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With low water levels in Wanstead Park’s Ornamental Water, the resident swan family are in need of help.

“With less water, the swans are restricted in their ability to access the wider lake, and therefore food. We are asking people to take a detour to the lake to feed them. The cygnets will need energy to learn to fly. Seeded brown bread, spinach, kale and lettuce are all welcome. Thank you to all those who have already been supporting them,” said Tracey Adebowale-Jones, who is part of a volunteer network monitoring local swans.

After several weeks without rain and with temperatures reaching 35ºC last month, Wanstead Flats suffered a series of infernos.

“On 10 August, a large blaze burned about one hectare of tinderbox-dry grassland by Centre Road car park. Two days later, a series of fires swept through a swathe of bushes and grass between the Golden Fleece and Alexandra Lake. The London Fire Brigade deserves thanks for a speedy and efficient response… Arson is suspected for at least one of the blazes,” said Tim Harris of the Wren Wildlife Group.

A petition is urging Redbridge Council to better help small businesses comply with social distancing rules.

It follows a fine issued to a local hairdresser for placing chairs outside his shop.

“Wanstead Hairdressers put three chairs outside when it opened after lockdown so elderly customers had somewhere to sit. The council fined them £100 without warning. They’re not the only shop this has happened to,” said Natalie Michaelides, whose petition received over 150 signatures in 24 hours.

Visit wnstd.com/chairs

Kareem Cole from local solicitors Wiseman Lee takes a look at the importance of Lasting Powers of Attorney and planning for life in lockdown, especially for those who are more vulnerable

The unpredictability of the coronavirus pandemic has prompted many people to ensure their wills are up to date should they suddenly become unwell. But who would you want to help manage your finances or make decisions about your personal health or affairs if you were forced back into lockdown or lost capacity?

Most likely, you would want your family or friends to make these decisions for you. A fully registered Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) will allow the people of your choice to assist you should you become unable to leave the house or manage by yourself.

There is no automatic right for your next of kin to act on your behalf.

There are two types of LPA. One covers your property and financial matters (use this LPA to give an attorney the power to make decisions about selling your home, collecting benefits or a pension and paying bills, for example), whilst the other covers your health and welfare decisions (use this LPA to give an attorney the power to make decisions about your daily routine, medical care, moving into a care home and life-sustaining treatment, for example). You can choose to make one type or both.

Life during lockdown has been very difficult for many, especially those who are more vulnerable or are shielding. Issues people are facing include not being able to go to the shops, the bank, or have family members visit who would usually help.

Having an LPA in place means your attorneys can assist as necessary whilst you have capacity and then fully manage your finances should you lose capacity. They can also arrange medical appointments for you, put in place extra care, assist with paying bills and access cash for general household expenses.

With the possibility of more restrictions being placed on our lives in the future, Lasting Powers of Attorney could prove very useful. Whereas a will is effective from the day it is signed, an LPA is only effective after it has been successfully registered. The registration process can take up to four months.

If you do not have an LPA, your next of kin would need to apply to the Court of Protection to become your Deputy. This is a costly process that can take up to nine months to be resolved.

The importance of ensuring you are properly safeguarded if you were to suddenly lose capacity cannot be underestimated.

Some South Woodford scribbles from DD, our resident diarist, commentator and observer of all things local

I can’t remember if I told you about the mouse. Not the mouse that died in my tablecloth drawer some years ago. I had to get Manu over the road to come and remove that one. This was a more recent mouse. Oddly enough, I didn’t feel squeamish about this one, so tiny and lifeless, tucked into the bend in the stair. I planned to fetch my dustpan and brush after breakfast to sweep him up and find him a more fitting final resting place. I was quite sad. He would, at least, have been some company at the beginning of lockdown. But it was not to be: when I returned, he wasn’t there. Sadness gave way swiftly to suspicion. “If there’s one mouse,” I thought, “there are probably two. More even.” Swift action advisable. Out with the Yellow Pages. Round came Mark Thurbin from Better Pest Control to inspect, assess and treat. A kindly man. A lover of animals, I sensed. But only in their rightful place. I was confident my mouse would have a pain-free ending. How different my sister’s experience in Sri Lanka when rats invaded. The rat-catcher arrived and offered her a “truly humane rat-trap.” Sounded ideal. “But what do I do once I’ve got the rat in the humane rat-trap?” she asked. I think I should draw a veil over his bloodcurdling response, particularly if you are reading this shortly after a meal.

There is much help on hand in London E18. One of our neighbours delivers the Metro in the morning and the Evening Standard later in the day. We quarantine most of the food that comes into the house but we take a chance with the papers. They’re no use three days old, are they? I recall a touching incident in Nigel Hawthorne’s autobiography (star of Yes Minister and The Madness of King George). He was in Cairo for filming and was delighted when a small boy appeared selling The Times. At a price. But minutes later, he realised it was several weeks old. He set off angrily in pursuit and claimed his money back. Then stopped, ashamed, observing the child’s rapidly retreating bare feet and torn shirt. He tried for days to track him down and make amends. And he did. Currently, I’m reading Dr David Owen’s In Sickness and in Power. An extraordinary account of the many occasions when prime ministers and presidents have had their medical conditions concealed from the public. Sometimes with far-reaching international significance. Whatever else I might think about Boris, I respect his very public willingness to be photographed smiling from his intensive care bed in London.

My partner discovered Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret novels on my bookshelves. I can look up from my book and sense that he is breathing in the aroma of Gauloises and garlic in some seedy Parisian back street, or strolling in imagination along the banks of the Seine towards the Prefecture de Police on the Quai des Orfevres. By the way, his tomatoes are ripening fast. We carefully bisected the very first one: it was only about an inch in diameter, but it was a brief, sweet (self-congratulatory) foretaste of the crop to come. It’s probably an illusion, but “home-grown” does seem to mean “fuller flavour”. The first radishes had quite a kick. The uprooting of the first beetroot was a significant, ceremonial moment, notwithstanding the fact that you can buy a whole cluster of ready-cooked ones at the International Supermarket for about 75 pence. We have no aspirations to self-sufficiency like TV’s Tom and Barbara living their Good Life in Surbiton. But there are some faint echoes of our childhood: in the wartime, some neighbours kept pigs, with the whole street contributing to their rich diet of vegetable peelings. My partner remembers his mother preserving fresh eggs in a stone jar filled with isinglass in the cupboard under the stairs. My family tended to focus on fruit rather than vegetables: raspberries, redcurrants, gooseberries, apples. We had an Anderson shelter dug out under the garden lawn with corrugated iron over the top. But there was no self-distancing. Quite the opposite. There were no electric gates and iron railings. Rarely a lock on the back door. You chatted over the garden fence; you didn’t hide behind it. And our enemy was known and visible. Wretched to think of it now when we freely visit, say, Cologne or Dresden. Our enemy now is less known and less visible. And oblivious to all man-made boundaries. Perhaps this is the closest the world has ever come to a shared unity of purpose. Will we capitalise on it?

Regular readers may recall my dissatisfaction with the soup I felt I should make to use up the surplus of cucumbers in our “basics box”. One reader very kindly put a note through my door supplying a recipe for tarragon and cucumber lemonade. “Well worth making,” she wrote. I read with raised hopes, but they were somewhat dampened when I discovered that after all the grating, blending and straining, the finished product was still going to be better “with a dash of gin”.

As a life-long lover of words, I am watching with interest as our language takes “a great leap forward” during this pandemic, adapting familiar terms to embrace unique new circumstances. We’ve become accustomed to the notion of “self-isolating” and “social distancing”, but more recently we’ve been “creating bubbles” with other families. Some of the most vulnerable citizens have been “shielding”, others have been “furloughed”. I suppose I should consider carefully whether I am sufficiently “woke”. Not to mention “hashtagged”. I’m no purist; I relish the fact that language is a living and evolving organism. Otherwise, we’d still be talking Anglo-Saxon. I’ll do my best to keep up to date, but meanwhile, dear friends, I’ll plough on with my diary in my probably old-fashioned way, and hope to entertain you through, and out at the other end of, these mysterious times.

Woodford Town FC are confident the dream of a return to their home town will be realised by October, in time for the Essex Senior League season, says the club’s Technical Director Neil Day

Although coronavirus has delayed a large proportion of the building works required to turn the Ashton Playing Field arena into a venue suitable for senior football, the club has received assurances works will be completed in time for the delayed start to the season.

Club Chairman Tony Scott said: “There have been some really positive meetings with the council and contractors in recent weeks and the wheels are beginning to move to get us back home… This promises to be a ‘different’ type of season for various reasons, and we are very hopeful common sense and maybe a little flexibility can be shown to enable our return to become a reality.”

We have been gearing up to the beginning of building work for a couple of seasons and are very pleased with the platform our long-term strategies have already given us before the first digger went in. Our forward-thinking club has recruited a top-class media and marketing team to boost the Woodford Town FC brand, and have already built up numerous supporter-driven initiatives whilst playing at Harlow FC, including our ‘Fans Band’ and designing and producing a very popular heritage shirt celebrating Woodford history, with a nod to former local resident Sylvia Pankhurst’s invaluable role in the suffragette movement.

The groundwork already done could cause an explosion of interest in the former giants of the non-league game, founded in 1937. We’ve done so much in the past couple of seasons that relied upon our return home to really take off: banners, posters and flyers have all been designed, produced and put into storage just for this moment. We have a considerable number of volunteers who can’t wait to get started and we want all the community to be involved. ‘Woodford for Everyone’ is a strapline that was used on social media and sums up our ethos.

On the pitch, Woodford has also had a make-over, underpinning our much-vaunted policy of pitching young, home-grown talent into senior non-league football. A smattering of 16-year-olds has been a standout feature in Dee Safer’s sides for several seasons now, attempting to play an attacking, possession-based game not always associated with getting results in a notoriously physically dominated league. The Woods will be running an under-18 team, competing in the FA Youth Cup, and an under-23 ‘development team’ managed by ex-Bethnal Green United and Enfield FC defender Shane Baptiste, alongside experienced coach Glen Reeves.

It’s fair to say there’s something for everyone if you want to get involved. Announcements will be coming soon on the club’s revamped website – or just follow the noise on a Friday evening!

In the first of a series of articles aiming to spread positivity, South Woodford resident and mindset and confidence coach Nicky Kentisbeer explains what you can be certain of in these uncertain times

Having spent so much time in our own good company, we’ve learned a lot about ourselves over the last six months, haven’t we?

We’ve found amazing new ways to do the things we’ve needed to do and it’s been a journey of discovery. A time to really get to know ourselves.

It’s also been a rare period of time that’s left us wondering more about what makes us tick. We’ve found ourselves doing the things that we’ve always wanted to and we’ve talked of the joy we’ve found in slowing down. We’ve appreciated the simplicity of life.

We’ve had to dig deep to keep on the right side of positivity at times too, haven’t we? Working our way through our entire back catalogue of emotions – often during the course of the same day.

There have been days when our positivity has soared in the face of adversity. And gorgeous moments when our hearts have sung with joy at the simplest of kind gestures. Alongside that, we have all experienced pain.

The most genteel of folk have chastised us – often for doing what they themselves may have done, just the day before. And at the same time, we’ve been humbled by how those with very little have gifted us with their kind words and manners. The greatest gift of all.

We stood ready to crush our own grapes and knit our own yoghurt upon discovering that the shelves were indeed empty. And we’ve all cracked on. Our resilience has shown itself – often in our darkest hours.

We even got a bit comfy too, didn’t we?

Yet, for as long as there is sod and a law, the whistle will always blow and someone yells ‘all change’ again. And no matter who we are, we are now moving through our own version of how the uncertainty of change might look for us again. In order to do this, we need to access those very strengths and resources we’ve already deployed so skilfully. Perhaps without realising. And in the same way that we’ve commended the marvellous resilience of those who have shown up for us, it’s also time to remind ourselves we too have demonstrated that very same resilience.

We often overlook our own capabilities. Indeed, at times like this, it’s easy to compare our efforts with those of others and use what ‘we haven’t done’ as a stick to beat ourselves with.

But, if you look hard enough, you will realise your stockpile of resources has added up to be more than plenty for you and yours. They have served you well and will continue to do so.

During times of uncertainty, it is of this that you can be sure.

Kerry Oliver tells the story behind Elmhurst Garden’s dragon – and other creatures – carved from a fallen oak tree. Additional reporting by Olivia McCarron, Hannah Adams and Kathie Teahan. Photo by Geoff Wilkinson

When most of us look back on the early period of lockdown, one thing we will remember is the glorious spring weather, and nature in general, keeping up our spirits. We did, however, have a short spell of windy weather at the end of April and that, in combination with fungus-related root damage, brought a large red oak tree crashing down in Elmhurst Gardens one morning. People entering the park, as well as residents whose gardens back onto the park, all reported the ground shaking and hearing the tree fall.

Visitors to the park watched in interest as the council cut and stripped the tree down several days later. The left-over logs quickly became a new and exciting play area for children to scramble, balance and, in the case of my own children, generally be quite daring on. What a welcome treat after a few weeks of red-taped, out-of-bounds play areas due to CoviD-19.

It was the children’s adventurous play that led to my suggestion to Elmhurst Playground Association – a charity set up in 2017 to raise money for park improvements – that we could perhaps follow in the footsteps of other parks and recreational areas and hire someone to carve the fallen tree and make it a permanent natural play feature in the park.

Elmhurst Playground Association and Vision RCL were happy to fund the initial project, and after some clearing and moving of larger logs, chainsaw artist Marshall Lambert began working on the largest part of the trunk. At the end of day one, as if by magic, a fabulous dragon’s head appeared out of the tree trunk and pictures quickly flew round on social media. It was worked on with wonderful skill and attention over the following two days to the astonishment of all passers-by, young and old.

Marshall was stopped regularly as he sculpted and found it a very positive experience. He passionately believes in the importance of bringing natural rural play into urban environments and feels that, in general, more needs to be done in urban green spaces so that families can engage in natural play.

We were overwhelmed by the positive response and the number of people who asked to donate to the project. As a result, we set up a GoFundMe page, and within 12 days, had raised another £2,000 for the project to continue.

More than ever before, we realise how important our green spaces are, and it has been so enjoyable to be involved in a project using the resources nature provided. It has brought the community together in such a positive way. We are still fundraising to create more natural and imaginative play areas using the rest of the logs.

Walking around Woodford (and Kent) provided Woodford Arts Group member Darren Evans – who goes by the name The Suburban Artist – with the inspiration he needed to break his lockdown artist’s block

Lockdown was hard, for so many of us. I was fortunate in that my family and I stayed healthy – but there were still challenges I had not anticipated.

For an artist, lockdown ought to offer so many possibilities: endless time, stretching ahead, ready to be filled with creative endeavour. But the reality was very different. Although I love painting and have often longed for more time to focus on my work, during lockdown I found it much harder than usual to concentrate. Somehow, the seclusion and the low-level anxiety we were all feeling seemed to drain my inspiration.

It was walking that saved me. Long walks, every day around Woodford, alone or with the family.

I became much more aware of the subtle changes that took place in the natural environment as the glorious spring turned into summer, and watched the colours, tones and light shift and change with the seasons. I appreciated the frothy cow parsley on and around Woodford Green and the yellow-eyed daisies turning their faces up to the sun.

More recently, on holiday in Kent, I watched the blazing sun scorch the wheat to deep gold against a clear blue sky. Inspiration returned, and at last, I became really productive, painting with renewed energy.

This crisis has impacted our country in so many negative ways, but it has given us the opportunity to reconnect with the British countryside and all its rich beauty. We may not be able to travel abroad, but there is truly nothing more glorious than the English hedgerow, with its abundance of glossy blackberries and scarlet rosehips. I hope my paintings during lockdown have captured a little of that positive spirit.

In the fifth of a series of articles looking at the redevelopment of Whipps Cross Hospital, Charlotte Monro reflects on a recent public meeting and expresses concern over plans for 51 fewer beds

Work towards the new Whipps Cross Hospital is advancing apace with the architect team in the process of being appointed. A public meeting hosted by Waltham Forest Save Our NHS (WFSONHS) at the end of July demonstrated our communities’ determination that the new hospital must be designed to meet our needs in the future. Alarm that the latest plans are for 51 fewer beds than now – despite the area having the fastest-growing population in London – has led to the launch of a community-wide campaign.

People found the meeting informative and inspiring. Enthusiastic discussion followed the three speakers. Residents spoke of the reality on the ground: 8,000 more people moving into new developments in Leabridge ward, which is already 10 GPs short and has no health centre. And housing for staff on the Whipps site; public transport – sufficient and green – and genuine consultation were all raised. People are eager to act.

John Cryer MP spoke first: “We can’t be in a position where we have got a nice new hospital but it cannot cope with the demand.” He has witnessed the “absolutely desperate” pressure on Whipps. “The hospital has been at 100% bed occupancy for the last two winters. Once you get to 90%, you start to compromise safety, you should not even go near 100%.” Sufficient beds is a critical issue, of which he has long experience, from the new Queen’s Hospital in Romford to the closure of Wanstead Hospital’s Heronwood and Galleon unit “which provided excellent rehab… Now, I am getting cases of people who cannot get the services in their homes that were promised when the wards closed. So, people go back needing more intense hospital care.”

The idea the new hospital needs fewer beds relies on assumptions that fewer people will need hospital treatment because of proposed new models of care in the community and improved organisation of hospital care. A close look at the strategy documents, said the next speaker Mary Burnette of WFSONHS, shows major flaws in the modelling used. For one, Waltham Forest has less to spend on both hospital and community health care than most of the boroughs to which it is compared. Decisions resting on untested assumptions could give us the same pressures and ambulance queues stretching into our future.

The final presentation from Green at Barts Health staff group called for the new Whipps to be the first UK net zero-carbon hospital, designed for the wellbeing of all who use it. With danger from climate change, anything less would be unforgivable. Natural light, views and ventilation, green spaces and nature, renewable clean energy from solar panels on roofs of both hospital and houses, all this is doable. But our guarantee will be the involvement throughout of community, staff and patients. And funding!

A new grow zone has been established in a private communal garden in Snaresbrook as an extension of the Wild Wanstead project.

“Our zone is on the Rivenhall Estate opposite Eagle Pond. It was inspired by seeing other grow zones and through setting up a neighbourly WhatsApp chat during lockdown. It didn’t take much for the residents of Brooksglade to agree to leave an unmowed area on the communal lawn and we look forward to planting some wild flowers in the spring,” said resident Tina Nieman Da Costa.

Part of South Woodford is one of seven areas in Redbridge chosen by the council to be included in its Quiet Streets initiative.

“South Woodford has always been a green and quiet place and our objective is to enhance that. This programme will aim to reduce speeding and rat-running, and create more space for people to walk and cycle safely,” said Councillor John Howard. The council has received more than £500k from TfL to fund the project and residents are invited to put forward their ideas.

Visit swvg.co.uk/safer