Time for Change in 2010

Winter Photo Competition

The Havering Residents' Association has launched a photographic competition with the theme of ‘Havering in Winter'.

First prize is two tickets to "The Pyjama Game" to be performed at the Queens Theatre on 14 th and 15 th February 2010. The tickets have been kindly donated by the producers, the Havering Music Makers. There will also be prizes for 2nd and 3rd places.

Cllr Clarence Barrett, competition organiser and editor of the Havering Residents' Association website, said: “We are fortunate to live in a borough with so much natural and constructed beauty. This competition seeks to capture images which show the splendour of the winter season against the backdrop of a typical winter in Havering”.

“Images will be posted on an on-line gallery at http://www.haveringra.org.uk/where anyone can view and the winners being announced on 1 st February 2010”.

Images can be sent to mailto:haveringwinter@yahoo.co.ukor call 07863 116029 for other arrangements. Please include full contact details.

Havering park Councillor Andy Mann, has posted some of his winter shots from the last few years below.

Havering Remembers

Cllr Andy Mann, Kevin Tonks, Denis Stevens and Joe Webster attended the Havering Remembrance Service this morning at the Coronation Gardens in Main Road, Romford.

Service to remember and reflect on the sacrifices made by those who lost their lives or suffered during the two World Wars and in conflicts since were held throughout Havering on Remembrance Sunday.

The Service started at 10.55am and was conducted by Reverend Stephen Waine, Vicar of St Edward's Church. Musical accompaniment was provided by the Romford Salvation Army Band.

Along with ourselves, the service was attended by The Mayor of Havering; The Deputy Lieutenant of Havering, Air Commodore Brian Batt; The Member of Parliament for Romford, Andrew Rosindell; Chief Inspector John Harlow, on behalf of the Havering Borough Commander of Police; Councillors and representatives of local uniformed and civilian organisations.

After the Service there was a parade and march-past by veterans and uniformed organisations with music from the Royal British Legion Band. The salute was taken by The Mayor and the Deputy Lieutenant.

On Armistice Day, Wednesday the 11th November, the Mayor will attend the Armistice Day Service organised by the Royal Naval Association and the Royal British Legion. This will be held at the western end of Romford Market Place between the Lloyds TSB and Co-op banks starting at 10.45am.

Freedom Pass Mischief from the Tories

Cllr Andy Mann has hit out at the Collier Row Conservatives after producing a leaflet that is full of inaccuracies and lies in relation to the Freedom Pass, by implying that the Government have withheld this year’s payment of £1.8 Million from Havering Council. The leaflet was written by Silly Billy Taylor, who has a habit of printing mis-leading leaflets for the Conservative Party.

Cllr Mann is particularly unhappy about a quote from Cllr Binion and Leader of the Council Cllr Michael White who say “The Collier Row & Mawneys Residents Association have failed to defend the free travel and that he (Cllr Mann) regularly votes with the Labour party in the Town Hall”

Cllr Mann said “I am amazed that the Leader of the Council can get himself involved in another leaflet produced by Silly Billy Taylor (he of the Bower Park School to close leaflet, which was full of lies), I expect this sort of thing from Cllr Binion, as she does not know any better, having been mentored by former Councillor, Alby Tebbutt. However for Cllr White to associate himself with such deliberately misleading statements scarring the elderly of our Borough is an abuse of Power”

The Facts

· The Government have not withheld any money this year !

· The Government have actually started a consultation with London Councils on the possibility of withdrawing the last year of a three year grant in 2010 / 2011. The total grant across London is £55 million, with Havering’s part being possibly £1.8 million.

· Havering Council actually received a saving last year from the Freedom Pass budget of some £2.65 million, which it used to prop up some of its overspending Council Departments.

London Councils first raised this issue, after they attended a meeting with Whitehall Officials and came away with some concerns from it and are now seeking reassurances that the money will not be cut. (Cllr Merrick Cockell, Chairman of London Councils speaking in London Bulletin Sept/Oct 2009)

Cllr Mann said “If the Conservatives managed to run the finances of the Borough better they would not be in this mess, we have £12.5 million tied up in Iceland and they took £2.65 million out of the Freedom pass budget last year and spread around overspending budgets in the Council”.

Cllr Mann goes on “Everyone knows you can not trust Gordon Brown when it comes to finance, if the Conservatives had been a but more prudent last year and not spent their savings of £2.65 million form the Freedom Pass budget, we would not be in this position now”.

The Collier Row and Mawneys Residents Association have an on-line petition at their web site www.collier-row.co.uk that residents can sign if they wish to show their support for not cutting funding from the grant.

As Chairman of the Collier Row & Mawneys Residents Association, Cllr Mann has written to Cllr Michael White and Mr Billy Taylor warning them that any further lies printed in a Conservative Newsletter will result in Court Action. It is not the first time this has happened, Cllr Mann issued proceedings in the County Court against Cllr Michael White two years ago.

Cllr Mann said “I will do whatever is needed to protect my good name and that of the Collier Row & Mawneys Residents Association, if that mean we have to take the Leader of the Council back to Court again, then so be it. The residents of Collier Row deserve far better than what they are getting from the Five Conservative Councillors at present, and if we need to put all of them in a witness box to prove they are lying then so be it”

Joe Webster beats the Chatsworth Challenge

Mawneys Action member, Joe Webster, walked 25 miles across the hills of the Peak District to raise money for the charity, Breaks 4 Kids. Joe said “Not only was it a long walk but also involved ascents totalling 3500 feet. Fortunately the weather was just right for walking and I managed to complete the course in ten hours and sixteen minutes.”

By his efforts Joe has raised over £600 for the charity which sponsors young people who otherwise could not afford residential courses in climbing, caving, canoeing and other outward bound type courses run by the Youth Hostels Association.

Joe quoted a statement by the Department of Education and Skills in 2006, “Staying away for a few or more days is a powerful way of developing key life skills, building confidence, self esteem, communication and team working.” He added, “I do not necessarily agree with everything that emanates from the department but over this I totally concur. If it helps to get a few youngsters off the streets into something useful it is worth every penny spent".

Joe is pictured on the summit of Helvellyn in the Lake District earlier in the year whilst training for the Chatsworth Challenge.

Latest Newsletter Delivered

Issue 16 of the Collier Row and Mawneys Residents Association newsletter is now being delivered across Mawneys and Havering Park Wards. Over 10,500 copies are issued free by volunteers across Chase Cross, Collier Row, Mawneys and Havering-Atte-Bower.

Items in this issue include, the alcohol license approved by the Conservative controlled committee for Newsboy, Websters Walkabout, St Francis 25th Anniversary Celebrations, Travellers invade Bedfords Park again and Bower Park exam result success. See the full details by clicking below.

Click here or on the the newsletter to go to our archive and read the newsletters on-line.

Friends of Havering Country Park Quiz Night

The whole Collier Row & Mawneys Residents Association team attended the Quiz Night of the Friends of Havering Country Park last Saturday, to help raise funds for the group to spend in the park.

Over 80 people attended the night, helping to raise over £600 that the group can use to good use in the park. Our team kept up with the top teams for a good part of the night, but we lost out on the music round and ended up a close 5th out of the 13 or so teams who took part.

The friends group has been running for over almost 3 years now and has grown in that time, with new members and has consistently pushed the Council in setting out its plans for the parks investments.

Cllr Mann said “We were all very pleased to be able to support the friends group for the second year running out their quiz night, it was a great night and we all very much look forward to coming back next year, maybe we can improve on our score”

For more information about the group, take a look at their web site at,
http://sites.google.com/site/fohcpg

Charity Abseil down YMCA building

Havering Park Ward members, Cllr Andy Mann and Kevin Tonks, both took part in a sponsored abseil at the weekend. Andy and Kevin dropped in at the YMCA building during Saturday (the 5th Sept), to take part in the sponsored abseil event. Upminster and Cranham Residents Association Councillors, Clarence Barrett and Linda Van Den Hende also took part on Sunday.

They dropped down the 120 foot building in aid of St Francis Hospice, who are based in Havering-Atte-Bower. The hospice offers specialist care to patients who have cancer or other life-limiting illnesses. It costs over £6.5 million every year to run the service, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and can care for more than 1,600 patients and their families each year.

Its still not to late to sponsor Cllr Andy Mann & Kevin Tonks, who aim to raise over £700 for St Francis.

If you would like to sponsor Andy & Kevin please go to the just giving web site at http://www.justgiving.com/AndyandKevsbigabseil/ Or you can send a cheque made payable to St Francis Hospice to Andy Mann, at 380 Havering Road, Romford, Essex, RM1 4DE.

YMCA Charity Abseail Event

Its not to late to sponsor Cllr Andy Mann & Kevin Tonks, who will be literally dropping in at the YMCA building this Saturday (the 5th Sept), to take part in the sponsored abseil event. They will be dropping down the 120 foot building in aid of St Francis Hospice at 3.30pm tomorrow afternoon.

Andy and Kevin aim to raise £500 for St Francis, who are based in Havering-Atte-Bower, the hospice offers specialist care to patients who have cancer or other life-limiting illnesses.

It costs over £6.5 million every year to run the service, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and can care for more than 1,600 patients and their families each year.

If you would like to sponsor Andy & Kevin please go to the just giving web site at http://www.justgiving.com/AndyandKevsbigabseil/ or send a cheque made payable to St Francis Hospice to Andy Mann, at 380 Havering Road, Romford, Essex, RM1 4DE.

New July / August Newsletter being delivered

Issue 15, the July / August edition of our Collier Row & Mawneys Residents Association is now being delivered, across Collier Row, Mawneys, Chase Cross & Havering-atte-Bower.

Over 11,000 houses and shops should have received a copy, with information such as the latest update on Hampden Lodge; the head teacher of Pinewood Primary is retiring and vibrations in Mawney Road.

There are also stories about Mounted Police in the Park, Fly tipping in Mawneys Ward, Park News and updates on Collier Row Town Centre.

Click on the newsletter to read, or click on the link on the right hand side, to take you to our newsletter archive.

Follow us on Facebook

You can now follow the Collier Row & Mawneys Residents Association on the social website, Facebook.

Already over 50 people have signed up to the web site and if you are a member of Facebook, just log into the site and search for us and click to join.

You can then receive regular updates of what is going on in Collier Row and the surrounding area. By signing up, you can get e-mail sent direct to your inbox with all of the latest news.

Dropping in for St Francis Hospice

Cllr Andy Mann & Kevin Tonks, will be literally dropping in at the YMCA building in September, when they take part in a sponsored abseil, they will be dropping down the 120 foot building in aid of St Francis Hospice.

Based in Havering-Atte-Bower, Andy and Kevin aim to raise £500 for the hospice, which offers specialist care to patients who have cancer or other life-limiting illnesses.

It costs over £6.5 million every year to run the service, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and can care for more than 1,600 patients and their families each year.

If you would like to sponsor Andy & Kevin please go to the just giving web site at http://www.justgiving.com/AndyandKevsbigabseil/

Web Site Problems

It seems that our Web Site continues to annoy people as once again it has been attacked by outsiders trying to upload a virus to it. However, as it is all backed up and saved and was protected by blogger.com we have been able to close down certain items for a week or so whilst tracking of the IP address took place.

It is now up to speed and over the next few days, we will upload stories that should have been on there a few weeks ago, sorry if they are a bit late.

We have now posted over 350 stories in just over 2 years and had 26,000 hits, which is great, if you want to receive regular updates from us, just drop us an e-mail, address on the right and we will add you to the list.

Latest Newsletter being delivered

Issue 14, the May / June edition of our Collier Row & Mawneys Residents Association is now being delivered, across Collier Row, Mawneys, Chase Cross & Havering-atte-Bower.

Over 11,000 houses and shops should have received a copy, with information such as the latest update on the Councils plans to sell of Hampden Lodge. There is also stories about Bower Park School, StreetCare, a new Vicar for the Ascension church and Park openings.

Click on the newsletter to read, or click on the link on the right hand side to take you to our newsletter archive.

Hampden Lodge Public Meeting

The Collier Row & Mawneys team were out in force last night at a public meeting held with local people who are un-happy about Havering Council and Bellway Homes plans for 48 flats on the former care home site.

Over 50 local people turned up at the North Romford Community Centre to have their say. Cllr Andrew Mann was present, along with Havering Park Ward colleagues, Kevin Tonks and Denis Stevens and Mawneys team members Graham and Karen Price. Also present was Romford M.P, Andrew Rosindell and the two Tory Councillors, Starns and Binion (who are part of the Administration selling the land).

Over 20 local people had the chance to speak and ask questions of the Developer, Architect and Cllr Starns who as a Cabinet member agreed the sale of the site. Both Karen Price and Denis Steven were able to ask questions and make comments.

Karen raised the issue around the four story height of the proposed flats and suggested that residents take a trip to Essex Road to see the impact of a four story block of flats next to a two story house, the block is often known as “Tebbutt Towers” after the former Councillor approved in using his casting vote.

Denis Stevens raised issues around the environmental impact of the scheme, in relation to the loss of grass land, the impact of shadows and the loss of sun on local houses and the allotments, which are behind the scheme. He also raised issues around the extra surface and foul water that would be pushed into the over stretched local network and how flooding would be prevented.

Cllr Mann who spoke at length, highlighted some of the faults with the scheme, such as the reduction of 10 flats from the original plans, from 58 to 48, however the new scheme has an increase of bedrooms from 90, up to 103. He also spoke about his anger that the Council and developers have been secretly being doing deals to turn the whole development over to social housing landlords, something that Bellway Homes were forced to admit after being pushed by a local resident.

Cllr Mann said “I have been dealing with anti-social behaviour problems on the former Gobions School site, where developers could not sell all of the homes on the open market and then dumped the remaining un-sold flats and houses onto numerous registered social landlords, thereby creating a mini housing estate, but without any proper provision for the extra young families and children”.

He went on “we will now get the same issues in Collier Row with 48 flats sold not to the open public, not available to local people, but dumped onto a social housing landlord who is then able to offer flats to people form all over East London and Essex, therefore letting local people miss out on the chance of living there.

Local residents last night confirmed that they are not against the development of the site, they are grown up enough to expect some sort of building on the land, however 100% said they would only accept low level two story housing at the most, that do not overlook back gardens and that are available to local people.

It is still not to late to object to the plans, you can do so by writing to Patrick Keyes, Head of Regulatory Services, Mercury House, Mercury Gardens, Romford, RM1 3SL or e-mail planning@havering.gov.uk

Successful Street Surgery

The Collier Row & Mawneys Residents Association were once again out and about in Collier Row on Saturday, meeting and talking to local residents about their issues and concerns with Havering Council as part of their regular street surgeries.

The main topics of conversation amongst residents was the impending planning application for 48 flats on Hampden Lodge, the former Care Home in Clockhouse Lane, the lack of activity from StreetCare, in relation to dog fouling and street cleaning.

Also, on the list was more issues with Homes in Havering, including the CCTV charge that residents have to pay, even if they have do not have CCTV coverage in their road and the state of Collier Row parks.

Cllr Mann said “It is great to be out and about in our Wards, listening to what residents want and how their every day lives are affected by Havering Council”.

Rev. Bernadette Hull takes up the reins

A licensing service was recently held at the Church of the Ascension in Collier Row, when the Reverend Bernadette Hull was appointed as Priest-in-Charge. She has taken on the role after the previous Vicar retired after some 20 plus years at the Church.

The beautiful service was conducted by the Bishop of Barking.

Joe Webster and Denis Stevens were invited and represented the Collier Row & Mawneys Residents Association at the event.

Afterwards they were able to welcome Bernadette to The Ascension Church and Collier Row.

Newsletters now on Line

The Collier Row & Mawneys Residents Association has now archived all of its newsletters on line. So now residents can look through our back catalogue of issues to see what we have been doing to support the local residents that we represent in Havering Park and Mawneys Wards.

There is now a permanent link on the right hand side bar for you to click on, that will take you to the host page, were you can then click on each issue over the last three years.

Our 12 page newsletter is published six times a year and is delivered free to every house and business in Collier Row, Mawneys and Havering-Atte-Bower, if for some reason you have not received a copy, drop us a line, contact details on the right hand column.

Street Surgery in Collier Row

The Collier Row & Mawneys Residents Association were out and about in Collier Row today, meeting and talking to local residents about their issues and concerns with Havering Council. All six action members were present, from the Mawneys Ward team; we had Graham & Karen Price and Joe Webster. The Havering Park team were also out in force, with Cllr Andy Mann, Denis Stevens and Kevin Tonks.

The main topic of conversation amongst residents was the lack of activity from StreetCare, particularly after they had made numerous complaints and still got no answer or action from complaints. In particular this involved, pot holes and road maintenance, lack of street sweeping and street lights not working.

Other topics included issues with Homes in Havering, including the CCTV charge that residents have to pay, even if they have do not have CCTV coverage in their road.

Cllr Mann said “It is great to be out and about in our Wards, listening to what residents want and how their every day lives are affected by Havering Council”.