We’ve organised the next Group meeting for the evening of Mon 11 April, probably 7.30 at the Nye Bevan Tenants Hall.

We hope the group will discuss the biodiversity proposals, postponed from the AGM because the original speaker was ill and the meeting over-ran. The survey is here*. The implementation proposals are being redrafted and we’ll post them as soon as we can.

If there is something you’d like the group to discuss, please post a comment here, below. (You can also email , who will post your email on the blog, but it’s quicker if you do it yourself, and easier on the sec.) Please do say who you are, if you want the group to take account of your comment: this page is open to any internet user and we need to know that you aren’t posting from Paddington or Pasadena.

More soon, and we’ll update this posting as the agenda gets pulled together, but we just wanted to get this in your diary and ask for your ideas.

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*The survey link is to the council website. If you have any problem downloading it, please email and I’ll chase it up.

We currently have a crucial chance to influence the future of our part of the Lee Valley Park. The Park Authority (LVRPA) has published proposals for its Park Plan which will set the agenda for the next 10­-15 years. The Lea Valley Federation, a coalition of local groups which MUG is part of, is organising a broad public response.

To hear and discuss the Lea Valley Federation’s ideas, please come to a public meeting at the Round Chapel School Rooms on Tuesday 15th March at 7.30 pm.
You can see the authority’s proposals this Friday (11 March, 2-7.30) and Saturday (12th, 10-2) at the Waterworks Centre. (If you want a more pleasant walk than the Lea Bridge Road, use the back entrance which is a turn off the path just north/west of Friends Bridge.) This is about what they are calling the Lea Bridge Road area, between Coppermill Lane in the north and Ruckholt Road in the south. They are consulting until 29 March.

The Lea Valley Federation wants to persuade the Park to look at how split up and fenced off many areas are, sometimes simply because the land is owned by varying authorities. There could be many more paths and connections. It could be possible to let people walk into the reservoirs from the south, or along the overflow channel, which could provide an off-road access to the Waterworks from the north. Instead of seeing the Lea Bridge Road as a place to build a cheap hotel, the Park could look at how to connect Hackney, Leyton and Walthamstow marshes for walkers. In particular, the old British Waterways site facing the Princess of Wales could be made into parkland — a counterweight to any buildings that eventually go up on Essex Wharf.

Millfields is officially part of the Regional Park, under the act of parliament which set it up, and though it’s not managed by the park authority, what happens just across the river is important for our park. The more open the land is, the more chance we have to defend it against future enclosures and encroachments. LVF has done a great job gingering up the park authority to do its job properly, so please do come, find out what’s going on, and lend your voice.

• Park Authority’s proposals. The ‘Proposals Schedule’ summarises them.
• The Federation’s response and other information are at www.leavalleyfederation.org under Consultations: Lee Valley Regional Park Authority – Lea Bridge Area proposals. Watch out for LVF’s leaflet ‘Lower Lea Marshes’, shown here, in local cafe’s etc.