Welcome to our regular TASK mail out on news from around Seven Kings, including feedback from our first regular monthly supporters session, news on the upcoming library opening, an interesting idea from our founder and former leading member, Cllr. Ali Hai, on declaring Goodmayes Park a 'village' to help preserve its distinctive character; and some other nuggets from further afield. So, read on.
Supporters meeting
TASK is now committed to holding an open monthly supporters meeting, which aims to bring local people together and to agree our campaign focus for the next few months. The first session, in June, held in the garden of St. John's Church, with a healthy 9 attendees, included a mix of established supporters and some very welcome new faces.
The session was entirely focused on setting out attendees key issues for future action, which included the:
- Lack of youth facilities locally;
- New library;
- Long-term use of the lorry park;
- Crossrail;
- likely- further- expansion of the private rented sector here following new housing benefit caps which will see many tenants priced out of many inner London boroughs;
- parking;
- campaigning for a new swimming pool;
- policing; and
- supporting local businesses
We are hoping that August’s meeting will allow for us to decide where we most want to invest our energies this autumn, and as ever, we would like as many of you to be there to be part of our conversation. If you have other issues you would like us to raise, remember that it is not too late so email me your thoughts, or just come along on the night.
The next supporters’ session is on Monday August 2, from 7-8pm at St. John’s Church, which sits at the junction of St.John’s Road and Aldborough Road South.
Area 5 meeting: Monday July 26 at 7.15pm/Barley Lane School
Redbridge Council Area 5 committee meetings bring together all the councillors from Seven Kings, Goodmayes and Chadwell Heath Wards every 8 weeks or so to consider local issues, and to give local citizens a chance to have their say on how they would like their neighbourhood to develop and grow.
With two thirds of the area 5 councillors newly elected, we are hoping for a more easy going and welcoming approach. So, come along, see how local democracy Redbridge-style works, and maybe chip in yourselves. On the agenda this time is an innovative item from the Goodmayes councillor team looking to protect the distinctive character of attractive Edwardian housing near Goodmayes Park by way of declaring it a designated residential precinct they would like to call Goodmayes Village.
Seven Kings Library opening: July 26 at 2pm
It is now just a week away. The culmination of our three year cross-community campaign to get a library back here in Seven Kings, to right the injustice of the 1992 Carnegie Library closure and ‘sell off’.
Initially, the politicians said it could not be done but a massive petition and door to door campaigning eventually helped change their minds, leading to Monday’s historic opening. The formal ribbon cutting by Council leader Keith Prince happens at 2pm, with normal opening starting at 9 am on Tuesday July 27th. Do pop by for both if you are around.
The new Seven Kings library is at 679 High Road, between Costcutter and Asha Jewellers.
It is all very exciting stuff, and is happening just in time for the summer holidays so local youngsters can take part in the legendary summer reading scheme on their doorsteps for the first time in a generation. We are also delighted that at least one of the new staff team lives locally and that the library has special Seven Kings friendly opening hours including early mornings, late nights and- for the first time ever in a Redbridge library- Sundays.
As TASK see it, distinctive arrangements for a distinctive place.
Lorry park school plan: latest news
Word reaches us that a planning application has been lodged by the borough for portkabin classrooms on the lorry park, the last major development plot in the area and one that TASK has campaigned should be dedicated to community use, such as a permanent library, hall and/ or pool.
Our enquiries with the borough planning department reveal a two year proposal for classrooms and play space for the John Barker referral unit, serving pupils removed from mainstream education.
TASK will be scrutinising the proposals carefully to ensure that our long- term preference is not thwarted, and to ensure that any even temporary use allows for a high quality and appropriate development.
As ever, we welcome your views
Your Square Mile website
This is an interesting new idea from the government, picked up in yesterday’s Sunday Times, which flags plans to develop a nationwide website called Your Square Mile this autumn, allowing for more local involvement in community projects. The site will apparently cover all 94,000 square miles in the UK, and will allow a whole range of community transactions from details of local clean ups and volunteering to promoting discount services, reading groups and babysitting opportunities. A prototype scheme in Southwark, the Southwark Circle, now run independently of the council, and even offers locals access to both volunteer and charged DIY and care services, in a project they call “the neighbourly way to sort the everyday”.
Keep watching this space for more.
That’s it for now. Keep sending us your local stories, ideas and suggestions.
Chris Connelley
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Tom Jones - Did Trouble Me.
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