VIDEO: Havering Residents Association launch their Manifesto and pledge their commitment to be the voice of the people for the upcoming local elections.

Yesterday, Tuesday 5 of April Havering Residents Association councillors and prospective councillors gathered together on Gladiator Way in Hornchurch to launch their ‘Pledges and Commitment’ to the people of Havering. The current opposition party, are running their biggest number of prospective councillors ever with a real push to be the next administration in a bid to represent ‘the real values of people in the borough.’

Back in the summer of 2019, the Havering Residents Association (H.R.A) was launched. Since then the team has grown and been pro-active within their communities. On the May 5th Local Elections, they will be standing 47 Candidates across the borough and in every ward.  

Chair of the H.R.A Councillor Gillian Ford told the Havering Daily: “To all of our sceptics that didn’t believe we had a vision for the future, think again. We have considered every area within the Council and what needs to be done. The starting point must be the workforce. We have seen the haemorrhaging of skilled staff, the offering of redundancy for 400 more and staff morale at an all time low. We need to ensure the skills are there to deliver the services our residents deserve. We cannot review every service due to depleted staff numbers and funding and are also fully aware that here will be some areas of good practice, so our focus must be on the areas that are failing us. For example the online reporting systems and the feedback residents receive, highways repairs not being completed despite residents being notified they will be, contractors failure to deliver and the sanctions in place for non-delivery, and there’s OneSource is this now fit for purpose, and is our CCTV network delivering. I can go on but we are very clear that change does need to happen. And I should mention that Running alongside the Pledges and Commitments is our document The First 100 Days of an H.R.A Administration. This will be handed over to the Chief Executive on day one of an H.R.A Administration, so the staff will be aware of our direction of travel and we can hit the ground running.”

H.R.A Vice Chair Councillor Graham Williamson told the Havering Daily: “The electorate have had enough of this Council and their over-development attitude. We are not building the communities our residents can grow in. Our manifesto today at the St. Georges site just goes to demonstrate the juxtaposition of openness alongside development. It is houses and infrastructure, transport networks and access to open space that our residents are calling for, not concrete jungles that have no heart as we have seen in Romford and Beam Park. With no affiliation to the mainstream Westminster parties, we can advocate for the residents without crossing any party policy lines.”

H.R.A member and Leader of the Opposition Councillor Ray Morgon,said: “The current Administration under the Leadership of Councillor Damian White has failed to deliver what the residents of Havering want. We have heard numerous lies over the last four years including over the purchasing of the Hornchurch Police Station and his trying to manipulate the Boundary Commission process. Our residents are telling us that the borough has deteriorated, so much so that some are considering moving out. What kind of recommendation is that? All we have seen is the introduction of positions for more and more of the Conservative members which has resulted in all of them receiving a special responsibility allowance. This cannot continue and we would look to restructure the Council committees, reducing special responsibility allowances, creating a streamlined structure.

Our Pledges and Commitments report can be found here: 

https://www.haveringra.org/our-pledge