Because of the work of your Lib Dems, the Council will now look at introducing ‘Local Management Boards’, groups of High Street ward residents who would be given areas of responsibility in managing their local facilities.

Cllrs James O’Rourke and Johar Khan said that the Council “have a responsibility to let their residents take part in the process of shaping local services.”

Cllrs O’Rourke and Khan continued: “The future of our local cultural services, such as museums and libraries, is obviously one of great concern to many residents. We promised High Street ward residents we would work to get them more resident involvement, and we are delivering on that promise”.

The ARZ will provide a more consistent and longer-term solution to improve the quality for those who use the area, by giving the police powers to deal with anti-social drinking.

Welcoming the introduction of the ARZ Cllrs James O’Rourke and Johar Khan said: “The ARZ will benefit our local community, businesses and visitors to Walthamstow by providing Police powers that they currently do not have, to tackle alcohol related crime and disorder and allow us to reclaim Walthamstow Town Centre. Children and families will be more inclined to use local facilities, such as the Town Centre Park and open space and it will undoubtedly improve the image of one of the gateways to Waltham Forest.”

Click on map to see larger version.

John Beanse lived in the Chingford area all his life and was educated at Sir George Monoux Grammar School, where he very recently attended a reunion of ‘Old Monovians’. He went on to study Modern Languages at Cambridge before training to be a teacher at Goldsmith’s College. He enjoyed a distinguished career as a languages teacher and taught in the local area.

John became an active member of the Liberal Party in 1974 and was a regular attendee and contributor at party conferences and events. He was also an accredited speaker for the Electoral Reform Society. Until recently he was the Chair of the Chingford and Woodford Green Liberal Democrats, where he stood as the parliamentary candidate in the General Elections of 2001 and 2005.

A hard-working community activist prior to his election to Waltham Forest Council in 2006, he served as a Governor of two local schools and was previously the Chair of the local Community Health Council.

As the editor of the popular local ‘Focus’ leaflets he used advice surgeries and his long-running ‘Chingford and Woodford Green Blogspot’ webpage to keep residents up-to-date with local news.

Cllr Beanse took a keen interest in health issues, and after his election in 2006 he served on the Council as the Vice Chair of the Health, Adults and Older People Overview and Scrutiny sub-committee.

Amongst his other Council commitments, he chaired the Council Joint Consultative Committee and also sat on the Performance Improvement Committee, the Teachers Joint Committee and the Waltham Forest Tenants Council.

In his spare time he enjoyed travel and walking holidays, and he regularly gave talks to various travel groups.

The Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Waltham Forest Council, Cllr John Macklin, said that the news had come as “a huge shock to all of Cllr Beanse’s many friends and colleagues”.

Cllr Macklin continued:

“John was an incredibly hard-working and committed community activist both in his time as a councillor and as a lifelong local resident.

“He always had residents best interests at heart and his local knowledge and enormous abilities as a councillor will be hugely missed by the Liberal Democrats, Waltham Forest Council and the residents on whose behalf he worked so conscientiously”.

Today marks the launch of our draft business plan for 2010 to 2015, and the publication of a summary of our proposals: ‘Our plans for water - what will you get and how much will it cost?’

What will you get?

We plan to:·    

v    Continue our Victorian Mains Replacement project to greatly reduce leakage

v    Introduce a programme of metering in areas where water supplies are under greatest pressure
  

v     Provide more advice and assistance to help customers use water wisely

v       Develop plans for and, if approved, start work to construct a new reservoir to safeguard water supplies

v     Greatly reduce sewage overflows into the Rivers Thames and Lee

v    Make sure our sewers and sewage works can serve our growing population

v    Greatly reduce the number of our customers’ homes threatened by sewer flooding

v    Improve 250km of rivers to meet new water quality standards

v    Cut our carbon emissions by 20%, and implement projects needed to meet the requirements of legislation

v    Provide more financial assistance to customers who have difficulty paying their bills to ensure our services are affordable

What will it cost?

Our  £6.5bn investment programme will lead to an average annual increase in our bills for water and wastewater services of 3%.  The total increase from 2010 to 2015 will be 16.2%.  This is an increase in real terms from £283 to £329.*

Let us know your views

Our proposals have  been  informed  by  our  biggest  ever  programme  of consultation,  and  I  am  confident  that we have put our customers at the heart  of  our  plans.   We are launching a 12-week online consultation to continue this dialogue, and I hope you will take this opportunity to let us
know your views.We  will  use  the results of the consultation to modify our plan before we submit  the  final  version  to  our  regulator Ofwat in April 2009.  Their review of our proposals will set price limits for 2010 to 2015.We look forward to receiving your comments.

Peter Antolik
Regulation and Strategy Director

v    Bill impacts are quoted at average 2007-2008 price levels.

 Please  click  http://www.thameswaterconsult.co.uk/  to  register  for  our consultation   or http://www.thameswater.co.uk/fiveyearplan  to  view  our
plans.

If a copy of wfm has popped through your letterbox then you should shortly be receiving a voter registration form so that you can be included on the borough’s 2008 register of electors. 

The register will be published on 1 December this year and will be used inany elections that may be held after that date. 

All eligible names must be added or confirmed on this form, though only one member of the household needs to sign it.

If the details on your form are correct you must still respond in order to remain on the register.  

The correct information can be confirmed in one of four ways: 

•    By using the free automated telephone response service   
•    Internet registration  
•   Completing the form and returning it to the Council    
•   By SMS text service 

If the details need to be updated, simply amend the form as necessary and return it to the Council in the prepaid envelope provided.

If you need any more help to completing your form there’s a handy guide on the Council’s website, www.  walthamforest.gov.uk 

Residents are advised to return your form as soon as possible.

Highly trained teams are hunting properties that are easy to break into – luckily they are police officers giving home security advice to absent minded residents. 

Waltham Forest’s police Safer Neighbourhood Teams and the Council’s community safety team have worked together to produce hundreds of cards which can be used to identify how a home is vulnerable to burglars. 

The Safer Neighbourhood Team officers patrol the borough until they spot a vacant home that could be easily broken into.

They fill in a card and post it through the letter box to advise the owner how to secure their property more effectively. 

Although burglary is down in Waltham Forest over the last year,research shows that most homes that are broken into during the summerare targeted because doors or windows are left open. 

The new scheme is a simple but effective way of tackling a very upsetting crime.

Each card has a number of tick boxes about problems like windows being left open. Police officers will tick the relevant box and post the card.  Residents are likely to be a bit surprised to find these cards lying on their doorstep, but it’s better than coming home to find you’ve been robbed by burglars. 

To find out more about home security ring the Council’s Community Safety Team on 020 8496 3000 or your Police Safer Neighbourhood Team on 020 8556 8855

Waltham Forest Council is declaring war on dog owners who persistently let their pets foul the borough and don’t bother cleaning up after them.

Street Wardens, Police Safer Neighbourhood Teams and enforcement officers will be patrolling the areas most affected by the issue, at the times most often visited by dog owners.

Anyone who is spotted failing to clean up after their animal will be asked to do so, and issued with a fixed penalty notice if they refuse.

Bags for dog owners will also be available at the Council’s Waltham Forest Direct shops.

 Waltham Forest Council’s spokesperson for Community Safety, Enforcement and Protection, said:

“Dogowners who refuse to clean up after their pets are exhibiting disgusting, anti social and hazardous behaviour towards other residents. “If you own a pet you need to take responsibility for its welfare and for cleaning up after it. People who are unwilling to do that, will be targeted and they will be punished.

It’s as simple as that. “We are sick of some dog owners using this borough as a toilet. We want to make Waltham Forest a place where people aspire to live and we won’t do that if people can’t be bothered to clean up after their pets.” 

To report dog fouling, contact Waltham Forest Direct on 020 84896 3000.

Residents can collect dog bags from WFD Shops in the following locations:

Leyton, 774-776 High Road; Walthamstow, 137 Hoe Street; Leytonstone, 819 High Road. 

Hard working schools in partnership with the Council have implemented plans to reduce congestion, improve road safety and encourage walking to school.

All 88 schools in Waltham Forest successfully introduced their travel plans, one year ahead of the government targets.Waltham Forest Council’s School Travel Planning Team hosted a celebration event at the SCORE centre to mark the achievement and identify and reward schools with particularly good plans.The event was attended by schools’ representatives, senior councillors and council officers. 

 Performers ranging from clowns to jugglers and trick cyclists kept everyone entertained.

Over the past 20 years the number of children travelling to school by car has almost doubled and account for at least one in five cars on London’s roads between 8-9am and 3-4pm during term time.The Council also wants to encourage young people to socialise with their friends and get some exercise on the way to school as well as cut congestion and car use.In the last year there has been a 4.9 per cent drop in the number of pupils who travel to school by car.

The aims of the school’s travelplans are to:

•  Reduce traffic congestionaround schools and encourage people not to use cars on the school run
•  Increase the number of children walking, cycling andusing public transport while travelling to and from school
• Raise awareness of road safety and the health and environmental benefits of using alternative transport for the journey to and from school

Waltham Forest police have launched week-long Operations to tackle knife crime and disorder on the borough’s transport links.

The aim of the initiatives, which came just days after the British Crime Survey showed violent crime was dropping, is to tackle knife crime and offences on the tube, train and bus network.  Officers herded passengers through high tech knife arches to search for hidden weapons at Blackhorse Road and Leytonstone Tube Stations and made a number of arrests.These officers also offered crime prevention advice, tackled fare dodgers with Transport for London staff and mounted high visibility patrols at bus, tube and rail stations across the borough.

Chief Inspector Andy Norfolk from Waltham Forest Police, said: “Knife crime has gone down in this borough and has also dropped nationally but that doesn’t take away the impact it has on people’s lives.  “There are a small number of people who think it is acceptable to carry a knife and those people will be targeted and arrested.

“Tackling the problem of knife crime is a challenge and everyone has a part to play in rising to that challenge – parents, the police, the local authority and the media.”

Figures uncovered by the Liberal Democrats revealed that half of all traders tested in Waltham Forest had attempted to sell knives to underage buyers.  

The worrying statistics come on the back of nationwide figures for prosecutions which reveal that, in the last five years, not one person has been sent to prison for the illegal sale of knives to children.

 Cllr Johar Khan says that the stats reveal “a completely inadequate deterrent to unscrupulous shop keepers who flout the law to sell these weapons to children and young people,”  

Cllr Johar Khan added: 

“The number of local traders who are apparently prepared to sell knifes to young people is extremely worrying. 

  “Liberal Democrats will be calling for officers to carry out further test purchasing programmes in an effort to really drive this message home.” 

“We believe that further tests must be carried out and that the courts must take a much stronger stand on this issue. 

“Cutting the supply of knives will be one of the most effective ways to reducing knife crime in the first place.”