Forest Gate North – Rachel Tripp's councillor blog

Ellie writes…

About a year ago we came across the concept of play streets, an exciting yet simple initiative allowing kids to ‘play out’ like a lot of us enjoyed doing as children. By temporarily closing residential roads this gives children the chance to play freely and safely on their doorstep and brings communities closer together.

It fits perfectly with the Council’s Building Communities vision; promoting social cohesion, helping people to get to know their neighbours and thus tackling isolation, and creating supportive, resilient communities. As well as looking like a whole lot of fun!

Sessions can be anything from two hours every Friday night to five hours on a Sunday afternoon held monthly, after school or at weekends. Basically it is up to your and your neighbours to decide what you want.

Luckily there is a wonderful group of residents on Tylney Road who have taken the lead on this and have applied for a Let’s Get the Party Started grant and road closure for this Sunday January 25^th from 1pm to 3.30pm. This is a bit of a pilot and depending on its success they plan to apply to do it on a more regular basis which requires a consultation.Luckily those who we have spoken too who live around there are keen to get involved so I am hopeful this will be a regular occurrence on Tylney Rd.

Play streets exist across London but this will be the first in Newham, if you would like to see your road turned into a play street we would be more than happy to help with the bits of bureaucracy needed to get a road closure.

Also, London Play has also been incredibly helpful and are more than happy to help you too. London Play is a small charity that strives to get more children in London playing out more often. They have been supporting and promoting the development of play streets in London since 2008. They can go with you to meetings, answer questions, address any doubts, offer helpful advice, supply materials, and, depending on where you are, maybe even help with funding. Just get in touch with Rich, Rich@londonplay.org.uk or myself, ellie.robinson@newham.gov.uk to find out more.

If children, families, neighbours had as much right to their roads as cars do that would be pretty exciting, right? So let’s take back ownership of the public space from cars to our young people (and those young at heart!).

Ellie writes…

I can’t believe last year went so quickly! We use this blog to talk mainly about ward specific issues but as I was filing (aka shredding) my papers over Christmas I flicked back through some of the Council and Cabinet papers and felt a lot had been achieved Borough wide (though of course there is still lots to do!). Some highlights for me included:

• The allocation of grants to foster carers and adopters to carry out work on their homes. This should increase the number of permanent homes for our looked after children, particularly those who are harder to place such as disabled children, older children or sibling groups
• The commissioning of activities for young people. The voluntary sector and Council are now providing a range of activities enabling young people to be active and connected (Forest Gate’s provision is through the youth zone opposite Wanstead Park station)
• The approval of an Independent Domestic and Sexual Violence (DSV) Advocacy Service. This is a vital element of our one stop shop service which I have talked about here before and should reduce repeat victims of DSV and increase the reporting of DSV to the police
• The ban on advertising of high cost payday loan companies on council-owned spaces.

We also agreed: a new training programme to help Workplace candidates to get a sustainable job; the lease of Ascot Community Centre to the Friends of Ascot Hall Limited (a community group); for more homes to be built; to lead the campaign against gambling on the High Street; to set up MoneyWorks (a new initiative which will offer affordable credit and advice to residents in need of financial assistance) and to give a loan to NewCred, the local credit union. Such a wide range of things!

And a personal lovely thing for me from last year has been working with Seyi and Rachel locally who are both terribly hard working, passionate and good fun!

So, looking forward, this year Newham celebrates its 50^th birthday! For us the General Election is also a biggy and we’ll be campaigning to make sure a Labour government can get in power which will help the lives of our residents. Personally, I am particularly looking forward to a few local things in the next couple of months including the launch of play streets (I’ll blog about this soon), the Community Garden taking off, and the opportunity to get as many people involved in the Crossrail consultation as possible (I will blog about this in more detail soon as well).

I am sure by next week a whole new load of things will be wriggling their way into the priority list! One of my new year’s resolutions is to remember to blog when I find time so watch this space to see if I manage it.

All the best to you and yours for 2015.

Rachel writes…

Writing about the #iheartforestgate campaign reminded me that there are plenty of people who care about making our local area more clean and tidy. Perhaps none more so than Misty, a hugely hard-working local resident who runs ‘tidy our flats’ to help make Wanstead Flats a more beautiful place.

Rather than try to summarise this rather brilliant scheme, I asked Misty if she would do a quick blog interview with us about it. And she did. Read on for more…

What is #tidyourflats all about?

#TidyOurFlats is a volunteer group that meets monthly on Wanstead Flats to remove help remove rubbish. Anyone is welcome from babies to pensioners….it is supported by City of London.

Why did you start it up?

We live in Forest Gate, I feel very privileged to have such a large open green space in London, Often going on a run or walk, I was so sad to see the unprecedented amount of rubbish while jogging around the parks.

What happens at one of the monthly litter picks?

Everyone is asked to sign in so that they’re insured in the unlikely case of any injury, then people are given gloves, litter-pickers and rubbish bags. We try and attack different areas each month. Talking to people while walking around is a great way to educate people that litter is bad for the environment. It is also really bad to feed birds bread as it attracts rats and is causing algae on our ponds – unless it is an ice-cold winter the Flats have ample food!

What has been the high point for you?

We were given a grant by Newham Council “Get The Party Started” and hosted a BBQ for all the volunteers in the Summer, everyone made a salad and Michael Saunders our local celebrity chef (and his gorgeous wife) marinated and cooked all the meat. It was truly delicious, if you live locally you should go to one of his dinners – invitetosupper.com.

We also helped planting the new shrubs at Jubilee Pond which was brilliant!

Any lows?

Just the sheer amount of rubbish we pick up each time! So sad that people are too lazy to take their rubbish home with them when they obviously enjoy visiting Epping Forest.

What is the strangest thing anyone has ever found?

We’ve found everything, washing machine drums to motor-bikes – when I was cleaning the pond (in Summer we have waders) I found a safe but unfortunately it was already open, so no treasure!

What next for #tidyourflats?

We will be continue to meet every 2nd Sunday of the month at Bandstand Pond (Capel/Woodford Rd) at 11am throughout 2015 – follow my Twitter @EccentricLDNer as it is expanding to meet outside the Golden Fleece (Capel Road, Manor Park) too on another weekend.

How can people get involved?​

​People just need to turn up, we will give you everything you need. If you can join for 30mins or two hours – every little bit – really does help!

———————–

Thanks so much for being interviewed, Misty, and of course for the work you do helping to improve the Flats. We hope some readers of this blog will want to come along and join the next litter pick.

(If anyone reading this is interested in applying for a Let’s Get the Party Started grant, then you can find information about the grant online here, or you can go to the Gate library and speak to Glennette.)

Rachel writes…

Firstly, a big thank you to everyone who took part in giving us information for ‘I heart Forest Gate’ during November. We created the campaign because we knew that litter, anti-social behaviour and fly tipping were all important to residents, and you certainly backed up our assertion there. To read my introduction to the campaign, explaining what we want to do and how, you can read my original post here.

This post is to provide an update about what we have been doing, and what happens now.

Firstly, we have been passing on all the information you have given us through the normal channels. This means in most cases they are being passed to Enforcement, a Council department which deals with issues including fly tipping and ASB, liaising closely with the police where appropriate. We thought it was important that doing something different shouldn’t mean that normal ways of working stop.

Next, we have been collecting all of the information that you sent us together in a spreadsheet. Hands up on this one – I have emails collected in a special folder but I have not yet put all of them into the spreadsheet, despite Seyi’s very polite reminders! Christmas has somewhat got in the way here, but collating and collecting is the stage we are at now.

Once the spreadsheet is complete (including not only information specifically emailed and tweeted to us as part of the campaign, but also information gathered from our pop-up street surgery, from our regular surgeries, and through any other route) we will then sit down together as a three and think about what might be our priority areas. This could be places that several people have mentioned as being a particular problem, or it might be an area where intelligence from residents suggests that there is a solution we could work on. However we choose, we will let you know.

We will then have a discussion with Enforcement about our thoughts, check up again on the work they are already doing, and finalise our priorities. At that stage, we’ll let you know, probably via another blog post, where we are concentrating on, and why.

We will then leave a reasonable period of time for some work to happen. The work that happens as a result might be enforcement work, or awareness-raising, or something else entirely. Then we will ask you to let us know whether we have made a difference or not. And it does seem that gaining honest feedback won’t be a problem – see below for more on that!

As we explained when we first introduced the idea, this is basically an experiment to try out several different things: whether we can try getting people involved, whether we can make a visible difference, whether running this as a ‘campaign’ rather than business-as-usual work makes any difference. We will report back to you honestly on the answers to these questions.

So far, it does seem that the campaign attracted some attention. There aren’t many concrete ways of measuring this, but as an example, my tweet announcing #iheartforestgate was retweeted 15 times, which I think is the most retweets I have ever got. The blog post has had 278 views at the time of writing, making it by far the most viewed post on our blog. (These are small numbers, of course! I certainly don’t think any major media outlets are quaking in their boots here…)

We also attracted some less complimentary attention, which I will share here in the spirit of openness. Whilst some – indeed most – people whom we heard from reacted positively, a few were not so keen, finding the name cutesy, or commenting that this kind of thing had been done before and we shouldn’t reinvent the wheel. There was even a discussion about whether our ‘graphics’ were out-dated. (Confession time. We have no design team as such. Or even really any graphics at all. The image with the post was in fact simply an iPhone photo which Ellie took, I believe against the background of her coat, of one of the badges that were made for the Mayor’s Show in the summer for each of the neighbourhood areas in Newham.) An unintended though lovely consequence of the campaign was a small flurry of interest in the badges though! There are still a few about, so if you would like one please contact me and I will see if I can get one to you.

But broadly people were positive, both on social media and in real life: stopping us on the street, or retweeting to show their support. Although the rubbish left on our streets can be depressing, it was heartening to see people responding to say that they, too, love Forest Gate and wanted to contribute to helping to improve it.

So that’s where we are now. More to come. In the meantime, if you have information about areas where litter, anti-social behaviour or fly tipping are particular problems then do carry on letting us know. We pass on all information we receive. In fact, one of the interesting things to come out of the campaign for me, has been finding out more about what Enforcement do (loads, actually), and thinking about how we can help to communicate this to residents.

More to come! I will write another post on this campaign once we have progressed things. In the meantime, I shall leave you in a tantalising fashion by promising – soon – a blog interview with a resident who is running her very own community action to help make our surroundings less litter-filled and more lovely.

Seyi writes…

Good stakeholder relationships is one of my key strengths I am utilising in Forest Gate North. One key stakeholder relationship I have prioritised since being elected in May is with Newham Metropolitan Police. I felt this was important to build this relationship in order to work together in addressing ASB and crime issues (although we have the lowest reported crime figures as a ward in the Borough), outling a preventative strategy and sign posting to each other’s services.

In July I had a really good joint resident surgery with PC Toby March back . I picked up a few bits of casework but the majority related to crime and ASB which was great for PC Toby to hear and deal with straight away. Together we were able to advice residents on ASB issues and suggest preventive things they could do. PC Toby gathered more intel on ASB in particular areas of #ForestGateNorth. This is a continuation of a fruitful and productive working relationship with the Neighbourhood Police Team. Rachel, Ellie and I are thinking about holding future themed resident surgeries in the future and inviting the appropriate partner or Newham Council team along to provide efficient and quicker responses to resident.

Also in the Summer I went along to #OpShineKF Newham MPS Street briefing held by the Forest Gate North NPT  on Cruikshank Road, E15 to meet other officers, pick up intelligence from residents and learn more about what the police do in Forest Gate North. Their street briefings are brilliant! If you’re around on 17th December in the morning the NPT will be holding a Forest Gate North Police Surgery at Coffee 7.

I also went patrolling Forest Gate North with PC Toby to learn about the hotspot areas for criminal and ASB activity. It was very useful and calming to hear what work is being done by both Newham enforcement and Newham MPS.

I popped along to the Safer Neighbourhood Team meeting in September in Forest Gate and we’re encouraging another SNT in the West side of the ward.

One last key benefit of this working relationship has been our joint response to residents concerns. Recently residents have been raising ASB concerns on Leytonstone High Rd. Because of this great relationship I was able to call a meeting with the Housing Association, the police and enforcement and have agreed joint actions.

Forest Gate Newsletter

December 2014

Festive Fete at the Gate
The Gate Library will be hosting a day of festive fun and activities on Saturday 13th December from 11am – 3pm. Come and join in the fun! Santa will be opening the event at 11am with a magical show. Christmas entertainment will include carol singing by ‘Forest Voices’, a taste of Russia with songs by Sputnik, craft activities include an Origami Workshop, a cup decorating workshop and you can also make your own gingerbread man. At 3pm children aged 5-12 are welcome to stay and watch a Christmas movie, speak to library staff to add your name to the list as seats are limited to 25 seats – first come first served –
For more details; Contact the Gate Library on 020 3373 0856 or email CH.forestgate@newham.gov.uk

Forest Gate Youth Zone
Forest Gate Youth Zone are partnering with the Manor Park Neighbourhood team to host a ‘Young Peoples Christmas Showcase’ this will be an intergenerational event taking place on Saturday 13th December 2014 from 3-6pm. The event will have something for everyone including, an awards ceremony, intergenerational board games, henna art, arts and crafts, cake decorating, salsa and line dancing workshops, outdoor sports activities and much more.
Showcase artists will include;

• Boy Blue entertainment
• Rain Crew
• IMD Legion
• Unity UK

Light refreshments will be available.

Transport Bus: 58, 330, 308, 25 and 86 Train Forest Gate and Wanstead Station.

For more details contact:
Forest Gate Centre Manager Zahra Maalow at the Forest Gate Youth Zone on the following contact details Zahra.maalow@newham.gov.uk or 07784 776 895
Manor Park Horace Lewis Little Ilford Centre Manager on Horace.Lewis@newham.gov.uk or 07890517331

Activities at the Gate Library
Monday:
• ESOL: 9.45-am – 12.15pm (term time only)
• Sexual Health promotion information stall: 2nd and 4th Monday of each month 11.00am – 2.00pm
• Love Newham App’ demo drop in session: 10.30am – 11.30am
Tuesday:
• ESOL: 9.45am – 12.15pm (term time only)
• ESOL: 12:30pm – 3.00pm (term time only)
• UEL promotion information stall: 1st Tuesday of each month 10am – 12noon
• Under 5s Story Telling: 11.00am – 12.00pm (Run by Kay Rowe)
• Do It Online basic computing course: 10am-12noon (must book in advance)
Wednesday:
• Games Club 3.30pm – 5.00pm
Thursday:
• ESOL: 9.45-am – 12.15pm (term time only)
• ESOL: 12.30pm – 3.00pm (term time only)
• Deaf Club for BSL users: 3rd Thursday of each month 5.30pm – 7.45pm
• The Gate Writers Group: 4th Thursday of each month 5.30pm – 7.30pm
• Oral Health stall: 1st Thu of each month 3-5pm
• Alcohol and Drugs awareness stall: 3rd Thu of each month 3-5pm (starts 15 Jan)
• CYANA promotion information stall: 4th Thursday of each month 3pm – 5pm
• Film Club: 4.00pm – 6.00pm
Friday:
• ICT help drop in sessions: 10am – 12pm
• Sing, Dance and Play session: 10.30 – 11.30am (run by Deanery road cc and starts from 16 Jan)
• Chess club: 3.30 – 5.15pm (starts from 23 Jan)
Saturday:
• Forest Gate South Councillors surgery: 10.30am – 11.30am
• Forest Gate North Councillors surgery: 10.30am – 11.30am
• Mayor surgery 4th Sat of each month: 9.30-10.30am
• Children’s homework club: 10am – 12noon (term time only)

Friendship Club
Friendship club is for young adults with learning disabilities, the group will be holding its Christmas Lunch on
Wednesday 17th December 12pm
At Brewers Fayre Pub
Winsor Terrace,
Beckton,
E6
(Nearest station Beckton DLR)
Come along and say hello to the group, or join us for Christmas lunch.

Friendship Club
The group will be hosting the next planning meeting on
28th January 12 – 2pm
The Garden Café
7 Cundy Road,
Custom House
(Nearest station Custom House DLR)
Come along to find out what’s going on in your area, and to meet the group.

Forest Gate Community Garden
If you are interested in joining the Forest Gate gardening group, the group meet at
Coffee7 on the first Saturday of each month, lifetime membership £2
Please email info@forestgate-community-garden.org.uk for more information.

TOGETHER! 2014
TOGETHER are hosting a FREE Disability Arts Festival in Newham to celebrate Disability History Month. Festival dates 19th November to 15th December 2014 for more information contact email info@together2012.org.uk or mobile 07973 252751

Don’t ignore it Report It!
Don’t’ forget to use the Love Newham app to report any problems affecting your local environment in Forest Gate you can report, graffiti, fly-tipping, fly-posting, litter dog fouling simply download the free application to your mobile phone now at http://www.newham.gov.uk/lovenewham – See a Problem? Take a Picture!

Community Neighbourhood Link workers
Support older and disabled residents, volunteers and community partners to run activities and events that make a difference in your area. For more information contact chsocialcare@newhm.gov.uk or call 020 8430 2000 or visit http://www.newham.gov.uk/adultsocialcare

Forest Gate Christmas Lights Switch-on event
Forest Gate Neighbourhood team partnered with the organisers of Woodgrange Market to host the Christmas Lights switch on event on Saturday 6th December 2014. The Mayor of Newham led the countdown surrounded by dozens of local children and their families, visitors and market traders. Jenny Beeching coordinated the Forest Gate Schools choir who were accompanied by local musicians and Kay Rowe Nursery provided interactive activities for the under 10’s and Coffee7 served mulled wine, mulled apple juice and modern mince pies!

The event was followed by an international food and music event which was hosted by the Woodgrange Market organisers. Both events were supported by the local businesses in Forest Gate.
A grand time was had by all! Look out for next year’s event!

If you would like to share information about interesting things happening in your area or in your community group, with the local community in the Forest Gate, Please contact Glennette Bowles-Dove via Email; Glennette.bowlesdove@newham.gov.uk telephone 020 3373 8382 or mobile 07817 385 000

Seasons Greetings to you all!

Glennette Bowles-Dove
Forest Gate Community Neighbourhood Senior Officer

Rachel and Seyi write…

Ellie has already written a great blog post about the regular surgeries we hold, highlighting some of the issues and concerns residents bring to us on Saturday mornings, at the Gate Library. But we have been concerned that not everyone is able to get to see us in person and so have been thinking about, and working on, different ways for people to contact us.

Firstly, of course any resident can email us, or phone us with their questions, concerns or ideas. If you phone, please do leave a message if haven’t been able to reach us and we will get back to you as soon as we can. See our contact page for more information about all the ways you can get in touch with us. But if a face to face meeting is what you’d like and Saturday mornings aren’t convenient , then you might be interested in a couple of things we are trialling.

Online surgeries

We have held two of these so far, where we keep a particular slot free, and invite residents to contact us by Skype. In the interests of full and honest disclosure, we will say now that so far no resident has chosen to contact us by this method! But we are in effect piloting online surgeries, they are not hard to arrange nor particularly arduous to take part in, so we anticipate trying a couple more before making a decision about whether this is a useful facility to offer. In fact, during our first online surgery, the two of us managed to catch up on several ongoing issues, and clear some emails, so it was a productive time even if not quite in the way we’d hoped.

If you would like to talk to us via Skype rather than on the phone, do email and we can set up a convenient time; you don’t need to wait until the next online surgery.

Pop-up surgeries

We particularly want to hold surgeries over in the west of our ward (Maryland), an area we are keen not to neglect. After some discussion about when and where to hold them, we thought the best way is to go where people are already, and then to be available in case anyone wants to talk to us.

We held a pop-up surgery on Leytonstone High Road, as part of our I Heart Forest Gate campaign, on Friday the 28^th November. Flanked by the trusty community neighbourhood team from the Gate library, we gave out badges and leaflets, talked to residents, and stuck stickers on a map to capture their thoughts about hotspots for litter, fly tipping and ASB.

Whilst we were there, residents stopped to talk to us about topics including parking, their neighbour’s building works, a local homework club and the potential for us doing some work together.

We will be holding another pop-up surgery, at Maryland School, on the 17^th December from 1.45 – 2.45pm. We hope that as with the Leytonstone High Road surgery, this will be a chance for us to engage with residents who would not normally come to the Gate Library on a Saturday, and find out if they have issues we can investigate, or ideas that we can help them with.

As ever, none of this is a complete answer, and reaching out to all residents is something that we will continue to work hard on. If you are reading this, and have more ideas about what we should do in Forest Gate North to reach a wide range of residents then do let us know, either in the comments below, or by contacting us in the usual ways.

Rachel writes…

Just over a week ago, Seyi, Ellie and I did a Saturday afternoon walkabout on the Maryland side of the ward.

We have been talking for some time about not neglecting the very western side of our ward. Forest Gate North is a strangely shaped ward if you spend time examining it on a map, which I am willing to admit most people with things to do will not. (If you fancy it, the map is here.) It’s long and thin, extending further to the East towards Stratford than the name would suggest. To a certain extent, ward boundaries are always arbitrary, as they are polling districts and don’t represent what are sometimes called ‘natural geographies’. Which is to say, you may live in Forest Gate North ward, but describe where you live as ‘Forest Gate’, but elsewhere in the ward you might think of yourself as living in ‘Stratford’, ‘Maryland’, or even, to use the newest piece of putative estate agent parlance, ‘Wanstead Corner‘. None of this is a problem, necessarily, all that matters is as far as possible people have equitable access to services and information.

It is very exciting to see resident-led regeneration happening over on the eastern side of our ward, and we want to offer as much support as we can to things like Woodgrange market, and the community garden. But we really want to make sure that we take some time to connect with people in all areas of the ward, and particularly with those people who might not contact us proactively.

With that in mind, we set off to walk up Leytonstone High Road, on the very eastern side of the ward, to introduce ourselves to as many of the businesses along the road as we could. We also delivered some more of our leaflets with our surgery details to the roads around there, a handy chance to walk up and down the streets, taking in any physical issues, and giving residents a quick reminder that we are there if they need us for signposting, support or information.

It was a good afternoon, although I’ll confess we were all shattered by the end. Business owners were pleased to see us, although some initial reactions ranged from confusion to bemusement. We reflected again on how our diversity and range of languages in Newham is both a strength and a challenge as we explained that no, although we were talking about holding ‘surgeries‘, we weren’t in fact doctors, and we went right back to basics with some shop owners, talking about what the Council does, who we are, and why we do it.

It was a great opportunity to pick up issues and comments and to make contacts that we wouldn’t otherwise make. We took away some specific casework concerning the junction of Gurney Road and Leystonstone Road, spoke to people who were complaining about shops selling fruit and vegetables out on the street, and to someone who wanted to do more of it. We found another fly tipping hot spot, ready to feed into our I Heart Forest Gate Campaign, and we handed over business cards and leaflets, telling people that even if they couldn’t think of something right there and then, we are always available for their comments.

By far the biggest and most consistent issue that the businesses raised was the condition of the road and pavement. This included litter, but also the physical condition of the pavement. The first shop owner we spoke to was very vocal about this, took us outside his shop to show us the areas he was concerned about, and specifically mentioned the border with Waltham Forest which is very close to the area we were in.

When we stood on the eastern side of Leytonstone Road, and looked over the junction into Waltham Forest, I am sorry to report that the visible difference was striking. This was a sobering moment, as all the social and societal factors that affect, for example, the rates of littering in Newham, are evidently exactly the same on one side of the road as they are on the other. It also appeared that the pavements were physically in better condition just on the other side of the borough boundary, as well. As we stood there, rather glumly taking this in, we wondered whether it might partly be a question of when exactly the road sweepers did their rounds. This led to an inadvertant moment of comedy as we spotted a street sweeper on the other side of the road, and spent a minute loitering in what was probably a very obvious way, trying to surreptitiously catch a glimpse of the letters on the back of his hi-vis jacket, all the while hoping that he would be Newham (he was!).

We have heard that Waltham Forest have been successful in bidding for some money specifically for streets and high streets, and talked about finding out more about this, which might also account for some of the contrast. But we left knowing we’d made some good contacts, collected some casework…. and had plenty more still to do.

Next steps for us, then are to follow up the casework, let the shop owners know that we have done so, to find out whether Leytonstone High Road is counted as a ‘high street’ within Newham, whether this is possible, and whether if it were, this would make a difference to how it is maintained, and to find out more about Waltham Forest’s evident success in physically regenerating high streets, and whether there is something here we could replicate. As ever, no easy solutions here, but we will keep on pursuing it, and keep reporting back to you.

Rachel writes…

Along with parking, litter and fly tipping remain among the top issues that residents contact us the three of us about. So we put our heads together to think about how we could make a difference, and we are starting, right now, a mini campaign.

It’s called ‘I heart Forest Gate‘. Because the thing that unites all the various people who have talked to us about their concerns is that they genuinely love the area and they want it to be better.

We want to hear from you, during November, about the places in the ward where we could make a difference. Places where litter, fly tipping or anti-social behaviour are a recurrent problem. We want to know what the problem is, and also any intelligence you have about any of the above: any particular times or days when things happen, or other information that might help not just to observe what is happening, but also to help stop it.

Once we have collected all the information we can from anyone who wants to contribute, we will collect it together, and agree a small number of ‘hotspots’. We want to then work with the Newham Enforcement team to concentrate on these areas that you’ve told us concern you so that we can make a real difference, either through some officer presence, working with the police, enforcement action, problem-solving to figure out where issues are coming from, or perhaps something else entirely.

Then we want to report back to you, to let you know what we’ve done, or are doing, and for you to let us know whether things seem better.

Being part of ‘I heart Forest Gate’

We want this campaign to be all about our residents, and the places that you think could be better. The more information we have, the better we can identify where needs attention. Please do get in touch.

Contact us however you would prefer. It would be most helpful, though, if you used the following methods rather than telephoning us, just so that we can be sure that we have a record of the area and issue you are letting us know about. Also, it can sometimes be difficult for us to answer the phone, if we are busy doing other things, and using the methods below means we can definitely get your information, and use it.

Twitter
It’s no secret that we love twitter. You can tweet any of us or all of us, and please use the hashtag #iheartforestgate as this will help us raise awareness, and collect all the information together.
Ellie – @elliecrobinson
Rachel – @rectripp
Seyi – @seyiakiwowo

Email us
You can email all three of us, or just one of us, whichever you prefer (we won’t take offence).
seyi.akiwowo@newham.gov.uk, ellie.robinson@newham.gov.uk, rachel.tripp@newham.gov.uk

Come to a surgery
Come and see us at the Gate library, Woodgrange Road, 4-20 Woodgrange Rd, London E7 0QH on a Saturday morning from 10.30 – 11.30

Write to us
Or you can write to any of us at the following address:
London Borough of Newham
Newham Dockside
1000 Dockside Road
London
E16 2QU

We will also hold a street surgery one day (likely to be the 28th November, but date and venue to be confirmed – check this blog for confirmation) to ask passers-by for their input.

If you have already contacted us about casework that you think falls into this category, then please be reassured that we log all our casework, and are going to go back over all those cases which relate to litter, fly-tipping or ASB, and make them part of this process. If you have already contacted us but want to contact us again to make doubly sure that we definitely have your information and will include it in this process, then please do so.

Some FAQs…

What will you do with the information?
We will log it, and collate the areas and any intelligence, and use it with our colleagues in Enforcement and if appropriate with the police and other partners, to see if we can take action to improve the situation. We won’t share your details with anyone outside the Council without your permission.

What if the information I send you is outside Forest Gate North?
Then we will send it on to your ward councillors so that they can deal with it for you.

How will I know what happens?
You can check this blog for updates. Also, if you take part in I heart Forest Gate and send information to us, we will get back to you and let you know which hotspots we have focussed on, and what happens as a result.

How will you choose which areas to target?
This will depend on what information we receive. Ideally, we want to be guided by feedback, so will choose those areas that lots of people let us know about. However, we know that some residents are more able to contact us than others, and also that there may be some areas with more intractable problems (and correspondingly, other problem areas that are easier to tackle). We will report back on the areas we chose, and why, and will be as transparent as we can about what we are doing and why.

Why are you only worried about litter and fly tipping and ASB in November 2014? Why not all year?
We are always concerned about these things! You can let us know at any time where you think that something should be done. But we want to experiment with a more targetted look at the ward, to see if we can harness information from residents to make a visible difference, and this is how we are doing it.

Will you do this again?
We might. We will see how this way of working goes, and will report back (honestly) on how successful it was. Depending on the results, we may do it again, or we might try something similar in a different way, or we may abandon it entirely. We will let you know.

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I heart Forest Gate
Tackling litter, fly tipping and ASB
Love your local area? Get in touch and tell us where we could make a difference #iheartforestgate