In mid-September we hosted our first-ever Older People's Fair at Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch, to bring together a huge range of support groups from across Havering. The fair was incredibly well-supported by the community and we are very grateful to Queen's for hosting, for all those stallholders and residents who joined us for the afternoon and to the local choir who entertained visitors with their repertoire of show tunes. We hope now to make this an annual event. The Fair was designed to assist older people within the community, those caring for an elderly friend or relative and those preparing to retire to meet and engage with key public services and organisations that may be helpful to them.
Over the summer we were thrilled to announce the Government’s £17m investment in the new health and wellbeing hub on the St. George’s hospital site and last month, the Government announced a further £2.8b for the building of 6 new hospitals, including a rebuild at Whipps Cross Hospital. Whilst not within the constituency, this rebuild will help reduce the pressure felt by North-East London Hospitals and our local Queen’s Hospital. As we look forward to these future health centres, it is important that we ensure our existing services are operating well and are responsive to constituents’ experiences and Havering Healthwatch perform a vital service in supporting this. We were pleased to attend the launch of their Friends Network last week and encourage constituents to share their experiences, positive or otherwise, with Havering Healthwatch so that they may be relayed to service providers.
In other news, we had a very productive meeting with TfL in Westminster and impressed upon them our determination to see the improvements at Gallows Corner realised. We also attended The Thames Estuary Growth Day aimed at encouraging stakeholders to work collaboratively to deliver vital infrastructure, homes and jobs to achieve the growth and exciting potential of the Thames Estuary.
Published in the Romford Recorder - Friday 18 October 2019
