This site is wholly unofficial and is maintained (very erratically) by the current Community Chair, Philip Herlihy. Nothing here is endorsed or approved by the London Borough of Waltham Forest, or any Member or Officer. (Or anyone, really!)
Be sure to visit also the Council's official site for the Walthamstow West Community Council. You may also be interested in the discussions of local affairs that can be found on the Walthamstow Yahoo Group.
Comment: Does censorship affect Community Councils?
Comment: How big a voice should Councillors have in the Community Forum?
Feedback: A digest of comments made by residents after the September 2006 meeting.
Links: A growing collection of external links of interest to local people.
Forthcoming Meetings:
- Dates of the new cycle of meetings will be posted here when available.
(Last update: 9 Feburary 2008)
What's it all about?
- Philip Herlihy, (Community Chair) sounds off to Jenny Clarke (Waltham Forest Guardian) about the work of the Community Council.
- Who are the meetings for? More... More...
- Whose side is the Chair on? More...
- What have we achieved? More...
- An article about CCs in Waltham Forest in the national Councillor Magazine...
Last Meeting:
Monday 28 January 2008, 7:15 pm - note earlier start time!
Venue:Chapel End Junior School, Roberts Road, E17 4LS
- Agenda (128Kb
). We're expecting to give significant time to a major consultation initiative which will give residents an opportunity to influence strategic priorities for years to come. Details to follow, but expect lively presentations and workshops!
- Responses to follow, but see this about the Library service...
- Before the meeting (from 7:15) there are Police and Councillor Surgeries, where you can talk privately about any specific concerns you may have.
- A new feature is the "newsround" which presents updates on local issues and events in a "news" format. Residents are encouragted to submit items in advance for inclusion (at the discrection of the Chairs).
- Every meeting includes a Community Forum in which residents can raise (more or less) any issue they choose which is relevant to the four wards which make up our area.
We have a "Help Form" , available. The idea is to make Community Councils more accessible. If there is any reason you prefer not to speak at the meeting you can use this form to ask a question, raise a concern, or make a comment (anonymously if you wish). The Chairs of the meeting will do everything they can to see that you get a reply before the next meeting.
These forms can only be accepted at a Community Council meeting.
Note: I'm sorry that pressure of work has meant I've been unable recently to keep these pages updated anything like as fully as I'd want - I do hope to do more!
Meeting:
Monday 19 November, 7:30 pm
Venue:Walthamstow Academy
This meeting was the first since the Review of Community Councils, in which views and suggestions from a wide range of contributors were sought. You can read the summary proposals. (19 Kb )
There was much discussion about the Library Service and other topics concerning the Arts, Leisure and Culture portfolio. Responses now available here...
We also voted on:
- proposals (9 Kb ) for our £10.000 annual budget, and
- who is to be Community Chair and Vice-Chair for the coming year - these are interesting and rewarding roles, and you can put your name forward on the night if you'd like to be involved.
Meeting:
Monday 10 September, 7:30 pm
Venue:Lloyd Park Theatre
More details to follow.
Meeting:
Monday 2 July, 7:30 pm
Venue:Mission Grove Primary School
More details to follow.
Meeting:
Monday 20 November 2006, 7:30 pm
Venue:Lloyd Park Theatre
Among other things we voted on suggestions made at the previous meeting for projects for our Community Council's £10.000 budget.
This handout (37 kb ) has more information. Here is a summary (12 Kb) of the options on which residents voted at the meeting. More detailed information (everything we have) can be found here (30 Kb) ,
There was also an opportunity to vote for next year's Community Chair and Vice-Chair. Any resident can stand, and can count on very strong support from the officers of the support team, and ward councillors. Duties are relatively light: the Community Chair meets with the Councillor Chair and support officers a few weeks before each meeting to thrash out an Agenda - otherwise it's a question of running the first part of each meeting, and balancing competing claims on a finite amount of time. The Vice-Chair is invited to attend the "planning" meeting and will stand in for the Community Chair if he or she is unavailable. Neither position requires any particular experience or knowledege (as I'm sure I've demonstrated) and the Vice-Chair position in particular is a great opportunity for someone who'd like a "gentle start" in local life. If you'd like to know more, contact the immensely helpful support team on 020 8496 4213 - ask for Shirley or Claire, who will be very happy to explain what's involved. If you'd like a little more insight into the process, have a look at the feedback summary , compiled from Evaluation forms at the last meeting. You can register as a candidate using this form (21 Kb) - bring it to the meeting and hand it to an officer or either Chair.
We're also inviting volunteers to become our "Observer" on the Police-Community Consultative Group. You can find an application form and more information about these lively and interesting meetings here (18 Kb) . Note that anyone can attend these meetings, but it would be helpful to have a specific observer from the Community Council who could alert us at future meetings to issues affecting this area.
You can download the presentation from the Primary Care Trust "Fit for the Future" (220 Kb) .
Meeting:
Monday 4 September 2006, 7:30 pm
Venue:Chapel End Junior School, Roberts Road, E17 4LS
- Agenda (35K)
- Minutes (June 28 - Nb Draft only ) (52 Kb)
- Responses (66K) - These are replies to questions and issues raised at the last meeting.
- Evaluation summary (24k ) - compiled from comments made on the Evaluation Forms after the meeting (and discussed in detail by the CC team!)
Cllr Afzal Akram (Cabinet Portfolio holder for Community Safety) with Chief Inspector Mark Benbow (Met Police Borough Commander) presented this brief statement (23Kb ) on the recent arrests in connection with an alleged terrorist conspiracy. To allow more time for discussion of this and other "hot" topics, it was decided to defer item 7 (on Youth Activities) to a later meeting.
We asked residents for new suggestions for projects for our Community Council's £10.000 budget. You can still submit suggestions by ringing the Community Council team (020 8496 3000) until Monday 11 September - after that the existing suggestions will be costed and evaluated before the next meeting.
This handout (37k ) has more information.
Post-meeting comments:
- A lively and well-attended meeting! Less discussion emerged on Community Safety than might have been expected, but what was said was cogent and - I thought- ultimately uplifting. Cllr Terry Wheeler received yet another grilling on the Arcade site as he explained that the next milestone would be a Cabinet meeting in November which would review a revised plan - these grillings do seem to come with that Portfolio! Several residents were very exercised over a proposal (clearly at an early stage) to build a new Willowfield School behind Edward Road. Those three topics accounted for the entire Community Forum.
- The "budget" workshops worked well - residents gathered in Ward-based groups with their local councillors to thrash out ideas on how the annual £10.000 might be used. Altogether I ended up scribbling (!) 18 wide-ranging suggestions on a flip-chart - it's clearly just as well I'm not responsible for the minutes...
- We heard from Martin Esom - the new officer with overall responsibility for Environmental Services, after watching a short DVD which gave us an idea of just how wide-ranging that responsibility is. Residents, still in their ward groups, compiled lists of outstingind issues for analysis and action. Martin then set out his vision of the priorities and challenges ahead, and explained the pressing reasons for the element of compulsion entering the area of recycling.
- I still don't have a satisfactory solution to the situation where a resident won't accept that his or her "one last point" really does need to be taken off-line, or the viability of the remainder of the meeting comes under threat. The Chair's job is to act on behalf of the majority of those present, and when one individual tries to shout down the Chair, they are effectively trying to shout down everyone there. This time we'd almost passed that crucial point when the next Agenda item would have had to have been abandoned if it wasn't started immediately, and I'd already "tested" the wishes of those present by tentatively offering that option. The sense of the meeting was clearly that we should proceeed, so I had little alternative to talking over the top of the individual concerned as I introduced the next item (and taking a mouthful afterwards when everyone else had settled into their ward groups). That's the worst bit by far of chairing these meetings. Dimbleby doesn't seem to have these problems on Question Time. (sigh...). Otherwise - a great meeting!
Meeting:
Wednesday 28 June 2006, 7:30 pm
Venue: Stoneydown Park School, Pretoria Avenue, E17 6JY
- The official Agenda, Minutes and Responses should be available here shortly. Meanwhile, here are some dodgy pirate copies! :
- I asked Cllr Terry Wheeler, who has taken over the Cabinet Portfolio for Enterprise and Investment to give us a brief summary (203 Kb) of progress on the Town Centre redevelopment, and he was good enough to agree to attend and answer questions.
- The agenda included a presentation on the latest proposals for development around Blackhorse Lane.
- Inspector Jane Connors (Met Police) who oversees the Safer Neighbourhoods teams for the borough, explained how the system works. Residents separated into workshop groups to discuss this new provision, feeding back to the meeting.
Post-meeting comments:
- I'd fallen to the temptation to pack too much into the Agenda, and there simply wasn't enough time for questions. Also, my well-intentioned notion that it would be better to allow further questions to be raised (and minuted) with the intention of distributing responses only after the meeting was a daft one, and I won't try that again! It can be difficult to balance a wish to include important topics against a very real need to allow them enough time, especially after a five-month gap. It was a great meeting, and a very lively one, but we could probably have filled a full working day!
- One Councillor took issue with my decision during the Community Forum to take comments this time only from residents. He made the very reasonable point that he's a resident too, and that back-bench Councillors often have no other opportunity to comment publicly on vital issues that affect them and their constituents. See this Comment...
- In hindsight, I should have realised that a new Portfolio-holder (Terry) wasn't going to give us a plain progress-report on Cinema/Arcade/Library but would want to put over a wide-ranging vision for the future of the Town Centre. Of course, that stirred everyone up, and the topic dominated the Community Forum to the exclusion of anything else people might have wanted to bring up. At least we have the Help Forms!
- Because we ran out of time, I wasn't able to brief residents on the latest report on how last year's budget had been spent. You can download a summary here.
Meeting:
Monday 16 January 2006, 7:30 pm
Consultation: Mark Yeadon, Consultation Manager for LBWF, gave a presentation on "Consultation: Past, Present & Future", explaining how the consultation process is expected to work in the future. Download (81 Kb)
This meeting gave residents an opportunity to vote on our £10,000 budget. Residents had already narrowed spending down to three themes, and this time they voted on specific proposals for the benefit of our area.
Voting Results:
Residents' Priorities
| Project |
Votes |
| Football Pitches |
53 |
| Schools Environmental |
44 |
| Mobile Youth Club |
35 |
| Basketball Posts |
26 |
| Operation 'Payback' |
26 |
| Running Track |
21 |
| Play Equipment |
16 |
| Teen Seating |
14 |
| Street Warden Patrols |
11 |
Councillors' Decisions
| Project |
Allocation |
| Football Pitches |
£700 |
| Schools Environmental |
£2000 |
| Mobile Youth Club |
£5000 |
| Basketball Posts |
£3000 |
| Operation Payback |
remainder |
Only Councillors have the legal authority to make binding decisions at CC meetings - that's why the Chair changes over near the end of the meeting as the meeting enters a "formal" stage. In practice, Residents vote on priorities and then, as Residents watch and listen, the team of ward Councillors convert those priorities into practical decisions ready to be implemented. I believe this process works well, as Councillors are used to "haggling" and can usually tidy up any loose ends quickly and efficiently. We haven't yet had a situation where Councillors vota against the priorities of residents - when/if that happens I think we'll be in for an interesting night!
Meeting:
Monday 7 November 2005, 7:30 pm
- Agenda (external link)
- Venue: McEntee School, Billet Road,
E17 5DP
- Minutes (external link) of the previous meeting
- Responses (external link) to issues raised at previous meeting . This includes the Waltham Forest Direct response time statistics as promised by Cllr Blunt during the last meeting.
This meeting included a workshop in which residents combined in small groups to discuss new ideas for how to use our £10,000 budget for 2005/6. After discussion, residents voted for the following three themes as priorities:
Theme |
Votes |
Youth: |
57 |
Antisocial Behaviour: |
40 |
Parks: |
39 |
Next Steps:
- Anyone may submit a new proposal (for our area) aligned with one of these themes before 12th December 2005.
- Officers provide help with the assessment of cost and feasibility.
- Residents vote on specific proposals at the next meeting
There was also the chance to elect a new Community Chair and Vice-Chair. (In the absence of alternative candidates, both will carry on as before.) If you'd like to consider standing in the future, contact the Community Council team via 020 8496 3000. They are very supportive, and will be happy to explain what's involved and answer any questions you may have. Volunteers will be invited to introduce themselves briefly to the relevant meeting, after which residents vote for their preferred candidate.
In the second half of the meeting, there was a presentation on the latest plans for the redevelopment of the Blackhorse Lane area.
Note that presentations from the September meeting are also available for download. See below...
Meeting:
Tuesday 13 September 2005, 7:30 pm
There were presentations/discussions (available for download as PDF ) covering:
- Progress with the Town Centre (1,080 Kb - lots of pictures!)
- Refurbishment of the Central Library (81 Kb)
- Provision of GP's surgeries in the four wards and other health issues (24 Kb)
- New licensing arrangements (alcohol) (26 Kb)
... plus the Community Forum in which residents raise (more or less) any issue they choose.
Meeting:
Monday 6 June 2005, 7:30 pm
- Venue: Stoneydown Park School, Pretoria Avenue, E17 6JY
- Agenda (in PDF format)
- Minutes of previous meeting (17 January 2005)
- Responses to issues raised at previous meeting
- Spending: What has been done with the £20,000 budget?
- Presentation on the propose Joint Service Centre in Higham Hill
Greenleaf Road Adult Education Centre: During the Community Forum residents expressed very strong feelings about the imminent closure of this popular facility. From the Chair, I asked the head of CLaSS, Dr. Maureen Green, if she'd be prepared to give a written statement of current changes and developments. Dr. Green was quick to respond - you can read her summary here, or download as PDF .
Cinema: Officers from the Regeneration Team were on hand before the meeting to consult with residents about the future of the Granada Cinema on Hoe Street.
Consultation Strategy for Waltham Forest: Officers working on a draft "Consultation Strategy" for the Borough were on hand before the meeting asking for residents' views. Comment...
Police and Community Consultative Group (PCCG). During the meeting we asked for a volunteer to be our Community Council's delegate to this lively group. Details... (in PDF format)
April Meeting Cancelled:
Monday 11 April 2005
(Documents are in PDF format - Adobe Reader available here)
Meeting cancelled : As the General Election has now been announced, and the 11th April falls within the pre-election period, it has been necessary to cancel this meeting for legal reasons.
As I understand it, the Council's Legal team believe there is a significant risk that an individual or party may claim that they
have been "disadvantaged" in some way, and mount an action for
damages. In order to protect the public purse (and the whole electoral process) they believe the only thing to do is to cancel all events
where this risk may exist until the whole thing is over.
It's unclear how many other councils take the same view. PH.