Walthamstow Wetlands is Europe's largest urban wetlands, spanning a giant 211 hectares of rare natural habitat, and reopened its doors to the public for the first time on October 20th after 150 years.

(Photography: Clare Taylor)

The project has undergone much redesign and investment to enrich existing habitat whilst…

In London the fracking threat is getting closer

The fracking threat is getting closer. While recent news, if very little, has focussed, on Lancashire and Yorkshire; the destructive impact of Hydraulic Fracturing is now affecting…

From Mary Atkinson, Sugar Smart Coordinator,  HFP Secretary

Last month, Hackney Food Partnership (HFP) was delighted to receive a 12 month grant from Sustainable Food Cities to run a joint Sugar Smart Hackney campaign with Hackney Council Public Health who have match funded…

Late last year the RSPB published their State of Nature 2016 Report. It shows the UK's performance on biodiversity is abysmal.  It shows the Government is simply failing to protect our ecosystems and the species that depend on them.  In fact it is doing worse that 188 of the 218 countries…

Hackney Energy, first meeting in 2017: Tuesday 28 February, 7.30pm, at The Talbot, Englefield Road.

The sleeping giant that helped launch the Banister House solar farm, awakens!! There's much to discuss: 

• Out of control fuel bills have pushed as many as one in six Londoners into fuel poverty.  In addition London lags far behind other…

We're very concerned about a threat to sell park land near the north edge of Hackney Marsh to build housing. Please, if you can, get a short email off to Waltham Forest council by the end of Tuesday 31st Jan.

All that's needed:

* address: leabridgeandleytonconsultation@walthamforest.gov.uk

* title: Lea Bridge Eastside Vision Consultation

* Ask the council to remove the…

I meet a lot of people in my work who ask me if they can recycle this or that, or which bin they should put something in, and are embarrassed to be asking. The general feeling is that we all ought to know. But, actually, recycling is very confusing.

Generally, the question isn’t really whether something can be recycled, but whether it will be collected for…

According to figures released by the Mayor of London 31 Hackney schools exceeded legal limits for Nitrogen Dioxide in 2013.  The figures have only just been released after the previous Mayor failed to publish them.  

25 primary and 6 secondary schools in the borough are among the 443 schools in the capital exceeding the limits with Cardinal Pole School and de Beauvoir School among the worst in the borough.  

The Mayor has joined a legal action brought by…

Subversion, sabotage and spying: Political policing and state racism in the UK

This was the title of the extraordinary conference I attended at South Bank Uni in early April. Over 2 days speaker after speaker spoke about appalling cases of racism, subversion, dishonesty, criminality and violence by the…

It was wonderful to find my old friend Inonotus dryadeus (also known as Oak Bracket) back in Clissold on Monday. Calling a bracket fungus a friend may seem a bit weird but having not seen this amber beauty for 8 years it was joyous to rediscover it on the same veteran plum tree where it fruited in 2008. Surely knowing an organism as beautiful as this for 8…

This is a photo of the Furry-clasped Furrow bee (Lasioglossum lativentre) I discovered at Abney Park recently. This is a female. The tiny bees nest in the ground but little is known about them.

The species is fairly uncommon but not rare or scarce. It has never been recorded in north or east London before but that's more likely because no one's…

Realising Good Friday was to be the pick of the Easter weekend weather I set out in determined fashion to see if I could find any new species of bees at Abney. After about four hours I had seen: Buff-tailed bumblebee queens, honey bees and lots of Hairy Footed Flower bees (mostly males but a few females had begun flying). There were also quite a few butterflies on the wing. I counted 4…

Stunning Cobalt Crust fungus at Abney Park nature reserve. Previously seen in Wick…

We are delighted to unveil our new membership scheme available now.  The Paint Place will now operate a free membership scheme for a range of not-for-profit organisations which could save you on the cost of reclaimed paint. Membership is available to a range of groups including:

Charities

Community groups

Art groups

Community centres and spaces

Community…

Heathrow 13: British Justice 0

Judge loses plot in high stakes climate change battle

As a former civil rights lawyer I've seen a fair…

Blireana plum (Prunus × blireana) on Shakspeare Walk in full flower yesterday (8 JANUARY 2016).…

Last night (13.10.15) BBC Newsnight reported the government decision to withdraw from a £6m British bid to provide prison services to the Saudi regime. According to the BBC the change of mind was down to Secretary of State Michael Gove (“Michael Gove had thought that and got his way”) and Tory concerns about Saudi regime's harsh treatment of a British citizen imprisoned…

Spring Hill Orchard

TM Mega Bramble Bash

The orchard at Spring Hill was planted by TMs and others…

Housing alone is not enough!  We must protect space for infrastructure and land designated for employment.  Here's a really useful brief on the Thames wharves from Roy Tindle and Roger Manser of the Just Space economy group:

Roy writes: John Gummer prepared the legislative base for safeguarding Thames wharfs: this provided that the listed wharfs could not be released for development without Secretary of State approval. The Chancellor, earlier this year, devolved that responsibility to…