Larkswood Ward, Waltham Forest.

Larkswood Ward

Our Ward

Larkswood is part of Waltham Forest. It runs from the North Circular in the south to Chingford Mount Cemetery in the North. Our green spaces include Memorial Park, Rolls Park, Larks Wood and Ainslie Wood, and our community spaces include Walthamstow Stadium Community Hub. Our ward takes in one side of Chingford Mount (our main high street), and we think Larkswood is best approached as one side of South Chingford. Our candidates in Larkswood and Valley will work closely together to deliver for our area, ensuring a coherent approach to services and needs.

Your Candidates

Sarah Chaney brings over a decade of experience campaigning for better housing and tenant rights. Living on a newbuild estate, she has held housing associations and developers to account, fighting for repairs, preventing unfair evictions and securing compensation for neighbours. With a background in arts, education and health union work, Sarah has also helped establish youth provision and supported a wide range of community wellbeing activities. She is standing to deliver better housing, stronger services and a more resident-led approach to local politics.

Deborah Hollingsworth has lived in the Highams Park and South Chingford area for over 15 years and is deeply embedded in local community life. A teacher for more than 20 years, she has held senior leadership roles including Assistant Headteacher and SENDCo. Now an Advisory Teacher for a local authority, Debs is a passionate advocate for children with additional needs and for inclusive education. She is standing to ensure local decision-making works for everyone — especially the most vulnerable.

Jennifer Larbie brings extensive experience in trade union organising, policy development and campaigning. She currently leads advocacy, policy and campaigns at Christian Aid, working to secure justice for the world’s most marginalised people. A local resident, mum and member of St Edmund’s Church, she is standing as an independent to serve the community - not a political party.

Our Work

Your candidates are active in the local community. In the last four years, we have supported the establishment of a youth hub and community wellbeing activities at Walthamstow Stadium, helped to prevent the eviction of 28 households of L&Q tenants, attended ward forums and community safety walks, supported community growing activities, led litter picking in our parks and green spaces and been active in local churches.

Our Pledges

Vote for us in the local elections on Thursday 7 May and we pledge to:

1 Ensure the community has a say. For too long, the needs of South Chingford have been ignored, and many of us locally feel that we have no voice. We pledge to hold People’s Assemblies for South Chingford, working with local community associations and the voluntary sector to support and empower the volunteers and community groups that serve our area and bring the community together.

2 Develop a community plan for South Chingford. Our area is poorly served for community services and public transport, and our town centre is run down. We will work with local community groups to create a South Chingford Area Plan that reaches beyond Chingford Mount, considering the needs of everyone living here.

3 Hold developers to account. South Chingford needs more housing, but it also needs development that invests in the local community. We pledge to hold developers to account on delivering quality local homes, including social housing, alongside the amenities that will improve our area.

4 Develop a climate resilience plan. Flooding, overheating and extreme temperatures which put our homes and families at risk are associated with the climate emergency. We pledge to embed climate resilience in everything we do, protecting our green spaces like Larks Wood, developing flood resilience across South Chingford and supporting home insulation and solar panels to cut living costs.

5 Improve youth safety and services. Many of you have told us of your anxieties about crime and the impact on the safety of our young people. We pledge to work with youth groups, community support teams and others to create safe spaces for young people and reduce the risk of anti-social behaviour and crime.

6 Call out the delays in replacing Whipps Cross Hospital. Our hospital is falling apart and now won’t be replaced for at least ten more years. We will campaign for the new Whipps Cross our community so desperately needs now.