Wanstead roundup, 21.1.12; Cycles, picnics and coffee pots. (And, ahem, pee)

*Plans to introduce cycle lanes across the middle of Christ Church Green – from the High Street to Woodbine Place -  have been dropped by councillors. Redbridge has been given a £250,000 grant by TfL to promote cycling. Wansteadium readers may well have ideas for how the money could be spent (via the comments form, if you please).

* Anyone planning ahead for street parties for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee can now apply for permission to close roads via the council site. Organisers of the Big Lunch – a collective picnic – are planning their event to coincide with celebrations on for Sunday 3 June.

*A new display has been installed in Wanstead Library. It’s of Ethiopian coffee pots, and tells the story of the significance of the Ethiopian coffee ceremony. Wansteadium reader Peter Chamberlain is responsible for the display, and writes that the pots can be bought for £12 each, of which £2 is paid to the potter in Ethiopia, £1 for transport, and the remaining £9 to Save the Children. He can be contacted at pjchamberlain@ntlworld.com.

*British Transport Police have issued a CCTV image of a man they want to question in relation to an assault on a 34-year-old woman at Snaresbrook station on Christmas Eve.

*Redbridge has a plan to offer to rehouse pensioners whose own houses are now too big for them, and in return take on the letting of those houses to families. The plan is not yet in action, but has won praise from the government this week.

*Wanstead cafes are expected to see a surge in bewigged fellows lunching this week. Suggestions for what a judge might eat for lunch are welcome.