The Beckton area of Newham is desperately trying to clean it self up with a major Parks Masterplan for many years of upgrade work, recently approved by the council
The Council has also provided a substantial budget for resident and organisational led improvements to the borough, with projects submitted by local residents and organisations and subject to resident voting for success, with the top 10 in each ward being granted funding.The scheme is titled People Powered Projects, and is viewable online
This CITO is going to piggyback one such project event, where the group is running litter picks all over the Beckton area. It will be a litter pick along one of the more used pathways, the Beckton Corridor (which used to be a railway line route to the Beckton Sewage Works of Bazalgette fame) and a few surrounding streets. The main idea is however to introduce the area to geocachers with a bigger aim in mind. There is another project which will run throughout the year which aims to dredge the floor of the pond in this locality, with the aid and supervision of an ecologist and the Newham Parks Department. More of that once the project is initiated.
There will be bags, gloves, water and pickers supplied and any rubbish collected will be placed at the above coords for the Parks Department to collect for disposal. We also aim to provide some snacks, hotpot coffee and pizzas at the end. Unfortunately at this time the nearest toilet and shopping/coffee/burger facilities are only available at the nearby shopping area, a 5 minute walk away. When full funding filters through in the near future toilet facilities will be available pretty much on site.
Transport to the area is best done by train although cars are able to park in the nearby streets to the North and access the zone by various footpaths. Cycling from central London would be mostly along the Greenway foot and cycle path. The area is very easily accessed from London central via the Elizabeth line to Custom House station, with a transfer to the Docklands Light Rail there, and then to any of Royal Albert, Beckton Park or Beckton DLR stations. With a bit of luck we might even be able to get a few new SideTracked caches set up for attendees. From the south side of the river, any trains leading to Woolwich will enable river crossing to Custom House or Canning town, either on the Elizabeth Line or DLR.
We would welcome you here for this rare event in East London, and hope that there will be many more to come in the future