It will be open to the public from 10.30 am until 4.30 pm on Saturday 22nd September as part of the national Open House event.
There will be a display of vintage buses as well as displays of the history of bus travel.
In addition there will be vintage bus tours to Stagecoach London’s newest bus station in West Ham, which will depart every 15 minutes.
As the Paralympics has drawn to a close, local people will be thinking about what is going to happen to the venues and the Olympic Park as a whole. The following update has been received from Caroline Pidgeon, Liberal Democrat Leader on the London Assembly:Earlier this year the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) was established to deliver the physical, social, economic and environmental regeneration in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and surrounding area after the 2012 Games. This new mayoral body takes over from a number of organisations and will have planning powers from October 2012.
Much work has been carried out to ensure that there is a permanent future for each permanent venue in the park.
The Stadium has received four bids: from West Ham United, Intelligent Transport Services in association with Formula One, UCFB College of Football Business and Leyton Orient. They are now being evaluated ahead of negotiations. These bids would add to the legacy uses already secured for the Stadium such as host to the IAAF 2017 World Athletics Championships.
The Aquatics Centre will be operated by Greenwich Leisure Limited and will cater for all levels of swimming ability and aquatic disciplines for the community and training athletes. Similarly the Handball Arena LINK will be transformed into a multi-use arena used for a wide range of indoor sports training and competitions as well as cultural and business events.
The Velodrome will be owned and managed by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and will be known as the Lee Valley VeloPark. The velodrome will need very little transformation and will become the hub of the VeloPark. The BMX track will remain, but be reconfigured, and a road cycle circuit and mountain bike courses will be added.
The Press and Broadcast Centre now has a preferred bidder iCITY to become the long term tenant. iCITY aims to create a leading centre for technology, design and research with the potential to generate more than 4,000 jobs. The digital hub would harness innovation and creativity in east London. The iCity vision also has a community focus including a conference centre and a pedestrian square for broadcasting major sporting events, along with cafes, restaurants and bars.
After the 2012 Games, the park will be closed and works will start to take down temporary venues and to adapt some of the existing venues for future use, as well as building more housing. The park will be re-opening in phases starting in 2013.
During this period the following temporary buildings are scheduled to be removed:
The Planning Committee gave approval to the revised plans for Drapers Field, which the Council has decided is to become a park.
The outline plan shows the intended layout – and full details can be found on the Council website – under the Planning Explorer, quoting application number 2012/0482/LA.
The larger pitch is the new artificial turf football/hockey pitch, whilst the smaller is a junior grass pitch.
In front of the pavilion is an urban sand area, which can be used by younger children for beach volleyball.
Also prominent is a permanent diagonal footpath, which is intended for use by students of Chobham Academy, as a ‘walk to school’ route rather than using the pavement.
When the Council and the ODA decided to implement the temporary Olympic Controlled Parking Zone, it was clearly stated that it would be withdrawn on the 9th September following the closure of the Paralympic Games.
The Council also stated that they would be undertaking a consultation with the residents to find out if, in the light of their experience during the Games, they wished to make the Controlled Parking Zone permanent.
The Lib Dems have now discovered that the Council has already published a Traffic Order allowing them to extend the temporary provision for 18 months. It also states that the Council will be considering ‘in due course’ whether the provisions of the experimental orders should be continued in force indefinitely by means of permanent Orders.
Liberal Democrats feel very strongly that there is no need for permanent parking restrictions in most of the roads in areas GO1 – GO10, as they do not have a history of parking problems.
All residents are urged to send in written objections to both the temporary 18 month extension and the permanent CPZ to the Council at:
Closing date for objections: 8th February 2013
The planning application is due to be heard by the Planning Committee on 2nd. August.
Full details can be found on the Council’s website:
Any comments should be sent to:
The Council has lodged a planning application for the reinstatement of Drapers Field when it relinquished by the Olympic Delivery Authority.
Post Olympic reinstatement as a public park including provision of sports pitches (including a relocated synthetic turf pitch), formation of new play areas, refurbishment of the pavilion, new pathways and landscaping
Any comments on this application should be addressed to:
The Cathall Liberal Democrats are concerned that copies of the plans and other documents are not readily available on the council’s website.
They understand that one proposal is for a footpath to be laid down stretching from the entrance in Temple Mills Lane directly to the exit in Leyton High Road, to encourage students from Chobham Academy to cut across the playing field rather than use the existing pavement. This effectively reduces the amount of space for sporting activities. Indeed, the full-size grass football pitch has already been abandoned, leaving just the junior pitch.
The Playing Pitch Strategy says that the south of the borough is under provided with playing pitches. Are the council not interested in encouraging sporting activities in Leyton?
Along with Lib Dem Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee, Caroline Pidgeon AM, he joined morning commuters from Barking on Friday 23rd March to see how a recently added relief train had eased the overcrowding for part of the morning rush.
At Woodgrange Park, while waiting for the relief train Brian spoke with a member of the station staff and saw that the line through the station was already electrified, BGOLUG members explaining that the line was already electrified at both ends and in the middle, at South Tottenham, but needed around £30m to “fill in the gaps” and electrify it throughout.
Freedom of Information requests and answers to questions by Caroline Pidgeon show that following a break down in negotiations with the then Secretary of State, Labour’s Lord Adonis, soon after taking office, Mayor Boris Johnson has personally done nothing further to advance the case for electrification and has twice declined to travel on the line see the problems for himself.
Transport for London (TfL) have included the line’s electrification with 4-coach trains in recommendations to the Government for the next 5-year rail investment period which is to be announced by Secretary of State Justine Greening in around three months time.
The new London Gateway Port at Thameshaven will soon start to come on stream and is expected to generate 30 trains a day, most of which will use the Barking – Gospel Oak Line.
On Board the 07:59 Woodgrange Park to Hampstead Heath relief train, Brian and Caroline noted how the train, running 9 minutes behind the one they had left Barking on was soon standing room only.
Richard Pout, Secretary of the User Group explained
“Because London Overground has only 8 of these 2-coach diesel units, there are no more trains available to further boost peak services. Evening peak trains are now every bit as overcrowded as in the morning.”
At Blackhorse Road, BGOLUG’s Assistant Secretary, Glenn Wallis explained how the busy interchange with the Underground’s Victoria Line was about to get a ’make over’ from TfL. However, original proposals which included new shelters had now been scaled back to consist of new seating, new signs and a repaint. The existing, open shelters will remain and bicycle ramps, paid for by Waltham Forest Council are being removed from the station footbridge.
“This is the busiest intermediate station on the line,” said Glenn Wallis. “The many passengers waiting here deserve better, larger waiting shelters.”
At Harringay Green Lanes Caroline Pidgeon commented, “While there have been clear improvements in the service since I last travelled the line with User Group members in 2009 further improvements are still needed. Above all we must keep up the pressure to ensure that the line is finally electrified. This would deliver better services for passengers as well as making a useful contribution to reducing air pollution.”
Brian Paddick said,
“The Barking to Gospel Oak Line User Group has done a great job in campaigning for improvements in train services. This is an increasingly popular line and that must mean improvements to it have to continue.”
Last Thursday the Labour Council voted to close down Harrow Green Library. Residents had raised a petition of over 5,000 signatures and local Lib Dems had also raised a petition of over 1,1000 signatures to save the library.
Despite these petitions, fierce local residents’ opposition to the proposal and impassioned speeches, Labour Councillors voted to close the Library. The Tories abstained and the Liberal Democrats were the only party to vote against the closure. Even local Labour Councillors, whose residents had campaigned to stop the closure, voted to shut down Harrow Green Library.
Local Lib Dem Cann Hall Ward Councillor Liz Phillips, who has been leading the campaign in the council said:
“Local residents worked hard on this issue and took time out of their day to come and speak in the debate in good faith, only to find that the Labour Party had stitched up the result in advance.
“I’m not surprised that some residents walked out in disgust. Labour has refused to listen to local residents all along and this council meeting was no different.
“The Labour councillors can’t use a cut in the budget to hide the fact that it is them who are closing down our local library.”
The closure was based on the widely criticised libraries’ review and despite the consultation process, two petitions and recommendations from the council’s own scrutiny panel that no libraries needed to close, the Labour leadership refused to change course.
Lib Dem Leader Councillor Bob Sullivan said:
“The Libraries’ Review has been widely criticised and appears to have been a foregone conclusion from the start.
“The questions asked in the consultation were clearly misleading. For example, residents were asked if they would like their library to start opening on Sundays, but weren’t asked if they minded other libraries closing for this to be achieved.
“Of course residents suggest improved services, but if they knew that the council were robbing Harrow Green to pay for those services I believe they would think again.
Many of you will have noticed the building in the picture gradually being built. It dominates the High Road like some monster overlooking the road. Some of you may know it as the ‘Outlook’ building – the estate agents ‘Outlook’ were the previous users. Others may remember it as ‘Stuffs’ – the material shop used it for many years.
This monster of steel and glass is to become a large block of mainly 1 bed flats. It is totally out of character with the area and has no parking spaces for its residents, apart from a couple of spaces for people with disabilities. The original plans were thrown out by the Council but was agreed later on appeal.
Councillor Bob Sullivan said:
“If we are to regenerate our area, this is not the way to go. There is a crying need for family houses, not 1 or 2 bed flats. Long term residents of Leyton have seen family houses continually turned into flats. This has caused overcrowding, lack of maintenance of front gardens a disregard for the local environment and along with the lack of parking spaces and the increase of traffic, it has changed the area dramatically.”
These petitions indicate the overwhelming support by residents that they want to keep the Library open.
The Council’s consultation on the review of libraries has come to an end and will be reported to the Cabinet on the 11th of October.
Lib Dem councillors Liz Phillips and Bob Sullivan were members of a Scrutiny Panel that scrutinised the original Cabinet report.
The Panel noted that the Cabinet report left many questions unanswered and while it contained a great deal of information, it was not always the right information. They felt the report did not do a complete job.
The Panel identified 19 recomendations which will be given to the Cabinet in October. If implemented would support the expansive Library and Information Service, whilst negating the closure of any library.
Among the 19 panel recommendations to enable libraries to afford keeping open were:
There were many other recommendations, which hopefully, will give the Cabinet reasons to save the libraries from closure.