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A former police dog who helped put criminals behind bars is receiving treatment for a rare skin condition at Goddard Veterinary Group’s South Woodford practice.

“Rusty, a Labrador cross cocker spaniel, served as a search dog with the Metropolitan Police, sniffing out drugs, firearms and money, and many of his finds helped lead to convictions. Rusty suffers from an ongoing condition that affects the skin around his eye,” said vet Adam Thoms.

The treatment is part of the practice’s support of the London Retired Police Dogs Trust.

The South Woodford Society is planning a return of the expanded summer market on George Lane.

“As last year, we’re aiming to expand our monthly Sunday market – organised by Ace Events Ltd – into a much bigger community event on 18 June (11am to 4pm), and we’re applying to close the northbound carriageway. It will be a great opportunity for local businesses to get involved,” said a spokesperson.

Visit swvg.co.uk/market 

The Coronation weekend will be a time for community, family and friends to come together, help each other out… and think big, say Viveca Dutt and Elaine Atkins

As well as the pomp and circumstance of His Majesty the King’s Coronation, it’s also a weekend for thinking big. From a cup of tea on the doorstep to a full-scale street party, it’s a time for really getting to know your neighbours and to be part of the big celebrations. 

The bank holiday on Monday 8 May is also a special day for communities to come together as part of The Big Help Out initiative to ‘lend a hand and make a change’. Thousands of organisations across the country will be getting together to help out in their local communities and to volunteer as much or as little as they can to make the day amazing.

The Big Help Out is a voluntary initiative supported by some of the UK’s biggest volunteer organisations, including the Scouts and the Royal Voluntary Service. The Big Help Out is open to all and any organisation or individual can join in. The objective is to raise awareness of volunteering and provide opportunities for people to make a difference in their communities. 

In the spirit of this, the South Woodford community will be joining in, and St Mary’s Church – in partnership with the South Woodford Society, South Woodford Gardeners, Woodford Greeners, East London Waste Authority, ‘Restarters’, London Borough of Redbridge and Co-op – is holding a completely free Restart Party and Repair Café at the Woodford Memorial Hall. This follows the resounding success of our previous Repair Café held in October last year. 

If you have broken electrical appliances or unravelling clothes, bring them along for a free repair and a fresh start. Alongside the repairs, sewing and darning, we will have a seed swap, a toy swap and a bicycle MOT station. Bring and collect seeds for your garden or pots and swap toys on the day. There will also be an opportunity to drop off your ‘grown out of’ toys, suitable for children up to 11, at St Mary’s on 3, 4 and 5 May (10am to 12 noon; no DVDs, videos or toys that need mains power, please). If you don’t have seeds or toys to swap, don’t worry. There is no obligation to bring before you take! There will also be lots of information about recycling, reducing waste and volunteering opportunities in the local area. And thanks to the Co-op, there will be free refreshments throughout the event. So much to come along for! 

Our friends at Tin in a Bin, a charity which operates food bank collection points across Wanstead and Woodford, are appealing to anyone holding their own Coronation party to have a ‘tin’ collection to generate much-needed donations – a small gesture that will be a big help. “During the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022, we put out a call to streets that were holding parties to collect donations of non-perishable food staples. The response was great; we received a huge boost from that appeal,” said a Tin in a Bin spokesperson. “King Charles III’s Coronation will see more street celebrations in our community and we are repeating the appeal. The sad fact is the economic environment is causing more need for food banks, but also reducing donors’ ability to give. We’re hoping the appeal this year will help replenish our depleted supplies.” 

However big or small your plans are, the Coronation is a wonderful opportunity for the community to celebrate as one.

The Restart Party and Repair Café will take place at Woodford Memorial Hall (207 High Road, E18 2PA) on 8 May from 10.30am to 1.30pm. For more information, visit stmaryswoodford.org.uk

Community champions from South Woodford were recognised at the 2023 Redbridge Mayor’s Awards. Elaine Atkins – herself part of the award-winning South Woodford Society – reports on the achievements

Local community champions were honoured at the 2023 Redbridge Mayor’s Community Awards, held at Redbridge Town Hall at the end of March.  

Lydia Fraser-Ward was awarded for her voluntary work, campaigning for better air quality in the borough via Mums for Lungs Redbridge. Lydia initially became concerned about air pollution in outdoor children’s play areas back in 2020, particularly in Elmhurst Gardens, South Woodford, which borders the North Circular. She set up the new Redbridge branch in 2022, and the group actively campaigns throughout the borough for more air quality monitoring in outdoor areas. With the support of local residents, environmental groups and schools, Lydia successfully applied to the Breathe London community programme for an air quality node for Elmhurst Gardens. The data recorded by the node will be used to inform whether further measures are needed to protect park users from the busy North Circular’s toxic air. A second node has since been awarded for the playground at Ray Lodge Primary School, situated alongside the M11. Lydia also initiated a campaign for the local authority to apply to DEFRA’s Air Quality Fund, which has led to Redbridge Council being awarded more than £300,000 for clean air projects at schools across the borough.

Congratulations also to six-year-old Alfie Thorn-Brown from South Woodford, who was the winner of the Recorder and Redbridge Rotary Young Citizen Award. Only two weeks after learning how to cycle, he raised more than £1,000 by doing a sponsored bike ride. The money raised was put towards buying a new sensory board for dementia patients at Chadwell House care home in Romford, where his great-grandmother was a resident.

And last but not least, the South Woodford Society was thanked for its wholehearted efforts towards making our local community better. The Society was formed in 2015 to make South Woodford an even nicer place to live, work and visit. Working closely with the South Woodford Gardeners, the Society is setting out to re-green our environment, initially with the creation of our community orchard and more recently Eastwood Green (alongside the George Lane roundabout), to improve biodiversity and to help to lower pollution. But one of the main aims of the Society is to create a Neighbourhood Plan. This is a document that will clearly state what we, as a community, want to see happen in South Woodford. The plan can include things such as more affordable housing, protecting our green spaces and improving the variety of businesses in our shopping areas. Anyone who lives, works or visits South Woodford can be a member of the Society.

For more information on Mums for Lungs, visit swvg.co.uk/lungs

For more information on the South Woodford Society, visit swvg.co.uk/sws

A number of workshops will take place at the new community garden in Ray Park this summer.

Willow sculptor and artist Stephen Stockbridge will lead a willow weaving workshop on 20 May, showing participants how to weave hurdles for garden fencing by hand. On 3 June, medical herbalists from Community Apothecary will explain the basics of growing, harvesting, preparing and using plant medicine for botanical remedies.

Both events run from 10am to 3pm and are free to attend (funded by Groundwork London).

“Alongside these workshops, we’ll hold volunteer gardening days on 21 May and 4 June to continue to improve this new community space. And there’ll be more events to come in July and August,” said Lydia Fraser-Ward of the Woodford Greeners, which has led the project to create the community garden.

Visit woodfordgreeners.uk

Elmhurst Gardens in South Woodford is one of 10 park tennis venues to be renovated as a result of a partnership between Redbridge Council and the Lawn Tennis Association.

“Alongside the investment [of £424,064], Vision RCL will also work with the LTA to deliver a range of activities across the park sites. This will include weekly organised free tennis sessions for all ages and playing levels, where equipment is provided… All courts will be available to book online,” said a council spokesperson.

Visit swvg.co.uk/tennis

The RideLondon cycling event will pass through Redbridge on 28 May, causing some road closures in the west of the borough, including Hollybush Hill, Woodford Road and High Road.

“The event will bring benefits to Redbridge, attracting visitors to local high streets… In the lead-up to the event, we will publicise crowd zone locations where people can view the cycling,” said a Redbridge Council spokesperson.

Visit swvg.co.uk/ride23

The Woodford Arts Group spring exhibition drew large crowds to the Sir James Hawkey Hall in April.

“The exhibition was a great success, with over 300 visitors over one weekend. Some artists put on demos to give visitors an insight into how an artist works, including a print demo by Julia Brett, one on oil painting by Ged Rumak and one on inks and watercolours by Darren Evans. We hope this will be an annual event and look forward to more artists exhibiting next year,” said a spokesperson.

Visit swvg.co.uk/wag

Pupils at Churchfields Junior School in South Woodford planted apple, plum and pear trees in March as part of Redbridge Council’s School’s Tree Planting initiative.

“More than 390 children from the school grabbed spades and got stuck in to plant 10 trees in the school grounds. During the event, the eco-minded pupils also learnt about the important environmental and health benefits trees bring,” said a spokesperson.

The initiative will see pupils help to plant 71 new trees on school sites across the borough this year.

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has awarded Redbridge Council £323,774 to fund clean air initiatives and help reduce air pollution in the borough.

“The funding will increase the number of Breathe London air quality monitors across Redbridge while enabling us to develop interactive air quality maps using data gathered by the community. The money will also help deliver cycle training and additional school cycle storage for pupils and parents,” said a council spokesperson.

Wanstead Park’s bluebells have emerged and should remain on show into early May.

“The warmer weather in mid-April encouraged the bluebells to open, and the sunshine brought out their sweet scent. The main show will be at the end of April, hopefully with the flowers on display into May. The park has been very busy with visitors taking photos and children cycling and balancing on the logs. Happily, we’ve seen no sign of destructive trampling so far. The new signage seems to have helped a lot,” said Gill James of the Wren Wildlife Group.