Latest Summer Newsletter Delivered

The latest issue of the Collier Row & Mawneys Residents Association newsletter has recently been delivered to over 11,000 homes and shops across North Romford, which includes both havering park and Mawneys Wards.

You can read all about what we have been up to in the Community, updates on such issues as New CCTV cameras installed for Collier Row, Car Parking fees for Collier Row, latest news on the CCTV car, Hampden Lodge Planning Application, for 58 flats, new bus service for the Village, Gobions Avenue Post Office closure, dog mess farce ! and much more

If you have not received a copy, please drop us a line, either by phone, e-mail or pen and paper, contact details at top of the page.

Gallows Corner Nighmare Continues

Residents Association Councillor, Andrew Mann (Havering Park) has learnt of plans by Transport for London to open the flyover this week, but only one way ! And it may take over a year to re-open fully, if ever.

The planned re-opening of the flyover was originally set for 2nd June; this was delayed until 28th July because an inspection had identified the need for further works. However, it has now been discovered by engineers that even more work is required, involving the steel-railed safety barriers on the flyover, as they are unsafe and will require new barriers to be installed.

However, this work can not be completed with a two way traffic flow and from next Monday (28th July), the flyover will operate in only the London Bound (Westward) direction for the foreseeable future. It can not be confirmed at the moment how long this situation will prevail, it has been suggested it could be well over 12 months, but maybe even longer.

Cllr Mann said “This situation is going from bad to worse, the flyover has already been closed for months causing misery to local residents and commuters, I find it unbelievable in this day and age, that engineers could not have surveyed the structure in more detail before they started the works”.

However, Cllr Mann is now worried about the future of the flyover he said “We all know that this flyover was moved form another location and installed over 35 years ago as a temporary structure, for years it has been allowed to sit and rot with no major maintenance work on it, TfL have failed to look after it properly until it is to late”.

He went on, it has been suggested to me by a reliable source that the flyover works set to take 12 months might be delayed even longer, as when they start on the new barriers, it may well unearth even more rust and damage that will make it unsafe for ever and nothing but scrap metal, to that end I will be writing to Mayor of London Boris Johnson and TfL Head, Peter Hendy, asking them both to set out precise plans for the re-opening of the flyover in both directions as a matter of urgency”

Bower Park School - Bower Factor

Cllr Mann was at Bower Park School yesterday, on the last day of term for its annual “Bower Factor” event, this year being the 4th annual show, based on the hugely popular X Factor format, children from years 7 to 10 compete in a show of dance, song, gymnastics and comedy to win the event. The event is judges in the same way as the T.V programme, with three teachers taking to the judge’s panel, with one playing the nice guy, one Mr Nasty and the last down the middle. It is broken down in to two age ranges, year 7 and 8 and year 9 and 10.

The show always brings out the best in the pupils and having watched some of the same pupils perform over the last 2 to 3 years, it is nice to see them improve in what they are doing. Over 100 children took part, watched by the rest of the year groups.

The event is always one of the big highlights of the year and makes for a great day, on the last day of term. I for one can not wait until next year when we hold the 5th annual show, lets hope it is bigger and better than ever before.

Residents Drop in Surgery

Our latest Residents drop in surgery is being held this Saturday, the 19th July at our usual location of the Forest Row Centre in Lodge Lane, Collier Row, between 10.00 and 11.00, all you have to do is drop in, no need for an appointment.

Our Residents Association Councillor for Havering Park, Andrew Mann will be on hand along with Mawneys team members Graham & Joe Webster and Havering Park member, Denis Stevens to help with any issues you may have about havering Council, such as Housing, StreetCare, Council Tax, Education or any other matter that you may need help with.

If you can not make the surgery, you can always phone us for an appointment at a different time or drop us an e-mail or letter, contact details on the right hand column.

Friends of Havering Country park

Cllr Mann was in attendance at the latest “Friends of Havering County Park” meeting held last Thursday evening; over 20 residents came along to have their say about the latest goings on in the park and to hear from parks officers the latest updates on work being carried out by the Council.

There was some disappointment that capital works planned have been very slow in being started, such as the new fencing along St Johns Road and new bins for litter and dog waste still to be placed in the park.

Cllr Mann said “The friends group have done a fantastic amount of work over the last 12 months in highlighting the issues facing local people; however the Council need to do more to support them in their aims, taking over 12 months to allocate and spend money on the park is not good enough”

The next meeting is being held on Thursday the 7th August at the North Romford Community Centre in Clockhouse Lane, just turn up, the meeting starts at 7.30pm. For more information about the group, you can e-mail them on fohcpg@googlemail.com

Hampden Lodge Planning Application Withdrawn

P0713.08 – Demolition of existing care home and construction of three residential buildings extending to three to four stories in height, to provide 58 residential units (6x studio, 17x 1 bed, 32 x 2 bed and 3 x 3 bed flats), with 58 car parking spaces.

Havering Council have this week announced that Bellway Homes, have withdrawn their planning application to demolish the former Care Home, Hampden Lodge and to build 58 flats on the site. It is understood that the plans were to be refused by the Councils planning department.

Cllr Andrew Mann (Havering Park Res Assoc) said “The Collier Row & Mawneys Residents Association was very concerned about this application. Hundreds of residents contacted us by e-mail or letter to object to this scheme and over 1000 people signed petitions, largely with concerns about the size and bulk of the development, lack of parking and amenity space, along with the traffic implications in Clockhouse Lane”.

Over 100 people recently turned out for a demonstration against the plans on the site.

Residents Association Action Member, Denis Stevens said “This was a big housing development for Collier Row and we feel disappointed that neither the Council nor the developers had the decency to speak with the local residents or local Councillors before making the application; it has caused a lot of upset in the community, not least because the Council will only receive the money once contracts have been exchanged, on condition of receiving planning permission”.

Sadly, by withdrawing the scheme, the developer has the opportunity to make a fresh planning application, free of charge to Havering in the next few months for a slightly modified scheme, so the plans to build on this site have not gone away

The Residents Association would like to thank the hundreds of people who wrote and e-mailed objections and to more than 1,000 who signed petitions. We are also grateful to the one hundred plus people who turned out for a demonstration against the plans. The hard work put in by many residents has been a great help in highlighting the issues about this application.

New 375 Bus starts service in Havering Village

Cllr Andrew Mann has been campaigning for a better bus service in the village, since he was first elected in 2002. Something the previous Mayor of London and Transport for London has constantly refused to consider. However, TfL and the Mayor have now been forced into dealing with this situation as hundreds of people would have been literally cut off from the outside world after Arriva Buses recently scrapped the 500 service. Cllr Mann wrote to both TFL and the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, objecting and to ask that the very serious issue of no bus service to and fro the village be looked at as a matter of some urgency.

TfL recently announced a new service that was introduced this week, on Monday 7th July to replace the old 500 bus. The service will operate from Monday to Saturday (no Sunday service) from 07.00 to 19.00 on a 90 min frequency from Romford Station to Passingford Bridge, where the bus will turn and then run back to Romford.

Cllr Andy Mann was on hand this week, as the new service picked up its first passengers at the Village Green in Havering-Atte-Bower, where he had the opportunity to talk to residents about the new service.

Havering Park Councillor, Andrew Mann said “I am glad that the Mayor and TfL have listened to the residents of the village about this very serious issue, hundreds of residents would have been cut of from basic daily chores such as shopping, work and medical appointments, whilst the service is only every 90 minutes, it is far better than the other option of nothing, I am pleased that the Residents Association on behalf of the residents in the Village has played a part in bringing this new service into our area”

Denis Stevens from the Residents Association said “We know this new service is not 100% perfect as it is only 90 minutes, has no Sunday service and will not go out into Essex; all of these issues were raised by residents to us. However, Tfl have assured Cllr Mann, that once the service is up and running, they will be open to consider changes and improvements if we can increase passenger numbers, so all is not lost on these issues”

This will be good news for the thousands of visitors each year to both the St. Francis Hospice Centre and the Essex Wildlife Trust visitors centre in Bedford’s Park, they would have found the traveling almost impossible if they do not happen to drive a car.

Bower Park School - Charity Walk

Cllr Mann was on hand at Bower Park School last week to start the Year 7 children off on a sponsored walk, from the School to Hainault Forest and back again. Over 150 children and staff took part in the day long event to raise money for local charities.

Each Form class chose which charity they wanted to donate to, with St Francis Hospice coming out on top for a lot of the children; hopefully hundreds of pounds will have been raised for lots of local charities and good causes.

Cllr Mann was unable to join the children for the day, but gave them all some words of encouragement and started them off on the 10 mile round trip. He said “Another great day for Bower Park, with the children walking in the searing sun to raise money for local charities and not one of them complaining, well not much anyway”.

Web Site Attacked

www.collier-row.co.uk

It seems the Web site hackers don’t just like the angry of Havering web site, last week this web site was attacked with a virus, it lost a total of three postings / stories recently put up.

However all credit to Norton and Blogspot.com who stopped it and has now flagged up the IP address, from where the possible attack was launched. New steps have been put in place and the site is working fine.

The lost posts are in a back-up and will be back up on the site shortly.Just like the http://www.angryofhavering.com/ web site, it will take an awful lot to knock me and the Residents Association down and keep us down

Perhaps people are getting even more worried about us than normal, or are we just being paranoid !!