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Stand-up comedian Stephen Catling will be performing in Wanstead this April as part of the Laugh-Able Comedy Night to mark Autism Awareness Month. He believes people with autism need to speak up 

I am autistic and came from the North to live in London in 2016. I have been a comedian performing regularly on the London and general UK circuit since 2017. I am known for being an alternative act, who uses clowning and inventiveness on stage on the mainstream circuit. I’ve achieved several accolades including at the Stand-up for Cider comedy competition (finalist, 2023) and from both the South Coast Comedy Awards and the Student Comedy Awards (semi-finalist, 2022).

My earliest pathway into comedy was through watching Monty Python in high school, where friends and I wrote our own Pythonesque parodies of biblical stories, such as Noah’s Tardis. But I didn’t start performing solo until I joined the Lancaster University Comedy Institute during my studies in biomedical science and psychology. There I discovered a particular aptitude for surrealism. When I started performing in London, I began to hone my craft by incorporating other forms of comedy, such as clowning. I am now taking my solo show Beehavioural Problems: Something Something Autism to the Edinburgh Fringe this year.

I will be headlining the award-winning Laugh-Able Comedy Night at Wanstead Library this month, where the wonderful Mark Nicholas (promoter, comic, host and fellow autistic) has curated a line-up of comedians with autism spectrum disorder as part of Autism Awareness Month. Mark has hosted many amazing comedians at Laugh-Able over the years, some being very established on the scene, such Joe Wells, Andrew O’Neil and even Rosie Jones. While the commonality of the comedians is having a disability or being neurodivergent, the comics who perform are quite an eclectic mix.

How has autism made my life harder? As a child, I was bullied a lot for being weird and sensitive, but even as an adult I have found many employers (or would-be employers) make mistakes, usually out of blatant ignorance, but the result is the same and many have caused a great deal of harm (even when they’ve tried to do right). One research company did send a particularly problematic manager on an autism training course, but this was an exception in my career.

Many people get information about autism from inaccurate stereotypes in the media. Even today, Rain Man is people’s go-to idea of autism, but Dustin Hoffman’s character in the 1988 film had savant syndrome, which is very specific and very rare. And there are also issues with characters like Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory, who perpetuate the common stereotypes. So, my advice for other autistic people is to speak up and tell people more about our condition. The more diverse they see it, the less they treat us with misunderstanding and ignorance.

Stephen will perform at Wanstead Library on 5 April from 7.30pm (tickets: £3). Visit wnstd.com/laughapril

A controversial plan to build two blocks of flats on part of Snaresbrook Station car park was approved by Redbridge Council earlier this month.

Developers Pocket Living are due to start the two-year construction project in the spring of 2024, creating 74 homes, all of which will be available to first-time buyers in Redbridge at a 20% discount compared to the local market.

Residents who formed the Real Snaresbrook campaign opposed the development for a number of reasons, including the height of the buildings. 

In the second of a series of articles featuring the images of local photographers who document the wildlife of Wanstead Park and the surrounding area, James Ball presents his close-up of a long-tailed tit

I’m James, a local estate agent with a passion for photographing all types of wildlife and, in particular, birds. I find it amazing the variety of wildlife we can see almost on our doorsteps.

Here’s an image I took earlier this winter in Wanstead Park. It was an overcast day, which didn’t provide brilliant light but did mean the light was evenly spread with little shadow.

This bird is a long-tailed tit, resembling a pink, white and black ball of fluff, with a long tail. Like candy floss with wings, they can be very photogenic. Gregarious and noisy residents, long-tailed tits are most usually noticed in small, excitable flocks of about 20 birds.

Like most tits, they rove the woods and hedgerows but are also seen on heaths and commons with suitable bushes. They move quickly and rarely stop for longer than a second or two, so you have to try and get a step ahead. I positioned myself in front of the flock and took this image when the bird landed on an isolated branch with a clean foreground and background.

Here are some of my top tips for taking better wildlife photographs. 

Patience
You’ll be lucky to stumble across your target subject on the first attempt, even the second or third. Learning your subject’s habits will help you put yourself a step ahead.

Eye-level
Try to position yourself as close to the subject’s eye level as you can, even if it means lying on the ground! This connects your camera to the subject, creating a more emotive and often dramatic image.

Fast shutter speed
This will allow you to capture wildlife whilst it’s on the move. Birds all move at different speeds, depending on their size and how much of a rush they are in. So, you’ll need to adjust your settings accordingly. Gulls over a lake are a great entry subject for capturing birds in flight.

Use ‘continuous shooting’ mode and ‘continuous focusing’ to take multiple bursts of photographs and to continually track the subject. These modes will have different names on different brands of camera.

Sunlight
In my opinion, the best lighting is at dusk and dawn during the ‘golden hour’. The sunrises over Wanstead Flats and the sunsets in Wanstead Park are beautiful, and when you can time this with passing birds, you can achieve great results; well worth the early alarm!

Position yourself so the sun is behind you and you’re facing the bird you’re photographing for the best lighting setup. Shooting into the sun can also sometimes create lovely photographs, especially when the sun is low and the light is less harsh, making perfect conditions for artistic silhouettes.

To view more of James’s wildlife photos, visit wnstd.com/jamesball

In the 12th of a series of articles looking at the redevelopment of Whipps Cross Hospital, Charlotte Monro reflects on NHS funding issues, strike action and the need for improvements in end-of-life care 

Amidst uncertainty over funding for the national new hospitals programme, the Whipps Cross Redevelopment team is still waiting for money to be released for the next phase, the multistorey car park. The underfunding of the NHS over the years is at such a point that impossible pressure has become the norm. 

It has never been more urgent to fight for our NHS. Thousands of nurses, ambulance staff and therapists are taking strike action for this reason. I am inspired by the courage and determination of my health care colleagues who are taking this stand because the shortage of staff means their patients are suffering and they cannot deliver the care they want. Nurses’ real pay has fallen by £5,200 compared to 2010, whilst paramedics’ real pay is down by £6,700. They are asking to be treated as caring human beings and valued for the vital work they do. 

Our campaign for the future of Whipps is not only for the best buildings and spaces to meet our health care needs, but for its dedicated staff, without which there is no future. The work to save the Margaret Centre brings this home. In January, councillors on the Joint Scrutiny Committee discussed a review of end-of-life care in the Whipps catchment area. I was one of five members of the public who addressed the meeting, calling for the Margaret Centre to be reprovided within in the Whipps redevelopment. 

Despite all the evidence gathered by the review from service users, their carers and staff clearly showing how highly valued our end-of-life and palliative care unit in Whipps is, the options proposed did not include reproviding it as a dedicated unit in the new hospital build. It seems there is a missing piece in the report’s conclusions: the expertise that has been built in the Margaret Centre, the understanding of needs and the human-centred care. This must be the launch pad, and the ongoing beacon, for much-needed improvements in end-of-life care. I suggested that a unit next to the hospital linked by a bridge be considered. 

A GP – who said local doctors had not been consulted about the Margaret Centre– added: “The centre provides an invaluable resource for the community, particularly for dying patients. It also provides respite care. For doctors like myself, it’s such a wonderful place to go to and share grief. Yes, some people want to die at home and that’s their choice, but there are some that need this centre.”

If you have experience of end-of-life care or feel strongly about this, make sure you have your say. The review is ongoing with engagement sessions being planned and a consultation to be launched later this year. 

And please support our health staff!

To join the campaign or share views, email whipps.cross.campaign@gmail.com

Swan rescue volunteers are urging dog owners to keep their pets on a lead when near water birds in Wanstead Park and by Eagle Pond in Snaresbrook.

“As cygnets are being chased off by their parents it makes them vulnerable on the bank, and nesting season is approaching, which makes the swans fiercely protective of their territories. You may feel your dog is no threat, but the swans don’t know that. Any interaction with birds causes massive stress to them, even when there is no physical contact,” said Helen O’Rourke. 

The Woodford and Wanstead Photographic Society were victorious in the Romford Gold Cup interclub competition held in February.

“It was a print competition between six clubs. We submitted five images from different club members and got 96 points and came first. In addition, David Tyrrell won the best print of the night award with his photo entitled Tranquillity,” said club chair Sue Rosner.

The photographers whose work helped secure the victory were David Tyrrell, Bob Gibbons, Chris Saunders, Luciano Ocesca and Carole Milligan.

A consultation on the planning application for London City Airport’s expansion plans runs until 17 March. If approved, more planes will be flying over Wanstead, says John Stewart of campaign group HACAN East

Wanstead faces the prospect of more aircraft at the weekend if London City Airport’s expansion plans go ahead. The plans are currently out for public consultation. London City wants to fly planes on a Saturday afternoon for the first time. At present, no aircrafts are permitted between 12.30pm on Saturdays until 12.30pm on Sundays, in order to give people a break from the noise.

London City now wants to change all that. It is seeking permission to fly on Saturdays until 7.30pm (6.30pm in the winter months). It also wants more planes during the first half hour of the day. The aim is to carry 2.5 million more passengers by around 2031.

The public consultation started on 15 February and runs for a month until 17 March. It is being conducted by Newham Council, the planning authority for the airport. At the time of writing, Newham has not provided email or postal details of where to send responses. I imagine they will go up on the council’s website.

The reason behind the proposals is London City’s desire to attract more leisure passengers. For most of its 35-year life, City has been largely a business airport, but in the year before Covid, business passengers only accounted for 50% of all travellers through the airport. Post-Covid business travel has been slower to recover than leisure. London City believes that Saturday afternoon flying will help boost the leisure market.

The airport has said that it will only permit the newest available planes to operate on Saturday afternoons and during the early morning. The expectation is that if airlines are required to use the newest planes at these times, they will in due course use them at all times. The new planes are larger and cleaner, but over Wanstead, they will not be noticeably quieter. They are being promoted as about five decibels less noisy on departure close to the airport, but only two to three decibels quieter elsewhere. A reduction of two or three decibels cannot be picked up by the human ear.

Newham has decided to run a very limited consultation. It will hold no public meetings and is just leafleting homes close to the airport. It is informing most of the overflown boroughs, including Redbridge, but the fear remains that most residents impacted by the airport will not know about the consultation.

Later this year, probably in the summer, Newham’s Strategic Development will consider London City’s application. If it gets the go-ahead, the airport aims to have the new plans in place by 2024.

For more information on the consultation, visit wnstd.com/lcaconsult

For more information on HACAN East, visit hacaneast.org.uk

Volunteers joined Vision RCL’s nature conservation rangers in February for a community tree planting day in Roding Valley Park, near Charlie Brown’s Roundabout.

“We planted elm trees donated by our partner Butterfly Conservation. These trees will help the white-letter hairstreak butterfly, a species solely reliant on elm trees to complete its life cycle,” said Tajinder Lachhar.

Following the outbreak of Dutch elm disease in the 1970s and 1980s, the UK population of white-letter hairstreak butterflies dropped by 96%.

An exhibition by Russell Boyce documenting the use of Wanstead Park during the pandemic is on show at the Temple. The photos are accompanied by snippets of overheard conversations

During the lockdown of February 2021, many had taken to daily exercise outdoors, which was permitted under the rules. Like me, most of us had slipped into a routine: same place, same time and often the same conversation.

Just about every day I would walk around Wanstead Park with my wife Verity. On one such walk, I noticed as people passed each other there was a tendency to give one another a wide ‘socially distanced’ berth and carry on with their conversation. I would often catch a snippet of those conversations out of context. I wondered what snippet others would hear from us. We were living in strange times, so I decided to capture it. 

When I explained my new documentary project to my family – which was to stop people, tell them I had overheard their conversation and ask to take their photo and add it to the caption – their response was: “You’re mad, and no-one will agree to that!”

Maybe people were attracted to a diversion from their routine or maybe they took pity on this madman with a camera, but everyone I asked said “yes”. So, a big thank you to each and every one of you.

Fast forward two years from the government’s 22 February 2021 announcement of the ‘roadmap’ out of lockdown, and so many of our priorities then are now a fading memory. The extra care of vulnerable loved ones, daily death tolls, talk of vaccines and anti-vaxxers, social distancing, numbers limited at weddings and funerals, toilet roll shortages, binge watching and no travel to name a few. But something that will never fade is the loss felt for loved ones who died during the pandemic. And so I hope these pictures and snippets of conversations serve as a reminder of where we all were, and just how far we’ve thankfully come.

Overheard in Lockdown – which is supported by The Stow Brothers, Epping Forest and the City of London – is on show outside the Temple until 26 March.

One year ago, Russia invaded Ukraine. Eight months ago, Ilona Hlushchenkova and her family arrived in Wanstead, having fled Odesa on the first day of the invasion. A journalist in her home country, the mother-of-one is grateful for all the support she has received and is now looking to apply her talents in a new field 

On 24 February 2022, my life was divided into before and after. On this day, waking up at 5am from the sounds of explosions, my husband and I packed a small bag, took our one-year-old son and crossed the border between Ukraine and Moldova on foot. 

Moldova, Romania, England. Life in hotels, endless transfers and sleepless nights. In the first weeks of the war, we did not know where we would be tomorrow and what we would do next. Complete strangers helped us, and before the start of the war, I never thought the hearts of some were so pure, huge and full of love, while others were so full of hatred, anger and atrocities. 

On 24 February last year – the day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of our peaceful, free and beautiful country – we lost the sense of time, the sense of ourselves and of the future. We became the heroes of Remarque’s novels, only in real life, it does not look so romantic.

War is blood, grief, crippled bodies and crippled destinies. There is a heaviness on the soul, which is forever with you.

We had been looking for sponsors to host our family for a long time. Our friends from Ukraine, who arrived in England in the spring, helped us in our search. They wrote a Facebook post that was responded to by our current sponsors, Barbara and James Morris, two of the nicest people we know. On 1 June 2022, we settled in Wanstead and our lives took on the outline of our former existence. 

In Ukraine, we lived in Odesa, a wonderful city on the Black Sea. This is a place with great culture, wonderful architecture, amazing people and the most beautiful sunrises.

My first impression of Wanstead was that it is lively, green and multicultural. It is an oasis of calm in the midst of the hectic life of a big city. The locals are smiling and hospitable people. Many of you helped, whether it was finding a nursery, a bike or a hairdresser.

Life in a new country is very exciting and difficult at the same time. It feels like you become young and unintelligent again! You have to re-learn how to communicate. You study products in the store for longer and puzzle over how to complete the necessary documents or make an appointment with a doctor. New food, a new rhythm of life, new values ​​and constant homesickness.

Although we are physically safe, we are still living in war. Many of our relatives and friends decided to stay in Ukraine. Now, they are left without electricity, water and heat for long periods due to the constant shelling by Russian terrorists. Not a day passes without disturbing news from home, and we all live with one dream: for peace to come and for the terrorist state of Russia to cease to exist.

I have been a journalist for over 13 years. Since childhood, I knew I would write and steadily followed my dream. I have been a reporter, news anchor and website editor. I ran my own TV projects and worked as a press secretary and marketer. However, in England, my knowledge of the language is not enough to work as a journalist and I am looking for a new field of activity. My English level is B1. I am a sociable and purposeful person, open to everything new. My husband worked as a dentist before the war. Now, he has to follow a long and difficult path to confirm his diploma and continue to practice.

Our little son is my personal miracle. Thanks to him, we have the strength to go through all the trials we faced as refugees. Here and now, we can provide him with a calm and happy childhood, without explosions, sirens and alarms.

The contribution of the UK government and local people in helping Ukraine through these dark times cannot be overstated. But I ask you to continue this with the same zeal, because every day, in the very heart of Europe, civilians and our defenders die at the hands of Russian soldiers.

Please, keep helping in any way you can. There is no small or big help. Now, we need everything: things for those who were left without a home, generators, ammunition and much more. Any and all help is so greatly appreciated. We hug and thank you for all that you have already done.

To connect with Ilona on Facebook, visit wnstd.com/ilona

In the first of a series of articles featuring the images of local photographers who document the wildlife of Wanstead Park and the surrounding area, Alessandro Riccarelli presents a montage of his shots of a kestrel in flight

I never used to be interested in photography, although my father made a living out of it. Until my father retired, I never thought I would spend time and money on it as a hobby. But in life, what you don’t find interesting now may well become a future passion!

That’s what happened to me. I love nature, so wildlife photography became my primary interest, although I shoot street scenes and portraits occasionally as well. Recording wildlife is challenging; you don’t know what you’re going to see and when, or if you are going to see anything at all!

I am based in Gants Hill and like to visit local parks. Wanstead Park and Wanstead Flats are regular destinations. You can see a good variety of species in Wanstead, although unfortunately (for reasons we all know), many have disappeared. Wanstead Park is home to woodpeckers, kingfishers, herons and, of course, parakeets!

Kestrels are also fairly easy to spot, often seen hovering over grasslands hunting small rodents or large insects. Rarely do they miss a catch, so if you notice one diving, wait and you might be able to see something tucked in its talons as it rises. Pointing a camera up a tree with a kestrel perching for prolonged periods can be very tiring, and holding your equipment steady becomes difficult. When this happens, I think about professional wildlife photographers spending days, if not weeks, to get one shot, so I shouldn’t complain about half an hour!

I’m always intrigued by what will happen next and I like challenging situations. Birds of prey don’t have an easy life out there; in fact, just moments after I captured the female kestrel opposite catching her rodent prey, magpies started to chase her, trying to steal a free meal.

I thank the editor for choosing these pictures and I will be taking many more in Wanstead Park, where every outing can be unique.

To view more of Alessandro’s wildlife photos, visit wnstd.com/riccarelli

A young Wanstead resident has launched a series of YouTube videos documenting Transport for London services by postcode region.

Beginning with E11, 12-year-old Riku Fryderyk – who is also a published author – explores the landmarks of the area alongside an overview of the Tube and bus network. “Sometimes, I need to take a break from writing! Whilst my mum is looking for a literary agent for my newest book, I like to indulge in my passion for trains,” said Riku.V

isit wnstd.com/tflbypostcode