Angry residents confront London City Airport bosses about expansion plans

Angry residents of Redbridge and Waltham Forest crowded into a school hall to confront London City Airport (LCA) chiefs over plans to increase flights by 110 a day

Addressing the meeting organised by Cannhall Residents Association, Director of Hacan East (Heathrow Control of Airport Noise), John Stewart highlighted how the plans would see the 24 hour window over the weekend (12.30 on Saturday to 12.30 on Sunday) removed, as well as extended flying times at the beginning and end of each day.

The plans will see 40,000 more flight over a year.

Wanstead Village councillor Paul Donovan questioned why there had not been a consultation meeting scheduled for Redbridge residents. “There are four councillors and a lot of residents from Redbridge here in Waltham Forest tonight to hear what is happening in our borough, this is not good enough,” said Cllr Donovan, who also questioned the predict and provide approach to airport expansion regardless of the environmental implications. “Your own consultation paper states that the London airports will be at full capacity – including Heathrow with a third runway – by the 2030s – excluding Standsted. London City Airport’s data suggests your business passenger traffic has flatlined, whilst leisure has increased. This means the expansion is just about putting more and more air traffic up above us. It is not sustainable.”

Wanstead Park councillor Cllr Sheila Bain questioned the way in which the consultation was being conducted, with a lack of publicity, particularly in Redbridge, as to how to take part.

Liam McKay, director of Corporate Affairs at LCA, confirmed that there will now be a meeting in Redbridge. He also pointed out that the airport did not have to consult.

Another resident asked the LCA reps whether they had children. She asked were they not concerned about the future for those children, with the sort of damage being done to the planet by flying.

Leyton and Wanstead Mp John Cryer welcomed the willingness of LCA to consult and come to the meeting with local residents. He pointed out how over the years they had been reluctant to communicate with him, unlike most other elements of the aviation industry.

He pointed out that the skies over his constituency were already overcrowded with planes, these proposals would simply make things worse.

 

Other Redbridge councillors attending included Cllr Paul Merry from Wanstead Park and Judith Garfield from Barkingside.

 

*To submit your views to the consultation – open until 20/9/2019 – see: https://www.londoncityairport.com/corporate/consultation
To sign the Stop City Airport petition - https://t.co/IKOvFyY9Uc?amp=1

 

Air travel cannot continue to expand in a bubble

Flying is one area that does not seem to receive the amount of attention due when discussing climate change.

I wonder how many people put the recycling aside and jump on a plane for the summer holidays. Funny, how in our strange world, some seem to think these climate crises can be put on hold whilst we troop off for the summer hols. In reality, maybe this is the time of year when maximum damage is being done to the planet.

Air travel generates emissions, which go into the upper atmosphere. Planes also pollute the air.

One of the worrying things about air travel is that it seems set to grow hugely over the coming decades unless something is done. There were over 4 billion journeys in 2017, a figures due to increase to 7.8 billion by 2036. The recent consultation document about changes at London City Airport explained how all the main airports (except Stansted), including Heathrow with a third runway, expect to be up full by the mid-2030s.

The air travel industry seems much slower than others to develop cleaner vehicles. Compare for example, developments with planes to the technological leaps being made with electric cars.

Air travel is also subsidised in the form of airlines not having to pay tax on fuel – this is something that should have stopped many years ago.

So the challenges of getting the airline industry to address the climate crisis are big.

The latest move to expand air travel in this area is the earlier mentioned plans of London City Airport (LCA). LCA have brought forward a Draft Masterplan for 2020 to 2035. This updates the original plan of 2006.

Intriguingly, the new draft plan includes a commitment to go carbon neutral by 2020. LCA also aims to have 75% of passengers journeys to and from the airport by public transport and sustainable transport modes by 2025.

The major concern for Redbridge residents is the proposed increase in flights over the weekend and at the beginning and end of each day. At present, there is a no fly window between 12.30 on Saturday and 12.30 on Sunday. The daytime flying during the rest of the week would also increase by half an hour at the start and end of each day.

The campaign group Stop City Airport claim the move will add another 40,000 flights to air traffic over the area.    

There is growing opposition to the CA plans for more flights – the complaints being environmental and simple quality of life. Do we not have more than enough flights criss crossing Redbridge, poisoning the air we breath, not to mention the noise pollution?

Leyton and Wanstead MP John Cryer and local councillors have been making representations to LCA, who appear to be hearing the complaints but are they really listening?

What is for sure is that if we really are serious about addressing the climate crisis the attitude of turning a blind eye to air travel cannot continue. There need to be less and cleaner flights. The challenges are there for the airline industry - if it wants to survive, there needs to be action now.

*To submit your views to the consultation – open until 20/9/2019 – see: https://www.londoncityairport.com/corporate/consultation
To sign the Stop City Airport petition - https://t.co/IKOvFyY9Uc?amp=1

Wildflowers begin to bloom in Wanstead

The loss of biodiversity across the planet is one of the most worrying elements of the present environmental crisis.

Some of 25% of mammals, 41% of amphibians and 13% of birds are under threat.

So it is a pleasure to report some positive news. Over the past year, some areas of Wanstead have been allowed to go wild, rather than being cut. Among the areas selected, were part of George Green, the periphery of Christchurch Green and parts of Nutter Lane and St Marys Avenue.

Now, some early analysis of George Green has found a blossoming of different plant life that is also attracting insects, butterflies and other wildlife.

There have been 80 species of flora found - the vast majority of which are native plants.  There were many examples of tall native British wildflowers that would otherwise have been unable grow and flower, including common mallow, goats beard, jack-go-to-bed at noon, lemon balm, and common ragwort (which will provide food for the caterpillars of the cinnabar moth).

Among the insects found in the long grass were the Essex Skipper butterfly.

These are early days but the first results are encouraging. There are plans to extend the wild areas across Wanstead, so that our effort to increase biodiversity can continue to grow and prosper.

There have been some issues with the wild areas, such as a lack of communication as to what is going on. Some have suggested it is the council not bothering to cut the grass. This is not the case, the areas are quite deliberately being left and cultivated for wild life. There will be signage coming soon to make it clear as to what is going on.

What does not help ofcourse is people dumping litter on the wild areas (or any other part of the town for that matter), with removal being that much more difficult in the long grass.  

Beyond Wanstead, there are plans to extend wild areas further across Redbridge.

Another element of our efforts to extend biodiversity has been the planting of wildflowers around tree pits. These efforts, championed by Wild Wanstead, have led to some stunning displays of colour down a number of roads. However, we need to go further, moving toward all of our tree pits being planted out, providing havens for bees and other wildlife.

Again it is about community, coming out of those front doors and joining with neighbours and friends to create the sort of environmental and sustainable society we all want to see.

Other elements of the biodiversity work that require more work involves the planting of trees and the recovery of gardens from concrete.

The council has committed to replace the street trees that have had to be removed due to disease but we need to go much further. More street trees would be welcome but also there needs to be a mass tree planting programme across Redbridge. More trees means less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a real move toward countering climate change.

The concrete issue largely relates to the private domain of individual’s dwellings. The impact though of these actions will effect everyone else. The covering of the surface reduces the area for water to run away, putting increased pressure on the sewer system. The Environment Agency has warned of the effects that concreting over has on a mass scale to flood risk.

Beside the self-preservation argument, what about the actual look of the thing – flowers and shrubs surely appeal. If people still insist on the need for the driveway then why not at least make part of the space available to plants. There are now also the membranes that can be used.

So there are some great strides being made in our area on biodiversity but much more can be done. There is certainly the will to make Wanstead a cleaner and greener place, the challenge now is to continue finding the ways.

published  Wanstead and Woodford Guardian - 25/7/2019 - paper
                                                                             27/7/2019 - online

Small Island

Adapted by Helen Edmundson from the novel by Andrea Levy

National Theatre

This great production of Small Island at the National Theatre takes the audience through a roller coaster of emotions.

There is a constant undercurrent of humour, often born out of adversity. But then the cutting racism that has the audience drawing breath.

The impact of de-humanisation, treating other human beings as animals or worse. The physical revulsion of the very English husband Bernard (Andrew Rothney), returning from the war at the sight of a black person in his house, let alone anywhere near his wife.

The production no doubt hits parts of the audience differently, depending on the demographic. Those around in the 1950s and 60s get that shudder, as they remember just what it was like with the no blacks, no irish or no dogs notices in the bedsit windows.

Those same generations will then take a reality check, as to why we are returning to those times today - having to some degree taken large steps forward since.

Younger audience members will link the experience to the poisonousness of the immigration debate over recent years. The dehumanisation of individuals, who have become the other.

The plight of the migrant, leaving home to find a new life, Dick Whittington like, on the streets of London. Only then to be disappointed, finding discrimination, a lack of value for their talents and a generally hostile attitude.

One pertinent part of the play comes when Gilbert (Gershwyn Eustache Jnr)  is about to go off to fight in World War II. His brother Elwood (Johann Myers) is a rebel seeking independence for Jamaica, seeing the war as a good chance to revolt while Britain’s back is turned.

Gilbert and the other black soldiers go off to serve King and country, only later be rewarded by being treated like dirt by resentful indigenous workers.

This Small Island production is all the more apposite today, overhung as it has been by the Windrush scandal and the reverberations of Brexit.

The performances are outstanding from Leah Harvey (Hortense) and Gershwyn Eustache Jnr (Gilbert) holding the centre, as they move through a myriad of emotions and experiences.

Andrea Levy’s book is ofcourse a brilliant account but somehow this adaptation takes the work, on making it very much a contemporary piece, reflective for Britain today.

A play well worth seeing, probably again and again, given the myriad layers of revelation and understanding contained therein.

 

How to be right…in a world gone wrong

By James O’Brien, published by Penguin - £8.99

Talk show host James O’Brien holds up a mirror to an increasingly ill-informed society around us.

O’Brien’s central thesis is the need to make people accountable, not let them tell lies and get away with it. He blames much of the right wing media for propagating total untruths over a number of years, leading to a dangerously ill informed society.

The book is illustrated with exerts from his daily phone in programme on LBC, as he looks at Islam and Islamism, Brexit, LGBT, political correctness, feminism, the nanny state, the age gap and Trump.

The ludicrousness of the view that all Muslims are responsible for terrorism is amusingly exposed in a conversation with a guy called Richard. O’Brien takes Richard through the absurdity of his argument, that all Muslims must apologise for any terrorist attacks done by Muslims, pointing out that the shoe bomber Richard Reid shared his name, so on that basis he and all Richards should apologise for that action.

O’Brien has a real originality of thought that comes from analysing things in a logical way. In the case of the chapter on the age gap, he points out with younger generations never able to own their home they are effectively repeatedly paying the mortgage, through rent , of the landlord letting the property out.

By the time a younger person reaches old age they may have paid a mortgage two or three times over but have nothing to show for it. And nothing to live on in later life, when health and social care bills start to mount up. This is contributing to a concentration of wealth in fewer and fewer hands, creating a very dangerous society where a growing numbers of people simply do not have a stake.

Finally, he comes to Trump with his accusations of fake news and alternative versions of the facts. The public discourse really has reached the most banal level at this stage. O’Brien illustrates why Trumps assertion that he could go out on Fifth Avenue, shoot someone, and still be backed by his supporters, is so frighteningly true.

This is a fascinating read from an excellent journalist, who does his best every day to expose the idiocy of much that goes on around us. He also outlines how much of the nonsense is quite deliberately fed through a media owned by vested interests, set to profit most handsomely from the ongoing promotion of such lies.  An excellent book, if a little frightening  at times.

Academisation profits leave education poorer

Teaching is a noble profession. The work of teachers in educating the young and not so young is vital. If we achieve anything in this life it must surely be to be more knowledgeable and informed about its workings than when we came in.

Teaching has always been a self-less profession, with those involved giving far more in unpaid time than would be expected in other walks of life. Teachers would always give that bit more for the kids. And it was appreciated by children and parents alike. There are a large number of people who can say down the years that this or that teacher made a huge difference to their lives.

So why today do we treat teachers so badly?

I guess it all started with Thatcherism, with its simplistic private, good public bad approach to every walk of life. The belief that everything works better run like or by business. So schools become reduced to exam factories, running conveyor belts of children, concerned only with turning out compliant rather than questioning citizens.

Many good teachers over the years have kicked against this very limited take on the role of education. They have endeavoured to embrace the widest concept of education and learning- seeking to open eyes and broaden the pupil’s horizons.

The arrival of academisation really marked a step up in the ascent of the role of business in the education sphere. So businesses came to run schools.

Now, a rudimentary bit of education should make clear to any student (or politician ) that business does not get involved in anything other than to make a profit. The common good has very little role to play for the business.

So the academy model has been used by businesses across the country to get into education and very nicely have many of them done out of it. The schools are taken out of local authority regulation and handed over to business. This often sees the teachers treated as commodities to be disposed of at will. Those at the top of academy trusts reward themselves handsomely, often to the detriment of the teaching staff.

The panacea that is offered to schools, tempted to convert to academies, often results in the education being provided declining. There have been countless cases of fraud and nepotism uncovered, with those in charge rewarding themselves to the cost of society.

BBC’s Panorama has done great work in uncovering what goes on under the veil of academisation, including cheating on exams.

As with so many areas of life, once proper regulation is removed the possibility for corruption to flourish abounds.

What is all the more worrying is the gradual erosion of those precious values that teachers down the years have so steadfastly adhered to. What message does it send to the child, when he or she is being helped to cheat in exams? How does it help teachers to set one against the other, forcing many out of the profession?

We are turning the education system into something that values all of the most base elements of human nature.

All though is not lost, teachers, parents, children and unions across the country are all fighting back against this government led onslaught to destroy our values based education system. The academisation process is being resisted as more and more evidence of the abuses that result become apparent in the public sphere. There is a long way to go but, thankfully, the fight back has begun.

published - Wanstead and Woodford Guardian - 18/7/2019 - paper
                                                                                      - 19/7/2019 - online

Next step must be an Environmental Charter for Redbridge

The recent decision of Redbridge Council to declare a climate emergency was welcome news, the value of that action though will be measured according to what is actually achieved.

I argued in supporting the motion that there needs to be a total change of mindset on environmental issues, particularly in the council. The issue has come up the agenda but it was coming from a very low place.

Now, it is beginning to get the priority required. But to really address the climate crisis there needs to be a plan for action.

I would suggest the establishment of an environmental charter, similar to the one started in Wanstead. The focus being on the three areas of climate change, pollution and loss of biodiversity. 

There are then five areas being targeted for action in order to attain the overall objective of tackling the crisis.

The five areas are cleaner journeys, reducing the mountain of plastic, waste and litter, planting more trees and plants, making homes and premises more sustainable and living lower impact lives.

In terms of a Redbridge Environmental Charter, it would be good to set some benchmark targets in all of these areas, So for example, on cleaner journeys we should be looking to reach the Mayor of London’s target of 80% of journeys by foot, cycle or public transport by 2041. The level at the moment is low compared to other boroughs. Why not create a better infrastructure, with more cycle lanes, pathways and pedestrianised areas.

On plastic and litter, the recently introduced waste and recycling strategy commits to cutting single plastic use from council premises. The bigger challenge, though, is to get individuals and businesses – especially shops, to cut out single plastic use. There should also be a target set for recycling over five years. Recycling for businesses and schools needs addressing. 

On biodiversity, there should be a commitment to plant a certain number of trees per year (10,000?) for the next decade. Wild areas should be left to grow with the preference/default being not to cut or use pesticide. More wild flower planting and green walls along busy roads. Also a target to take back concrete areas, whether this be in shopping centres or front gardens.

On the energy question, the council should commit to all new buildings being carbon neutral, if not positive, with a target of retrofitting a certain number over ten years. 

A major push on renewables, linking to programmes like the Mayor of London’s solar together can help individual households and businesses cut their carbon footprint.

Finally, the individual challenge to live lower impact lives can be encouraged, with information and services that help us all act more sustainably. 

In Wanstead, people are crying out for better recycling and less plastic. They want electric charging points and places to put their bicycles. Increasing numbers of people want to do the right thing by the environment, the challenge going forward is to make that possible for them.

These are early ideas but they do point the way to the sort of prescriptive approach that needs to be taken if the pledge to address the climate crisis is to become a reality.

published - Wanstead and Woodford Guardian 11/7/2019 - paper
                                                                             13/7/2019 - online

Jill Stock was a doer in the community - district nurse, street party organiser, neigbourhood watcher and market stall holder

The recent death of Jill Stock is a big loss to our community.

Jill lived in Wanstead for many years, working as a district nurse, then in a number of other community ventures.

She was active in the community all of her life, playing prominent roles in neighbourhood watch and ward panels, seeking to keep the community safe. 

Many will recall her wise words of advice and consolation on the Wanstead Community Hub. Others will remember Jill from the farmers market, where she had a stall selling pictures of the area.

It was a terrible tragedy when she was taken from us so early.

Jill was a doer in the community, not an observer. One of the people who kept  the vibrant community of Wanstead going.

She was, for instance, a moving force behind many a street party.

Street parties are an excellent way to celebrate community. People comming together, sometimes meeting people in their road for the first time.

We have had a street party in my road for the past three years. All have been joyous occasions to meet and mingle. They also give a taste of what it is like when the street is taken back from the car.

Music, kids playing and many chats.

It would be great to see more street parties in the area.

Our street party has always coincided with the Wanstead Festival weekend. 

This was another event where Jill Stock could always be found. This year she will be sadly missed. But going forward it would be a lasting memorial to Jill to continue to build community in Wanstead. That though can only happen with the doers like Jill, coming forward to make it happen.

Condolances to all Jill's family and friends.  Thank you for all Jill did for the Wanstead community. Let's now hope others follow the shining example of selfless giving that was Jill's life.

Rip Jill Stock

published - Wanstead and Woodford Guardian - 4/7/2019 - paper
                                                                             - 6/7/2019 - online