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A new air quality monitor is set to be installed in the playground of Ray Lodge Primary School.

The solar-powered device will measure a variety of harmful pollutants, with data gathered 24 hours a day and available online.

“This is such great news for the school, for Woodford and for the borough. It demonstrates the level of concern that residents have about localised air pollution. This data will be invaluable for helping us gain a better insight into local air quality. It will expand the network of monitors in Redbridge and enable us to take action where needed,” said Rachel Southern, who applied for the equipment via the Breathe London Community Programme on behalf of Mums for Lungs Redbridge.

It follows the installation of a similar device in Elmhurst Gardens last March. The new monitor is due to be operational by spring.

Email mumsforlungsredbridge@gmail.com

In the first of a series of articles marking Woodbridge High School’s 85th anniversary, headteacher Steven Hogan reflects on the school’s history and a former student recounts their wartime memories

Woodbridge High School first opened its doors as two separate schools: St Barnabas School for Boys and St Barnabas School for Girls in 1937. The two schools then merged to become the co-educational Woodbridge High School in September 1972, making  this academic year the 85th anniversary of schools on the site, and the 50th anniversary of Woodbridge.

We had the pleasure of welcoming a group of former staff and students to the school last term for a special event to celebrate the milestone. The visitors received a tour of their old school, listened to some musical performances from current students and enjoyed tea and birthday cake.

There was also the opportunity to look at lots of school memorabilia, including the original school log, which began in 1937 and tells the story of the school in the war years, as well as a school trip to Nazi Germany in 1939 just before the outbreak of war, where a group of St Barnabas boys played football with the Hitler Youth.

It was a pleasure to meet so many former students and share their memories of Woodbridge and St Barnabas down the years. They loved being shown around by our current students and checking out their old classrooms. Some say your schooldays are the best days of your life – I don’t know whether that is true, but I do know the memories stay with you forever, and we had a lovely time reminiscing.

Former student Robert Putt, who attended the school in the early 1940s, remembers the 17-foot, chain-link fences that divided the grounds at the front and back into two schools. He recalls how it was forbidden for the boys and girls to have any contact with one another whatsoever! Punishment for breaking this rule was the cane for the boys and usually detention for the girls. “I enjoyed my schooldays more than anything. They were happy days, despite the war… You should always treasure your schooldays, as life after school becomes repetitive and is therefore harder to remember. But your schooldays are when lots of things are new and they stick in your memory forever,” said Robert. 

To continue our anniversary celebrations, we held a Christmas fayre with an anniversary theme, where students were able to look through the history of the school. We have also put together a time capsule and will give out anniversary memorabilia badges to our students. Plus, there will be other anniversary-themed events throughout the rest of the school year.

Woodbridge High School is located on St Barnabas Road in Woodford Green. For more information, call 020 8504 9618 or visit woodbridgehigh.co.uk

Friends of Wanstead Parklands member Richard Arnopp reflects on the avian influenza pandemic and addresses the ongoing debate over the rights and wrongs of feeding our local wild birds at this time. Photo of Eagle Pond by Geoff Wilkinson

Avian influenza (bird flu) has been much in the news in recent months. It belongs to the same family of viruses as human influenza (which also ultimately originated in birds and reached us via domesticated pigs). It can infect human beings but, as it is not an airborne disease, does not spread very readily. 

The roots of the present pandemic go back to 1996, when the highly pathogenic H5N1 variant of the virus was first identified in China. This was the ancestor of the variant which spread west across Eurasia to reach the British Isles in November 2021. While there are many strains that are mild, H5N1 has a high mortality rate in susceptible species. There is no vaccine and no effective treatment.

By June 2022, it was being reported that British seabird colonies had been hit hard, with thousands of birds dying and some important breeding sites being left almost deserted. Locally, bird flu was confirmed in Epping Forest in October, and there have since been dozens of fatalities among geese and swans. Epping Forest, after consultation with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), published advice to the public as soon as bird flu had been confirmed:

• Do not feed wild birds.
• Do not touch dead or sick birds.
• Keep dogs away from wild birds.
• Do not touch wild bird feathers or surfaces contaminated with wild bird droppings.

The request not to feed birds – on the grounds that it encourages flocking – proved controversial, with two local organisations taking opposing positions. The local Swan Rescue group do good work picking up injured swans and geese and arranging for their treatment and rehabilitation. They have been very active during the bird flu outbreak and have encouraged the public to feed birds on the grounds that good nutrition will help them avoid or fend off infection. The Wren Wildlife and Conservation Group, on the other hand, with which the Friends of Wanstead Parklands work closely, agree with the official advice not to feed birds at this time.

The Friends take the official position on feeding seriously. The reason we have not hitherto taken a stronger line on social media is twofold. Firstly, at the time of writing, Epping Forest is not actively enforcing its no-feeding advice. So far, the death toll on the Forest’s water bodies has been lower than feared. Until something changes, it has publicised Defra’s advice but is not taking any further steps. Secondly, although the official no-feeding advice makes perfect sense in general terms, we acknowledge the argument that local conditions may justify a different approach. In the more urbanised south of the Forest, birds have come to expect and depend on feeding, and already live in unnatural population densities because of it. This may suggest a pragmatic case for continued feeding in present circumstances. To give a specific example, the many hungry birds on Eagle Pond, off Snaresbrook Road, can only be supported by additional feeding, as natural resources are insufficient. In the short term, there is possible evidence that the extra food supplies are helping some swans to overcome this infection. However, it is too early to claim it as a success as new arrivals attracted by feeding may bring in further infections. 

In principle, the sustained, predictable feeding of wildlife is not a good thing. As well as facilitating the transmission of disease, crowding in response to human intervention has a variety of other undesirable consequences. One is that each breeding pair of swans needs access to a reasonable sized aquatic territory with sufficient natural food to raise a brood successfully. Too small an area may cause territorial battles or prevent some individuals from pairing or successful breeding. Also, swans are large birds which uproot and consume submerged aquatic vegetation. They eat between four and eight pounds of material per day, often uprooting more than they consume. Overpopulation may cause ecological damage and overfeeding may lead to pollution and rat infestations from the dumping of food. 

Of course, the reality is that people like to feed animals and birds, and the wildlife likes to be fed, so trying to stop it is an uphill struggle. In the meantime, the watchword on bird flu is still ‘wait and see’. Ecologists are doing their best to monitor the situation, but data available so far does paint a worrying picture which will only be aggravated by the arrival of more migratory birds from Europe. If Epping Forest concludes that active enforcement of the no-feeding message is required during the bird flu pandemic, we will endorse that, and hope local people will cooperate.

To report dead wild waterfowl to Epping Forest, call 020 8532 1010

For more information on the Friends of Wanstead Park, visit swvg.co.uk/fwp

A table tennis table will be installed in Elmhurst Gardens this spring.

It follows a successful crowdfunding campaign, which raised £4,103, including £2,076 from Redbridge Council’s Community Crowdfunding Programme.

“We would like to say a huge thank you to all who supported this fundraiser and give a special mention to KidsOwn nursery, who generously donated £1,000. It feels like a real community effort to add a new resource to our park,” said a spokesperson for Elmhurst Playground Association.

An application to build a four-storey block of flats with access to Crescent Road in South Woodford has been withdrawn following confusion over ownership of part of the site.

A new application cannot be submitted until attempts are made to identify who owns the land.

Over 100 objections were made to the original planning application, and a campaign group of residents are hoping the applicants will now abandon their plans.

It has been a busy few months for the South Woodford Pathfinder Group as they continue to work towards producing a local design code. Pearl Arbenser-Simmonds reports

A design code is a collection of design principles to help local areas deliver beautiful and sustainable places. It enables the community to lead the way in shaping the design of their own neighbourhood. The document will provide guidance for development, covering the design of streets, public spaces and buildings, as well as spaces for nature. 

Thank you to everyone who participated in our survey, walking tours, focus groups and interviews. It was also great to meet you and hear your thoughts at our stall at the monthly South Woodford market. There were some very interesting outcomes. Our report is available to read in its entirety online, but the top three priorities identified by you were:

• Deficiency of (active) green space.
• Improvements to the quality of public space.
• A lack of key amenities.

Over the next few weeks, we will be engaging an architectural consultancy firm who will help us deliver a draft design code. We will present that for consultation, inviting comments and engagement before finalising it towards the end of March or April 2023. We will also have a stall at the George Lane market on 22 January (11am to 4pm), so do please stop by and have a chat.

We have spent some more time updating the South Woodford Design Code website to make it even more interactive and easier to use. Your input is crucial throughout this process! Let us know what you think about the various options and designs and have some fun identifying areas you think could be improved. We do hope you will enjoy the changes to the site. It will be constantly updated so you can keep track of progress, as well as contribute to the draft code.

Time will not permit us to run another survey, so the website will be our main consultation tool, and will allow the draft code to evolve quite rapidly in line with any comments and suggestions submitted.  

Thank you to everyone who took the time to participate, engage and support the work to ensure the design code truly represents the needs and vision of our community. A special thanks to Waitrose, who very generously donated gift vouchers for our interviewees as well as a cheque for £1,000 to help with the various regreening initiatives being carried out by the South Woodford Society. Thanks also to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities for their support and guidance, and to Tally Lucas Associates for offering their space to host our discussions.

To read the South Woodford Design Code consultation report, visit swvg.co.uk/dccr

For more information, visit swvg.co.uk/dc

Local gardening group Woodford Greeners has successfully managed to raise more than £6,000 to build a brand-new community garden in Ray Park. The group’s co-founder Lydia Fraser-Ward reports

Within Ray Park there is an octagonal 18th-century walled garden, which is currently closed to the public. Inside is a wild, natural habitat, but some areas have become overgrown and this will impact on the site’s heritage value. Following a successful crowdfunding campaign, the Woodford Greeners – which is run by local resident volunteers – is now set to build a brand-new community garden on the site.

We will clear a small area of the premises currently overgrown with weeds. We then plan to put in a mains water supply as well as create a planting area for perennial flowers, which when fully grown will be moved to public planters around the Woodford Green neighbourhood, including around Ray Lodge Primary School and in front of businesses on Snakes Lane East. In addition, the funding will enable us to create a small medicinal garden and erect a timber gazebo, where we will hold regular workshops about gardening, food-growing and crafts, enabling more local people to get involved and learn new skills.

This new Ray Park Community Garden has been made possible through public donations via an online crowdfunding platform called Spacehive. Around 80 people and community groups all made contributions, including the Wanstead Community Gardeners and the 19th Woodford Brownies, amongst many others. Public donations were then match-funded by Redbridge Council through their Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy.

The Woodford Greeners also ran a very successful winter fundraising event at Ray Park Café in early December, when local residents were able to enjoy Christmas wreath-making, face painting, homemade cakes and gingerbread decorating, which raised more than £700 for the project.

We have been overwhelmed by the generosity and support of local people for this project. So many residents have told us how excited they are by the prospect of a new community space within the walled garden at Ray Park and they have really got behind the idea. We can’t wait to get started!

Our project will help to bring to life an unused area of the park and make it more accessible to the public. It also presents a wonderful volunteering opportunity for residents to come together and learn about gardening, forge friendships and be physically active outdoors.

Work to create the Ray Park Community Garden will be ongoing throughout winter and spring 2023, with a view to commencing a creative workshop programme in the summer.

For more information and to get involved, visit woodfordgreeners.uk or email woodfordgreeners@gmail.com 

Redbridge Council has launched its Women’s Safety Mission Statement.

“Over the last two years, Redbridge Council has listened to the views of women and girls… The listening exercises consisted of surveys, focus groups, safety walks and workshops, and the findings formed the basis for the Women’s Safety Mission Statement. In total, we were able to hear from over 2,500 individuals about the issue of safety for women and girls in the borough,” said a spokesperson.

Visit swvg.co.uk/wsms

One of the creators of Walks Past – a series of free, self-guided London history walks – has launched two new routes, exploring the history of Wanstead Park.

“Last summer, to mark the 300-year anniversary of Wanstead House, I ran a series of live walks on behalf of the Friends of Wanstead Parklands. These were well received, so I decided to create online versions of the routes with audio commentaries. The guides are designed to be used on a phone with internet access,” said Russell Kenny.

Visit swvg.co.uk/parkwalks

Local residents filled the Sir James Hawkey Hall in Woodford Green in November to put their questions to the Mayor of London and Members of the London Assembly.

“It was a jam-packed People’s Question Time. The hundreds of people in attendance fired questions at Sadiq Khan and the panel about issues of local importance,” said a spokesperson. Topics included transport, policing, the environment and London’s economic recovery.

A recording of the event is available online.

Visit swvg.co.uk/watchpqt

A student from Woodbridge High School finished in first place at the Elite International Karate Championships, held in Harlow in October.

Anna Shvaiuk, a Year 7 pupil, also came third in the Central England International Open in November, which is the biggest karate tournament in England, with over 1,000 competitors from 12 different countries taking part.

“We’re very proud of Anna for kicking and punching her way to success. We’re sure there will be more trophies to come!” said a school spokesperson.