Welcome to your new look Romford Road - especially mothers with prams, couples and the elderly and everyone of course!
Today (11th October 2020) CRRA organised a community 'Retake our Footpath' event on Romford Road. Over a dozen volunteers took part in the programme clearing up litter, trimming back hedges and cutting away overgrowth that had been growing over pathway that rightfully belonged to the whole community.
The event involved people form close to the vicinity of the road, who had all been affected by the overgrown hedges. Moreover, many local residents had been calling for CRRA to do something about the overgrowth that was often forcing people onto the dangerous Romford Road, a dual carriageway known for drivers exceeding the 40mph limit.
In recent week CRRA received several complaints after a number of people had damaged their umbrellas along the road. Some had been ripped and other broken broken when being used in the recent heavy rainfall, a consequence of the thick prickly bushes that overhang over 2 feet into the pavement.
Other respondents described difficulty with pushing prams and pushchairs along the pavement and others had been poked in the eye, suffered epidermal scratches or had clothes torn while walking on the footway.
After Wilson Chowdhry wrote a blog post in which he filmed the problem, members of the group suggested a community project to reclaim the public path.
As good as their word over a dozen volunteers helped. They scraped away surface detritus from around a foot of the pavement and cut back the hedges to the same level. Furthermore, they took their trimming to a height at which it will be now be comfortable for couples, to both, hold their brollies, when traversing the footway together.
After the work was completed, the volunteers collected the green waste and delivered it to the Chigwell Recycling Centre, on Luxborough Lane.
Our esteemed and grateful thanks to All Saints Church who provided around 50% of the volunteers and especially Vicar Pauline and husband Paul, who provided a vehicle and trailer for us to remove the green waste. They began working with us from 11am and finished with Mr Chowdhry some time after 3pm.
Vicar Paula Preston, said:
"It was hard work but great fun and a privilege to help make that piece of pathway a little safer for all those who use it.
"I’m looking forward to the next Wilson Chowdhry working party, he does a great job!"
Making very sure that every last piece of green waste was removed from the pathway. They even swept away some of the leaves that had been left by the overhanging trees on the corner of Woolhampton Way. All the non-green waste has also been removed, sifted and deposited at the appropriate recycling bins at the recycling centre.
Wilson Chowdhry, Chairman of the Chigwell Row Residents Association, said:
"We will be returning back to the location to complete the works in future weekends and hope more volunteers will join us, as the work is quite arduous.
"It feels particularly pleasing that children, mothers with young children and pushchairs and the elderly can use this pathway, without injury or damage to their property.
"This was not a random event and we had ensured a full risk assessment was in place and method statement - prepared by young volunteer Hannah Chowdhry.
"Volunteers were wearing Hi-vis jackets, gloves and only using equipment that they had brought to the event and had experience of using.
"A CO2 extinguisher, dry powder extinguisher and fire blanket were present and a full 128 piece First Aid kit.
"People safety was at the forefront of what we did and we ensured that hand-sanitizer was present and a track and trace record was maintained.
"Moreover, everyone was wearing a face-mask (though not all the time due to deep-breath inducing work) and socially-distanced themselves as much as possible on the bush-encroached and coned road."
Feedback from local residents has been phenomenal and CRRA will be doing more projects like this in the future. Please contact us if you would like to get more involved. As a group we 'walk the walk', arguably something we can do more effortlessly on Romford Road now. Some direct feedback would be much appreciated.
There are still visibility issues around the corner of the road for vehicles exiting Woolhampton Way, but we will now take this issue up with Epping Forest Council.
We thank the wonderful residents of Daylop Drive for their help and support in getting this work completed.
A very good & necessary job has been done by All the wonderful volunteers. Thank you to all involved
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