My first visit of 2023 has been to see the Emergency Department and Urgent Treatment Centre at Queen’s Hospital to talk through with their leadership and medical teams some of the challenges we need to work on together - from demand, staffing, delays and the patient experience to how to bring about improvements.
Just before Christmas, I took Havering’s Council Leader to see the Local Government Minister to highlight his concerns about cost pressures, especially from social services and social care. Following that intervention, extra money has been confirmed by Communities Secretary, Michael Gove, and Havering’s core spending power will grow next year by 9.5% from £200m to £219m. We also have confirmation of a £2.46m grant to Havering to prevent homelessness. I was glad to see the Council Leader reflect publicly on how positive the meeting had been.
We are also calling on residents to support some of our key campaigns - particularly our drive to stop the sale of Hornchurch Police Station by the Mayor of London. We believe we must retain this critical policing base for some of the 350 new officers who have joined our Borough Command Unit, so that they can improve neighbourhood policing responses. We have launched a petition after the new Met Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, started a review of the Met’s operations and we hope with residents’ support that we can reverse Mayor Khan’s 2017 decision to sell. The issue is particularly important after local concerns have been expressed about robbery and burglaries in Emerson Park. This followed a spate of crimes which caused alarm among residents. Our London Assembly Member, Cllr Keith Prince, hosted a community meeting on this before Christmas and I have followed up with our Borough Police Commander.
Residents have continued to make clear to us their very strong opposition to the expansion of the Mayor’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone to Havering. Once the Mayor has the equipment in place to impose vehicle charges, we are very worried he will seek to bring more cars into the charging system at a time when TfL’s public transport offer in Havering is simply not good enough to replace car journeys. We are calling on Havering Council to back the boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Harrow and Hillingdon, which have all publicly called on the Mayor to demonstrate the lawfulness of his plan and the data behind it. I have also pressed the Mayor to take more action to reduce Transport for London’s (TfL’s) own emissions by increasing the electrification of his bus fleet and improving the public transport network in outer London.
On Friday 10 February, I will be hosting an Apprenticeships Fair from 10.00am-13.00pm at Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch, in partnership with the Romford Job Centre Plus. This exciting event will showcase some of the fantastic apprenticeship opportunities available for Havering residents from many local and national employers. These will include Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, MTR Elizabeth Line, Met Police, V&A Museum and Stansted Academy. For more information, please do check out my website.
