Moving the boundaries of Hackney South

The government announced that it was seeking to reduce the number of MPs representing constituencies in the UK from 650 to 600 and as a result, the Electoral Commission yesterday published its proposals for achieving this reduction.

Whilst our ward will remain in a newly named "Hackney South" constituency, there are some changes, with Clissold, Stoke Newington Central and Dalston wards coming into our constituency. Three of the existing Hackney SOuth & Shoreditch wards will move into a new "Hackney North" constituency: Chatham (right next door to us), Kings Park and Wick wards to the east going into Diane Abbott's constituency.

Although this is a technical change which won't bring any noticable change to our ward, it's important that if you have any comments, you let the Electoral Commission know.

More information can be found here.

We Love Hackney Weekend - this Saturday & Sunday!

This weekend sees a series of events across the borough to celebrate all that is good about the borough and bring lots of different people from across our community together to meet, talk and generally have a good time.

Hackney Central has lots of different activites on - from St Augustine's Tower being open as part of Open House London, to performances from Hackney Children's Theatre outside Marks & Spencer.

There's lots to do and it's guaranteed to be lots of fun!

For all the information, please see this site here.

Current planning applications

There are three present planning applications relating to our ward:

Application Number: 2011/2334
Applicant: Mr Kenneth Farnon

117 Wilton Way, London, E8 1BH

Development Case Officer: Gillian Nicks

Description:
Submission of details pursuant to condition 13 (Noise Assessment) of planning application reference 2009/2673, dated 21/04/2010


Application Number: 2011/1187
Applicant: Mrs Adele Walker

401 Mare Street, Hackney, E8 1HY

Description:
Installation of new shop front and roller shutter.


Application Number: 2011/2201
Applicant: Mr John McCarthy

Ward Hall Court, 2 Navarino Grove, London E8 1AH

Description: Rear dormer roof extension to provide two additional bedrooms, shower room and
storage cupboards

The Health of our area

Hackney Central, like all the different wards in Hackney are in the top 10% of the most deprived areas in the country.

The East London and City NHS have produced new reports that look at the breakdown of important health statistics for Hackney and the findings make for some challenging reading and shows how much more work there is to do in our own community to improve people's life chances and basic health.

Headlines:

• We have just under 11,000 people living in our ward


• Almost 1 in 5 of our residents are under 15 and 70% are of working age


• 7% of our neighbours provide regular unpaid caring for friends or relatives - just under 200 people are spending 50 hours or more a week caring for people


• Almost 6 out of 10 of us live in council or housing association properties


• 17% of our working age residents are on job seekers allowance or incapacity benefit


• We have the second lowest level of life expectancy for women in the borough (just under 79 years) and the lowest life expectancy for men (just under 73 years old)


• We have lower levels of childhood obesity than the borough average, but still a staggering 1 in 5 children are obese


• Teenage pregnancy remains a substantial issue, with just under 9% of young women between 15 % 17 becoming pregnant


• 35 of our neighbours with disabilities receive support from the council to live independently at home


• Cardiovascular health (heart disease) is a problem with our death rate at about 80% higher than the English average and cancer deaths 36% higher than the English average (the highest in the borough)

The readings make for some worrying reading and shows the sort of challenges that still face the council - now that it has taken over responsibility for public health - and for our local NHS.

With all the excitement about the Olympics, it is often all too easy to forget about the underlying problems that many of our community face and good health is clearly one of them. Whilst smoking rates and teenage pregnancy rates have fallen - the money to deliver these services has been cut by the government - forgetting that even in one of the wealthiest cities in the world, some of our own are in desperate need of help and support.

More details about the Hackney Central statistics can be found here.

Other profiles and summary reports of major categories of health issues can also be found here.

London Riots: Continuing the pursuit for Justice

As part of the ongoing police operation to identify, find and bring those involved in the London riots to justice, the police will be setting up an "ad van" later this month showing CCTV images of people who are still being sought by the police.

The images will be shown and police support officers will be present for those who want to come forward with information.

The ad van will be in the Narrow Way/Clarence Road area and in Dalston on the 16th, 19th and 20th of September between 9am and 5pm.

We strongly urge anyone who has information to come forward. Justice has to be be seen to be done.

The man pictured is Richard Charles Bezzina, who is 44 and lived at Banister House, E9. As a result of his actions during the riots, he was convicted of violent disorder and was given 20 months in prison.

Tell us your policing priorities for Hackney Central

The next meeting of the Hackney Central Police Advisory Committee is on 12 September. This is where the police, councillors and local residents sit down to discuss crime and disorder issues in our ward and set three policing priorities for the month ahead.

If you would like to attend, give us some issues to be raised at the meeting or anything else, then please get in touch!

**Also, previous posts also discussed the cut to police resources in Hackney. Our borough will have to lose 5 sergeants - a huge loss of talent, skills, knowledge and experience. Thankfully, our ward has been spared and so we are delighted that Sgt Elsey will be remaining in post and able to concentrate on policing our ward.**