RIP Bob

Wansteadium reader Tom D writes:

On 4th December the residents of Woodlands Avenue received the sad news that one of their most unusual residents – a White-Cheeked Turaco known to everyone as ‘Bob’ – had passed away.

Nobody knows quite when Bob appeared in our area, but he’s been stealing blueberries and unsuccessfully trying to charm local chickens for well over a decade. His ‘whoop whoop’ call was a regular sound of summer evenings.

Bob must have escaped from captivity, but successfully survived many winters in the local area. 

He’d been taken ill a few months ago, with problems breathing, and was staying at the South Essex Wildlife Hospital in the hope he’d recover – and he’d started to make good progress.

As he’s non-native and shouldn’t have been in the wild in the first place, it wasn’t clear whether he’d ever be able to return to the area he’d have known as ‘home’, but sadly that’s no longer a question. The vet performed a post-mortem and he had a hard/diseased liver and gall bladder, which looks like the result of a condition he’d had for some time.

Bob gets mentioned in Wikipedia – but clearly many people think he’s theirs.

A GoFundMe raised over £1500 to cover the costs of his treatment at South Essex Wildlife Hospital – donations in his memory would, I’m sure, continue to be welcome.

Jaws drop at Aaron’s Wanstead runs

You may have heard of Aaron Robinson’s marathon running around Wanstead Flats – the Guardian now has a write-up of how he has completed a marathon every day for the past year, and the details are pretty jaw-dropping. For example:

I get up at 3am to start running at 4am. It takes around five hours. Then I start work, finish work at 6.30pm, go to bed at 7pm, get up at 3am and do the whole thing again.

There was also the time he had food poisoning and was sick six times during his run, which took him longer than usual. And there was also the time he ran into a cow. It’s worth a read.

Aaron runs to raise money for anti-slavery & human trafficking organisation Hope for Justice.

Generations of Wanstead documents stolen

Panels of the church’s main door were prised off

Records of Wanstead marriages, burials and baptisms were among the items stolen by thieves from the office at Christ Church early on Sunday morning.

Money collected at the church’s Christingle service, which had been intended for the Children’s Society, was also stolen, though a JustGiving appeal set up after the thefts has, at the time of writing, raised more than £2,300 for the charity.

The documents however cannot be replaced and the information was not held elsewhere.

Wanstead rector Father James Gilder said: “In the safe were all of our records – who was baptised, who was confirmed, who got married, and also more sadly the records from our garden of remembrance, where people’s ashes are buried.”

The documents were in a safe which the burglars could not break into – so they removed it from the wall and took it away, escaping bizarrely, on an electric scooter. The church is now appealing for anyone who might see a grey box safe dumped nearby to get in touch, as it may contain the documents.

“Please keep a lookout for papers and folders that may get dumped in skips, waste ground, in the parks or forest land in the area,” the parish said on Facebook. “If you do spot anything, please let us know using the contact numbers on our website.”

Especially for you

Pic: Aldersbrook Primary School

A surprise visit from Neighbours star Jason Donovan delighted pupils at Aldersbrook Primary School, and also the co-head, Mr Hughes, who is soon to leave the school and return to Australia.

Mr Hughes is a Donovan-superfan, and so colleagues arranged the surprise trip as a parting gift. The school said on its site: “The uncanny resemblance between Jason Donovan and Mr. Hughes added an extra layer of fun and fanfare, making it a standout memory for everyone who finally witnessed the two Australian superstars standing side by side!” Mr Hughes is on the left. More details and pictures here.

A new police station (of sorts)

Ten years after the Metropolitan Police flogged off Wanstead Police Station, it seems there is something of a return to a local-ish presence.

A new “hub” is being opened in Woodford which will have 20 officers based there, including the Safer Neighbourhood Teams for Wanstead Park, Wanstead Village, South Woodford and other areas. It’s a joint venture between Redbridge and the Met.

In a press release, Redbridge Council said:

The new Woodford Police Hub will be home to at least 20 police officers working in partnership with council staff and Redbridge Housing Officers to prevent antisocial behaviour and support local people across the west of Redbridge.

Police Safer Neighbourhood Teams from Wanstead Park, Wanstead Village, South Woodford, Churchfields, Bridge, and Monkhams will call the new Police Hub home, bringing them closer to their neighbourhoods and cutting down on travel time.

The new Police Hub will sit on the Orchard Estate in Woodford, within 10 minutes travel time of South Woodford, Wanstead, and Monkhams. The Woodford Police Hub follows the installation of Redbridge Enforcement Hubs in Ilford and Hainault, the Mobile Enforcement Hub, and the expanded Town Centre Police Team as the latest development in Redbridge Council’s plan to put police back into the heart of the communities they service.

Wanstead Police Station closed in 2013 after 127 years in service on Spratt Hall Road. The closure came a year after thieves stole the station’s roof.

Five-storey surprise

Image from WeDrawPlans, via Redbridge Planning application 0735/23

Residents in Highstone Avenue, off Cambridge Park, have been somewhat surprised by a planning application for a five story block of flats on their road.

The block would have nine flats, consisting of two one-bedroom flats, five two-bedroom and two three-bedroom.

One resident told Wansteadium: “It looks to be enormous on the plot , and it will be much taller than anything around it. It would have windows and balconies over-looking houses opposite and the care home beside it.

“Most residents aren’t against some building on the plot, but this is out of character and too tall not to cause problems. There seem to be very few 5+ storey buildings in Wanstead, and surely not so close to smaller housing.”

The application, numbered 0735/23 on the Redbridge planning portal, includes a statement saying there is no risk of privacy for other properties, thanks in part to “a large screening of trees”, though the resident pointed out that this would only apply when the trees are in leaf.

The application also contains several references to Newham, including that the site is “adjacent to Barking Road Recreation Ground”.

The application is open to comments now, with an application target date of 1 January.