revealed that Four Communications, the PR firm which carried out the questionable consultation and is lobbying planners on behalf of Sainsbury’s, employs two serving councillors – former deputy mayor Karen Alcock and Alan Laing. Cllr Alcock represents Clissold ward which will be seriously affected by the proposed development.
There are also questions about the Town Hall’s decision earlier this year to award to Four Communications a contract to build a council website to help local businesses. Council officers are helping staff from the PR company meet local businesses to discuss the website – the very businesses the PR company wants to influence on behalf of Sainsbury’s.
Have your say about the proposed new store and the much criticised consultation with local people by coming along to the next LARA meeting at St Paul’s Hall, 7pm on 29th Sept and make your voice heard.
You can also check out Stokey Local, a campaign group set up to oppose the development. http://stokeylocal.org.uk/


LARA Inclusive Traffic Campaign - Update
Brooke Area 20mph Zone – on June 28th LARA committee members and ward councillor Louisa Thomson met with Maryann Allen and her colleagues from the LB Hackney Streetscene to discuss LBH’s latest proposals for the Brooke Area 20mph zone before they go out for public consultation. They include 20mph signs for traffic entering the LARA area, entry treatments at the southern entries to Evering, Bayston and Darville Road , as well as some more speed humps. We had a fruitful discussion and generally felt that the solutions put forward by Maryann and her team were well thought out and addressed the problems raised by LARA residents. The consultation papers are now out with all residents and we’d like to ask everyone to please take this opportunity to make your views known – the deadline is September 23rd!
This is a good start but there’s a lot more to do and LARA will continue to lobby TfL and Hackney for more and better pedestrian crossings around the area and better cycleways.

2nd Big Lunch
We had our 2nd annual Big Lunch in June and thanks to a strong turn out again from local residents, it was a great day to meet the neighbours, catch up on local gossip, eat and be merry!
The kids had sung and danced with Jorge - musician extraordinaire and the great wall of West Hackney Rec was once again blasted with colourful chaos! Thanks to everyone who turned up, brought food and contributed to a great local day out. See all the photos here on our blog (over 10,000 page views to date!)


Stop Press
You'll be pleased to know that the stage one bid for funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund for The Recreation Ground (behind St Paul’s Church) has been successful. £45,700 has been granted to work up the second stage application for £600K which needs to be submitted in Feb 2012.
Congratulations to Niall and all concerned.

Obituary
Yvonne Pritchard, of 29 Leswin Road, died suddenly on the morning of Friday 12th August 2011.
Aged only 64, Yvonne worked in Barton's Bakery on the High St., for many years and prior to that at a toy shop in Finsbury Park. She is survived by her son, Finlay, and her partner of 30 years standing, Ivan Perry. Originally from Dublin, she lived on Leswin Road since 1987 and will be sadly missed by Ivan and her neighbours.

Don’t forget to have your say on the Brooke Area 20mph Zone by completing the consultation document and returning it by September 23


Help build your community. We need residents to get involved on the committee. We want to hear your views and we need your participation to help LARA succeed.

Thursday 14 July 2011

West Hackney Recreation Ground - Good News!

Dear Friends,

Greetings from West Hackney.

I'm writing to tell you some good news about West Hackney Recreation Ground.

As you know, we recently submitted a 'Stage One' application to The Heritage Lottery Fund for funding to regenerate the Recreation Ground and the adjacent churchyard.

The Heritage Lottery Fund has considered our application and has awarded the project £45,700 development funding which will enable the partnership of St Paul's Church, West Hackney Parochial Charity, Groundwork, London, London Borough of Hackney and residents of West Hackney to develop a 2nd stage application to the Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund's joint Parks for People Programme for £639,200 to complete the work.

This 2nd stage application will be submitted in February 2012 and we will hear HLF's final decision in June 2012.There is a huge amount of work to do in preparation for this, but it's really heartening that the HLF has such confidence in what they have seen of the project so far.

This is incredible news for the people of West Hackney. For four years now we’ve been dreaming of how, one day, this site might once again be an open green space here in the heart of West Hackney, which will provide an historical and recreational focus right in the heart of our local community. We're one step closer now and we will do all we can to bring this to fruition, not only for the community of today but for that of tomorrow.

Sue Bowers, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in London, said on behalf of HLF and The Big Lottery:

“West Hackney Recreation Ground is a valuable pocket of green space in urban Hackney and is an important part of London’s natural heritage. We are pleased to be giving our initial support for this redevelopment project and are looking forward to seeing these exciting plans progress over the coming months.”

Thank you for all your interest and support so far - I'll keep you updated as to how things progress.
With kind regards,

Niall



Sunday 3 July 2011

Sainsburys development in Stokey - Have your say

There have already been two public meetings regarding the proposed developement of a new Sainsbury's in Stoke Newington (Friday and Saturday 1st/2ndJuly).  Emotions were running high at the Abney hall meetings, where the plans for the development were on show.
The next  public meeting is arranged for 13th July at St Marys Church Community Centre Defoe Rd at 7pm.
There isn't much time to act against this proposal, so it is vital that any objections are made as soon as possible.


To find out more and where to make your objections please see below:


Taken from the new Stokey Local Website in light of the proposed Sainsburys developement in Stoke Newington:

In the middle of June it was announced that a development is being planned for Wilmer Place, just beside Abney Park Cemetery on the corner of Church Street and the High Street – right in the heart of Stoke Newington.
The proposed development comprises a large supermarket and 50 homes and has significant implications for the diversity of the local economy, employment, transport & traffic, noise and safety and local heritage.
It also comes as an addition to a raft of existing supermarkets in the area, including the Sainsbury’s Local and Tesco Metro on the High Street, the Morrison’s and Sainsbury’s on Stamford Hill (both of which are similar in size to the proposed Sainsbury’s), as well as a Tesco Metro and large Sainsbury’s down towards Dalston.
In short the area is already well stocked with supermarkets, but more importantly there is also a large number of small, independent shops which have to compete against these existing supermarkets in a very challenging economic climate.

Go to website and continue reading here



Here is a link to an article in the Gazette about it: http://tinyurl.com/5vkjuea

If you are opposed to the idea, you can sign an online petition here
http://www.ourcampaign.org.uk/KeepitStokey

There is also a new google group for people interested in this scheme. Whether you agree with the development or not, it would be great if you could join as it's important that as many people as possible have their voices heard  http://groups.google.com/group/stokeylocal . There is also a website http://stokeylocal.org.uk (extract above) facebook group https://www.facebook.com/StokeyLocal and a new twitter account http://twitter.com/#!/stokeylocal

You can also post comments here as it will be interesting to find out what residents in the LARA area think about the proposal and how we can best support these opinions as your local resident's association.

Sunday 26 June 2011

News

Upcoming Traffic Meeting
Ian Daly and Maryann Allen from the LB Hackney Road Safety Team have asked for a meeting with LARA to discuss progress of the traffic measures/suggestions previously investigated and discussed, ie the Brooke Road 20mph zone proposals, and to finalise a way forward. We assume that the next step will be a public consultation with questionnaires to the residents but shall confirm this with LBH. 

The meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday June 28th at 7.30PM 
Location: The council chamber at Stoke Newington Town Hall.

All welcome, please come along and make your views known. 


People Power needs your vote!
LARA committee member, Fiona Fieber is looking for support for her great project 'People Power', where artists will use innovative and creative ways to engage pupils and schools with renewable energy and sustainability. There are funds of £500,000 available to go towards the best projects, and the more support each project gets the more chance it has of being successful.

You can read all about it and vote here http://www.energyshare.com/people-power/

Vote for People Power! 

Monday 13 June 2011

The Big Lunch in the Bag

Despite the grey clouds and the threat of rain, we gathered slowly but surely and turned our patch of green into a cracking Big Lunch once again.

 Here comes Jorge
A musical warm up

 Food time!

 
 The great wall of West Hackney
Left to do their own thing this time!


perhaps left for a bit too long....
  
 But they were happy!


 Non stop chatter

 A post lunch bounce

.....and a final quick retreat as the rain came down

Thanks to everyone for turning up and bringing fantastic food to share.

Special thanks to Niall from St. Paul's for supplying tables and chairs, music from the great Jorge and all the extras needed to pull The Big Lunch together.
Fiona for the huge bunting supply and for whizzing emails amongst us all to set the day in motion.
Kerry from Growing Communities for the organic salads.
Café Mostra for the delicious cous cous donation
Andrea for the trampoline
Paul for the gazebo
The table tennis table was a big hit too! (Thanks Jo)
Helen for the crazy wall painting (apologies for the resulting paint covered kids!)
and everyone else who turned up to help on the day and during the big build up.

It was great to see our neighbourhood getting together, making new friends, catching up with local gossip and all the kids having a great time.

We managed to raise just under £100.  This was a combination of individual contributions from the LARA committee, contributions collected at two Big Lunch meetings plus the donations collected on the day (Thanks to Guarda's bucket shaking!). This practically covers the cost of the park hire (£50) and the insurance (£50.35) which is excellent.

Looking forward to next year..June 3rd 2011

Monday 9 May 2011

The LARA Big Lunch

On the success of last year's fun day, LARA is organising our second Big Lunch as part of the nationwide annual event. Friends, families and neighbours are invited to come and have fun, eat and be merry!
Entrance is a plate of food to share.
West Hackney Recreation Grounds (the green space behind St. Paul's Church, Entrance on Evering Road at the end of Leswin Road).
N16 7UY
Sunday 5th June
1pm to 4pm

We're looking for any volunteers to help set up on the day.  Meet up at 11am in the Recreation Grounds.
We will be doing door to door leafleting very soon, any help would be very much appreciated!

See all the pics from last year here 
More updates coming soon!

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Call to Volunteers, Saturday - FREE Pancake extravaganza!!!

A slightly desperate call for Saturday afternoon 5 March.

We are organising a superbe event for Shrove Tuesday in Gillett Square (well, a little bit early) with lots of games and competitions around pancakes. This will be the first event of the Cadbury's Spots vs Stripes events.
I have attached the poster and you can find more info here http://www.gillettsquare.org.uk/webdocs/forthcoming.html

We would need 3 volunteers to help us coordinate the games from 12pm until 4.30pm. You will be provided refreshments and pancakes! (or other food if you don't like pancakes)

It is going to be a lot of fun, tossing and racing with pancakes, pancake limbo, building weirdly shaped ships with Snug play equipment, playing ping pong (I don't know yet where the pancake element will fit in that one.... yet to be devised!), board games
and more

Don't hesitate to contact me e-mail  or phone 07719529313 if you would like more information,

We hope to see you there!

All the best
Stephanie

Sunday 27 February 2011

STREETSCENE - BROOKE AREA TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT - OPTIONS APPRAISAL

Here is the report from Hackney Council regarding potential traffic calming schemes for the LARA area.  If you have any comments about these schemes, please leave a comment at the end of this post or email us at lara.n16@googlemail.com  If you would like to see drawings relating to this report we can also send these via email.
There will be a public consultation in March relating to this report.

1. 0    Introduction
         
    As part of the London Borough of Hackney’s Road Safety programme for 2011/2012, funding is available to consult upon (and implement) a 20mph Zone in the Brooke Road area of Stoke Newington.

    The 20mph Zone is to be bordered by the Stoke Newington Gyratory (Manse Road, Evering Road, Rectory Road and Stoke Newington High Street).

    In addition, several traffic management issues in this area have previously been highlighted by local residents, originating from traffic ‘rat running’ away from the main gyratory. As such, it is to be investigated whether any of the identified problems can be addressed as part of the proposed 20mph Zone works in 2011.

    To this end, a meeting was held on the 26th October 2010 between representatives of the Hackney Council Road Safety Team and the Leswin Area Residents Association (LARA) to discuss their concerns with respect to traffic in their area.


Identified Issues


    The main traffic problems raised (at the meeting and previously) were:

    Rat running traffic along Bayston Road, Darville Road and Leswin Road.

    Rat running along Lawrence Buildings.

    Illegal left turns into Brooke Road from Lawrence Buildings in order to access Leswin Road.

    Wider issues directly relating to the Stoke Newington Gyratory have also been identified. However, these issues relate to Transport for London’s Road Network (TLRN) and fall outside of the scope of the 20mph Zone scheme.

    A drawing detailing some initial proposals relating to the 20mph Zone and traffic management schemes (Dwg TT-0220-BR-3, Appendix A) was presented to LARA at the meeting on 26th October.

    This summary note will examine the implications of several suggestions made by LARA (Appendix B) and appraise the remedial options available.

    OPTIONS APRAISAL

    Option 1 - Gated Road Closures (Appendix F, Dwg: TT-0220-BR-8, TT-0220-BR-9)

    One measure suggested by LARA in order to prevent ‘rat running’ along their residential streets is to provide gated road closures on Darville Road and Bayston Road. This would effectively cut off the parallel routes through the centre of the Stoke Newington Gyratory.

    Advantages

    The following advantages are expected from the implementation of permanent gated road closures:

    Complete removal of ‘rat-running’ traffic from the residential streets within the Stoke Newington Gyratory. The minimal amount of vehicles displaced from these streets is not expected to significantly affect the capacity of the surrounding gyratory.

    Relatively inexpensive to implement, estimated at £25,000.

Disadvantages

    The following disadvantages are expected from the implementation of permanent gated road closures:

    Severance of access to the local area resulting in inconvenience for residents.

    Loss of on-street parking expected at each closure point in order to provide a turn around area for cars. The loss of parking is estimated at 12 spaces in total split equally across the 3 closure points (4 spaces on Bayston Road, 4 spaces on Darville Road, 4 spaces Leswin Road).

    A turn around area for larger vehicles is not expected to be feasible at the proposed closure points. The occurrence of large vehicles (e.g. refuse vehicles) having to reverse over long distances will carry an inherent road safety risk.

    The Metropolitan Police (Appendix C) have expressed concerns over the proposals (for similar reasons to those above).

    The provision of closures on Bayston Road and Darville Road (as requested by LARA) is expected to result in traffic being displaced to Leswin Road, thus requiring additional measures at this location also.  


Discussion

    Provision of gated closures will of course remove through traffic altogether, a major objective for LARA. However, such measures would incur several disadvantages with respect to access for local residents and emergency services.

    Issues regarding access may be resolved through a public consultation process. However, there are also concerns that turn around areas cannot be appropriately provided and loss of parking (estimated at 12 spaces) and additional road safety risks (as a result of reversing vehicles) will arise. The reduction in on-street parking on Bayston Road, Darville Road and Leswin Road is expected to face opposition during consultation with the residents affected.

    Furthermore, when reviewing the results of speed and volume surveys (Appendix D) for the roads in question (Darville Road and Bayston Road) a major problem is not evident. Bayston Road recorded 85th percentile speeds of 22mph with a peak weekday average hourly flow of 93 vehicles. No collisions resulting in injury were recorded on these streets in the latest 36 months of data (Appendix E).

    The cost of implementing such measures is estimated to be £25,000 (a relatively inexpensive scheme). However, when considering the limited scale of the current issues and the potential for negative impacts on the wider community (i.e. severance of access, loss of parking etc), permanent closures are not considered a proportionate remedial measure to the issues highlighted by LARA.


    Option 2 – ‘Point No Entries’

    An alternative option to the permanent closures described above, would be to provide ‘point no-entries’ at the same locations (as shown in figure 2.1).

    Advantages

    The following advantages are expected from the implementation of ‘point no-entries’ on Darville Road and Bayston Road:

    Will discourage ‘rat-runners’ from using these residential parallel routes.

    Relatively inexpensive to implement, estimated at £6,500.

    Will not result in loss of parking or the requirement for turn around areas.

    Will not affect emergency service access (emergency vehicles can be exempted from the relevant Traffic Orders).

    Will not give rise to the road safety issues resulting from reversing vehicles.

Disadvantages

    The following disadvantages are expected from the implementation of ‘point no-entries’ on Darville Road and Bayston Road:

    Severance of access to the local area resulting in inconvenience for residents.

    Will not be self-enforcing and police enforcement is likely to be impractical. The measures will only serve as a deterrent to some motorists.

    Additional street clutter is inevitable, although the existing ‘point no-entry’ on Leswin Road at its junction with Tyssen Road may be removed as part of this proposal and relocated to the Leswin Road/Evering Road junction.

    May increase traffic speeds due to limited opposing traffic flow.


Discussion

    It is acknowledged that signed ‘point no-entries’ are unlikely to be as effective (i.e. 100% effective) as permanent gated closures. However, they are expected to act as a reasonable deterrent to most ‘rat-running’ motorists. In addition, ad-hoc enforcement by specialist units could be utilised to ensure the measures continue to be as effective as possible.

    Therefore, when considering the recorded low traffic speeds, low hourly traffic volumes and excellent existing collision history of the roads in question, such an approach is considered much more proportionate (than gated closures) and will result in fewer negative impacts on the local network and emergency services.

    The cost of this option (estimated at £6,500) is expected to be cheaper than the implementation cost of gated road closures and will result in no loss of on-street parking.


    Option 3 -     Deterrent Measures (e.g. Junction Tables and Pinch Points)

    Measures to deter rat-running without altering the priorities (or stopping up) of the local network have also been proposed by LARA as a different approach to solving the identified issues, by way of making the links in question (Bayston Road and Darville Road) unattractive to through traffic.

    Specific measures suggested by LARA include:

    Provision of junction tables at Tyssen Road j/w Bayston Road and Evering Road j/w Bayston Road (Dwgs:  TT-0220-BR-5 & TT-0220-BR-7).

    Provision of a pinch point feature midway along Bayston Road (Dwg TT-0220-BR-6).  

     Advantages

    The advantages of this type of approach are as follows:

    No severance of access for the local community will result from these measures. This is beneficial for both local residents and the emergency services.
    Will help to self enforce the proposed 20mph Zone for the area (due to be consulted upon in 2011).

Disadvantages

    The disadvantages of this type of approach are as follows:

    When considering that extensive traffic calming already exists on the roads in question, further deterrent (and hence a reduction in rat-running) is not guaranteed by the provision of these additional measures.

    The potential for significant speed reduction is not expected as the area is already extensively traffic calmed.

    The measures are expected to be costly and will not provide value for money relative to the benefits attributed to them. The two tables (Tyssen Road j/w Bayston Road and Evering Road j/w Bayston Road) have an estimated cost of £60,000 and the proposed pinch-point on Bayston Road is expected to cost £10,000.

    Extensive parking loss (estimated at 14 on-street spaces) will be required in order to implement the proposed ‘pinch-point’. This is expected to result in severe opposition during the public consultation process.

    Major design issues are associated with the implementation of the junction tables at the two proposed sites as a result of the existing levels and cambers on the carriageway at these locations. Extensive re-profiling is expected to be required and to this end, topographical surveys and carriageway core tests (estimated cost £3,000) will be required.

Discussion

    In the current financial climate, ‘value for money’ should be a key consideration before progressing any plans for remedial action.

    The construction of junction tables at the proposed locations is expected to be more costly, and achieve less (in terms of addressing the issues identified), than the other options described in this report.

    The construction of a pinch point is unlikely to provide a deterrent to ‘rat-running’ traffic (wishing to avoid congestion on the nearby gyratory system) as the existing low flow conditions will not induce any calming in terms of a ‘give and take’ operation at the pinch point. Furthermore, extensive parking loss (up to 14 spaces) is a major barrier to implementing such a measure.

    When considering the issues above, these measures are not expected to form part of a viable solution to the current traffic issues being investigated. 



    OPTIONS SUMMARY

    Option 1 – Gated Closures

    Cost: £25,000.
    Loss of Parking: 12 on-street spaces for turn around areas on Bayston Road, Darville Road and Leswin Road (4 spaces at each gate).
    Effectiveness: Total removal of ‘rat-running’.
    Traffic Impacts: Severance of access for local residents and emergency services.


    Option 2 – ‘Point No-Entries’

    Cost: £6,500.
    Loss of Parking: No parking loss.
    Effectiveness: Medium to high reduction in rat running expected, improved by ad-hoc enforcement.
    Traffic Impacts: Access/egress restricted northbound on Bayston Road, Darville Road and Leswin Road with no severance of access for emergency services.


    Option 3 – Deterrent Measures (Junction Tables and ‘Pinch-Point’)

    Cost: £70,000 (plus additional survey costs).
    Loss of Parking: 14 spaces at ‘pinch-point’ feature (Bayston Road).
    Effectiveness: Minimal reduction in ‘rat-running’ and speed.
    Traffic Impacts: Minimal.


*Note: All of the above options will incur additional consultation costs.
    RECOMMENDATIONS

    When considering the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed traffic management measures listed above, it is recommended that the most appropriate option (subject to further public consultation) is the provision of Option 2 - ‘point no-entries’ on Bayston Road, Darville Road and Leswin Road (relocated from junction with Tyssen Road).

    This is the most proportionate solution when examining the scale of the traffic issues evident from the speed and volume surveys undertaken and the existing collision history in the area.

    Few adverse impacts are envisaged from the provision of such measures and it is hoped that they will provide sufficient deterrent so as to reduce the volume of through traffic currently using the parallel residential links.

    In order to maintain effectiveness and driver compliance of the ‘point no entries’, ad-hoc enforcement measures (i.e. temporary camera enforcement) may be considered as part of the overall package of proposals.

    Any measures must be consulted upon with the wider community in order to gain a full cross section of local opinion prior to any commitments with respect to implementing the proposals.

Wednesday 23 February 2011

Update - LARA inclusive traffic campaign One-way system

Are you awaiting the outcome of the Stoke Newington Gyratory Consultation recently carried out by Hackney? Well don’t hold your breath. Whilst Hackney’s intentions are worthy no doubt, it doesn’t seem as if they have entered into a meaningful dialogue with TfL about the issue as yet. At our meeting in October with representatives from both sides present it quickly became clear that there isn’t a lot of talking going on between them right now.

In their own words TfL’s priorites are to implement the mayor’s traffic policies which are  A) to ensure a smooth traffic flow (in our case on the A10 artery into London, which includes the SN gyratory) and  B) to promote cycling in London.  Apparently A) only applies exclusively to vehicular traffic and B) is only for lycra-clad city workers commuting up and down the A10 at lightning speed and with no regard for their own or anyone else’s safety.

However, when questioned TfL conceded that ‘We all realise that the one way system has created an environment which is not ideally suited for non car modes, but going forward nobody has been able to identify an alternative workable solution’.
They have confirmed that the Cycle Super Highway proposal will look at providing a cycle facility for the entire gyratory system. The design for the super highway is scheduled to start this spring (2011) and a two way cycle facility on the High St might be considered.  We are keeping in touch with TfL so watch this space for updates – that is the best we can do right now. Does Boris Johnson care about us? - I think not.
On the other matters raised regarding TfL-owned roads they were similarly uncompromising. Here some answers received from TfL in response to the issues we raised with them…

Lack of safety on / inadequacy of existing pedestrian crossings across SN High St (Sainsburys), Evering / Manse Rd and Rectory Road) In the past three years there have been 17 personal injury collisions (all slight injuries) on the High Street, of which five involved pedestrians (29%) which is marginally lower than you would expect on the Transport for London Road Network (TLRN) when compared to the Borough average (Hackney 31.7%). In terms of converting the zebra crossing on Manse Road to a pelican, a review of the collision information shows that there have been just 4 injury collisions along this section, and none of these involved pedestrians. Unfortunately the statistics for this location would not meet TfL’s criteria for installing new signals on the network. 

Insufficient number of crossings to Manse/Evering Road, Rectory Road but particular across SN High Street (additional crossing should be considered by Tesco’s) – A site visit to Stoke Newington High Street revealed a number of physical issues which would prevent the installation of a new crossing point. The parking and loading for the local businesses extend down both sides of the road, and a new crossing would require their removal over a distance of approximately 40m (on both sides of the road) to facilitate the zigzag markings. Based on previous correspondence with traders in the area this proposal would be fiercely resisted (they have been campaigning for more loading and parking). The signals would also be required to be sited at least 20m from a side road entrance to meet visibility requirements. Unfortunately the number of accesses onto the A10 mean that it would not be possible to site a new crossing near the Tesco’s.
The pedestrian facilities on Manse / Evering Road are sufficient to meet the desire lines and as there are no collisions involving pedestrians there would be no justification to provide an additional crossing point.


Excessive pedestrian waiting time at junction with Evering Road – The signal timings change according to set plans for each time of day. The cycle time varies from 50 – 60 seconds (the time it takes for all the movements to take place). This means that a pedestrian should have to wait on average 30 seconds for the green man to be displayed, which is well within agreed parameters.

TfL proposals – TfL is currently designing an improvement at the Stoke Newington High St junction with Brooke Road. The focus of the proposal is improving journey times and reducing congestion. The design is almost complete, however there is currently no funding to implement the measures in light of the recent budget cuts. TfL is also developing a proposal for the Manse Road junction with Rectory Road, as the junction is too narrow for HGVs approaching from the south. This proposal is still at the feasibility stage.

 TfL clearly doesn’t see local traffic as their remit – and someone will have to die first before the statistics will allow them to look at a problem?? No doubt things will change with the revival of the West Hackney Recreation ground – which is definitely on the cards now with the application for funding going ahead soon.
We are looking at a number of routes to gain more and better attention for our problems here so watch this space.

Brooke Area 20 mph zone
Some good news here – Following our meeting in October LBH has sent us their draft traffic appraisal. This document looks at three options for the prevention of rat-running and excessive speed within the LARA area, in addition to the 20 miles per hour speed limit throughout. Their Option 2 – no-entry signs at the southern ends of Leswin, Bayston and Darville Road, seems to be the favoured proposal. LBH are planning a Consultation in March. We’d like to publish the draft appraisal on the blog as soon as possible and are awaiting LBH’s ok for this.
AJ

Tuesday 8 February 2011

SERIOUSLY IMPORTANT MEETING ABOUT WEST HACKNEY RECREATION GROUND - WEDNESDAY 16th FEBRUARY @ 7:30pm in St PAUL'S CHURCH

 
Anyone interested in what happens to West Hackney Recreation Ground, please read this note from Revd Niall Weir and come along to the meeting
 
Dear Friends,

Greetings from St Paul's Church.

As you may know, we are just about to submit an application to The Heritage Lottery Fund for a grant to regenerate West Hackney Recreation Ground.

We've already had one grant of £75,000 from The London Marathon Trust to install a fabulous play area should the regeneration of the Recreation Ground go ahead.

In making up their minds about whether or not to award the grant, The Heritage Lottery Fund needs evidence of local support for this venture and we can best achieve this by reporting to them a great turnout at our forthcoming meeting of the new User Group next Wednesday at St Paul's Church - please see the attachment for further details.

As someone who I know would love to see this regeneration programme happen, not just for our enjoyment but for that of local residents for years to come, may I urge you to come along to this meeting? It will last no more than one hour and there will be enough wine on offer to float a ship.

As well as showing the HLF that there is a load of local support, you can also come along and catch up with recent developments around the project.

Do come, do bring your neighbours - it would be an evening well spent!

With very best wishes,

Niall 


St Paul's West Hackney - stpaulswesthackney.org
________________________________________________________________________________________________

From : The Revd Niall Weir
306 Amhurst Rd : West Hackney : London N16 7UE : 020 7254 3235 : 07840 762783 : Fax 0871 714 6005

Thursday 6 January 2011

St Paul’s West Hackney
St Paul’s West Hackney & The Hackney Society

present
WEST HACKNEY – PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE
an evening talk to mark the 50th anniversary
of the Consecration of St Paul’s Church, West Hackney
MONDAY 17th JANUARY 2011 at 7:00pm
ST PAUL’S CHURCH, WEST HACKNEY
on the corner of Stoke Newington Rd & Amhurst Rd, London N16 7UY

THE LOST PARISH CHURCH OF WEST HACKNEY
Dr Ann Robey
Ann Robey – architectural historian and heritage consultant – will talk about the creation of the parish of West Hackney in 1824, what the area was like at the time
and about the architect Robert Smirke and his design for the original West Hackney Church and how that church was destroyed in the Blitz

GOD'S ACRE? CITY CHURCHYARDS: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE.
Professor Ken Worpole
The city churchyard was once a place central to the popular and literary imagination.
Their closure in the mid-19th century for health & sanitation reasons left many as historical archives.
Some have since been re-landscaped as pocket gardens or turned into wildlife conservation areas
as part of the 'Living Churchyard' project. In this talk local writer and academic, Ken Worpole,
will discuss the place of these remaining churchyards in the contemporary townscape.

CACHEMAILLE DAY AND THE CHALLENGE OF RECONSTRUCTION
Suzanne Waters
Suzanne Waters- architectural historian and Hackney resident for over 20 years – will talk about the architect Nugent Cachemaille Day, architect of St Paul’s Church, in the context of his church architecture in Hackney.
Her talk will include a tour of the church looking at its architecture and design
Entrance is free to all
The talk will last for approximately one hour and will be followed by refreshments