Thursday, 22 December 2011
Friday, 4 November 2011
Vandals Strike in Leabank Square
Sometime in the afternoon they struck and destroyed the beautifully painted recycled noticeboard. Unfortunately no-one saw who did it - but a few of the younger Gardening Club members told me that they saw it fly-tipped in the domestic bin area.
To rub salt in their wounds - the vandals seem to make their destruction even crueler by throwing the destroyed noticeboard in our own refuse area!! Perhaps they are trying to make some kind of point?
Anyhow - once the spring comes along again we'll do an even better one for the garden.
Monday, 10 October 2011
Hummingbird Hawk Moth visits Leabank Square
A couple of these Hummingbird Hawk Moths were sucking nectar from the Verbena in the Purple Garden on the riverbank this morning. Please do yourself a favour and go up to have a look. They are absolutely stunning!!
You can see why they are named after the Hummingbird - they hover above each tiny flower sucking as much nectar from them as possible. The long proboscis even resembles the Hummingbirds beak!
According to the Butterfly Conservation website (http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/Moth/440/Moth.html?MothId=100) they come over from North Africa - and sometimes hibernate here over the winter. Thanks to the kids in the Gardening Club - there are plenty of hidy-holes for them do that this winter - here's hoping!!
Tuesday, 13 September 2011
New Olympic Shops Open!!
For months now - every Hackney Wicker has been storing their pennies just for this very day. The extra security laid on was definitely needed to control the crowd as the doors finally opened - and what incredible treats awaited the patient!
Brand new chrome decorations and superbly finished interiors welcomed the throng. Say what you want about the products on sale - but no expense has been spared by the Olympic Chicken people. They really know how to spoil us.
Oh - and some other shops also opened around the corner in Stratford today as well.
Wednesday, 17 August 2011
Welcome to Leabank Square Iwona & Zibby
We’d like to thank them both for choosing our community to make their new home and thank them for helping to spruce up their side of the riverbank.
Tuesday, 2 August 2011
BBCs Adrian Warner visits Leabank Square
This is another part of the grand plan to make locals feel very disconnected to the playing fields, orchards, nutteries & allotments that used to be here for us all to enjoy. 'Hey - ask the whole of the UK what we should call Arena Fields - without telling them anything about its past - and call it democracy'
Anyhow - the BBC's Adrian Warner paid a visit to Leabank Squares Purple Garden this evening to do his piece. Nice guy - even if his TV voice is a little dull - and he loves Leabank Square.
Thanks to all the kids who made his visit entertaining.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14364485
Sunday, 31 July 2011
Leabank Square Swans - The Latest!
Wednesday, 27 July 2011
Olympic Legacy - Leabank Square's Concerns.
Of course - no journalist can ever capture the sheer cliff-like monstrosity of the Olympic site that faces us - but I tried to put across what most of us feel about the architecture.
More than anything - I spoke about what we all want after the games. Leabank Square has always had the short straw as far as the construction work is concerned. We were the first to have buildings constructed - pulled down - re-constructed, pulled down again - and now rebuilding yet more temporary buildings directly opposite us - again for them to be demolished.
then - we have about 5 more years of be-designing & building whoever takes over the media centre as well.
There is not one part of the Olympic site that will have had noise, dust & mayhem - only to be left with the most underwhelming architecture for us to stare at for many decades to come!!
I told Caroline all this - and I think she did a very good article on balance. She got over what most of us feel about all the decade of disruption the Olympics have brought to Leabank Square.
For link to the article - see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jul/25/2012-olympics-hackney
Thursday, 14 July 2011
Art for Leabank Square Green
At 1st glance it might just seem to be an orange plank - until you take a walk around the rest of Hackney Wick & Fish Island.
You will notice a few more orange pieces dotted all around the streets.
They are the work of the brilliant new artist Rowan Durrant. He has identified a few places where something has just been neglected - and has put them right - but in orange.
We all know that PMMS have completely neglected Leabank Square for years - and have left some parts to rot away and decay. For this privilege - we have paid them shedloads of 'service' charge. The bench on the green has been broken for 3 years - and despite several attempts to get them to fix it - it takes an artist who doesn't even live here - to get it done.
He's done the same in a few other spots around our streets. Signs the councils have just left broken - 'street furniture' the authorities have just never bothered to replace, rails etc.
So whether you see our new installation as art, a message to some one in so called authority that they have failed, an audit of how western 'civilisation' is just not bothered - whatever your take is - just get out there and do it!!
Make your own art!
Please see: http://rowandurrant.com/
Friday, 8 July 2011
Olympic Noise & Dust - Part 2012
Hi Robert
I hope that Hackney is being sufficiently environmentally well behaved of late – and not causing you & your team any extra work. I tried to contact you many times today - but the phone just rang & rang.
I’m writing on behalf of several residents concerned about recent noise & dust levels over the canal.
Noise.
I’m aware that both the ODA & Thames Water are sharing Arena Fields for the foreseeable future – and we as lay neighbours have no way of distinguishing who is doing what. But that is slightly irrelevant – as all work is being carried out in the Olympic park – and as such – needs to be seen to by you.
The mission-creep I have spoken to you of many times - has returned in the now 7.30am trucks running along Arena Fields. The agreement was for an 8am start for heavy machinery to fire up their engines.
During the day – the noise levels are extremely high – and we urgently need your mobile noise monitoring team to come down & check their levels. (On that – please contact me for a key for the new lock – as somebody vandalised & stole the old lock & chain).
Dust.
The ODA have a few bowsers trundling along the ring road every now & then – which I suppose is for their own drivers dust free journeys. All the dust lifting off and landing in our lungs is coming straight off the huge mounds of sand on Arena Fields.
Occasionally we have seen some kind of sprayer trying to dampen down the mounds – but not anywhere near enough! When you stand up on the riverbank – you can actually see the sand being blown across into Leabank Square. There is absolutely no attempt by the teams working right up against the electric fence to water any of their earth-works down at all.
All the neighbours I have spoken to have said that there has been a marked increase in dust inside our homes.
Robert – I really try to keep our correspondence down to reasonable levels – but things are building up to a peak again.
We all received the Thames Water flyer this morning about extended working hours on this & next weekend. I thought the agreement was for any extended working hours inside the Olympic park to be flagged up at least 2 weeks in advance – so that we can make some alternative arrangements for our noise & dust free evening meals? How did this arrangement slip through your normally tight net?
Leabank Square has always had the worst of all the Olympic construction by-products:
They chopped down our orchard & nuttery in Arena Fields.
The horrible soil washing plant was set up directly opposite us (initially planned to operate till 8pm!)
The intimidating electric fence was put up with intrusive CCTV cameras.
The temporary ring-road took more green space away.
The massive grey drab media centre was constructed directly in front of us.
The temporary welfare centre was plonked in front of us.
The temporary welfare centre was demolished.
The last trees were felled.
The water main is being dug up & replaced.
The massive temporary journo’s catering compound is being constructed directly in front of us.
Robert – there isn’t another part of the Olympic park that has had so many different activities happen in such a concentrated area. And as far as we can tell – this was all done with the bare minimum noise & dust mitigation.
No matter what readings their gadgets have given – we can hear the noise – and feel the dust – and both are way higher than any of our friends who do not live in Leabank Square quality of life.
I trust you will look into the concerns we have – and get back to me as soon as possible.
Peace
Sóna
Dear Geoff Bailey
My name is Sóna Abantu-Choudhury and I live in Leabank Square in Hackney Wick.
This is directly opposite the new water mains you are busy laying along the Lea River Navigational Canal in the Olympic Park.
This morning we all received a flyer from you stating that you have received Hackney Council permission to work all the way through this & next weekend. Several of us residents have spent all day calling the number on your flyer - but had to listen to your music instead.
We all object to these new construction times in the strongest terms!!
The work you have been carrying out along the canal has been exceedingly difficult for us to bear for the past few months – and we’ve bared & grinned it – in the hope that you would just get on with it and finish the work as soon as possible.
This has obviously not happened!
This weekend we have planned an annual barbecue on our riverbank – for which we are frantically trying to contact as many residents as possible to postpone.
We had always had an agreement with the ODA that any weekend work would be given in writing to us at least 2 weeks in advance – so that this kind of thing simply cannot happen.
In addition to this – your workers have never ever seen fit to provide any kind of mitigation whatsoever while carrying out this pipe laying. There has never been an attempt to erect any sound barriers. There has never been an attempt to water down any of the sand & dust you create.
This is making our lives completely unbearable – and now you want to do it on the only days we have free to enjoy a barbecue.
Please reflect on all this – and get back to me with a suitable reply.
Yours
Sóna Abantu-Choudhury
Thursday, 23 June 2011
Movies on The River Lea!!
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Sunday, 19 June 2011
Planting Wildflowers for Mabley Meadow
Thanks too to the old hands, Zoulla and Paul. Together we planted up some Betony, Agrimony, Cowslip and Teasel. We’re sure they’ll look stunning in the meadow later this year!
Saturday, 18 June 2011
Last chance to comment on 'Hackney Wick Hub'
Very many thanks to Ruth for posting this comment - please read it and act on it - it really does affect every single one of us:
The consultation on a major development around Hackney Wick station is to close this weekend and residents have just a couple more days to have their opinions heard.
Plans for more than 150 flats, several shops and retail units around a pedestrian area off Wallis Road, and a "hi-tech" hub of affordable workspaces has been proposed by landowners London Thames Gateway Development Corporation (LTGDC).
At the end of May, the designers and architects behind the project came to the Wick for a couple of days to display and discuss the plans, and now the consultation is drawing to a close.
Any opinions and ideas need to be with them before the end of this weekend (Sunday June 19) because they intend to submit their planning application to Hackney Council on the June 24th, next Friday. Once they have planning application they will find a developer to buy the land.
Outline drawings and descriptions of the proposal are available on the corporation's website, here: (http://ltgdc.org.uk/ltgdc-news/development-news/hackney-wick-hub-proposals/) There is not lots of detail but it gives you an idea of where it will be and says there will retail units, including bars, restaurants, perhaps a bank, shops, and takeaways, 6000sqm of affordable workspaces, and more than 130 studio, one-bed, two-bed and three-bed flats.
Based on chats with the designers it also seems the idea is to have:
Affordable workspaces
The chief executive of the corporation which owns the land has said, in this interview with journalist Paul Norman, that they want to create a "hi-tech" hub for the business and people being priced out of Silicon Roundabout [Old Street] and Shoreditch.
"Something a little bit different"
The chief executive also said they wanted a developer who would do something a "little bit different" with the homes and leisure parts of the development and spoke praisingly of home-grown Wick projects like a recent opera in a warehouse. During the consultation visits, the architects/designers etc were very keen to emphasise their intention to do something a little bit different and make sure it was in keeping with Hackney Wick.
How can the development encourage something a little bit different? What does Hackney Wick want or need in terms of leisure?
No social housing
At the consultation it appeared that there would be no affordable rented accommodation (eg. social housing). This is because of concerns that there is no nearby space for kids/families to play - perhaps they see Vic Park, Hackney Marshes & the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as too far away?
There "may be" shared ownership housing for sale, but it was not definite.
Should there be affordable housing? Or is there enough in Hackney Wick already?
New shopping street
Some of the units for shops, cafes, restaurants and pubs are large - big enough for a chain shops like Tesco. If Hackney Wick didn’t want big chains, one option is to make the units relatively small in order to deter chains and make it affordable for independent traders or provide space for local creatives to sell their goods. However, the landowners point out that bigger units make the project more commercially viable for the developer.
At the moment the planning application does not specify any unit size in order to allow flexibility for the developer. Is that right?
What do you think...?
Email Thames Gateway Corporation (http://ltgdc.org.uk/contact-us/) to give your views on the Hackney Wick Hub before the consultation closes on Sunday June 19th.
And keep on eye on this blog to see what their final plans are and find out when Hackney Council will make a decision on the planning application.
Friday, 3 June 2011
Leabank Square Swans - Latest
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Tim Webb RSPB visit to Leabank Square
He was very impressed with what everyone’s done with the Purple Garden – and even more happy with its attractiveness to birds.
He gave us brilliant advice about the swans, coots & he even discovered that heaps of the House Martins are actually nesting right here in Leabank Square – as well as next to in Gainsborough School.
Tim left some very useful leaflets about gardening in a way that lets nature deal with any pests you may have – so please shout if you want one.
Thanks for the visit Tim – you’re welcome back anytime!