Save the Beaumont Sweet Shop!

Prem Maisuria handing me his petition

Over the past couple of months, I have been involved in the local campaign to help the confectioners run by Mr and Mrs Maisuria on the Beaumont Estate. Readers who’ve visited this site before, will remember the opening of the shop in April, which was attended by local MP, Harry Cohen and I.

Unfortunately, barely three months after that lovely day, Mr Maisuira’s business is being threatened with closure because of building work going on the Beaumont Estate, to give the area a much needed and welcome face lift. Access to the shop has been blocked off since early July and Mr and Mrs Maisuria are losing worrying amounts of takings.

It is critical that the building work takes place. I, for one, will be extremely pleased to see the demolition of St Catherine’s and St Paul’s Towers, which have been in a terrible state for a long while. However, whilst we regenerate our most needy estate, we shouldn’t drive its only shop out of business.

The Maisurias with Dawn and Don from the Beaumont Arms Pub

To help the Maisurias (pictured above) in their campaign, I invited them to Waltham Forest Town Hall to address a meeting of the full council in the council chamber. They were accompanied by their neighbours Dawn and Don (pictured above right) who own the Beaumont Arms pub a little way down the road. The Beaumont Arms has also been affected by the works.

After his three minute speech, Mr Maisuria handed a petition signed by over 300 local people to the Mayor.

I am now heavily involved in negotiations with my councillor colleagues and the Forest Homes Housing Association to save Beaumont’s sweet shop.

2 thoughts on “Save the Beaumont Sweet Shop!”

  1. Thank you for highlighting Mr & Mrs Maisuria’s plight. As a former resident of Beaumont estate, I used to visit their shop all the time to buy sweets, magazines, and later on, my bus pass and lottery tickets. I still visit the area and love their new shop, but I am saddened by the news that they are losing business. They are part of the Beaumont community and it will be a great loss to the area if they were to close. All that is needed is to open up the alley that links their shop to Capworth Street to enable people to get through. Its sad that a few metal gates is all that stands in their way, yet nobody will take them down.
    Thank you again for helping them.

  2. Dear Melinda, thank you for writing to me. Beaumont is really, really important to me. I think it has been ignored for too long and its residents treated very badly. In the autumn, I want to get all the local service deliverers to start looking at the Beaumont properly and coming up with proper long term plans and strategies for improving the quality of life for all the people who live there – be it through employment, health or better play facilites for the kids. I strongly believe that if we can sort out problems on Beaumont we’ll sort them out for all of Leyton. I’m glad you still come back to visit. It’s great to know that the Beaumont community still has your support! With kindest regards and thanks again. Miranda

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