Wansteadium

We reported a couple of weeks ago on a planning application for illuminated advert screens on Wanstead High Street – an area where shopkeepers are not permitted to have illuminated signs.

Well, we didn’t read the application carefully enough. It’s actually for THREE advert screens on the high street. One outside the Light House fish and chip shop, one outside Boots, and one on the other side of the road, outside the Pura beauticians opposite the Bull.

We thought you would like to know. Comments on the applications, numbers 3950/22, 3954/22, 3957/22, 3962/22 and 3963/22 at the Redbridge Planning site need to be made by TODAY (Thursday).

That’s if you can find your way through the Redbridge Planning site, something which could do with a good dose of planning itself.

• Shops on Wanstead High Street are only supposed to have ‘externally illuminated’ signs – ie it’s OK to have lights shining on them, but not in them – because of the conservation zone.

Hundreds of saplings have been planted by volunteers in the Roding Valley Park, just next to the M11 in the area at the end of Elmcroft Avenue.

The tree planting was a project last weekend by Redbridge and the Trees for Cities organisation. It’s near a community orchard which was planted in 2016 and now has dozens of apple trees which are nearly mature.

Gold stars all round.

It never rains but it pours. Suddenly ANOTHER Wanstead profile has come on the scene. And that tells a different story to the happy tale published in MyLondon earlier in the week. Wanstead is apparently being ruined by snobs.

Noel McMahon, well known from his years as landlord at the Nightingale, told the paper: “It’s changed. It has lost its village status for what it used to be. It’s still a great community – but the attitude of some of the new arrivals has changed. They don’t have the same community feel.”

The most damning quotes though come from someone the Sun bravely doesn’t name, who EXCLUSIVELY tells the paper that people are “moving from central out here to get more for their money…. They’re up their own f***ing a***s.”

So it’s quite a controversial read. You can find it here. It’s in the Sun, which according to someone who would rather not be named, is ***** ******** ****, we can exclusively reveal.

We have a long history of picking apart articles written in the news about Wanstead, and the latest example to attract people’s attention was this profile in MyLondon.

It’s rare nowadays for news providers to send reporters out of the office (or away from their dining room table) to actually visit the places they are reporting on, so this is a welcome article, even though it was written by their “SEO Reporter” (ie the person who writes things to attract the attention of Google).

So some key quotes, wilfully taken out of context:

If you buy here, you stay here.

I mean, look at Gail’s, it’s packed the entire time.

The best thing about the area is that is has two stations

In the evening, it’s a ghost town.

But, surprise surprise, people in Wanstead love Wanstead though are anxious about the cost of living, rents, property prices and inequality.

One thing we did learn – the newsagents now known as Krishanco has been there for more than 100 years, well before gentrification. Long may it continue.

H/T Gaynor, and Ray

Roadside collections of Christmas trees are being extended into next week for Wanstead following “high demand”. Trees will still be collected on Monday and Tuesday by Redbridge Civic Services, the company which does rubbish and recycling collection for Redbridge.

After Wednesday trees can still be collected by only by arranging it through the council’s bulky item collection service.

Planning applications have been made to install an illuminated advert box outside the Lighthouse fish shop. The plan would include a defibrillator and new phone, though not in a phone box.

The application, under reference 3950/22 recognises the Wanstead Village Conservation Area status, and includes this statement:

The proposed Communication Hub and advertising display is undeniably a modern intervention, but its impact upon the character and appearance of this part of the conservation area would be less than substantial. This form of development would not be seen as a wholly inappropriate addition to the principally commercial setting of Wanstead’s High Street where there are other examples of modern alterations and interventions. In such an evidently commercial environment the public is used to and expects to see a range of commercial images, which serve to enhance the shopping experience and influence the character of the area.

Comments are open on the application until 26 January.