Friends of Havering Park Meeting

As mentioned in the previous post, the meeting for the Friends of Havering County Park was last Thursday evening. I attended along with 20 - 25 local residents who had been informed of the meeting. However, there was some concern that not many people knew about the meeting.

Havering Council had kindly placed an advert in the April issue of Living mag, however most of them had not been delivered by the 26th April, the night of the meeting, this is not acceptable, as many residents missed out, and i have taken the issue up with the Assistant Chief Executive of Havering to ask for an explanation.

Apart from only a few people present, the meeting went very well, it was chaired by Sgt Andy Barnes of Havering Park Safer Neighbourhoods Police Team, Sgt Barnes was supported on the night by the rest of his team.

The basic idea of how a friends group works was explained to all present, lots of questions were asked and a lot of concerns where expressed about the park, in particular the amount of motor bikes that illegally use the park. Sgt Barnes outlined some of the operations and work that has already gone on, such as the operation that i attended some two months ago.

Another meeting is going to be held around mid June time t try and set the group up, if you would like to attend keep watching the blog site for an update when we know the date. Or, if you would like to get involved, drop me a line know and i can send you some details in the post.

Friends of Havering Country Park

This Wednesday, the 25th April, a meeting is being held at the North Romford Community Centre, in Clockhouse Lane, Collier Row to bring together local residents who live in Collier Row and Havering-Atte-Bower to talk about issues affecting Havering Country Park and to see about setting up a friend’s of the Park group.

The meeting has been put together by the Havering Park Safer Neighbourhood Team, under Sgt Andy Barnes and his tem of Officers. The aim of a friends group is to bring together like mined residents to support the work in the park and to raise money from external sources, something the Council can not do, unless it is supported by local residents.

It is not run by or organised by Councillors, Friends Groups can only attract outside money if is run by local residents, however any residents that joins the group will have the full support of the Collier Row & Mawneys Residents Association and our Ward Co-ordinators in making it a success.

The meeting starts at 7.30pm, I hope to see you there.

Happy St Georges Day

Well today is St Georges Day, the 23rd April. Despite many residents and Politicians calling for a Bank Holiday for today, we still don’t have one. I do think that many residents would support the idea of introducing a National Day. As usual nothing is being organised by Havering Council, despite all the big words.

Apart from both the Mayor and Deputy Mayor attending the Scouts, St Georges Parades in Romford, Hornchurch and Squirrels Heath Scout Districts, nothing much happened, apart from the market traders displaying their flags in the market place, which of course they have done so for years.

As a Scout Leader of 15 years now, I was pleased to attend the St Georges Parade in Romford yesterday, Cllr Georgina Galpin, the Deputy Mayor was in attendance and looked great in all her splendour, she spent a lot of time talking with all of the young Beavers, Cubs & Scouts, which was nice to see.

As there is no bank holiday, I suppose I better get of to work, let’s see what happens next year.

SNT Police Ward Panel Meeting

I attended a panel meeting of the Havering Park Safer Neighbourhood Team this week; the meeting was held at Clockhouse School and involved a number of key people from within the ward.

The idea of the Ward Panel is simple. Local residents meet and discuss issues around Policing in the ward; they then set the local team their priorities. They are based on what residents feel are the highest priorities within the ward.

I was pleased to be invited to this weeks meeting by Sgt Andy Barnes, he has only been with the Havering Park team for a few months, he has a great team of officers that are always willing to listen and help. I hope to be at the next ward meeting, so if you have any ideas about what our team should be looking at more closely, drop me a line and I will pass on any comments.

The idea of Safer Neighbourhood Policing is basically going back to the old days when we had beat bobbies patrolling collier Row, each officer has his or her own patch, allowing residents to get to know the officers.

SNT are not emergency response teams though, they work different shift patterns each day of the week, including weekends. If you have an emergency you should always phone 999. I have included the contact details of the team below.

The number for the team is 0208 721 2510 or mobile 07876 392 006, or you can e-mail them on the following address, Haveringpark.snt@met.police.uk

Blog Site to be researched

I am pleased to inform all of my avid readers of this website that it has recently been recognised as part of a major piece of research being carried out by the De Montfort University in Leicester.

Cllr Mann’s blog has been selected from a range of political blog sites, from Members of Parliament and Councillors across the Country, the results of the in-depth analysis will be presented to the Political Studies Association Annual Conference later this year and published in a special issue of “Information Polity” that is being written by Dr Scott Wright and Prof Stephen Coleman of De Montfort University.

Cllr Mann said, “I am pleased that my web site has been recognised in this way, I look forward to seeing the results of the analysis later this year when published, I have tried to make the stories on the site, both interesting and informative to residents of North Romford”.

The addition of a new web counter to the site has shown that the website is now receiving over 100 hits a week, with this figure slowly increasing week on week.

Recent postings to the site include, Crackdown on illegal motorbikes, Collier Row & Mawneys Residents Association Drop in Surgery details, Collier Row Regeneration Project, on line version of our recent News Letter and some personal views of Cllr Mann on the goings on in the Town Hall generally.

Area Committee

This Thursday will see the last Area Committee of this municipal year, being held at the usual location of the Immanuel School, Havering Road North, the formal meeting starts at 7.30pm, with StreetCare staff on hand from 7pm.

Do you have any issues with the local Council that you would like to discuss, there is one report on the agenda dealing with an upgrading of bus stops in Havering Road and Pettits Lane North.

A repoert requested by myself concerning the River Rom has failed to appear on the agenda, as i write this post i am still waiting to hear why this is the case.

Residents Drop in Surgery

The Collier Row & Mawneys Residents Association is holding its first residents drop in surgery this Saturday, the 14th April. They are being held at the old Forest Lodge School Site, (F.L.A.C) in Lodge Lane, Collier Row, from 10.30 to 12.00. Click here for location details.

Cllr Andrew Mann will be on hand with both “Mawneys” and “Havering Park” Ward Organisers to listen to local residents and any concerns they may have with Havering Council, such as Housing, StreetCare or Parks issues. There is no need to make an appointment, just drop in during the morning; we will even make you a cup of tea.

If you need to make a private appointment with Cllr Mann to discuss an issue, you can still do so by phoning 01708 768 008.

Safer Neighbourhood Team Police Meeting

I had one of my regular briefings with the Havering Park, Safer Neighbourhood Team last week. Sgt Andy Barnes the team leader for our ward outlined some of his current issues, concerns and operations. We spoke about anti social behaviour in Collier Row, motor bikes in the Country Park and other Police issues affecting the Ward.

The day we meet, happened to coincide with the third anniversary of SNT's in London, although Havering Park was one of the last wards in London to get a full team, they have now been in existence across the Capital as a whole for three years. They are probably the only expansion in the Mayor of London’s budget that I could agree with.

We also discussed the newly created Ward Panel, this is a team of residents who live in the ward, they help scope and focus the team on priorities that residents want. The SNT are not lead by the Borough, but by what needs the ward have, which helps them to become truly local.

Sgt Barnes is a big believer in partnership working, he has made a huge impact in the 4 months or so that he has been on the team, working hard with all of his team together, to tackle local community issues, identified by local people.

Sgt Barnes said, “This is a really exciting time for the Havering Park Ward. We now have a really fantastic opportunity to move forward and resolve issues that locals want resolving. Rolling out the Safer Neighbourhoods model of community policing and working closely with our partners including Councillors is what it is all about. Importantly - our `community' is one of those partners”.