News from LBWF

Waltham Forest Council Leader Cllr. Clare Coghill sends regular updates to all subscribers. This week's news includes:

• Coronavirus symptoms updated

The main symptoms of coronavirus have been updated:

High temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)

New, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or three or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)

Loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you've noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

Most people with coronavirus have at least one of these symptoms. Check the NHS website for what to do if you show symptoms.

• Supporting you to walk and cycle

Last week we announced our Streetspace scheme,  and so far we have introduced eight parking bay suspension locations, and installed on street reminders about social distancing. We're currently investigating further locations that will be implemented over the next few weeks.

The government has called for residents to walk and cycle wherever possible to ease pressures on public transport and continue to support our climate emergency. As one of London's leading boroughs when it comes to walking and cycling infrastructure, we already have great  cycle support resources and safe and efficient routes for you to take.

Sign up for the Council's Corona virus newsletter

The National Policy Forum Consultation for 2020

Labour Party members are invited to submit individual responses to the  National Policy Forum Consultation for 2020 which is now open and runs until 30 June 2020. We want to hear your ideas about the values that should underpin our policy platform as we emerge from the coronavirus crisis. Read the consultation documents and have your say here.

Court upholds ban on anti-abortion poster targeting Stella Creasy

From the Guardian (6 May):

Christian Hacking challenged council order over ‘StopStella’ ad on human rights grounds

An anti-abortion campaigner who is banned from displaying a poster featuring an image of a dead foetus alongside a picture of the Labour MP Stella Creasy has failed to overturn a council order against him.

Christian Hacking challenged the imposition of a community protection notice (CPN) after he put up the image of what he said was a “24-week-old aborted baby girl” in Creasy’s constituency in Walthamstow, north-east London.

Creasy, 43, was pregnant at the time. She has been a vocal supporter of women’s right to choose and led a successful campaign last year to extend abortion to Northern Ireland.   ................

......... At Thames magistrates court on Wednesday, the district judge Jonathan Radway dismissed the appeal during a two-minute hearing.

In his written decision, he said: “I find a prolonged static display, intended to last a couple of hours in the busy middle of the day, unavoidable to those entering the town square, of a deeply disturbing image which caused harm to some observers, is beyond the margin of what freedom of expression requires, even for political speech.

“Was the CPN a proportionate response to the situation? After anxious consideration, I have concluded it was.”

Radway said his ruling was “not about the rights and wrongs of abortion”

Full article here