‘It’s Encouraging To See The Havering Daily Poll Results on Hexit’-Andrew Rosindell MP.

The Member of Parliament for Romford-Andrew Rosindell has responded to the recent Havering Daily poll that shows 68% of residents voted to leave the Greater London Authority.

It is encouraging to see that 68% of Havering Daily Readers agree that Havering should be independent of Greater London. I have lived in Romford my entire life and I care deeply about our “town and country” borough, so I understand and agree with the concerns that so many people have about our borough being stuck under the control of “City Hall” and the Mayor of London.  Like the Havering Daily Poll demonstrates, they, like me, want change.

However, there are a lot of misunderstandings about my own proposals on how Havering would achieve this and much to explain, so here goes…

I feel it is important that everyone needs to understand fully what has been happening and where things are heading, as it will affect Havering enormously in the years ahead.

 Firstly, we have been paying hundreds of millions of pounds through our Council Tax precept to the Greater London Authority and Mayor of London for 25 years now, but we barely receive any services locally for that.  We get the fire brigade when we need it, but you will have noticed that we hardly ever see a Policeman in Romford these days.  Most of the recourses for policing are sent to inner London. We pay for a service we do not get and as the local M.P., I find this unacceptable.

 Secondly, although each household in Havering is paying approximately £600 each towards the Greater London Authority this year, the truth is that most of that money is spent elsewhere.  We are effectively subsiding inner-London, and this has been going on for many decades.  Boroughs such as Havering get a very poor deal out of this arrangement.  When Mrs Thatcher abolished the G.L.C. in the 1980s, we did not notice it had gone, but in Havering we took control of our own affairs and spent our own money collected by Havering Council on local services that benefited our borough.

That all changed when Mr. Blair brought it all back with an elected Mayor and the G.L.A. in the year 2000.

Thirdly, the Freedom Pass is not free.  We pay for the privilege.  Havering Council pay something around £8 million pounds a year in addition to the GLA precept on our Council Tax to buy into the scheme which allows our pensioners their travel for free. No politician of any party would ever suggest this arrangement stops; whatever future local government structures are adopted.  So don’t believe those who claim we would lose the Freedom Pass.  It’s project fear!

 In fact, my proposal would be to oblige TfL by law to offer the Freedom Pass to all pensioners who live in local authorities that TfL serve, which is way beyond the now very outdated boundaries of the Greater London.  The Central Line runs to Epping and Chigwell, Elizabeth line from Reding to Shenfield, the Metropolitan Line to Watford and Amersham, the Overground to Cheshunt etc.  None of these places are under Greater London, but they still enjoy TfL services and should, in my view, be able to join the Freedom Pass scheme and be offered all travel schemes equally, over 60s travel and Oyster card. The whole TfL region should be treated the same.  It makes sense for this change to happen, and I am campaigning for that.

 There are so many nonsense scare stories going around by those who don’t want change and refuse to accept that reform of the London of government is both possible and desirable.  “Greater London” and all associated quangos and bodies that circle around the Mayor and GLA have become an industry, they hate the idea of Havering breaking free of this circus, keeping our own money in Havering and only buying into services where we get value for money.  Currently, boroughslike Havering see little benefit from being locked into “City Hall” control.  I can tell you the M.P.s in other parts of Greater London feel the same as I do.  There are many other boroughs that want change too!

 Essex County Council (which I have never advocated we should go back to) is being abolished by the Labour government.  I have always argued that Havering should be a unitary authority like Southend but retain the ability to co-operate with Greater London boroughs or Essex councils when it makes sense to do so, particularly on strategic issues, like transport and major infrastructure projects, but apart from that, all the power and money should go back to our local Town Hall.

So, with Essex County Council being scrapped, local Councils are being merged together by Labour across Essex and gradually throughout the U.K. I believe that it will not be long before something similar happens in Greater London, which means that Havering is most likely going to be chopped and merged with boroughs such as Barking & Dagenham, Redbridge, Newham and Waltham Forest, or some kind of similar “east London” configuration.

That would spell the end of our local democracy in Havering and the complete loss of our local decision making in Romford and Hornchurch and our entire borough.  It would spell the abolition of local government that is truly local.  Voting Conservative, Residents Association or Reform would make no difference, as we would be swallowed up by the London Labour machine that completely dominates every borough this side of the City!

 So, it is my duty to fight for Romford and Havering and look at alternatives that would better suit our borough and protect the character of our area.

 If we are going to merged into a “super-borough” then I think collaboration with Brentwood and Epping Forest would be much more suitable than becoming swallowed up into some kind of new east London borough.  Most people locally in Romford I speak to feel the same way.  

I have argued for a proper debate on this incredibly serious issue and for Havering to be given the choice about what kind of local government we want for the next 60 years.  We were made “London Borough” 60 years ago, but for 80 years before that we were a borough under Essex County Council.  Things will change again, and we have to think ahead to get a much better arrangement in place for Romford and Havering.

 Romford has always been part of Essex since medieval times, originally the Kingdom of Essex and we remain part of the historic County of Essex today.  “Essex County Council” (soon to be abolished) is not the same as the actual County of Essex, which was never abolished.  Hence our address is still, Romford, Essex!  We maybe under the Region of Greater London, but our County is Essex and always will be.  A Region and County are not the same thing and in Havering, we should uphold our traditional Essex identity with enormous pride.

 In short, we are at a crossroads, and what I am attempting to do is alert people in Havering to the challenges we face, but at the same time, spark a serious debate about the future of our borough, so that we can fight for a better, more suitable local government structure going forward.  Havering is of course connected to the City of London and the “East End”, we have always been, but we should not allow ourselves to be totally absorbed by Greater London and lose our local democracy and Essex identity completely.

I hope this goes someway to explaining why this issue is so important and to set out my ideas for change and a better future for Havering.

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