Editor

Councillor Rosa Gomez (Labour, Churchfields) spoke from personal experience when she presented a council motion on domestic violence over the summer. Here, she discusses the work ahead

Since 2015, levels of domestic abuse have been slowly increasing, meaning it is essential that action is quickly taken to bring it to an end. On average, two women a week and 30 men a year die as a result of domestic violence. It is estimated to cost the UK £23 billion annually, including costs to the criminal justice system, the health service, social care and housing. Of course, this ignores the personal costs, which cannot be quantified in pounds and pence.

Domestic abuse has a personal meaning for me; as a result, it is imperative to my work as a councillor that Redbridge does all it can to condemn abusive behaviours and to support those who find themselves victim to domestic violence. It is a great personal achievement to have recently presented a motion on domestic violence before the council and even more pleasing that my council colleagues agreed unanimously to pass it. The motion calls for zero tolerance of domestic violence across Redbridge. As a result, the council will be reviewing its policies and practices to ensure there are no places where forms of domestic abuse may have become normalised. We have committed to making sure there are sufficient resources to support women, men, those with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ community seeking to escape abusive relationships.

Personal experience means I know why it is vital those living with domestic violence find help at the point they ask for it. For this reason, I agree fully with my Redbridge Council colleagues in calling on the government to implement a domestic abusers register to keep track of those perpetrating this violence, thus protecting further possible victims, and to properly fund services supporting survivors.

Redbridge Chief Executive Andy Donald wrote to the Home Office regarding the motion. It is good to know from their response there is work going on nationally to support and protect victims. However, this stops short of introducing a register.

In Redbridge, we are lucky to have great support services and wonderful residents who want to support those in need. If you know someone suffering from domestic abuse, Refuge provide specialist support services to local residents. They can provide free, confidential advice.

If you would like to help those escaping domestic violence, please consider joining Women In Need (WIN) on Facebook. They work alongside the charity Hestia, regularly appealing for donations to help women and children fleeing domestic violence. I know from experience that the support of friends made it much easier to move away from an unhealthy relationship and to build something better.

Councillor Clark Vasey (Conservative, Churchfields) explains why he campaigned for 60 additional school places in Woodford, and why he continues to press the council on the issue

Your child starting school is a momentous moment for any parent. However, for parents across Woodford, this sense of anticipation was replaced with worry as a failure by Redbridge Council meant Woodford had a shortage of school places, while Ilford had an excess of up to 200 places.

The result of this failure meant parents across Woodford saw their children dumped in schools of more than two miles away. In some cases, the distances were more than three miles away. Two to three hours of walking a day would have ruled out walking, and the location of the school meant public transport would, in many cases, take just as long and involve almost as much walking. The distances meant these schools were simply inappropriate and would have turned family life upside down.

The priority for Redbridge Labour is Ilford and Woodford consistently loses out. In street cleansing and resources generally, Woodford is at the bottom of their list, but it is the failure to provide enough school places which shows Labour’s neglect of Woodford at its most unfair.

However, Woodford parents did not take this lightly and supported by our local MP, Iain Duncan Smith and the Conservative councillors for Churchfields, South Woodford and Monkhams wards, they exerted maximum pressure on the council. To prove the distances of the proposed schools were not acceptable, I walked the route with a Churchfields family, and at one hour and seven minutes, it proved our point.

From the outset, we called for a bulge class, and in a meeting with the Head of Education when it was clear a single bulge class was not going to help all of the Woodford families, I called for a second bulge class. After months of campaigning the council finally relented and the solution was two bulge classes, one in Oakdale and one in Nightingale, meaning 60 extra school places for the west of the borough.  This has meant a school closer to home for these Woodford families.

The parents affected this year now have a school which works for their child, but this continues to be relevant. If the shortage of school places in Woodford is not addressed, then a new group of families will find themselves in this unacceptable position next year. The council cannot claim not to know this is a problem. We have pressed the council to review school places in the borough. Woodford might not be the part of the borough which Labour cares about, but they must recognise that children in Woodford are entitled to a local school. We need a long-term solution. What we need are fair school places for Woodford.

Have you noticed the new planters at South Woodford station? Attiya Thanvi explains the culmination of the energy garden project – which was over a year in the making – and invites others to help it grow. Photography by Geoff Wilkinson

In June 2018, while scrolling through Instagram, I came across #undergroundinbloom, introducing me to the NGO Repowering London, which funds greening projects across London stations. I sent a recommendation for them to run a project at South Woodford Station, and then forgot all about it. In August 2018, I received an email saying they were interested in coming to survey the station and to see if we qualified for funding. 

They asked questions about how many volunteers we had. This prompted me to reach out to friends I have met through my tutoring business, and to contact local mums to see if they wanted to get involved. I got a brilliant response. We had a couple of site visits and design meetings with Rhys and Cat from the Energy Garden team to assess the potential of the site so we could design it as well as possible. At this stage, I also encouraged my children and other young people to come along and get stuck in with a local community project. I knew my daughters and their friends were keen to work in the local area following their support of the local homeless community after last year’s adverse weather conditions. The children put their all into the project, contacting their school’s sustainability officer for support and ideas as well.

With everyone’s input, it was decided we wanted something that would help the environment and would also be easy to maintain. We chose some herbs that people are able to pick for their own personal use, which also added a nice aroma to the platform. The design of the garden and choice of plants was finalised by Christmas following our design meetings, and then the wait for permissions began! My daughters continued to keep the community interested by setting up and maintaining a Facebook page and Instagram account.

We were hoping we would be able to start planting by February, which would have been the ideal time to plant before spring, but things are more complicated than they seem. We were informed that since South Woodford Station is an Underground station which is actually above ground, they needed a whole new set of permissions from TfL in order to start the project. Rhys and Cat remained in touch while we waited patiently.

After a couple of cancelled dates, the day finally arrived in mid-July. We were all ready for the installation of the garden on what happened to be one of the hottest days of this summer. Despite this, all our volunteers arrived on time, including four from Good Gym Redbridge.

We started by building planters and lining them, lending good practical experience for our younger volunteers. We were all so excited and enthusiastic as we filled them with soil and plants that we finished well ahead of schedule.

While the first stage of planting is complete, in the second stage we hope to get help with a drip irrigation system and to create a living wall on an empty advertisement board. Another idea is to create and maintain a small book exchange on the westbound platform.

I have been going over regularly with my family to water the plants. We are really looking forward to maintaining and adding to the garden and to see all the plants bloom. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the volunteers – we couldn’t have done it without you!

The Environment Agency has announced a day of community engagement in Woodford in connection with the River Roding Project, which aims to improve local river defences.

“Heavy rain has caused the River Roding to flood the area eight times in the past 100 years: 1926, 1939, 1947, 1974, 1988, 1993, 2000 and 2007… Parts of Woodford and Ilford are at high risk of flooding,” said a spokesperson.

The project involves the construction of a flood storage area to hold back high flows upstream in rural Essex. Enhancements along the Roding Valley are also being explored, including riverside landscaping and re-naturalising the river. “This catchment approach will reduce the risk of flooding to more than 600 homes and businesses in the local area.”

Residents are invited to find out more and give their views at Woodford Station, Snakes Lane East on 17 October from 12 noon to 6pm. A similar event will take place on Ilford High Road (opposite The Exchange) on 3 October.

Call 03708 506 506

An It’s a Knockout competition organised by Woodford Green dental practice Improve Your Smile raised £6,800 for Haven House Children’s Hospice at the end of July.

Team Improve Your Smile went head-to-head against six other businesses – Enigma Beauty Salon, Whistle ‘N’ Flute: Laundry Lounge, Oven Clean Chigwell, Vantage VA, Catalyst Design and The Traveller’s Friend – each part of the Haven House 100 Club, having pledged to raise £1,000 each for the hospice this year.

“The day was a great opportunity for all of our businesses to get to know each other whilst having fun, and most importantly raising money for our local children’s hospice,” said Amanda Green, marketing manager at Improve Your Smile. The Whistle ‘N’ Flute team won the challenge.

To donate, visit swvg.co.uk/knockout

Members of Woodford Arts Group will be displaying their work at Packfords Hotel this autumn in what will be the art collective’s second exhibition at the Snakes Lane West venue.

Since their inaugural exhibition in the spring – which attracted nearly 250 visitors to a private viewing – the group has welcomed new members, whose work will be included in the display. On show from 21 to 27 October, the exhibition will have a ‘reflections’ theme.

“Once again, Packfords have very generously agreed to support our event, and they will be opening a pop-up art cafe for the entire week… Our artists will be exhibiting a range of media, including oils, watercolour, sculpture, ceramics, photography and ink. All the art on show will be new work created specifically for this exhibition,” said a spokesperson. The art group – which was founded in 2018 and is open to all Woodford-based artists – plans to continue holding two events annually.

Visit woodfordartsgroup.org

A long-serving local Police Community Support Officer has retired.

“PCSO Graham Farrance retired in July after serving the local community for 10 years,” said a spokesperson for the South Woodford Safer Neighbourhoods Team (SNT). PCSO Simon Jones – who previously served in the Monkhams SNT – has since joined the South Woodford SNT, which also includes PC Daniel Thomas, PC Sarah Burke and Sergeant David Lipyeat.

Call 020 8345 3616

Woodford Creative Hub will be hosting a jumble trail this September.

Open to anyone living in Monkhams, Churchfields and Bridge wards, the event will see residents set up temporary ‘shops’ outside their homes and invite their neighbours to browser for a bargain.

“You can sell pre-loved clothes, shoes, toys, games, DVDs, books, furniture, homemade cookies or craft,” said event organiser Hannah Hole. “We will create a map highlighting the homes taking part and advertise via flyers and on social media, for locals to visit. We are charging a small fee to take part (£3) to cover the marketing costs and any money left over will be used for creative projects in the community.”

The trail will take place on 29 September from 10am to 2pm.

Email wcreativehub@gmail.com

In the 10th – and last – of a series of articles celebrating the Woodford and Wanstead Photographic Society – which is now in its 126th year – club member Alan Simpson continues to offer an insight into the group’s history. Photo by club member David Tyrrell.

When the opportunity came to move club meetings to Wanstead House Community Centre in 2014 – only 70 years after it was first suggested – the chance was taken. Once there, it was not long before the club had outgrown its ground-floor meeting room and moved into the much larger room in the attic (once the home of the defunct Leytonstone and Wanstead Camera Club). The only downside of the move to Wanstead House was that the change of evening (from Tuesday to Monday) meant several members could no longer attend, including Peter Smith, a long-standing member and former chairman.

Meeting only twice a month, and not at all in some holiday periods, left some members wanting a more regular programme. With this in mind, in 2015, informal get-togethers in the Wanstead House bar were introduced on Tuesday evenings in the weeks with no formal club meeting. Workshops were also organised on the use of Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. In addition, David Tachauer, and then Brian McCarthy, took on the role of organising outings to places with photographic potential. These extra activities all proved to be successful and truly meet one of the society’s early aims, viz ‘the discussion of the subjects connected with photography in a social manner and the encouragement of photographic research practice among the members by mutual and friendly assistance’.

The move to Wanstead House, a presence on social media (notably Flickr and Facebook) and an injection of new blood and new ideas into the committee all helped to revive the society’s fortunes, and membership numbers began to rise again – in mid-2018, there were 38 paid-up members (membership now costing £65 per annum; £45 for concessions). Many of the newer members had no background in ‘traditional’ photography, their photographic interest having formed in a world of camera phones, selfies and transient online images. To help these and others develop a wider skills base, the society now places less emphasis on competitions and its programme regularly includes practical hands-on sessions and outings. This is in some way a return to the motives of the society’s early years when the founder members gave instruction and demonstration sessions, but now with greater participation.

To celebrate the club’s 125th anniversary, Dave Tyrell organised an 1893 Foundation Cup inter-club competition. This was held in October 2018, with WWPS battling against local rivals from Loughton Camera Club, Romford Camera Club, Barking Photographic Society, Chingford Photographic Society and Chigwell Camera Club. Alongside the competition, an exhibition of members’ work was on display at Wanstead House for a two-week period.

The society’s founders would be amazed at the developments that have taken place since they formed their club for ‘the advancement of photography, technically and artistically’, in the modern methods of producing photographs and in the ease with which photographs can now be mass-produced. They would no doubt also be amazed that the club they founded 125 years ago is still meeting regularly and fulfilling their original aims.

Most years as chairman:

George Hall (11 years), 1945–1946, 1947–1954, 1955–1957 and 1958–1959

Peter Smith (8 years), 1998–2006

Longest continuously serving chairman:

Peter Smith (8 years), 1998–2006

George Hall (7 years), 1947–1954

Longest periods between first and last election as chairman:

H Wilmer (29 years), 1893–1894 and 1922–1923

Francis Emler (21 years), 1903–1904 and 1924–1925

Chairwomen:

Norah Cross, 1927–1928

Winn Fowkes, 1976–1978 and 1994–1995

Wendy Gill, 2006–2007

Rising at Molehill Green in Essex, the River Roding passes through the Wanstead and Woodford area en route to the Thames, bringing with it a very real flood risk to local homes. In the fourth of a series of articles charting the River Roding Project – which aims to reduce that risk – Andy Naish from the Environment Agency offers advice on protecting your property. River photo by Geoff Wilkinson.

The River Roding Project recently held a community drop-in event at Kelvedon Hatch Village Hall, near to the proposed flood storage area in Essex. This was a chance for local residents, community groups and landowners to find out more about the project, how we plan to minimise disruption and how it will reduce flooding impacts in the Wanstead and Woodford area.

Once we know which existing defences need refurbishing, we will hold a similar community drop-in event in Woodford so you can find out more. We will also be looking for opportunities to include environmental enhancements along the River Roding in the local area. Stay tuned for further details on our website.

Protecting your property
If your home or business is flooded, it can be costly, not just in terms of money and time but also inconvenience and heartache. While it’s impossible to completely floodproof a property, there are lots of things you can do to reduce the damage flooding can cause. The most important thing is to act now so you’re prepared if there is a flood in your area.

Whether you rent or own your home or business premises, there are many things you can do to be prepared. Some are simple and temporary, while others involve permanent structural work.

You can also make improvements so that even if the worst happens and floodwater enters your property, it causes less damage, so drying-out and cleaning up is faster and easier. This means you could move back home or open for business far more quickly.

Options to limit floodwater entering your property include:

• Installing flood doors
• Flood boards, which can be installed when flooding is imminent
• Air brick covers: specially designed covers for ventilation bricks
• Non-return valves: to fit on drains and water pipes to prevent water backing up

Options to reduce the damage floodwater might cause inside:

• Put irreplaceable or valuable items on high-mounted shelves
• Fix your TV and hi-fi to the wall 1.5m above floor level
• Fit a pump to extract water (needs to be Gas Safe)
• Lay tiles rather than carpets
• Use water-resistant materials such as stainless steel, plastic or solid wood rather than chipboard in the kitchen and bathrooms
• Raise electrical sockets and fuse boxes 1.5m above floor level

Professional advice
We strongly recommend seeking professional advice before investing in any flood protection. It is important to get an impartial flood risk mitigation assessment completed by a qualified flood risk specialist who is completely independent from any product or measure. You could contact the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (rics.org) and the Royal Institute of British Architects (architecture.com).

How much will it cost?
The average cost of reducing the flood risk to your property is between £6,000 and £8,000, including a survey, products and installation.

Buying products
Before you buy any product, check it’s been tested and is up to the job – it should display the BSI Kitemark or equivalent national quality standard PAS 1188. A comprehensive list of flood resistance products and information can be found in The Blue Pages directory on the National Flood Forum’s website (bluepages.org.uk).

Circles, colour and the trees of Epping Forest are among the inspirations for self-taught artist Sue Mayne, one of many local creatives to join the recently founded Woodford Arts Group.

As a traveller, I have always enjoyed looking at art as an art tourist, and it was while in Madrid in 1988 that I went to the Prado Museum and saw The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch. I was captivated and my love of art history began.

Frustrated with my career in the banking industry, I decided to return to study in the 1990s while still working full-time. I did an A level in Art History and the following year enrolled with The Open University and studied all the art history modules available at that time. By 2002, I achieved a BA Honours.

While studying a modern art module in 1999, I decided to have a go myself. I bought a set of acrylics and some paper, and never looked back. I’ve been painting now for nearly 20 years.

Over the years, I have experimented with pretty much all media, but I always return to acrylics as I love the flexibility and immediacy of the medium, which suits my style of painting. I often change my mind about a planned composition or colours, and with acrylics, it is usually easy to paint over and change. With such a diversity of types of acrylic paints on the market, experimentation is so interesting and rewarding. I rarely produce a painting in one sitting, and if it’s of a local scene, I often revisit the site many times to contemplate the next stage of the painting.

I always have my camera with me, taking photos of good compositions for a painting and reinterpreting them back in my studio at the bottom of my garden. My paintings cover an eclectic mix of genres from still life, landscapes and seascapes, animals and flowers to various abstract themes I have developed over the years. I love painting water and mountains and have travelled widely, including spending time living on the south island of New Zealand.

My abstract paintings generally follow a theme. In 2002, I began a range of paintings based on ‘colours of the rainbow’. I started out strictly using seven colours, but in later years used more, or less, to make my paintings more diverse. In 2005, I began my circles paintings. Based on the ‘colours of the rainbow’ theme, but using circles, I brought in basic colour theory that says the eye is attracted to ‘fire’ colours (red, orange and yellow). The intention is your eye is drawn to the centre of these paintings, and moves around and out to the edges containing the ‘cold’ (blues and greens) colours. That’s the theory anyway!

I am always looking to explore a new idea, not necessarily taking a ‘conventional’ approach to the subject matter. There is one thing that just about all of my paintings have in common whatever the genre… they are very colourful!

A love of walking, especially in the forest, has inspired me to focus on my paintings of Epping Forest over the last few years. Every forest painting is a specific location – favourite spots include Connaught Water, High Beach, Highams Park Lake and Wanstead Park.

I have exhibited and sold many paintings over the years. My first solo exhibition was at the Lopping Hall Gallery in Loughton in 2016. In November 2018, my second solo exhibition was at The View in Chingford. As a member of Essex Art Club, I exhibited at their recent exhibition at The View and also took part in Woodford Arts Group’s even more recent exhibition at Packfords Hotel.

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

I have just bought a new broom. The old one was shedding bristles, so it was more of a hindrance than a help. My neighbour observed that it was “follically challenged”. I enjoyed that, and was prompted to head for Wickes without delay. (Sadly, no longer any hardware store locally.) I bought the one described as ‘heavy duty’. New brooms have developed a rather scary reputation. For doing away with what others, perhaps, had established before: “Making a clean sweep of things.”

Not applicable, of course, in this instance, as that was exactly what I wanted. But on my drive over to Loughton, I found myself thinking about new beginnings in general. Specifically, with the car radio tuned to Classic FM, I thought about my beginnings in music. I was eight. I had pigtails and a brown leather music case. Leather was rationed then, so I expect the case was second- or even third-hand. Quite an expense though, so my parents must have been confident I would stick at my piano lessons. They were right. I did. Somehow, even at the age of eight, I knew I must make a go of it to sort of ‘honour my family tree’. My mother’s mother had been an accomplished pianist. She had died in the flu epidemic of 1918 leaving four children under 10 and a husband fighting in France. My father’s sister had been a concert pianist. She also died in her thirties. In childbirth. On Christmas Day. Hard times!

I might have started earlier if my twin brother and sister hadn’t arrived when I was six. Things got rather busy, but I’m pretty sure I had mastered Chopsticks even before I was taken through the French doors of the elegant Georgian house on Broomhill Road, Woodford Green, to meet Miss Goodwin. I learnt quickly and was soon playing Dolly’s Lullaby and Gathering Peascods. My other grandma came to tea every Saturday. Always wanted the lullaby. I loved her, of course, but not when she regularly interrupted my playing to remark: “I think, dear, you must imagine that this room is larger than it is.”

Just think of the tedium for the adjudicator and the hapless supporting parents when, at my first music festival, I was the eighth of eight players to perform Gathering Peascods. The Congregational Church was almost next door to Miss Goodwin’s house. It had been irreparably damaged by a flying bomb late in the war. So, perhaps that lovely room where I played my first scales, and experienced the inevitable weekly feelings of guilt at not having done enough practice, had also suffered in the attack. It was destined, like the church with its impressive steeple, to be demolished. It disappeared finally under the Sir James Hawkey Hall and the road-widening scheme at the top of Broadmead Road.

I learnt last week about another beginning. I was talking with Marcello in his restaurant opposite the cinema. It’s called Bella Naples. My son and his family took me there for a birthday lunch on Good Friday. We all loved it. A different dish for each of us. All freshly cooked to order. To begin with, Marcello asked if he might join us at our table so we could chat through what we’d like to order. A very relaxed and unusual approach. I started with a baked goat’s cheese dish served with thin slivers of courgette, fried crisp, almost caramelised. Delicious. I asked our host if I could come back for a chat to hear his story.

He had made a new beginning about 15 years ago. Left Naples for London. He was ambitious. “I wanted to travel but if I was going to work as a chef somewhere, Japan perhaps, or Malaysia or South America (or even South Woodford, I thought), I needed to learn English. It was the first requirement.” He visualised taking perhaps six months. But “doing things properly” was something he had absorbed from his family, especially from his grandmother. “I was very close to her. She was a hard worker. It wasn’t an easy life. She died only a few weeks ago. She was 101.” So, he worked his way through college in London for three years, cheffing for a number of “mega operators” and emerging with fluent English and a love of books. (By the way, the phone rang several times while we talked, but “don’t worry,” he said, “that’s just Mum. She rings every day”. (From Naples, of course!) “What are the most popular dishes?” “Probably the seafood pastas, especially the calamari. I do it in the proper traditional Italian way, coated in flour and deep-fried and served with aubergine baked with mozzarella.”

I had a confession to make to Marcello: since he first opened for business, I had been discouraged by the name: why not either Beautiful Naples or Bella Napoli? Not this hybrid: Bella Naples. He gave a rueful smile. “When I first opened, people asked me where I had come from. I told them Napoli. They mostly replied, ‘Oh, where’s that?’ So, I changed my plans for the name. It was to have been Bella Napoli, of course. ”Well, dear readers, imagine how I felt, considering the time and effort he had put into learning our language! And time and effort is what he puts in today: Bella Naples is not part of a chain. There is no fall-back position. What you get is this young Neapolitan and his chef.

I had my hair cut today. I asked Cathy if she had been to Bella Naples. “Oh yes! We love it. Small. Intimate. Lovely atmosphere. And, of course, Marcello, with his tall black chef’s hat, his beaming welcome… and his spectacular eyebrows!”

I can’t follow that!