Letters, contributions and comments sent in from Recorder readers this week.

Small victory over haul road

Jenny Chalmers, chairman, Aldborough Hatch Defence Association (AHDA), writes:

Yours readers will now be aware that after a campaign by us to move the haul road from Fairlop Waters Country Park to open land Cllr Jas Athwal, leader of Redbridge Council, appears to have kept his word to do this, given at the full council meeting last November.

I still don’t know why all these last minute negotiations had to take place with the gravel company, who thought it was all right to ignore the council’s decision and arrogantly pegged out the haul road route in the woodland area with the diverse and protected wildlife habitat.

This is a small victory in what will be a huge disruption for people who live in Aldborough Hatch or use Fairlop Waters Country Park.

When the gravel extraction on Aldborough Hatch Farm, next to St Peter’s Church and opposite the Dick Turpin Restaurant, starts there will still be trucks thundering past, noise and dust, but now not as close to the Fairlop Waters footpath, whilst wildlife in the disputed area will be saved. I am still very upset that councillors on the planning committee voted in this crazy decision to allow Brett Tarmac Limited to extract gravel so close to houses, church, schools and other public buildings.

More acute beds needed at KGH

Neil Zammett, chairman, health scrutiny committee, writes:

In November 2018 I wrote to Chris Bown, the chief executive of BHR Hospital, to express the concerns of my committee about the performance of the A&E services.

I predicted that unless more beds were opened performance would drop below 60per cent, the standard is 95pc, in January/February 2019.

Figures published by NHS England two weeks ago showed that type 1 performance, at Queen’s and King George, had sunk to 55.2pc – the third worst in the country and the second worst in London.

It gives me the minimum pleasure to be proved right on such a worrying subject, all the more so because Redbridge residents, our constituents, continue to receive such a dreadful service.

Of course, our doctors and nurses do a marvellous job working miracles on a daily basis just to keep the service running and I wish that there was more we could do to help them.

They need and deserve effective leadership which tackles the real issues, which in this case is the provision of more local acute beds, say two wards at King George.

This will cost more money and have staffing implications but can be factored into the trust recovery plan and form part of the review of A&E services across the patch.

Shame on you, Mr Streeting

Alexander Sussman, full address supplied, writes:

On February 20 a most important debate on antisemitism took place in the House of Commons, which I watched live on TV.

MPs from all parties made many fine speeches. However, I noticed the MP for Ilford North Wes Streeting was not in attendance .

Ilford North still has a large Jewish community.

Mr Streeting claims he is a friend of the Jewish people – if this is the case why did he not attend? Shame on you Mr Streeting.

He even said at a meeting in Ilford North last year that Jermy Corbyn was not an antisemite. Does he still hold this opinion?

The Jewish residents of Ilford North are very upset he did not attend the debate and will show our feelings at the ballot box.

Ex-Labour MPs must leave Parliament

Terry Sykes, Trinity Road, Barkingside, writes:

Mike Gapes and other Labour MPs, plus the few, so far, Conservative MPs, who have taken the decision to resign from their party and form the Independent Group, should not be allowed to continue to sit in Parliament. They have no mandate to be there.

Mike Gapes, who has been a member of the Labour Party and a Labour MP for many years, stood in the last general election, as he has stood in many elections before that, under a Labour Party banner and on the platform of a Labour Party manifesto.

Despite what Mike Gapes might think about the reason he was elected (he said on national television last Monday that his constituents voted for him, the person), his constituents voted for somebody who they wanted to be their Labour MP, somebody, that is, who could and would represent their interests and values.

That principle of course, applies to all political candidates who fight an election on behalf of one party or another.

By resigning from the party that they stood for at election time, these MPs are, in effect, in dereliction of their duty and are in breach of the promises they made to those who voted for them. They cannot enter Parliament in one guise and expect to combine holding a seat in the house under another guise. In my opinion, those MPs are continuing in Parliament under false pretences. This seems to me to be a situation that flies in the face of the democracy that this country holds in such high esteem.

I understand that these MPs have their reasons to be disillusioned with their own political parties (racism, Brexit, etc), but their approach should surely be to stay and fight in order to bring about changes.

Wes Streeting has stated that he has no intention of resigning from the Labour Party and I have every confidence that he will be as honourable in that pledge as he has been in everything he has stood for since being elected MP for Ilford North.

No consultation on existence of hubs

Randhir Singh Bains, Shere Road, Gants Hill, writes:

It is not the Tories but the likes of Jas Atwal (Recorder letter) who is misleading the public over Gants Hill library.

As a resident of Gants Hill, I don’t want my library to be overshadowed by the so-called community hub. Nobody, prior to making decision over their construction, bothered to inform us as to what these mysterious entities are, and why do we need them?

Mr Atwal informs us that he plans to “run a thorough consultation, enabling residents to design their own personalised community hub”. Someone ought to inform Mr Atwal that you consult the public before making the decision, not after the decision to construct the hub has already been made.

The kind of consultation Mr Atwal is proposing is not consultation at all: it is commonly referred to as presenting those on receiving end with fait accompli – a particular specialty of the Labour Party.