While we admire and support the Christmas campaigns that we see pop up in December, we also know that help is urgently needed all year round, each and every year. As some people pack away after the festive break, we are still here.
Our support is not limited to a food package, but it leaps beyond - we form connections, we listen and respond to everyone who steps through our doors. We open up a warm, safe, environment which aims to feel like a home away from home.
For us to continue to thrive and grow, and keep supporting as many people as possible, we are asking you to become a Friend of Cooking Champions. Even a donation of just £5-10 per month can make a HUGE impact on the lives of those who come through our doors.
Pop to our People's Fundraising page to donate, and we promise to keep you updated with how your support is making a difference. Thank you, we appreciate you! Team Cooking Champions
In July, as part of the Covid Streetspace measures, Enfield Council issued an experimental traffic order closing one of the roads at Winchmore Hill Green to traffic (the 'northern west-to-east arm'). This has allowed restaurants and cafes to put out tables and chairs on the roadway for customers to eat and drink al-fresco. The council is now consulting on whether or not to make the road closure permanent.
A school street scheme comes into force on Monday 7th September outside St Paul's primary school in Ringwood Way, Winchmore Hill. Between 8.15 and 9.15 in the morning and 2.45 and 3.45 in the afternoon Ringwood Way will be a pedestrian and cycle zone between its junctions with Station Road and Shrubbery Gardens. This normally busy cut-through will be closed to all vehicles other than those with specific exemptions.
London's top traffic cop has reminded us that August is National Road Victims Month and asked us to watch a short film made by the charity RoadPeace. In the UK five people a day are killed on the roads and more than 60 seriously injured. Scandinavian cities, pursuing a Vision Zero policy, have almost eliminated road deaths.
In response to a spate of anti-social behaviour in the vicinity of Alexandra Palace and in the surrounding park, in particular dangerous and noisy driving and pavement parking by 'boy racers', Alexandra Palace Way will be closed at night until further notice. All parking bays will be closed throughout the day and night. The W3 bus will be diverted during the road closures.
The top end of Hedge Lane will be closed for Thames Water work from 29th April to 26th May, though the Yasar Halim store will still be accessible by road from the Green Lanes end of Hedge Lane. Through traffic will be diverted either to the north (via the A10 and Church Street West) or to the south (via the North Circular Road). A temporary one-way system will be in force in the area comprising Park Avenue, New River Crescent, Lightcliffe Road, Windsor Road and Osborne Road.
Footage on Twitter of the police chasing a drug driver from near Ritz Parade, then along the A105 through Palmers Green and Winchmore Hill, eventually ending in the chased car crashing outside St Stephen's Bush Hill Park.
Hackney council is planning to implement measures to curb rat-running during the coronavirus lockdown, with the aim of protecting walkers and cyclists, allowing them more space to socially distance, and as a countermeasure to increased speeding by reckless drivers taking advantage of much lighter traffic levels. By doing so Hackney stands out from other UK local authorities, but cities in other countries all over the world have already done much more to reallocate road space away from cars.
Detective Superintendent Andy Cox from the Met's Roads and Transport Policing Command has recorded a YouTube video in which he talks about the incidence of extreme speeding during the coronavirus lockdown and police operations against all speeding in London. He urges all drivers not to speed and passengers to ask drivers to slow down - speeding should, he says, be as socially unacceptable as drink driving.
As UK doctors call for lower speed limits to reduce the pressure on health services, London's top traffic cop has gone online to plead for slower driving and to highlight examples of criminal behaviour by drivers taking advantage of clearer roads to flagrantly breach speed limits.
This video says it all, in graphic terms about what has gone wrong and what we need to do to make our roads safe for everyone, not just drivers. It should be shown in every council meeting, every school, every highway authority, every political party meeting and the politicians must be made to sign up for proper, real action, not the toying around the edges they normally do.