Wansteadium

It’s Cherry Pey day, 17 July, so good cheer to one and all.

It had to happen sooner or later.

A new development for a block of 24 flats and a nursery is being proposed for Evergreen Field, the undeveloped but tatty space opposite the Wanstead High Street shops.

Letters are being sent to residents asking their views on the proposal, which has yet to be submitted to Redbridge planning authorities.

The proposal is for:

• A four-storey building
• Space for a nursery for children up to five-years-old
• “Onsite affordable housing”
• Some land at the back of the development to be “given back to the community”.

The developers promise that full details will be included in brochures which are soon to be delivered.

Though news about the site has been quiet for several years, it was the subject of a previous planning application which did not go anywhere. The reason it can be used for housing is that at one stage (when London had police stations) there was a police house on the site.

It was an early proposal for development on the site which led to the formation of the Wanstead Society, the group which among other things goes through local planning applications on behalf of good taste.

This is the letter which is sent to residents:

Congratulations to City Place which has opened its extension in the former Nationwide Building Society, and an impressive space it is too. In just over a year the cafe has become a key presence on the high street*, and the new expanded area will be very useful – in particular for Fringe organisers who are already planning events to be held there this year. Good luck to all the City Place staff.

* [Full disclosure: It also hosts an excellent pop-up bookshelf from Wanstead Bookshop.]

Lots of eyes are on the controversial kiosk cafe on Christchurch Green which has opened for business. Will it lead to a change in the kind of people using the green? Will it lead to a rise or a fall in the amount of litter? Will it increase or decrease anti-social behaviour? Will the impact on high street cafes and shops be noticeable, or could it attract more people to spend time in Wanstead? We’re not sure how these questions will be answered, but at the time of writing, there have been no reports of the sky falling in.

We will however be interested to hear about the plans for small recitals and events which were part of the proposition.

We are delighted to have been proved correct by guessing that the weird new thing outside Wanstead Tube station would be a free water point, though we do hear reports that its opening might have been accelerated by some freelance unveiling. Anyway it’s a great thing. Drinks all round.

Meanwhile longtime reader Mick Terry tells us that the weird yellow box on St Mary’s Ave is the site of a new cabinet for Community Fibre broadband.

A raffle to help raise money for treatment for Wanstead resident Kirstin is running until the end of the month, aiming to help her family reach their £200,000 goal.

Kirstin, 37, has fibromyalgia, PoTS, Vitiligo, ME and other chronic conditions, and needs treatment including spinal fusion and spinal cord surgery.

The family campaign, known as CHRONIC, aims not only to fund Kirstin’s treatment but also to help improve outcomes for others in a similar position.

Her family write:

Anyone who knows Kirstin will tell you she’s a funny, caring person. Before she got too sick to leave the house, we had a standard joke that she would be late because she’d made friends with three people on the way home. What you may or may not know is Kirstin has spent most of her life living with constant pain and illness. It started back in 1991, with Post Viral Syndrome and ME. She was only six years old. Little was known about post viral conditions or their long-term effects and Kirstin has lived with deteriorating health ever since.

The raffle runs until the end of July. Here are the prizes – entries can be made through the campaign’s GoFundMe page, where you can also read more about Kirstin’s story.