I thought I’d quickly share some good news about the future of Forest Lane Park, which is that officers who have been working on getting some Heritage Lottery Funding have been successful in getting to the next stage. (I will be keeping in touch with them to make sure that residents’ ideas and views are at the centre of the design process – I know that there was a consultation meeting but also some concern about how much residents were able to take part.) For now though, some much-needed good news.
This is the email which I received:
‘I’m delighted to let you know that we have been successful in obtaining a development grant for the works to improve Forest Lane Park!
The development phase will enable us to continue to work with you all to develop final designs for the proposed improvements, we will then be required to submit another application to unlock the delivery fund of just under £1million.
There are a number of tasks that we need to complete ahead of starting work, including appointing a design team which could take until the end of this year.
I will keep you updated along the way and really look forward to working with you as we take this project forwards.’
The last council meeting, on the 18th September, was a themed meeting, on the topic of ‘A Clean Borough’. I wanted to take a moment to share some of the information from that meeting about some of the work that is being done to help make our streets cleaner.
Several years as a councillor have taught me more than I ever imagined I would know about street cleaning and I’m still very aware that there is much more to learn, and certainly plenty more to do. One thing I have definitely noticed myself, though, is that the end of the summer always feels like a bad time in terms of street cleanliness. I’ve been a councillor for nine years now, and generally I have noticed that in September a feeling of of ‘the streets are a mess and it’s worse than ever!’ descends upon everyone, including me.
I don’t necessarily have an answer as to why that is, but I do have some ideas. Fly tipping and rubbish always increase when the weather is warm, and we all spend more time outside… and of course extra time spent outdoors means that we all notice the rubbish more. I imagine that like the rest of us, street cleansing officers take proportionately more leave during the summer. Weeds on pavements (on which more later) grow furiously over the summer, which both increases the impression of mess, and also can ‘catch’ litter and rubbish and make it hang around for longer.
The last time I blogged in a substantial way on street cleansing was here, when I’d had a flurry of casework and was keen to understand a bit more about what was happening in the service. That post outlined various plans to make structural and organisational changes to street cleaning, the kind of work that takes a while and is frustratingly ‘behind the scenes’, but which is vital to making a more modern and efficient service. I was pleased to look back and see that although some progress was delayed by factors like the refuse strike, others have progressed and are now in place.
So I turned to my colleague James Asser’s speech from Council, where he gave an update on various bits of work that have been done, or are being done, and thought I’d summarise some of that here.
Work already done:
Brought street-cleaning services back in-house in a single borough-wide service. Invested in new uniforms for staff Invested in new street-cleaning equipment to make the frontline staff’s work easier and more effective Invested in new drain cleaning equipment New gum busting kit to clean our pavements New bin lorries, that will be more reliable and have modern electric bin lifts to reduce the noise during collections. Expanded the amount of waste that can be recycled Removed the worst fly-tipped recycling points and are investing in the remaining ones to make them tidier and cleaner
Work underway:
Rolled out a new revised street-cleaning strategy with new rounds and new ways of working (this is happening now) Bringing in new vehicles for gritting and tackling winter conditions on pavement and bike lanes Additional vehicles to meet growing demand on the waste service Modernising our mechanical sweepers Moving to weekly recycling collections to meet our commitment to increase the amount we recycle and meet the resident demands for more recycling opportunities. Changing collection of waste from flats above shops to reduce the waste and time it is left on high streets
As well as those, James also mentioned the work LBN is doing jointly with Keep Britain Tidy on the Better Streets project (which you can read about in more detail here), and a new borough-wide approach to fly tipping on private land. Regular correspondents with me about fly tipping may be aware of the frustrations that previously occurred when a fly tip was on land that is privately owned, for example a forecourt in front of a building. Often reports on the Love Clean Streets app would be marked ‘closed’ whilst officers at the Council contacted the landlord, but in the meantime the fly tip remained, sometimes attracting more rubbish. Now, we are now clearing these areas anyway and then working with the landowner on costs, speeding up the clearance rates on privately owned public areas.
Another project that I mentioned in my post last year was the commissioning of an external contract for Enforcement, and that has also happened, with a company called Kingdom now providing additional resources to issue Fixed Penalty Notices against people fly tipping and littering. You can read a bit more about that here.
If this information has whetted your appetite and you’d like more, you can read the substantive paper that went to Council here. You can also read the really excellent research done by Keep Britain Tidy (which has driven and informed so much of our work in Newham since we started working with them in 2018) ‘Beyond the Tipping Point‘. I might blog about this research separately as it’s so illuminating about the factors that contribute to fly tipping and gives a really helpful UK-wide perspective.
I was pleased to see that inspecting our street cleanliness and reporting on it is now, as promised, not done by Council officer but has been outsourced to Keep Britain Tidy. This means we’re not ‘marking our own homework’ (though actually, previously going out on a street inspection visit with a Council officer was very reassuring in terms of seeing how rigorous he was!) and gives us some really robust data to track how things are changing over time. The stats show an improvement. Honestly, I am not sure we’re quite seeing or feeling that in Forest Gate North at the moment, but that combined with all the other work happening does make me feel cautiously optimistic for the future.
I need to finish by saying that of course I’m not complacent. Litter and fly tipping continue to be one of the most common issues that residents contact me about, and as the excellent research from Keep Britain Tidy showed us, they are thorny problems with no easy solution. Our streets in Forest Gate North are a wonderful and frustrating mix of the best and worst of Newham: peaceful low traffic neighbourhoods, speeding vehicles, healthy school streets, careless drivers endangering people on bikes and pedestrians, re-surfaced pavements smoother and perfect for scooters and wheelchairs, road surfaces blighted with pot holes, new and old small businesses lighting up the high street, recently empty shops, people improving our streets with projects and litter picks, and other people dumping their rubbish without a thought. Of course 13 long years of austerity are a hugely important factor here, with council services along with all public services visibly hanging by a thread after years of Tory government. Along with Sasha, I’ll carry on doing my best to improve things, and will always try to be honest and up front about what we can achieve, and what we hope for.
I was doing some casework today concerning an elderly resident and some maintenance of their home, and received information about some available support from the local voluntary sector. This seemed so helpful that I thought I’d share it here on the blog.
Obviously I can’t make any guarantees about these organisations or what they are able to offer, or what their capacity or eligibility criteria are. But if you are an older person, a homeowner, and struggling with how to get maintenance done on your home then do drop the organisations below a line to explore whether they can help.
GoodGym Goodgym already do lots of great work in the area (I was recently reading about their work in the UP garden), but they also have DBS checked volunteers who help with one off tasks such as changing lightbulbs; smoke alarm batteries, moving small pieces of furniture; hanging curtains, gardening. They have a list of the things they can and can’t do.
Helping Hands Volunteers can help with gardening and small jobs around the home. Phone: 0207 474 1122 HH42balaam@aol.com
If you, or a friend or neighbour might benefit from this, do get in touch. And update me if anything I have shared above is incorrect or becomes out of date.
Recently I met with Sara Fernandez from an organisation called Now Foster, who are working with Newham to encourage more people to become foster carers. Quite apart from being very friendly and entertaining, she spoke so persuasively about needing to recruit a wider range of people, about how Forest Gate might be a place where there is some untapped potential, and how many carers are needed.
She made a point that really stuck with me: over a thousand households in Newham had volunteered to host Ukrainian families as part of the government scheme. These people were obviously socially motivated to help, and had space in their homes – could they perhaps consider being foster carers? This compares very starkly with the very small number of new foster carers who were recruited last year, perhaps because lots of people don’t consider themselves to be ‘right’ for fostering, or perhaps because it just doesn’t occur to them.
I always think of fostering as being very all-encompassing and long term, so was really interested to read about the different types of of fostering, including family breaks which can be quite short periods. Sara said it’s a myth that you have to be not working, or that people who already have families cannot foster. In fact, she said that families with young children may find they are a good fit for an older teenager, and conversely families with teenagers could be a great foster home for a younger child. She is also very keen to recruit more LGBTQ+ foster carers.
Sara and others have been door knocking and will be coming along to some of our lovely summer community events in Forest Gate to meet people and talk to us about fostering and how to get involved.
They are also holding a Fostering Pizza evening with our good friends at Tracks, where you can come along in an informal environment, have a slice of pizza and talk through any questions you have. If there is even a small question mark in your mind as to whether you might be able to foster, do come along. All the information is on this link here:
You can meet Sara for coffee (virtually or in a cafe in Newham) for an informal chat and to explore whether this is something you may want to do in the future.
One thing that has come up a few times is the question about a permits system for local residents, and this made me think that it might be useful to spend some time writing a blog post about the different types of ‘filters’ that can prevent through traffic, as each has its own pros and cons.
If you’re new to the idea of a Low Traffic Neighbourhood, you can read my blog post about them here, which introduces the concept.
A ‘filter’ or ‘modal filter’ is so-called, as I belatedly realised, because it filters the types of movement it allows through it. The most common LTN filters will filter the through traffic to allow people on foot, travelling by wheelchair, or people riding bicycles to move through them freely, but restrict motor vehicles to other routes, largely on main roads where possible.
The ultimate filter: cul-de-sacs
Maybe I am being a bit facetious here – people don’t normally consider cul-de-sacs modal filters. But actually part of the reason Newham scores relatively highly on some assessments for healthy streets is that our ‘LTN’ percentage is strangely high, which I believe is due to the cul-de-sacs that make up some of Beckton (as well as a number of our older housing estates that were designed originally not to allow through traffic, effectively along LTN principles).
The ultimate filter to through-traffic is a road designed as a cul-de-sac. The only vehicles within this dead-end will be those who belong to people who live there, or those that are specifically visiting those addresses. There is one way in, and one way out. Modern transport planning doesn’t tend to create cul-de-sacs for a variety of reasons, but I think that one of them is that they’re not particularly friendly to walkers. You might live geographically very close to a house in a neighbouring cul-de-sac, but have to walk all the way out of yours, onto the main road, and back into the next one in order to visit them ( to illustrate this to Forest Gates, for example if you live at the end of Curwen Avenue in Forest Gate, the homes on Horace Road are mere seconds away from you as the crow flies, but if you’re not a crow, walking there will take you the opposite way back out onto Woodford Road first.)
Fixed bollards / physical blockages
There are lots of these kinds of filters around, and I sometimes refer to the older ones as ‘invisible filters’ because once they have been in place for a while, people tend not to even notice that they are there, but just adjust how they move around them. At the end of the proposed Capel LTN is a filter on Anna Neagle Close / Brownlow Road, and in 8 years of being a councillor I have received precisely no requests that this should be opened back up to vehicles. In fact, quite the opposite: we had to install an extra bollard when it turned out some cars were squeezing up onto the pavement and illegally driving through.
Other older filters that local readers might recognise: Richmond Road E7, the junction of McGrath Road and Forest Lane, Buxton Road E7, and there is a whole twitter thread including many more, which my friend and colleague John Morris posts here:
The benefits of a complete physical block are that they make the most difference to the quietness of the streets behind it. On roads that were previously busy with traffic cutting through, they create a real sea change: the volume of traffic drops so significantly that pedestrians, instinctively, know they are safer and will behave differently on the road. Children might play on it, more nervous or vulnerable people on bikes might cycle on the road rather than the pavement. People might walk down the middle of it. I’m sure there’s some good research somewhere about traffic volumes and behaviour change, but in order for people on foot and particularly more vulnerable road users to physically reclaim a street for walking, there needs to be a real quietness that you can not just count, but feel.
Another benefit is that the physical barrier can take many forms. A common one for more recent or for experimental filters is a wooden planter, which can contain plants to encourage pollinators and small trees. More established filters can include a physical ‘build-out’ into the road, with bicycle parking, a pocket park, tree planting, planting for better drainage to reduce flooding risk, or more.
The downside of this kind of filter is that the physical restriction is absolute. Some older filters only have narrow spaces that some adapted bicycles or cargo bikes cannot get through. People carrying a larger load on a bike might need to squish past older bollards. Emergency services vehicles also cannot get through and will need to use the usual access points.
Lockable bollards
Some filters have bollards across the road which are padlocked in place, and can be opened with a key by emergency services for fast access.
The advantage here is pretty obvious: emergency services vehicles that cannot take the normal route into the road can open up the filter, and gain access more quickly if needed. So you get all of the radical advantages above of much quieter roads too. That is, until..
The major ‘con’ here is vandalism and misuse. One local locked bollard filter is unlocked and the bollard moved so frequently that a local resident appointed herself as an unofficial bollard watchperson and emails me to let me know whenever it happens. It seems that someone nearby somehow got hold of one of the keys, and was unlocking the bollard whenever they wanted to drive through, in effect creating their own one-person exemption scheme. Every time a padlock is lost / the bollard is damaged / the bollard is lost, then someone is dispatched from Highways to fix it, which all comes at a cost that we all pay for through our Council tax.
Another downside, although not a game changer, is that in contrast to pocket parks, and trees as above, metal bollards are not desperately attractive, and aren’t as positive an addition to the local environment. (There are some filters that combine the two, with some planting, and perhaps one removeable bollard in the middle, and to a certain extent overcome this last drawback.)
‘Open’ filters – camera enforced
This kind of filter is a legal restriction on access at a certain point, combined with signage, perhaps with something like a planter providing a part-barrier in the road as a visual reminder, and with an ANPR camera installed to issue tickets to those people in cars who drive through anyway.
The benefit of this is that it does allow some access for, eg, refuse vehicles or emergency services vehicles (see more about exemptions below). I’m personally instinctively not as in favour of these types of filters, for a few reasons.
The main one is that people in cars and other vehicles will SO consistently ignore or misunderstand the signage, no matter how much there is, and simply drive through. Of course every vehicle in contravention will provide some revenue, which can be used for more road improvements. But ultimately the purpose of these kinds of schemes is actually to create safer places, and to encourage walking and cycling, not to raise money. And these aims are not achieved when cars simply drive through junctions that have been identified as modal filters to be closed to through traffic. The roads that should be much quieter are less quiet. People driving through filters either knowingly or in error are more cross because they believe they have been duped into getting tickets. It’s less safe to walk and cycle. Every vehicle that gets a ticket weakens the success of the scheme.
But that said, liaising with people including the emergency services is an important part of designing any LTN. And sometimes people from the fire service, police and ambulance service prefer these kinds of modal filters, or require them in particular locations, so I do recognise that in many places these are the best that we can do, and still do make a difference.
‘Open’ filters with exemptions
Some modal filters have some exemptions. These vary considerably, even within London, from borough to borough and from location to location. But to give an idea, exemptions could include refuse trucks (often exempted because they are such large vehicles with large ‘turning circles’), emergency services vehicles, black cabs, all private hire vehicles, blue badge holders who are local residents, all blue badge holders, local residents of that road who own a car, or local residents who own a car within a certain distance of the filter. I’ve also heard people advocate for (although I don’t think I’ve seen these in place) exemptions for all NHS workers, for community NHS workers, care workers, public sector workers, tradespeople, people who work in the area, and other groups.
As you might be able to tell from the list above, one of the main disadvantages to issuing permits or exemptions is deciding who should get them. There are arguments for and against each of the groups above, some very passionately held, and including any group in an exemption does strengthen the argument that other people should also be exempt.
This then in turn adds to the disadvantage above: the more vehicles that are exempt, the more diluted the impact of the scheme is.
But specifically in terms of permits for local residents, I think there are some additional factors to consider. LTNs have two main aims, which are really nicely laid out in the leaflet that went to all homes within these proposals.
‘Key objectives
The primary project objectives are in line with broader Newham Council policies.
OBJECTIVE 1 – Remove through traffic
To create a safe environment that has low levels of motorised traffic, where the widest range of people feel comfortable walking and cycling.
OBJECTIVE 2 – Encourage modal shift
To encourage people to walk and cycle for local trips, rather than drive.’
‘Woodgrange and Capel Low Traffic Neighbourhood, Jan 2023, London Borough of Newham
Permits for local residents who own cars means that there is no necessity for people living within the LTN to change how they move around. Without permits, as per the LTN design and intentions, people living within as well as outside the LTN can still access anywhere they want to by car, but they might have to change the route they choose to get there. With permits, people inside the LTN who own cars can carry on as before, and the onus to change behaviour falls only on those outside it. I worry about this in terms of community cohesion, and think any barrier created between people eligible for permits and those not could be very damaging and divisive*.
I speak from some experience, although not in my ward. When local councillors, the Mayor, and others (including me, in my then role which included Highways across Newham) looked at huge problems caused on Stanley Road in East Ham by volumes of traffic that the road was never designed for, we realised that closing Browning Road bridge to through traffic would in effect create a mini LTN in the area bounded by Shakespeare Crescent. A system of permit exemptions for local residents was agreed, and was enormously controversial. In fact, a protest on the day of opening resulted in an extension of the exemption area, and even now the closure is constantly ignored by drivers who are then fined, and is cited in unfavourable news articles as being a ‘cash cow’ – precisely for all the reasons I have outlined above.
I also suspect that exemptions existing for this Browning Road filter contribute to some confusion: that other drivers see someone driving through, think to themselves, ‘oh it must be ok’, drive through themselves and then get a fine.
There are of course exemptions available for residents who live on school streets, but this is is somewhat different, because without those local permits, people who live on school streets who own a car would be completely unable to use it during the times of the closure. The overall impact on the school street is small because the area of closure is small, and so the volume of entirely local traffic is very small, meaning that the streets are used by parents, carers and children to walk and cycle, and cars proceed only occasionally and with caution. Just as a reminder, within an LTN every home and business is still accessible by car, it just might require someone arriving by car to change their route. (If this isn’t the case, then please let highways know.)
Another important point is something that the officers pointed out to me when designing this LTN, and weighing up different filter locations: there is a direct trade-off for local residents between how close they live to a filter and the extent of the benefits they will experience. Some residents with cars who live very close to a filter may experience more disadvantage as they need to change their preferred route more, but the corollary to this is that they also experience maximum benefit as their road, and indeed their part of the road, is particularly quiet, pleasant and safe.
I also do want to add, again that not all Newham residents own cars. Providing exemptions for those that do would dilute the benefits for everyone, including those who do not have a car (who are more likely to be poorer residents). Although car ownership is higher within these two proposed LTNs than elsewhere in Newham, I think that the higher levels of car ownership is even more of a reason to create LTNs that encourage all car owners, including me and my family, to use their cars less whenever it’s possible to do so.
So all this to say that although I am personally somewhat persuadable, depending on location, about the merits of fixed or open filters, I am on balance not in favour of exemptions for local residents. Not that this decision rests with me! I wouldn’t want to give that impression. As a local councillor I’m consulted by highways about the process, and will feed into it, represent local insights and concerns, and advocate for the area, but I don’t and wouldn’t expect to have a final say on the scheme overall or on any details from it. But I hope that this post has given an insight into my starting point, where I am coming from, and why.
*Talking of divides, I have heard some people say that they think LTNs create divides, and I am not sure that my experience bears this out. I currently live just outside one of our existing LTNS, which has been in place for a couple of years now. In fact, if anything that area is much more porous and accessible to me now than it was before. I travel through there by bike much more often, walk more often too, and visit local businesses in there more now that the roads are so markedly quiet. I’m always keen to understand more about how we make streets healthier, and I’m very open to understanding upsides and downsides, but I know that research backs me up on this: people know their neighbours more, and make more local connections on streets that have less traffic.
This week, on the 24th January, a planning decisions committee took place at the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) to consider two planning applications related to the MSG sphere. I wanted to write a short blog post about these, because some of the planning issues might be complex and / or misunderstood.
The second decision I’ll deal with first because it’s simpler: it was an application to change a number of the spaces in Stratford International Car Park from their current use into blue badge parking for disabled people travelling to the Sphere. This application was deferred after some discussion about whether the parking at this location meets accessibility standards (which of course it must in order to ensure that disabled people can access the venue).
The first application was to provide detail about the rather opaque ‘five year review’ that was agreed at the meeting in March 2022 when the sphere was given planning permission, and was granted 25 year advertising consent.
I voted against the application last year for the sphere, and voted against granting 25 years advertising consent. I was concerned about a number of different issues, including the visual impact of the sphere, how small the site is, the impact on Stratford station, the impact on nearby residents, impacts on drivers of cars and trains nearby and safety, and concerned about the nature of such an enormous advertising space and the impact on the whole city. Specifically about the advertising, based on the information we were given last year, I was deeply concerned and perturbed at the idea of granting 25 year consent rather than the usual 5 years.
The idea of adding in a 5 year review was not in the papers prepared for last year, but was suggested verbally during the meeting. I can’t speak for other committee members, but it seemed to me that the idea of a ‘5 year review’ might have been rather gladly seized upon by committee members who were minded to vote ‘yes’ but wanted a safeguard of some kind, a way to express some of the questions that were raised about the sphere’s impact. But it was clarified on the night that any 5 year review process could not contain within it the ability to curtail the permission. In effect, whatever the 5 year review looks like, it can’t remove the advertising permission and ‘turn the sphere off’, or remove the sphere, regardless of what happens in the interim.
What is also important to note is that the sphere gained planning consent and advertising consent last year, and these things have been determined by the LLDC and so however much I and others might have wanted to reopen debate about the principle of building it, this wasn’t part of the decision making process.
So the first application aimed to put some meat on the bones, as it were, of the 5 year review process. I don’t think it’s surprising that it has taken nearly a year for these details to come back, and I don’t envy at all the officers who were tasked with squaring that circle: trying to provide some safeguards within planning consent which goes on regardless. But they gave it their best shot, and came back to the committee with a set of proposals which in my opinion ineffectively attempt to mitigate the impacts of the sphere on local residents. ‘Ineffectively’, in the end, because the sphere is being built, the impacts are not known, and it’s not clear to me that it is possible to design 5 year review process that could give us any level of certainty that people’s health and wellbeing, for example, won’t be harmed by living next to a development that is unlike any other.
The question then before the committee was to make a decision on a set of systems that provide at least some, deeply imperfect, mitigation against the sphere’s impact, including reducing the brightness, reducing the hours, and changing the nature of what is displayed. It sets up a system, albeit flawed and bureaucratic, where there is at least some independent and expert input into a monitoring group which has at least some (limited) power. Do you, in effect, approve some small protection for residents?
As a committee member, this is not an easy decision (in fairness, planning decisions are often not easy). Approving the application and the small amount of protection suggested appears to be condoning the sphere and its impacts, which based on the planning papers and discussion from last year, is unconscionable. On the other hand, not approving the mitigations could be in effect voting for the sphere to operate unfettered with no protection for residents.
Another question, always top of mind in planning, is what happens if an application is rejected. If there is a chance for debate and a better application, then rejection can be positive and productive. If rejection might result in a legal appeal which in the end determines a much weaker, or indeed no, 5 year review, then that is clearly also a real risk to residents, residents who are already at risk from the development.
Weighing up all the options, as well as the papers, and contributions in the meeting itself, I decided to abstain from the vote. I’m not generally a fan of abstaining, but there was a use for it here: neither supporting the sphere, nor voting to stop the mitigations that had been detailed. I couldn’t put my name down ‘for’ the proposals any more than I could be in favour of no monitoring and no mitigations.
I explained this at the meeting as well, to ensure that anyone watching would be aware of why I was choosing to vote this way. But I wanted to set it down here as well for clarity, and for anyone who is interested in the process but wasn’t able to attend. I hope it’s helpful.
Hello and welcome to my latest ward report. There are lots of ways to keep up with the work that I’m doing as your elected councillor, but probably the easiest ones are online, by following me on twitter (um, whether twitter is still with us in the near future is another matter), or by reading my blog here on http://www.forestgatenorth.com Here I publish updates and posts about local things that are happening, as well as periodically rounding up all or most of my work in a report like this one.
Welcome back Sasha
Firstly, a big congratulations and welcome back to my ward colleague Sasha, who has taken some well-deserved time off after the happy arrival of her baby boy. She is now rejoining us for some councillor work, but will still (if I have anything to do with it) be taking it slowly and seeing how things go.
Here she is leafletting and chatting to parents and children about the proposed new LTNs (more info below) with me and a couple of officers outside Woodgrange Infants School.
Surgeries
Councillor surgeries have taken something of a back seat whilst everyone was limiting all physical contact because of Covid, but are now up and running again. Sasha and I are holding our surgeries on the second and third Saturdays of the month, at the Gate library on Woodgrange Road, from 10am – 11am. If you are a Forest Gate North resident and you would like to speak to us, if you have a question or a concern or a query, a complaint or a good idea for the area, then do come along at this time. There is no need for an appointment, and we’d be glad to chat with you. If you cannot make it at this time, do contact us by email: sasha.dasgupta@newham.gov.uk and rachel.tripp@newham.gov.uk
The Elizabeth line
To be clear: I am absolutely not claiming any credit for this one! But it would seem remiss to write anything about Forest Gate without sharing the great news that starting on the 6th November, Elizabeth line trains now run straight through so that you can get on a train at Forest Gate station and travel all the way to Paddington without changing.
Of course this is all enormously delayed, and much much later than we were all promised. But after so very many years of disruption and promises, it was hugely exciting to see the new trains on Sunday and to try them out. Regular blog readers will remember the long period of time when the station had temporary stairs, not to mention the various closures, and the public realm works around the station too. Having this connection into the west end, and in the future beyond, not to mention having lifts at the platform too is hugely important for Forest Gate. There is lots more information about the new trains online here: https://tfl.gov.uk/travel-information/improvements-and-projects/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-elizabeth-line
Capel and Woodgrange Low Traffic Neighbourhoods
As per the photo above, we were outside Woodgrange Infants school having conversations with parents and carers about this work, and will be doing similar outside Godwin and also Chestnut nursery. I have already written a whole blog post about it, which you can read here. And I’ve also written something about what exactly a Low Traffic Neighbourhood is, which is here.
But in a nutshell, we’re at a really early stage. We have done some collecting of data, including vehicle counts, and an online survey. We’ve issued the first leaflet, summarising it all (you can read that here). The next stage will be in January, where we’ll be publishing a proposed design for the new LTNs, showing where filters could go. At this stage, with a draft design, it will be even more important to get lots of feedback about the design and how it could work.
In the meantime, council officers like Arun and David pictured above are working really hard with councillors and others to plan and carry out the communications we need in order to make this all work. I’ve been a part of meetings with the cemetery at the end of Sebert Road, and with Woodgrange and Godwin schools, and have linked up officers with other local groups including the market, and the Forest Gate Festival. Needless to say I’ll be talking about this a lot more in the future, as the potential to make a real difference to our roads, and to make them safer and quieter for walking and cycling is really huge and very exciting.
Odessa LTN
Whilst I was chatting to one of the parents at Woodgrange this week, she started to ask me why her area wasn’t included in the map of the Capel and Woodgrange LTNs. I was delighted to be able to tell her, “That’s because you’re in an LTN already!” The Odessa LTN stretches across the western side of Forest Gate North ward, and if and when we get the Capel one installed that means that the whole of the ward will be part of an LTN.
Meanwhile, the Odessa LTN has been made permanent (meaning that the temporary traffic orders that the modal filters were installed under are now permanent ones) and this provides the starting point for lots more potential improvement work in the future. The aim is for the filters which are currently wooden planters to become permanent fixtures like built-out pavements and pocket parks. The officers in highways are working to secure some funding to make some of this happen and I’ll share the information as soon as I can.
In other news, cameras have been installed at several filters that were routinely being damaged / vandalised, and seem to have made a huge difference.
Enforcement
I had a very useful catch up with colleagues from Enforcement and highlighted some areas where we would appreciate some more action. I highlighted the problems at Odessa road park (more on that later) and also talked to them about the persistent issues on the marketplace: illegal parking, rubbish dumping. I told them how this is a space that hundreds of local people walk past every day on their way to the station, to local schools, or to use local shops, and how much of an eyesore it is, and how emotionally important it is to us as a focal point.
One of the biggest problems at the marketplace is the collection of rubbish from the nearby flats above shops. These flats do not have space for wheelie bins, so are on what’s known as a Timed Waste Collection. There are two hour long slots each day when bags of rubbish can be left out by the road, and are picked up by refuse collectors. Now, in theory that means that rubbish is only left out during these two short periods, and because the collections are so frequent, the amounts left out are relatively small.
In actual fact, as we know, residents of those flats leave rubbish out at different times, and once a bag of rubbish is left out in a visible location, it quickly ‘attracts’ other rubbish, from fly tipped household furniture etc to the empty coffee cup that is carefully balanced on top of other rubbish. Then, if even one of the timed waste collections is missed, the rubbish builds up and quickly becomes really visible and obvious, both detracting from our beautiful marketplace, sometimes staining it, and also in turn attracting even more litter and fly tipping.
There are a few things we can do in order to help here. We can, and have done, letter drops to local flats to remind them about the times and the places where domestic waste can be put out. This helps a bit, although turnover in these kinds of flat is very high so the effects tends to be temporary.
Enforcement will also take action when rubbish is left out with identifying information on it. (If you saw a woman on Woodgrange Road last week photographing a piece of packaging with an address on it, well that would have been me.) We had long discussions between waste colleagues and highways and others when the marketplace was redesigned about whether we could include some form of larger bin here for rubbish to be placed into, but as above the decision in the end was that doing so would effectively ‘design in’ even more rubbish, and would consolidate rather than reduce the problem.
I think this was a hard call to make, but I do think it was the right decision. Only recently there was a trade waste bin, a large green one, left out unlocked on the marketplace which very quickly became a problem that was only really addressed when I emailed the company who provided it who quickly came and took it away. Where there are trade waste bins, in order that they don’t make things worse they need to be easily identifiable, with the name of the company using them preferably on the side, and also kept locked.
Although parking enforcement is a separate team from enforcement, I also spoke to them about the issue of cars and vans parking up on the marketplace, and the problems this creates: making the pavement unsafe, potentially cracking and breaking our granite setts, and generally adding to an air of lawlessness: the idea that drivers can drive and park wherever they want, and pedestrians should bear the responsibility for looking out for them, and keeping themselves safe.
Odessa Road green space
I have been in touch with several residents who live around this small park, who have been concerned about noise, music and unlicensed events, crime and drug use in this park. Things reached something of a crisis point with a gunshot wound one evening, and residents were understandably very upset not to mention frightened.
As well as meeting Enforcement officers and local police at the park, I met with Carleene Lee-Phakoe, cabinet member lead for Enforcement, as well as local police and some residents who were joined by the Mayor too. We discussed some possible solutions, recognising some of the restrictions in terms of resources available both to the police and the Council. There has been an increased police and Council enforcement officer presence there, particularly since the gunshot injury, and also it is always the case that as the weather gets wetter, darker and colder, some outside ASB will just disperse because being outside is less pleasant.
I’m discussing with officers whether it would be useful to install some CCTV (as ever, not a panacea, but sometimes can have a useful deterrent effect) and in particular whether there is any scope to install higher fencing and lock up the park at night. Currently this space has low, waist height railings around it, and is open 24 hours a day. Part of me is saddened at the idea of enclosing and securing spaces, but also I recognise from speaking to residents that they are significantly disturbed by out of hours, anti social use of the park.
I’d also like to add that I’m really conscious too of us all being really clear about what constitutes a disturbance here. Sometimes certain groups of people, particularly groups of BAME young men, are criminalised simply for being in an area and enjoying an outside space. I was reassured that where people are using the park as it was intended: a space to play sport, to socialise, to use the basketball court, to hang out with friends, this is of course entirely as things should be and not in any way a problem. The issues that we were concerned with were around, for example, intimidation, drug use, litter, amplified music played late into the night, etc.
The UP garden
Absolutely not my achievement, but rather that of a small band of people headed up by incredible local resident Suz, who have transformed an old, concreted, weed-filled laundry yard into a vibrant green community space. If you’ve not visited the UP garden yet then do go online to theupgarden.org , find out when their next event is, and consider donating your time, money, or materials to support this lovely local project.
UP garden mural painted by local resident Andy MacManus
Trees
I am in regular contact with colleagues in Greenspace about trees and planting as I know how important these issues are to residents of Forest Gate. In particular, I’m always very keen to hear from anyone who has spotted an empty tree pit: existing tree pits can be very easily and relatively cheaply replanted, and are a great way of increasing our tree cover in the ward, making the ward more beautiful, greener, cooler, among other benefits. If you see an empty tree pit, please do email me and let me know the address that it is closest to. If that’s tricky because, for example it’s at a junction, then please let me know the address as precisely as you can, and also add a ‘What 3 words‘ reference just to make sure officers can find it. Several tree pits that residents have sent me have already been replanted, and it gives me a lot of pleasure walking past them and seeing them grow.
As well as existing tree pits, there are also a few Council-owned areas of grass across the ward, which I’ve long hoped could be planted up in the future. Often these are bits of LBN housing land which form part of our old estates, commonly on the end of a building, and often with railings around a simple grassed area that is cut periodically. I have just heard back that one of those will be planted as part of next year’s planting schedule, and if this comes to fruition (pun not intended) then I hope to collect more green spaces across the ward where we could have more trees.
Planting more trees, and maintaining those that we already have, is a really important part of our work. (You can read a blog post I wrote about that last year, here.)
We’ve been planting 800 trees🌳across #Newham this Spring. On streets & in parks, thanks to grants from Treescapes & the Urban Tree Challenge Fund, helping make Newham greener & improving neighbourhoods
Talking of green space, I was really delighted to attend the ceremony to raise the Green Flag over Forest Lane Park recently. When I was doing the Environment cabinet role, we had just one Green Flag for Plashet Park , and were very proud of gaining it. So learning this year that we now have six, with plans for more, was great news.
This is the result of some really significant work and improvement at a borough level, including bringing our Greenspace services back in house. Forest Lane Park is a real asset to the ward, and although the playground which is next to Forest Lane is really well known and used, I do still meet people who aren’t aware of the green space behind it, or for example the woodland trail or the dipping pond. James raised the flag, and I also took some time to meet the officers who have done the hard work of improving and maintaining the park, letting them know how much we all appreciate them.
Community Assembly
As I’m typing, we just had the latest Community Assembly last night, where residents came along to hear about the projects that we all voted to allocate funding towards. The leaders of those projects were there, and available to talk to us about the work they were doing. Even with yesterday’s train strike impeding attendance somewhat, it was a great event and as ever a lovely chance to see up close the energy and commitment of so many Forest Gate residents. I’m a member of the Working Group which has an advisory role in overseeing the projects’ implementation, and will be pairing up with a few of them, so I’ll be feeding back more on these.
If you couldn’t make the assembly itself, you can still read all about the successful projects and progress online here.
Remembering Sophie
As part of the community assembly, we watched a video tribute to Sophie Rigg, who tragically died recently. It is very hard to know what to write here, and other people have spoken more eloquently and movingly about what her life and friendship and hard work meant to them. I knew Sophie through her contribution to Forest Gate Arts, and to the Community Garden. She was talented and brilliant but also quiet, never self-promoting, and a steadfast and enormously valued contributor to life in Newham. It was a privilege to have known her, and I know many other Forest Gate residents along with me will never forget her.
Collision at the station
There was a serious collision near Forest Gate station on the 26th October where tragically a pedestrian was hit by a vehicle and died. I met with officers from Highways the following week, and a blog post about that is available here which summarises the investigation that will now happen, and some additional work on safety that the Council will do, and which I’ll aim to be a part of. As I write this, there was another collision on Woodgrange Road this week, which fortunately did not result in a serious injury but as before, officers are aware and working with the police to establish what happened, and whether anything needs to change as a result.
Licensing
Inspired by some recent training, I did some live tweeting from a Licensing hearing this week, which you can read here if you’re minded to:
Am having a quick coffee before a Licensing hearing today. Not sure I have tweeted much about my (small) part in Licensing before, so I thought I’d try to do some live tweeting today. Hold onto your hats! #cllrlifepic.twitter.com/9OBHpXCgcF
It gives an account of my submission to Licensing, and the hearing itself. I share it not so much to share details about this individual case (although it is important as it’s at a currently problematic location where other businesses are the subject of various complaints), but more to show an aspect of the Councillor role that I do, and take very seriously as part of my responsibility to residents.
As I said in the thread above, I was very reassured in this case by meeting the applicants from the business, who were very friendly, knowledgeable and collaborative. This makes an enormous difference, and makes me feel much more hopeful that whatever the Licensing result, we can work together to make sure that the business and local residents can peacefully co-exist.
Parking on the marketplace
Anyone who follows me on social media will know that I am perpetually angry about the near-constant pavement parking on our lovely pavement at the marketplace at the junction of Woodgrange and Sebert Roads. My camera roll on my phone is full of pictures like the one above, and I have the number for Newham Parking Enforcement saved into my phone, regularly ringing them up to ask them to attend. If you pass by the marketplace too, then I’d urge you to do the same. As well as sending out officers, the data on where reports are made helps to show where problem areas are.
(Phone the Parking Enforcement Line on 020 3373 0660 or email Parking.EnforcementRequests@newham.gov.uk Parking Enforcement Service’s operational times are Monday to Saturday: 07:00 – 22.00 and Sunday and bank holidays: 08:00 – 21:00.)
I had a very helpful introductory meeting with the head of Parking Enforcement, who manages a very difficult and controversial role with considerable knowledge and tact. She is as accustomed to people saying that there is too much parking enforcement, as she is to people telling her that there is none / not enough. As ever, it’s probably helpful to write a reminder here that parking offences in all but a handful of quite specific cases are not allowed to be enforced by camera. In order to issue a PCN, an officer must physically visit, thanks to legislation that was introduced some time ago by Eric Pickles, specifically with the aim of limiting Council’s powers here as far as I can tell.
We have a few issues on the marketplace. There are vans that drive onto it every day in order to take deliveries, there are cars that park on the access way that leads down besides what used to be Fred’s / CoffeE7, and there are cars that drive onto it at night (or sometimes during the day) and use it as a free parking space. Of course one thing that can help is additional enforcement, which I’m constantly advocating for, and which calling the number above will help with.
One thing that sadly contributes towards parking here is the wide dropped-kerb at the corner, which some drivers claim they think is an access point. I’m in touch with Highways about installing some additional barriers here (perhaps a bollard, combined with a planter).The important thing is to still leave enough space for wheelchair users, people with buggies, etc, to use the dropped kerb, but to physically prevent cars from using it. I’m hopeful that this will cut down on some of the parking, but also feel quite strongly that I don’t think we should have to physically barricade in all of our public spaces in order to keep them free of vehicles! Needless to say, I’ll share more on this as soon as I have it.
Romford Road scheme
Although it’s outside the ward, there is a piece of working starting on Romford Road that I know many residents will be pleased to hear about, and may want to contribute their thoughts and ideas towards.
We all know that Romford Road is a key route across the borough, and is also quite notably unsafe not to say unpleasant to use as a pedestrian or cyclist. This piece of work aims to change that by improving the pavements, improving access for the many bus services that use the road, and adding a proper cycling route.
If you are interested in this project then do log onto Newham CoCreate and leave your comments. There is an interactive map where you can leave comments and ideas, and the more input we have there, the better.
Casework
I don’t share details about individual casework, for reasons of confidentiality, but suffice to say that things have been busy, particularly with being a lone councillor for the ward for a while. As always, if you need me to get back to you, please do email me. I do try to reply to DMs on social media, or to being tagged on Facebook or twitter, but these do go astray sometimes, whereas a request in my Inbox means that I will get back to you.
Looking at my casework recently, it has been, let’s say ‘rich and varied’. A steady stream of people who need homes, who are being evicted from their private rental accommodation, who have been bidding on the Council waiting list for some time and not been successful. I have enormous sympathy for these residents, often long term Forest Gaters who are being forced out of the area or who are remaining in overcrowded or inappropriate accommodation because they can’t afford anything else. I speak (again, without giving details) about these cases in almost every interaction I have with housing developers as part of my planning role, and tell them that what Newham needs is family sized accommodation, at social rent. I should add that of course going to a councillor does not give you any advantage in bidding for a Council home – the criteria for that are published and cannot be circumvented. But sometimes if something is going wrong or not working, or paperwork has been lost, or a resident is otherwise not able to get a response, I can intervene and try to get things moving again.
I’ve noticed a real increase in casework concerning repairs by Housing Associations. One particular Housing Association is taking up so much of my time in chasing up that I’ve started to become quite despairing. Of course I do also get casework from residents who are complaining, rightfully, that repairs that Newham should be carrying out are not being done. So I’m reluctant to immediately condemn anyone. But it’s also obvious to me that something is going really seriously wrong, and I’m advocating for residents as strongly as I can for repairs, timely updates on progress, realistic deadlines, and recompense where appropriate.
The End
Thank you for reading all the way through this ridiculously long report. I am not sure whether I should apologise for the length… as an apology would suggest that I’ll do it differently next time. Perhaps I’m just inherently someone who writes long ward updates, and I should embrace that part of me and not deny it!
For shorter updates, you can follow me on twitter whilst it still exists. Also do subscribe to this blog or check back periodically to read my occasional shorter pieces as they come out. But in the meantime, full on ward reports are always there for those nights when insomnia threatens and you need something to help you drop off….
Many of you will be aware that last week there was a tragic collision near Forest Gate station, where very sadly a female pedestrian was struck by a vehicle and lost her life. Some of you contacted me to express your concern about this, and told me your worries that the temporary lights that were in place could have contributed to this terrible event.
I’ve been in touch with colleagues in Highways, and reiterated to them how worried Forest Gate residents are about road safety. I also pointed out how important this place where Forest Lane meets Woodgrange Road is, it’s one of our busiest pedestrian crossings, pedestrians have to wait some time for a green man, cars often jump the red lights, and of course it’s right by the station, as well as two pubs and Forest Gate community school.
When a death occurs on the road, it’s vital that the situation is investigated properly, and various processes immediately come into play. Last Thursday, officers from Highways met with the police at the junction, and checked what was happening there . This included looking at the Thames Water works, and the temporary lights that had been installed. They also checked this against the traffic management plan that any utility company needs to provide if they want to do work like this.
The Director in charge of Highways wanted to emphasise to me that road safety is an absolute priority, and although all the right processes have been followed, he plans that the team will now dedicate more time and resources to checking roadworks like this one, both before and after they are installed. In particular, they’ll be doing more work to check traffic management plans before works are given permission.
There will now be a Serious Collision Investigation, which is a police investigation run on a London wide level. This can take some considerable time, but we are hopeful that the progress of this investigation might be easier because apparently a local business has some very high quality CCTV, which will form part of the evidence that is examined. As with all these police matters, it’s important not to prejudge the outcome of that investigation, but once it’s taken place, a prosecution could potentially result from it.
Officers also want to arrange in the meantime, to sit down for a ‘lessons learnt’ meeting with the police and Thames Water.
I highlighted also a persistent issue where cars turning right from Forest Lane jump the lights, and end up trying to cross the pedestrian crossing right by the rotunda, as pedestrians are walking across. I said that although drivers do ignore instructions in various places, it does seem to be a particular problem here, and was exacerbated (in my laywoman’s opinion) by the fact that the phasing, or timing of the lights means that pedestrians wait a reasonably long time for a relatively small amount of crossing time. Longer term Forest Gaters may remember that this used to be even shorter: you used to basically have to jog across the road to make it in time. So this is better than it was, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be improved further.
Officers are liaising with the police, and with a particular named contact there on road safety, and will discuss with him whether the police could take some action against drivers jumping the red lights there. In addition, the Newham road safety team will take a look at the whole junction, assess how the design is all working, and make any recommendations they think are necessary. I’ve asked to come along and attend this site visit when it happens, so I can both see the discussions but also highlight the experiences of pedestrians here.
The post above is from my notes from a conversation, and any errors in it are mine and not the fault of officers, who are similarly distressed by this, and working hard to do whatever we can to make sure people are safe crossing the road here.
I would like to extend my most heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the person who was killed there last week. If anyone has any queries about the above, I can’t guarantee that I’ll know the answers, but I can certainly try to find out.
Next week, residents who live in the Eastern side of Forest Gate North ward (the area bounded by Sebert Road, Woodgrange Road, Capel Road, and Ridley Road. As ever, no calling this ‘the village’!) will receive a leaflet giving an update about the next stage for the proposed Woodgrange and Capel Low Traffic Neighbourhoods or LTNs. If this term is entirely new to you, there is information in the leaflet, but also I wrote a blog post here that explains, albeit imperfectly, the concept of an LTN.
‘Capel and Woodgrange LTNs’ were previously sometimes called LTNs 5 & 6, and have been renamed for clarity but also I think, perhaps in a spirit of ambition: perhaps in future there will be so many Newham LTNs that a numbering system would become confusing? Certainly the older LTNs, which exist right across Newham, were not called LTNs or indeed numbered, they are so much a part of the furniture that we often don’t notice the series of bollards and road closures which prevent cars from cutting through in various key places.
Residents in this area might remember that there was a street survey asking for opinions about what the area is like at the moment. You might have also noticed (as I have) those cables that run across various roads being installed and uninstalled at various points. This was all part of capturing information, both data on traffic numbers but also qualitative information about how people feel about how our streets feel to walk and cycle along.
This leaflet is the next stage: it summarises what we have found out, suggests an LTN as a way of tackling some of the issues raised, and explains what happens next.
I am, as regular blog readers will know, a strong advocate of measures that improve our roads for people walking, scooting, wheeling and cycling, and hence am also a strong supporter of LTNs. I know that not everyone feels the same way, but quite apart from the pleasant aspects of quieter, more peaceful roads, there is also an important issue of environmental and social justice here too. I honestly believe that over the next few years we will need to make really significant changes to the way that we live in order to adapt our lives to try to limit climate change, and changing how we move around, and adjusting our assumptions about who drives, and when and why on residential roads in London and other cities will be a vital part of that.
That said, I know that any changes to road space will raise concerns and questions, many of those from people who share the aims above but want to make sure that any changes are practical, and work as well as they can. People are often worried about emergency services access, for example, or access for disabled people. These issues are really important, and liaising with emergency services and with disabled residents and organisations is a vital and ongoing part of the work that colleagues in highways are doing as they work on a design. Along with other councillor colleagues, and officers, I’ll try my very best to answer as many queries as I can, to listen to concerns and worries and complaints, to pass on ideas for improvements, to flag up issues that we can resolve, and to generally engage in collaboration so that we can make our roads work together, for everyone, in the best way that we can.
You can see the leaflet that is going out using this link:
There is, needless to say, more information coming out. The next stage will be to share the proposed LTN design: to show where the proposed filters are. As soon as I have information on this I will share it.
In the meantime, there is information about the impact of previous LTNs in the leaflet, or if you’re curious to see an LTN in action, it’s easy to do so: just cross Woodgrange Road into the roads that go west towards Stratford.
PS: I can’t write this post without acknowledging, again, the ongoing disruption caused by the negotiations about refuse collectors’ pay, and the strike. This is, as we expected, meaning that bin collections are of course disrupted as we catch up, but also resulting in less street cleaning, and the ongoing suspension of services like bulky waste collection and Love Clean Streets reporting. I’m really sorry about the inconvenience caused by this, and saddened to see our streets looking less cared for, but also I, and I know many residents too, entirely respect the rights of the refuse workers (and any workers) to strike, and to ask for better pay. I also think that whilst the negotiations go on, it’s important that work continues on all other other areas that the Council works on, and this is part of that.
You may well already be aware that Newham refuse collectors are on strike for a week, from the 27th August to the 3rd September.
This means that rubbish collection, recycling collections, as well as street cleaning, and other waste related services are all disrupted, both during the strike and also afterwards as the service catches up and gets back to normal.
The very best way to manage, if possible, is to reduce as much as possible the amount of waste that your household produces. Colleagues in the waste team have provided a range of information about how to do this, which you can find online here: www.newham.gov.uk/wasteadvice
But if you produce more household waste than you can safely store during the strike, there are a number of drop-off points across the borough that you can take bagged up household rubbish to. There are only a relatively small number of these because in order to create temporary sites, we need to make various arrangements including getting Environment Agency permission.
Temporary drop-off sites
Between Saturday 27 August and Sunday 11 September, residents can take their bagged household rubbish to one of the following Temporary Waste Drop-Off Sites at:
Little Ilford Park Service Area, Reynolds Avenue, E12 6JU
Shaftesbury Road Car Park, 85 Shaftesbury Road, E7 8PD
Church St Car Park in front of shops, 30-46 Church Street, E15 3HU
Freemasons Road / Coolfin Road Car Park in front of shops, 78 Coolfin Rd, E16 3BE
The Temporary Waste Drop-Off Sites are open daily, 7am to 8pm
Jenkins Lane Re-use and Recycling Centre is also open for residents to take their waste to.
This is the blog of Rachel Tripp, a Labour councillor for Forest Gate North in the London Borough of Newham.
First created as a joint blog with colleagues Ellie Robinson and Seyi Akiwowo, Rachel has now taken it over to post updates and information including ward reports, events, meetings, and anything else that might be interesting.
I hope that you find it useful; please get in touch and let me know what you think.
Forest Gate North - Rachel Tripp's councillor blog 