More Road works??!!

I write to remind your that road works at the end of the High Road leading to Cranbrook Road will continue until September. The works are their to create a new right hand bus lane to reduce the need to travel the Ilford Hill Loop -this is good news for Redbridge Carnival as it will be ready for use by us for our procession on the 6th September 2009.

There is also some gas works being undertaken along Cranbrook Road opposite the entrance to York Road. This work should be completed within a week. Do try and avoid this route to reduce travel delay.

Save Our Streets!

I was invited to the News of the World road show at which the London street crime was discussed and debated by leading Police, Doctors, victims and their families, MP's and the general public.

The event proved to be very polarised and people came with serious concerns, hoping that their input might effect some change to the diabolical nature of existing street culture and poor community quality of life.


TV Actress Linda Robson (formerly with Birds of a Feather) spoke openly about her son's traumatic experince, being the last person to cradle Ben Kinsella as he died. Linda has stated that if she is not booked, she would be willing to talk on the futility of knife crime at our Redbridge Carnival event on the 5th and 6th September 2009.
At the event I spoke about the Redbridge Peace Monument project I am championing, to commemorate the victims of violent crime in Redbridge while providing a poignant reminder of the consequences of knife and gun use. I also spoke to press officers afterwards and stated that I beleive that the MP's Victims and their families and leading police and doctors involved in the aftermath of such crime should be funded to speak to young children within our schools, as an early intervention measure. In tandem thay should also be encouraged to talk to the perpetrators of such crime, ian an effort to open their minds to the real hurt and pain their actions have caused. Having spoken to the 3 mothers who have lost teenagers to knife crime in Redbridge, I am well aware of the impact their words can have.

Mayfield School Multicultural Day

I was asked to speak about community cohesion and the impact Redbridge Carnival has on bringing communities together, at the wonderful Mayfield School Multicultural Day.

For your information Redbridge Carnival returns to Valentines Park on the 5th and 6th September from 12:00 - 20:00 both days and will be a free entry event.

Whilst there I met our Worshipful Mayor of Redbridge Councillor Chan, who was full of good humour and spoke about the Council's view of Community Cohesion.

The army and the Fire service provided demonstrations and fun events. I think I got a little carried away...!

I impressed the Army recruiting division on site as I am 34 and beat a 16 year old on an assault course for which he had previously undergone extensive training on. I was also told by a TA responsible for the workshop that my grenade lob was the lengthiest of any civilian he had encountered. I was best pleased!

Redbridge Neighbourhood Watch Association

The Redbridge Neighbourhood Watch Association is an overarching support, guidance and learning organisation for all Neighbourhood Watches in Redbridge. Neighbourhood Watches are not automatically members and must indicate that they would like to join (please contact me if you would like to join). The group has been stagnant for a while, however I have recently been made Chairman and in partnership with the core Area Coordinators including Alex Bailey, Isla Martin, Simon Hampshire, Tippi Marravala and Irene Thompson, things seem to be moving at an extremely fast pace. We are just about to launch a new website which will be viewable from http://www.rnwa.net/ in the next few weeks. In time we hope to include contact details and links to website for all NHW's whilst assisting them with developing individual websites. We also hope to arrange a network page for all watch Coordinators.

In conjunction with Lisa Cherry Borough Watch Manager Alex Bailey and I have produced some funding applications (see picture taken today) that if successful, may allow us to distribute crime prevention devices to NHW's in Redbridge - whilst also increasing the number of networking and training meetings for Watch leaders (Coordinators) in the Borough. This would be a big leap for our organisation and a mammoth one for watches in the Borough. We would also hope to distribute stationary to support new and established watches. Watch this space.......