Table Of Content

10 16 29 Oh What a Lovely War 2014 pullout special Newham on fi lm // issue 291 17 – 31 January 2014 An Olympic Legacy Apprentices build their own futures (p13) Fostering For a career that’s financially and emotionally rewarding call us free on 0800 013 0393 newhamfostering.co.uk Look out for the next issue from 31 January 2014 contents 17 January 2014 // issue 291 WWelcome to the fi rst Newham Regulars MMag of 2014. 04 NEWS – two pages of news January is a time to get fi t from across the borough aand healthy so in this issue fi nd 06 MAYOR’S VIEW – news from oout about East Ham Leisure Sir Robin Wales CCentre’s makeover (p9). 27 CAUGHT ON CAMERA – can Inside this edition you’ll you put a name to any of aalso fi nd our special pull out these faces? andd kkeep guiidde tto 22014 packed with features 30 OUR NEWHAM – great on health, fi tness, careers and an all important competitions and community news 10 calendar of key events happening in the year 32 KIDS’ CORNER – Pictures and puzzles for our younger readers ahead. See centre pages for more. 34 WHAT’S ON – fi ve pages of This year we will unite with the nation to activities and events for you to mark the centenary of the start of World try – most of them free War One. Read our exclusive interview with Caroline Quentin (p10) and fi nd out how she is Features supporting Stratford’s Theatre Royal with their 09 NEW YEAR, NEW GYM commemoration and the return of Oh What A – East Ham Leisure Centre gets Lovely War. a makeover Councillor Ian Corbett 18 Executive member for infrastructure 10 STAGE FRIGHT – Caroline and environment Quentin takes on Oh What a Lovely War 13 ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS – three young people speak about apprenticeships 28 URBAN ART – residents SENIOR PUBLICATIONS OFFICER: Anita Bhogal paint Balmoral Bridge, E7 PUBLICATIONS OFFICER: Glenn Gossling 29 FILMED IN NEWHAM – STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER: Andrew Baker celebrities, stunts and celluloid Call the Mag team on 020 3373 1517 09 YOUR PULLOUT GUIDE TO 2014 02 YOUR 2014 CALENDAR – To advertise in the Mag call what’s happening and when Julie Madell on 07890 529 090 04 NEW YEAR, NEW JOB – careers, training and apprenticeships at Workplace 06 NEWHAM IN PICTURES – a look back on 2013 08 COMMUNITY HUBS – centred on your area If you do not receive the Newham Mag at home, or know 10 SOMETHING TO WORK ON – get someone who doesn’t, please call 020 3373 1517, write to The Newham Mag, West Wing, 4th Floor, Newham fi t and healthy with Ateeq Rashid Dockside, Dockside Road, London E16 2QU, or email 13 12 A HEALTHY OPTION – make a [email protected] smart swap for 2014 Publication of an advert in the Newham Mag does not constitute endorsement of any goods or services offered. Find us online at www.newham.gov.uk/mag For information on all Newham Council The Newham Mag is printed on 100% recycled paper by Woodford Litho Ltd and distributed by Letterbox Distribution. services visit www.newham.gov.uk 03 IN BRIEF // Put an end to tenancy fraud Since April 2013, Newham Council Computers target fl y tips scourge has successfully recovered 71 properties that were either illegally occupied or were unoccupied and returned them for use by residents on the waiting list for council homes. Councillor Andrew Baikie, executive member for housing and customer service, said: “Tenancy fraud costs the council thousands of pounds and deprives residents who may have been on the housing list for years of a home. “We know that the majority of our tenants live in their properties legally but it is important that we tackle those who are committing fraud by sub-letting or other means.” Driver Lan Vuong shows Cllr Corbett the in-cab technology If you wish to end your tenancy, call 020 3373 9370 for advice. Residents who are aware of Newham Council has introduced a hi-tech solution that will help deal with the anyone committing offences can call scourge of fl y tipping at the push of a button. the council’s tenancy audit team in The council has installed a new computer management system in 20 caged confi dence on 020 3373 3258 or 020 3373 3261. cleansing vehicles that deal specifi cally with the removal of fl y tips. It allows the locations of fl y tips reported by residents and other frontline staff to be pinpointed exactly for those tasked with collecting them. The computers allow reports from residents to be effi ciently recorded real time. Remembering the Holocaust It also avoids unnecessary paperwork for those on frontline cleansing duty. Residents are invited to join Mayor Councillor Ian Corbett, executive member for infrastructure and environment, Sir Robin Wales and Newham councillors to commemorate said: “Residents have the right to a clean and safe environment. The Holocaust Memorial Day. computer management system makes things more effi cient and effective, The event takes place at 10.30am proactively identifying and dealing with issues instead of having to spend time in Newham Town Hall, Barking completing paperwork. Road, E6, on Monday 27 January. “Fly tipping doesn’t just make the borough an unpleasant place, it is also illegal Residents are urged to join together as a community to show and those responsible will be prosecuted.” opposition to intolerance, respect for difference and a shared sense of belonging. Stadium transformation on track A contract worth £154m has been awarded to Balfour Beatty Group Limited to transform Debt advice available the Olympic Stadium in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park into a multi-use venue for sporting, Help is at hand for Newham entertainment and community events. residents who may be worried about The contract has been awarded by the E20 Stadium Partnership, set up by Newham debts spiralling out of control and not knowing what to do about them. Council and the London Legacy Development Corporation. The work will allow the Stadium Newham Council’s debt and to host fi ve matches during Rugby World Cup 2015, be the permanent home of West Ham benefi t advice service offers free, United from 2016 and the new national competition stadium for athletics in the UK. impartial and confi dential advice on During conversion Balfour Beatty expects to employ up to 400 people and will work with debt problems. Call 020 3373 1416. Workplace, Newham Council’s employment service, to employ local people where possible. The line is open 9am-5pm, Monday Mayor Sir Robin Wales said: “The Olympic Stadium conversion will be good for the to Friday throughout January or you can visit www.newham.gov.uk/ residents of Newham and offer a lasting community legacy of jobs, education and debtadvice grassroots sport.” 04 Two receive New Year honours Tribute to former mayor A man who has Newham Council has paid tribute to former ceremonial spent his working life mayor Fred York OBE, who died in hospital on 15 dedicated to keeping December at the age of 77 following illness. the streets of Newham Fred, from Manor Park, was fi rst elected by residents clean and a head in Woodgrange ward in 1974 and then in Monega ward teacher at a school in in 1982, where he served until 1994. He was ceremonial Forest Gate have both mayor for the municipal year 1987/88. received accolades in Councillor Amarjit Singh, chair of the council, said: the prestigious New “Fred was a very fair and sincere man and was Shahed John Year Honours. respected by those around John Wild, who him. During his mayoral year joined Newham Council in 1982 as a labourer in the cleansing he represented Newham team and has worked his way up to become cleansing manager, with great dignity. received a British Empire Medal for services to residents and the “Our thoughts are with his environment in Newham. wife Hazel and his daughters Shahed Ahmed, the head teacher of Elmhurst Primary School, and grandchildren.” which has been judged as outstanding by Government inspectors The fl ags were fl own at Ofsted, has received an OBE for services to education. half mast at Newham’s two Mayor Sir Robin Wales: “I am delighted the tremendous work town halls in tribute. There of John and Shahed has been acknowledged in such a public will be a period of silence way. On behalf of residents and everyone at Newham Council I at the next meeting of the Fred York congratulate them.” Full Council. Councillors deliver hampers cheer Mayor Sir Robin Wales and Newham councillors delivered some cheer to residents at a sheltered housing scheme in Stratford. Sir Robin together with councillors Ron Manley, Freda Bourne, Charlene McLean and Richard Crawford took hampers to Centenary House on behalf of traders at Stratford Indoor Market. Every year the market traders donate hampers full of goodies including fruit and vegetables, cakes, nuts and biscuits to Centenary House and the nearby Bow Street sheltered housing scheme. West Ham ward member Cllr Ron Manley said: “Once again the traders at Stratford Indoor Market have shown a real spirit of caring. It is kind of them to do this for some of the older members of our community and we thank them for their generosity.” Special delivery at Centenary House 05 Good work is at last recognised The Government has at last woken We will never accept private sector licensing was introduced, 1,997 up to our pioneering work in tackling tenants being directly exploited by enforcement visits have been completed rogue private sector landlords and landlords who force them to live in on unlicensed properties, 5,078 warning given us £1m we asked for to help dangerous and unacceptable conditions. letters sent and 82 cautions issued for build on our success. We have found families with children who fi rst time offences. We are also seeking Local authorities around the do not know the names of other men to prosecute 134 landlords for various country are following our lead and living under the same roof. This is clearly offences. Now we have secured this realising that property licensing is an inhumane and unacceptable. additional funding there’s much more effective way to drive up standards Over the past two years, enforcement enforcement action to come. in the private rented sector. That’s action has been taken against 101 ‘beds in Good landlords have nothing to fear why the money awarded to develop sheds’, 114 illegal house conversions into from this scheme. For the bad ones, this our enforcement work is the biggest fl ats and 84 illegal conversions of houses is a clear message that they must clean amount to any council in the country. of multiple occupation. Since property up their act – or face paying the price. Using an innovative combination of planning and housing enforcement legislation, we continue to combat ‘beds in sheds’ and landlords who fl out the law. This work is complemented by the country’s fi rst compulsory borough-wide property licensing scheme, which saw more than 30,000 applications for licences in the fi rst 12 months. Licensing allows us to monitor standards in the private rented sector and focus enforcement activity Out on a raid on unlicensed against landlords who refuse to properties with the BBC’s Eddie Nestor comply with housing law. We want to ensure that private sector rented properties are well managed and meet a good standard. We also want to deal with the crime and anti-social behaviour that is sometimes associated with bad private sector rented housing. The majority of landlords in Newham are good but there are a minority of unscrupulous ones we are targeting. A shocking mess Hazardous conditions Mayor’s view 06 Protecting high streets is a good bet Newham Council has long campaigned for powers to rid our high streets of the increased number of betting shops and the highly addictive gaming machines known as fi xed odds betting terminals. We know that the betting shop industry is four times more likely to target less affl uent areas with these machines and in Newham alone we have 87 betting shops with 348 of these terminals. These machines allow people to gamble up to £100 every 20 seconds, meaning people can lose their wages almost instanstly. There is evidence that they are magnets for anti-social behaviour, street crime, theft, shoplifting and violence. Such anti-social behaviour is preventing us from attracting much needed investment from other busineses. If betting shops are not the maximum bet that can be placed the primary activity at the premises reined in, they will ruin our high streets. via these machines from £100 to £2. during the extended times would be Where we can make a difference traditional betting, but rather the use and curb the number of betting shops of gambling machines. The application “ We’re not against we will. Our Licensing Sub-committee has since been withdrawn. responsible betting and continues to raise objections where We’re not against responsible gambling. Our issue is with we feel betting shops could have a betting and gambling. Our issue is detrimental effect on our residents, with the bookmakers that blight the bookmakers that blight neighbourhoods and businesses. our high streets and prey on our high streets and prey on We are taking action and have the vulnerable. the vulnerable.” rejected a licensing application from It‘s reassuring to hear that national Paddy Power for a betting shop in politicians from all sides understand We’ve urged the Government Upton Park because the primary the concerns of boroughs like ours to rethink its recommendations on activity from the shop would be from and are looking at how concerns can gambling and to give councils local fi xed odds betting terminals rather be adressed. powers to prevent betting shops from than traditional betting. Powers to ban fi xed odds terminals taking over our high streets. We’ve also We also objected to Betfred would will enable us to take on the asked for a reduction in the maximum increasing the late night opening hours betting shop industry and continue number of fi xed odds betting terminals of four betting shops from 10pm to create diverse, thriving and vibrant in any one shop and for a reduction in to 11pm. We weren’t satisfi ed that high streets for all of us. with Sir Robin Wales 07 GET ACTIVE IN 2014! It couldn’t be easier at your local leisure centre in Newham (cid:114)(cid:2)No joining fees(cid:2)(cid:114)(cid:2)No contracts (cid:114)(cid:2)Memberships at 2013 prices Great leisure centres, great value BALAAM LEISURE CENTRE, 14 Balaam Street, Plaistow E13 8AQ Still the best value leisure centre around. Membership from £19.95 per month* EAST HAM LEISURE CENTRE, 324 Barking Road, East Ham E6 2RT New and improved with upgraded and modernised facilities and equipment NEWHAM LEISURE CENTRE, 281 Prince Regent Lane, Plaistow E13 8SD The largest of your local leisure centres with great facilities for the whole family (cid:47)(cid:156)(cid:3)(cid:119)(cid:152)(cid:96)(cid:3)(cid:156)(cid:213)(cid:204)(cid:3)(cid:147)(cid:156)(cid:192)(cid:105)(cid:3)(cid:86)(cid:62)(cid:143)(cid:143)(cid:3)(cid:228)(cid:211)(cid:228)(cid:3)(cid:206)(cid:206)(cid:199)(cid:206)(cid:3)(cid:163)(cid:211)(cid:211)(cid:206)(cid:93)(cid:3)(cid:96)(cid:192)(cid:156)(cid:171)(cid:3)(cid:136)(cid:152)(cid:204)(cid:156)(cid:3)(cid:222)(cid:156)(cid:213)(cid:192)(cid:3)(cid:143)(cid:156)(cid:86)(cid:62)(cid:143)(cid:3)(cid:143)(cid:105)(cid:136)(cid:195)(cid:213)(cid:192)(cid:105)(cid:3) (cid:86)(cid:105)(cid:152)(cid:204)(cid:192)(cid:105)(cid:3)(cid:156)(cid:192)(cid:3)(cid:219)(cid:136)(cid:195)(cid:136)(cid:204)(cid:3)www.activeNewham.org.uk *(cid:47)(cid:105)(cid:192)(cid:147)(cid:195)(cid:3)(cid:62)(cid:152)(cid:96)(cid:3)(cid:86)(cid:156)(cid:152)(cid:96)(cid:136)(cid:204)(cid:136)(cid:156)(cid:152)(cid:195)(cid:3)(cid:62)(cid:171)(cid:171)(cid:143)(cid:222)(cid:176)(cid:3)(cid:42)(cid:192)(cid:136)(cid:86)(cid:105)(cid:195)(cid:3)(cid:219)(cid:62)(cid:192)(cid:222)(cid:3)(cid:118)(cid:192)(cid:156)(cid:147)(cid:3)(cid:86)(cid:105)(cid:152)(cid:204)(cid:192)(cid:105)(cid:3)(cid:204)(cid:156)(cid:3)(cid:86)(cid:105)(cid:152)(cid:204)(cid:192)(cid:105)(cid:176) East Ham Leisure 2014 Centre shapes up for With the kind of equipment you’d > new exercise bikes – biomechanically normally only see at exclusive health designed to reduce pressure on the clubs, a £400,000 modernisation sees knees, ensuring a comfortable and East Ham Leisure Centre ready for effective workout the new year. The gym area has been redesigned to make it feel more spacious and new equipment includes - new weights, power plates, medicine balls and kettlebells. There are 56 new state-of-the art cardio vascular stations including: > new treadmills – with sophisticated options, to give the ultimate The popular health suite has been re- cardio experience furbished and redecorated, with new sauna, tiling and showers. All changing areas have been revamped with new benches and lighting. The showers have been upgraded, the tiling, > a brand new group cycling ceilings and fi ttings have been replaced studio with 17 bikes for spinning and new lockers are on their way. sessions led by specialist trainers. As part of the modernisation of the centre, the disabled changing facilities and toilets have also been completely refurbished. East Ham Leisure Centre is fully accessible with lifts to the upper fl oors and gym and hoists available for the pools. > new cross trainers – designed to deliver activeNewham is offering some an effective total-body workout that great membership deals for 2014. closely replicates running or walking These include: > no joining fees > no contract > memberships at 2013 prices.o To fi nd out more call 0844 414 2728, Each piece of equipment gives you drop into the centre at 324 Barking Road, access to your own personal fi tness E6, or visit www.activeNewham.org.uk training programme and has exceptional entertainment options, with iPod/iPhone and Android integration and internet connectivity. Staff at the leisure centre have been trained in the use of all the new equipment and are on hand to help. 09 Not so quiet on the eastern front Oh What a Lovely War (OWaLW) returns to Theatre Royal Stratford East (TRSE) in February. The show, starring Caroline Quentin, marks 50 years since it was fi rst directed by Joan Littlewood and 100 years since the start of World War One (WWI). Caroline (Men Behaving Badly, From your career, what are you part of Newham’s Every Child a Jonathan Creek) is making her most proud of? Theatre Goer programme? TRSE debut. Men Behaving Badly was probably It’s great. It’s also great from the After being trained to march the most fun that you can have and perspective of children getting in touch by a sergeant major, her head still get paid. I just laughed for eight with history. I wasn’t very academic spinning from too many about-turns, years. That had a huge impact, not at school. I remember being taken to the Newham Mag asked her about just on my working life, but my social see Richard II and it was the fi rst time the landmark production. life as well. I’m also really proud of that I had ever been interested in any the fact that I’m still friends with historical fi gure; before I’d only been What attracted you to OWaLW? the Les Miserables girls from my interested in looking at my nails. It’s a show that people in the dressing room after 30 years. I think that children should be business talk about all the time. involved and face some of the harsh When the director, Terry Johnson, What can the audience expect realities. I mean, there were a lot of offered it to me I hadn’t read it. He from OWaLW? kids their age in the war. I think they described it to me and the next day Lots of laughs, great songs and will fi nd it really moving. I phoned him and said yes. It’s an great music. We’ve got a fi ve-piece ensemble piece. There are 12 of us. band, good singing and quite a WIN Within two days I could tell that we devastating potted history of WWI. were going to have a brilliant time. The audience should feel they can join in and speak to us, sing, laugh To be in with the chance Have you worked in and cry if they want to. of winning a pair of tickets theatre before? to see OWaLW answer this I started out as a dancer and a What role do you play? question: Who originally singer. I used to do pantos and that I play Emily Pankhurst, Lady Haig directed OWaLW? sort of thing. I was in the original (General Haig’s wife), a music 1. Alfred Hitchcock production of Les Miserables and I hall singer, a girl that works in a 2. Stanley Kubrick worked at the National Theatre quite munitions factory, a soldier, and 3. Joan Littlewood a lot. Then I drifted into telly. a stall holder. We all cover lots of different parts. Email your answer, name, Do you prefer TV or theatre? address and telephone number Probably theatre. I had a good time Were any of your family in WWI? to newham.mag@newham. on TV but the reason that you go My grandfather fought in WWI and gov.uk or send it to Newham into acting is to connect with people, died not long afterwards; I think Dockside, 1000 Dockside and you never get that sense on it was too much for him. He had Road, London, E16 2QU, by television. Afterwards people come dark, almost black hair and it went Monday 27 January. up to you and say they enjoyed it, white pretty much over ten days. I OWaLW runs from Saturday which is lovely, but to actually be think it was a devastating, shocking 1 February to Saturday 15 on stage and to time a laugh or try experience and, like a lot of those March. Tickets starting from to affect people’s emotions, you men, he never recovered. £6.50 are available online at can tell straight away if you are stratfordeast.com or by succeeding or not. That’s the best What do you think about young calling 020 8534 0310. bit of the job for me. people watching OWaLW as 10