Barking and Dagenham’s Labour Council has managed to bring over £4 billion worth of investment.

The leader of Barking and Dagenham Council, Councillor Darren Rodwell today writes in the Havering Daily in response to the recent criticism at the lack of investment across Dagenham.

The recent criticism states that due to a lack of opposition in Barking and Dagenham council since 2010, that Dagenham has had less investment and somehow developing unused brownfield sites is a bad thing?

Sounds like we’re back with the dinosaurs again and the old adage of Barking versus Dagenham which predates most people’s lifespan.

The decline as stated is in Dagenham and started long ago with deindustrialisation under the Thatcher government. This cost tens of thousands of jobs and livelihoods in the borough. The final blow was when we lost Fords back in 2002. It was obvious to many of us who lived through those times we needed a new beginning if we were to address the vacuum filled by the BNP.

It was also asserted that it is the councils’ negligence that the borough has continued to decline. Let’s look at the facts. The government has been an austerity drive since 2010. This has meant taking over £175 million of funding away from our authority. Yet our population has grown in this time. But don’t take my word for it. The government’s austerity drive has pushed other councils to the verge of bankruptcy (we call it as pre-114 notice). Thurrock, Bexley, Hillingdon and even Havering Council are just a few examples which were Conservative-led up to May this year.

In stark contrast B&D’s Labour Council administration has managed to bring in over £4 billion worth of investment including thousands of jobs, skills, and new housing for its residents. And much of this is where? You’ve got it – Dagenham.

Redevelopment of Dagenham Swimming Pool at a cost of £24 million, additional £2 million for a 50-meter pool added later due to demand of resident’s activity. Brought in the 12th best UK University in country and the top modern University in Europe, with an investment of nearly £10 million to revitalise the Civic Centre, allowing thousands of residents to benefit from degree education.

Improved every school OFSTED results in the last decade. Built nearly 100 new bungalows for people of limited movement through age or disability to keep them in the communities that they’ve always known. On the old brownfield sites of Fords, we have agreed to invest with public/private partners in 7000 new homes, half will be below market rent and truly affordable to our residents, so no gentrification just more aspirational, working-class families being housed with all the social infrastructure they require like Schools, shops, leisure facilities, playgrounds, park areas and NHS services.

On the old Dagenham East May Baker site, we have invested in the Travel lodge, Costa Coffee worked with private investment to bring in over £2 Billion in Data, Media, Science and Engineering, like NTT Data Centre, UCL Pearl, Eastbrook Film Studio, Elutec, The Cube, Unite Offices and Pipe Major Pub/restaurant and more to come.  Which in turn is bringing 1000’s of new educational, skills and job opportunities to the area.

Let’s not forget the regeneration of Chequers Lane with the £1 billion investment and thousands of jobs, with three markets of London, another 1,000 homes all next to Fords and the new Freeport, which gives us the potential of another 21,000 jobs and billions of pounds investment.

Lastly, the council has just bought the Mall on the Heathway, and is starting to work with partners and the community to look at the much-needed regeneration of that location with new homes, shops, and jobs for our changing community.

The recent criticism also makes big claims over parking permits on hard working families in the borough. So, let’s look at the facts again. Once again, the government are sitting on our shoulder. The borough has the third worst air quality in London and is in the top 10 in the country. Under the COP26 agreement led by the then Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, we were all tasked to reduce our admissions. If not, we will be punished, financially.

What we need is strong national leadership with properly funded services and local councils – like B&D and Havering – given the opportunity to invest in our communities. Again, don’t take my word for it. Read what Cllr James Jamieson OBE, the Conservative Chairman of the Local Government Association, has been saying on the matter.

So, whilst everyone is entitled to their opinion, I would ask like we do with other residents to look at the facts and you will see that we haven’t neglected our duty, nor have we gone unchallenged, but are working day and night to meet the aspiration of our residents and the borough’s future – including Dagenham!

Councillor Darren Rodwell 
Leader of the Council