Dozens of protesters gathered at Stratford Town Hall on 20 September to express concerns about recent council decisions and lack of action.

The demonstration outside the council meeting covered a range of issues – closure of Stratford Circus, the axing of Newham City Farm and continuing anger over changes to the residents’ parking fees and lack of action on fly-tipping.

One organiser, Mehmood Mirza from Newham Muslim Safety Forum, said: “Emission-based resident parking fees will be increased by 60 per cent by January 2022 which will put more pressure on working-class people. Also, we need investment in CCTV cameras to tackle fly-tipping. If the council won’t start listening to residents there will be protests every month.”

Another demonstrator, James Ivens, North and East London Branch Secretary at Equity, a trade union for performing arts practitioners, was protesting against the lack of response from the council on the Stratford Circus eviction and its subsequent negotiations.

He said that closing the arts centre was not necessary as the youth hub in Stratford could have been set in a different venue or co-exist with the arts centre. Stratford Circus has now lost the support of Arts Council England and will close later this year and plans to distribute its left- over funding through a legacy programme.

The central demand of Equity’s campaign is that Newham Council provide stable public funding for the basic jobs necessary for members to do that work – that includes technicians and front-of-house staff.

The controversy over the closure of Newham City Farm also figured in the protests, despite council promises of new green space for the area.

Protesters gathered at Stratford Town Hall

Meanwhile, Mayor Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz says illegally dumped waste costs Newham Council £3m per year and has been collected 12,835 times over the past three months, She said many residents have been working with the council and Keep Britain Tidy to tackle the borough-wide blight over the past two years, reducing overall levels of fly-tipping in these hot spot areas by over 70 per cent.

“Residents can also report any illegally dumped waste on the Love Newham app. If residents see it they can take a picture and report it and our aim is to have it cleared within 24 hours, she said.”

Newham Council has also invested in the launch of 40 on-street electric dual-socket fast chargers. Residents and local business owners are welcome to give feedback and suggest new locations on the Council’s website.

This article was originally published in the October issue and was updated on 15 October

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