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Ward Panels in Wanstead and South Woodford are keen to welcome a wider diversity of members from their respective communities to help support neighbourhood policing. Elaine Atkins reports

At the end of July, Redbridge residents were invited to attend a live webinar hosted by the Leader of Redbridge Council, Councillor Jas Athwal, and the Borough Commander, Stephen Clayman. 

The importance of the partnership between the police and the council in tackling crime and antisocial behaviour was highlighted – but so too was the vital role of the general public in being the local ‘eyes and ears’ for reporting issues.   

Across the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), each ward has a dedicated Safer Neighbourhoods Team (SNT) – a team of MPS officers who work closely with our communities to be able to establish local policing priorities and keep us safe. The wider area of ‘South Woodford’ covers both the Churchfields and South Woodford wards, while ‘Wanstead’ includes the Wanstead Village and Wanstead Park wards. Each ward has its own SNT, with three Dedicated Ward Officers, consisting of two Constables and a Police Community Support Officer – all supervised by a Sergeant and an Inspector.

Each ward has its own Ward Panel drawn from those who live, work or learn in the ward. The panel sets out to represent the whole community, including residents’ associations, faith groups, schools, businesses and community groups, to be able to engage with the SNT. Problem solving is at the heart of all neighbourhood policing, and engagement with the community helps to provide long-term solutions to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour. The aim is for the diversity within each panel to represent the diversity within each ward, to be able to give everybody a say in deciding local policing priorities that affect us all. This can be a challenge, however, and attracting panel members from all age groups, genders, faiths and cultures isn’t easy.

Our Ward Panels normally meet four times a year. Our SNT officers attend as observers – bringing data on crime and general information – as do ward councillors, Neighbourhood Watch ward coordinators and officers from Redbridge. Residents and community representatives are often invited to observe the work of the panel, especially if they are considering becoming a member.

At each Ward Panel meeting, opinions and concerns are expressed by the community through the panel members and the sectors they represent. Crime statistics and police reports are considered for the panel to be able to agree on a priority for their SNT, which is reviewed at the next meeting.

We are encouraging people from all cultures, faiths, genders and age groups to learn more about the panels and, hopefully to join us in shaping the local area. There are varying levels of involvement available, with the Wanstead Park panel currently seeking a new chair.

Wanstead teenager Grace Wolstenholme invites you to watch her YouTube channel for an insight into her life with cerebral palsy. In the first of a series of articles, the aspiring actor talks about wheelchairs and boys

Hi, my name is Grace Wolstenholme, I’m 17 years old and I live in Wanstead with my mum, and I can’t leave out my adorable assistant dog Scooby.

I’ve got cerebral palsy, a brain condition that affects my movement and voice. Some people with cerebral palsy can have added disabilities, such as a learning difficulty, but in my case, it does not affect my understanding. Some people don’t always appreciate that I’m not mentally disabled, so to help people learn more about cerebral palsy, I’ve set up an informative YouTube channel to try and spread awareness about the condition.

I posted a message on social media saying I was thinking of doing a Q&A, inviting people to ask me about living with cerebral palsy. From that, I had about 17 questions, which I thought was quite good considering I don’t really have that many followers!

Another video I filmed is called What dating is like with cerebral palsy. Because I want people to see me as a ‘normal’ teenage girl, I wore my grey dress (the one in the photo here), made up my bed and sat on that, and spoke about what dating is like for me. I explain why dating with cerebral palsy isn’t easy at all because I feel that boys just see a wheelchair, no matter what I wear. If a boy saw an able-bodied girl wearing a skimpy dress, they’d be drooling all over her, but if they saw a girl in a wheelchair, they probably wouldn’t look twice because they think a girl in a wheelchair isn’t capable of doing stuff an able-bodied girl could do. They probably think I don’t understand. You tell me. Do you think a girl who doesn’t understand would wear a fitted dress and a full face of make-up? No, they wouldn’t, or is it you think I’m not ‘able enough’ to do stuff? Well, let me tell you, I can walk, I can talk, I can understand and I’ve also got hypermobility, so you know what that means!

But boys would rather go out with a girl who can walk in high heels. Don’t get me wrong, I wear high heels, but there’s only one problem. I won’t get far walking in them! But a boy would rather be seen with a girl who can walk in high heels than be seen with a girl in a wheelchair wearing high heels. Tell me, what is the difference between using wheels to get around rather than legs? Not a lot!

In February, I performed a monologue I wrote about my life called Why can’t you see me, which got some fantastic reviews from the press, and you can watch this on my YouTube channel as well.

Even though I’m in a wheelchair, it doesn’t mean I’m not a normal teenage girl, because I am! I just use a wheelchair to get from A to B.

Cities around the world are starting to prioritise the needs of people over cars. Let’s seize the moment to do something in Wanstead too, say Wanstead Climate Action members Kathy Taylor and Susannah Knox

Air pollution is an invisible enemy – killing 9,000 Londoners prematurely every year. The brief drop in traffic levels during the coronavirus lockdown gave us a glimpse of what life could be like with less congestion and cleaner air.

So, we’ve come up with some quick and simple ways you can help put pressure on Redbridge Council and the government to get their act together and deal with the problem of air pollution. Imagine Wanstead less choked up with traffic. It could be a breath of fresh air.

The London Assembly says the capital’s toxic air is a public health crisis. Exposure to air pollution stunts the growth of children’s lungs and increases the chance of lung cancer, heart disease, stroke and other illnesses. Now, evidence is mounting that it is linked to increased Covid-19 infections and death rates, according to the World Health Organization.

The main cause of air pollution in London is traffic. The quieter streets, cleaner air and lower noise levels that lockdown brought were welcomed across Wanstead. And many cities, including areas of London, have recently and quickly made expanded cycleways or traffic-free streets to make cycling safer and reduce crowding on pavements and public transport. But so far, sadly, not in Redbridge. Cycling is a way to travel with a lower risk of coronavirus infection than public transport. However, understandably, many people are put off getting on their bike due to the lack of safe cycleways. The danger is people will start to drive more to avoid infection, worsening air quality and putting health at risk in other ways.

In Redbridge, cycling provision is far poorer than in other boroughs, and safe cycleways are few and far between. There is a noticeable deterioration in safe cycling options when cycling from Waltham Forest to Redbridge, for example.

While Redbridge Council has shown intention to improve matters and is currently undertaking a consultation, the more pressure that is exerted on them, the higher safe cycling will move up the agenda. Many schemes can be done at low cost. Others will require major funding. However, the health of all of us, especially our children, is at stake.

Five things you can do now:

• Contribute to the council survey on safer streets: wnstd.com/map
• Email John Cryer MP and ask what action he is taking: wnstd.com/emailmp
• Stop using your car for local journeys.
• Check out the work by Mums for Lungs: wnstd.com/lungs
• Join Wanstead Climate Action to help campaign locally: wnstd.com/wca

An open-air cinema will be screening Disney classic Finding Nemo and horror-comedy The Lost Boys in Wanstead this month.

The event – which will take place from 8.30pm on 29 August at Eton Manor RFC (adults: £8; under-16s: £5) – will also offer a BBQ and bar service, with the opportunity for families to camp the night at the Nutter Lane site (additional charges apply).

Eton Manor RFC is also seeking to raise £15,000 to improve their kitchen and clubhouse and to renew the outside seating areas.

Visit wnstd.com/nemo

A five-year-old Wanstead resident is raising funds for the Little Princess Trust by having her first-ever haircut this month.

“I would like to cut my long hair before I go back to school… As my hair is so long, I thought it would be a good idea to donate my hair to children who have lost their own hair due to sickness or treatment… Please help me support this wonderful charity by sharing my page or sponsoring me so I may raise enough funds to make a real-hair wig for a child,” said Amelie Tarr.

Amelie will be getting her hair cut on 26 August at Click Beautique.

Visit wnstd.com/amelie

When lockdown was announced, the Wren Wildlife and Conservation Group had to come up with alternatives to replace their spring and summer plans. Enter Zoom. Tim Harris reports

When lockdown was announced, some Wren members concentrated on what they could do from the comfort of their own homes to contribute to the group. And with necessity being the mother of invention, some of these initiatives have been very successful.

Carrying this to extremes, ‘noc-migging’ involves recording the calls of birds migrating overhead at night. Using a recording device in a bucket, this is the very antithesis of exercise, best done while asleep! Chief among the surprises it produced were the calls of common scoters – ducks usually found far out at sea – in early April. Thanks in the main to noc-migging, these wildfowl are now known to fly overland on their way north in spring. This really is citizen science in action.

Several of us switched on bright lights in our gardens to attract moths. Our area has a phenomenal range of these nocturnal insects, mainly because of the area’s floristic diversity. This year has been the best on record, with more than 250 different kinds noted so far, several never previously recorded. And only a couple of them eat clothes!

Many local naturalists also took full advantage of the opportunity to exercise outdoors to spot interesting plants, bees, birds and butterflies in our diverse range of green spaces. Among many fascinating discoveries was a small patch of fiddleneck (Amsinckia menziesii) behind the Esso garage on Aldersbrook Road. This ‘weed’, native to North America, was found by Rose Stephens and has not previously been seen locally. We’ll probably never know how it got there.

But the big problem we faced as a group was how to reach out to people who would, in more normal times, come on our local walks. Enter Zoom, and committee member Tony Madgwick, who offered to host a series of weekly ‘virtual field meetings’. These have been enormously successful, attracting audiences from far and wide to listen, learn, and discuss. While most participants have been local, we’ve had naturalists tuning in from as far afield as Devon and Scotland. Some meet-ups have drawn more than 100 people, keen to find out more about a range of topics, ranging from the best bee-friendly plants for their gardens, which butterflies and dragonflies to look for in Wanstead Park, how to identify birds by their songs, and the life history of native reptiles. So successful have these online meetings been that we intend to continue them.

So, if you’re interested in our local flora and fauna, check the Wren Group’s programme of virtual field meetings on our website, where recordings of some of the previous meetings are also available.

Waltham Forest Save Our NHS held an online meeting last month to discuss the plans to rebuild Whipps Cross Hospital.

“The speakers, including John Cryer MP, had two key messages. First, we cannot stand back and allow the new hospital to be built with too few beds for our growing population. Second, the new hospital must be environmentally sustainable, the first zero-carbon hospital in the UK,” said Wanstead resident Charlotte Monro, who participated in the event.

An email has been set up for all who would like to be involved, have questions or ideas: whipps.cross.campaign@gmail.com

Watch a recording of the meeting at wnstd.com/wxm

As a portrait photographer who became as famous as his celebrity subjects, David Bailey needs no introduction. As a ‘place of heaven in the East End’, Wanstead Park needs no introduction either. When Mr Bailey took his camera to the park during lockdown, the result was his 99th cover for British Vogue

Long ago, when I was a child in the East End of London, a German, for some reason, wanted to kill me. His name was Hitler, as you may have guessed. He was one of only three men whose name I knew. The others were Stalin and Churchill.

Anyway, Hitler caused me the most aggravation. He always sent his air force over to bomb me at say six o’clock or in the late afternoon, which was when Toy Town came on the radio. This went on for a short period of my life until I was about seven and a half. The Blitz was over and Hitler was dead, and sadly, I had outgrown Toy Town.

A bike was my friend and I could roam wherever it took me, together with my mate Roy. Mostly around the East End, where all the bombed buildings were my playground.  But then I discovered a place of magic called Wanstead Park. This wonderful place was not full of broken glass and shrapnel. (I missed the shrapnel – I had a great collection of it.) But this place was perfect with its lakes and what seemed to me a jungle of trees. And to top it all, the bluebells in the spring.

The park has never lost its magic. I still visit whenever I can to see the ruin of the boathouse I thought was Dick Turpin’s hideaway, and the mystery of the old manor house that was pulled down long ago.

It was, and still is, a place of heaven in the East End.

A group of local cyclists are proposing a trial of three new shared-use routes – for pedestrians and cyclists – in Wanstead Park.

“There has been a marked increase in the number of people cycling in the park since lockdown began. We would like to see some positive changes, which protect both walkers and cyclists,” said a Redbridge Cycling spokesperson. The routes include a path from Wanstead Park Avenue to Warren Road and a path connecting Warren Road with the Ilford side of the park.

Visit wnstd.com/parkcycle

Essex Art Club is sorry to announce the death of Wanstead resident Peter Luscombe, whose training as an architect led to a lifelong hobby.  Chair of Essex Art Club Mary Springham reports

Peter Luscombe was an accomplished painter and a long-term committee member of Essex Art Club and of many other art organisations. He took on responsible roles for most of the societies to which he belonged.

During lockdown, Peter had been circulating images of some of his old paintings to a large circle of colleagues, and we put some of them up on the Essex Art Club website. It was typical of Peter to do something informal, fun and interesting.

He worked primarily in watercolour, but in recent years, had used acrylic paint with spectacular results. He was also a talented portrait artist.

Peter successfully ran our Sunday painting group at St Barnabas Church hall for more than 10 years, and we will restart this as soon as we are able to do so since it is a very important activity for club members and visitors.

Peter originally trained as an architect and worked mainly in the City of London. “I was articled to an architect for three years when I was 16, which was a sort of apprenticeship. This method of training has long since been superseded by full-time courses in colleges and universities… Throughout my career, I produced illustrations both for my own designs and also for the various practices for which I worked. However, my interest in art has not been confined to work. It has been a hobby throughout my life,” explained Peter in a Wanstead Village Directory article in 2017.

He was a member of the Company of Chartered Architects (he was also a founder member), the Society of Maritime Artists, the Fine Arts Society of Painter Stainers Livery company, Chair of the City Heritage Society and a member of the Conservation Area Advisory committee in the City. He was also a devoted member of St Barnabas Church.

Essex Art Club has made a donation to the British Heart Foundation in his memory.

Peter died suddenly in June 2020. He will be sadly missed by all who knew him.

The Tin in the Bin Network has set itself a target to reach 18 tonnes of foodbank donations by the end of August.

“We’re currently at around 13 tonnes, but we are worried as donations tend to drop in the summer. Cash donations have been incredible; we’ve raised over £5,500 and have been able to buy things that Redbridge Foodbank don’t get much of – canned meat, washing powder and shower gel, for example,” said James Paterson. Collection points are located at homes across the area.

Visit wnstd.com/food

A Snaresbrook Primary School pupil who broke the world record for ‘most flips of a plastic bottle in one minute’ has finally had his place in the record books confirmed.

Daniel Giorgetti was 11 when he performed 47 successful flips – beating the previous record by eight – on 9 July 2019, with Guinness World Records formally confirming his achievement last month, having reviewed the video evidence.

Only flips in which the half-filled water bottle rotated through 360º and landed on its base were counted.

Watch the video here: www.facebook.com/watch/?v=341616873443575

Visit wnstd.com/flip