WANSTEAD: 'Protest picnic' set for Wanstead Flats (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)
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WANSTEAD: 'Protest picnic' set for Wanstead Flats
5:30pm Friday 13th August 2010 in News By James Ranger
WANSTEAD: 'Protest picnic' set for Wanstead Flats
OPPONENTS against controversial plans to use a beauty spot as a temporary police headquarters during the Olympics have organised an unusual way of voicing their concerns.
The Save Wanstead Flats campaign has organised a 'Mass Community Picnic' on the flats, in the exact spot where the Metropolitan Police is planning on constructing its muster briefing and deployment centre during the Games.
A number of people and community groups have expressed concerns that the use of the flats in this way, which would require an amendment to the Epping Forest Act 1878, which prohibits building on and the enclosure of the land.
Beate Hohmann, of Montague Road in Leyton, lives near the flats and runs the campaign.
Mrs Hohmann also objected to the fact that a forthcoming meeting on the plans, to be held in Wanstead on Monday (August 16), was only for a select group of representatives from interest groups and not open to the wider public.
She also expressed concerns that a change in the law could lead to a dangerous precedent being set for building on the flats in years to come.
Mrs Hohmann said: “We are going to tell them that we are not happy about this consultation process.
“There are hundreds of residents very upset about what it going on.
“If there is a change in the law, then how can we be sure that it's going to be protected in the future?”
The picnic will take place on Sunday, September 5 from 1pm. For more information visit www.savewansteadflats.org.uk.
Representatives of interest groups, including Save Wanstead Flats and Friends of Wanstead Park, will attend the meeting at the Cherry Tree Café in Woodbine Place, Wanstead, at 6:30pm on Monday, August 16.
Members of the public are invited to a series of exhibitions of the plans at the same venue on Wednesday, August 25, from 4pm to 8pm, and on Saturday, September 4, from 10am to 4pm.
To view the police's plans and a map showing the site of the propose headquarters, visit www.wanstead-mbdc.org.uk.
Comments(5)
Morris Hickey
says...
10:32am Sat 14 Aug 10
rubberneck wrote:Well YOU can't go - you're several sandwiches short of a picnic.
Not much of a protest if all they are going to do is go and have a cheese sandwich and a cup of tea, more like a lunch?
rubberneck
says...
12:22pm Sat 14 Aug 10
Morris Hickey wrote:Oh...
rubberneck wrote: Not much of a protest if all they are going to do is go and have a cheese sandwich and a cup of tea, more like a lunch?Well YOU can't go - you're several sandwiches short of a picnic.
UKIP-local
says...
1:13pm Sun 15 Aug 10
We are no longer governed, we are ruled!
It is sad that Mrs Hohmann has discovered the modern way of "democracy". The powers that be do not acknowledge the public has rights, only their preferred select groups of representatives from interest groups they approve of.
Wile not necessarily true in this case, the so-called independent or protest groups that government confer with are often funded by tax payers at the behest of the very ministers who they claim to be petitioning.
Why not allow the public to demand binding referendums to prevent officials, quangos and the government from acting against our wishes.
Morris Hickey
says...
1:17pm Sun 15 Aug 10
rubberneck says...
7:39am Sat 14 Aug 10