Cllrs Patrick Smith and Cllr Bob Wheatley attended the `Branches’ AGM and the presentation for the new built design, to replace the existing building on Forest Road, with a brand new state of the art accommodation, for 50 temporary homeless residents.

`Branches’ is a chosen Mayor’s Charity this year and the event was addressed by our busy Mayor Cllr Sheila Pryor-Smith, whom spoke about her own years of voluntary work with the homeless.

 Cllr Patrick Smith attended the presentation `Up the Manor’ DVD, on the  Eton Manor Boys Clubs  local history  project, at the Bishopsgate Institute on July 17^th

Cllr Smith attended the `London Summit’ on 12^th July and asked the London Mayor Boris Johnson, to honour the promise to invest directly into the Victoria Line Station public transport hubs, bearing in mind the higher volumes of visitors, as we run up to the Olympics 2012.

 If residents wish to read the results of this excellent work by Year 10 pupils at George Mitchell School Leyton E10, who interviewed the `Old Boys’ over the year and know what they had to say: all oral interviews can be read in full on vp@villierspark.org.uk or DVD ordered from Tel.No.01223-872601.

With less than two years to go before the next l o c a l  elections in May 2010, the p r o c e s s to select L ib Dem candidates for Walthamstow has started.

You can stand as a candidate from the age of 18.

If you are interested, please contact Farid Ahmed on 020 8520 7095. 

Higham Hill Cllrs, Peter Woollcott, Sean Meiszner and Patrick Smith wish Mr Nelson Mandela a Happy Birthday on July 18th

Samina Safdar has become the twentieth Liberal Democrat councillor in Waltham Forest after taking the vacant Forest ward seat in last night’s by-election. The full result was: 

SAMINA SAFDAR (LIB DEM) 977

Jawade Liaqat (Labour) 927 

Edwin Northover (Conservative) 507 

Mark Dawes (Green) 184 

Makola Mayambika (Left List) 56 

Turnout 32.33 per cent, 2,661 votes cast

New Mayor of Waltham Forest, Cllr. Sheila Smith-Pryor has announced that she is hoping to raise lots of money during her year of office to support two local good causes:

1. Branches is a day centre and night shelter for homeless people. It is situated in Forest Rd E17. The night shelter offers a hot evening meal a bed and breakfast . The day centre provides a midday meal. There are showers clothing and laundry facilities. Branches also assists people to move back into proper homes.

2. MSAction is based in Billet Rd E17. It offers high pressure oxygen therapy to people with M.S. It does not receive any funding from the NHS and charges £10 for an hours therapy.It is not a cure but can help to keep the disease at bay and improve the quality of life.There are only 4 such units in the country and we are fortunate to have one in our borough. It is also unique in that it is the only unit that treats children with Cerebral Palsy. Again it is not a cure but can improve the quality of their lives, which has a knock-on effect on the whole family.

Anyone wishing to donate can send a cheque [payable to The Mayor’s Charity] to the Mayor’s Parlour, Town Hall, Forest Road, Walthamstow, E17 4JF.

Liberal Democrats on the London Assembly had a very successful session at the first Mayor’s Question Time with Boris Johnson this week.Leader of the London Assembly Liberal Democrats, Mike Tuffrey, convinced the Mayor to make all his appointments to City Hall accountable to the Assembly. This means that all the Mayor’s staff, including his advisers, can be called before the London Assembly for scrutiny. Mike Tuffrey also extracted pledges from Boris Johnson to make sure that the supposed ‘independent’ panel appointed by the Mayor to investigate grants awarded by the London Development Agency take account of, and use, all the work that the Assembly’s committee chaired by Liberal Democrat Dee Doocey had already carried out before the recent elections.At the same meeting Boris Johnson also agreed to seek an urgent meeting with the Department for Transport over funding for Phase 2 of the East London Line following questioning from Caroline Pidgeon - a point noted in Thursday’s Guardian!

Caroline also got Boris Johnson to admit that his plans for a new Routemaster bus are only an aspiration rather than a firm commitment.After the meeting Caroline Pidgeon commented, “The Routemaster bus was a central part of the Mayor’s election manifesto. But there are no clear plans on how he will design or pay for it. The Mayor’s new transport adviser, Kulveer Ranger, seems to think the new Routemaster may not be ‘hop-on, hop-off’. But Boris Johnson said it will be and will include the iconic platform. The Mayor’s office is sending out a confused message on his flagship policy.‘Londoners voted for Boris Johnson on his pledge to reintroduce the Routemaster. This is the first real test of Boris’ campaign manifesto and like him, it is turning out to be a little blurry round the edges. Boris Johnson said that his Routemaster bus is an aspiration and not a commitment. We can only hope that the Mayor’s next proposal has more substance.”