Lea Rivers Trust - another Olympics victim

[Mark]

Messages In This email:
1. Lea Rivers Trust - another Olympics victim      From: KatyAndrews
2. FYI, LETTER FOR PUBLICATION   also from: KatyAndrews

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1. Lea Rivers Trust - another Olympics victim

Posted by:      "Katy Andrews" katyandrews2012 at yahoo.co.uk

Fri Feb 1, 2008 5:10 pm


I don't think I sent this news earlier, for which apologies.  Apologies
for any multiple postings.

Sadly, the Lea Rivers Trust at Three Mills, Bromley by Bow Locks,
Stratford E15 (originally the Lower Lea Project) has lost its access to
the waterways in the Bow Back Rivers system and has therefore inevitably
lost all its funding.


The project began as one of several offshoots of the Waltham Forest
Environmental Forum in the late 1980s, along with the Forest Recycling
Project (not forgetting the wormery!), Gannets Vegetarian Restaurant, an 
Environmental Library and the Hornbeam Environmental Centre at the Bakers'
Arms.  Its founder, Ian Runeckles, now works for the British Waterways
board.  All the staff were given redundancy bnotices around Christmas
time, despite a number of ongoing projects, particularly around flood
risks in the Lea Valley.  The building where the LRT was based (the
Miller's House) is owned by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and
SFIK will continue to be used for educational and environmentally-linked
purposes.


The Trustees have decided to close the organisation down at the end of
March, as LRT is sadly no longer able to continue its work with local
schools, businesses, banks, community service offenders and vulnerable
adults.  Yet another, and particularly poignant, victim of the Olympic
Games.


Katy A.


2.  FYI LETTER FOR PUBLICATION
Posted by: "Katy Andrews"             katyandrews2012 at yahoo.co.uk
Fri Feb 1, 2008

 I have sent the following to the Waltham Forest Guardian.
 This is just for information.
 Katy.

 Dear Sirs/Mesdames,

 I was interested to read the letter from Mr. Kevin Wyatt-Lown, Chairman
of North Chingford Community Council, in this week's WF Guardian.  He
says that community champions are supposed to represent local issues “at
higher levels than we can attain,” a phrase which itself shows up how far
from democracy - meaning 'the authority of the people' - public life and
civil
 society in Waltham Forest have fallen.

 Quite apart from the obvious conundrum of why a Councillor representing a
ward in the south of the Borough should be appointed as community
champion for the very northernmost part of the Borough, I would like to
comment on the remarks made by Mr. Wyatt-Lown regarding Cllr. Terry
Wheeler’s presentation to his local Community Council on the Olympic
Games.

 It is a matter of simple public record that Cllr.  Wheeler sits on the
Planning Committee of the Olympic Development Authority (ODA).  The ODA
was set up by the government as a development and planning authority
 within the boundaries of the Thames Gateway Urban  Development
Corporation (UDC).  The ODA and UDC have sweeping planning and
development powers which are outside the control of local and national
planning
 authorities such as local Boroughs and the Greater London Authority.  The
ODA can intervene in any local planning application which it deems could
impact upon the 2012 Olympic Games and has the power to decide whether
more trivial matters in its own area should be decided by itself or by
local authorities.  Most of the Planning Applications which come before
the ODA’s Planning Committee are in fact applications from the ODA to
itself.  These are considered and voted upon by the members of its
Planning Committee, including Cllr. Wheeler.

 This has not prevented Cllr. Wheeler from giving his personal opinion on
several occasions in the Waltham Forest Council Chamber concerning
matters surrounding the Olympics development which have affected our
Borough, such as his support for the pointless proposed wind turbine at
what used to be the Eton Manor Playing Fields (Eastway Sports Centre) in
Leyton and his even more vehement support for the destruction of the Eton
Manor Gardens allotments at Waterden Road, Hackney Wick and their
supposedly temporary relocation last year to former Lammas Land at Marsh
Lane Fields, Leyton.

 Local councillors who sit on the Borough’s Planning Committee are not
supposed to voice prejudged opinions on planning matters in public, but
this seems not to be the case with those making decisions on behalf of
 the ODA; or at any rate, if it is Cllr. Wheeler seems unaware of it.  I
was therefore most surprised to read that he “achieved so little in
promoting the Olympics in a positive light.”

 As one who feels that the Olympic circus is a gargantuan waste of public
money which will succeed in little more than disrupting the lives of
thousands of local people, and is essentially an excuse for a massive
speculative land-grab of our local open spaces and recreational
facilities, I can only say I am relieved that this so-called community
champion is now at last being shown up for what he is.

 Cllr. Wheeler’s (and other Labour councillors’) abusive behaviour towards
me the last time I attended a Community Council meeting was enough to
convince me that my time would be better spent in more useful pursuits,
such as watching TV soap operas or picking my nose whilst staring out of
the window.  I imagine the citizens of north Chingford may well be
reaching a similar conclusion.

 Yours truly, as ever,

 Katy Andrews.