While we admire and support the Christmas campaigns that we see pop up in December, we also know that help is urgently needed all year round, each and every year. As some people pack away after the festive break, we are still here.
Our support is not limited to a food package, but it leaps beyond - we form connections, we listen and respond to everyone who steps through our doors. We open up a warm, safe, environment which aims to feel like a home away from home.
For us to continue to thrive and grow, and keep supporting as many people as possible, we are asking you to become a Friend of Cooking Champions. Even a donation of just £5-10 per month can make a HUGE impact on the lives of those who come through our doors.
Pop to our People's Fundraising page to donate, and we promise to keep you updated with how your support is making a difference. Thank you, we appreciate you! Team Cooking Champions
Viola Rondeboom of Healthy Streets Bounds Green introduces the new group and its ideas for creating a healthier environment in the residential streets between Bounds Green Road and Bowes Road.
Residents of streets to the south of Bowes Road, particularly those living in Brownlow Road, Warwick Road and nearby streets, have come together to launch a campaign to prevent traffic in the area building up to the unacceptably high levels that were normal prior to the Covid-19 lockdown. Their proposal is to create a low-traffic neighbourhood to prevent use of roads in the area as a cut-through. The campaign, under the slogan 'A Bus Gate for Brownlow?', has won the support of Better Streets for Enfield, who promote the idea of creating people-friendly streets across the entire borough.
Find out everything you need to know on how to ask your council for a School Street to a) reduce air pollution exposure and b) overcrowding at the school gate.
The Place Alliance and its partner organisations carry out research into and campaign for improvements to the built environment. They are currently carrying out a survey of how the quality of people's homes and neighbourhoods supports - or fails to support - their lives during lockdown. This short online survey runs until 24th May.
The planning application for construction of 162 flats on the Arnos Grove station car parks has now been submitted. The application has been made on behalf of Connected Living London, which is a partnership between Transport for London (TfL) and Grainger plc, the UK's largest listed provider of private rental homes. The intention is to provide quality homes for Londoners, whilst also generating revenue, which TfL will invest in the capital's transport network
The government has told local authorities that it expects them to take urgent measures to reallocate roadspace away from cars to provide more room for walking and cycling 'as swiftly as possible, and in any event within weeks'. They are to include 'pop-up' cycle lanes with light segregation features, more school streets, lower speed limits, pedestrian and cycle zones that exclude motor traffic, low-traffic residential neighbourhoods, and bus and cycle corridors along key routes into town and city centres. Enfield Council's 'Streetspace Plan', announced last week, will incorporate measures of this sort - residents are able to upload their own suggestions on the council's Consultation Hub.
Jacob Karlsson, a research fellow in the LSE's Department of Geography and Environment is conducting research on the perception of, and attitudes on, density among residents in outer London boroughs and is inviting PGC readers to fill in an online survey. The study will be composed of a series of pictures of buildings and developments which respondents will have to rate on two different scales.
Transport for London's Streetspace Programme, announced on Wednesday, is intended to rapidly transform the capital's streets to accommodate a possible ten-fold increase in cycling and five-fold increase in walking when lockdown restrictions are eased. Many boroughs have already started on their own similar schemes - Enfield's was announced on Tuesday. Measures of this kind have already been endorsed by the prime minister and business secretary.
A report launched at the end of April claims that there are are an estimated 125,000 homes in London with no-one living in them. It calls for a robust register of residential property ownership and usage and effective regulation of second homes and short-term lets and says that local authorities should be given planning powers and resources to ensure homes are built for residential use rather than as wealth investments.
Public consultation on proposals to build two new schools and further housing on former hospital land at Chase Farm is being held online. Responses are requested by 7th May.