Why.,...

Here is an example of the bulky waste that persists in Millhaven Close. Has anyone any ideas how we can stop this happening...?

I have reported it to your local NHW coordinator and the Street Scene team.

They seek him here they seek him there!

Wilson introducing the Redbridge Carnival court at the Area 5 Festival

Image of the elusive Jesse Boucher (centre)

I hope residents from the Area 5 committee perimeter ended enjoyed our event held yesterday at Barley Lane Recreation Ground....? I was part of the organising committee and also arranged the attendance of the Carnival Queen and Princess who engaged with people all day, facilitating a meet and greet service whilst distributing free programmes. They were elegant, well spoken true ambassadors of our Borough and even took responsibility for the listings for the children's jumping competition. As I have mentioned previously they are not beauty queens but here to serve the community of Redbridge for its betterment. In the picture you will see the Carnival court with the elusive Jesse Boucher, who I met for the first time and extended a hand of friendship too. He introduced himself and his wife and I have to say they were a lovely couple to meet with. I hope they enjoyed the event which was a lot of hard work to put together, they like all residents were worth the effort.

The incumbent Liberal Councillors made the most of the day by holding surgeries, whilst excluding and opposition parties from holding their own stalls. However, personally I did not feel this was the type of event to get political and so just happily worked with the Girl's to make everyones day as enjoyable as possible. I did practice the art of sword fighting with the Sikh display team as i was outnumbered by Liberal and Labour Councillors and associates...heh,heh!

I also recruited a team willing to provide protection as below:

In truth the councillors and i settled are differences and enjoyed a day out together and they

All kindly posed with the new Carnival court. Now that's what such events are about "Community Cohesion and I for one was proud of being involved in a landmark for our area. Thanks and praise should also be given to Antoinette Davis from and Alison Selby from Redbridge Council, Colleen (PTA Chairman) and Andy Caretaker at Barley Lane Primary School, Mr Hundal from South East Gurdwaras and all the other committee members. It would be good to have some feedback on the vent and I am hoping some of you might write some comments...?

As always our most profuse thanks to the most Excellent Chadwell safer Neighbourhood Police Team who are worth their weight in gold!

Park Lane repairs

There was a real shoddy area of road surface near the end of Park Lane by St Chads Park - reported in previous post. One piece of the road in particular had become rather dangerous. Our energetic and enthusiastic reactive maintenance have already repaired this section and will be working on an additional 3 repairs in the next 28 days. Please see response from a senior highways officer:

"Wilson, Ajay has now inspected and will shortly issue works orders to repair four patches of carriageway. One patch should be repaired within three working days, the other three less dangerous patches should be repaired within twenty eight working days."

I hope you are all pleased with this result which makes local trips to the park a much safer excursion. Especially when you consider the high footfall of younger visitors to parks.

Did you notice this one Jesse....?

I remember in my youth going to school and singing songs about Jesse James. He was meant to be a real sharp shooter and the song was a positive eulogy that made him sound like a regular western Robin Hood, robbing from the rich to give to the poor. Such legend is probably mistaken for an outlaw who eventually was shot down by a purported friend. Anyway to get to the point...I am wondering if eagle eyed Jesse Boucher of the "Lib's" really reports any of the graffiti in the ward or if the word "rarely" would be more appropriate. Do tell...

The box above has been reported to the Streetscene team by your friendly neighbourhood Spiderman - well actually is was just moi just wanted to carry on some of the fictional tales you ahve been hearing of late.

For those of you who share a similar age to me and sang the Jesse James song in school assembly - I remind you of the words:

Jesse James was a lad who killed many a man
He robbed the Glendale train;
He stole from the rich and he gave to the poor
He'd a hand and a heart and a brain.

Chorus: Poor Jesse had a wife to mourn for his life,
Three children, they were brave;
But that dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard
Has laid poor Jesse in his grave.

It was Robert Ford, that dirty little coward;
I wonder how he does feel
For he ate of Jesse's bread
and he slept in Jesse's bed
Then laid poor Jesse in his grave.

Chorus

Jesse was a man, a friend to the poor
He never would see a man suffer pain,
And with his brother Frank
he robbed the Chicago bank,

Chorus

It was his brother Frank
that robbed the Gallatin bank,
And carried the money from the town;
It was in this very place that they had a little race,
For they shot Captain Sheets to the ground.

Chorus

They went to the crossing
not very far from there,
And there they did the same;
With the agent on his knees, he delivered up the keys
To the outlaws, Frank and Jesse James.

Chorus

It was on Saturday night,
Jesse was at home
Talking with his family brave,
Robert Ford came along like a thief in the night
And laid poor Jesse in his grave.

Chorus

The people held their breath
When they heard of Jesse's death
And wondered how he ever came to die.
It was one of the gang called little Robert Ford
He shot poor Jesse on the sly.

Chorus

This song was made by Billy Gashade,
As soon as the news did arrive;
He said there was no man with the law in his hand
Who could take Jesse James when alive.

Chorus

I hope you enjoy singing it as I have writing it down for you!

Wilson and Isla to the rescue -spare our blushes!

If you click on the image above you will see two bits of graffiti either side of Isla Martin. The bizarre thing is that this picture was taken at the recent RNWA meeting held at the Jack Crater Pavilion. I will bet no-one else noticed the problem from amongst all the Community crime fighters present (including Police), but your two Chadwell hawks, were not going to let the young scallywags who wrote the mess on the walls - get away with it! It has been reported to the Streetscene team who I am sure, will remove the offensive items! Perhaps our two Liberal Counterparts Jesse Boucher and whoever the other person is would like to comment - maybe they have already reported it...? I wonder........hmmmm.....

Community Crime Fighters!

Inspector Darville and Lisa Cherry (Borough Watch Manager)

Last night I chaired the AGM for the Redbridge Neighbourhood Watch Association at the Jack Carter Pavillion, Barkingside. There are now 298 watches with a purported 40,000 homes under their vigilence in Redbridge (I have personally initiated 15 in Chadwell/Seven Kings and Mayfield). Redbridge has the fastest rate of growth of NHW's in London. These meetings were notoriously long, as constitutional ammendments have previously been argued meticuously. However for the first time in 3 years, we completed the meeting at around 21:30 instead of 23:00, as it seems all watches are now starting to back the new younger look panel.


I was last night asked to provide a presentation detailing how the group almost debanded but for the hard work of Alex Bailey (secretary) Isla Martin (Joint Treasurer and Green Activist!), Simon Hampshire (Joint Treasurer), Lisa Cherry (Borough Watch Manager), Tippi Maravalla (Area Co-ordinator), Wilson himself and our Honorary President Harmegh Rattan (MBE). Now it seems a new dawn has begun for what once was an ailing group!


Over 60 watches were represented on the night and due to surplus funds in our accounts, we rewarded NH Watches with a box of white paper each, as a gift towards the printing of their regular newsletters.


Co-ordinators were thanked for their efforts and were advised that tangible evidence existed correlating a reduction in crime with the presence of a local NHW. Guest speakers included Phil Walby form the Redbridge ASBO team who advised people of the service and how it could benefit them. Surprisingly few watches new of their existence..? This gave me great pleasure as I invited Phil realising few peopel in the borough barring Chadwell Residents of course new of their existence. We also had Dave Quinton from the MET Police and Redbridge Council endorsed "Buy with Confidence" scheme. He talked about his website

http://www.buywithconfidence.gov.uk/ that provided Redbridge residents with an opportunity to selected contracor's that have been vetted in a stringent process that involves obtaining references, accreditation checks and Criminal Record Bureau checks. He also talked about the "Consumer Advice" and Trading standards service. Both these speakers stayed to answer questions and were thanked for their contribution by visitors.


Inspector Darville opened the meeting and left straight after the presentation without a question and answer opportunity. The lack of any police presence for the rest of the meeting raised the ire of the attendees and resulted in a clamour for a motion to be passed for better police presence at future meetings and an opportunity to pose questions. Another motion was set that indicated the RNWA apprehension to the Police split of the Borough into 3 areas in juxtaposition to the 7 Area committes set by the council. It was felt that a system in tandem with the Council's 7 Areas would serve better purpose.


After its official launch in August 2007 no real progress has been made with the group. Now it would seem, we finally have the support of all the watches. A funding application to the Home office has been submitted and we hope to hear soon of confirmation that we have secured close to £10,000 for a boroughwide "No to Bogus callers" Campaign and a budget for marketing. If successful we will be the only borough within our neighbours to have success with these Grant scheme. The funding application was produced by Lisa Cherry and myself conjunctively. We still have over 30 boxes of paper to distribute to local NHW's please contact me if you are interested.

From left to right Lisa Cherry Borough Watch Commander, 3 NHW Co-ordinators, Harmegh Rattan MBE (Honorary President), Phil Walby Redbridge ASBO Officer, Dave Quinton (Buy with Confidence), Alex Bailey (secretary RNWA), Isla Martin (Joint Treasurer RNWA), Simon Hampshire (Joint Treasurer RNWA), Wilson Chowdhry Chairman RNWA)

There was some fun and games at the end of the evening!

Councillor Staight and Councillor Maravalla endorse BNP Vice Chiarman!

This mans choice of Vice Chairman is a BNP Councillor!

I have been working hard promoting community cohesion using both Redbridge Carnival and working with the "Hope Not Hate" campaigners. All this work is to be rendered futile when men in senior leadership like Cllr Staight and Cllr Maravalla ,throw this all back in our faces and endorse a vice-chairman for a Council Cycling liaison group (reported in Ilford Recorder). This whole debacle has embarrassed the Council no end is the product of misguided politics. Candidates were available but no-one selected Cllr Maravalla or Cllr Ronald Bardon due to their political allegiances. What was the Chairman Cllr Staight thinking of? Why was this allowed to happen in the same borough in which we learn that Redbridge Council has been using derogatory words for members of the Pakistani Community?


This is the latest in a long list of council blunders and I believe we need some wholesale changes to the existing leadership, if we are to see any real improvement in our borough. Leaders that are in tune with the cultural diversity and the community needs that are so easily traced, but oh so often ignored...!

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