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.
