Author: Wansteadium

Wanstead news roundup, 14.5.11; Driving, sauna, parking

• Wanstead driving test centre has the lowest pass rate of any centre in the country, says the Wanstead Guardian. It’s not quite true – figures from the DSA show Thornbury centre to be marginally worse – but it’s still very very low. The paper says low incomes are to blame, but that doesn’t seem to ring true somehow. Other explanations welcome.

• The bosses of the Wanstead Sauna have been jailed for a total of three-and-half years for conspiracy to control prostitution.

• A campaign against proposed parking changes on streets in central Wanstead has been launched. Details on poster below (click image for larger version).

Peace breaks out over Wanstead trees

Two weeks ago, we reported how Wansteadium reader Pete Daly was starting a campaign against the planned felling of 11 horse chestnut trees on St Mary’s Avenue. Pete now writes:

I met with Peter Marshall on Saturday morning. Peter is (I believe) the chief Arboriculturalist at Redbridge. Peter provided me with a copy of his report on the trees in the avenue. Each tree has been examined and classified by age and general condition. We walked the entire length of the avenue stopping at each condemned tree in turn and Peter described and showed me in great detail why each tree needed to be felled. I have to admit that the condemned trees are in a very poor state and I can understand the council’s concerns. As Peter said if they are aware that a tree is in a poor state and subsequently a part of the tree falls on something or someone then the council are liable. Peter did say that there were a number of trees that were on the borderline but they had been reprieved to limit the impact on the appearance of St Mary’s Avenue.
 
There was much that Peter told me that I had not previously appreciated, most significant of all was that all trees have a natural lifespan (obvious when you think about it) and that the average lifespan of a white Horse Chestnut is 100 – 150 years. Most of the trees in the Avenue are in that age range.
 
Another thing that Peter told me was that the trees were originally planted too close together resulting in some trees being out competed for moisture, nutrients and light by other, lager, tress resulting in smaller, weaker more disease prone trees.
 
Of course there is the problem of the leaf boring moth which has been attacking the trees for some years now contributing to the general poor condition of some of the trees.
 
When everything is taken into account I do not believe that Redbridge Council are overreacting to the problem. I do not believe that this is a case of Health and Safety gone mad.
 
The work to fell the trees has been postponed until all the concerns that have been raised by both the public and local councillors have been addressed. Once the trees have been felled Peter plans to consult with all interested parties on what trees will be planted to replace those that have been removed. As Peter said there is little point just replacing the trees with more white horse chestnuts as the leaf boring moth will severely impact on their growth.
 
Peter is a real tree enthusiast. It was good of him to spend so much of his time on a Saturday morning talking to me. He actually said that he likes people like me who care about the trees. Mostly he gets requests from people who want trees cut down because they are dropping sap in their Cars!
 
I will be sad to see the trees go but at least I have challenged the decision and now fully understand the reasoning behind the decision.
 
Thank you for your coverage of my brief campaign.
Regards

Pete

Two forms of ID to go to the tip

It sounds like a joke, but from today, Monday 9 May, you will need to take two forms of identification before you are allowed to take rubbish to the Chigwell Road tip recycling centre.

You will need to take a council tax bill AND your driving licence, though the FAQ on Redbridge-i indicates there might be some flexibility if you haven’t got the document for some reason. Failing that, though, if you don’t have both there will be a £10 charge for a car-load.

It seems that drivers will have to provide the ID before they enter the site – rather than there being spot checks – and so there is clearly a chance of queues forming. However, the council site says that the reason the ID checks are being introduced is that lots of people from outside the area are using the tip – and so the amount of traffic going there will, they hope, be cut.

One Wansteadium reader Wendy said: It seems ridiculous to me, and surely guaranteed to increase fly-tipping, but also very annoying if you turn up after the 9th May without your ID

Further details here.

• From today, cardboard can be included in the blue household paper recycling boxes.

Quantum physics in Wanstead

Wansteadium reader Thomas Downey writes:

Last night as part of the Redbridge Book and Media Festival, Wanstead library provided the venue for an interesting discussion entitled Quantum Theory Cannot Help You.

The event was organised by the Newham bookshop and the invited speakers were Marcus Chown and ManJit Kumar. Both are well known authors who have written books on the topic. The event was well attended with additional seating required just before the off to cater for latecomers.

The first order of business was for hosts from Newham Books to apologise for the typo in the title, it was supposed to be a play on the title of one of Marcus Chowns books “Quantum Theory Cannot hurt you: A guide to the universe” this was a nice way of opening a potentially tricky evening.

Marcus gave an interesting overview of Quantum theory; it covers the micro world of atoms and electrons. Primarily it tries to explain theory of particles and waves. As someone who has an interest in the discipline but not the requisite undergraduate degree, he lost me when discussing the concept of the Superposition. Marcus was a good speaker and tried to explain his complex topic in an interesting and informative way.

Manjit Kumar was the second speaker and has written a well received book called “Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality” – this is the history of the people who created modern physics. Manjit was an engaging speaker and told the story of the key players well. It was very interesting how the giants of the field could accept the mathematics of a theory but not like its outcome and believe there other possible alternatives. This lack of belief lead to tensions and fall outs between the main protagonists in the field.

Some of the takeaways from the evening for the audience was how much we don’t know about the universe; apparently its estimated that we only understand 4% of our universe and that the world is really full of big empty spaces.

This was illustrated by the quote that if you squeezed all the empty space out all the people bodies on planet earth, we would all fit in a single sugar cube, mind you a very heavy one.

The Q&A session at the end was lively and I hope that the authors sold many books which was the purpose of a very entertaining but in the end for me a confusing evening.