Planting on the green space

We are so lucky to look out onto a green space instead of a row of houses. You might have noticed in recent years how many wildflowers and other beautiful flowers start to appear each spring over there. They aren’t put there by the council and don’t appear by accident. A few people on the street started planting a few years ago, resulting in the grass not being cut right to the edge to allow the ‘wildflower nature corridor’ to grow. Why not get involved by starting to grow some wildflower seeds in ‘plugs’ at home – toilet tolls cut in half and stuffed with compost make great seed plugs – now so we can all go out and do a mass planting over the end of May bank holiday weekend.

Some tips –

Grow Wild

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Elmfield Road has always known how to party.

This was taken outside numbers 27/29/31 in May 1935. George V and Queen Mary silver jubilee. Those drafty sash windows and dark, dusty wooden blinds, so old fashioned eh? Wouldn’t it be great to recreate this for our 10th anniversary party?

Council street party road closure form for 2018 requires this box to be ticked

I understand that there is no specific funding allocated for Street Parties for this financial year. (If you wish to enquire whether other funding may be available please contact the Councillors representing your ward. You can find details of your ward councillors at: http://democracy.walthamforest.gov.uk/mgFindMember.aspx or Tel: 020 8496 3000 )

Notes from Elmfield Road Summer Street Party 2018 Planning Meeting 22nd March 2018.

1. The date. A flyer was sent out to every household after last year’s party which included the idea of fixing the event to the second Saturday in July and this idea was repeated in the recent flyer about this meeting, both times with requests for people with objections to let us know. No objections have been received, so it appears OK to go ahead with holding the event on Saturday July 14th. Action: David G to contact the council to organise road closure.

2. Everyone felt the ‘Elmfield All-stars’ DJ set went down so well last year they we’d like to ask them to be the grand finale for this year’s event. Jeff was in agreement. Bex agreed she’d go on before them. EAS set to start at 10pm. Action: Jeff, Bex and Gordon to get together at some point.

3. We plan to wind things down a little earlier than usual this year, just to ensure people who want to can get a decent night sleep and so we’re not having to be out into the early hours packing away the more expensive equipment.

4. Last year we tried to make the event free from ‘single use plastic’. That went well, so we’d like to try again, even though things like compostable cups, plates etc are a bit more expensive than cheap plastic ones. Action: look into prices to try to get the best deal, anyone who’s interested.

5. As this is our 10th anniversary (how did that happen!?), we’re looking for any special ideas to help mark the occasion. All suggestions welcome.

6. The bouncy castle seemed to work well, so we’re planning to book one again this year. This is on the understanding that parents with kids using it will organise some kind of supervision rota. If that’s going to be a problem, please let us know as soon as possible. Action: David G to check if the stamdard Public Liability Insurance cover provided cia the council includes the bouncy castle (we suspect not, but need to confirm); Ian to get on with booking the bouncy castle; some-one to volunteer to supervise the rota?

7. Events will include afternoon games – Jeff and Laurence agreed to co-ordinate as usual, hopefully Gordon will be able to help as well, plus any other volunteers on the day. Jeff suggested a five-a-side tournament? Ideas for helping ensure the games to run as smoothly as possible will be most welcome.

8. We hope Debbie and Dave are OK to organise the Bake Off as usual, as it’s a very popular event.

9. The ‘honesty’ cocktail bar went down really well, so this year we are thinking of how we can expand the range of drinks (and the size of the bar). This might involve a whip-round in the days before the event to buy more ingredients. Hopefully John will be able to host the bar again.

10. We’ll be looking for people to help out as much as they can, as usual. This could include face painting on the day, setting up the Marquee in the days leading to the event (and on the day) along with taking it all down the day after; decorating the street, tidying up, organising the raffle, selling raffle tickets, monitoring the end of street road closure positions, etc.

11. Funding was tight last year. We’ll be asking the council for help as usual, and holding the raffle to help cover costs, but if we have another deficit again this year we might need to have a think about how the event can pay for itself in future. If anyone wants to organise fundraising events for this year’s event, please do feel free! Action: Need to check on the council funding application, David G / Clifford?

12. Next meeting: we thought it might be helpful for those who can’t do weekday meetings to have at least one meeting on a Sunday afternoon. Suggestion: Sunday, April 8th 2pm onwards, outside the Coppermill in the warm spring sunshine of the beer garden….

Doesn’t clash

10th Annual Summer Street Party 2018 – first planning meeting

Thursday March 22nd, 8pm-ish, Coppermill Pub.

Elmfield Snow 2018: when you’ve got to go…