Rome was not built in one day!

There are ambitious plans to rejuvenate Ilford High Road (the route of an ancient roman road) including areas of Seven Kings and Chadwell Heath. Council Officers have commissioned a company called Meadowcroft Griffin to survey the route and the hope is that fresh life will be brought into an ailing secondary shopping centre.

Wilson has been promoting this are via council led "Business Redbridge Forums" over the last 3 years and is very pleased that finally a glimmer of hope is on the horizon. There have been previous programmes and strategies for the area that have made little difference, so don't count your chickens just yet.

We will keep you informed of progress - in the meanwhile more details can be found by following this link: click!

National Grit Stock Crises

Redbridge residents were made to suffer during February from the lack of effective preparatory work by our Highways team. As a National Grit Stock crises resulted in priority deliveries being made to the National Highways Agency for the safe maintenance of UK Motorways, local councils up and down the country were helpless as demands for salt stock were regularly being rejected.

I made a request for information on where grit resources were being allocated locally and was advised that primary routes, bus routes, specific vulnerable locations and other side roads had predefined; such that no home is more than 500 metres from a treated route, I was also informed that generally they do not treat footways but do attend to areas of high footfall such as town centres and schools etc. Meanwhile motorists and pedestrians alike were putting their lives at risk trying to awaken a sleeping economy suffering from the impact of global recession and the economic standstill that freak weather conditions naturally induce.

Judging by the more rigorous response to the winter snowfall in Barking and Dagenham, I would surmise that the additional equipment and staff resourced by LBBD has proved worthwhile. In Redbridge pavement areas around schools, colleges, supposedly safe crossings, bus stops and other high footfall regions became treacherous, posing a real threat to the safety of vulnerable groups such as children, the aged and disabled communities. At one particular zebra crossing on Green Lane (a main arterial route, and gateway to the east of England) a particularly dangerous icy decline into the road led to a wash of black ice that threatened to cause the sliding of users of the crossing into the path of moving traffic. Moreover, I am flabbergasted at the failure of Redbridges Highway team to grit around Chadwell Primary school on the High Road, which placed children and their parents at risk and is a contravention of the council’s own gritting policy?! At the time of the snow, I regrettably had to advise local residents with any form of physical impediment - preventing confident travel, to seek assistance when traveling or to wait for the ice to thaw.

I raised this concern with the Area 6 and they have asked for a response from the Highways team which I shall inform you of in due course. In the meanwhile I advise that it has been confirmed that the High Footfall area around Chadwell Heath High Road (especially around Chadwell Heath primary School) will not be overlooked in future.

Source: click.

Stealth taxes on local families

In the recent budget proposed for 2009/2010 our conservative cabinet have sunk to an all time low! The list of concerns is huge but those that are more pertinent include:

• Withdrawal of the uniform budget - this will impact on poor families.
• Increases in charges for care services- this will impact on the most vulnerable in our communities.
• Reduction in community safety budget and staff - at a time when crime is increasing this seems bizarre?
• Potential increases in Parking charges and penalty fares - the cabinet have still not resolved the issue of providing change from machines?
• Pay and Display booths in Parks and Libraries - increasing further the cost of driving.
• Reductions in planned highways maintenance - when already we are seeing more and more potholes -see article on blog
• The council have agreed to continue with a £2,000,000 marketing Budget?
• I am concerned that ther is still no propsed investment for an Ilford south Swimming Pool?
• I also would prefer a larger devoluted budget for use by local Area Committees.

Whilst the budget was discussed during an Area 6 Meetings Wilson had proposed that the Redbridge Life Magazine should be scrapped as no-one reads it anyway. These funds could be allocated towards the rejuvenation of our local roads.

Swimming Pool Fiasco!

Many residents of Chadwell will be aware that Wilson Chowdhry was the first person in the Borough to question the profligacy of our Conservative Cabinet - displayed in particular by the purchase of two new jaguars worth in excess of £140,000 and the their ludicrous scheme to introduce a 50m Swimming Pool. Wilson has never opposed having a swimming pool but highlighted the need for a descaling of the size of the proposed centre to reduce costs to a rational level - especially as their was to be no Olympic funding towards the scheme and the Olympic Committee had expressed to our council that nay 50m Pool would not be used for training by foreign or home athletes in the build up to the Olympics! A more parsimonious spend on a 25m pool would save costs and the surplus could be utilised to invest in parks to on Tennis and Cricket nets and other play areas so that we could encourage the development of a wider amount of Olympic and high profile world sports. Wilson appeared on a lunchtime BBC news story about this issue in December 2007- why not view it by following this link?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2007/02/20/southpark_feature.shtml

Our liberal Councillors wrote a story about the £1.3m consultancy bid for a project that does not seem able to proceed and the lost PFI opportunity in their recent . I wrote a similar article back in December 2007? Perhaps now the Chadwell community can recognise the need for change?

Toothless Tigers

I am pleased to inform Residents that Chadwell is becoming a telecoms mast "No Go Area". In our Previous Area 5 Committee Meeting no telephone operator applied for a mast on any Chadwell Road. This is the first time I have ever seen a ward completely missed out - especially at the Area 5 committee. I personally believe this is because of the sterling work of Chadwell residents galvanised as one voice - via the literature I regularly use to communicate such concerns locally. We have won many battles stopping the mast proposed near Redbridge College Inverclyde Gardens and Overton Drive. It seems now the large corporate organisations fear even voicing an interest in Chadwell. This is evidence of the value of people power and I will continue to inform Chadwell people of any future potential diabolical telecom mast threat. Lets hope our Liberal Councillors eventually recognise that we don't want these items in our ward(they argued so belligerently for the additional column on Barley Lane recently - I Wonder what was driving this craving?), as we already have enough to service operator need - as it seems we have finally convinced them to share!

Press report.

Misleading stories - read this to avoid disappointment

You may have read in a recent Liberal Focus (the official newsletter for Chadwell Liberal Party), that Redbridge Council has been trying to recruit Lollipop men for four of our local schools including;

• Chadwell Primary School - High Road
• Barley Lane Primary - Barley lane
• St Bedes Primary - Chadwell Heath Lane
• Grove Primary - Chadwell Heath Lane

And that the application process is open to potential candidates?

This information is incorrect, on several occasions suitable candidates have been selected and lost due to a delay on obtaining enhanced Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) reports.

I am the director of a very successful Security company and have advised the borough Human Resources department, that when recruiting new officers I am able to attain CRB checks within 4- 6 weeks. The Council is having delays in excess of 6 months for some candidates.

The chief officer recruiting Lollipop staff for LBR has agreed to investigate this issue by contacting other London Borough recruitment Departments, to uncover the reasons for this unacceptable delay and source best practice. I have suggested that it could be incomplete or incorrect applications or the use of an inadequate agency to source the reports.

At the moment the recruitment process for these roles is sedentary although applications are being accepted till the 31st of March. This is due to the fact that suitable candidates have been selected. Some of the shortlisted candidates may decline the offer due to delay in receiving the CRB check, resulting in other suitable employment. To furnish you with details of the role I include a web link:

http://www.redbridge.gov.uk/jobs/searchapply/details.asp?job_id=24

Alternatively call Karen Hayes on 020 8708 3632
Please do not feel disappointed if you are rejected as currently candidates have already been selected.

Details of all council vacancies can be obtained from:

http://www.redbridge.gov.uk/jobs/searchapply/index.asp.

Events in Redbridge

There are a number of Redbridge Events occurring this Summer if you want more details follow this link: http://www.redbridge.gov.uk/cms/Leisure__Culture.aspx.

Redbridge Carnival returns on the 5th and 6th of September and will be held in Valentines Park this Year. It as free event and will hold a circus, funfair, large performance stage and free sports activities. There will also be a Sunday procession travelling along the high Road and Clements Road, before entering Valentines Park via Cranbrook Road. For more details visit www.redbridgecarnival.org.uk

Last year in the BD Recorder
And the Wanstead & Woodford Guardian