Forest Gate North – Rachel Tripp's councillor blog

Seyi writes…

In July 2015 a consultation was completed the first proposals for Quietway 6.

This is a route which runs from near Mile End in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, through the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford, Forest Gate, and Manor Park before heading east to the London Borough of Redbridge.

Officer have used your comments from the consultation to develop revised proposals for the following schemes in the route:

• Scheme 28 – Leytonstone Road and Buxton Road
• Schemes 35 and 36 – Woodford Road and Capel Road
• Schemes 37 and 38 – Capel Road, Forest Drive, and Aldersbrook Road

Descriptions and plans for the above proposals can be found online here.

We would like to know what you think about our revised proposals. If you have any comments, email quietways@newham.gov.uk by Friday 18 March.

Officers will also be at Forest Gate Library on 14 March, 6pm to 7pm and at Manor Park Library on 15 March, 6pm to 7pm if you would like to discuss the proposals with us.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

Seyi writes…

8th January- 3rd March Councillor Report

I’ve submitted by written report to Forest Gate North Branch Labour Party to answer questions at the branch meeting on Thursday. I thought it would be useful to share this with residents of Forest Gate North ward that aren’t members of the Labour Party.

Forest Gate North

On 9th February Cllr Rachel Tripp and I co-hosted the first Community Grant Info Drop-In Session in the west side of the ward. The aim of this was to inform residents eager to make a positive difference n their community of the various Newham community grants and encourage an increase in applications made by residents living in Maryland. over the course of two hours we had a steady flow of very interested residents dropping in wishing to set up a play street, community gardening/planting activities, community litter picking party and (my favourite) pop-up artistic shop in a empty property on Leytonstone High Rd. If you would like to get involved in any of these activities or you have an idea of your own please get in contact with me (seyi.akiwowo@newham.gov.uk) and I’d be happy to help.The next community grants info drop-in session will be sometime in be in June.

As a Forest Gate Neighbourhood we recently gave a grant to a Forest Gate Community cricket club for young people this take place on Saturdays at Forest Gate School. This was an opportunity to see how the Go For It Grant was helping to support the cricket club and to also play cricket (badly) with the young people.

Last week Thursday I attended the Forest Gate Networking evening, this month’s theme was Arts. There was lots of quality conversations among people very interested in art and getting involved in the Forest Gate Arts Trial this year. If this is something you fancy getting involved in please let me know! I also attended the Under My Skin Launch on 1st March at The Gate.

Residents on Knighton Road have been complaining about a nearby business breaching licensing permissions. This has resulted in various meeting with council officers, site visits to the business and residents. The business owners have told me they understand residents complaints and will now adhere to all of licensing permissions. Just incase that promise isn’t kept. There is an agreed action plan which includes setting up a residents group. If you live on or near Knighton Road and are interested in being apart of this residents group please get in touch.

On Saturday 20th February, Faithful Friends organised a Peace Walk around Forest Gate. This involved visiting various places of worship, meeting faith leaders and local residents. Despite the bad weather (it rained a lot!) there was a good turnout and the local police team helped lead the way.

For the last few months I’ve been working with officers to look at the amount of litter, fly-tipping and recycling in the ward. One of the solutions to address the high volume of rubbish on Leytonstone High road was extending the Waste Timed Collection from Stratford to Maryland. There was a successful pilot that ended last month which saw a significant reduction in reported fly-tipping and litter. In order to have a permanent Waste Timed Collection the council will need to consult residents and business owners affected as well as have sign off from the Lead Cabinet member for Environment and Leisure.

We’ve had a couple new license applications come through from businesses on Woodgrange Road for approval from ward councillors. These businesses wish to sell alcohol from as early as 8am until 11pm. We all know that London has a problem with street drinkers and anti-social behaviour so I am really not in favour of these applications. I therefore have been working very closely with Forest Gate North Police team who share my concerns to work out a compromise could be and suggest this to applicants.

I’m dealing with lots of casework at the moment a lot via email, some via social media and the majority from surgery. My resident surgeries have been pretty busy with eight people visiting my surgery on Sat 20th. The current trend of casework this month is residents experience with Newham Housing team and rubbish.

#CleanForTheQueens takes place Saturday 5th March, 11-1pm. Join us at Maryland Point, by Maryland Station at 11am on Saturday 5 March. The clean up will run between 11am and 1pm with refreshments being provided afterwards at Nooks Café.

Scrutiny Commissions- Deputy Chair of Crime and Disorder Scrutiny Commission & member of Overview & Scrutiny Commission

I’m part of an informal scrutiny group looking at Newham’s Prevent Duty and agenda. We have been interviewing members and key community stakeholders around the training given on the Prevent Duty, We hope to submit a report to Overview and Scrutiny later this month.

Overview and Scrutiny worked to analysis and adopt Newham’s 16-17 budget. This involved working closely with the Cabinet member of Finance, Cllr. Lester Hudson and the Mayor. You read about this on the Newham Council website

Key concerns I highlighted were:

• Currently level of resources allocated to housing and residents experience of our housing service.

• The need for clearer expected outcome of services to justify the amount of money being spent i.e. health
• The need for sufficient data collection and analysis particularly around fly-tipping and littering hotspots. We need to know why and who are causing the problems as enforcement doesn’t seems to be working
• The budget outlined a few risks include a potential increase in youth homelessness and so how are we a council going to prevent this.

Committee other LBN Commitments

At Full Council on 22nd February I asked two questions:

Q1) Will the re-zoning of Maryland Station be included in the Council’s 2016 priority

A1) Yes!

Q2) Is the Special Purpose Vehicle project still going ahead and if not why? My supplementary question was: Out of the half million given to this project how much was spent?

A2) Experts have advised against the current proposal and there is a Plan B in motion. I’m expecting a written response to my supplementary question which I’m happy to share.

I attended Cabinet meeting on Thursday 18th February, information about the meeting, the agenda and minutes are here

Key questions /points raised were:

• On Keeping Newham Clean Deal: Investing in efficient data collection and analysis particularly around fly-tipping and littering hotspots.
• On Keeping Newham Clean Deal: Involving the Youth Council and Schools as part of early education and intervention.
• On Keeping Newham Clean Deal: Using the landlord licensing scheme to ensure tenants were not fly-tipping
• On Keep Newham Moving: Ensuring CPZ didn’t negatively affect small businesses but encourage residents to shop local.

West Ham CLP/ Forest Gate North Campaigning

I went out door-knocking and leafletting in Custom House on Saturday 13th February and in Forest Gate North on Saturday 27th February.

The next big CLP canvassing session in 12th March in West Ham Ward, would be great to have your support!

Rachel writes…

The last few months have seen Maryland’s first Christmas tree, and a burgeoning community group going from strength to strength, to say nothing of a resident-led clear-up campaign. Inspired by Seyi’s efforts, and by the local energy there, all three of us were talking about how we might encourage some more community activity around Maryland.

We know that one of the key ways that we as a Council can support and encourage community groups is through our small grants: ‘Newham – Let’s Get the Party Started‘ , and Newham – ‘Go For It’ grants. The first is a small grant, normally up to £250, to organise a community event of some kind. Street parties are a good example, but they have been used for many other different kinds of events including Play Streets, a NCT small children’s Olympic party, arts trail participative events, and much more. ‘Go for it’ is where you can apply for ‘seed funding’ to get a group or a regular event up and running. If you wanted to establish a youth group, for example, or a social event for elderly residents, you could apply to this fund to get yourself off the ground, including information about how you plan to fund your group in the longer-term.

So, we thought that it’s all very well offering these small grants, but what we need to do is a bit more of getting out and talking to people about them. With that in mind, we are trialling a pop-up session, in Maryland, where Seyi and I will be available, with an officer, to talk to anyone who wants to come in with an idea.

So, this coming Tuesday the 9th February, we will be at Nooks on Leytonstone High Road, between 5 and 7pm. We will be armed with a sheaf of application forms, accompanied by Glennette who works at the Gate, and we will be available to chat to anyone who wants to pop in. If you are a Maryland resident and you think you might be interested in running something locally, please do pop in and see us. It doesn’t matter how well-developed your idea is – you might have a fully-fledged idea and want a form, or you may just have a general desire to do ‘something’ and want to pop in to discuss with us what it might look like.

If you would like to pop-in and see us, we would love to meet you.

Seyi writes…

 December-January Councillor Report

Forest Gate North

Worked on getting Maryland residents their first Christmas tree as part of our partnership work in building community cohesion[1] and urban realm improvements in Maryland. On the 1^st December we had #Merryland switch on lights [2]event at Maryland point.

In the theme of Christmas and giving I supported in delivering hampers to our mature residents as part of Newham Council annual programme. 3000 “early Christmas presents” were delivered[3] around the borough.

I attended Friends of Maryland Core Group meeting on 6^th January. The aim of this meeting was outline plans and priorities for 2016 this includes Crossrail Consultation, Keep Maryland Tidy Campaigns and Re-zoning of Maryland Station. The next open meeting is Tuesday 16^th February, 7:30pm at Nooks Café. The focus of this meeting will be on strategic regeneration and planning. We will be going on a site visit with Cllr Ken Clarke to Waltham Forest to learn how they improved their public realm and shop fronts.

If you would like to get involved in Friends of Maryland please get in touch (seyi.akiwowo@newham.gov.uk). You can keep up to date with all thing #MarylandE15 by following @MarylandPoint.

For the second year in a row I have been supporting Small Business Saturday in Forest Gate[4]. This year, it involved introducing Lyn Brown MP to our great local businesses and market stall holders.

Our December Safer Neighbourhood meeting was cancelled but I am expecting an update on the dispersal zone application in Maryland to tackle street drinking and anti-social behaviour. The next meeting is 07/01/2016 at Coffe7.

Our resident surgery was closed during the Christmas break but I have received a lot of casework via emails. The one big theme currently is parking (the lack of).

Scrutiny Commissions- Deputy Chair of Crime and Disorder Scrutiny Commission & member of Overview & Scrutiny Commission.

Our Domestic Violence Report was submitted to Cabinet and the Mayor for adopted and was successful! You can read the report here[5].

I am now part of an informal scrutiny group looking at Newham’s Prevent Duty and agenda. We hope to submit a report to Overview and Scrutiny on the first week of February.

Overview and Scrutiny are now working to analysis and adopt Newham’s 16-17 budget. This will involve working with the Cabinet member of Finance, Cllr. Lester Hudson.

Resources in the Scrutiny team are severely stretched! We are in desperate need of more staff if anyone is looking for a job in this field please do apply!

Committee other LBN Commitments

I was unable to make the last meeting of Investment and Accounts as it clashed with prior arrangements, the next meeting is Wednesday 10^th February, 6:30pm, Newham Town Hall, members of the public are welcome to attend.

As an ex-youth councillor and UK Youth Parliamentarian I’ve been working with the Youth Representation team on the Youth Councillor annual programme. I hope this will bring greater integration of both the youth council and the “old” council work plans. I’m looking forward to meeting this year’s council in a couple weeks with Stephen Timms M J

I’ll be attending the next Cabinet meeting on Monday 26^th January, all are welcome to attend more information/agenda is here[6]

West Ham CLP/ Forest Gate North Campaigning

I went out doorknocking and leafletting on Saturday 12th December with Forest Gate North Labour members and Cllr Ellie Robinson. We knocked on new members/supporters doors to introduce ourselves around Tower Hamlets and Odessa Roads. I noticed a lot of bulky waste on Tower Hamlets roads and have reported this as casework to be looked into by Enforcement officers.

On Monday 4^th Jan, I participated in the #FareRises Campaign at both Forest Gate Station a‎nd Maryland Station.

The next big canvassing session is Saturday 16^th January PM- TBC.

[1] https://forestgatenorth.com/2015/11/03/helping-to-re-build-a-community-in-maryland/

[2] https://www.facebook.com/CllrSeyiAkiwowo/photos/a.472898696118025.1073741828.472035986204296/927617227312834/?type=3&theater

[3] https://www.newham.gov.uk/Pages/News/Early-Christmas-present-for-nearly-3000-elderly-residents.aspx

[4] https://www.facebook.com/CllrSeyiAkiwowo/photos/pcb.929534247121132/929532173788006/?type=3&theater

[5] https://mgov.newham.gov.uk/documents/s100669/CD%20Scrutiny%20Commission%20DV%20-%20Cabinet%2015%20October%202015%20-%20FINAL.pdf

[6] https://mgov.newham.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=294&MId=10812&Ver=4

Ellie writes…

2015 ended on a high with Cabinet giving the green light for 800 much needed family homes to be built for homeless families.

A dangerous concoction of the introduction of the Benefit Cap, the extension of Right to Buy and rocketing house prices has led to the housing crisis being experienced on our doorstep. Families attend our surgery who are currently living in tents, sleeping on friends sofas and housed in B&Bs, no longer able afford to live in London.

Although it is a national issue which needs a national solution, we can do our bit locally to think of creative ways to build affordable homes. The Council is therefore working with Local Space, a pioneering housing association, to provide 800 affordable homes over the next four years.

Local Space was established in partnership with Newham Council in 2006, they now own 1,800 homes across East London and is worth nearly £400m from the council’s original investment of £50m. Since it was set up, nearly 3,600 homeless households have benefited from a home provided by Local Space. In addition to the 800 homes the Council will receive a one off payment from Local Space of £9M this year followed by £2.5M per year. With the huge cuts to the Council’s funding this is a great example of how it is possible to have a commercial agenda and deliver social good.

These 800 homes won’t solve the housing crisis but alongside our landlord licensing programme for the private rented sector and Red Door Ventures building private rented homes in Newham, we can make sure the Council is part of the solution.

Rachel writes…

We love our small businesses in Forest Gate. But I’ve had a couple of reminders recently about how precarious life can be for the small, independent businesses that we depend on so much, not only for coffee, food, and vital supplies, but also because they supply the vibrance and local character that lifts our local high streets. The first reminder was the reading about the ‘Just a card‘ campaign on social media. This campaign is based on a quote from a small business owner, ‘”If everyone who’d complimented our beautiful gallery had bought ‘just a card’ we’d still be open“. It aims to encourage consumers to realise the importance of small purchases, and not to be embarrassed to purchase something small instead of nothing at all.

I was also part of a conversation with Laura and Alicia from Woodgrange market, who pointed out that our wonderful local market is still very much in need of more customers, more people supporting them through purchases. They particularly struck me when they pointed out that some of the people moving to Forest Gate from other areas of London might think that markets like Woodgrange are ‘part of the furniture’ and may not realise that it is still a relatively new innovation, and always appreciative of every bit of custom. They also reminded me that there are plenty of other local businesses that sometimes get overlooked.

With that in mind, Ellie, Seyi and I were thinking of Small Business Saturday (which is again this coming Saturday on the same day as the Christmas lights switch-on, and the Food Festival at the market) and wondered if we might be able to work with local residents to do something to help support our local businesses.

So we are launching a mini campaign for this weekend! #forestgateshoplocal

We’ll be tweeting and sharing pictures of our favourite local purchases on social media using this hashtag. We would love it if you wanted to join in – just  tweet a picture of something you’ve bought locally and use #forestgateshoplocal to be part of it.

This could be something you’ve picked up from the market, an item from the Durning Hall charity shop, shellfish from the fish monger’s, absolutely anything at all. We will collect together the pictures and share the best ones in a blog post. (I have to admit I am a regular at the local shops, but am still hoping to discover some new gems and tips.)

So please, this weekend, come into Forest Gate and enjoy our local shops. It’s a big weekend, too:

The market is open from 10am – 4pm.

The Forest Gate Christmas lights switch-on takes place from 5pm at the marketplace, with festive performancse from live bands, local musicians and school choirs, along with mulled wine and mince pies from CoffeE7. Our Mayor Robin Wales will switch on the lights at 6.10pm

There is a Food Festival at the marketplace until 9pm with international food and drink for sale.

Whilst you are enjoying all that, share your favourite purchases with the hashtag #forestgateshop local, help to promote our local businesses, and follow all three of us to get some tips on where you can do your Christmas shopping locally, supporting local people who do so much for our community.

Find us on twitter:

• Rachel @rectripp
• Ellie @elliecrobinson
• Seyi @seyiakiwowo

See you there!

Seyi writes…

The Forest Gate Community Garden’s photo showing so many local residents and Councillors painting the hoarding has been shortlisted by Capital Clean Up so they need as many votes as possible to win – let’s show everyone how great Forest Gate is and what amazing people live here!

All you have to do is follow this link, then follow the instructions.
Hurry, though – only a short time for this (Friday 23rd November).

Please pass it on to as many friends and family who live in London as you can.

https://www.london.gov.uk/…/capital-clean-up-photo-competit…

Seyi writes…

Domestic and sexual violence affects approximately 1 in 4 women in the UK. The United Nations (UN) has designated 25th November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and is marking the occasion with 16 days of action.

As Deputy Chair of the Crime and Disorder Commission my first personal objective last year was for the commission to review Newham’s Domestic Violence service. Newham has the second highest volume of reported domestic violence in London, and 40.7% of all crimes in the borough are related to domestic violence. Since 2011, there have been six domestic violent homicides in Newham, the most in London.

We heard from the then lead member Cllr Ellie Robinson who gave us a fantastic overview of the Newham One Stop Shop service which is a service for residents who are experiencing domestic or sexual violence and need support. We also looked at preventive work taking place within in Forest Gate Community School in order to understand how safeguarding is tackled and how our young people are being taught about relationships. Forest Gate School in my opinion are leading in this area and we’d like them to share their best practice with other schools  We then looked at housing to get a better understanding of the options open to the Council when it becomes clear a tenant is being affected by domestic violence. Our review and recommendations report will be going to the next Newham Cabinet meeting for comments this Thursday, 5pm, East Ham Town Hall and will be publicly available shortly afterwards.

Newham One Stop Shop is a service for residents who are experience domestic or sexual violence and need support. If you or anyone you know needs support please call 08454512547

Ellie writes…

This is very possibly the most boring and niche blog post so far, but if you are reading this it may well be something you will also be interested in!

I produced this document some years ago and share it with various groups who want to  understand the workings of local government and the best way to influence it. It is not Newham specific and, be warned, it isn’t very exciting.  Enjoy!

How local government works.