Autumn Newsletter is being Delivered

The latest issue of the Collier Row & Mawneys Residents Association newsletter is currently being 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 Car Parking fees for Collier Row, latest news on Bedfords Park, following its green flag award and also the latest on the Forest Row Centre, recently opened in Lodge Lane.

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.

If you want to read the newsletter on-line, click here, or on the picture above.

WARNING - Phone Number Scam

This is an old scam that seems to go around every few months and never seems to go away completely.

A card is posted through your door from a company called PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) suggesting they were unable to deliver a parcel and that you need to contact them on 0906 6611911(a premium rate number).

DO NOT call this number, as this is a mail scam originating from Belize. If you call the number and you start to hear a recorded message you will already have been billed £15 for the phone call.

If you do receive a card with these details, then please contact Royal Mail Fraud on 0207 239 6655 or ICSTIS (the premium rate service regulator) at www.icstis.org.uk

If you receive a card from a company that you do not know, or you are not expecting a delivery, take some care before phoning, you can contact ICSTIS to see if the number is a premium rate, or contact your phone operator, such as B.T or Virgin Media to ask what rate you will be charged.

Secondary School Admission Deadline is Friday

This Friday, the 19th October 2007 is the closing date for Secondary School Admission applications for children starting in September 2008.

Parents must get their applications in to the London Borough of Havering by 19th October 2007 or risk their child not being enrolled at any secondary school for next year.

Due to recent industrial action from Royal Mail we suggest parents use Havering's simple online admissions facility at www.havering.gov.uk/eadmissions. The online service will be available until midnight 19 October 2007, or hand deliver to the Education Department (address should be on your letter).

The online application process was introduced in Havering and the other London boroughs last year and has since undergone significant improvement to make the application process easier and simpler to use.

Parents can still apply by completing the paper forms and submitting them to the child's primary school who will then send them on to the council by internal courier service. However, it is advised that if parents wish to do this, they check with the school as the last day for submission to the school will probably be before the closure date of 19th October.

FREE ELECTRIC BLANKET SAFETY CHECKS

With winter fast approaching, Havering Council’s Trading Standards team have organised a free, electric blanket safety check for the borough’s residents.

Taking place on Tuesday November 6 at Langtons (Hornchurch), residents will be welcome to bring their electric blankets for a safety inspection by a specially-appointed fully qualified electrical consultant. A one-year certificate of inspection will be issued after each check. Unsafe products will receive a certificate detailing the reasons for the inspection failure.

This will be the third year that the scheme has been offered, and it has proved extremely popular particularly with mothers of young children and older people. However the Council will offer a product collection, inspection and return service for those genuinely unable to attend in person.

The free inspection will be offered on a first come first served basis between 10am and 3pm on November 6. For further details and information, please contact phone 01708 433430.

Council bans Councillor's Rememberance posters.

This is a copy of a letter published in this weeks Romford Recorder, following Residents Association Councillor, Len Long being banned from photo copying posters and letters to publicise the Remembrance Day service in Rainham by the Conservative run Havering Council.

I was interested to read your article, "Len's anger at council red tape" in connection with Cllr Len Long not being allowed to use Town Hall facilities to photocopy notices to publicise "the Remembrance Day service in Rainham".

This seems to me to be an excessively heavy-handed approach with regard to an event which is for the community at large, and is demonstrably non-political. The Job Descriptions for Councillors call for Members of The Council "to provide a link between the authority to the community..." and demands "Community Leadership skills".

By taking a leading role to promote a Remembrance Day service, Cllr Long is fulfilling those requirements, as one would expect from a former Mayor and Freeman of The Borough, and he deserves better consideration.

Graham Price

Mawneys Ward

The story made National coverage, click here to read the stories.

CCTV car is set to make £1.7 Million in 12 months

Residents Association spokesman for StreetCare and Parking, Cllr Andrew Mann has hit out over the amount of income the Councils new CCTV Smart Cars are making from issuing parking tickets by stealth across the Borough.

This Follows Havering’s parking Manager supplying Cllr Mann with the breakdown of the amount of tickets issued since the car was introduced.

Cllr Mann said “The truth is finally out, the figures say it all, in the original report concerning the car, it was assumed they would only issue 2200 tickets a year, at an income of £80k. However, this is not the case, as they have been issuing that amount each month, with a much larger payment rate due to the photo evidence and are on target to issue over 26,000 tickets”

If the same payment rates are kept up, the income could be well in excess of £1.7 million in a full year. The original report also suggested that the car would only be used around protecting school children at schools and on yellow zig zags and crossings.

Cllr Mann met with shop owners and business people in Collier Row after they spoke out earlier this month about the targeting of their shops, one of those was B & D Tyres in Collier Row who have been trading for over 35 years. Dave Fuller from B & D said at the time “This is just daylight robbery, we get this CCTV car here at least 2 or 3 times a day hitting on customers and delivery vehicles and its just not on” Now, due to the continued use of this car, one of his major suppliers “Motex” of Romford is refusing to make deliveries due to the amount of tickets his delivery vans have been issued with.

Over 12 months ago, Cllr Mann warned about the possible future use of the covert cars and felt at the time they were introduced, caution should be taken and also warned that they should not be used as an income generator for the Council.

In a Town Hall press release dated 20/03/07, Conservative Cabinet Member Cllr Barry Tebbutt said “I have no problem with this car being used to target indiscriminate parking around schools and pedestrian crossings which poses a real danger to our children”. However, it would seem that this is not the case as there is no school or crossing near to these shops.

Cllr Mann said “It has now become quite clear that this car was only introduced to make money, it is just a cash cow, sucking the life out of our Town Centres, coupled with the new charges being introduced for smaller shopping centres such as Collier Row, Hornchurch, Upminster, Cranham, Elm Park and Rainham this Conservative Administration are going to kill of the smaller towns in Havering in favour of Romford Town Centre”

He continues, “Whilst I chaired the Collier Row Regeneration Committee, we spent a lot of time and money in trying to improve the shopping experience in our Town Centre, the provision of parking restrictions is always going to be difficult, but it appears that this particular parade of shops is being picked on”, he went on "Along with car park charges in our town centres, this is yet more proof this Administration has no sympathy for small businesses”. "While they are wasting time targeting this parade, other parts of the Borough - particularly outside schools - are being neglected"

Forest Row Centre opens its Doors

Cllr Mann was on hand today as the official handing over of the Forest Row Centre took place; the building has been completed in just under 12 months and is almost fully operational.

The former Forest Lodge School in Lodge Lane has come a long way over the last 10 years, writes former pupil and now local Ward Councillor, Andrew Mann.

“Since I was first elected in 2002, I have been involved with the plans to redevelop the former school, meeting with the user groups almost monthly, discussing the plans and proposals with Council Officers and being involved with discussions as the project moved through the planning, design and build stage and even watching the last part being demolished”.

As one of three trustees of the “Forest Row Centre” who recently signed the 25 year lease for the Forest Row organisation to use the new building and centre, Cllr Mann said “It has been an honour and privilege to be asked to be one of the trustees of the new centre, to walk round the finished building and the site with its football pitches is just fantastic”

Another organisation celebrating, is the Collier Row Football club, who have been playing at the former school for over 10 years, they now have a new home fit for the future and a wonderful asset for the young people to use.

The Law for selling Tobacco has changed

From the 1st October 2007 it will be against the law to sell tobacco products to anyone under the age of 18 in England and Wales. The change will include cigarettes, cigars, tobacco for roll-your-own and pipes as well as rolling papers sold both over the counter and through vending machines.

Trading Standards Officers will continue to enforce the law relating to the sale of tobacco products to under-age consumers. The penalty for selling tobacco products to someone under the age of 18 from 1st October 2007 is a fine of up to £2,500.

However, what has not been made clear in this change of law, that to be honest hardly anyone knows about, is can you still smoke if you are under 18. Well nobody is clear on that issue.

This week, Cllr Mann has spoken to both Trading Standards and the Police in Havering and they are both not sure, they both say quite rightly that shops can not sell any smoking products, but did not know the exact answer in can a 16 or 17 year old smoke, as long as they do not buy them.

If this is the case, then it make s a mockery of the whole change in law, as you will just get the big brother or mum and dad issue where they will buy cigarettes for them !

Perhaps next time Government bring in a change of law, it can be done in a more open and transparent manner and people can be consulted properly, that way you will not get the issue we have now where it is illegal to buy something, but not to use it.

For more information on the changes go to www.tobaccoagechange.co.uk

Sunday Parking charges U-Turn by Council

Havering Council have announced a spectacular U-Turn, concerning the proposed parking charges for Collier Row, however the measures do not go far enough concerning the recently agreed Parking Policy. The Tory controlled Council have this week announced that they will not charge for Sunday parking in our town Centre, however, you will still have to pay Monday to Saturday.

Before the summer, Residents Association Councillors from across the Borough launched petitions in the outlying town Centres and collected almost 20,000 objectors to the proposals to start charging in areas such as Collier Row, Hornchurch, Elm park, Rainham, Cranham & Upminster.

Cllr Andrew Mann said “Whilst we welcome the decision, not to charge parkers on a Sunday, the Council have still ignored some 20,000 people by continuing with their proposals to charge six days a week, this is just another tax on shopping and will be detrimental to our town centres”.

Signatures were collected from around the Borough and include:

Collier Row 2236
Upminster 4715
Cranham 2803
Hornchurch 2997
Elm Park 2629
Cherry tree 344
On line Poll 551

The petitions were handed into the Mayor at a recent Council meeting.

Mawneys coordinator, Graham Price said “ Although the Administration has been forced into a U-Turn on this issue, it only deals with Sunday parking, but the charges will still apply in Romford Town centre, our smaller shopping centres will suffer with week day charges”

Cllr Mann concluded “They have still not looked at the parking charges for weekday parking in our small town centres and our argument is still the same, more needs to be done to support out of town shopping, our local communities will suffer if these charges are introduced”.

Dont lose your Vote !!

Reminders will be issued from this weekend to those residents who have not yet returned their Register of Electors form that was sent out to all 97,000 households at the end of August.

Every year an up to date list of names and addresses of those people living in Havering who are eligible to vote must be produced. This list forms the register of electors which is published every year on 1 December.

To vote in an election, eligible electors must be on the electoral roll. A GLA election is planned for 1 May 2008 and a snap General Election could be called at any time.

Registering to vote is straight forward. The reminder form is not pre-printed with names. Electors are asked to simply complete with the details of anyone who should be registered, sign and return to the Election Services office as soon as possible. Postage is pre-paid.

Residents with any enquiries should contact the Election Services Office, 01708 432444/5 or email Elections@havering.gov.uk.

Romford Recorder Letters Page

A copy of a letter published in this weeks Romford Recorder, concerning the on-going issues with Havering Councils CCTV smart car.

To the Editor

Thank you for highlighting the issue with Havering Councils CCTV camera car, I have been inundated with letters, phone calls and e-mail concerning the manner in which the car seems to operate and issue around individual cases.

These have come not just from businesses all over the Borough, but from residents who live anywhere from a main road to small little closes and they all paint a horror story about the way the car seems to operate.

Nobody is suggesting that we should not issue tickets, its all excepted I’m sure that you can not park on double yellow lines, zig zags outside schools, disabled badge offences or just mount the pavement and park were you like.

The information that I am collecting on behalf of the Residents Association group on Havering Council will help me and my colleagues, to call for a review, on how the car is deployed across the Borough.

If you would like to write to me, please do so via the Town Hall or e-mail me at andrew.mann@havering.gov.uk. Last week my address was printed incorrect, so if you think you have not had a reply from me, please send your e-mail again in case it did not come through.

Regards

Cllr Andrew Mann
Residents Association
Town Hall

Havering Cabinet Meeting

It was the monthly Cabinet meeting at Havering Council last night and I spoke on two reports as the opposition spokesman for the Environment for the Residents Association group.

The first report was a serious of recommendations from the Environment Overview & Scrutiny meeting; this group, which I was part of, met approx 5 times from October 2006 through to May 2007. The idea was to review what went on in Havering Trade Waste & Enforcement Department and in the process look at initiatives to reduce fly tipping.

However, Tory Chairman Cllr Binion was not interested in finding best practice or learning from other Councils across London, as she consistently refused my requests to make any such visits, thus failing the topic group from the beginning, as you can not challenge our own officers on what they are saying.

I feel justified in these comments when you look at the recommendations of the group, the only new initiative was to introduce a 360 litre wheelie bin to business users across the borough, that should help clean up the streets then !! All the other recommendations were to support the officers in initiatives that they are already doing, which we would do as a matter of course anyway.

I spent a lot of my own time working on ideas for improvements and e-mailed suggestions to Cllr Binion, who was the Chairman, but alas, all of my recommendations were knocked back, which is a shame I feel. As my day job involves me working for another London Borough in the trade waste area, my own experiences could have been invaluable in producing a report we could all have been proud off.

I have to say though, that my old adversary, Cllr Barry Tebbutt has said he is willing to sit down and listen to my views on how to improve the services that we deliver for the Borough, which I am pleased about, as it is a cut above the petty party politics in the Environment Scrutiny Committee.

The second report was an update on Havering’s Enforcement Policy, which I introduced in April 2006 whilst I was the Cabinet member for StreetCare. This report updated some of the polices and fixed penalty notice, issues that the Council has power to issue.

Web Site hits Increasing each Week

In the week we made 3000 hits in 6 months on the web site, we also had our highest count in a single week, with 151 hits last week. The busiest day was last Thursday, the 13th September which achieved a total of 45 in one day.

I'm not sure what was so special about last Thursday, but the hits are increasing each week now, it has been suggested to me that the site is only looked at by Councillors from opposing parties wanting to know what, A, I am up to and B, what is going on in Collier Row !

I'm sure neither could be true, but it seems that now a host of Council officers at Havering are also reading the blog site, not sure for what reason, although i know some have passed comment with favourable words. I have however, also received a letter from one Senior officer who did not like the views expressed by myself, but as they say, that's politics. I don't always like the spin in "Living" magazine, but you don't hear me asking them to change that.

Our new web address is making a huge difference, www.collier-row.co.uk has gone down very well and it suggests more of a local feel and not some corporate type global web site with just a dot com domain on the end !!

Havering Road House Fire

Saturday morning saw a huge house fire at the bottom of Havering Road, Collier Row, from a quick look, it would seem the house has massive structural damage, let alone water and smoke damage from putting it out.

I have been informed by the Chief fire officer at the scene that everybody got out, however the owner of the house was taken to hospital. Sadly, i have now been informed that the owner of the house has died from injuries sustained in the fire.

The youngest son of the family used to be one of my scouts and although house fires send a shiver down my spine, its even worse when you know the people concerned.

I took the time yesterday to read up a bit about smoke alarms and its surprising how many homes do not have one fitted. It is reported that almost 80% of homes have smoke alarms, however in 2002 Firefighters across England & Wales attended 5000 accidental house fires where alarms were fitted but failed to work.

The London Fire Brigade offer free home fire safety tests, you can find out more information by visiting the LFB web site here.

Note: I am not suggesting this house was not fitted with a fire alarm, i just thought i would find out a bit more information on the subject.

CCTV Parking Car Review

Cllr Mann will be calling for a review at Havering Council into the use of its CCTV car and to examine how and when tickets are issued.

Cllr Mann said "Since the story broke in the local press this week, I have been inundated by phone calls and e-mails from residents telling me of their horror stories concerning the car"

One of the biggest complaints from residents seems to be around the lack of proper white lines in the pavement parking bays, across the Borough, cars that have parked in the same spot for 20 years are now receiving tickets.

The next biggest issue concerns small residential streets, in particular Cul de sacs and dead end roads. It would seem again, that cars that have parked for years on part of the pavement are now being penalised.

In one particular close in Collier Row, the dustcart is unable to get down the road unless cars on at least one side park on the pavement. However last week at the same time the dustcart was in the road, with cars moving onto the pavement to allow it access, the CCTV car followed the dustcart down the road.

Cllr Mann said "At the moment we have no way of knowing if any tickets were issued, but if they were, it would seem like another example of Haverings new parking policy not working, i will wait and see if anyone contacts me"

Cllr Mann went on "There is nothing wrong with proper parking enforcement around schools, crossings, double yellow junctions and abuse of disabled parking spaces, after all that is what the Conservative Cabinet member (Cllr Tebbutt jnr) said at the time of its launch, it would seem only three months later that is not the case".

Havering Social Services in Mass Overspend of £5 Million (approx).

Havering Residents Association Councillors have slammed the Tory Administrations announcement of a £5 million pound investment in Social Services as a sham.

Cllr Mann, the press officer for the R.A Group said “It is nothing more than smoke and mirrors, as the money has not fallen out of the sky, it has been taken from all areas across the Council, including £850k from Public Realm, which runs front line services such as Parks and StreetCare”.

The budget announcement follows the discovery of a £3million black hole in Social Services budgets, however no mention of the overspend has been mentioned in the report that goes to Cabinet next Wednesday (19th Sept).

The Residents Association Finance Spokesman Cllr Clarence Barrett said “The Audit Commission say we are a 3 star council, yet how has this department been allowed to run up a huge overspend without anyone knowing or taken action sooner”.

“This is an exercise in 'expediency' and not dealing with the long term problem in a sustainable manner. The £5m has not appeared by magic, it has all come from somewhere. What is not being done in Public Realm for £849,000?”

He went on “This also comes, despite the fact that there has been a huge ration to services and increase in charges to the elderly, such as meals on wheels”

Cllr Mann went on to say “Overspending in Adult Social Services is not new, what we need is a solution that is workable and sustainable. We also need to demonstrate to central government that the funding formula leaves us short changed in Havering and it is an issue that needs addressing rather than expecting us to rob Peter to pay Paul.”

Key Questions the Residents Group will be putting to the Administration

If it has been a huge budget pressure, why was it not dealt with and addressed by the highly paid cabinet during the budget setting process less than 6 months ago.

There has been a Conservative Council for 5 years, yet they have still not got to grips with Adult social services, how many more years before they do, they should hang their heads in shame.

What departments of Social Services actually overspent their budget, the report says nothing about which areas in the budget

This is not a £5m injection; it is a cash grab from across the Council, including worryingly £850k from Public Realm, which manages StreetCare and Parks

Why are these huge sums lying around when we have the 4th highest Council Tax in London?

No exact details have been given about were the money is coming from, the details in the report or very vague, such as the £800k Special Budget Reserve and the LPSA Grant and the New Road And Street Works Act monies, are one off and are therefore not sustainable in the long term.

Parking CCTV car causing Chaos

Cllr Andrew Mann, the Residents Associations spokesman for the Environment has hit out this week over the tactics being used by Havering Council in deploying its two CCTV parking enforcement cars.

Cllr Mann has met with Dave Fuller, the owner of B & D Tyres in Collier Row after the company which has been based in Collier Row for over 35 years feels it is being targeted by the Council along with other shops and businesses in the small parade in Collier Row Road.

Over 12 months ago, Cllr Mann warned about the possible future use of the covert cars and felt at the time they were introduced, caution should be taken and also warned that they should not be used as an income generator for the Council.

In a Town Hall press release dated 20/03/07, Conservative Cabinet Member Cllr Barry Tebbutt said “I have no problem with this car being used to target indiscriminate parking around schools and pedestrian crossings which poses a real danger to our children”. However, it would seem that this is not the case as there is no school or crossing near to these shops.

The issue has now intensified following the decision by Romford car parts firm “Motex” refusing to delivery to garages across the borough unless they can guarantee off street parking following their vehicles receiving a huge amount of parking tickets.

Dave Fuller of B & D tyres said “This is just daylight robbery, we get this CCTV car here at least 2 or 3 times a day hitting on customers and delivery vehicles and its just not on”.

Cllr Mann said, “Whilst at the garage this week, I witnessed one of the delivery vehicles drop off some parts, it pulled up and was no longer than 3 minutes, I do not consider that to be an unreasonable amount of time to allow deliveries to be made, to issue tickets in this way does indeed to be picking on the little people”

He continues, “Whilst I chaired the Collier Row Regeneration Committee, we spent a lot of time and money in trying to improve the shopping experience in our Town Centre, the provision of parking restrictions is always going to be difficult, but it appears that this particular parade of shops is being picked on”, he went on "Along with car park charges in our town centres, this is yet more proof this Administration has no sympathy for small businesses”. "While they are wasting time targeting this parade, other parts of the Borough - particularly outside schools - are being neglected"

Cllr Mann has also announced that the Residents Association will be asking questions and conducting there own review within the Town Hall on this issue and would like anyone who owns a shop or business that feels that they are being targeted to contact him at the Town Hall. The same applies to residents that may have been hit with a penalty, if it has been issued unduly, the Residents Association want to know about it.

Major Roadworks on the A12

From 10th September, major roadworks will be undertaken on the eastbound (towards Southend) stretch of the A12 between Whalebone Lane and Mawney Road and is likely to last for 9 weeks.

There will be daily lane closures from around 9.30am to 4pm for much of this period, but it will also be necessary to carry out up to five consecutive night time full closures by late October.

The full closures will occur between 9.30pm and 5am the next morning and will involve signed diversions via Whalebone Lane (south of A12), London Road, the Romford Ring Road and North Street where the diverted traffic will return to the A12.

Transport for London has informed the Council that it hopes to keep the disruption to a minimum but apologises for any inconvenience to drivers and those on the diversionary route, who are likely to experience additional traffic.

Green Flag raised over Bedfords Park

Today saw the green flag being raised at Bedfords Park after becoming one of two parks in Havering to be awarded the special award. I was joined at the event by a handful of Councillors and Parks officers and staff.

Pictured above with myself (on the left) is Geoff Pepper (centre) the Parks Development Officer

and Lois Amos (right) who is the Vice Chairman of the "Friends of Bedfords Park" group.

More to follow later

Bus Stop Improvements

I had a meeting tonight with the Chairman of the North Romford Area Committee and Havering Councils Technical Services Manager concerning improvements to bus stops in Havering Road.

The improvements are funded by Transport for London and basically do just that, they improve access to the disabled and elderly and for parents with prams, they also improve the paving and crossing points to make them safer.

The plans have already been agreed in principal and all residents that were affected have been notified, the meeting was to iron out any final issues and to make sure that the Council took on board all of the points that have been raised by residents.