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As part of its plans to improve air quality in Barking and Dagenham, the east London council is encouraging drivers to turn their engines off while their car is stationary.



Called Idling, it means leaving vehicle engines on while sitting outside of a shop, at a friend’s house or just sitting in back-to-back traffic or at traffic lights, as this massively affects air pollution and ultimately people’s health.

In the last few weeks, three school-aged children from Barking and Dagenham have been the victim of a stabbing and once again the east London council, along with local secondary schools, is asking parents to take more responsibility for their children by knowing what they’re up to, when not at home.

In the second phase of its Lost Hours campaign, Barking and Dagenham Council has teamed up with local secondary schools to spread the message to parents through social media and school newsletters. 

The borough’s newly elected Young Mayor, Labella Anum, will continue to support domestic violence charity Refuge during her term representing the young people of Barking and Dagenham.

Labella, 15, was recently voted into the role by her peers and will pick up the fundraising baton from her predecessor Jessica Soares Paim.

Having been part of the Barking and Dagenham Youth Forum for the last three years, Labella felt now was the right time for her to stand to be Young Mayor.

Following consultation with residents, Barking and Dagenham Council has renewed two Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) to help curb anti-social behaviour on two of its high streets.



The consultation process to renew the PSPOs in Barking Town Centre and Broad Street Dagenham started in February and included an online survey for each location. The council also held a virtual Q&A with residents, hosted by Cllr Margaret Mullane, and residents had the opportunity to ask questions around the proposals for the PSPOs. 

Three fly-tippers caught on camera have been issued with fly-tipping fines totalling £1,000.

The trio were spotted by council cameras placed on Devon Road, Barking.

They had their identities confirmed by a concerned resident who was shown images of the culprits. The trio had been featured on an episode of the Wall of Shame, Barking and Dagenham’s web-series that aims to catch fly-tippers.

In total, 5 fly-tipping and littering Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) have been issued to the trio, one of whom was spotted fly-tipping on multiple occasions.

Barking and Dagenham’s Valence House Museum secured valuable funding from the Art Fund to undertake conservation work on one of the 73 Fanshawe portraits in its collection. The portrait of Sarah, Viscountess Castleton, painted by artist John Riley (1646-1691) dates back to c1675, and is part of an extensive Fanshawe archive collection, which the museum holds. Along with the conservation, the museum commissioned filmmaker Claw Collective to document the process.

 

A Barking man has been fined over £1000 for failing to provide the details of two people caught littering from his car.

Council CCTV cameras caught two individuals dropping litter from a Vauxhall Astra, which was later discovered to belong to Mr Kwame Sarpong on 18 October 2019.

Under Section 17 of the Greater London Council Act 1972, Mr Sarpong was asked to provide the details of the two people caught committing the offence at the time.

However, despite being reminded he failed to do so and was summoned to court.

Barking and Dagenham Council has told another local store that it must shut its doors for trading after it continued to ignore the regulations in place to stop coronavirus from spreading.



Barking Fish of Station Parade, Barking had been warned several times by council enforcement officers around its behaviour and response to the pandemic, but it failed to engage and comply with the advice provided.

Last week the government’s roadmap started to see lockdown restrictions begin to ease, with more restrictions expected to be lifted in the coming weeks. As the national situation begins to de-escalate, Barking and Dagenham Council is following suit by gradually returning to a more normal way of running its services.

Barking and Dagenham took the lead urging Councillors from across London in a call for the government to reconsider a decision to calculate school funding for the next financial year based on the number of pupils classed as ‘disadvantaged’ in October 2021.

The census date for Pupil Premium funding, designed by the government to help disadvantaged pupils with their learning, was changed from January 2021 back to October 2020, which affects the funding available to support the most disadvantaged pupils in the borough.