London Borough of Waltham Forest Community Ward Forum
Hale End and Higham’s Park Ward
Meeting Minutes
Meeting date: Wednesday 14th October 2015
Meeting time: 7:00 – 9:00pm
Location: Thorpe Hall Primary School, 123 Hale End Road, London, E17 4DP
Councillors in attendance:
Cllr Sheree Rackham (Chair)
Cllr Paul Braham
Cllr Tony Bell
Clerk to the Meeting: Ella Coulson
34 resident attendees
No Minutes
1. Welcome and Introductions
 The chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. The minutes were confirmed as an
accurate account of the previous meeting.
 Residents raised awareness of the Community Ward Forum meeting information
not being on the website correctly. They had the wrong date and the wrong venue
for tonight’s meeting.
2.
Hatch Lane Ward, Hale End and Higham’s Park Ward SNT – Declan Maloney
 Declan Maloney is the sergeant for Higham’s Park and Hale End ward, based at
Chingford Police Station. They are still making arrests and dealing with AntiSocial behaviour. They have made 3 arrests to take gang members off the streets
in this ward and are walking with local pay back teams to clear the ward from
graffiti.
 Resident Trevor stated that the Police in North Chingford suggested that Burglars
are taking off the hinges from sheds and therefore suggested for residents to
purchase unscrew able screws. The police stated that it is easy enough to grind
out the screws yourself once you have put the screws on, which will stop you
from being able to pull out the screws.
 Rotavator’s are the popular item which is getting stolen.
 Vehicle crime and house burglaries have gone down. There has only been one
house burglary in the last 6 months.
 Resident stated that his daughter was burgled. They stole her car keys and when
she contacted her insurance company they advised her to get a new key, and
then later on were told that she would have to replace her whole car locking
system or she wouldn’t be insured. This cost her over £1000 including labour.
 The police recommended residents to purchase a disc lock; burglars will not be
able to take the car away with one of these on the steering wheel.
 Ford Fiestas and Nissan Micra’s are popular cars that are stolen. They are
getting sold for parts. There has been an increase in London in the stealing of
sprinter vans for the catalytic converters which contain platinum metal, so they
are scrapped for a good price.
 Resident stated that there have been 3 house burglaries in Sky Peals Road in the
past 3 months.
 The police are aware of the burglaries down Sky Peals Road, but on the whole
house burglaries have gone down and shed burglaries have increased.
 The police had a team meeting today with the Borough Commander. The London
Borough of Waltham Forest and public confidence is higher than a lot of
boroughs in London. The police asked the residents if they would like to be part
of the KIN (Key Individual Network) it is for those that live or work in the
community to communicate with each other and pass on information to the police.
The police will be able to then speak to you direct about Crime prevention, what’s
going on in the ward, hot spots and the latest crime figures.
ACTION: Attendance List to be sent to the Police.
 The police gave an update on the Police Support Community Roles (PCSO’s)
and stated that there are fewer resources for the north which includes this ward.
They are worried about the plight of the PCSO’s, They may be cut and if they do
then this ward will lose Tom and Sue which will be a great loss to the ward. Tom
and sue care about the residents of the wards. The police are hopeful that when
the spending review comes in in December that they will still have PCSO’s.
 The Police feel strongly that any attempt to take away the PCSO’s is worrying.
They have the added advantage of being out there on the streets all the time and
the Police get a lot of good intelligence from them.
 Cllr Rackham stated that she has spoken to Boris Johnson who assured her that
they are committed to local policing. She asked the residents to come together as
we want our local police to remain the way they are and will do anything nail and
hammer.
Action: To send a copy of these minutes to the Deputy Mayor for Policing, City
Hall and asked Residents to all write to Boris Johnson. If they send the letters
to the Cllr’s then the Cllr’s will pass on.
 Resident stated that he had a blocked drain the other day and the contractors
pulled out 4 number plates from the drain. Police stated they would be interested
in gathering this information.
 Declan stated that there is a petrol station on the ward which suffers with people
using stolen number plates and not paying for Petrol. In America you have to pay
before you pump which would be good to see in this ward to rule out petrol and
number plate theft.
 Police used to give out anti-theft number plate screws; these can be purchased
online and are well worth investing in.
 Police handed out ‘We stand together’ leaflets and asked the residents if they
see/hear/think anything in relation to terrorism to ring up 999 straight away and
speak to crime stoppers. They stated to not be afraid to use the 999 system.
Question:
What’s the crime rate like?
Answer:
The crime rate is going down apart from burglaries, shed burglaries on the ward has
increased. We have been targeting individuals and working with the burglary squad
to deal with this and it has gone down since August. There have been a lot of shed
burglaries on allotments. Anything that had a nice lock on it would be targeted. We
got together with the allotment managers to give them crime prevention advice
regarding the sheds.
Question:
Can they track the car tracker if the car has been stolen?
Answer:
In my experience trackers are really good, you can go on the tracker website and it
will show you where your car is.
3.
How to start a Neighbourhood Watch Scheme – Peter Shrubshole
 Peter runs a very successful neighbourhood watch. He started 11 years ago
when one of his neighbours was burgled and another neighbour was very
concerned. They all congregated at a neighbour’s house and after that a smaller
group met where the work started. A police officer attended and arranged the
contacts, signs for lampposts and the stickers for doors. They built up a rota so
that someone was always on the watch.
 The Key thing to a successful Neighbourhood watch is making sure that you
schedule the meetings and ensure you meet on a regular basis. They meet about
every 3 months and there are 10 of them. They discuss items from community
ward councils, crime statistics to local issues. They talk about locking cars, home
security, about the incidents, contact numbers, and remind people to look after
the neighbourhood and anything else they want to talk about or any issues they
want to raise.
 Peter’s neighbourhood watch has been made successful with the support from
the police, who keep in touch with emails.
 At each meeting, notes are taken and are edited and printed and distributed
along the street.
 The wards are eligible to evolve for money; you can have up to £300 a year to
defray the costs. If you do decide to start a group you are never by yourself, there
is a lot of support out there to make it a success.
 They organised a Jubilee street party which had about 200 people attend. Was
very successful and was a way of people introducing each other whom had never
met before.
 They organised an Olympic street party where they had lots of tables, bunting
and a band, they mayor was in attendance and it was a great success.
 They have organised a Play street where they invited children to come out and
play, the road was closed for the day.
 They have had a Crime bus in the road for the day and have arranged a spring
clean.
 They haven’t been free from crime; they have had a murder, car thefts and a
cannabis farm incident down their road.
 They have had help from the councillors, who help tackled any issues that they
are tackling with. They have issues with Private rented accommodation down the
road; these houses are deteriorating on both the inside and out. They are working
on this and the fly tipping.
 Social gatherings have been planned for the future. They have scheduled a
seasonal sing along and will be celebrating the queens 90th Birthday next year.
Question:
How many people can you have and how many streets is the watch for?
Answer:
It is for one road.
Question:
I take it you’re the leader of the neighbourhood watch, are there over people who
can take over your duties if you are unavailable?
Answer:
Yes if I’m not available there are other people there to take over.
4.
Community Ward Forum Money Q+A
 The Community ward forum funding will be decided in December.
5.
The Higham’s Park Society – Sandeep Christian
 The Higham’s Park Society is celebrating their 10th anniversary. In the last 5
years their aim has been to promote community life.
 Higham’s Park is a strange suburb; it was developed as a suburb of
Walthamstow. There are approximately 6,500 – 8000 people in the community.
 The society was set up in 2005, they loved living in Higham’s Park and the
character needing cherishing and nurturing. Higham’s Park had then been split
up over 4 wards, never received the attention it should have.
 The Society helps people enjoy life in Higham’s Park.
 They do talks on local history and guided walks. They have developed the walks
to Bethnal green, Shoreditch and other parts of London.
 There are 250 members in the society.
 They have a Facebook page which has 650 likes. They found having set up the
Facebook page that the awareness has changed.
 The likes range from ages of 20-45.
 Higham’s park day started in 2008 to promote their group and activity. This day
has improved every year, and they had 1000 this year attend.
 A group of volunteers do the gardens every month by the station and have done
since 2006. The society nudges and helps people improve the environment.
 They run a Film club which has been ran since 2008. This is where residents can
go and watch films on a monthly basis in the Baptiste church, the seats are
cushioned and this is a great success.
 About 6 years ago they discussed a farmers market which they could have
located in the station car park for free on a Sunday. 3 years ago got in a
negotiation with Waltham forest council, contacted mike in Essex farmers market
and were able to use that space for £100 a month.
 They have rescued and brought back the Halex Plaques. The society managed to
get them brought back to Higham’s Park, gave them back to the local authority
and were installed in the Hale End Library.
 The pop up shop on the station is re-opening. National Rail gave the society the
old newsagents to open as a temporary pop up shop and this should re-open in
the next 6 weeks or so.
 Mr Max (Barber Shop), The Society paid for an artist to draw a cartoon to be
framed as a present for Mr Max.
 The public art (Tortoise and Hare) will be revealed at the Christmas Fair.
Question:
Who is going to unveil the public art?
Answer:
Councillors can discuss this at the next forum to discuss with the residents who they
would like to unveil the art.
ACTION: If anybody would like to put forward any ideas to open that then
please send to the councillors.
Question:
Is there any place to move the war memorial back to the original sign?
Answer:
When we got the sites the Tesco site was derelict, people are stealing number
plates so this is a worry.
6.
20mph Consultation – Ian Hastings, Traffic Team
 Why is the council introducing a 20mph in the borough? The full council agreed to
roll out a 20mph default speed limit to reduce casualties and improve conditions
for cyclists and residents.
 What’s the reason? To reduce all casualties
 The council has a 20/20 vision for cycling. They received 27m for improving
cycling in the borough
 If a resident was to be hit by a car at 30-35 your survival rate is 50%, if the speed
is lower can be increased to 95%.
 In a 4 year period, there were 3 fatalities, 87 serious injuries. This is only reported
collisions when people are injured. Collisions that don’t involve injury aren’t
included in these figures. The target is to reduce KSI’s (killed/seriously injured) by
2020 down to 45 collisions in a year.
 104 collisions in 5 years included 6 seriously injured and 98 slight accidents, 0
fatal injuries in the last 5 years in this area. Break down across the area includes
6 in the Valley area, 26 in the Larkswood area, and 72 in Higham’s Park.
 What are we proposing now? Currently, consultations are going on in this area
and valley.
 What will this involve? The installation of speed limit signs.
 Police are supportive of local authorities that bring down speed limits.
 TFL support the aims and objectives, slows down traffic and reduces accidents.
 What’s next? The consultation period closed on Monday and in the next few
weeks they will be analysing all responses then will make a decision on how to
proceed.
 Second part of consultation is to propose a statutory notice in the WFN, there will
be a 21 day period to object.
 March 2016 is the aim for it to be installed.
 Teresa went to the Whipps Cross ambulance service to ask them how it affects
them. The Council hasn’t given any consideration to the emergency service;
each hump can add 10 seconds and can be a difference between life and death.
Emergency vehicles have been known to disintegrate for going over humps.
 A resident stated that she cannot understand why local residents would be
against the 20mph speed limit. She stated that residents need to work on the
enforcement; she is happy to have speed limits and humps down her road. Why
pay attention to little details and not take on board the full thing?
 People aren’t against the speed limit they are against the humps, 130 in 60
roads.
 Residents stated that there are roads on the consultation that don’t need speed
bumps.
ACTION: Cllrs stated that this is a far bigger issue to be dealt with at this
meeting tonight, needs to be an open meeting and needs to be taken back to
Cllr Clyde Loakes.
Question:
How is it going to be enforced?
Answer:
Only the Police can enforce the speed limit.
Question:
Are the statistics for the main roads or the side roads?
Answer:
These are for the side roads.
Question:
What you are saying contradicts to what I was told last night at the Valley Ward
Meeting. More accidents have been on Hale End Road and Larkshall Road,
therefore the deadline has been extended because of Monday night ward Meeting.
Can you confirm?
Answer:
Generally speaking we get the response after the deadline which we still look at.
Question:
Were there consultations in all other areas in Waltham Forest?
Answer:
Yes in the areas of south of the north circular road. Which were 80% support rate.
Support was 90% on Winchester road.
Question:
Teresa asked Cllr bell: ‘Surely you’re meant to be impartial and abusing your power
to persuade people’s opinions, you are endorsing your own personal feeling.’
Answer:
Cllr Bell answered: ‘As a Cllr I represent the people who voted for me and didn’t vote
for me. I saw a lot of misleading information put out.
Question:
Cllr Braham asked Ian that one of the last slides it mentioned the fact that the
consultation might be modified once the results have been seen; it’s like moving the
goal post.
Answer:
The proposals could be modified in light of the consultations. If the fire brigade or the
ambulance service wrote to use then the roads can be modified.
Question:
It states in the previous minutes that Mini Holland is coming.
Answer:
Cllr Bell stated that the 20mph consultation is not a predecessor to Mini Holland.
ACTION: Cllrs to take back to the council for the consultation be extended to
give people a proper debate. Residents to email the Cllrs their questions so
they can forward them on and get answers.
7.
AOB
ACTION: Residents to email councillors ideas for agenda items.