Homes in Havering Troubles Continue

It has been announced by Havering Council today that Homes in Havering (HiH) has discovered a gap in its finances. The Council is investigating the exact details with HiH to deal with the issue, and a report on the situation will be brought to Cabinet shortly.

Apparently, the Council has raised concerns about HiH’s financial position and accounting practice over a number of months. HiH agreed with the Council that a team of forensic accountants undertake an initial audit of finances at HiH in September and that an interim Director of Finance should be appointed. His report now indicates a budget gap from last year’s accounts of between £1.8 million and £2.2 million.

Further work is now underway to clarify this year’s financial position, with the Council instructing HiH to account for any and all past and present budget gaps and explain how they occurred. The Council has also instructed HiH to cease all unnecessary expenditure, whilst safeguarding services to tenants and leaseholders, until its financial position is clear.

Havering Park Councillor, Andrew Mann said "I am amazed that HiH have managed to get themselves into such a mess, to over spend £2 million pound in a year is just unbelievable, it now seems that the former Chief Executive (Stephanie Miller) jumped off the ship at just the right time (see previous story on her £87,000 pay off) along with the finance director, who resigned just a month or so ago".

He went on "The only people to suffer in all of this, is the residents, lease holders and tenants of this Borough, with all none urgent expenditure cancelled, this will only serve to have a negative affect on our tenants. The Council needs to urgent set out exactly what is going on at HiH"

Park Consultation

A consultation is being held today at Chelmsford Avenue Play Site, behind Gobions Avenue in Collier Row some four years after funding for the park was secured. Cllr Mann said "This is the chance for local residents to have their say on what they want to see in the park, please go along and take a look at the plans and talk to the parks officers"

The public viewing session is being held in the park next today, the 30th October (between 11am and 3pm) during the school half term holidays for children and parents to come and view the plans and comment on what they want to see in the park.

Police crack-down on Halloween troubls

We are only a few days away from the 31st October, which means its Halloween, so we thought we would offer a dew words of advice to those at home and who do not wish to have kids pestering them.

Most of the children that do trick or treat are well behaved and out with the parents or an older brother or sister at a safe distance, often the children have taken the time to make there own costumes for the nights fun.

What is not fun, is a small minority of children that feel it is funny to throw eggs and flour or other object at people houses, in particular the elderly or frail within our community, if you know someone who may be at home on there own tonight, give them a call and make sure they are o.k, or even invite them round to your own house.

Local shops in Collier Row will not be selling eggs or flour to minors during the coming week, the Police have the powers to seach and arrest anyone during this time if found carrying eggs or flour.

If you have any serious concerns about anti social behaviour tonight, then phone the Police, either the SNT in Mawneys ward, on 0208 721 2586 or the Havering Park team on 0208 721 2510. If the matter is serious, then always dial 999.

Charlie & The Chocolate Factory

Pupils from years 7, 8 9 at Bower Park School staged their own version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory this week, dozens of children spent their own time working with staff and teachers after school and during lunch times practicing for the show.

Over the two evenings of the show, hundreds of parents, family and pupils came along to watch along with some of the North Romford primary schools for the afternoon dress rehearsal.

School Governor, Cllr Andrew Mann went along with his children to watch the show, he said "The show was fantastic and the students were, as usual, a credit to the school, with some truly amazing performances by some of the lead characters, in particular Willy Wonka (above).

Chelmsford Avenue Play Site

A park in Collier Row is to finally get a make over in the coming months, following four years of delay by Havering Council. The Chelmsford Avenue Play Site (Behind Gobions Avenue, in Collier Row) became so overgrown and dangerous that the Police closed the Park in 2006; it remained locked shut for almost 12 months. Click here for previous story

Havering Park Ward Councillor Andrew Mann said some two years ago “There is no reason why this park has been left to rot, the Council closed the gates months ago, it has left local kids with no park to play in and there is no excuse for this delay”.

Cllr Mann was behind the original plan that secured the park over £65 thousand for a new play-site and improvements, he went on “Some four years ago, whilst still a Cabinet member, I secured the deal that saw the money invested in the park, by agreeing to allow a small piece of land by the side of the park to be used for building affordable houses, this then allowed much needed funding to be released into the park”.

Now some four years later, the Council are finally going out to consultation with local people on what they want to see in the park. A public viewing session is being held in the park next Thursday, the 30th October (between 11am and 3pm) during the school half term holidays for children and parents to come and view the plans and comment on what they want to see in the park.

Cllr Mann said “Chelmsford Avenue Play Site was allocated £65 thousand pounds over four years ago and it is a disgrace that the money has still not been spent, I would like to know why Havering Council has been dragging its feet on this issue for so long and left the children of this area without a park to use for many years.”

Veolia Cleanaway Trust 10th Anniversary

I was very pleased to be invited to join the 10 year celebration event of Veolia ES Cleanaway Riverside Trust today. I went along with R.A Councillors Ray Morgon and Steve Whittaker (pictured below) we all had a great day talking with the Trust staff, Havering Council Staff and Councillors and Representatives from Veolia, charities that had gained funding such as schools, Church's and museums.

The Cleanaway Trust, funds projects in Havering to the tune of over £1 million a year and in the 10 years of the Trust, it has given over £12 million to schemes in our Borough. In total 637 individual projects have been completed, costing £23.5 million, that in turn helped match funding of an additional £36.5 million.

The trust was set up 10 years ago to manage the tax credits generated by the landfill tax credit scheme, the scheme still operates now that Veolia purchased Cleanaway in 2006 in exactly the same way.

Mark Hunter Civic Reception

Cllr Andy Mann was on hand at todays Civic Reception in honour of former Bower Park pupil, Gold Medal winning rower, Mark Hunter, being held in the Liberty Shopping Centre and then back at the Town Hall.

Mark spent time signing photos for members of the public and time with pupils from his previous schools, Bower Park and Parklands Primary school. Cllr Mann said "The pupils from both Parklands and Bower Park were excellent, very well behaved and a credit to their schools".

Hundreds of Havering residents turned out to see Mark on his big day, including his whole family, the whole event then marched off through Romford towards the Town Hall behind a marching band.

Back at the Town Hall, pupils and teachers from Bower Park got the chance to try on the famous gold medal from China, before watching the race again on a large screen.

Rise Park School Merger

Collier Row Councillor Andrew Mann has hit out at the Conservative Administration in their handling of the proposed amalgamation of Rise Park Infant and Junior Schools. The proposal to consult in joining the two schools together was started back in May, when Cabinet member for Education, Cllr Geoff Starns (Tory) signed an Executive Decision agreeing to consult on the amalgamation. Cllr Mann said “It would seem he has now forgotten that”.

Cllr Mann has been inundated with concerned parents who are very unhappy that the two schools could merge into one and feel that following the public meetings last week, the Council are biased towards merging the schools and gave no evidence as to what benefits it would have..

Cllr Mann, whose children have attended the school, for the last seven year said “I am amazed that the Council would want to even think about closing the infant and junior schools and making a new Primary school, this action should only be considered if the school is failing and Rise Park is far from that situation”.

The amalgamation has been labelled a farce by Cllr Mann, after the three Conservative ward Councillors for Pettits Ward have all objected to the proposal by their own Cabinet colleague, with a few of them turning out for a photo shoot with the M.P for Romford and Cllr Starns all pretending to be concerned, they even brought along former Councillor, Alby Tebbutt.

Cllr Mann said “The farcical situation is that the Tories made the decision to consult on its merger in the first place and now they are all shouting their heads off, how they are against it, Cllr Starns evens turns up for a photo shoot against his own consultation”.

He went on “It would seem that the Conservative Party in North Romford are not content on ruining the reputation of Bower Park School (when they produced a leaflet suggesting it would close) they have now moved onto Rise Park, it would seem this bunch of so called local Councillors could not run a bath between them, let alone a Council”.

Cllr Mann has urged every parent of children at the school to write to the Borough with their objections, by the 26th October. You can do so by e-mailing primaryvision@havering.gov.uk or writing to Social Care & Leaning, 23 Eastern Road, Romford, RM1 3NH. Or you can log onto the Havering web site at http://www.havering.gov.uk/ and clicking “Education” and then “Consultations”.

Havering-Atte-Bower Horseman Show

The Havering Park team of Cllr Andy Mann, Kevin Tonks and Denis Stevens all attended the Havering-Atte-Bower Civic Societies first “Horseman’s Sunday Service” held on the village green. (I say first, the last one was held some 30 years ago, so it was the first event in modern times).

The event started with a parade of horses from across the various stables based in the Village, approx 40 where on display whilst an open air service was conducted by the Revd David Marshall of St Johns Church, with songs being sung and prayers said for the horses and for the residents of the village.

Tea and cake was kindly laid on by the Church, which some 100 plus people took advantage of in the glorious Autumn sun that came out especially for the day. After the horses had all been presented with a rosette by the M.P for Romford and a few by myself, it was over the road for daffodil planting.

Huge trenches had been dig for everyone to get on their hands and knees to plant some daffodils around the pond and green area. So next spring, we should expect to see hundreds of yellow flowers popping up through the grass.

The whole event was fantastic and really brought out the best of the village, my thanks to Nicky Gates and Heather Sherry (who are the Chairman and Secretary) and their team of helpers for putting the event together, I very much look forward to next years.

Cllr Andy Mann

Banking Crisis hits Havering

It would seem that Havering Council is one of 20 Local Authorities that has money tied up in Iceland in one of the two banks (Landbanksi or Heritable) in deep trouble; it has some £12.5 million at risk in one of the Icelandic banks that have filled for bankruptcy. Once again Havering has been caught up in the credit crunch (after pulling the plug on the swimming pool for Romford project)

The other Councils caught up in the banking fiasco are Kent County Council with £50m, Westminster with £17m, Sutton has £5.5m, Hertfordshire also has £17m and North and East Lincolnshire between them has £8m and whilst Buckinghamshire and Cornwall County Councils both have £5m tied up in Iceland.

Havering Park Councillor, Andrew Mann said “I have today written to The Chief Executive of Havering Council asking her to confirm how much we have on deposit with the banks and what risk there is of losing any the money and if this will affect the cash flow of the Council”.

There is a different set of rules around money held on account for Local Authorities to that of members of the public, where personal banking customers are now guaranteed the first £50k (up from £35k this week), no such guarantee exists for Local Authorities.

It is understood that Council Leaders from the Local Government Association are seeking urgent meetings with the Chancellor to discus the emerging crisis and to ask him to guarantee the money the same as personal bank customers.