Ham Park Village Evening Walkabout

Apologises for the poor quality photograph but it is a record of last nights "walkabout" with local residents and Council officers in West Ham Ward, E15, Newham.

Ham Park village has an active Residents Association. Following a recent RA meeting it was decided that we ought to go and walk around the area "out of office" hours in winter to check on street lighting, parking, ASB, pot holes and dumped rubbish.

There were 3 council officers and all three ward Councillors present and about 10 local residents who met at 6.30pm at the local Vicarage Lane Community Centre. After a quick cup of tea  (thank you Kim) we then spent about hour and half touring the local area, taking notes about environmental issues and problems. Luckily the rain had just stopped.

We also had various chats with residents about the history of the area, going hopping in their youth, Kentish apples, urban foxes, "beds in sheds", Aileen Walk gates and the hugely important pros and cons of controlled parking zones.

It is fair to say that during the course of the "walkabout" a number of let me say, not particularly positive comments were made about the Council, but I was really pleased that at the end residents thanked the Council officers present for giving up their evenings to come out with them and tour their manor.

Council officers made copious notes and took a number of photographs and we will let residents know what can be done to address the problems that we discovered and there will be a review and report back meeting probably now in January.

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.

Ham Park Village Residents Group

This is a picture from last weeks inaugural meeting of a new Residents
Group in my ward that I helped out at as a  facilitator.
 
This photo image is my London. A local community coming together and working with their Council, the Police and Voluntary Groups to improve the locality.  This image is the real London and the other one of the recent ignorant selfish London mob is the false one.

Residents, the local Police Safer Neighbourhood team and CleanUp UK volunteers met up to discuss tough community problems and possible solutions.  Big and small. As an icebreaker everyone lined up from left to right, according to how long they had lived or served the local community.  The residents on the right of the picture had been amongst the first to move into the estate which was built by Newham Council specifically for young couples on their waiting lists to bring up families 37 years ago.

(Many thanks to the council community engagement officer, the West Ham SNT and CleanupUK for their help - and of course local resident and now Chair of Group Zac).

Ham Park Village Community Planting & Clean up Day

On Friday I went door knocking with our Council community engagement officer, volunteers and the  West Ham safer neighbourhood team (SNT) promoting this event.

There are two unused green spaces in the area which we hope to turn into mini gardens maintained by the local community.  There will also be a general "clean up" and we will be promoting a new Ham Park Village Residents Association.

On Friday I thought there was a really good reaction by local residents and hopefully there will be a good turn out.

Meet next Friday 22 July 2-5pm at corner of Hartland Road and Vicarage Lane E15.  Local schools will be finishing early that day for end of term. 

Unfortunately I have to go to Norwich on Friday so I am not sure if I will be back in time.

(double click picture to bring up detail)