Dear Councillors,

I write to you with reference to the current workshops and potential developments within the “Markhouse Village” area.

I am a resident of Waltham Forest and wanted to raise my objections to the creation of "Mini Holland" and the prospect of road closures within my area. I understand that Waltham Forest Council has received grants from TFL to improve the borough’s roads and town centres making them great places to live, work and travel around. Whilst I am absolutely in favour of making changes that improve the quality of life of the residents, I sincerely believe that the changes being discussed and those which have already been implemented are causing more hardship than benefit.

The results from the 2015 perception survey  that is being used to support these planned works could be considered both deceptive and manipulative.
The results state:-
A total of 611 responses
- 96% of respondents walk in Markhouse village
- 55% of respondents stated that would like more Plants and trees making it a more pleasant place to walk and cycle
- 66% would like better pavements
- 64% use public transport
- 63% take the car
- 57% travel by bicycle

On first view these are all useful statistics, but as the saying goes “Lies, damn Lies and statistics”. There have been 611 responses from 5800 surveys delivered, indicating a response rate of under 11% of households, not taking into account the number of people within a single household. The manner in which these are being presented indicates that this is a representation of the whole community, and with a response rate of 11% that is not the case.

The key point and question missing from the survey was “are you in favour of Road closures and in support of the "Mini-Holland" initiative?”, If these questions had been asked then the number of total responses you would have received would have been far greater than you have above, dare I again say that it feels as if the survey was deliberately kept vague to give you the council the ability to obtain from the statistics the outcome you had set out to achieve and desired, which is to use the grant to create a "Mini-Holland". In addition, the survey itself was not widely publicised to those in the borough, as a significant number of residents had already voiced their opposition to the scheme.

I request that you to review the impact of the previous road closures on traffic levels on the main roads within Walthamstow, as an example Hoe Street is almost at a standstill for the majority of the day due to the amount of traffic that is being directed towards them due to enforced closures. The idea and argument used for creation of "Mini-Holland" is to reduce traffic and increase air quality, show me the statistics that road traffic and air pollution in the borough has decreased overall. The time for a bus to travel from Walthamstow central to Bakers Arms has increased, this will be the same for every car journey, surely more time spent on the road will increase pollution.

I want to stress that I am in support of improving quality of life, by having more green areas, more cycles, better pavements, better public transport, and would be surprised if the majority of residents (not just respondents) did not support all of the above points, but I would also suggest that if you honestly ask the right question of residents regarding closure of roads and creation of Mini-Holland the majority would not supports support road closures.
There are other means of achieving the same goals, you could:-
- Improve the pavements without closing roads,
- Introduce more greenery by planting trees and flowers, I believe at one stage most roads/streets within Waltham forest were tree lined,
- Create more cycle routes, I think the borough has introduced a huge number of cycle routes and cycle lanes already, but this does not mean road closures and Mini-Hollands, the two are not inter-dependent, we can have cycle routes without road closures.
- Increase better public transport links, but I would assume that is not a council decision but a TFL decision.

My request as a resident to you as elected representative of the people is to oppose road closures and creation of "Mini Holland".
I, as a resident, do not support road closures and the "Mini Holland" scheme being brought about in our area, could you please support and register my objection to the committee responsible for the consultation, and if you are not able to do this please point me in the direction of the right person(s) so I can make my own representation.

I appreciate your support and await your response.

Yours sincerely