News, comment and features

This is possibly our final playlist in this series, as we plan to return to live music at St Harmonica's on Friday 25 September 2020 (sorry - already sold out!), regulations permitting. It features some of our regular performers, hopefully coming to play for us again soon. We hope you have enjoyed the playlists over the past six months.

Enfield Council and the Metropolitan Police Service in the borough have joined the OWL Online Watch Link scheme. OWL is used in conjunction with local neighbourhood watch coordinators and, according to its website, has a proven track record in finding suspects, bringing offenders to justice and finding missing people.

Under the new government Green Homes Grant scheme homeowners and landlords can get up to £5,000 to pay for energy saving improvements. According to the government, more than 600,000 people could benefit from the new proposals which aim to cut carbon in our homes as well as providing green jobs.

In this year's Open House Festival (now longer than just one weekend) you'll have an opportunity to visit (in some cases, only virtually) ten buildings or groups of buildings in Enfield borough, plus to tour the 'daylighted' parts of the Moore Brook, find out about the masterplan for Meridian Water and follow a 'self-guided' itinerary.

Only two weeks until St Harmonica's restarts at the Southgate Club - reserve your seat now. In the meantime, we have another fine selection - Unplugged and Mellow - chosen by Simon Bennett.

Enfield Council is making changes to arrangements for collection of waste and recyclables. Aluminium foil and carrier bags can now be recycled, but from 5th October households will no longer be able to put out extra bags of general waste.

Sometimes it can take a childs-eye view to see how we can do things better, and a new competition for young budding transport planners, launched today, is intended to take advantage of this to help us speed up the decarbonisation of transport and in particular of the school run. The national walking charity Living Streets is teaming up with the Transport Planning Society to offer a prize for the best poster designed by a child of primary school age showing environmentally friendly ways to travel to school.

All of us, to greater or lesser extent, shape the world that children have to grow up in. And, without our realising it, our lifestyle and behaviour might be contributing to the problems that lead to so many children growing up obese, unfit, unhealthy and with poor mental health. Instead of blaming their parents, we should consider whether we are part of the problem.

Women who are resident in London and have an idea for a new enterprise can now apply for Enterprise Enfield's Inspiring Women Start Up Programme, a 3-month FREE package of support designed to empower women with the skills needed to establish viable and sustainable businesses. Following Covid-19 the programme is now delivered online via a series of webinars and access to an expert adviser throughout the 3-month period. As the programme is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund, all the support is FREE of charge.

A school street scheme comes into force on Monday 7th September outside St Paul's primary school in Ringwood Way, Winchmore Hill. Between 8.15 and 9.15 in the morning and 2.45 and 3.45 in the afternoon Ringwood Way will be a pedestrian and cycle zone between its junctions with Station Road and Shrubbery Gardens. This normally busy cut-through will be closed to all vehicles other than those with specific exemptions.

The September issue of Enfield Dispatch has been published. You can read it online or pick it up at one of the many distribution points in the borough.

As summer turns to autumn, St John's and St Monica's churches in Palmers Green are continuing to feed the hungry.