Author: Wansteadium

Two reports in local media make worrying reading.

The Wanstead Guardian here has news of an arrest of man on Cambridge Park on Monday for carrying a knife.

It follows news of a separate incident on 22 October when a man was stabbed at Snaresbrook station as he got off the train following an argument with a group of boys in their mid-to-late teens.

There have also been as yet unconfirmed reports on social media about a knife attack on a man who is a familiar sight on Wanstead High Street.

• Anyone with information can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, or text 61016.

Online supermarket Ocado, whose vans are a familiar sight around Wanstead, has told one Wansteadium reader that it is not registering new customers in the area because of levels of fraud.

The reader, who asked not to be named but lives in central Wanstead, placed an order as a new customer but was then informed the delivery had been cancelled by Ocado because they had been ‘unable to verify the payment details’. She rang the supermarket to complain, and was told that the given explanation had been incorrect.

She says: “[The Ocado customer services person] then advised me that the actual reason is that Ocado have chosen to stop serving my area completely due to the prevalence of fraud, which seems rather implausible to me as Wanstead is packed with Ocado vans – I saw two today.”

On writing to the supermarket to enquire further, she then received a fuller reply which said it was just new customers which were not being accepted. She was told:

Unfortunately we are not accepting any new registrations to your area as there has been ongoing problems within the area which has resulted in us making a business decision not to deliver as the risk of further problems is too high.

This is intriguing: are high levels of fraud in Wanstead really putting it out of step with other areas? Have any other readers had problems registering with Ocado recently?

Wansteadium has asked Ocado for further details and comment.

During the annual Wanstead Tree Week earlier this month, we invited readers to submit questions about trees in the area to the Redbridge Arboricultural officers. There were loads of questions and we’re grateful to them for supplying the following answers. They make fascinating – and worrying – reading.

Question from Andrew Clarke
I have some questions about some trees in Roding Park behind Onslow Gardens. We recently discovered many apply and pear trees full of fruit in the park. Are these wild or planted? Are they at all cared for and pruned? Is the public free to harvest from these trees?

Answer
There is a small orchard planted by the conservation team last winter further north in Roding Valley but near Onslow Gardens and these can be defined by their small size and the trees have labels on. There are a few others behind Onlsow Gardens which bear fruit, likely to have been planted at some time in the past but now classed as wild and the public are welcome to take and use as many as they want, in fact, it is positively encouraged.

Question from Paul H
I’d like to know what happens to the wood when trees are pruned in Wanstead. I have a woodburning stove so it would be great to have a local source of fuel if possible.

Answer
All the wood from tree pruning is chipped and taken to the recycling station where it is collected and converted into Biomass for industry. The size of wood generated from pruning is small unsuitable for use as a source for woodburning stoves. Larger cordwood that is not diseased or rotten is taken by the contractor and converted to firewood as an additional income for them which follows the principals of sustainability. The income generated from the wood is small when measured against the time and effort it takes into converting it.

The Council does not provide a service that could generate firewood for the public although the idea has been considered. It would not be cost effective to do so as overall, the quantities of suitable material produced is quite small.

The Council’s felling and tree replacement programme has just started, if Paul H sees a contractor felling a Council tree, he could stop and ask the contractor for some wood but the contractor will not deliver it, it must be converted and taken from the contractor at the point of source, the contractor will process to a manageable size sufficient to fit in a car boot for example. The contractor has the right to refuse and will not pass on diseased material.

Question from Paula
My road currently has no trees planted on the pavements like most of our neighbourhood roads. As residents can we request trees to be planted to improve the appearance ?

Answer
At present, the Council is not embarking on increasing its Highway tree population due to its commitment to prioritise the effective management and maintenance of its existing highway tree stock.

Question from David Gibson
Where can I find trees from the avenues planted for Wanstead House? Are some of them on George Green/ Christchurch Green from the original planting?

Answer
There are remnants of the Wanstead House Sweet Chestnut tree avenues located on George Green, 4 trees near to The Green Road boundary and Christchurch Green, 3 trees near the Church boundary. They can be identified by their wide gnarled trunks and squat habit.

Question from Caroline
What is the tree that smells like cinnamon? Makes for a pleasant walk along Wanstead streets. Is it lime?

Answer
The Lime trees have a citrusy scent to the flowers. The only other tree that I know of that can be described as smelling on cinnamon is the Ponderosa Pine tree and I have no record of that species in the borough. The source of the cinnamon is more likely to be from a smaller plant such as Scented Geraniums or Dianthus.

A question from Wansteadium
Can you give an update on the health of Wanstead’s Horse Chestnuts, particularly regarding the various moths and blight which afflict them and which seem to bring brown shrivelled leaves earlier every year?

Answer
The prognosis for the future of Horse Chestnut trees is not good. The Leaf Miner does result in the premature browning of leaves; however, it is the infection of Bleeding Canker, which leads to the dead branches and dead trees that is the primary cause for concern. There are ongoing trials for chemical treatments of Leaf Miner, initial results have varied results and we are awaiting the final results and recommendations for use. The non-chemical treatment involves the removal of fallen leaves. Unfortunately, there are no available chemical treatments for bleeding canker and the non-chemical treatment is rather simplistic and involves the removal of dead branches and trees.

And another question from Wansteadium
What causes the imprints of leaves left on a pavement surface?

Answer
The leaching of sugars, tannins and heavy metals from leaves into porous and or alkaline paving surfaces can result in a leaf imprint.

Wansteadium’s a bit late to this one but it’s worth mentioning mysterious moonlight gardening sessions which have been going on in Wanstead.

Marian Temple, leader of Wanstead’s militant volunteer gardeners, writes:

This has to be a marriage made in Heaven! Wanstead Community Gardeners and GoodGym. GoodGym is a wonderful idea, combining as it does exercise and community service. James Poole of the Wanstead GoodGym got in touch to ask if they could be of help with our community patches. They meet every Monday at 7pm in Wanstead House, starting the evening with 45 minutes of useful physical action, maybe helping a community group with their allotment, or doing some decorating in a community space, something along those lines. Their evening ends with a 4 km run. They keep healthy and make the area a better place in which to live.

Of course Wanstead Community Gardeners always have something that needs doing. We arranged to meet last week to do some work on the roundabout sandwiched between the George car park exit and Wanstead Station. Just one problem, this time of year, it’s dark! “No problem”, said James. “We’ll wear our head torches.”

This really had the feel of guerrilla gardening, planting in the dark. However, we weren’t real guerrillas as a nice man from the council handed the traffic island and the accompanying long bed opposite the George over to us in April. So, we met by night on the Island Bed equipped with sacks of compost, full watering cans, spades and garden forks as well as a good selection of hardy plants which will be happy in full sun and can cope with drought. All the plants were sourced from our other plots.

It was amazing! Six non-gardeners digging and delving and making a jolly good job of it. After the session, there were a lot of very happy plants tucked in and ready for action next year. No doubt GoodGym and Wanstead Community Gardeners will be involved in more combined efforts. They’ve already agreed to a litter pick around our station patches next month.

What a wonderful resource they are! Anyone interested in GoodGym, either joining the group or having a local community project they could help with, please contact James Poole at James@goodgym.org m.07813 337 553.

You can always keep up to date with the Wanstead Community Gardeners through their homepage here. They can always use broken garden forks or spades if anyone has any.

This is the look for the new coffee shop on Wanstead High Street, currently getting ready to open in its spot formerly occupied by the Orange Tree.

Apart from typical semantic whingeing from people like Wansteadium (how exactly can something be “Est” and “since”?), so far it looks smart and in keeping with the generally rising standards of shopfronts in Wanstead.

But there is something about the beige-on-brown which looks familiar… what can it be?… Any clues anyone?

The sight of workers trying to fix the ongoing problems at Wellesley Road at midnight on Saturday/Sunday. Kudos (and significant overtime no doubt) to all involved. (Thanks to ever-alert Marcus Tylor for the picture.)