‘It has been a challenging few months but the residents and this borough are our priority’-Councillor Ray Morgon.

It seems like a long time ago that the new administration took control of the council here in Havering. The local elections were actually only in May and it is a just a period of seven months that the combined Havering Residents Association with Labour took over the reigns in the London borough of Havering.

The borough had been calling for a change and the green victory of the Residents Association was not really a shock for many who had guessed that the people’s option was going to be the way forward after years of Tory rule. There was a period of uncertainty after the votes on May 5 as no party had a clear run and the only way forward was to combine forces.

As the new administration was formed, councillors were still going through a learning period when disaster struck the borough. A fire broke out in Wennington that saw 14 people lose their homes. A tragedy that the borough has still not recovered from that has left many families homeless. Councillors, including Councillor Ray Morgon the Leader of Havering Council, found themselves thrust into the limelight and on mainstream news. Havering’s Mayor and former firefighter Councillor Trevor McKeever was on the scene to provide support to our firefighters who did an incredible job. Rainham and south Hornchurch councillors worked non stop alongside their community, literally day and night to help those who had lost everything. Having joined them on numerous occasions, I saw their dedication to their community. As councillor Sue Ospreay told me, ‘these are our friends, people that we know and they have lost everything.’

Now, here we are in December and the administration is settled and looking forward to making a difference in the borough. “It has been a very intense six months,” Councillor Morgon tells the Havering Daily. “It has been a huge learning curve for us, we have had a lot to be briefed on that took up a great deal of time. We are looking forward to 2023 with a new optimism and hope that we can start to make a significant difference in the borough.”

The financial strain has been a major factor for the new administration who have endless constraints and are being forced to make a series of cuts that they have no other option but to make.

“The financial pressure has been our biggest challenge, trying to improve services but having to make cuts. It was just last week that I went up to London to meet Local Government Minister Lee Rowley to ask for more financial support. We desperately need more funding to stop our borough from being bankrupt. The demand we face in Children’s Services and Adult Services is our biggest challenge. We are doing everything we can to provide services to the best of our ability with the little funds we have.

“It really is like running a business, finding a way to increase our income and reduce expenditure. We are undertaking a comprehensive look at all our services and are uncovering daily so many problems left from the previous administration that they did not deal with but swept under the carpet. They really were not on top of their game, where as we are. We really are interested in our residents and the borough-they are our priority.”