My friends and I started by visiting the event held in Lloyd Park. There were a colourful light installation made by Marshmallow Laser Feast. They used voices of over 1000 local school children and members of the choir. The lights from the event at Lloyd Park could be seen from miles away but close up is where all the fun happened. For example, people were lying down in the centre, looking up at the sky as the lights shimmered around the park and danced up into the clouds. It was a beautiful moment of peace in the centre of an eventful town.
In the event we could see more than colourful lights such as, with a man juggling Bowling Pins, a woman who was dressed up as a Disney character Fairy, Das Brass, an 8-piece brass band blasted out Michael Jackson songs as well as other classics. Furthermore, giant tree monsters walked in funny ways to entertain the younger generation. Before we joined the queue for the Town Hall Event, we got to admire the amazing neon from God’s Own Junkyard hanging up in the trees.
At the end of our visit, my Friends and I saw the mayor, Sadiq Khan, give an alarming speech about Waltham Forest Borough. The mayor mentioned our Borough being one of the nicest and friendly Boroughs. This surprised me and my friends due to the events that had occurred before this Year. In the first 15 days of being in the New Year, the crime rate increased rapidly. In December 2018, the crime rate rose day by day from what the Metropolitan Police website has said. From the 13th December, a boy was arrested for carrying a Knife on Leyton green road. This was not far at all from where my home is, which concerned a lot of my friends and family. Even more, recently a 14 year old boy had been stabbed brutally on Lea Bridge road, the BBC News had found out that it was a hit and run case. This gives the community very serious concerns about whether to stay in the Waltham Forest Borough or not due to the fact that crime is increasing rapidly.
A Metropolitan Police Superintendent told The Telegraph that £1m for the Borough of Culture, only £500,000, towards reducing violence on the streets of London. From what I Believe, our Borough was a peaceful and exiting area to live in. It was an area where everyone was kind to one another. Now, the area is full of crime lurking wherever you go, people getting judged 24/7, and people choosing who dies and who doesn’t. This is not what our area is meant to be known for.
