Here’s a reminder of how you can get in contact with your Labour Councillors in Village Ward, or how you can join one of our drop-in surgeries.
Village Ward
Click here for surgery details
Your Labour Councillors in Village Ward are Ajanta Deb Roy, Phil Waker and Julia Williams.
Surgeries for Village Ward residents take place at the Dagenham Library, Heathway, Dagenham, RM10 9QS on the third Thursday of each month (excluding August and December) from 6pm – 7pm
And on the second Saturday of each month in March, May, July, September and November from 12pm – 1:30pm at Teresa Green Community Centre, 25 Leys Avenue, Dagenham, RM10 9YP
You can also contact your councillors via email ajanta.debroy@lbbd.gov.uk/a>
philip.waker@lbbd.gov.uk
julia.williams@lbbd.gov.uk
Your Labour Councillors in Village Ward are Julia Williams, Phil Waker and Ajanta Deb Roy.
On this page you can find out what your Labour Councillors and the wider Labour team are doing for you. If you need help from your Councillors, click ‘surgery details’ above to find out where you can meet your councillors or how to contact them.
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Dagenham East Station step-free feasibility study
Following months of campaigning by Labour Councillors, Transport for London have agreed to conduct a feasibility study into making Dagenham East and Becontree Station step-free, potentially paving the way for making the stations more accessible.
Labour Leader of Barking & Dagenham Council, Dominic Twomey, said “I wholeheartedly welcome this decision from the Mayor of London to conduct these studies. These are two of the borough’s busiest stations, but they lack much needed step-free access. Inclusive transport options are vital for our community, especially for residents and visitors with limited mobility, parents with prams, and elderly members of our borough.
“Hundreds of residents signed our petition asking for TfL to increase accessibility at Dagenham East, which the Mayor’s announcement recognised. Transport improvement remains a key priority in Barking and Dagenham and we will work closely with TfL and other partners to continue to improve transport infrastructure in our borough.”
Over the last few years public transport has improved significantly in the Borough with the introduction of the:
- Overground line extension to Barking Riverside
- the Superloop bus service
- the Thames Clipper at Barking Riverside, connecting the borough to the city
- more cycle paths and the introduction of E-bikes
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Improvements in Old Dagenham Park!
For many years, Village Ward Councillors, along with many residents, have been saying that the facilities in Old Dagenham Park were not good enough. This was a big issue for Councillor Lee Waker, before his death last year, and he had been raging at everyone for years about it.
We are pleased to say that following his lobbying and that of the new Village Ward Councillors, new and better play facilities have now been put into the park. However, the play area for younger children is still not in yet as there have been some contractor problems, but we now expect that to happen soon.
It has been a long hard fight, but we are still pushing for more! We have been discussing with a local organisation that does youth activities, and is particularly good at getting lottery money, about the possibility of them taking over the currently disused bowls club and encouraging more sport activities. We also hope that this will mean the café facility can be open for much of the year making the park a more welcoming place for everyone.
We also want the bike track to be brought back into use following a land contamination problem that arose some years ago. Lee used to say that it was disgusting that he had to take his young daughter out of the borough for decent facilities. Hopefully, he would have been a bit happier now!
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Still chasing Southern Housing
Village Ward Councillors have again been talking to Southern Housing about improving the insulation and warmth of their houses on the Rookery Farm and Leys estates. They are at last starting to work on 6 houses and will learn lessons from how the improvements work out. It will be costly, but we will be talking further to them about extending these works as soon as possible. There have also been a whole range of individual issues we are working together with them to improve.
We have also been talking about the various problems in Church Elm Court, the flats above the library, which are Southern owned. Better insulation/windows, and communal area problems are two of the subjects and we will shortly be doing a joint walk-around there.
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New Crossing
We have continued trying to get a lot of issues addressed around the Rainham Road South / Dagenham East area, particularly for those in Shafter Road and Western Avenue. We will be writing to residents separately about all of the issues in those roads but are hoping that the new ‘Toucan’ crossing, as it is called, will increase safety for residents and improve the traffic flow. Indications so far are encouraging, but we will be watching how it works very closely and welcome any feedback from Village Ward residents.
We have also discussed ways of making it easier for residents to leave and enter Western Avenue and Shafter Road, and a white line “Give Way” adjustment has been offered.
Labour Councillor Julia Williams said, “We are also looking at ways to reduce the chaos that often occurs at the top of Shafter Road, but finding the right answer has proven difficult. However, we are going to look at the effect of the proposed line and sign changes and will still be searching for any further alterations that might help.”
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Improving Access to Dagenham East Station
For too long, Dagenham East Station has only had stairs down to the platform. No lift or slope access has ever been available, making it difficult for passengers with luggage, disabilities or children in prams etc.
The council has been lobbying for something better for many years and is now asking residents to support a campaign to change this. Some knocking at doors to get a form completed has taken place already as part of a wider campaign, but we are not going to give up this struggle until it actually happens.