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!