Clapton Pond Blog

Hackney: Top For Parks

From Londra Gazete

"Hackney's Parks Service has achieved seven prestigious Green Flag awards and a Green Heritage award in this year's national awards for parks and green spaces. The Green Flag Award scheme, managed by the Civic Trust, is the national standard for parks and green spaces in England and Wales. Of the 26 London boroughs given Green Flag Awards this year, only eight, including Hackney, have seven or more. This achievement is a significant improvement on last year when Hackney received four Green Flags, up from two in 2006."

Yippee!

Understatement Corner

Stoke Newington Kris is not a Nando's fan.

Clapton Park Estate

From last Saturday's Guardian:

"Five years ago, Clapton Park in Hackney, east London, was much like many other urban estates: not especially pretty, but then not particularly ugly either. Just another unremarkable collection of mainly low-rise blocks interspersed with 200 bits of largely uninspiring green 'space'; mostly mown grass with the odd tree and shrub here and there."

In case you missed it (like me).

Poop Scoop Promotion

This latest example of my famously inadequate photography shows - if you click on it and squint - a Safer Neighbourhoods Environmental Enforcement and Pollution Control exercise taking place yesterday on the Downs. This may sound terrifying, but at the heart of it was a poop scoop promotion. The park ranger is clutching a Fido Facts Pack - a bunch of information for dog-owning park users produced by the Council's Neighbourhoods and Regeneration directorate. Each contained a leaflet from the Dogs Trust called Being A Good Dog Owner, a pamphlet from Encams called Dog Fouling and The Law and a green, 100% biodegradable plastic bag for scooping your dog's poop into. Now, I'm not a dog owner so it could be argued that my accepting a Fido Fact Pack from the park ranger represents a waste of tax-payers' money. On the other hand, I've communicated information about its contents to a potential worldwide audience of millions. My conscience is clear. What a relief.

The Killer Crossing (Pt3)

We all know The Killer Crossing, the three-way death trap at the junction of Lower Clapton Road and Downs Road. Regular readers will also know that something substantial is eventually going to be done about it by Transport for London, and that the little bit that's been done about it so far isn't much use. You may - or may not - take comfort from this letter sent to a kind reader by the Council about progress towards the longer term solution:

Dear Mr von Ziegenweidt,

Thank you for your e-mail of March 1st regarding the Lower Clapton Road/Cricketfield Road junction. I have spoken with representatives from Transport for London (TfL) on this matter and have received confirmation that changes to the junction to incorporate pedestrian facilities are in the outline design stages.

Unfortunately designs have not been released to the borough for comment but the next step for TfL will be to consult with all stakeholders, including residents, on any proposal. I am therefore unable to confirm if the outline design has included cycle facilities such as advance stop lines (ASL's) however current TfL cycling documentation recommends ASL's at signal junctions and I have asked for assurances that cycling facilities are included in the final design.

Yours sincerely

Steve Walker
Traffic and Transportation Manager
Neighbourhoods and Regeneration
Tel: 020 8356 8157
steve.walker@hackney.gov.uk
www.hackney.gov.uk

Slowly but surely...?

Squatters At Chimes?

The word you can't see on the banner on the left is "social". Looks to me like the longer-defunct Chimes pub next to the now-defunct Palace Pavilion has some new inhabitants. [See map]

The Talk Of Clapton Terrace

It's going on here.

The Killer Crossing (Continued)

I recently posted about the "Killer Crossing" by the Pond at the junction of Lower Clapton Road and Downs Road. This followed a reader inquiring if it was ever to be improved. I knew there'd been talk of this for some time but no action. Cllr Rathbone brought me up to date. Deep breath...

Ian explained that he, Cllr Kelly and the Clapton Pond Neighbourhood Action Group have been trying for two years to get Transport for London to make improvements. To cut a tortured story short, they finally got the bureaucrats' attention last April and duly issued a press release (reproduced below). Not much happened until Ian got our GLA member Jennette Arnold involved and a scheme was drawn up involving better crossing points and preventing traffic turning right out of Downs Road onto Lower Clapton. And then, as Ian puts it:

"They dropped the bombshell that nothing could be done until April 2009 financial year. I pressed them about taking some remedial action now. They said they would resurface the road and tidy up the kerbing and pavement in this financial year ie before next April. I have to ask – will they keep their promise this time?"

Well, work has been going on. The kerbing has been tidied up. But what good has it done? My previous post on this subject contained an approximation of a conversation between my wife Sheila and a workman improving a nearby pavement. They have since conversed some more.

Sheila: "How's it going then?"

Workman: "Total waste of time. We sorted out the kerb, but a bus has been over it already. Squashed it all out of place again."

Sheila: "Well, at least it's keeping you busy. It's sort of Keynesian."

Workman: "We've got another word for it."

Watch this space!

Sewage & The River Lea

Last week I reported "that raw sewage from south Tottenham is being disgorged into our bit of the River Lea." I don't just make this stuff up, you know. Nigel Lewis, the resident who disclosed this alarming news at the North East Neighbourhood Committee meeting has very kindly emailed me all the information he has unearthed. Jules Pipe confirmed at the meeting that he'd recently made the same discovery in the course of his work on the Olympics, adding that some properties in Hackney too had soil pipes plumbed straight into the Lea. Here's the bulk of what Nigel wrote to me:

"The case I had heard about concerns the culvert, formerly a brook called the Moselle Brook, flowing into the Lea from the area called Markfield Recreation Ground, in the South Tottenham ward of Haringey. A spokesperson for Thames Water told me that of the 30,000 households served by this drain, an estimated 10% had been wrongly plumbed in, so that sewage was entering the river on a 24-hours a day, all-year basis. The thing you need to understand is that whereas most of London, including Hackney, is served by a combined drainage system, the system in Haringey has separate drainage for sewage and other dirty water, and for rain run-off from roofs, gardens, roads, etc.

This run-off drainage is piped into the river. But people have been connecting sewage pipes to this storm drain. The irony is that a system that was meant to make London, the Lea, and the Thames cleaner, is now making it dirtier, because it has been abused. I am told there is also sewage coming into the Lea from further up, from Pymme's Brook in Edmonton. I think you can find this in the A to Z. A year ago, someone who has been trying to deal with this problem for some twenty years was told that it would all be cleared up in six years. Presumably, this sudden urgency is because of the Olympics. If it's true, it means the problem will be sorted out within the next five years."

Nigel adds that he thinks there was some TV coverage of this issue quite recently, featuring the resident of one of the narrow boats or barges docked near Springfield rowing club. If this rings any bells or anyone else knows anything more, please get in touch. I know the Gazette is interested in this story too.

Clissold Park Refurbishment

From QS Week:

"London Borough of Hackney has appointed LDA Design and Jacobs UK to cost manage and deliver a £7 million upgrade of Clissold Park and House in North East London. Hackney won £4.5 million funding under the Big Lottery Fund Parks for People programme, based on a masterplan by Land Use Consultants, last year."

Now read on.