Are Tower Hamlets leisure services trans inclusive?
I’ve recently heard from the Leisure Services team about how the council is ensuring its leisure facilities are trans inclusive. This enquiry was submitted after the Supreme Court backed the biological definition of a person’s gender. The ruling had implications for the management of single-sex spaces and the managers of these spaces may need consider biological sex when determining who… Read More >
Comment: Mayor Rahman should protect our community’s assets equally
At the full council meeting held last night at the Town Hall in Whitechapel, we heard three petitions all raising similar issues. All three were organisations occupying council-owned buildings. All three had either they had been subject to rent reviews, or were trying to formalise their lease. Mayor Rahman has made it clear in previous statements that he does not… Read More >
Comment: Lutfur Rahman is holding us back from healthy streets
The Healthy Streets Scorecard 2025, published 8 July, has shown the dangerous impact of Lutfur Rahman’s policies on transport. Tower Hamlets dropped 4 places in the ranking of London boroughs on infrastructure which supports people to take healthier modes of travel. Our borough’s fall in the rankings is mostly due to inaction, but the Mayor is threatening to rip out… Read More >
Malmesbury Estate walkabout and new TRA!
In May, I was honoured to attend the first AGM of the Malmesbury Tenants and Residents Association (TRA) for several years. The TRA has been inactive for a few years, but new energy has come into it recently and residents elected a new chair and committee at the meeting. The committee have already been active, pushing for repairs of the… Read More >
Victoria Park Pride and remembering Sandra Docking
I had a great time, along with other Green Party activists and local residents, at the Victoria Park Pride Picnic on Sunday 29 June. The Bandstand season happens every year in Victoria Park and sees locals come together to enjoy music, (hopefully) good weather and our beautiful park. The Pride event also is an annual fixture of the bandstand season… Read More >
Parking permits renewal reminders not getting through?
A resident recently told me that they had not received a reminder email from the council to renew their parking permits. And they only found out when they were hit with several fines, totalling £400. This isn’t the first time I’ve looked into this issue, however I submitted a Member Enquiry with low expectations of any breakthrough. Here is the… Read More >
Tackling rampant illegal parking on Kitcat Terrace
I’ve been going to Kitcat Terrace more regularly recently because of the recent re-opening of the Tower Hamlets Leaving Care service building. I was shocked to notice a whole line of cars parked on the double yellow lines along the road, causing pile-ups and dangerous speeding as cars tried to avoid each other. I also noticed that there were lots… Read More >
Why I accepted free tickets to Lido
I recently accepted free tickets to attend Outbreak Festival at Lido as a guest of AEG, the contractors for both Lido and All Points East. The reason? I wanted to see for myself just how loud the events are for punters. Despite having lived within earshot of the festivals for nearly 9 years (3 years of which in the resident… Read More >
Victoria Park toilets cleaning should improve
Many visitors to the wonderful Victoria Park will have been relieved (pun intended) to find more toilets available to users, catering to a wide range of needs and abilities. However, a resident raised with me a concern that some of the toilets in the park aren’t cleaned as often as others. There seemed to be a particular problem with the… Read More >
Junction improvements on Morgan Street
This junction of Morgan Street with Tredegar Square has been a hot spot for traffic collisions and crashes. Residents in the area may remember the car that overturned on Tredegar Square in December 2023. Since 2020, this junction has seen 6 crashes which appears on the UK Crash Map, so there is clearly a problem here. After the crashes, I… Read More >