SLM WEEKLY DIGEST 15-1-15

Hasn't January gone fast already? Here's the first installment from us... View this email in your browser

SLM Weekly Digest Keep Our Marshes Open and Green! This is the Weekly Digest of Save Lea Marshes a group of local people concerned to see the marshes of the Lea Valley and other surrounding green spaces survive and thrive for nature and for future generations to enjoy and gain health and well being. Do visit our website www.saveleamarshes.org.uk  to keep up to date with our campaign and to find out how you can get involved.  We have a merchandising page to help sustain our work and we are planning to add some exciting new products in 2015, which we will tell you about as soon as they are ready. Well, we hope you have had a great time over the Christmas/New Year holiday.  Perhaps you had the chance to walk, run, skip, pogo etc., around the marshes?  Sometimes, this can be relaxing and enjoyable but on other occasions it can lead to a rise in blood pressure when you spot unnecessary vehicle tracks racking up the grass or trees that have been vandalised (officially or unofficially!).  Keep your eyes open and do let us know if there is something you would like SLM to know about. As we crank up the engine of the Weekly Digest again, the items that have flowed to the top of the tank include: NEXT LVRPA WORKSHOP MEETING – it’s at the Waterworks Centre on Sunday 22 February  1- 3 p.m.   I’m putting this here, rather than in the events section as we’d like as many of you as possible to turn up and hear for yourselves the plans that the Lea Valley Regional Park Authority have in mind for 2015, which include more mural art projects under the Lea Bridge Road underpass (though, personally, I like the graffiti which is currently there), the possibility of more scarifying to help poor old Leyton Marsh closer to its former glory in Autumn 2015, if the works in 2014 haven’t worked successfully ... and information about Network Rail work on Walthamstow Marsh. CROSSRAIL 2 – though we all like our journeys to be easy, we do need to be vigilant about our environment.  Previous digests have given some information about the Crossrail 2 plans as they emerge.  The latest information that one of our members has received has a link http://crossrail2.co.uk/the/route/  which gives the latest route so far, and the proposed location of the tunnel between Seven Sisters and Tottenham Hale though it is still up for consultation.   As well as being concerned about our local green space and effect on homes, there is also cause for concern around the more central areas of London, including the much loved Soho Cinema on Shaftesbury Road, which might be lost to a ticket hall. https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-the-curzon-soho IN THE PRESS – this week’s Hackney Gazette, has another long letter, p15, from Johnnie Walker, Chairman of the Hackney and Leyton Football League, about inaccuracies that appeared in an article on Hackney Marshes, particularly East Marsh, concerning the Olympics in the preceding edition of 31 January, p5. There is interesting coverage on page 1 and in the letters pages of the “Camden New Journal” featuring the trashing of Primrose Hill after the New Year’s Eve fireworks.  This is exactly the kind of thing that SLM wants to prevent on Hackney Marshes, so that damage is not done to the land and the sporting facilities. Lastly, in The Guardian online http://www.theguardian.com/commentsfree/2015/jan13/families-cheated-homes-poor-labour-council-gentrification is another story of a proposal by Waltham Forest Council to uproot local council tenants in favour of creating flats to sell – resulting in overseas investors leaving properties empty in Leytonstone, with the proposal to gut the Fred Wigg and John Walsh Towers and build another in between. EVENTS Those of you who love trees and also want to work off the festive poundage, can do volunteer tree planting of 150 trees on North Marsh with the Hackney Tree Musketeers, meet at the Tree Nursery off Homerton Road, Hackney E5, this Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th January from 10am or find them on North Marsh if you arrive later.  Wear appropriate clothing. For enjoying nature in a slightly less energetic way – there is a “Tree Walk – Food From Trees” also on Saturday 17th January, from 1 p.m. meeting outside Bruce Castle on Lordship Lane N17, courtesy of Haringey Tree Wardens.  For more information on this and other upcoming events organised by Hedge Herbs contact Rasheeqa Ahmad on 07784506494 or Facebook Hedge Herbs or Twittering Hedge. Although, they are fully booked at the moment, Forage London also have further events coming up and some interesting herbal hints on how to cope with the common cold seehttp://foragelondon.co.uk/walks-courses. Another reminder about “Apple Yowling” on Saturday evening 17 January at the Ferry Boat Inn, Ferry Lane/Forest Road Walthamstow.  An enjoyable, traditional way of celebrating the new year’s green growth. From 5.30pm. There is also the Edge Fund: Get Behind the Grassroots Fundraiser on Saturday 31 January, 6pm-10.30pm.  Ringcross Community Centre, 60 Lough Road, London N7 8RH Join grassroots activists, poets and musicians to celebrate the power of the grassroots! Will feature Jeremy Corbyn MP, Andy Greene (DPAC), Shareefa Energy, Hilary Wainwright (Red Pepper), Pete the Temp, Nina Power (Defend the Right to Protest), I Sis, Anthony Anaxagorou, Spliff Richard, Focus E15 Mothers, Ritzy Living Wage campaign, Siana Bangura, Jembe Explosion and Crazy Divine. For those that like to plan ahead  the intrepid and knowledgeable Joan Yeadon has been asked by the Ecology and Conservation Studies Society to run a field trip on Saturday 25 July at 1.00 p.m. starting at the Riverbank Cafe at the bottom of Spring Hill and finishing up at the Spark Cafe in Springfield Park.  We’ll put this in again at a later date. Our next SLM meeting will be on Monday 26th January at 7.30pm at the Princess of Wales pub.