Forest Gate North – Rachel Tripp's councillor blog

Rachel writes…

Like many others, I had a ball at last year’s Jumble Trail: an ingenious event where you can register to have a stall in your front garden to sell your unwanted items, then use an online map to stroll around and pick up a bargain from your neighbours.

My abiding memories from last year are my girls playing out on the pavement between our neighbours’ houses, the fairy cakes I made selling faster than anything else, shifting a whole load of baby clothes to someone who obviously had exactly the same taste as me in children’s attire (bright colours, loud prints, pinafores, if you’re interested). And also my aspiration of clearing out loads of clutter being rather undermined by my eldest buying armfuls of plastic Polly Pocket playsets from down the road for pennies.

The good news is, it’s happening again! It’s on the 10th September and all details are on the flyer below. Register for a stall, or just put the date in your diary, and we can all turn out and enjoy the day all over again. With huge thanks to Elaine who organised last year’s, and to Kam who is stepping into her shoes this year.

Rachel writes…

Lots of residents have been commenting recently about the long line of cars parked up Centre Road. These cars and other vehicles have been creeping up the road, and appear to have been displaced when the Residents’ Parking Zone (affectionately known as an RPZ) was created in Forest Gate North.

I’ve responded to a few threads on Facebook and some messages on twitter, but I thought it would be handy to write a blog post and put all the relevant information we have right now here in one blog post for easy reading.

Centre Road is not in Newham, it’s part of the London Borough of Redbridge (although Wanstead Flats, which it runs through, is managed by the Corporation of London). The long line of cars appear to be a combination of business vehicles, some abandoned vehicles, and other cars where the provenance is entirely unclear. Wherever they are from, it’s clearly a problem, making it unsafe for pedestrians to cross the road, making it unsafe for cyclists to use the road, and providing a line of cover that seems to be masking some crime and ASB, meaning that there is now more fly tipping on Centre Road and a trail of broken glass where the unobserved cars are being broken into.

So what are we doing about it? Well, when the RPZ was being designed for Forest Gate North, officers at Newham informed both Redbridge and Waltham Forest, so that they could consider any action they needed to take as a result. I’ve been in regular touch with a councillor from the Redbridge side, and also with an officer there. Sadly I have to confess this hasn’t had much result yet – I asked for double yellow lines on both sides of the road, was told this idea would be fed into their ongoing plans, then I asked to be kept informed if any parking restrictions were planned. But I only found out that lines were going in on just one side when I drove past the work being undertaken!

My councillor contact from Redbridge, Cllr Paul Merry, has met with the cabinet member from Redbridge with responsibility for parking to ask what can be done here, and I’m currently expecting an update from him. I’ve also been in touch with the Corporation of London, because the line of parked vehicles is so detrimental to everyone’s enjoyment of the green spaces of Wanstead Flats, and have asked if they want to join us in asking Redbridge for some action. It’s pretty clear to me, and to many residents, that what we really need is double yellow lines on both sides of the road, as this is a road that was never designed for cars to be parked along it.

Seyi has also suggested we facilitate a joint meeting between concerned Forest Gate North residents, and representatives from Redbridge, which is a great idea. I worry a little that whilst some of the inaction we’ve experienced is due to the fact that planning parking restrictions takes time and needs careful planning (if you’re one of the residents who sent me petitions and emails asking for an RPZ then you’ll know it took a couple of years to get to a place where we could move forwards) that might not be the whole story. I know of course myself that all kinds of things councillors wanted to get done have been delayed by us all putting time and effort into the election… but I’m also perhaps cynically a bit concerned that Centre Road is not flanked by Redbridge residents, and might therefore not be very high on anyone’s priority list. So if we need noise to be made to Redbridge about the impact of the cars there, it’ll have to be us who make it.

So our next steps are:
– to chase up the Corporation of London to check if they are on board
– to find out the results of the meeting Cllr Merry had with his colleague responsible for parking
– Seyi and I arrange to meet with him or her to share our concerns, including a walk down Centre Road to look at the cars, lack of space for cycling, broken glass and fly tipping
– depending on how that goes, we organise a joint meeting for residents to put their views.

I’m sorry not to have anything more concrete for you, but as ever, we’ll keep you posted.

Rachel and Seyi write…

With all the awful events going on in the world, it’s difficult to remember that the General Election was in fact only a week and a half ago. It was a rollercoaster of an election in so many ways: the shock of it being called at all, the sharply compressed campaigning period, the media scrutiny, and the wonderful rise in the polling of the Labour party.

Seyi and I wanted to write a blog post to say a very heartfelt thank you to our residents for your support. Thank you for re-electing Lyn Brown in such an overwhelming way and returning her as our wonderful MP. Thank you for your constant and much appreciated support for the Labour party. Thank you for bearing with us whilst we have been busy campaigning, we are sorry if any of the work we’ve been doing has slipped at all, and we will get back to it now that the post-election exhaustion has abated.

And most of all thank you to all of you for being so encouraging to all of the local activists during the campaign. Local Labour members were hard at work here in Forest Gate North, across West Ham, and especially in local marginal seats. That includes long standing party members, newer members, people who’ve been involved for years and people who came along for the first time.

The residents we all met shared our dismay at the callous disregard the Tories have for all of us, and were a constant source of positive reassurance. Every person who gave us a quick thumbs up, who smiled at us on a street stall, who told us on their doorstep we could be sure of their vote, or stopped us to express their support, you all helped buoy us up through a tiring time, and we appreciate it more than we can say. We never ever take your support for granted, and will keep on working as hard as we can to make Forest Gate North a better place.

Seyi writes…

Quick live update from our second West Quadrant Community Neighbourhood meeting: Keep Newham London Moving programme has started & these are the roads & lamp posts to be done next.

It’s also been confirmed that all new lamp posts will have non-sticky paint so no more annoying massage stickers!

On 27th @NewhamLondon took someone who fly-tipped on Maryland Sq to court & he was fined a total of £8,841 to pay in full within 6months!

Also, are you interested in designing your ideal home in #ForestGate? @gemma_john is holding a Co-living workshop on Wednesday 24th May.

Rachel writes…

Every year, Osborne Road in Forest is given over for one Saturday in June to a day of festivities. There is food, drink, entertainment, dancing, singing, items for sale, and a general atmosphere of celebration and love for the area and community during our Forest Gate Festival. Last year you might remember that this great event was funded by local people to make it happen, and this year the festival organisers are asking that we do the same.

You can donate to the Forest Gate Festival online here

The Festival is organised and run by a team of volunteers, so every penny you give will go into making the festival as big a success as ever. There are even some rewards you can claim if you give a certain amount of support, from having your name on the ‘heroes wall’, free cake, to having a banner on the stage.

Every penny counts. Please support the Festival, and ask your friends and family to do the same.

Seyi writes…

Inspired by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s use of questions from the public during Prime Minister’s Questions, I asked Forest Gate North residents to submit questions they wanted me to consider asking at the next full council meeting on January 30.

I received a total of seven great council related questions from a diverse range of residents (good mix of female/male names and non-British surnames). Topic questions ranged from litter, cycling, crime and supporting small businesses. Here is the question I selected and asked Councillor David Christie.

What is the future strategy on improving Newham streets for cyclists and to provide better facilities for pedestrians in the residential areas such as Forest Gate so as to encourage a healthier alternative to our increasingly congested roads?

Response from Councillor David Christie:

Newham is currently developing a strategy for increasing the levels of cycling in the borough over then next 10 years. The strategy will cover options aimed at making cycling a normal choice for a wider range of people in Newham by creating a better cycling environment. It will explore assessing existing infrastructure to see where improvements can be made to make cycling safer and more attractive; providing education and cycling proficiency support to children, families and adults; improving access to hiring and maintenance of bicycles; more long term and cheaper cycle hire schemes; solutions to reduce theft of cycles; and promotion and community engagement to spread cycling take up. Any strategy that is developed will need to consider how Newham can work with a range of partners including Transport for London and the highways agency to deliver increased cycling rates as issues such as road and junction safety will require a joint approach.

I then asked a supplementary question:

Some of the roads in the scheme are for 20 mph zone. Will you be extending this into Forest Gate and Stratford?

Response from Councillor Christie:

I think there is a very good augment in some areas. It is a good symbol in wanting to make the roads safer. I will look at the data and explore this in the coming months.

Following my visit to Emmanuel Church on Romford Road on Christmas Day I was stunned at the number of homeless and vulnerable members of Forest Gate and also with the new government grant awarded to Newham  so my question was:

On 28th December I was very pleased to learn that Newham Council has been awarded nearly £400,000 of government funding to provide help for its rough sleepers. Can the Mayor please provide a copy of the strategy to help rough sleepers including a critical evaluation of our current approach and how this new funding government grant will be spent.

Here is Councillor Andrew Baikie the then Mayoral Advisor for Housing’s response:

We are all aware that there are many homeless in London and that the number is increasing.There are many reasons for this, but any of us here today are at risk of losing our job or our health and from there it is only a few short steps away from being street homeless. Nobody should have to spend even one night on the streets, which is why we responded to a DCLG funding round which focused on rough sleeping and we are pleased to have been awarded nearly £400,000 which can be used to give rough sleepers in Newham access to the much needed support they need to move off the streets. While this funding is welcome, there is still much more work to be done in central government to address rising levels of homelessness across Newham. Our bid focused on prevention and early intervention. We know this is the best way to deliver good outcomes for rough sleepers but still mindful of getting value for money for the community as a whole. In particular, our grant will fund:

• A new, joined up assessment hub which will provide a safe and supportive environment in which homeless people can be triaged and a plan developed getting them the help and treatment they need
• Analytical work to help us identify the vulnerable at risk from rough sleeping earlier so that we can intervene before they find themselves on the street.

Wider strategy on rough sleeping

This project will complement Newham’s wider approach to rough sleeping. Sadly many people living on the street have serious mental and physical illnesses and substance dependency. It is therefore vital that we strike the right balance between making sure we intervene early and support residents with complex needs but without neglecting effective enforcement to prevent illegal activity.

Operation Alabama is Newham Council’s award-winning, multi-agency response to rough sleeping. Operations include our substance misuse and enforcement teams, the Police, the UK Border Agency, and Thames Reach –our commissioned outreach service. Operation Alabama provides a holistic, balanced and practical response to rough sleeping.

As our first priority is to meet the immediate needs of vulnerable people who find themselves on the street, this is why Thames Reach provides emergency support to those who need it. This is backed up by referrals to: health, mental health, substance misuse service, and other appropriate services.

With Operation Alabama, Outreach staff and local police worked together to help rough sleepers in Newham off the streets: a total of 145 people were moved safely from the street into hostels and other accommodation, 35 were referred to drug and alcohol services, and 20 supported to return to their home countries.

We also provide access to pan London hostel accommodation provided as part of the Mayor of London’s No Second Night Out initiative and range of other accommodation. During the recent cold weather, we increased patrols, specifically to engage with those very entrenched rough sleepers who have previously refused all offers of support.

 The Council currently funds 163 units of Accommodation Based Services for single homeless people. We can, and do, make a difference. We are all aware of rising homelessness – driven by factors beyond our Control and with an unsympathetic government – so it is especially important to ensure that local government is doing everything possible to help. That is why I have asked council officers to review our current offer to make sure it is suited to the needs of our homeless population, including assisting those with the most severe barriers to living independently. I will update Council on this work in the coming months.

I then asked a supplementary question

I have been out with officers on Operation Alabama. We are doing amazing work, but this has not been translated to residents. Is there anything we can do to publicise the amazing work being done.

Response from Councillor Baikie

There will be a communications programme as it develops. I hope that other members will support it.

On the whole I think #FGQs pilot was a success and I am willing to give it another go. The next Council meeting is in May 18th but this will be an Annual General Meeting if there is provision to ask questions I will trial FGQs again if not the follow Full Council meeting is Monday 10th July (deadline for submitting questions will be Monday 26th June).

There are  a few rules to make this pilot work please read here before submitting a question.

You can also submit a question at my advice surgery, Saturday 1st April, 29th April, Sat 20th May 10:30am, The Gate Library, Woodgrange Road E7.