As you will be aware, recent rioting in London has left many communities picking up the pieces as homes and small businesses have been damaged.

Both young and old are being trialled by the courts to the full extent of the law, meanwhile much of our media has sought to align the words ‘young’ and ‘violent’ in every headline.

To the contrary, it’s important to acknowledge the majority of our young people condemned the violence and in Woolwich for example, were instrumental in cleaning up the day after.

Luckily there were minimal disturbances in Havering, only one reported isolated incident in Romford on Monday 8th.

Following the first night of violence, the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was the first Party Leader on the streets, visiting Tottenham along with Labour MP David Lammy to talk to residents. He then visited Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool and attended meetings with police and cabinet ministers.

Politicians of all colours have sought to blame anyone but themselves despite high rates of unemployment for decades, large gang culture and strenuous relations between police and the young in places like Hackney and Peckham.

It’s in these areas that we are putting more money into schools with disadvantaged children, expanding apprenticeships, and increasing the provision of early years education.

Knee-jerk reactions of taking away social housing from accused young criminals as some Labour and Conservatives Councils in Manchester and Wandsworth have done will lead to more poverty and likely more crime. I hope this is something we don’t see here.

In Havering we must take this opportunity to look at how we and the police engage and encourage aspiration in young people, and we will be asking the council to look again at planned cuts to the youth service – see our petition at www.is.gd/saveouryouth.

It may have been a dreary Sunday, but that didn’t hold back the spirits of the Cranham Lib Dem team taking up the task of cleaning up some litter across the ward.

Two weeks ago when taking a walkabout, I noticed the top of Front Lane looking quite shabby with a plethora of litter and in particular a milk bottle!  

I’ve always been proud to live in such a well kept place, but there seems to be some spots that build up rubbish and it takes quite a while for it to get sorted.  Having enough bins, equipment to loan to street teams, and active councilors are all issues we should look at.

Aside from Front Lane there’s also Moor Lane, particularly among grass verges outside properties.  There’s only one bin down the whole long road, near Tern Gardens.  As a large number of school students going to and from Hall Mead School pass this way (and with Tescos between home and school), it may be an area that needs to be looked at.

We set upon clearing up some streets between these two set borders and here’s a little evidence of our work – I actually quite enjoyed it!  With more help, we can cover a larger area next time.

Streets included:

• Front Lane
• Moor Lane
• Cranham Gardens
• Limerick Gardens
• Kings Gardens
• Brunswick Avenue (where we found a whole extra smelly bag of food waste on the pavement)
• The Crescent
• Roseberry Gardens

Plans for a new leisure centre in Romford, replacing the Romford Ice Arena are impressive and certainly if market research has shown that there is a demand for it, should be a great addition to Brooklands Ward covering both Romford and Rush Green.

However, Liberal Democrats have deep reservations upon whether the council will provide an alternative ice rink for some of London’s best figure skaters and the 300 adults and children on the Learn To Skate programme, encouraging active sport and time between parent and child, based at the Ice Arena.

The 23 year old Romford Ice, Dancing and Figure Skating Club can’t fall to pieces whilst new facilities are in waiting.  Lib Dems believe that new Government Levies and external investment could cover the cost of temporary facilities for the borough’s skaters to keep them on the ice through London’s Olympic celebrations and for the future.

Conservative Council Leader Michael White stated in June that he “would look at providing alternative provision for skaters while the new ice rink was being built”.

However, Council Officers have since written to users stating that it was unlikely a temporary rink would be provided by the Council.

We urge the Conservative-run Council to seek the funding needed to keep our skaters on ice.

Living in Cranham for over a decade, I’ve seen buses miss the loop around Waycross Road and stood waiting for a bus double the waiting time.  A lot of the time we all just grumble and carry on, rather than raising a fuss.  Some of us don’t even know where we’d go to raise a complaint if we got so incensed about it.

Cranham Liberal Democrats will be knocking on doors over the next month to ask you your thoughts on transport and travel.  From raised paving, to speeding cars, to bus and train travel we want to know your opinions.

This is your chance to air your grievances so don’t miss out!

We’ll pop a survey through your door which can be returned to us either by leaving it poked out of your letterbox (we’ll return within the hour) or by post if you haven’t the time there and then.

Alternatively, if you have a computer you can answer the survey now by clicking on the Your Say: Survey Link on the menu above and clicking the ‘Cranham Transport Survey’ header to unveil the survey!

Havering Council’s recently been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons: council officer fraud, lavish expenses, ‘toys for the boys’, and Group Leaders storming out of the Council Offices.

On the back of the mass scandals and large allowances we have the future of adult social care and childrens services in deep danger.

Liberal Democrats across the Country have aimed to protect these services whilst we get out of the difficult economic mess created through excessive overuse of Private Finance Initiatives (such as our own Queens Hospital and the local trust’s £150m debt), the failure to curb spending after Labour’s Spending Review in 2007, and the global market crash.

Embedded in the Council’s papers on Children’s Services are these nuggets:

• “the withdrawal of funding for the re-provisioning of the Angel Way development”
• “move away from fixed based services would enable greater flexibility and nuance in service delivery through a street-based provision”

Whilst the council faces making some very difficult decisions as a result of government spending cuts, surely the worst value for money council in London (44% according to the last poll commissioned by IpsosMORI) with such a host of recent spending wastes should be able to restructure the council to ensure frontline services are protected as their current mantra describes.

‘Street based services’ as in the ‘Mobile Libraries’ that have been floating around in Romford Town Centre are NOT adequate for the provision of care for vulnerable children and teenagers.

They do NOT provide a safe haven for kids who are being abused, or face discrimination or torment in their home.  They don’t provide a safe place to be counseled or to share their experiences with those of a similar age group suffering from the same abuse.

One of our activists in Cranham, Mark, was a user of these services and benefited greatly from them.  He graduated from the University of Reading with a Bachelor of Arts and the staff at Angel Way and his youth group which faces a loss of ALL its funding (like other groups) helped both him and many of his friends.

Havering Liberal Democrats are proud to join calls to save the essential services provided by the youth service and will be meeting residents across Havering to put their voices to the Council along with our activists.

Sign our petition online here at www.is.gd/saveouryouth.