Wansteadium

Wanstead’s food blogger Suki Orange notes: Congratulations to Luppolo for making it into the Shortlist magazine hunt for the perfect pizza. Not bad coverage for a restaurant not a month old, even if the pizza in question is the one which bewildered me for my review last week, (baby octopus). I cant help be mystified by Shortlist’s descriptions of “the wilds of Wanstead” though, and as for one of the main advantages of Luppolo being within sight of the Tube, I’ve got nothing.

#itslikeajungle @Snaresbrook pic.twitter.com/gjzG9SzArO

— Jungle Angelo (@jungleangelo) January 7, 2015

Snaresbrook station is not concrete, thank you very much. It’s rather fine brickwork.

Despite fears that the changes in Redbridge Council funding could mean the Wanstead Festival would no longer take place, the council decided on Monday evening to continue to back the event. The Health, Leisure and Older People service committee agreed to put £10,000 of council tax money behind the event, meaning it can take place as normal.

Regular readers will remember that the changes in funding, which involved the axing of the area committees, was the trigger to the community fundraising effort which raised more than £3k to pay for the Wanstead Christmas tree.

However, since the tree was put up, there have been claims on social media and elsewhere that the trees in other parts of the borough were in fact funded by the council despite the ending of the area committees. Wansteadium has been trying to get confirmation or denial of this from Redbridge Council, and will update this post if it gets it.

The following is the item from the council papers describing the Wanstead Festival.

And this is how the decision was reported via the council Twitter account.

The Committee now considers proposals for funding £65,000 of events and activities in the Borough.

— Redbridge Council (@RedbridgeLive) January 5, 2015

The events include Armed Forces Day, Wanstead Festival, Fairlop Fair, London Youth Games, LGBT History Month and Black History Month

— Redbridge Council (@RedbridgeLive) January 5, 2015

Cllr Littlewood says that these events can and have been very successful and we need to be reminded of the value of these kinds of events

— Redbridge Council (@RedbridgeLive) January 5, 2015

Cllr Nolan and Cllr Littlewood add that they would like to see a commitment for the future funding of these events.

— Redbridge Council (@RedbridgeLive) January 5, 2015

The Committee agree the report

— Redbridge Council (@RedbridgeLive) January 5, 2015

Other events which will also be funded include the following, and appear here as described in the council papers:

• London Youth Games (£1,800)
• Armed Forces Day (£5,000)
• Barley Lane ‘Our Community Festival’ (£10,000)
• Woodford Festival (£5,000)
• Fairlop Fair (£10,000)
• Town Centre Events including Ken Aston Square (£15,000)
• Celebratory/Recognition programme, ie Black History Month, LGBT History Month, Anti-Slavery (£7,200)

From Geoff Wilkinson at Wanstead Daily Photo.

Action at the Laundrette in Wanstead High Street on Saturday afternoon.

Pictures by sharp shooter Marcus Tylor.

There’s never been more coffee on offer in Wanstead, and lots of it’s pretty good. But this latest bit of product differentiation – from Manor House – raises the stakes. File under middle class dilemmas.