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Unless you’ve been on an extended trekking and spiritual
reawakening trip in Kathmandu (this is Stokey after all) you will have noticed that
traffic has been diverted along Lordship Road/Church Street, the 106 bus is now thundering
up said streets day and night, and mighty extensive chaos has ensued.
I live slap bang in the middle of it all, as do a growing band of deeply pissed off
residents. Pregnant women have high blood pressure, pensioners are weeping, the kids from
three local primary schools cannot cross the road without an armed escort and one poor
woman, recently out of hospital after major surgery, is at her wits’ end.
So, one or two of the more mouthy members of our community have started a small Action
Group to call the council to account. This is rapidly becoming a movement to rival CND in
its dufflecoated prime. Petitions are already littered with names and addresses, phones
and emails are red hot and by the time you read this The Tup will have hosted a no doubt
raucous public meeting.
 The council have been
ostrich like in attitude. Apart from one nice enough but ineffectual man in Traffic
Planning, or some such, they have either refused to communicate at all or passed the buck.
At the time of writing, Roger Blake, buses liaison for Hackney, has ignored all emails and
phone calls.
We have been trying to invite a selection of these..dare I say it..oh all right then...
incorrigible dickheads to the Tup meeting. OK. I know the Christians didn’t saunter
willingly into the Coliseum but no one appears remotely able to turn up, to communicate or
to justify what’s going on.
Which is, briefly: cracks in house walls, acres of filth everywhere, inability to sleep
for hours on end, loss of business, roads collapsing, drains imploding, no deliveries,
constant vibrations etc etc – all with absolutely no consultation whatsoever. We have
suggested several more sensible alternative routes and asked politely if the 106 has to be
a double decker especially throughout the night, when it passes every 5 seconds with no
one on board. If you have views on this, then please contact us on email theroundhouse@btinternet.com.
Petitions are still to be signed at Clissold Wines and Ved News in Church Street plus The
Tup hostelry. That’s if they haven’t been forced to close because the beer
can’t be delivered.
 If you see anyone walking the streets dressed in
full combats, black balaclava and carrying a variety of small fire-arms, then it will be
one of us – The 106 Action Group. Please approach and express solidarity.
Have no fear – this one will run and run.
People have been coming up to me and saying ‘Old Dianne Abbott eh..bet you had a
laugh.’ Well yes, actually. When I heard that Abbott was sending her son to City of
London Boys School at a cost of 10 grand a year I thought I’d have a hernia cackling.
But once I’d wiped my eyes and changed my underwear I thought, well at least she saw
she had no choice. She’s not burying her head in the sand and saying ‘Oh
I’m sure it will be all right, Stokey schools are lovely, can’t be arsed to deal
with the complications of it all.’ Like some I certainly know.
And then hauling in a private tutor on the q.t. to sort it out. I know she’s
wittering about black boys not achieving in Hackney schools. True enough. But how many of
them have mothers who are Cambridge educated MPs? No, I am not outraged. Good on yer, Di.
You must come round for tea sometime. I’ll organise an intimate little soiree with
some other mums who drive their kids half way across North London and shell out shedloads
for a decent education we should be getting in the borough for free. Could you be a love
and nip into Fortnum and Mason to buy the fancies? Ta.
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