River Rom Clean Up

Havering Park Ward Councillor, Andrew Mann has hit out at the goings on with the River Rom, he has accused the Conservatives and the Council of playing games and politics with the issues around the clearing of the River.

In particular, he has singled out Cllr Sandra Binion (Tory, Havering Park) as the Chairman of the North Romford Area Committee for the biggest criticism. Cllr Mann said, In January of 2007, I called for an urgent report to be brought before the committee to be discussed and to explain some of the issues that have arisen with the Environment Agency. This report was stalled and delayed and eventually took over a year to be made public at the last Area Committee meeting, over 12 months later, when it did arrive the report was full of nothing and did not explain the situation in any detail”.

The issue around the River first started at the end of 2006, when Council Officers wrote to residents that backed onto the river informing them that under riparian ownership laws, they would now be responsible for the clearance of the River, this caused a huge outcry as part of the information in the letter was in-correct.

Further issues arose, when Havering Council where one of only two Boroughs in the whole of London that refused to sign an agreement with the Environment Agency, which in turn meant Havering lost out on some short term funding.

Regular quarterly meetings that had been taking place for over eight years with Council officers, local residents and members were then stopped by Cllr Binion and Council Officers. These meetings had been of a huge benefit to both officer and residents as they helped each other understand the concerns. They then started again as a private meetings that Cllr Binion arranged and only invited selected residents and Councillors and then they stopped again.

Cllr Mann said “As a Councillor, I have worked hard with residents to build up a trust and understanding of the River Rom, it runs right through the middle of my ward, from the top to the bottom, with just three crossing points in over 1 ½ miles. Having lived as a child just 100ft from the river, it was often a place I visited as a youngster”.

“I watched in the late 80’s as hundreds of trees were planted along the banks following devastating storms of that time, I watched as the River Rom become the Green Link, leading all the way to Collier Row Recreational Ground. Sadly once the trees were planted that was all that happened, by early 2000, it was like an out of control forest growing along the river”.

“On first being elected in 2002, I made the River a priority, trying to convince Council Officers that we needed to do more work along there and to maintain it better, despite numerous obstacles we eventually got the trees to be pruned back a bit and for some sort of grass cutting to happen again”.

However, Cllr Mann now feels we have taken a backwards step, after the Environment Agency this week has asked residents to clear the litter and rubbish as they will only look after the water course, the Council has a budget to clear the River and they should be doing it each month, but this now look in doubt.

Cllr Mann said “I am very disappointed in the local conservative Councillors for Havering Park ward, Cllr’s Starns and Binion. In their newsletters to residents last year, they are pictured in their Wellington Boots telling everyone how they have sorted the issues with the river out, yet behind their backs their own Cabinet member along with themselves, did not know what was going on and I thought they were now running the Town Hall?”

The Environment Agency has called for a “Friend of the River Rom” group to be set up to help clean it up, however Cllr Mann feels they and the Council are pulling the wool over residents eyes, he said “The setting up of a friends group should be to complement the work that the Council and its partners do, not to do the work for them, residents in this Borough pay high enough taxes as it is and then to say we want you to clean up yourselves is a bit rich”