News, comment and features

From 2nd September Enfield Citizens Advice Bureau will provide an independent financial advice service. The bureau’s new volunteer financial adviser is Minesh Patel, a Chartered Financial Planner who was awarded the prestigious honour of "Adviser of the Year" at the FT Financial Adviser's Life and Pensions Awards in 2014. He will be available by appointment every Wednesday afternoon to provide free advice on a wide range of subjects including planning for retirement or long term care.......

BFI Player, the online video streaming service run by the British Film Institute, recently launched a channel called Britain on Film, featuring footage from across the years and across the country. Among the local films that can be viewed for free are two featuring Palmers Green in the 1950s: Southgate Celebrates the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II Southgate's New Running Track, Broomfield Park The Coronation film is fascinating for many reasons, not least for the sheer number of people.......

A major revamp of Enfield Town Market, due to take place in October, has the aim of smartening up the market, increasing the range of goods on sale and extendingopening hours.  Good news - but it is important that the new management do not ignore the current traders and the customers who frequent the market because of its low prices and friendly and familiar stallholders. The body responsible for both the Market and the Market Place on which it is held is the Old Enfield Charitable Trust,.......

This weekend one of the volunteers who help run Talkies Community Cinema will be giving a Talk of her own.  Ruth Tosha Mulandi will be giving a lecture on behalf of WEA Enfield & Southgate entitled Down the Rabbit Hole:  Cinematic Tales of the Fantastic. 8th August 10:00-12:15DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE:  CINEMATIC TALES OF THE FANTASTIC 150 years of Alice and then 130 years of cinema that continued the tradition of nonsense and fantasy. WEA tutor Ruth Tosha Mulandi.......

If you'd like to have a stall at the 2015 Palmers Green Festival, you'll need to move fast.  It's already too late for food and catering stalls, but there are ten days to go before booking closes for everything. If you do take a stall, you'll  be joining an eclectic collection of organisations large and small.  The current list of stallholders is on the Festival website. As always, the Festival organisers depend on teams of volunteers to run this big event.  You too could.......

LYDS-TV, the YouTube channel created by the Love Your Doorstep website, has recorded an interview with Fiona Jackson, who has been the Director of Chase Farm Hospital since its takeover by the Royal Free last year. Ms Jackson explains the background to the relocation of the urgent care centre and other services, describes the parking arrangements and talks about the future of the rebuilt hospital.  She also mentions the new school and housing that will be built on land that currently forms.......

As we confidently forecast in the weekly newsletter, last Sunday was hot and sunny and people turned out in droves to listen to the Broomfield Blues in Broomfield Park.  They also stopped by at the Community Orchard to admire the wildflowers, see how the apples were coming on, drink home-made apple wine and observe the insects in their bug hotel, the Bugsingham Palace.  A few visitors even tried their hand at croquet on the former bowling green.  And there were chilli plants on.......

A vacancy has arisen in one of the alms houses in Christ Church Southgate parish.  The flat is in one of seven Baird Memorial Cottages in Balaams Lane.  To be eligible, applications must hold assets valued less than £16,000, be over 45 years of age, and live in or have a strong connection to the geographical area of the former parish of Southgate. For more details, see the Christ Church Southgate.......

The photograph below was taken by David March in Waterfall Road on Tuesday morning. Considering the speed at which many drivers descend the hill, a similar incident was probably inevitable sooner or later. It's only a few weeks since a driver turned his car over in Park Avenue, which is an entirely residential side street, not a race track. Incidents of dangerous driving by "boy racers" occur frequently, probably several times a day.  Why do we let them get away with it?.......

The Pinkham Way Alliance, which is campaigning against industrial use of a nature conservation site adjacent to the North Circular Road, is participating in a London-wide study into air quality.  If the monitoring confirms that the air near this stretch of the A406 is already very seriously polluted, this will help strengthen the campaigners' arguments against use of the site for processing household and industrial waste, which would inevitably result in even more lorry traffic along the.......

Enfield Council has issued the following information about giant hogweed. Giant Hogweed Awareness The Plant – Giant Hogweed may grow 5 metres tall. Stems are 2-8cm in diameter and are marked with dark purplish blotches and raised nodules. Numerous white flowers form a flat topped, umbrella shaped head up to 75cm across. Dangers - Giant Hogweed is one of a handful of plants that can cause a significant reaction, if sap from a broken stem or crushed leaf comes into contact with the skin........

The Friends of Firs Farm have provided a copy of a document setting out the proposals for the creation of a wetlands area in the park.  The detailed information in the document is the subject of a consultation exercise in which Enfield Council are seeking the views of people living near the playing fields and park. The wetlands project is being funded by Enfield Council, Thames Water, the Environment Agency and the GLA.  It will achieve a whole range of objectives, including.......