A community action day on 29 March (11am to 12 noon) will see neighbours come together to help make improvements to the park. This will be followed by two Easter hunt sessions on 12 April (11.30am to 12 noon for under-3s; 12 noon to 2pm for older children). “There’ll be ice cream, face painting and an Easter Egg raffle,” said a Friends of Elmhurst Gardens spokesperson.
“We created a spacious otter holt for the Roding’s most recent new residents. We used big logs to create an entry chamber and a nesting chamber, and covered the whole thing in branches and earth,” said a spokesperson for the River Roding Trust’s Wanstead and Woodford local group.
The volunteers also created two hibernacula for amphibians and other small creatures to use.
Email river.roding@gmail.com
The ‘British Bulldog’ Winston Churchill guided Britain through the Second World War, gave rousing speeches that have gone down in history… and also represented the areas of Wanstead and Woodford as an MP for over four decades.
Winston Churchill was born in 1874 at his family’s ancestral home, Blenheim Palace, in Oxfordshire. He first entered Parliament in 1900 as a Conservative MP for Oldham. In 1904, he switched to the Liberal Party and won the seat of Manchester North West. After holding several cabinet positions, Churchill was elected as MP for Epping in 1924, which incorporated Wanstead and Woodford. He won the seat with a large majority and went on to rejoin the Conservative Party.
Among Churchill’s supporters was Woodford Urban District Council chairman Sir Alfred James Hawkey, the namesake of Sir James Hawkey Hall in Woodford Green, which Churchill would open in 1955. In May 1936, Churchill spoke in favour of the Wanstead and Woodford District Council’s application to become a borough. It was a success, and he presented the new borough with a mace, which is still owned by Redbridge.
After succeeding Neville Chamberlain as prime minister in 1939, and leading Britain to victory in 1945, Churchill became MP for the newly-created constituency of Woodford, which also incorporated Wanstead, following a change to constituency boundaries. He held this seat until his retirement from politics in 1964. While serving as prime minister during the war, Churchill was unable to visit his constituency, but his wife Clementine did, and in 1941, she opened a restaurant in Woodford Green as part of a Ministry of Food initiative. Churchill supported many charitable functions to shore up the war effort. A War Weapons Week was held in 1941 with Churchill as president, which raised over £900,000. Later events, such as a Churchill Week in Woodford, raised £265,108 for the war effort, roughly the cost of 13 tanks at the time. During his time as MP, Churchill maintained a strong majority. He led the Conservative Party back to power in 1951, his second term as prime minister.
A statue of Churchill was erected in Woodford in 1959, with Churchill and his wife present at the unveiling. In 1968, a bust was erected outside the former local Conservative Association in Wanstead (now The Bull pub).
Churchill continued to represent Woodford even after stepping down as prime minister in 1955 and remained active in Parliament well into his 80s. Churchill died at the age of 90 in 1965, and thousands of people lined the streets to watch the funeral cortege travel to St Paul’s Cathedral. Many of them will have remembered him as the prime minister who won the war, but for residents here, he was the man who had served them and their constituency until the end.
Emily Allen is a freelance writer. For more information, visit swvg.co.uk/allen
The water testing project – which ran between May and September 2024 – brought together the River Roding Trust, Thames21 and local volunteers (citizen scientists) in an excellent example of local coordination and action.
The results are good and bad. There is clearly a serious problem with combined sewer overflows (CSOs) illegally spilling sewage into the stretch of the Roding between Loughton and Ilford. That being the case, the water quality as the river enters London is OK, and often good, so there is real hope that if these CSOs are fixed, the Roding could achieve bathing water quality status in London.
To produce this report, local volunteers had a rota to collect samples in eight different locations along the river from Loughton down to Ilford. Originally, sampling was only going to go down to Ilford, but thanks to lobbying from the River Roding Trust, it was extended downstream to give the people of Barking information about water quality in their stretch of the river. These samples were sent off to be tested for E. coli in a lab. The results were then analysed by Thames21, plotted onto graphs and compared to rainfall data to begin to understand what was causing any raised levels of E. coli. Results were analysed against the Bathing Water Regulations (2013) standard for Faecal Indicator Organisms levels, which the Environmental Agency uses to classify designated bathing water quality.
In many ways, it is a damning indictment of the Environment Agency that such testing has never been carried out before. How can it be government agencies had no idea whether the water in the third-largest river in London, flowing through the middle of massive population centres, was grossly polluted?
Nine outfalls discharged untreated sewage for a total of 316 hours, causing clear spikes in bacteria levels at many sample points during the monitoring programme, at times in periods of very little rainfall. These discharges meant many of the samples collected produced results that were poor and showed E. coli above safe bathing water quality levels.
The worst performing outfall was in the Alders Brook (a tributary of the River Roding with its source within the City of London Cemetery), which was causing E. coli spikes of up to 19 times safe limits. What makes this more infuriating is that I discovered this illegal outfall nearly four years ago and it still has not been fixed by Thames Water.
It is heartening that, thanks to the efforts of local volunteers, we now have a picture of water quality on the Roding for the very first time. We now need the Environment Agency to do its job as guardian of the river and act on this report by stopping all illegal sewage spills into the Roding.
For more information and to view the report, visit swvg.co.uk/rodingwater
TfL changed the route last September, with the bus now stopping a quarter of a mile from the hospital entrance.
TfL claimed Whipps didn’t want the W14 to stop in its grounds, but the request was for the route not to terminate there.
Redbridge Council officers will meet hospital managers to discuss the issues ahead of a TfL review of the changes.
Trinity Hall alongside Holy Trinity ChurchIf approved, Project Arclight will see the church’s 100-year-old Trinity Hall demolished to make way for a three-storey apartment building and nine houses.
A new hall, playground and café are also part of the plans, which the church hopes will benefit the wider community. A number of local residents who believe the current hall is a vital piece of local heritage have opposed the plans.
Visit swvg.co.uk/pa
The donation, raised through contributions from worshippers during Friday prayers, will go towards funding the specialised nursing care, therapeutic activities and emotional support the Woodford Green hospice offers free of charge to families in need.
“Charity is a core tenet of Islam. In the last year, our congregation has raised £130,000 for global disasters and people in crisis,” said Head Imam Dr Mohammed Fahim.
“I will be delving into my archives, bringing alive some of the influential families who lived in and around Woodford in the 19th and 20th centuries, such as Henry Ford Barclay, who owned the Monkhams estate from 1864 to 1891,” said Peter Lawrence.
The event will take place from 2.30pm at All Saints’ church hall in Woodford Green (tickets: £5; visitors welcome).
Visit swvg.co.uk/history
Renee Stafford“When my daughter, Renee, left her special needs school, her vibrant social connections faded. That’s why I am launching ArtHouse Social, a space where 18- to 25-year-olds with additional needs can find their tribe,” said Nina Stafford, who is searching for a local venue to accommodate the sessions.
A fundraising disco will be held at the Heathcote and Star in Leytonstone on 25 April.
Visit swvg.co.uk/arth
Vehicular traffic is now prohibited from entering Ashbourne Avenue and part of South View Drive during term time. The restrictions are in force from 8.30am to 9.15am and from 3.15pm to 4pm. “These schemes are critical to protecting children from traffic at the school gate, preventing accidents and keeping children safe,” said a spokesperson.
There are now 26 Schools Streets schemes in operation throughout the borough.
“This is a source of particular pride for me because of my family links to the region. The connections to other countries many of us have here are a foundation of strength for the UK and can help our country to thrive and achieve greater security in this volatile world,” said Calvin, who was born in Zambia.
The role is unpaid and will run until the next General Election.
I n partnership with Redbridge Council, a new police hub has opened in Woodford, within the heart of the community in the Orchard Estate, off Broadmead Road. There will be up to 20 officers based there, covering six wards: Bridge, Churchfields, Monkhams, South Woodford, Wanstead Park and Wanstead Village.
The opening of our police hub in Woodford provides Safer Neighbourhood officers with a dedicated base, which means officers will be stationed within walking distance of their wards and able to respond more effectively to issues such as antisocial behaviour, theft and vandalism.
The hub will also help to improve police response times across the west of Redbridge by reducing the current travel time from Ilford and Barkingside, giving officers more time for local patrols and tackling issues.
Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said: “We are totally committed to making neighbourhood policing stronger than ever before so we can focus on tackling the crimes that matter most to Londoners. It’s an important step towards the Met’s mission of delivering our strongest-ever neighbourhood policing, which has already seen an additional 500 officers dedicated to working in communities across London, ranging from Superintendents to PCSOs.’’
I hope to provide you with some great results from the hub in the near future, but for now, I would like to share some good news stories from across Redbridge. There has been an almost 13% reduction in the number of offences in the previous 12 months, including fewer reports of violence, drug offences and violence against women and girls.
Some of our recent local operations have seen:
The Woodford Police Hub is located on the Orchard Estate, Broadmead Road. For more information and to contact your local Safer Neighbourhoods Team, visit bisque-worm-933281.hostingersite.com/snt
