Thursday 15 January 2015

Lovebox Consultation - Thursday 29th Jan (Eco Pavilion)


MEOTRA residents may be interested in the above meeting. Although we don't border the park, most of those attending the festival travel through Mile End Old Town as they get from Mile End station to the park.

There are issues every year with increased litter, noise and public urinating and it will be good to hear how the organisers aim to better manage these issues? Residents bordering the park are entered into a free ballot for tickets. I am going to ask if this can be extended to those living on the main trade route to the festival (Grove Road). It might be an idea to put portaloos in the bus layby opposite the Greedy Cow? If you have any thoughts on Lovebox then email info@meotra.org.uk and MEOTRA will pass them on.

Wednesday 14 January 2015

Aberavon Road



For some reason the west side of Aberavon Road seems to have become a magnet for litter. Perhaps it's close proximity to Subway is to blame? I saw the street cleaner by the Onyx House bus stop, but for some reason Aberavon always seems to be missed out? This litter has been building up for around a week.

I've reported it via FixMyStreet (see https://www.fixmystreet.com/report/569857 ) together with the dumped computer monitor and other items in Grove Road and the corner of Morgan Street (see https://www.fixmystreet.com/report/569862 ).

Others have reported the dumped offal in Mile End Park (opposite Lichfield Road), the various Christmas trees uncollected by the council on our usual "pink bag" day and the uncollected pink bags in Rhondda.

A map of the MEOTRA area showing reports made to LBTH via the Fix My Street app



Sunday 11 January 2015

We're talking Rubbish - Again

a montage showing litter, graffiti and fly-tipping in Bow

MEOTRA's streets have over the past couple of years become increasingly covered with litter, graffiti and that old East End specialty the dumped mattress. It gets me down. You too?

All the photos above were taken over a short (100 yard) section of Grove Road in one 5 minute period in late August. Several residents and our local Councillor Josh Peck called and emailed Look Ahead (who own the multiple-occupancy building between the cab office and the first of the houses in Grove Rd) about the bulky rubbish on their land and it has now been removed, as too has the scaffolding which was there almost three months. If you notice any bulky rubbish accumulating on their site then call Look Ahead are on 020 7368 4885.

So what can you do to help prevent our corner of the East End from sliding back into the primeval soup? Well, use the free FixMyStreet system as you can use it via a website, mobile website, as well as android and apple apps. It takes a minute or two to report most issues using the system.


FixMyStreet publish all the reported problems online so you can see what other problems have been reported in your area and they pass reports on to the local council automatically.


On the right hand side of the MEOTRA website we have a "feed" of all the reported issues in our Bow West ward.  I reported that dumped fridge on the 6th and it has gone this (Sunday) afternoon. So the system works.




Tower Hamlets Council also have a free "App for That" called FiFiLi (Find It; Fix It; Love It). But I find it doesn't always work and there is no transparency: The only way to find out what issues have been reported is via a lengthy Freedom of Information Request and no record is kept of how long issues take to resolve. 


So if you want a relatively easy to keep New Year's Resolution how about:
"Every time I see a common street problem, like a pothole or a dumped mattress within a 100 yards of my home I'll report it using FixMyStreet"


Monday 5 January 2015

Monday Feb. 2nd - £10,000 up for grabs for our Ward

£10k per ward.... times and dates of ward fund meetings

At 6.30-8.30PM on Monday the 2nd February at St Paul's Church in St Stephen's Rd there will be the first of the 2015 Local Community Ward Forums facilitated by our ward's Community Champions. The idea is folk come together and "brain storm" ideas for spending around £10k for the ward on community projects.

Last year the budgets for Bow East and West were combined (ie £20k) and were spent on a variety of projects including the Roman Road Festival

You can read more about the  priorities and budget allocation decisions made during the previous (2014) round of local community ward forums on the council website.

Do you have any ideas for projects we could put forward for the 2015? Let me know as I'll gladly adopt it as my own :) Actually I do have an idea, but am keeping it under my hat for the moment until I have a better idea of costings.... I'll let on in a forthcoming blog.

So put Monday 2nd Feb (6.30-8.30PM) in your diary and I hope to see you there.