Lyn Brown MP – West Ham “T” Party

This morning I helped out at the latest “Community Development” meeting held by local Labour MP, Lyn Brown, at the Vicarage Lane Centre in Stratford.

These meetings (better known as “Tea Parties”) are organised by Lyn’s Parliamentary office and take place all over her constituency. She invites local residents to meet herself, local Councillors (today Ron Manley seen back of photo and Freda Bourne) and the ward Police Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT).

The purpose of these meetings is to informally discuss local problems, issues and possible solutions over tea and biscuits. These meetings I think have been hugely successful.

In London every single Council ward has a dedicated team of regular police and Community Support Officers. I think that these teams (which is a local and national Labour party initiative opposed by the Tories) are making a big difference to tackling crime and anti-social behaviour especially in urban areas.

I think about 70 people turned up this morning and I sat and chatted with people while they were waiting to see Lyn or the Councillors. One common problem that came up was about irresponsible landlords who were converting terrace houses into Houses in Multiple Occupations (HMO). These landlords carry out botched conversions, leave behind building rubble and fail to maintain the properties properly. Many of these rogue landlords also do nothing about the small minority of their residents who cause a nuisance and even misery to their neighbours.

Nowadays the Council can prosecute Landlords of HMOs who fail to manage their properties and even in extreme cases they can take over their management.

I’ll be interested to see some research on how effective this licensing has been.

One thing that I found striking was that on one table none of the residents knew each other even though they had all lived in the ward for many years. None of them had never met their local MP, Councillors or the SNT before today. So simply turning up and discussing problems with each other and their elected representatives was a good start I think.

Finally, on a negative note, many Newham Labour party members who also popped by to show their support, were stunned at the sacking of Newham UNISON Chair Michael Gavan by the Council. I’m speaking to the branch to find out what happens next and what can be done to help.