From left: outgoing Speaker of the Council, Cllr Rajib Ahmed, newly elected Speaker of the Council, Cllr Lesley Pavitt, Cllr Abdal Ullah, Cllr Rachael Saunders and Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London for Tower Hamlets, Commander John Ludgate
Pic: Tower Hamlets Labour Party

Labour Cllr Lesley Pavitt of Bethnal Green South, was elected as the borough’ ceremonial Speaker of the Council and First Citizen at Tower Hamlets Council’s Annual General Meeting on Wednesday night May 22.

Cllr Pavitt took over the role from Cllr Rajib Ahmed.

In his leaving speech Cllr Ahmed revealed he has raised over £22,000 for local the charities Toynbee Hall’s Deesha project, THESIS Trust and SOUL.

Cllr Lesley Pavitt spoke about her new position after the ceremony: “It is a great honour to be elected Speaker and I am looking forward to recognising the great work of unsung legions of volunteers in Tower Hamlets.”

The Speaker’s function is to chair council meetings, promote and support the borough through a variety of civic engagements.

Cllr Pavitt will  also represent The Queen as First Citizen of the Borough, hosting events and welcoming visitors such as the Royals and the captains of all ships visiting the local docks.

As an ambassador for the borough, Cllr Pavitt’s main duty is to raise the profile of the Council and forge links with the private, public and voluntary sectors.

The Speaker is also committed to working with other councillors to ensure that the council is forward-looking and modern while respecting the civic history of Tower Hamlets.

Cllr Pavitt is involved in Tower Hamlets Sports Council and the London Youth Games.

She spoke of her involvement with the elderly residents in the borough: “I am also looking forward to meeting many of our older residents, although we are a ‘young borough’ there are 25,000 elderly residents many living on their own and who also contribute to what makes Tower Hamlets a great place to live.”

Labour party member, Cllr M.A. Mukit MBE of Bethnal Green and Bow, was elected as the new Deputy Speaker at the meeting as were the.Chairpersons of Councils for various committees. They were as followed:

Overview and Scrutiny Committee — Cllr Motin Uz-Zaman
Human Resources Committee — Cllr Carlo Gibbs
General Purposes Committee — Cllr Shiria Khatun
Licensing Committee — Cllr Carli Harper-Penman
Development and Strategic Development Committee — Cllr Helal Abbas
Appeals Committee — Cllr Bill Turner
Pensions Committee — Cllr Zenith Rahman
Audit Committee — Cllr Mizanur Chaudhury

A new exhibit at the Tower of London explores the story of the Royal Mint. Pic: Minàl Kay

The Historic Royal Palaces in partnership with the Royal Mint Museum opened a new permanent exhibition at the Tower of London on Friday, 24 May 2013.

Coins and Kings: The Royal Mint at the Tower explores the story of the Mint during the years it was based at the Tower, between c1279 and 1812.

Megan Gooch, Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, said: “The Tower is widely known as a palace and prison and of course home of the Crown Jewels, but it was also a hive of industry and The Mint was one of these industries, where most of the nation’s coins were made for over 500 years.”

Visitors will be able to explore five pivotal “moments” of the history of the Mint, including stories about King Edward I and Sir Isaac Newton.

Each moment will be represented by a key coin made at the Tower and the exhibition features other rare objects related to Britain’s coinage.

To accompany the exhibition a free new interactive mobile app called Mint Master, has been introduced to allow users to explore three historical eras of The Mint of England.

A list of different events that will take place until June can be found here: http://www.hrp.org.uk

Reporter: Minàl Kay

Engage is TimeBank’s new youth project in Tower Hamlets. Pic: TimeBank

The national volunteering charity TimeBank have set up a new youth project in Tower Hamlets called Engage — a ten-week programme providing support for young people aged 16–18, who are not in education, training or employment.

Aklima Begum, the project’s co-ordinator, said Engage is a necessary programme for the borough’s young people:

“Tower Hamlets has a very high youth population — actually one of the largest in Europe — and it also has quite high unemployment rates among this group. Therefore, it is very important that we engage these young people, motivate them and skill them to create better chances to get jobs.”

Engage is training ten young people living in Tower Hamlets about project development — teaching them everything from budgets to marketing strategies. They are then encouraged to use these skills to set up their own projects in the borough.

During the ten week programme participants will be matched with volunteer mentors. The mentors work in a wide range of sectors and offer their mentees training and educational help and support.

One of the young people participating in Engage is Kawsar Hoque. He heard about the project on a job fair in East London and joined because he wants to improve his work prospects.

Hoque’s project aims to make sure that young people from 9–11 years-old are encouraged to keep healthy and active. He is organising a football tournament where different schools are competing for a visit to Wembley Stadium.

“I have never done project management before and I thought it was going to be very challenging,” Hoque said. “I didn’t have too much confidence.”

“I am half-way through the project now. It has boosted my confidence and now I think it is realistic that I can deliver my project,” he added.

When the project ends the mentors will continue to work individually with their mentees for up to six months.

Volunteers take a break from working at Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park.
Pic: The Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park

Tower Hamlets may not be known for its greenery, but people from across London are coming to the Borough to volunteer at the city’s most urban woodland.

Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park lies just off the busy Mile End Road and offers more than 30 acres of trees, flowers and butterflies. It was constructed in 1841 becoming the last of  the cemeteries now known as the “Magnificent Seven”.

These cemeteries were established in the then outskirts of London to bring down the number of bodies buried in the city’s centre.

The other six are Abney Park Cemetery, Brompton Cemetery, Highgate Cemetery, Kensal Green Cemetery, Nunhead Cemetery and West Norwood Cemetery.

The site has not been an active cemetery for more than 40 years, but it is now classified as a nature reserve and as a Site of  Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation, which puts it under statutory protection.

Since the 1990s the park has been managed by the charity Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery.

The charity also organises events and volunteering days. These sessions see about 3,000 volunteers coming to the park to offer their time and help.

John Clarkson, the Cemetery Park Officer, said that the two full-time staff members would struggle without the help of volunteers: “There is very little work we would be able to get done. We’d be able to do the basic maintenance, maybe the odd special project, but [the volunteers] have enabled us to develop the nature reserve and make it the special place that it is now.”

The volunteers come for various reasons.  Some are local residents interested in helping out in the park and spending time outside. Others are offenders who come to fulfill some of their community service time on the grounds.

While more are corporate volunteers who come to volunteer as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) scheme.

The park’s proximity to Canary Wharf and the City of London makes it attractive to people in the financial sector, and the charity sometimes sees volunteer groups with up to 100 people in a single day.

Diego Coentrao is a drop-in volunteer who works for a local cleaning company. He said his employer wants to be environmentally friendly and is encouraging staff to volunteer.

“I think [companies] really need to look into this kind place [for volunteering], because it’s for the community,” Coentrao said.

Liaison Officer Kenneth Greenway said volunteers have different reasons for coming.

Some come to get to know the local community better; some to learn new skills; others simply because it looks good on their CV.

The Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park has a drop-in volunteer day every Tuesday from 10am–4pm, and they also organise various events such as this year’s Spring Festival on June 8.

For more information on how to get involved, visit the website.

Love Your Local Market runs from May 15–29. Pic: Clare Boylan

This week marks the launch of, Love Your Local Market, a national campaign involving more than 300 markets.

The project was set up by the National Association of British Market Authorities  to boost local street markets, but some traders are questioning whether it will bring real benefits.

The initiative aims to attract new shoppers and help start-ups and enterprises by offering them a market stall for only £10 per day.

As part of the campaign Tower Hamlets, which is famous for its many street markets, is trying to support its traders and encourage more people to shop local.

One of the markets that forms part of the campaign is the Roman Road Market in Bow, once a focal point for socialising and shopping in the East End.

During recent years, the market has decreased in size and popularity, despite the building of the nearby Olympic Park. As a response to this decline a local residents group, The Roman Town Team, has been set up.

Paula Hirst, coordinator of the group, says: “[we] are trying to restore Roman Road back to what town centres used to be which wasn’t just where to shop but somewhere to go, to hang out to meet new people and spend a little bit of time and enjoy yourself.”

The market has also been featured recently on the retail expert Mary Portas’ BBC2 programme Mary Queen of Shops.

The market was made focus of the show because of its recent failure to attract new shoppers and traders to the area. Portas suggested the introduction of hot food stalls and the creation of “anchor” attractions at the two ends of Roman Road to help boost business for all of the shops and traders.

Local business owner Helen Fischer says she was attracted to set up in this part of London because the rents are low but also because she recognised that there was a sense of community in the area.

However, Fischer is not impressed with the portraying of Roman Road in the BBC programme: “I don’t think the programme addressed anything to do with how the technical issues like business rates and parking and all those things that physical business comment on quite a lot.”

Another market that is participating in Love Your Local Market fornight is Petticoat Lane Market in the city’s East End. Local trader, Ahmed Hassan, agrees that markets in Tower Hamlets need to change. However he is unsure as to how the campaign would help this and argues that new goods and advertising is the only way it would attract new customers.

Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman, said: “Love Your Local Market fortnight is a really exciting opportunity for the borough. For any local resident who’s dreamt of starting a business, now is the time to try it and take advantage of the special £10 trader rate on offer.”

The follwing markets are involved in the campagain that runs from May 15 to 29:

·        Chrisp Street (Monday to Saturday)

·        Roman Road (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday)

·        Roman Road Square (Monday to Saturday)

·        Watney Street (Monday to Saturday)

·        Petticoat Lane (Monday to Friday and Sunday)

·        Brick Lane, Cheshire Street and Sclater Street (Sunday)

If you would like to participate, or more information, contact Market Services on 020 7364 1717 / 1706 or email them at streetmarkets@towerhamlets.gov.uk.

Reporting by Clare Boylan, Evy Samuelsson and Julie Thing

Tower Hamlets more incidents of VAWG than any other borough in 2012. Pic: Julie Thing

Tower Hamlets has launched a new initiative this week to deal with the issue of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in the borough.

The launch took place at a conference on Wednesday May 15 in the Osmani Centre in Whitechapel. The event was set up to offer an opportunity for local residents and professionals working in support services to find out more about the council’s plan.

One of the attendees was Tahira, who works for a local children’s centre in Tower Hamlets, she said: “[Violence against Women and Girls] is definitely a big problem in Tower Hamlets. In fact, just as I was walking into the building I bumped into a mum telling me about a recent incident.”

The conference featured a range of speakers from the Council, VAWG and community sectors, as well as police and other specialist support services. One of the speakers was the Deputy Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Ohid Ahmed who explained that the plan has been developed as a result of high rates of violence against women and girls in the borough.

“Last year there were 6,625 incidents reported and this is higher than any other borough. We want to address this problem.”

Another issue that the Deputy Mayor emphasized was that many incidents go unreported because the victim does not know where to turn to for help and support.

The council’s plan has been set up to expand the understanding of VAWG and its impact, as well as increase support services. The initiative is focused on the following areas: domestic violence, sexual violence, trafficking and prostitution, sexual exploitation, female genital mutilation, so-called honour-based violence, forced marriages, dowry related abuse and stalking harassment.

It is a multi-agency partnership plan which brings together a variety of different organisations so they can work closely together to prevent and support women and girls affected by violence.

The VAWG Strategy Manager, Fiona Dwyer, said that the plan is set up to have a long lasting effect:

“Each year we are going to examine the outcomes and have a look and see where the plan needs to be revised. Where it is working and where it is not working.”

Dawn raids in multiple addresses in Tower Hamlets and Hackney securing more than 70 arrests. Pic: Met Police

The Met Police say the tally of arrests in their largest ever coordinated operation of raids on multiple addresses to bring to justice offenders involved in burglary and drug crimes has reached over 70.

Magistrates courts all over London were being occupied today with the appearances of people charged in this second phase of  “Operation Carbon,” that primarily centred on Tower Hamlets and Hackney.

75 addresses were searched in dawn raids Wednesday morning May 15 and the Met Police say a large number of stolen goods such laptops and phones were seized.

The raids form part of “a large intelligence-led operation, backed up by Tower Hamlets Council and designed to deal with criminal networks in Tower Hamlets and the surrounding areas.”

In a previous phase of the operation 80 people were arrested and electronic stolen goods of an approximated value of £100,000 were seized.

Detective Chief Inspector Des McHugh, who was in charge of the operation says: “I hope that this very visual crackdown will increase public confidence in the Met’s ability and desire to tackle the criminals who engage in or facilitate these deplorable crimes. I thank the local community for their support as well as Tower Hamlets Council for their financial and logistical backing.”

By the afternoon of May 16 the Met Police said 51 people had been charged with offences including possession of firearms and drugs, burglary, robbery and the handling of stolen goods.

Mind Tower Hamlets held an event as part of Mental Health Awareness Week. Pic: Lucy Johnson

The Tower Hamlets branch of  Mind, the mental health charity, and the Muslim community group Maslaha are seeking to challenge the stigmas associated with mental illness and reach out to the most isolated and least resourced people in the community.

As part of Mental Health Awareness Week  the local branch of Mind, has hosted a day where residents can try out and hear from various service providers in the borough. “Health and Wellbeing Day” promotes mental health treatment and the importance of maintaining good health.

Abdirashid Gulaid, Support Services Manager at Mind Tower Hamlets, explained the purpose of the event: “The idea is for service users who often are isolated and excluded to come out and tap into these services by either taking information or having some kind of taster sessions.”

One of the many organisations at the event was Maslaha, a social enterprise working to support the Muslim community in the borough.

Project developer Sarah Hobbs explained that the organisation was taking part in the event to raise awareness of the stigmas attached to mental health, and how this is a prevalent issue in the Muslim community.

Hobbs also noted that the communities Maslaha works with are “most isolated, the ones that had least resources available, and the least support available to themselves.”

She also pointed out that it is crucial for mental health professionals to be aware of people’s sensitivities:  “It’s important not only what’s said but also how it’s said and who says it.”

Maslaha also work with local imams and religious leaders to find out what techniques work best for local diaspora communities.

Mental Health Awareness Week runs from 13–19 May.

Operation Carbon: largest operation of its kind by Met Police and Tower Hamlets Council targeting burglary, robbery, theft and drugs crimes. Pics: Met Police

In a special joint Met Police and Tower Hamlets council operation described as “the largest ever number of coordinated dawn raids” in the fight against drugs, burglary and theft, 66 people have been arrested across East London and other parts of the capital this morning.

“Operation Carbon” involved more than 1,000 Metropolitan Police officers from Tower Hamlets borough, the Territorial Support Group (TSG) and Specialist Crime and Operations (SCO), and executed search warrants at 75 addresses.

One of the key headquarters for the operation in the early hours of this morning was Tower Hamlets Town Hall and most of the arrests took place in this borough and Hackney to the north.

One of the teams from a total of 1,000 officers moving in the semi-darkness of a dawn raid in Tower Hamlets as part of Operation Carbon

Tower Hamlets Council and the Met Police say the “meticulously-executed operation” has yielded  “a significant haul of electrical goods, including smart phones and laptops.”

All those arrested are currently in police custody in stations all over London pending further enquiries.

Commander Stephen Watson, East Area Commander of the Met Police, described the aims of this unprecedented operation as his officers began to make arrests.

Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman, said: “We have been pleased to support the police in their activities this morning. This operation has targeted persistent offenders whose actions have had serious implications for their victims.”

“Tower Hamlets Council is committed to tackling crime, with local partnership working such as this operation with the police making a real difference for local people,” he added.

Detective Chief Inspector Des McHugh, who led today’s operation, said: “These arrests follow a lengthy intelligence-led operation designed to combat criminal networks within Tower Hamlets and the surrounding boroughs.”

He said: “The operation has targeted those concerned in burglary, robbery, handling stolen goods and drugs. Other key suspects have previously been arrested and there will be further searches and arrests to come.”

He added: “Today’s activity represents the largest pre-planned single arrest operation that the MPS has conducted.”

He praised Tower Hamlets Council for their financial and logistical backing: “I hope that this very visual crackdown will increase public confidence in the Met’s ability and desire to tackle the criminals who engage in or facilitate these deplorable crimes.”

The huge scale of today’s operation represents the second phase of an inquiry that in its first phase has seized electrical goods with an estimated value of £100,000 and has already returned hundreds of items to the rightful owners.

This includes reuniting the victims of burglary with their belongings such as retired professor Nicholas Mitchison, 85, whose computer was stolen while he and his wife were asleep in their home in Islington: “I still carry out research for London’s University College Hospital and had been working on a paper covering Human Genetics. The paper was almost complete and due to be published when we were broken into.”

Professor Nicholas Mitchison (retired) and his wife Lorna- victims of burglary while they slept. Pic: Met Police

“They appeared to know exactly which items to take and quite deliberately targeted the computer. We really didn’t expect to see it again so were most surprised when we were contacted by the police to say they had recovered items belonging to us,” he added.

Lorna Mitchison, 81, said the burglary “was really frightening and a rather infuriating experience. You always expect these people to watch the house and wait for you to leave, not wait for you to go to bed so that they can break in.”

Ngaio Simpson, 23, from Blackheath and a primary school teacher in Clapham has been reunited with her mobile smart phone: “The phone was taken as I chatted to friends in a bar in central London. I didn’t report the theft as I genuinely didn’t think anything could be done or that I’d ever see it again.”

Blackheath teacher Ngaio Simpson outside Bethnal Green Police station reunited with her smart phone as a result of Operation Carbon. Pic: Met Police

Tower Hamlets Borough Commander, Chief Superintendent Dave Stringer, said: “This morning’s raids are the culmination of a pre-planned, long-term initiative designed to disrupt criminal gangs. Every break-in and every street snatch shatters lives whilst drug dealing can have a devastating impact on communities.

“This operation highlights the Met’s commitment to tackle serious and organised crime by targeting those involved in this type of criminality,” he added.