Wansteadium

The news that Wanstead is to get a new public swimming pool, revealed in the Redbridge budget plans for next year, has been welcomed but is causing a bit of headscratching.

The council announced the £5.5m plan on Tuesday, saying that is has yet to decide on a venue for the pool. The leader of the council, Cllr Jas Athwal, said:

“I can confirm there will be a pool in the Wanstead area. We are doing feasibility checks and we will be coming out with a site shortly. The pools in the south of the borough are currently at capacity, and we want to make sure residents across Redbridge are able to enjoy a healthy lifestyle.”

He told the Ilford Recorder that the costs of the pool would be recouped by charging users. He also pointed to intangible benefits deriving from people being healthier.

But the news has led some to wonder how the council can afford to make the investment when it has had to reduce spending by tens of millions of pounds. Scott Wilding of the Wanstead Society doubted the value of a new pool, telling the paper: “We want new street lights, we want our grass cut, we want our potholes fixed. We cannot afford this.”

In 2014 there was a temporary pool at Wanstead Leisure Centre which was hugely popular and well-used, and the desire for a pool is a regular demand from residents.

The plan will be discussed as part of the budget proposals by the council next week.

Congratulations to the Wanstead Tap and the Duke which were winners in the annual Time Out Love London Awards. It’s another great showing, especially as it is a contest which continually refuses to accept the existence of Wanstead and lumps our entries into either a Leyton and Leytonstone category or a Forest Gate one. Bravo to both of you.

Congratulations also to Manor House, the Larder, Provender, the Currant and Time for Tea which were also nominated.

We reported that online supermarket Ocado was apparently refusing to take on new customers in Wanstead, saying it was because of levels of fraud. We weren’t sure what that meant, but Wansteadium reader has a clue.

The fraud involves people making orders for an Ocado delivery with a fraudulent credit card and a real delivery address belonging to someone else. They then wait outside the address at the appointed time and pick up the deliveries without them ever having gone into the house.

Our reader writes:
[su_quote]
We’ve been the ‘victim’ of several fraudulent Ocado scams. Those responsible have managed to secure at least three shopping loads. others have been foiled when the delivery driver knocked to check that we really had order £800 of alcohol…we hadn’t!

It’s been a recurring problem so I do sympathise with Ocado. I suspect our house is targeted because we have a drive and shrubs at the front. Those requesting the deliveries book a slot and wait at the front of our property for collection.

I first became aware when Ocado e-mailed me for payment, only for me to explain we hadn’t ordered the items requested (usually immediately apparent because of the volume of spirits ordered).

On at least two occasions the delivery driver knocked to check the items were ours and asked if I wanted the ‘gentleman’ standing by the road, and hidden by the bushes, to take collection. When I walked out to see who it was, they’d vanished and the driver had to re-load the items and leave. He mentioned that it ‘happened all the time’.

There’s clearly two types of fraud. One, where they have simply used our address and waited for the delivery, convincing the driver they own my house and are just about to walk in. Two, they have managed to secure our family name also, and to re-register at our address.

Both are disconcerting, particularly to think people have viewed our house and have often waited on our drive while we are at work.

I’ve talked at length to Ocado customer service with some limited success. I asked for them to only ever delivery directly to me and explained I will always be in to collect a delivery INTO my home and not by a roadside.

They’re a little lacklustre, but it may just be they’re busy folk in a call centre needing to get the next call. I’ve also offered to report to the police but Ocado claim they do this themselves. It feels a little bit  of a ‘victimless’ crime but that’s clearly not the case.[/su_quote]

And in another twist, it turns out Ocado is still advertising for new customers in Wanstead, as spotted by Michael Duffell.

https://twitter.com/MichaelDuffell/status/796617580740050944

Police attended what an eye-witness described as a “knife incident” outside the Tesco Express on Wanstead High Street at 4pm on Tuesday.

The witness, a Wansteadium reader, said the police had “several ruffians in handcuffs” and that there were several police cars in attendance.

• Did you see anything? Let us know by emailing info@wansteadium.com

Snaresbrook will cease to exist – at least as a formal local government entity – following revised proposals on Redbridge’s council boundaries.

The proposal from the Boundary Commission will mean that what has until now been Snaresbrook ward will be divided between South Woodford and a new Wanstead Village ward. The previous set of proposals published earlier this year would have meant “South Woodford and Snaresbrook” being a new ward, but that idea has now been dropped.

Streets around the south end of Hermon Hill as far up as Snaresbrook primary school will now be part of Wanstead Village rather than South Woodford. And roads towards Charlie Brown Roundabout will now be part of South Woodford rather than Wanstead Village.

The dividing line between the two wards is a bit fiddly, but this map indicates where it comes.

One aspect of the proposal which has not been welcomed is the size of the council. Wansteadium reader and local government watcher Clive Power has tweeted that since Redbridge has seen a 19% increase in population over the past five years it needs an increase in the number of councillors.

Poor recommendation by @LGBCE that no of #Redbridge cllrs should remain same despite 19% increase in electors in just 5 yr period, 2016-2021 pic.twitter.com/SdLcrD4oNE

— Clive Power (@ClivePower) November 8, 2016

The full details of the proposal can be seen here at the Local Government Boundary Commission website.

It looks like the weekly year-round door-to-door garden waste collection will soon become a thing of the past.

The collection in the winter months was introduced just two years ago, but proposals to be discussed by Redbridge next week could revert to the previous situation where waste was collected in summer months only. If agreed, collections would stop in December and not begin again until March. In future years collections would run only between March and November.

Councillor John Howard, Cabinet member for Environment and Sustainability, said: “In 2013 the Council extended the Green Garden Waste collection so that it continued all year round.  This was possible thanks to £1.1m of funding from the Department of Communities and Local Government.

“This funding has now run out and we need to adapt to this and the other financial pressures we face.  We don’t want to scrap the service because we know residents really value it so we propose to make it available at the times of the year when there is the greatest need.”

At the time it was introduced, Wansteadium did wonder how much green garden waste was actually produced by gardeners in the depths of winter, though having the door-to-door collection of Christmas trees was undoubtedly welcome.

If the proposals are agreed though, a collection of Christmas trees will still take place in the first two weeks of January, on the same day as normal rubbish and recycling.