As councillors, we get asked a lot about recycling - what goes in the black box, what doesn’t, and why not. The good news is, from April 1st (and no, it’s not an April Fools gag!), more day-to-day waste will be able to go in the black recycling box and get collected.

New things that can be recycled will be plastics like yogurt pots, food trays, plastic bags and drink cartons. These can go in the box alongside your usuals like cardboard, paper, cans and glass. They’ll get taken away to be recycled rather than just dumped in a landfill. So it works for you when you’re recycling, and it’s good for everyone in the long-term too.

Unfortunately we still wont be able to recycle things like kid’s toys, ceramics, CDs or video cassettes - but I’m sure the local charity shop would be glad of them! If you can’t carry them down there, then do drop myself, Jane Morgan or Sheila Smith-Pryor a line via this website and we can pop round and help take things to the charity shop for you.

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On Thursday 25th Feb we had a Full Council meeting to discuss and agree the council budget for the coming year. Full council meetings can be a strange experience. All 60 councillors across the borough come together to debate and vote on issues affecting the borough. Sometimes the meetings can turn into an exercise in partisan point-scoring, exactly the sort of thing that turns people off politics.

The Full Council to set the budget is different though, as we know the impact of decisions made will have implications for all residents in the borough, and the ability of the council to deliver services, be it traffic management, refuse collection, health and education services, or anything else.

I was really pleased that the Waltham Forest Lib Dem councillors voted to freeze council tax and put money into priority services. We know the last thing people need is worrying about finding extra money to pay for council tax increases.

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It seems that the activation of the Oyster Card machines at Highams Park hasn’t delivered on all fronts, despite the promise of Mayor Boris Johnson.

Although the machine readers are working, you can’t actually buy an Oyster Card or top one up at the station! Passengers are having to go to the local shop, which doesn’t take credit cards. We’re frustrated with this as we’ve been pushing Boris to get the readers up and running properly.

Lib Dem councillors Nick Bason, Jan Morgan and Sheila Smith-Pryor are pushing the Mayor and National Rail to make sure local residents are able to buy Oyster products at the station as soon as possible. We’ll let you know when it’s working properly.

Your Focus team would like to draw your attention to the new website of the Waltham Forest Parent Forum.

The Forum is a group of parents and carers of disabled children (aged 0-19) in Waltham Forest. They undertake a range of activities, from working on policy issues to meeting up and sharing experiences. There is a lot more information on their website at www.walthamforestparentforum.com

We’d encourage  any interested residents of Hale End & Highams Park to take a look at the website and, if you’re interested in learning more, do get in touch with them directly.