Waltham Forest's green spaces underused (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

Waltham Forest's green spaces underused

12:10pm Monday 16th June 2008

• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

This feels like when your favourite band, the one you´ve followed since the early days, suddenly is number one and everyone´s wearing their t-shirt. The one you bought last summer. So... Epping Forest...how´s that for a link? Look, we´ll get back to the whole pop band analogy shortly. But meanwhile bear with me for a while about the forest.

I´m a mountain biker. Not a lot of mountains you may point out in Waltham Forest. In fact there´s precisely none - but there´s Pole Hill, in Chingford. A massive, alpine 90-odd metres above sea level. Get to the top, where the local kids are digging not-so-secret BMX jumps and you may find a 30-something bloke with bright red face and no hair lying in a heap panting with a mountain bike on top of him - that´s probably me, as there´ll be no one else there. Connaught Water - now that´s another story.

On the average sunny weekend there´s thousands of families ambling the 300 metres from the car park, round the lake and back to the car park. Same story with Chingford Plain or High Beech, or on the Lea
Valley - there´s a cluster of families stuck in a holding pattern around the bottom of Spring Hill but once you get north of Ferry Lane, where is everybody?

Our borough may not have a cinema any more, or a theatre for much longer, or a dog track. But what it does have lots of is great open spaces. Epping Forest is one of the best mountain biking destinations in striking distance of London. The Lea Valley´s one of the loveliest cycling and walking family paths around. Please, go and use those spaces. And not just the 200 metre radius around the sodding car parks eh?

I´m really hoping that you stop reading here, turn off your computer and get out there - the great outdoors - for a walk, or a jog, or a cycle ride or something. And if you do, and this is where we jump back to the pop band thing from earlier, I´m really hoping my secret
trails - the ones I´ve learned and earned from years of exploring the forest - get a little bit more busy.

A long time ago, as a wannabe-journalist fanzine writer, I interviewed Nirvana. I was there right at the start - way before Nevermind. How did I feel when they became one of the biggest bands ever? Just glad to be along for the ride.

We´ve got some awesome open space around us. In London, that´s a rarity. So, enjoy...