I used to write a ward report every few months, but for a variety of reasons have rather fallen off the waggon recently. (If you like more regular updates in video format, I have been reluctantly but increasingly sharing information on my councillor instagram and facebook accounts, do check those out if you use those platforms.)
I’ve forced myself to get more familiar with short form video content but I think I’m probably more of a long form person at heart. So I thought there was no time like the present, and I’d try to get back into it.
Thank you
I can’t start this report without saying a very heartfelt thank you to everyone who voted to re-elect me in May this year. It was a tough election, with some tough results (including my amazing and hard working ex-colleague Liz who sadly lost her seat). I clung on by the skin of my teeth and I don’t take any of your votes for granted. Neither do I discount the voices and preferences of people who voted for someone else, and I’ll do my very best to represent you all.
Local politics can be a strange environment, but I’m grateful most of all for the support of so many residents who took the time to lift our spirits in a hard campaign by letting me and Liz know how much they recognised and appreciated our work. Truly, as cheesy as it sounds, the very best thing about Forest Gate is the people!
Sebert Road project
One of the most exciting things my new colleague Matthew and I are helping with at the moment is a project run by the Council, in conjunction with the charity ‘Possible’, looking at making Sebert Road greener and more climate resilient. (You can read all about that project in a separate post here.)
An amazing group of residents got together and developed ideas for two pieces of work: widening the pavement and increasing planting around the junction with Avenue Road / Sebert Road, and also introducing rain gardens in the zig zag lines outside Woodgrange School. We spoke to people about these ideas on doorsteps, at Woodgrange fete, and at the Forest Gate Festival, and heard from a huge variety of different people and their experiences of how our streets, especially Sebert Road, could be greener, cooler and more pleasant.
I’m currently liaising with officers about next steps – it looks as though there could be some good news about at least part of these plans and I’ll report back on that as soon as I can…
Wanstead Flats
I’ve also been involved in some joint work between Redbridge, Newham, the police and the Corporation of London responding to resident concerns about ASB, crime, sex work, and fly tipping along the borders of Wanstead Flats and around the surrounding roads. (And you can read more about that in a separate post here.)
There were a series of really helpful drop-in joint workshops over the summer, where residents could come and share their evidence and experiences, but also learn about the best ways to report. Following on from those, Matthew and I have been briefed about some of the follow-up actions, which included more in person patrols from the police and others, and the installation of a new CCTV camera at a particular trouble spot in Manor Park ward, further along Capel Road. We’re arranging a meeting with Enforcement to get some more detail about this and I’ll share as soon as I have it.
Food waste is coming
Avid blog readers – yes, both of you – might remember an update from a while ago about the pilot stage of food waste collection. The government has required, quite rightly, that all local authorities start collecting food waste from households, and in Newham we started off with a pilot scheme on a smaller area so we could trial our approach.
The pilot has been really successful, in fact more food waste has been collected than was anticipated, which is great news. Now, food waste collection is being rolled out to all ‘street level properties’ , and flats will follow in Spring next year.
If you are already part of the pilot then you’ll already know the drill: a small caddy for your kitchen and a larger bin for outside will both be dropped off with you. Collecting food waste is so important: in Newham up to 40% of what we throw away is food waste (and much of our recycling, sadly, is put in bins along with food which contaminates it). Information is arriving, in eye catching bright coloured envelopes, about what you can expect and when, and as ever I’ll be sharing much more detail about this separately.
Work with police
A really important part of the job of a local councillor is working with the local police. I’ve written about the role of our community Safer Neighbourhood Team here, and we are very fortunate to have a great and committed local team in Forest Gate North.
I try to attend the local ward panel meetings, which the local police hold regularly as a way of hearing directly from residents about their experiences and priorities for local ASB, and whenever residents flag these kind of issues with me I keep a log of the issues and report these back to police both as they happen and also at the meetings.
I’ve been very involved in a recent case that has been quite eye-opening in terms of the large impact that a seemingly small issue can have. It started with a stream of emails from residents on a road in the ward who were suffering with disturbance from a nearby property. Some occasional noise from neighbours is all part and parcel of city living, but these were more serious concerns about drug use, ASB, crime and sex work. I flagged it with colleagues to check as it seemed to be operating as an HMO. The real breakthrough came when the local police got involved and between us we established that it, and another nearby property, were both managed by a Housing Association and were being illegally sublet. Despite some slowness from the Housing Association (I’m in the process of arranging a meeting with their Chief Executive to do some robust feeding back on this) the police were really proactive and have now secured closure orders on both properties.
The most interesting thing about this for me has been realising as this case progressed that the two addresses actually also seemed to be linked to a lot of other casework I was getting: concerns about drug use and ASB on Station Road, in Arthur Horsley Walk, on Magpie Close and in various other places across the eastern side of the ward, all seemed to be linked to people who were linked with these addresses. So I was really grateful to police, who first gave the Housing Association a chance to get on top of this, and then when they did not, moved swiftly to close the properties, including all the legal and paperwork requirements to make this happen. I’m quietly optimistic that people who live nearby who have suffered for a long time with all the impacts of illegal subletting will see a big improvement, and that people further afield might also notice a bit less of the ASB, drug use and crime that’s been affecting them too. Once the closure orders are done, the houses in question can be re-let by the Housing Association, as single properties, and will probably go to two of the many families in need of temporary accommodation, which will be much better and more positive use of the space.
If you are concerned about a property near you, or if it’s causing you disturbance, there are a few things you can do. (I hope it goes without saying that in some cases the first thing is to go and knock on the door and say hello! It sounds trite in the middle of a story about illegal subletting and drug use, but in a lot of cases just getting to know our neighbours is a good first step.) I wrote a whole post about reporting here, and about how important it is. Reporting helps to build up a pattern of data which shows that there is an ongoing problem, and that in turn helps me to advocate for action in the context of a whole borough full of different issues.
Woodgrange market
If you ever walk through Forest Gate on a Saturday you can’t have failed to notice the relaunched and reinvigorated Woodgrange market. I’m so immensely proud of our market: it’s clung on through some difficult years and some tough challenges, and it’s almost entirely run by local residents who are volunteers. This September the market has been relaunched, with new stalls, and a new buzz, and the results have been amazing. There have been new vendors, alongside old favourites including baked goods, cheese, a butchers stall, ice cream, ice lollies, plants and much more.
Check out Woodgrange market on instagram or on Facebook to see more, or even better do pop along one Saturday from 10am – 3pm and have a look. Even making a small purchase at the market or at one of our nearby independent high street shops makes a huge difference.
Parking
There is currently a consultation being held on parking, which you can find online here. I have quite a lot to say about this, not all of which it’s helpful to get into here. But I will say that I’ve been contacted by a number of residents to share their concerns about how the survey in particular is framed, and I share those concerns and am passing them on.
I am glad that through some suggestions from Scrutiny, which I was part of, the title and terms of the review were changed to be more explicitly about ‘kerbside space’ rather than just about parking. But I think that hasn’t necessarily translated through to the way that the survey has been put together which is still very focussed on people who drive and asking questions that seem to me to encourage one perspective and not leave space for others.
Kerb space is finite, and belongs to all of us, and how it’s used is not just a case of figuring out how much space cars need and then everyone else fighting over what is left. How kerb space is used has an impact on safety, on how everyone feels about their local area, on our air quality, on how people choose to move around, on the speed of climate breakdown, on greening and shade, on our local businesses, on flooding, on accessibility, and much more.
Any decision to allocate kerb space is a trade-off which has to balance the needs of lots of different groups of people, and should always take account of what evidence shows us about what is needed, at what cost and by whom, to what benefit.
With all that said, with all the reservations I have, I would still urge residents to complete the survey and to have their say. In particular there is a map where you can make specific comments and suggestions.
Project: Parking and Kerbside Space Review |
I’ve also asked whether we can arrange a drop-in session in Forest Gate (I think the temporary closure of the Gate library meant that we were missed out, so have suggested we run something at another venue like the Youth Zone) and am flagging up with colleagues and officers the concerns that residents have raised about this, and as with so much of this report, I will share more on this topic!
Trouble shooting
I had a really helpful ward walkabout a few months ago with colleagues from Enforcement and street cleansing where we visited a whole host of different places across the ward where people have flagged to me problems. These included some old favourites like the alleyway across the road from Forest Gate station, Whitehall Place / Kuhn Way, and the flower beds outside the school on Forest Lane, but also some new places and issues including the junction of Horace Road / Woodford Road where there is a problem with the bins, the alleyway leading to the gym on Sebert Road (more on this below), a gate on the high street with litter piled up behind it (this was flagged up at the police ward panel meeting, and I took it away and it has now been cleared).
I always advise people to report issues online first, as that’s almost always the fastest and most efficient way to get, eg, a fly tip removed. But sometimes there is no substitute for actually physically standing in front of a space with someone, and trying to problem solve. I’ve had various updates after the walkabout, including bins removed, fixed penalty notices issued, ownership looked up and landlords reminded of their responsibility, and more. I’m still chasing up other issues including various bins. Talking of which…
Bins
I can’t explain it but there was a sudden rash of bins over the summer. Suddenly these big commercial bins seemed to be everywhere. It may have been a coincidence, or it may have been that once one set of bins were put out on the road, other businesses spotted it and thought ‘that looks handy, I didn’t know that was allowed’. Either way, my inbox suddenly became nothing but bins, and I even had a weird slightly viral moment with a video I filmed about commercial bins that were left out on Sebert Road.
I’m happy to update that almost all of the bins on my summer hit list are now dealt with: a dumped bin on one road has been removed, a dumped commercial bin on another has also gone, one of the commercial bins left out on the marketplace have been moved (the other one still out but being dealt with) and the bins left out on the road on Sebert Road likewise have gone back into the alley where they belong.
Field Road
I had a really helpful catch up over the summer with some residents of Field Road about some of their concerns and ideas. (I did wonder if some of the experiences they were having with crime and ASB were linked to one of the addresses I mentioned above which have now been closed by police). As a result of that, I’m doing some door knocking with residents to put together a petition about the modal filter on Field Road which forms part of the LTN. That filter is currently, as they normally are when first installed, made up of planters in the road, and the petition will ask for it to be improved with permanent infrastructure like rain gardens.
We’ve already seen some of this kind of work happening in the existing LTN, including the junction by the McGrath Road bridge which I have previously described only slightly geekily as ‘my favourite modal filter’. This would enormously improve the appearance and would also help residents to enjoy the quiet roads even more.
Centre Road
There have been several collisions at this location, including a fatality, and it’s right at the top of my (long) list of places where our streets need urgently to be safer. This location is right by the boundary where Newham becomes Redbridge, and I think has been somewhat overlooked as a result. The last update I had was that some initial improvement had been done, including some simple things like cutting back overgrowth around signs, but that more works were being jointly planned between Newham and Redbridge. I am chasing up an update on this as it was an important pledge that Liz and I made during our campaign.
Balmoral bridge
This bridge isn’t technically part of Forest Gate North, but is a really important point of access to it, and particularly heavily used by families and children on their way to and from school. Currently there is Thames Water work going on here which includes working on part of the road, making it only single lane, and several residents have contacted me and other councillors to let us know that they are really worried about the temporary arrangements and how dangerous it is. There have been some changes made, but concerns remain, so as a next step I’m arranging a meeting with officers at the location to look at what could be improved here – especially as the works look likely to continue in some form for approximately a year!
At the risk of being unnecessarily controversial, I do think a simple answer here would be to close the bridge to vehicles whilst the work is going on, and to allow only pedestrian, people on bikes and emergency services access. This did happen many years ago whilst other work was done, and several long standing residents still sometimes talk to me wistfully about how nice it was during this time. Obviously the question of closing the bridge has now become more difficult as it was one of the proposals for the Capel and Woodgrange LTNs. Personally I remain committed to the LTNs being implemented eventually, there is overwhelming evidence of how positive they are, so of course for me a temporary closure would be an excellent way to enjoy some of those benefits whilst also collecting more information about the broader impacts. But, as above, I know not everyone feels this way! I will share more about safety in the short term after the visit has taken place.
Bridges
Talking of bridges…. there is a huge piece of work going on by Network Rail who are refurbishing four bridges across the ward. Although this is going to be disruptive, I’m very optimistic about the long term benefits as the new bridges should not only look smarter, but also be quieter, and be designed in such a way that pigeons can’t routinely roost all the way underneath in the beams and leave their business behind on the pavements underneath.
And talking of pigeon waste, this is an ongoing problem under the bridges on Sebert and Balmoral Roads, and I’m in touch with both Newham Highways and also with Network Rail about this. Some ‘pigeon proofing’ work was done, but this seems to have been both inadequate in scope and also poor quality. Residents have reported not only that there is still pigeon poo on the pavements but also that some sections of the spikes installed have been falling off onto the pavement. Needless to say I’m on the case.
When the work was originally done I arranged to have the pavements underneath jet washed, partly just to clean them but also to provide a clean slate that would literally demonstrate where the works had not been done properly, and I was disappointed but not surprised to find that this was indeed a useful thing to have had done.
Planning
I was thrilled to be reappointed by full Council to continue to be chair of the Strategic Development Committee, sometimes colloquially referred to as ‘big planning’ as it determines larger planning applications right across the borough. I’m still really hoping to hold a session in Forest Gate to help residents to understand the planning process better, to try a little to demystify how applications are determined and how people can contribute their views and ideas.
Here in Forest Gate (albeit in Forest Gate South rather than North) we have at least two larger applications on the horizon: both sadly sites that did have planning permission already determined where the original permission has not proceeded. On the Durning Hall site, that property has been sold by Aston Mansfield and the new owners have started their own consultation on the site use, and further south in the old Methodist church, the permission granted there has lapsed and the church are I believe pursuing a new permission.
Because I chair the committee, it’s important that I approach any future meeting with an open mind and have not pre-judged the application. For this reason, I won’t be directly involved in any development of those applications but will liaise with Forest Gate South colleagues who aren’t part of the planning committee and who might want to meet with residents, and / or to participate in any consultation.
ELWA
I was also appointed to sit on the East London Waste Authority, or ‘ELWA’ for short, as one of Newham’s representatives alongside Susan Masters who is the cabinet member for a whole host of areas including Environment which encompasses waste. ELWA is a ‘statutory waste disposal authority’ which basically means that whilst Newham is responsible for collecting rubbish, ELWA is responsible for getting rid of it. They run the recycling and reuse centres (I feel terribly old fashioned by still referring to somewhere like Jenkins Lane as ‘the tip’) and also work jointly with Newham, Redbridge, Havering and Barking & Dagenham) waste reduction and education.
It’s an interesting and quite full-on time to be part of ELWA, as they engage in a lot of procurement and commissioning work in order to prepare for the end of one waste contract and the beginning of another. We’ve had several meetings over the summer where a whole variety of different topics have come up, including awarding contracts but also subjects like a nationwide problem with the disposal of fridges, a communication campaign about safely disposing of batteries (including hidden batteries in things like ear buds) and more.
Forest Gate & Maryland
Talking of appointments, I was also really pleased to be appointed by the Mayor as the lead councillor for the community neighbourhood area of Forest Gate and Maryland. This is a role I’ve held before, a long time ago, and I’m hoping that the reinvigoration of the neighbourhoods will give us the chance to do some of the things I am most keen on: supporting local activity, facilitating ideas, helping improvements to happen across ward boundaries, working with and supporting fellow councillors, bringing together groups to learn from each other, and generally making the wider area even better. I’m concerned to make sure that we don’t reinvent the wheel, and also that Council acts as a facilitator: helping people to do what they do rather than appearing to muscle in and take over, and I’m pleased to hear those sentiments backed up by the Mayor, officers and lead members.
Other queries
Of course all the above is just a flavour of all the different places that this job takes me. Meanwhile, my inbox continues to buzz hot with a wide variety of different bits of casework and issues, including planning enforcement, missed rubbish collections, complaints, blue badge applications, temporary accommodation, housing register queries, landlord licensing, street litter bins, ideas like murals, and much more.
If you need me to help you with an issue about the local area, if you have a complaint, or an idea you want some help with getting off the ground, do drop me an email on rachel.tripp@newham.gov.uk
I do always apologise in advance that it might take me longer than I’d like to reply to you: I get a large number of emails which I deal with all myself and I do try to reply as thoughtfully and as personally as I can to each. You are of course free to tag me on social media, and I do my best to reply to those, but they can get lost in a sea of notifications along with DMs on various platforms, so if you definitely need a response please use my email.
If you have read all the way to the end of this then congratulations. I can only apologise for how long it is. I wasn’t joking about being instinctively more comfortable with long form content – it’s the (long ago) English student in me. I hope this has been useful and even interesting in parts, and feel free to ask for more information about anything that you want to know more about or to get involved in.
