News, comment and features

The Charity SpEC is looking for volunteers to help it set up Speaking English with Confidence clubs in Enfield.  It has arranged five training sessions at the Civic Centre in Enfield Town (Silver Street EN1 3XA) during February.  The sessions are at: 9.30am Tuesday 3rd February 9.30am Thursday 5th February 9.30am Monday 9th February 9.30am Thursday 12th February 9.30am Tuesday 17th February It is essential to attend all five sessions. Do you have a genuine commitment to.......

A project to create an attractive wetlands habitat from a previously underused green space has been shortlisted for support from the Mayor of London's Big Green Fund. Firs Farm, the open space to the south of Firs Lane on the Winchmore Hill/Edmonton border, has up to now  been associated mainly with football pitches and dog walking (though earlier in its history it was used as a shelter for prisoners of war).  However, its transformation is already under way, thanks to collaboration.......

The Ruth Winston Centre is starting 2015 with activities to get members singing and dancing and a couple of events that will be of interest to the wider public. FREE SALSA – the dance that is, not the tomato based side dish. Jorge is back on Wednesday 7th January 2015 Be here at 11.45am for one hour of moves, music, a great vibe and learning them Latin moves. Membership to the Centre applies for this class, new members always welcome. Memory Lane Sing-a-Long Café – next session is.......

An urgent call to Enfield Gentlemen from Simon Gilbert! The Enfield Community Singers, a rising star in the local choral firmament, urgently require male singers to augment our already splendid sound. Following another standing ovation at Mount Carmel and St George’s Church in December, the choir is already planning concerts well into the spring of 2015. However, we are restricted for the more ambitious pieces of music without the strong male base that these pieces require. So,.......

Since the Govia consortium took over services on the Great Northern routes out of Moorgate and Kings Cross in September 2014 there has been little sign of the promised improvements in service.  There have been more of the delays and cancellations that we are familiar with from the bad old days of First Capital Connect and the usual half-hourly service in Christmas week. Some of the problems can, of course, be laid at the door of Network Rail, but employing enough drivers is clearly Govia's.......

Talkies Community Cinema, the Palners Green-based pop-up cinema, has been going from strength to strength.  Talkies has been able to keep ticket prices down to £5, but overheads have been rising steadily and Talkies has now set up a scheme called Friends of Talkies.  By becoming a Friend, you will be able to help maintain the cheap tickets policy while taking advantage of special benefits, such as priority booking for popular shows. Tricia Sharpe will be looking after Friends of Talkies. .......

A briefing given to a meeting of Enfield Council's Health Scrutiny Standing Workstream held on 17 December has provided more details of the Royal Free Hospital's plans to redevelop the Chase Farm Hospital site. As previously reportedOne of the presentation slides (to see the complete presentation, click on the image), most of the existing buildings will be demolished and the land will be used for housing and a new primary school.  A new, more compact hospital building will be constructed on.......

The first meeting of the Cycle Enfield Partnership Board to consider plans for a "key cycling commuter route" linking Enfield Town with Palmers Green will take place in the second week in January. At the meeting selected "stakeholders" will discuss the section of cycle route between Vicars Moor Lane (Winchmore Hill) and Broomfield Lane (Palmers Green).  As well as looking at the proposal for segregated cycle lanes along Green Lanes, passing through Winchmore Hill and Palmers Green town.......

We've been asked to promulgate the following warning from the Nationa Fraud Intelligence Bureau: Summary Action Fraud has received a large number of reportsfrom victims who have been defrauded when attempting to purchase items on online shopping and auction websites. Reporting shows that internet fraudsters  are increasingly exploiting victims’ readiness to sign for deliveries before checking the contents, which causes them difficulties when they later attempt to dispute the transaction........

A Winchmore Hill resident has launched a campaign for a 20mph speed limit on two roads which lead to Winchmore Hill Green - Church Hill on the western side and Station Road to the east. Philip Tsappas held a public meeting to launch his campaign in November and has now released additional campaigning literature (see below).  He is linking this local campaign with the national 20's Plenty for Us movement, which seeks to make 20mph the default speed limit on residential and urban streets........

At 2pm on Sunday 7 December we closed Devonshire Road in Palmers Green to let the kids play out – for the seventh time this year. We received our Temporary Play Street Order from Enfield council back in June, and ever since we’ve been closing the road to through traffic for a couple of hours once a month on a Sunday afternoon. We are carrying on through the winter. Temperature doesn’t seem to matter to the children, who make the most of the closed road to scoot, cycle, play ball games and.......

Palmers Green and Alexandra Palace stations are among a list of 26 stations where step-free access to platforms will be provided, according to an announcement made today by transport minister Baroness Kramer.  The work, part of the Access for All programme, will be carried out by 2019. The stations selected for the work were all nominated by the rail industry last year on the basis of criteria such as the number of passengers using the station or proximity to hospitals or schools for.......