On Monday 5th October Mike Gapes attended the monthly branch meeting of the Seven Kings Branch Labour Party. He responded to questions collected from branch members and put to him by one of their number, Liz Pearce. Mike talked about his constiuency, the situation in Sri Lanka and the Labour Party Conference.
Seven Kings Councillor & Deputy Leader of the Labour Group, Bob Littlewood, has had discussions with leading Councillors in the Tory minority administration recently. He has been told that, following years of pressure from Labour Councillors & residents’ organisations in Seven Kings & Newbury wards, officers have been instructed to look at sites with a view to coming up with a locations for a library in the Seven Kings area AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
Bob has also been pursuing the suggestion made by Take Action for Seven Kings (TASK) members to push for a temporary site for a summer reading scheme and passed on the fact that Sky Tours is about to be vacant and would be an ideal site.
The meeting last Tuesday about replacing the Pool resulted in a promise from the Leader of the Council that by September he will be announcing his plans for the project. Mike Gapes MP and Bob Littlewood are to meet the Leader soon to plan a new round of lobbying for getting external funding.
As the new Chair of the Council’s Leisure Scrutiny Committee Bob will be encouraging maximum public participation at the Committee’s meetings at the Town Hall and making sure that progress reports on the library and the pool are presented at each meeting.
Labour Party members were out this weekend, campaigning across Ilford South for the European elections. Mike Gapes and Labour Party Councillors joined Seven Kings party members (pictured below) while other groups campaigned elsewhere across the constituency.
The Tories say it’s their top priority to withdraw Britain from the Social Chapter, the legal guarantee that protects many of the rights of working people. Labour has introduced the minimum wage, better maternity rights & new paternity rights, and the extension of paid leave. The Tories threaten all these rights and more.
Labour wants to take a key role at the forefront of making European Union policies on the environment & climate change, economic recovery from the global credit crunch and tackling crime & terrorism. The Conservatives have pulled out of the main group of centre right parties in the European parliament and joined a small fringe group of right wing parties from some of the smaller countries of the European Union, losing influence & relevance.
But on 4th June it’s also vital that everyone makes their vote count so that the racist BNP do not gain any representation in the European parliament on the back of a low turnout under a system of proportional representation.
Mike Gapes and Seven Kings Councillors campaigning in Westwood Road
Seven Kings Labour Councillors have been working with the Cleansing Department and Take Action for Seven Kings (TASK) to clean up Seven Kings.
Councillors Balvinder Saund, Stuart Bellwood & Bob Littlewood (pictured above) have had regular walkabouts with Council Officers pointing out problems and ensuring they are dealt with.
The small Area Committee Budget has been used to pay for free bulky refuse removal. If you want bulky items removed phone the Council on 020 8554 5000. Be sure to say you are a Seven Kings resident.
The Council will be delivering letters about the Big Clean Up which has been christened the Seven Kings Square Mile Project. This letter will tell you when fly tipping and untidy gardens will be dealt with in your road and asking for your
co-operation.
Tell us if you have any particular problems that you want to receive attention during the big clean up.
Cllr. Stuart Bellwood Cllr. Bob Littlewood Cllr. Balvinder Saund
email stuart.bellwood@redbridge.gov.uk tel: 020 8708 9750
email bob.littlewood@redbridge.gov.uk tel: 020 8530 6584
email balvinder.saund@redbridge.gov.uk tel: 020 8708 0210
Labour supporters & councillors in Ilford South have been out and about holding street surgeries & delivering newsletters in many areas of the constituency. If you haven’t received your copies yet you can see them here:
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Seven Kings and Goodmayes Allotment gardeners now believe they have finally won their fight to save much loved allotments form sale, helped by local residents and similarly threatened allotment gardeners in Hainault. Goodmayes Labour Councillors and Labour Deputy Leader, Cllr Bob Littlewood, were involved early in helping allotment gardeners.
The battle began early in 2007 when Redbridge Council Cabinet voted to sell off Vicarage Lane South and Goodmayes Lane allotments. They decided in secret, with the public unable to attend or even find out that plot sales were on the agenda. Councillors were forbidden to talk about sales, yet according to Alan Weinburg, Council Leader, the decision was not a secret!
The sale move was doubly cynical as Redbridge had recently announced a “consultation” on the future of allotments. As one gardener said “it’s difficult to call it a consultation when a key decision has already been made” . Sale plans also threatened other open space with allotment holders to be displaced into Goodmayes Park extension.
They were soon joined by North Hainault Allotment Holders Society, also threatened with the sale of two flourishing sites. Sites were chosen solely because they were easy to develop. Two sites were fully occupied and the others nearly full.
When they found out allotment gardeners went to war. They protested outside Town Hall meetings joined by Labour Party members, spoke at Council, Cabinet and Scrutiy Committees and publicised their case in the local papers, radio and the national press. Their fight was even mentioned in the book “One man and his dig” by Times journalist Valentine Low.
They lobbied their Area Committees and were rewarded by a split in the Conservative ranks. Several Conservative councillors were concerned by the potential loss of open space and the risk of overdevelopment.
They could also have considered that selling four allotment sites run by voluntary groups flew in the face of a national Conservative policy that claims to support voluntary groups. Not so in Redbridge. The only Council run site, Chigwell Road, was withdrawn from sale when local residents objected en masse and it was conveniently discovered that the site was in a flood risk area.
Selling allotments also flies in the face of the growing national popularity of allotments. Ironically the voluntary sector let sites are much better occupied than the Council’s own sites so it looks as if the Council wanted to penalise voluntary success.
Most allotment gardeners are not terribly political. For many it was their first visit to a Council meeting. They went away appalled at the cynical way they were treated by Redbridge Conservatives.
Labour Government provides funds for free swimming for children & older people but Tory council closes our pools
Many Labour Party members yesterday joined other members of the public on a march from the offices of the Ilford Recorder to the Town Centre. They were there to protest at the sudden closure of the High Road Swimming Pools, one of only two public baths in the borough.
The building had been condemned by structural engineers and had to close on grounds of safety. But the Tory administration in Redbridge has known there have been grave concerns regarding the building for many years. They have failed to fund necessary maintenance over many years. Plans to provide new facilities in Ilford became bogged down in factional in-fighting amongst the Conservatives. Some Tory councillors promised grandiose schemes, which couldn’t be funded, in a bid to win prestige and leadership in the Conservative group. This simply stopped more practical schemes going ahead and has resulted in the loss of huge financial support from the government for a new pool.
As a result of this shambles swimmers in Ilford and the south of the borough now have to travel to an overcrowded pool at Fulwell Cross, or out of the borough altogether. Swimming clubs and groups which used the High Road pools will not easily be accommodated, nor will those who were receiving swimming lessons.
All this comes at a time when our Labour government is providing funds to enable local councils to provide free swimming for those under the age of 16 or over 6o. But while children & older people in neighbouring boroughs benefit, there is nowhere to go for swimmers in Ilford.
Mike Gapes MP, Labour councillors & party members at the rally
Balvinder Saund, one of 3 Labour councillors representing Seven Kings, talks about current local issues.
Lord Rix, Chancellor of the University of East London, presented awards to over three hundred graduates at London’s Barbican Hall on 8th November. He also presented honorary awards to two local heroes – John d’Abbro OBE, Head of Ilford special needs school, New Rush Hall, and Councillor Balvinder Kaur Saund - as well as to artist and entertainer Rolf Harris CBE.
Cllr Balvinder Kaur Saund is a tireless councillor and community activist, Chair of the Sikh Women’s Alliance, and has served as a Justice of the Peace and Chair of Remand and Youth Courts. She was elected a Labour councillor in Redbridge in May 2006, representing Seven Kings. Balvinder has worked in partnership with UEL for many years. Together with UEL Community Development Co-ordinator, Jasbir Kaur Panesar, she founded the successful Asian Women’s Education Fairs in Redbridge and across East London.
Accepting her Honorary MA, Balvinder said: “I was part of a generation of Asian women who were never expected to achieve. My parents had no real ambitions for me, so I set my own and succeeded. I’m so happy to see so many young Asian women graduating at today’s ceremony. Go for it, girls! Go into every profession – the world is your oyster!”
Balvinder will be Labour’s candidate in Havering and Redbridge for the 2008 Greater London Authority election.
John d’Abbro is Head of New Rush Hall, a pioneering school for children with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties. John has dramatically raised standards so it is now regularly among the top 5% of schools nationwide ranked by Value Added.
Congratulations to all Redbridge residents receiving awards from UEL in a series of ceremonies.
On Thursday 1 May 2008, residents in Redbridge and Havering will get their chance to elect their Mayor and Greater London Assembly (GLA) members.
“I am delighted that the Labour Party have selected me for the Redbridge and Havering GLA seat“ says Redbridge Cllr Balvinder Saund. “If elected, I will work with the Mayor of London to ensure that we get our fair share of affordable housing (50%), a good transport infrastructure in readiness for the 2012 Olympics and that our youth are given opportunities to participate in the Olympics and the arts. This is because sports and arts are a sure way of bringing communities together and giving our youth opportunities to build their self-confidence.”
If elected, Balvinder will work tirelessly and help implement the exciting plans and targets set down for London by the Mayor in his London Plan. She feels the Olympics is the greatest opportunity to bring the melting-pot of world diverse communities together through sport and arts. She wants to be part of the success story of London.
Barbara White, Chair of Redbridge Labour Party Local Government Committee says, “I am delighted that Balvinder Saund has been selected as our candidate in the forthcoming GLA elections. She’s a hard-working Councillor who always has the residents’ interests at heart, and I know she will make an outstanding representative for the people of Havering and Redbridge”
