West Ham Park through the seasons

NICKY BROWN, FRIENDS OF WEST HAM PARK

The new growing year kicks off in March, which can be bitterly cold but also have some warmer days, and the mix of higher temperature and more daylight triggers all the plants and trees in West Ham Park to burst into life. We are seeing early flowers such as snowdrops and crocus, and hopefully flowers on the Magnolia, which flower before the leaves appear!

April is frequently showery but bright green leaves are popping out on most of the trees by now, and we should see some beautiful blossom as May approaches.

mer will be a little less extreme than last year, as the whole park really suffered in the prolonged heatwave, with the grass turning brown and dry, and lots of the trees losing their leaves early.

We would expect the leaves to change colour and give us some fantastic colourful displays through September before dropping them in October and November, with most leaves down by Bonfire Night, which is why we don’t run Newham’s Biggest Leaf Pile before then!

If you’ve been foolish enough to read the newspapers (this one excepted), you might think cheap pints are on the way. Following the Chancellor’s Budget speech last month, the Daily Mirror reported that “draught beer in pubs will be 11p cheaper than booze in supermarkets”. I’m very sorry to tell you this is not true.

Other reputable organs were also confused, not helped by Jeremy Hunt who, like Chancellors before him, wanted to make it sound like he was giving us something. The price of beer has always been a sensitive subject, politically.

What’s really happening? In August alcohol duties will rise by the rate of inflation. Which is quite a lot. But the government is also introducing draught relief which means most (but not all) beers from the tap are going to be taxed at a lower rate. At best this might mean your pint won’t go up. But don’t hold me to that.

It’s brewers who directly benefit from the relief. They may choose to pass it on to pubs, who may choose to pass it on to their customers. In practice, past duty cuts have somehow never made it as far as the drinker at the bar. Long experience suggests the price of a pint never ever goes down.

What’s more, the cost of brewing beer is soaring like everything else. As prices of ingredients and energy have risen over the past year, the average pint has already gone up 12p, and inflation isn’t done yet. we value our pubs as social drinking places then having a lower duty rate for draught is a good principle in itself and opens the way to closing the gap with supermarket prices in future.

But if we value our pubs as social drinking places then having a lower duty rate for draught is a good principle in itself and opens the way to closing the gap with supermarket prices in future.

August will also see duty bands revised to encourage production of weaker beers, below 3.5 percent abv. This is much better than the previous 2.8 percent threshold at which it’s difficult to make something decent.

I’m looking forward to seeing a wider choice of interesting lighter brews on the bar. And they may even be a bit cheaper. But perhaps not.

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