Rokeby Centre...The Big International Lunch..Sunday 27th Oct 1-4pm

This looks like it will a great event. Rokeby Centre is one of the West Ham Community centres where I hold my Saturday Council surgeries.

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).

West Ham Ward Street Surgery (and getting the Vote Out for Ken)

After my offical surgery yesterday in the Rokeby Community Centre (where apparently Katie, the Duchess of Cambridge, made a very successful private visit to the centre last week and had lunch with staff and users) I went on a Street Surgery with fellow West Ham Councillor Ron Manley (left of centre picture) and top ward secretary John Whitworth (right).

We knocked on doors and introduced ourselves to local residents and asked if they had any issues that they wanted to speak to us about.  It may have been the blue skies and warm sunshine but we had a really good reception.  We obviously reminded everyone about the GLA election next year and the importance of getting rid of Johnson as the Coalition Tory London Mayor. 

The only clear "Against" I came across had a poor opinion of all politicians and spoke highly of Arthur Lewis (former Labour MP for the area until deselected in 1983) as a "man of the people...who you could stop in the street and talk to...".  I did not live in Newham at the time and understand that many who did, had a somewhat alternative view of Arthur.  However, Mr Against, also had let me say, an extremely poor opinion (expressed in fluent east end), of Mayor Johnson, so Ken may still be in with a chance. 

Other residents expressed concern about anti-social behaviour by local youths (a tiny, tiny minority of all young people) and rogue "Rachman" private sector landlords who do not care about the state of their properties and do nothing about the bad behaviour of some of their residents.  There are a number of initiatives that the Council and West Ham Police Safer Neighbourhood team are carrying out at the moment against ASB in this area which I expect to make a big difference.  While the Council's pioneering initiative to try and licence all private landlords is I think potentially brilliant.  Protecting tenants and their neighbours, encouraging good landlords and attacking the bad. Great stuff.

Across Newham yesterday and today there has been similar door knocking by Councillors and local Labour Party members.  We are also carrying out telephone surveys of West Ham residents. 

One other story I came across yesterday was from an Newham resident about how she was complaining bitterly about this rotten Tory Coalition government when her daughter interrupted her to say "Mum, you can't complain about this government...you don't bother to vote at the election last year"... and to be fair to Mum, she accepted this and just grinned somewhat sheepishly.   Lesson learnt.

The Mayor’s Newham Show 2010

Busy but on several levels a “good day” yesterday. I helped with the preparation of the West Ham Labour Party Leadership Hustings in the morning (see next post) then attended a local community “Big Lunch” event at the Rokeby Children's Centre in my ward. I had to try all the different foods on offer (including chicken noodles, goat curry, meat curry, jerked chicken, sausage rolls etc. just to be polite:). There was also Double Decker “play bus” from the Children’s play charity “Honeypot” which I had a quick tour.

Then off to the show in Central Park. Some 50,000 people visited this event over the weekend. I really enjoyed it and I think everyone else did as well. It brought all the different communities in Newham together. As I entered the Park there was Russian folk dancers singing a song called “Red Boots”! There was rap music, different types of Asian music and dancing and even a traditional brass band! The kids could ride donkeys on the beach, knock coconuts off the shy, take part in a tug of war or climbing walls. I think mind that they thought the fun fair was best.

There were also tents on health, fitness, hobbies and local interest groups, recycling, Council regeneration, training, community safety and two local history hubs- which I will post upon later this week.

Pity I missed the carnival on Saturday (because - see future post) and already looking forward to this event next year.