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
'We don't want or need to go back to those fume-filled, congested and hostile roads of the past' - the message concluding a letter sent by campaigners to the leaders of Enfield Council concerned about what might happen once the coronavirus lockdown ends. They urge the leaders to to take steps to ensure that, as restrictions are gradually relaxed, high levels of car usage do not return, hindering social distancing and discouraging active travel modes - walking and cycling. Their suggestions include 'pop-up' cycle lanes along corridors for key workers, widening of pinchpoints that present hazards when walking or cycling, and re-allocation of road space at places where queues outside shops make it impossible for pedestrians to maintain safe distances.
The top end of Hedge Lane will be closed for Thames Water work from 29th April to 26th May, though the Yasar Halim store will still be accessible by road from the Green Lanes end of Hedge Lane. Through traffic will be diverted either to the north (via the A10 and Church Street West) or to the south (via the North Circular Road). A temporary one-way system will be in force in the area comprising Park Avenue, New River Crescent, Lightcliffe Road, Windsor Road and Osborne Road.
'Social distancing' has drawn attention to how narrow many pavements are and what a small percentage of the space on our streets is devoted to walking - which is theoretically at the top of the transport mode hierarchy. London Living Streets has published an important discussion paper about how streets should be re-evaluated in the face of Covid. As the authors point out, the ideas reflected the situation in mid-April, and the situation will undoubtedly evolve. At national level Living Streets is suggesting that we contact councillors with suggestions for reallocating space for people on foot where social distancing is proving difficult.
Footage on Twitter of the police chasing a drug driver from near Ritz Parade, then along the A105 through Palmers Green and Winchmore Hill, eventually ending in the chased car crashing outside St Stephen's Bush Hill Park.
Hackney council is planning to implement measures to curb rat-running during the coronavirus lockdown, with the aim of protecting walkers and cyclists, allowing them more space to socially distance, and as a countermeasure to increased speeding by reckless drivers taking advantage of much lighter traffic levels. By doing so Hackney stands out from other UK local authorities, but cities in other countries all over the world have already done much more to reallocate road space away from cars.
Detective Superintendent Andy Cox from the Met's Roads and Transport Policing Command has recorded a YouTube video in which he talks about the incidence of extreme speeding during the coronavirus lockdown and police operations against all speeding in London. He urges all drivers not to speed and passengers to ask drivers to slow down - speeding should, he says, be as socially unacceptable as drink driving.
As UK doctors call for lower speed limits to reduce the pressure on health services, London's top traffic cop has gone online to plead for slower driving and to highlight examples of criminal behaviour by drivers taking advantage of clearer roads to flagrantly breach speed limits.
Following the publication by Enfield Council of a report on its engagement with the public over its proposals for a low-traffic neighbourhood (LTN) in the Fox Lane area, a residents' group which has been campaigning to remove through traffic from the area has commented on its findings, which showed considerable variation in attitudes between the different streets, reflecting the volumes and speeds of traffic using each street.
A resident of The Mall, which runs between Southgate High Street and Fox Lane, has launched an online petition asking Enfield Council to implement a low-traffic neighbourhood in the wider Fox Lane area as soon as possible.
As people living in and around Fox Lane await a revised low-traffic neighbourhood proposal from Enfield Council, support for a scheme which would completely rid their streets of the plague of rat-running is growing. At last week's meeting of Fox Lane & District Residents' Association (FLDRA) it was confirmed that the 'Red Poster' group, originally sceptical about excluding through traffic, are now in favour. And on Sunday residents used the opportunity provided by the monthly play street in Amberley Road to gather in the road and say 'Yes to Low Traffic'.