Category: Community

In Praise of Leyton’s Safer Neighbourhoods Team

Met Witness Appeal

I have always rated the work done in Leyton ward by the superb Leyton Safer Neighbourhoods Police Team but I was even more impressed when over the weekend four out of the six members of the team were down my street gathering mine and my neighbours’ views, about the worrying new trend in anti-social behaviour that’s flared up in Coronation Gardens opposite my house.

On Saturday, PCSOs Azhar and Emma diligently went from door-to-door with a survey to find out how my neighbours were feeling about it all, then on Sunday night the hard-working duo were back again leafletting every house (in the rain) with the witness appeal you can see above.

Also on Sunday, I spent a really productive couple of hours helping PC Shane and PCSO Anabell with more detailed evidence they’re gathering about everything that’s been going on. I was impressed by their professional yet friendly manner and the fact that they really seem to care. Shane and Anabell told me that they’re forging some good links with the kids who hang out in the park and are slowly gaining their trust. As Shane said, “you have to give respect to get respect”.

My faith in the police declined drastically after the senseless trauma I was put through politically and personally two years ago but I am finally and slowly starting to regain confidence in some members of the police force. I am proud that Leyton ward’s safer neighbourhoods team is so fantastic.

Well done to Jonathan, Azhar, Shane, Anabell, Mark and Emma.

Leyton ward is lucky to have you.

A Charmed Life

If you’re not doing anything at 2pm on the 14th of November, I’d recommend you popping along to the London South Bank’s British Film Institute to see an excellent docu-film about Hackney resident and Jamaican-born World War II veteran Eddie Noble, directed and produced by my good friend Cllr Patrick Vernon.

I had the privilege of watching a screening of ‘A Charmed Life’ when it previewed at the Hackney Museum earlier this year – it is a fabulous film about an extremely interesting man.

More details HERE, HERE and HERE.

Confirmed (Part II)

With St John's superb Reverend Raymond Draper after my confirmation

I don’t normally talk about my faith in public as I consider it a private matter and because I don’t believe that having a faith makes you a “better” person than someone who doesn’t.

Indeed, over the last two years, the people I have received the greatest love and support from are hardcore Atheists who are proud to be so. These friends have actually been more “Christian” than half the religious people I knew from the period when I had a “perfect life” – I wouldn’t be without my Atheist friends for the world.

However, St John’s Church in Leytonstone has also been a major part of my life over the last two years and in May I was confirmed there. The fabulous Reverend Raymond Draper (with whom I’m pictured above at the confirmation service) asked me to write an article on my experience for St John’s October edition of ‘Good News’, which has just come out.

Seeing as the print version of the article is now all over Leytonstone, I see no reason not to reproduce it here.

I thank Rev Raymond Draper and Rev Kathryn Robinson again for everything they’ve done for me over the last two years. Alongside my family, Atheist and non-Atheist friends, I wouldn’t have survived without them.

Continue reading “Confirmed (Part II)”