Halloween Party Wed 31st Oct

The Gardens Community Garden 10 Year Anniversary Celebration

On 29th September 2012 we celebrate 10 years of community volunteering in the Gardens. The Gardens’ Community Garden opened on 14th September 2002, an amazing achievement by local residents and the residents association, the GRA have worked hard to create & maintain this pocket oasis for all.

The site of the Community Garden used to be an entrance road way to the once famous Harringay Stadium, which following years of disrepair, was eventually demolished and redeveloped as Sainsbury’s circa 1987, sadly with no one to take ownership of the strip of land and railway arch at the end of Doncaster Gardens. This caused serious problems with vandalism, trespassing, dumping and maintenance issues to local residents, Haringey Council and the railway company. Formed in 1999, the Gardens Residents Association (GRA) through a series of consultations, conceived the idea of securing the land, designing, fundraising and building the community garden for everyone to enjoy.

Now ten years on, with 20 local and national awards to date and many fantastic events behind us, the space has truly become a ‘”Community Centre Without A Roof” , “The Oasis of the Gardens”.

We would like to thank all the funders for initially funding the Gardens, Network Rail (our landlord), our local three St Ann’s Ward councillors and Haringey Parks Dept who have supported us along the way, without their support we would have had to close the gates years ago.

And a very special thank you to all our garden and event volunteers. The only way the garden works is by people being involved and keeping it open and growing, driven through the residents association. Without regular income from volunteer’s activities and events, the garden would certainly not be here.

So here is to 10 years more of great memories and gardening for young and old being created in the Community Gardens. With funding in place for the Community Streets Project, we have fantastic future for our streets and “ the Gardens”, with your involvement we have a fantastic future for the Gardens Area.

Andy Newman – Vice Chair & Community Garden Co-ordinator
&  Francois Ballay Chair of the Gardens Residents Association


Friends Of Chestnuts Park (FOC)  

FOC who are funding the evenings film event, are very pleased to be working with the GRA and supporting the Community Gardens 10th Anniversary event.
Friends of Chestnuts Park have worked hard for many years and campaigns for improvements to our local park. Recent successes include transforming the playground area and development of the senorary play area and Multi sports play space. We have lots of ideas for what needs to happen next in the park. What are your ideas?. There are challenges ahead with cuts in the Parks Services so there is never been a better time to get involved. We meet every two months on the third Saturday of the month in the park café.  The next meeting is 11am Sat 18th Nov 12.  Most meetings include a practical planting session or other activity.  

Do come along or get in touch at Friendsofchestnuts@hotmail.co.uk
 
Ceri Williams – Chair of FOC

• The Wildcat Arts Collective  
WAC is delighted to be working in partnership again with the GRA’s Community Garden. WAC organizes cultural/arts events around comedy, music, poetry, dance and film/outdoor screenings. These events, aimed at three groups: children (Kids Collective), younger teenagers (11PLUS) & Parents / Carers, they are affordable, progressive and inclusive.
We are open to new ideas & projects & like to make links with other community groups. We are always looking for people to get involved.
For further information,  you can e-mail us wildcatartscollective@hotmail.co.uk  or call: 07966096482 

www.wildcat-arts-collective.org.uk/
 
Dave Downes – WAC

OUTDOOR FILM  - THE SIMPSONS MOVIE – 7pm to 9pm
2007, USA, 87mins.Director, David Silverman.

The locals' casual disregard for the environment leads to Springfield being sealed off from the outside world - not even Greenday can make a difference. The Simpsons Movie is right up there with the classic TV episodes  such as 'Radio Bart', 'Homer Badman' and 'Flaming Moe's'.

Very, very funny and genuinely cinematic - a rare opportunity to see this film outdoors on a big screen, with  communal laughter ringing in your ears (and you get to see Bart's doodle, too!).

GRA Meeting Dates - Dates for 2012

GRA Meetings are held 7.30pm to 9pm at the
Kurdish Community Centre in Portland Gardens.
Our next meeting dates are set out below. We
hope you can come along and contribute, to help
improve where we all live, or just to find out more.

Thursday 19th April
Thurs 10th May – AGM (Annual General Meeting)
Monday 11th June
Tuesday 10th July
No meeting in August
Wednesday 5th September
Thursday 4th October
Tuesday 6th November
Thursday 6th December

GRA Email Group and Twitter

The Gardens Residents Association email group is
currently being audited and updated alongside the
GRA membership list. Following the last GRA
meeting, it has been decided to make the email
group available to current residents of the Gardens
area only (along with our ward councillors and the
Safer Neighbourhood Team). This will enable us to
consult more effectively with local residents on
matters that directly relate to the Gardens area.

Gardens Residents can join the group at:

gardensresidents.blogspot.com

or via the email group website:

uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/gardensresidents

Anyone who is interested in events and activities in
the Community Garden can now follow us on twitter

twitter.com/gardensN4

Green Lanes Wins £3 Million For Improvements

The Green Lanes Strategy Group (GLSG) - an umbrella
organisation with representatives from the Gardens
Residents Assoc (GRA), the Ladder Community Safety
Partnership (LCSP), Woodlands Park Residents Assoc
(WPRA), the Green Lanes N4 Traders Assoc, and our
local councilors - won a bid in Dec 2011 for £1.78
million from the Mayoral Outer London Fund (OLF) for
improvements to the high street. This comes on top of
the £1.2 million that the Transport for London (TFL)
plans to spend on pedestrian improvements on Green
Lanes between Endymion Rd and Ducketts Common.

The TFL funding will focus on new pedestrian crossings,
street paving and revisiting the efficiency of the bus lanes,
whereas the OLF will be targeted towards regeneration
work on some shop fronts and the creation of micro
squares to improve the entrances to the Gardens and
Ladder roads. The GLSG also has funding towards some
work on the railway bridge.

Once designers have been commissioned and sketch
designs produced, a public consultation and exhibition will
take place locally. This is the first time in 30 years that
Green Lanes has received such large scale funding - many
thanks to everyone in the strategy group who has worked
so hard on this and other projects over the last 10 years.
The Green Lanes Strategy Group also brought you the
Green Lanes Food Festival in Sept 2011, a fantastic
community event attended by some 20,000 people; we
also organised the Xmas Fair in December and the light
projection onto the Salisbury Pub (picture left).
Everyone is very excited about this work - improvements
should become evident from September onwards, after the
Olympics build embargo has been lifted. So now the real
hard work begins!

Three Great Wins for the Gardens Community Garden

Our Community Garden in Doncaster Gardens off
Stanhope Gardens won three awards in 2011: (i) “The
Green Flag Community Award”, (ii) London in Bloom’s
“It’s Your Neighbourhood Award”, and (iii) “Gardening
Against the Odds Award”, organised by the
Conservation Foundation, for which GRA reps will be
attending a prestigious awards ceremony in March.
The garden was voted in the Daily & Sunday Telegraph
as one of the top three well organised and presented
voluntary run green spaces and gardens in the UK.

Anyone can join in and help keep the garden in tip top
condition by helping out on our maintenance mornings,
held on the first Saturday of every month from 11am to
1pm. The next maintenance morning will be Sat 7th April -
come along and help us win again for 2012.

Some of you will have come to the fantastic opening day of
the Community Garden on 14th Sept 2002. We are now
starting to plan the 10th anniversary party for this occasion.
Why not attend our next general meeting or the next
maintenance morning to find out more.

Worried About Noise?

As the Spring approaches, some residents are reporting
higher levels of noise due to loud parties in the area. If the
noise is a problem for you, you can call the Haringey
Council Noise team at these numbers:

OFFICE HOURS
Monday - Friday: 9am - 5pm, Tel 020 8489 1000
OUTSIDE OFFICE HOURS
Weekdays, Monday - Friday: 5pm - 9am,
Tel 020 8348 3148
Weekends, Friday 5pm to Monday 9am,
Tel 020 8348 3148

Resisting Business Encroachment on Residential Streets

The current surge in planning and licensing applications by
businesses on residential roads near or at the rear of Green
Lanes must be stopped in its tracks, as the inconveniences
associated with a shop or a café are far greater in the
middle of a residential area than on a high street. The GRA
and many residents have already objected to such
applications and will continue to campaign for the strict
enforcement of planning and licensing laws.

St Anns Hospital

The GRA has been participating in the recent Community
Reference Group discussions regarding redevelopment
of the St Anns Hospital site. The group is working with
the trust for the new St Anns by bringing in the views
of the wider community to inform decision-making.

The majority of the current buildings are outdated, and
despite investment in recent years, they do not meet
modern standards of primary and community healthcare
services. In order to develop new healthcare facilities, a
mixture of private and affordable housing is proposed,
which will fund the new facilities. The trust is in talks with
new and existing health providers, and from this a
masterplan of the site will be developed and made available
for further public consultation in spring 2012.

St Anns is on our doorstep and so it is very important that
the GRA keeps up to date with all new developments. The
GRA wants to see the existing healthcare services retained
on the site and wishes to see a high quality and sympathetic
design of any new build, including respecting and retaining
existing listed buildings.

Gardens Tree Planting

The GRA has been successful in winning £1000 from
the LBH ‘Making a Difference’ Grant to plant four new
trees in our streets. The trees, a variety of flowering
cherry, will be planted in the next few weeks and give
summer long blossom.

This Autumn/Winter planting season has also seen the
council plant an additional 16 Trees, so bringing a total of
20 new trees, which will contribute to making our streets
look attractive and green for residents to enjoy.

This Spring will also see the council tree team prune and
generally check on the wellbeing of all the trees in the
Gardens’ streets.

Free Collection Of Your Bulky Items

The GRA have been campaigning for many
years for the re-introduction of the "Free Bulky
Items Scheme".

Haringey Councils Waste contractor Veolia have
reintroduced the scheme again to provide a free
household bulky waste collection for items that are
reusable or recyclable. This includes the collection
of mattresses, sofa's, wardrobes, TV's and all white
goods too. Further details and a list of the items
that can be collected are on the Haringey Council
website. You will need to contact the council and
arrange the collection from your house or flat.
You can arrange a collection by contacting the
Veolia Contact Centre on 020 8885 7700
or email: enquiries.haringey@veolia.co.uk.
With this free service we hope it will stop
unnecessary fly tipping in front gardens and the
"Gardens" streets.