Maintaining the Memorial to the Dead at Rainham Chemical Works.

‘Our heritage and the lives of these workers should be continually honoured’.

Labour Parliamentary Prospective Candidate for Dagenham and Rainham, Margaret Mullane’s saw that the grassed amenity area close to the Rainham library was badly overgrown. This piece of land bears the memorial to a tragic event in Rainham’s history.

On 14 September 1916 an explosion took place at the Rainham Chemical Works factory with the tragic loss of seven workers’ lives and another sixty nine workers and residentswere seriously injured in the resulting fire. To commemorate this event Sean Connolly, a Rainham resident and Chair of the local Unite Trade Union branch and of the Barking, Dagenham and Havering Trades Council and Jon Cruddas MP planted an oak tree alongside a commemorative plaque in 2018.

Margaret told The Havering Daily: “I raised this issue last year when Sean brought this to my attention and I was grateful that Havering Council quickly attended to clearing up the land. However, I was saddened to hear that the site had not been maintained and had become untidy, overgrown and littered.

The workers who lost their lives during World War 1 at the factory in Ferry Lane deserve to be commemorated with respect. At a time when there are threats to reduce rights to health and safety at work and deregulate conditions, it is so important to remind ourselves of the need for strong safety standards.

So I again took up the matter with Havering and have been told by the Council that the location will now be attended and that it is on their maintenance schedule.

Our heritage and the lives of these workers should be continually honoured”

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