Midnight Wednesday 29th July - Deadline for consultation for Liveable Streets Bow

This Wednesday 29th July at midnight is the deadline for the Liveable Streets Bow consultation. It is cutting it a bit fine to post your response now via Royal Mail, but you can complete it online by heading over to: https://talk.towerhamlets.gov.uk/lsbow



The form takes a while to fill out. It isn't a Yes/No referendum, but a series of questions about the various aspects of the scheme with a sliding scale where you can indicate how much you support or don't support the various aspects. You can also suggest other options or detail your reasoning.

The Mayor, councillors and consultants are keen to say "The proposals aren't written in stone" so let them know your thoughts.

You do have to register (this will help reduce unfair bias from any one lobby group). So do allow a little extra time for this (I would say 15 minutes for the whole response?).

For a reasonable article giving the pro- and anti- viewpoints the Roman Road website has a balanced article including the "The Only Way is Bow" video that I strangely have a soft spot for.



Just over a week ago, we held an online Zoom meeting for MEOTRA residents giving them a chance to hear directly from our councillors the reasons for proposing the scheme and then from the consultants on the nitty-gritty of the design options. We then had a lengthy Q and A where everyone had a chance to quiz the panel.

There was a range of views from the ~40 residents who joined in. The meeting was pleasant and it was good for some of the deep-shielders to see and chat with their friends and neighbours whom they hadn't seen since March.  It wasn't the Online Quiz other RAs have had, but thanks to everyone for joining in.

A Streetcar not Named MEOTRA

In the lead up to the meeting, the Zoom address was passed on to non-residents (even though invites expressly asked residents not to do this as Zoom has a capacity limit) and this led to quite a bit of stress as MEOTRA committee members couldn't get into their own meeting that they had paid to put on! We had over a hundred try to gatecrash from the streets above.

So whether you are rich or poor, driver, cyclist or neither, born and bred or only just unpacking your moving boxes; the survey is for everyone: pour a cuppa or something stronger if you prefer and let the council know your thoughts. The more locals that feed in then hopefully the better the final scheme will be.

Deadline Midnight 29th July: https://talk.towerhamlets.gov.uk/lsbow

Liveable Streets Bow - Deadline for comments Tuesday 21st May

Tower Hamlets Council's Liveable Streets Bow programme aims to improve the look and feel of public spaces in Bow. By creating a better environment, the council wishes to make it more convenient to get around by foot, bike and public transport.

You only have a couple of days to submit your thoughts.

Maybe there are areas you'd like to see turned into pocket parks, or you have ideas to reduce rat running, encourage more walking or cycling in the area, or you've pet peeves about traffic issues? Whatever, your ideas the council wants to hear them.

As you can see from the screenshot above, lots of comments and suggestions have already been put forward as part of the consultation process. Please take a few minutes to add your ideas/comments about a particular area of Bow, via the consultation page.

Some ideas that we've heard are:

1. The blocking off to vehicles of Coborn Road at the railway bridge. This would reduce rat running along MEOTRA streets significantly by traffic "doing a left" at the corner of Tredegar Road and Coborn Road; or conversely by traffic using Aberavon/Rhonda/Tredegar and Coborn Roads to by-pass Bow Roundabout.
2. CHEAP on-street cycle storage
3. Making Holy Trinity's churchyard a permeable pocket park linking Lichfield Road and Morgan Street.
4. Perpetrators of ASB currently feel they "own" the streets, Heavily graffitied streets discourage walking, especially of an evening. The council needs to adopt a zero tolerance approach to "tagging" and find ways to speed up removal, especially on walls to private-rented properties where the current process of waiting for an absent landlord to give permission take months.
5. Turning the car park bound by Ford/St Stephens/Roman Roads into a pocket park and Village Green 
6. Turn all of Bow schools into School Streets (ie a complete closure to motor vehicles at school drop off and pick up times) to reduce pollution and create a space for parents and children to socialise.

Of course, you can email info@meotra.org.uk as well and we will absorb these into our grouped suggestions to the council.

PDSA Pet Hospital - Open Day Saturday 25th November

Did you know the PDSA was founded in the East End one hundred years ago today?

On the 17th November 1917 a sign was hung outside a dingy Whitechapel basement, inviting impoverished local people to bring their sick and injured animals for treatment. Inside, a single vet worked throughout the day, dressing wounds, fixing broken bones and dispensing medicine.

A century later, the PDSA is the UK’s leading pet wellbeing charity, with 48 pet hospitals, from Aberdeen to Plymouth, dedicated to helping the country’s most vulnerable pets. In that time it has provided an astonishing 100 million treatments to 20 million family pets – supporting hard-pressed households throughout the land.

Without a penny of Government funding, the charity’s hospitals now see more than 5,000 pets every day (that’s 13 every minute!). Its dedicated vet teams not only treat illness and injury but help prevent pets getting sick in the first place. They also educate owners – and the wider public – to ensure their beloved pets stay healthy and happy.

On Saturday 25th November (12-3PM) the PDSA Pet Hospital is having an Open Day to celebrate 100 years of caring for pets in the East End. It will provide a rare opportunity to see behind the scenes of this pet hospital, meet the team, learn how to care for your pets, as well as fun and games for all the family.

The PDSA Bow Pet Hospital is at 171 Malmesbury Road, E3 3DT