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

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:

Stokey Local

A Community Response to a New Supermarket in the Heart of 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.