Rough Sleeper Street Count 2024

 

Picture is from around 11.45pm last night of 2 teams about to leave the Council offices in Dockside to go out and count rough sleepers in Newham. At least 4 other teams had already left for the midnight start. Today was a national annual count day of rough sleepers across the UK (I think - or maybe only England).  The data is used to inform the Government and partners about the scale of the problem. It is no secret that the numbers of rough sleepers have been rising since Covid. 

The data from the national council is also confidential until released by the ministry. 

The numbers today (the count was between 12 Midnight and 3AM) will probably be lower because of the recent cold weather, which has trigged the London Mayor SWEP (severe weather emergency provision). Newham Council has been funded for a number of emergency beds located in a local community centre.

As well as the national count, Newham does a bi-monthly count, to assess how successful its own Government funded internal programme is in reducing numbers of people sleeping rough in the borough. In Newham the Count volunteers are made up of Council officers, stakeholders, volunteers and Councillors (as well as myself, Cllr Wilson & Cllr Lofthouse). 

I went with Aidan who is a Newham officer who works in a Government funded team to support long term rough sleepers and to help them get off the streets. A difficult but at times rewarding job. We were joined by another Newham Council colleague, Cllr Shaban Mohammed.

We went to a part of Newham that I had been to a number of times and I was pleased that we "only" came across 2 rough sleepers on a pavement next to a busy road (but 2 too many of course). The temperature was just above freezing. They only had a light duvet covering them. Aidan spoke to them and took some details. They had apparently refused the SWEP centre earlier today but agreed to speak to a follow team of outreach workers, who will be visiting people who had been found from 5AM this morning. 

After we had visited all the sites,  I drove back to Newham Dockside building and we passed on details to the Newham Council organising team led by its amazing manager, Ajitha Sajeev BEM (Front centre of main photo). 

Newham Rough Sleeper (Mini) Street Count June 2020

Pictures from last night's Newham Rough Sleeping (mini) Street count with Councillors, Council officers and 3rd sector partners going out during the night to count how many rough sleepers there are. Usually this is done every two months.

Due to COVID19 only 4 teams of 2 people were sent out however, we visited 43 sites that have recent reports or historically associated with rough sleeping in Newham (and also there were central staff doing safety checks and gathering stats).

We met up in a local hotel that the Council has block booked to house and support rough sleepers. We took bottled water and sun cream to hand out (it has been very hot lately)

My team toured Manor Park and East Ham and "only" met 1 person sleeping on the streets! (S/he is well known to outreach workers and they are trying to support).

I am not sure if we can publish the actual figures yet from last nights count but it is no secret that it will be definitely and dramatically down from Pre covid times and the decision by the government to get "everyone in" into accommodation and off the streets

This shows what can he done if you have the will and the resources but we need our Government to commit further money & humane changes to the "No Recourse to Public Funds" (NRPF) rules to get rid of the blight in our society of vulnerable people sleeping on our streets. 

A Healthy School Street for West Ham Church Primary School

This morning my West Ham Ward Councillor colleagues, Charlene McLean, John Whitworth and I went with local residents to support Newham Council Highway officers and school staff implementing the Healthy School Street programme for West Ham Church Primary School.

The main drop off point to the school will be closed from 8.30am - 9.30am and 3pm - 4pm.

This is not only a road safety issue but also designed to protect our children from car fume pollution.

So far 5 Newham schools have implemented this programme and more are due to follow. The vast majority of parents seemed very supportive and apart from a very few grumpy looks from some car drivers this initiative seems to be well supported.

We were really pleased to be invited to the school assembly afterwards to speak to the children about the importance of road safety and healthy streets. Cllr Jane Lofthouse, who is the Deputy Cabinet member for Education was asked to award "goodie bags" to the two school pupils who had helped design the West Ham leaflet to parents about healthy streets.

It was a real pleasure to speak to parents and pupils about this project and I have never ever been as popular as I was today, when handing out today the fluorescence yellow and pink road safety stickers to children that they can stick on their coats. 

West Ham All Saints Remembrance Service Sunday 11 November 2018

On Sunday I represented the Mayor and Newham Council at the 1918-2018 Remembrance Ceremony at West Ham Parish Church All Saints with Chair of Council Cllr Joy Laguda and our Director of Finance, Michael O'Donnell. With our local MP Lyn Brown, we each laid a wreath of poppies together with G Company 7 Rifles (our local British Army Reservist unit based nearby in West Ham), Police, British Legion and local residents.

It was good to see a large contingent of soldiers in uniform from our local regiment 7 Rifles present. In past Remembrance ceremonies at this Church, members of G Company had been on active service in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I am now of an age, that they all look too young to put their lives at risk and wish that fighting for all countries and all beliefs was only restricted to older folk such as myself over the age 50.  I doubt that many wars would still happen if this was so.

Chair of Newham Councillor Scrutiny Committees, Cllr John Whitworth and Councillor Winston Vaughan also attended (Cllr Vaughan is a British Army Veteran) While local Cllr, Jane Lofthouse actually had a lovely singing voice (and saved the reputation of the Council since none of us could hold a note).

Newham Council had supported 8 separate Remembrance events across the borough this historic weekend with the Mayor, Cabinet, Senior officers and Councillors attending.

The new Parish Priest, Revd Cannon Alex Summers, led an excellent and moving service (despite a heavy cold) and spoke about two of his great uncles, who were killed in the first world war. He and his young family had visited the war cemetery of one of his uncles in France and noted that the graves of British and German dead were buried alongside each other. It seemed fitting that former enemies were laid in peace together. I completely agree.

The Church is a beautiful Grade 1 listed building and was founded in the 12th Century.  I recommend a visit. There is a Beethoven Concert there on 24 November 2018 which I sadly cannot attend due to pre booked clash.

After the ceremony my wife Gill and I went over to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to view the "Shrouds from the Somme". Visit, look and listen to the endless names of the unidentified dead. It is heartbreaking.