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Plans to expand the South Woodford Muslim Community Centre on Mulberry Way were approved by Redbridge Council in April. “We will now be undertaking the detailed design of the building, in which we will work more on the facade and materials… There is currently no start date, but I expect it will be within the next year, and I expect the time frame to be around 12 to 18 months,” said Shahed Saleem of Makespace Architects. Following demolition of the existing single storey building, a three-storey structure with a basement will be erected, with the community centre and place of worship occupying the ground floor and basement and four flats on the upper floors. The larger building will retain the current maximum occupancy of 250 members at any given time as part of the planning conditions.

The newly formed Woodford Arts Group will hold its inaugural exhibition at Packfords Hotel in Woodford Green from 31 May to 2 June. The Snakes Lane West venue – which has been run by the Packford family for over 40 years – will be serving afternoon tea on 1 June. “The group was set up in December 2018 to bring local artists together in order to support each other and find ways to show their work. The initial call out has been a great success, and our members range across all the arts,” said founding member Julia Brett. The group includes painters, printers, photographers, ceramicists and sculptors, with the upcoming exhibition set to be the first of many displays and activities in the local area. “Our aims are principally to display our work through gallery exhibitions and art trails, creating an awareness of Woodford art to as wide an audience as possible. All Woodford-based artists are welcome to contact us if they are interested in joining us on our journey.” Visit woodfordartsgroup.org

To celebrate 50 years of the RSPB’s Local Groups, the North East London branch will be joined by the conservation charity’s president in South Woodford this June. David Littlejohns invites you to the party

Big national organisations don’t always think too much about the local scene. But 50 years ago, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds was an exception, and so started its first Local Group, known as the Epping Forest Group. Others soon followed, and the idea has now spread so widely that there are over 140 RSPB Local Groups dotted all over the UK.

So this year, on 14 June, we shall be celebrating having started this movement in 1969, and we have separated Miranda Krestovnikoff, the president of the RSPB, from her scuba diving gear to join us for the celebration. We will have displays of memorabilia from back then, including recollections from Richard Oakman, who was present from the outset. There will also be a special raffle and refreshments, including a 50th anniversary cake for Miranda to cut.

Miranda’s passion for conservation began while studying zoology at Bristol University. She has been well known as a radio and (since 1998) a TV presenter, notably in the award-winning Coast series. She specialises in natural history programmes and you may know her as a resident wildlife expert on the BBC’s The One Show. She has fitted in all this while caring for her children and playing the flute in a local orchestra in Bristol.

Eventually, after some years of meeting for talks and trips to good places for birds, support for that early Epping Forest Group fell away. Yet nationally, the picture was very different, as more and more people were becoming aware of the pleasure and benefits available from contact with the natural world.

Nature is a mainstream issue these days and there is no denying that it is at a crossroads now – still a source of great benefits, but open to many threats, ranging from being hard-boiled by climate change to submersion in a tide of plastic.

So, not surprisingly, after a short gap, about 10 years ago it was time to start again. This time, the name was the North East London RSPB Local Group, but it covers much the same area and even includes some of the same people.

You do not have to be a member of the RSPB to join in. It is now a thriving and friendly group, which meets every month from October to June to hear illustrated talks, to walk in local areas with notable birdlife and to get to know more about birds and other wildlife. And if something is especially good, we post on Twitter or Facebook. But we would very much like to meet you in person at one of our future events.