Leytonstone’s Fire Station
The Fire Station in Leytonstone High Road has been closed, and the FOCUS Team understands that demolition is due to commence in December, with the new station scheduled for completion by the end of 2015.
The Fire Engine and crews are stationed temporarily at Leyton Fire Station.
Facade of the planned new building
Grove Green FOCUS 264 featuring the petition
Following parking petitions and concerns raised by local residents the Lib Dem Grove Green Focus Team carried out a series of street surveys to find out the views of all households in Grove Green Ward.
The responses revealed a dramatic increase in on-street parking in the roads near to the roads that had a Controlled Parking Zones (CPZ). Previously residents of these roads had voted against a CPZ in their road. But the increased parking problem in their road has forced them to rethink their decision.
The results of these surveys including a petition were collated and presented to the Councils traffic engineers. Following these meetings the Lib Dem Focus Team and residents were pleased to learn that the Council has started a full public consultation with residents of the roads they feel are most affected. This is a large group of roads bordered by Leyton High Road to Francis Road and Hainault Road to St Georges Road.
The full consultation letter has been delivered to every address in this area. This should be completed and returned in the enclosed freepost envelope before the deadline on Monday 1st December.
The Focus Team urges everyone not to miss this opportunity of making your views known.
Letter sent to all residents who signed the petition
Waltham Forest’s Labour run Council has voted to give the Chief Executive of the Council a whopping inflation busting pay rise of £15,000 – an 8% increase.
This makes his salary £195,000! Even the Prime Minister only gets £142,000. Labour councillors said it was reward for overseeing council cuts.
Given that the cuts were a loss of 1,000 jobs plus salary cuts to the rest of the council staff should this have been rewarded?
On top of that, Labour councillors voted to give the redundant deputy chief executive a massive £140,000 pay off.
You can be assured that the staff who lost their jobs did not receive any golden pay offs.
Can you believe the way this Labour Council spends your money. Last year they increased the Deputy leader’s pay by 25%.
Your money down the drain
Focus will keep on reporting the arrogant and wasteful ways that this Council spends your money.
The London Fire Brigade has advised that there are no plans to permanently close Leytonstone Fire Station.
It is one of nine fire stations to be rebuilt as part of a PFI project. The work of demolition and rebuild of the existing station will start in late 2014.
During the rebuild process the fire engines will be relocated to Woodford and Walthamstow fire stations.
Local residents will be informed before any works commence.
Caroline Pigeon, the Liberal Democrat Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee, is continuing to lead the campaign for electrification of the Barking – Gospel Oak Line which has seen passenger numbers increase dramatically since the introduction of the new diesel units.
Caroline Pigeon says:
“We were disappointed when confirmation of funding for the Gospel Oak-Barking line electrification failed to materialise in the Budget, but are hopeful that the Government will choose to sanction these line improvements as a priority when it reviews the plans in June. Electrification will deliver huge benefits to both the local area and London as a whole, including improvements to the rail network connectivity, and a reduced environmental impact.
“Full funding must be confirmed this year or, due to the impact of Crossrail’s construction, costs will rise far beyond the current estimates. Confirmation this year will mean this significant milestone for Britain’s rail infrastructure can go ahead without further delay or spiralling costs.”
The latest issue of the FOCUS Newsletter is currently being delivered across Grove Green ward by our volunteers.
The FOCUS Team would like to hear from you if you would like to help deliver FOCUS near your home. It is usually published about every six weeks and each round takes about half an hour.
You can contact the FOCUS Team of 8556 8335 if you would like to help. We look forward to hearing from you.
An advance copy of the FOCUS can be accessed here: Grove Green 259
Waltham Forest Council is demanding that the Christian Kitchen cease using the Mission Grove car park in E17 as the location for their daily soup kitchen.
The soup kitchen has rejected the allegations that their service contributes to local street drinking and anti-social behaviour and local Lib Dems and residents are supporting them.
Proximity to the Town Centre is important to a soup kitchen and Waltham Forest is taking this action without proper consultation.
The local Lib Dem Focus Team has been surveying residents about the issue and so far local residents are overwhelmingly in favour of keeping the soup kitchen where it is.
Waltham Forest Liberal Democrat Leader Cllr Bob Sullivan said:
“It is crazy that this Labour council appear to be scapegoating this long established soup kitchen and demonising their service users.
“The Christian Kitchen has been a part of the local area for many years and is there to help the most vulnerable in our society. The soup kitchen has even offered compromises to the council but they have been rejected.
“This is a heartless act by this Labour council that is clearly not supported by local people.
“It seems ‘One Nation Labour’ has not yet made the journey to Waltham Forest from Ed Miliband’s Westminster bubble.”
However, cancelling the speeches of the three party leaders also meant that the time usually devoted to scrutinising the council’s priorities for the next year and to review the last year was lost.
The speech prepared by Lib Dem Leader Councillor Bob Sullivan, before the attack took place, contained criticism of the council’s budgeting process, attacks on money wasted on unnecessary events and exposed the misleading statements being made by Labour over the £160 million they claim to be investing in the Borough in 2013-14.
Councillor Sullivan was to say:
“The councils’ recent finance report show that almost all council departments were reporting under spends.
“In accountancy terms an under spend is just as bad as an over spend because it means that there is something wrong with the budgeting process. It also means that our services are not being carried out as planned and our residents are losing out.
“So what is going wrong with our processes? And how are we building this into our planning? The council can’t continue to plead poverty simply because it is over-estimating what’s needed in the budget.”
“As for investment, Labour cabinet members seem to be sending confused messages about the £160 million that they’re touting around to residents through Waltham Forest News and the various announcements and videos that they’re making.
“Many residents have read the big figures plastered over their copy of WFN and have been asking me if the council could spend some of this money on local projects.
“Unfortunately the explanation is, that most of this investment is not council money and all of it is already earmarked and being spent on other things.
“The confusion isn’t helped when Cabinet members give confusing written answers at full council meetings. Such as when Cllr Rusling declared ‘We are investing £160 million in the borough…’ in a written answer in March.”
“…under Arsene Wenger, Arsenal has only spent £9 million net on players over the last ten years.
“That’s less per year than this council are spending on events!
Although these events are said to be free, they are not really, as the council tax payers are funding them.
“It seems like every day this council feels more and more like a booking agent or a live music promoter, with over a million pounds planned for events this year.”
Local people will be able to:
For further information see the Leyton Safer Neighbourhood’s Team webpage at: http://content.met.police.uk/Team/WalthamForest/LeytonTeam
or the Leyton Library webpage: http://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/pages/servicechild/leyton-library.aspx
LOCAL COUNCILLORS LAUNCH CAMPAIGN AGAINST CUTS TO FIRE SERVICES
Local Lib Dem councillors are backing their Lib Dem colleagues Terry Stacy and Stephen Knight on the North London fire authority and are launching a campaign against cuts to local fire services. Waltham Forest could lose 2 fire engines under Mayor Boris Johnson’s plans and services across London will be cut back.
Local residents are also worried about the closure and demolition of Leytonstone Fire Station amidst this on-going uncertainty. Residents are worried that because the proposals for cuts are yet to be finalised the new station could be axed following the consultation.
Residents now want assurances that the station will reopen as planned. Local Lib Dems are asking residents to sign a petition against the cuts and for assurances about the future of Leytonstone Fire Station.
Lib Dem Councillor Mahmood Hussain said:
“These fire engines are a vital part of our local fire services. Fewer engines will mean there are fewer and less mobile fire fighters protecting or Borough.“These cuts are short-sighted. The number of fire engine mobilisations in the Borough increased from 5,449 in 2005/06 to 5,607 between 2011 and 2012. The population of the Borough is still growing, which means more people and more houses to protect.”“I hope that local Labour and Conservative councillors will join us in opposing these cuts.”
Leytonstone resident Mahmood Faiz said:
“Of course we’re worried. There are big changes going on in the fire service and local people want assurances that the new fire station will go ahead. This consultation is already causing worries for local people and it shouldn’t be used as a way of sneaking in even more of Boris’ cuts to our fire services.”