West Ham Labour Doorstep - Aileen Walk 2014

Busy political Saturday. In the morning I went out with West Ham Ward Labour team, door knocking in the Aileen Walk area next to the park.

Picked up quite a bit of case work about street cleaning, estate lighting, pot holes and uneven pavements.

When I go door knocking it is always a little strange to see swastika on peoples homes (see picture top right). I remember many years ago being stunned when I first saw this and when I knocked on the door, I expected some tattooed Far right Nazi to open it and was amazed that it was an Asian family! I now know that the Swastika was an ancient symbol of  "wealth, prosperity and auspiciousness" which was nicked by the German Nazi for their own vile use.

After a short break we then went off to Canning Town North ward for a Super Saturday with our MP Lyn Brown.

Hat tip pictures Seyi

West Ham Street Surgery: Devenay Road, E15

Picture collage from yesterday's door knock in my ward at Devenay Road, London, E15.

Picture on top left is of me, top local community activist Bill and West Ham Labour candidate, John Whitworth.

Devenay Road and the surrounding streets are very interesting. It was a estate built by Newham Council 30 (ish?) years ago especially for local young couples on the waiting list who wanted to stay in the borough and buy its family sized homes. The Council at the time was able to arrange mortgages.

The houses are very attractive terrace or semi detached with garages and gardens next to West Ham Park.

I don't know if the house prices were subsidised or if the purpose was an early attempt to create mixed tenure communities in the area? Does anyone know?

Other pictures in collage show two beautiful chihuahuas puppies whose owner came to the door when I knocked; one of the gates that have sealed off part of Aileen Walk due to ASB, a rather mangy but curious ginger cat that followed us around the road and overgrown tree roots which are causing a pavement tripping hazard that I will be raising a Newham members enquiry about to the Council tomorrow (and various other environmental issues).

Hat tip to West Hammer Julianne Marriott for photos.

Ham Park Village Residents & Make the Space a Place

This report is from what I thought was a pretty successful and constructive meeting tonight of Ham Park Village Residents Association at the Vicarage Lane Community Centre, E15.

Things in life never run that smoothly. There was two last minute scares about the meeting. Firstly, the centre thought it had been cancelled (it hadn't) then we were locked out since there was a problem with the key to open the centre but that was soon sorted out.

There were about 30 local residents present. Ham Park Village is to the west of the historic 1874 West Ham Park, which is the largest public park in Newham and run by a Charitable Trust funded by the City of London. There was a representative from the Park, the local Police Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) Sergeant and Newham Council officers, as well as my West Ham ward colleague, Cllr Ron Manley.

 

The first part of the meeting dealt with local Policing issues in our ward, the Park and the Ham Village area. The SNT reported that the ward was 11th out of the 20 Newham wards in terms of crime reports and had average reports of Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB). Despite being "average" there are a number of problems in the ward which impact on residents lives. Street drinkers, low level drug taking, prostitution and violence amongst young people. However, other statistics tell us that while there is problems it is still an area people like and want to stay and live.

 

There was some fiery questions to the Police and the West Ham Park representative but it was on the whole measured and reasoned yet at times passionate. There was a sort of general  agreement (apart from Park benches) at the end of this discussion and also a commitment to better tackle seasonable drink related ASB. 

 

The second part of the meeting was an excellent update and presentation by Newham Council officers. Firstly, on the proposed gates in (a small part) Aileen Walk which has gone out to public consultation. The money has been agreed and providing that the consultation is successful, it should go ahead!

 

Then the age old and controversial issue of "The Wall". Now, this is a low level wall in an unused green space in the village area which nobody quite knows why or when it was built. It serves no useful purpose and there is very significant amounts of ASB reported around "The Wall". The Council housing department own the land and while they have no current plans for it's use are prepared to lease it out to a Community Garden project. They may well want it back in the future to build on but have no plans at this moment and are willing to let it be used for a good purpose in the meanwhile.

 

So this plan is to encourage local residents to take responsibility for the area, get grants and permissions, then knock down the wall and build a Community Garden. To grow fruit, veg and roses. Very like the existing Newham Abbey Gardens and First Avenue Community Garden model. The presentation by various Council officers was very good and the idea was well received. Obviously there was issues and concerns raised but the overwhelming response was positive. We are hopefully at last doing something about "The Wall" and bringing together the local community.

 

This was a great meeting, I enjoyed it and learnt a lot as well. Many thanks to all involved. A Community Garden planning meeting will be held very soon. If anyone local wants to get involved they can email me for contact details of the Ham Village RA.

 

I did twitter during the meeting on hashtag #westhamlbn.

London Marathon 2012 Training Wk 8: West Ham Ward

I pulled a muscle in my back last week so was a bit tender but managed to keep to the training programme. While out running I was shocked to see that there had been a serious fire in the tower block Fred Wigg House, which overlooks Wanstead Flats. Thankfully no-one was hurt, but as a housing bod, I shudder every time I look at the damage (not picture above). 

I finally took back the useless "Ironman" running watch to Sweatshop and got my money refunded. The sales assistant was very good and almost sold me a £249 all singing, all dancing GPS, heart monitor, "Motoactv" Walkman. Luckily I managed to keep my sanity and escape.  By co-incidence I have managed to work out how to download music to my Blackberry and was amazed at the sound quality.  I'm trying to see if there is a decent running "apt" I can download.

Run of the week was on Saturday. After my Council Sugary in the Community Centre, Rokeby Street, E15 (taken up with repairs and OAP internal decs) I went home but ran back to the ward for my 75 minute long run of the week.  I did a circuit of the ward.  Not really a good idea since I kept stopping to check things out and take photos of a few problems and issues.  There was a small fly-tip at the green lawn roundabout in Marriott Road.  This roundabout was the site of the bomb crater caused by this:-

"In the early hours of 1st February 1945 at 3:03 am, Hitler’s last weapon of terror, a V-2 Rocket, left a trail of death and destruction on the sleeping street. An unmanned, guided, ballistic missile that had a maximum speed of 3440 mph, flying at an altitude of 52-60 miles, and carrying a warhead of 2150lbs of high explosives dropped without warning onto the sleeping Barnby Street, at up to four times the speed of sound. The ultra-high-speed descent meant that no sound was heard by those about to be hit. The effects of the resulting explosion were catastrophic, the explosion and subsequent sonic boom were heard all over London.

On that cold winters night, in just a few short seconds 29 people lost their lives and 15 others were seriously injured. Houses were totally destroyed and the surrounding streets were severely bomb blasted". 

Check out Newham Stories.  Barnby Street (now Marriott Road) had already suffered damage from 7 previous German air raid bombings.  Newham alone suffered 40 V2 ballistic missile attacks in 1944 and 1945. The picture above was taken only a few hours after the attack. I will speak to my ward fellow ward Councillors Ron and Freda about getting some sort of memorial on this spot.

On the way back I went around Stratford Park and said a brief "hello" to one of my fellow school governors in Aileen Walk .

When I got home I felt okay and even a little smug that I had no aches and pains.  "I'm getting really fit" I thought.  Then despite stretches and resting I began to slowly stiffen up, limp and suffer.....Only another 4 months of this to go!

(I am running the London marathon next year using the official advanced training programme and will be raising funds for Homeless Youth charity "Alone in London". Click here to sponsor me).