FREE Issue 9 | September 2021 @newhamvoices /NewhamVoices @newhamvoices www.newhamvoices.co.uk We’re a year old! This edition marks our first birthday. And we’re mark- Solidarity ing it by celebrating the solidarity that makes Ne- wham such a special place. The people of Newham are always ready to help – working on projects to improve our neighbour- hoods, supporting refugees in search of a better life. Newham But as always there are challenges. On Page Three we report on how park lovers are ready responds to to fight to save a neglect- ed corner of beautiful West Ham Park from the develop- ers and on a new campaign international to save Newham City Farm from closure. And we have more inspir- ing stories – two icons of refugee crisis Black culture in Newham provide a curtain-raiser to October’s special report on Black History Month on • The Mayor offers Newham Page 13. We also have urban as a safe haven for Afghan gardeners on Page 14 and a Covid survivor talks of his refugees struggle with long Covid on Page 11. • A local shop-worker tells of PLUS all your favour- ite columns and inspiring family tragedy and Taliban community news stories. It’s brutality been a great year and we can do more with your support. Find out how on Page Two. See Page 5 Newham Voices needs your ©Apik / Shutterstock.com support. To make a donation please scan this code with the PayPal app. Helping The votes Hands: are in! Summer Full list of on the community Calais project frontline winners See Page 7 See Page 8 Photo courtesy Care4Calais Photo courtesy XLP/Facebook 2 Newham Voices September 2021 About us Your £5 can give Newham By local people, for local people Our aim is to provide a voice for all of Newham’s people. We are committed to helping you share your news, views an independent voice and experiences with each other. We Newham Voices aim to be transparent, accountable Welcome to the anniversary edition of , the free news service for London’s most diverse and and responsive to your needs. vibrant community. We are a group of volunteers who over the past year have defied lockdown and the pan- demic to launch a newspaper and online news portal. We are independent and not-for-profit. We have no We are a non-profit Community Interest Company (number political affiliation, but we are dedicated to the people of Newham. 12790786). Our journalism is We are a grassroots organisation, providing a platform for everyone, but we need your help. Today I am asking based on core values of accuracy, for your support. We need to raise £3000 a month to pay for printing and production costs. Every contribu- fairness, independence, humanity, tion, no matter how small, can make a difference. 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For further information contact Rebekah Samuel on 07306 515 223 or at [email protected] Campaigns Newham Voices September 2021 3 Park users draw up action plan to fight ‘insult to the community” JEAN GRAY he City of London is facing a major battle over its plans to Tbuild blocks of flats on a corner of West Ham Park where the plant nursery used to be. Friends of West Ham Park have pledged to fight the proposal. Chair Roger Jones said they are drawing up plans for “a vocal campaign, bring- ing together all the affected stake- holders, to fight against this insult to the local community”. Campaigners claim the park - the biggest in Newham - provided a life- line during the lockdown, attracting more local people than ever, in what is already “a densely populated area” that can ill afford to lose green space. In June, the City of London Corporation’s West Ham Park Committee approved plans to begin marketing the site over the summer and to invite developers to submit bids for further consideration. In a press release the Corporation The flower garden above is the park showpiece, one of the features that has been a magnet to thousands in Newham. © Friends of West Ham Park claimed that alongside the planned housing development, 50 per cent defined as brownfield sites. for children and youth.” The City of what the Council has to say about of the site would be reserved for a The framework also says local London agreed to maintain and pre- it?” asks Richard Stubbs. combination of operational build- authorities should maintain brown- serve the Park for this purpose at its A spokesperson for the City of ings, new parkland and recreational field registers of land suitable for own cost. London Corporation told Newham facilities, such as a community café housing. Newham Council maintains The Corporation manages the park Voices that the land is considered and changing rooms. such a register and the proposed through a charity that it controls, brownfield because it ‘is previously The housing element of the scheme development site is not listed. though Newham Council does have developed land’ and repeated that is expected to provide “vital fund- He cites the fact that when the two representatives on its Committee the 3-acre former nursery site is not ing” for future management and park was originally transferred to (Cllr. James Asser and Cllr. Tahmina within the green space of West Ham maintenance of the park. They argue the Corporation by the Gurney fam- Rahman). Park. She added: “The Nursery was it is the most viable way of gener- ily in 1874, it was to be held “on trust “It’s hard to understand how closed because business was not viable ating income for the charity while forever as open public grounds and building private housing in the park on a site of that scale, unable to com- “meeting the need for additional gardens for the resort and recrea- is anything other than a breach of pete with cost-effective plants from homes in accordance with the objec- tion of adults and as playgrounds the charity’s objectives. I wonder the larger scale European growers.” Q tives of the National Planning Policy Framework”. However, two elements of the June press release in particular have been described as ‘misleading’ by local resident and park user Richard Hundreds join campaign to Stubbs, who has fact-checked the claim by the Corporation that `the vacant plant nursery site is ‘adjoin- save Newham City Farm ing’ the park and that the glass- houses, unused since 2016, are on a NOAH ENAHORO people with special educational needs is to decide on the future of the farm ‘brownfield’ site. and disabilities,” said McLucas. in the coming months, to make sure According to Richard Stubbs, the n online petition calling for “We are concerned at reports of any decisions made reflect the views site is not “adjoining” the park, but Newham City Farm to remain funding cuts to the current farm, of local residents. Q is within the West Ham Park bound- Aopen to the public has received proposals to close it and to regener- aries, which are shown in a plan of more than 600 signatures in just ate the current site into more general the park held by Historic England 24 hours after concerns were raised green leisure space with which the and clearly include the proposed area over its future. area is already well-served. designated for redevelopment. The petition was started by local “We consider that with careful He also argues that because the site resident Alison McLucas who urged funding, it should be possible to keep is within the park it cannot be seen the Mayor and Newham Council to a community farm at the heart of as a “brownfield” site.