Those recently moved to Wanstead and long-term residents alike are invited to join the Wanstead Society committee and help protect, preserve and improve our local area. Eileen Flinter reports
You are more than halfway qualified to join our committee if you are reading this! At present, there are six regular members on the committee, several of us are of long-standing and we are now looking to expand, possibly to double this number, and thus bring some new ideas to the Wanstead Society.
If you live, work, study or regularly visit Wanstead, if you like or, possibly, have even grown to love this area and would like to see the best of it maintained whilst changes and developments chime with the atmosphere and environment that makes it one of the best places to live in London, then you would probably enjoy contributing to our work.
What do we do? We are lucky to have two committee members who are particularly interested in keeping track of planning applications. They look, but not exclusively, at those applications and schemes which do, or may, impact on the Conservation Area. We are in contact with local councillors and, on occasion, attend council meetings concerning planning issues. And during local elections, we organise hustings.
With the invaluable help of photographer Geoff Wilkinson and the generous sponsorship of Petty Son and Prestwich, we produce a calendar, which is sold from our stall at the Wanstead Festival and also in Memories on the High Street to boost our funds each year. In turn, we have sponsored trees on Christ Church Green and the High Street. We also contribute to the Wanstead Community Gardeners and promote the regular litter picks as well as responding to one-off events, including collecting new socks and underwear for homeless people last winter and contributing to provide food for the swans on Eagle Pond during the avian flu episode. We also contribute articles to this publication and to the local press about our work. We produce publicity materials promoting the Society and have a website that would really benefit from some TLC. And then there are the social events for our members we organise.
In short, we are involved and work with – and for – the local community over a diverse range of projects. Some are ongoing, such as planning, and others when the need arises.
Maybe there are some things you would like to see more or, indeed, less of, in Wanstead. If so, please consider donating some of your knowledge and time to our committee. We hold meetings at Wanstead House on the last Wednesday of every month (except August and December). Thanks to email, there is no pressure to attend every single meeting.
Wanstead is changing and we would really welcome new arrivals, whilst always valuing the experience of those who have been involved in the area for many years.
For more information on joining the Wanstead Society committee, email eileenflinter@yahoo.co.uk
