October 7th, 2008 by superadmin
Liberal Democrat Councillor John Beanse, who represented the Hale End and
Highams
Park ward, has died suddenly at the age of 61 after a short illness.
John Beanse lived in the Chingford area all his life and was educated at Sir George Monoux Grammar School, where he very recently attended a reunion of ‘Old Monovians’. He went on to study Modern Languages at Cambridge before training to be a teacher at Goldsmith’s College. He enjoyed a distinguished career as a languages teacher and taught in the local area.
John became an active member of the Liberal Party in 1974 and was a regular attendee and contributor at party conferences and events. He was also an accredited speaker for the Electoral Reform Society. Until recently he was the Chair of the Chingford and Woodford Green Liberal Democrats, where he stood as the parliamentary candidate in the General Elections of 2001 and 2005.
A hard-working community activist prior to his election to Waltham Forest Council in 2006, he served as a Governor of two local schools and was previously the Chair of the local Community Health Council.
As the editor of the popular local ‘Focus’ leaflets he used advice surgeries and his long-running ‘Chingford and Woodford Green Blogspot’ webpage to keep residents up-to-date with local news.
Cllr Beanse took a keen interest in health issues, and after his election in 2006 he served on the Council as the Vice Chair of the Health, Adults and Older People Overview and Scrutiny sub-committee.
Amongst his other Council commitments, he chaired the Council Joint Consultative Committee and also sat on the Performance Improvement Committee, the Teachers Joint Committee and the Waltham Forest Tenants Council.
In his spare time he enjoyed travel and walking holidays, and he regularly gave talks to various travel groups.
The Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Waltham Forest Council, Cllr John Macklin, said that the news had come as “a huge shock to all of Cllr Beanse’s many friends and colleagues”.
Cllr Macklin continued:
“John was an incredibly hard-working and committed community activist both in his time as a councillor and as a lifelong local resident.
“He always had residents best interests at heart and his local knowledge and enormous abilities as a councillor will be hugely missed by the Liberal Democrats, Waltham Forest Council and the residents on whose behalf he worked so conscientiously”.
August 12th, 2008 by superadmin
As part of the Hale End Road Safety scheme (between the railway crossing and Wadham Bridge) – funded by Transport for London – various safety features such as built out kerbs and islands are now a feature. Particularly welcome to many local residents are the THREE new pedestrian crossings which are now in operation:
1] at the Hale End Road/Wadham Road junction
2] at this same junction on Wadham Bridge itself
3] part-way along Hale End Road near the junctions of Forest Mount Road on one side and Malvern Avenue on the other.
In addition to these measures, there has been re-surfacing and there are fresh markings.
It is hoped that all these measures will improve safety for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians – and that above all, there will be fewer problems with speeding traffic.
July 22nd, 2008 by superadmin
Local residents have expressed their approval of the hanging baskets, which now brighten the Highams Park scene.
This was a project proposed and worked out by the Highams Park Residents’ Association. It was supported in a vote at the South.Chingford and Highams Park Community Council as an initiative that should receive funding. The baskets have brought much colour to the local shopping centre.
July 22nd, 2008 by superadmin
Your Liberal Democrat councillors in Hale End and Highams Park regularly send out their FOCUS newsletter to every household in the ward. This keeps residents up to date with news of local issues and campaigns.It is published monthly (apart from the summer holiday period) and is distributed and financed by volunteers. A special colour 100th edition came out in December 2007.