Havering’s Local Heritage List helps our communities and the local planning authority to identify heritage assets (for example, buildings, monuments, sites and landscapes) that are much loved and a distinctive part of our local historic environment. It provides a comprehensive list of the location of assets and what is significant about them.
During June - August 2023, we asked for your comments on the criteria. Robust criteria ensure the local list is properly evidenced, which in turn allows each nomination to be given full consideration during planning decisions.
We received 21 responses.
The Local Heritage List criteria have now been updated, taking on board comments we received during the consultation. Changes include:
As part of Havering’s refresh of our Local Plan 2021, Havering Council carried out a consultation between March and May 2023 to ask people around the borough about their views on the characters of the areas where they live, work or study.
Led by Havering Planning team, with input from departments across the Council and an urbanisation practice, we delivered four pop-up events, a community workshop and an online survey to ensure we heard from a wide group of people.
What we learned from 91 responses that were received to the online survey:
Positive feedback from the survey told us that:
Negative feedback from the survey told us:
What we learned from face-to-face engagement we did with local people:
EMERSON PARK |
|
✔ |
Protect, preserve and improve green spaces in the area. Protect wildlife. |
✔ |
Protect and preserve historic building with new buildings that reflect these. |
✖ |
Residents would like better road surfaces and bus services. |
HORNCHURCH |
|
✔ |
Importance of Queens Theatre as an asset in the local community. |
✔ |
Investment in public realm along the High Street. |
✔ |
More spaces for community gatherings and young people. |
✖ |
A concern that the town centre is losing its historic feel. |
ELM PARK |
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✔ |
Value the convenience of city life with access to the countryside. |
✖ |
Better maintenance of the High Street and green spaces in the town centre. |
✖ |
New street furniture and signage needed. |
UPMINSTER |
|
✔ |
Value the range of shops and accessibility. |
✔ |
Well maintained buildings including positive comments about the refurbishment of the Windmill. |
✖ |
Desire for new green space, improved footpaths and better public realm. |
ROMFORD |
|
✔ |
Accessibility and availability of public transport, shops and services. |
✔ |
Valued the heritage in the town centre but a need for better maintenance and reuse. |
✖ |
A concern about the height of new development. |
✖ |
Improvements to public realm and access to greenery. |
COLLIER ROW |
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✔ |
Accessibility to the countryside – but some green spaces were highlighted as needing better maintenance. |
✖ |
An improvement to the shop fronts. |
GIDEA PARK |
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✔ |
Value the attractive green and low-rise character. |
✔ |
The range of shops and services within a 10-minute walk. |
✖ |
Lack of cycle infrastructure. |
SOUTH HORNCHURCH |
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✔ |
Heritage assets are valued with a desire for careful refurbishment. |
✔ |
Happy to see new homes in the area alongside the delivery of new green spaces. |
✖ |
Concern about development without associated social infrastructure. |
RAINHAM |
|
✔ |
Access to natural green spaces and parks. |
✖ |
A concern about new development changing the character of the area in terms of the scale and type of buildings. |
✖ |
Better support for small and independent businesses in the town centre. |
BEAM PARK |
|
✖ |
This was the only neighbourhood that we did not receive any comments about. |
HAROLD HILL |
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✔ |
Value of network of local green spaces and play spaces. |
✖ |
Investment in public realm and planting alongside maintenance. |
✖ |
A need for better connections with other parts of the borough, particularly by bus. |
HAROLD WOOD |
|
✔ |
Good quality shops, schools, play spaces and local parks. |
✔ |
A potential to reduce car parking around the shopping parade in order to improve public realm. |
✖ |
A desire for better walking and cycling infrastructure. |
The survey results are being reviewed and will help us to:
Havering Council carried out a consultation activity from March to May 2023 seeking views on our proposed Draft Children and Young People Education Place Planning Plan.
We asked parents, carers, local residents, education providers and other people interested in education provision in Havering for their contribution towards the proposals that have been set out in order to meet demand and ensure that there is sufficient capacity for the future need for education provision in Havering.
424 responses were received to the consultation.
Early Years
Primary and Secondary
Post 16
Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND)
Alternative Provision (AP)
The survey results are being reviewed and will be included in a report to inform our new Children and Young People Education Place Planning Plan.
Havering Council planned to submit an application for a grant in late June to improve our Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) service and wanted to make sure we put children and young people at the heart of our plans.
To help us with this, we carried out two consultation activities from March to April 2023 seeking the views of parents and carers of children and young people under the age of 25 with SEN, and in a separate survey we sought the views of SEN educational providers.
We asked parents and carers for their views and experiences to ensure we focused on the right areas and we asked SEN educational providers for their views to help identify and shape opportunities for us to do better.
Parents and Carers Said:
389 responses were received to the consultation.
Educational Providers Said:
101 responses were received to the consultation.
The survey results have been reviewed and recorded and have been included in an application for a grant to improve Havering’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) service.
As part of Havering’s upcoming All-Age Carers Strategy in partnership with North East London Integrated Care System, Havering Council carried out a consultation to ask Carers around the borough about their experience.
We also asked Carers whether they agreed on our proposed priorities that have emerged from other engagement activities. These were:
125 Responses were received to the consultation.
These results will now be included in a report to inform our new Carers Strategy.
Havering Council carried out a consultation activity from February to March 2023 seeking residents’ views on proposed changes to Havering's Complaints Policy.
We asked residents and service users for their views on how we can improve the way we deal with complaints by proposing an update to our customer contact definitions.
Alongside this we are proposing to merge all of our policies into one easy to understand process that reduces the number of stages, allowing us to focus on what matters most – getting it right first time.
Our proposed Six Aims to achieve this are:
31 responses were received to the consultation, of which 17 (55%) stated they had made a complaint to the Council.
The survey results, along with feedback from authorising bodies and other local authorities, are being reviewed and will be included in a report to inform our new Complaints Policy.
The release of sky lanterns is causing a major impact on the environment and a danger to human and animal life due to wild fires. Over 188 Councils have already banned the release of sky lanterns from their land, including neighbouring authorities such as Essex County Council and the London Borough of Redbridge.
There are similar risks associated with the outdoor release of helium balloons, and unauthorised fireworks displays.
Havering Council carried out a consultation activity from January 2023 to February 2023 to ask the public for their thoughts and comments on banning the following activities from Council owned and managed land:
512 responses were received to the consultation. The majority of responses were fully supportive of the Council’s proposals.
Sky Lanterns
Helium Balloons
Fireworks
Havering's Cabinet met on 8 March 2023 and agreed to adopt a policy on the Release of Sky Lanterns, the Release of Helium Balloons and the Unauthorised Use of Fireworks on Council Owned or Managed Land. Please see more information Here which includes the policy.
Havering Council launched a consultation on our Budget 23-24 draft proposals, which set out how the Council propose to save money whilst still providing vital public services. We asked for feedback on how these proposals would affect Havering’s residents.
3188 responses were received to the consultation, plus an additional 11 paper copies that were not available to be included in the full Public Document Pack at the time of publishing.
We asked for feedback on our proposals which we grouped into themes:
Havering's Cabinet met on 8 February 2023 and agreed proposals for the Council's 2023/24 budget. As a direct result of feedback:
The Council will continue to fund the Havering Citizens Advice Bureau for another year, as it is clear that they provide a vital role for residents.
The proposed closing of the Elm Park Children's Centre which is home to a children's nursery, will continue to stay open as it was clear that closing the site at this time would have put parents and their children at a disadvantage.
Public safety remains a large concern for residents and as part of the proposals, we have committed £3.5 million to push through the new CCTV upgrades, as well as pledged a further £260,000 to continue the Council-funded Section 92 police officers to help keep our streets safe. These officers are extremely successful in what they do and it is important they continue to help reduce crime in the borough.
Please see the full Public Document Pack Here which includes the 2023/24 Council Budget Setting Report.
We asked Havering pupils in academic year 6 upwards a series of questions based around the themes of our developing Children and Young People Plan. The survey was delivered through the ‘Mind of My Own’ app and website, and the questions were co-produced with children and young people.
The themes covered were: Aspiration, Discrimination and Hate, the Cost of Living and how children and young people feel about the local area.
More than 1,000 children responded to the consultation.
The survey results have been reviewed by Children’s Services and our Insight team and will be used to inform the developing Children and Young People Plan. Findings will be presented to a series of meetings internally, with schools, and with our partners, during March and April 2023. A young person’s wellbeing steering group will also be reviewing the results, deciding on their headline messages and suggesting further actions that might be taken.
Havering Council carried out a consultation activity from September 2022 to November 2022 seeking residents’ views on our parks and open spaces. These include Havering’s traditional parks, small open spaces, formal gardens, playing fields, country parks and allotments, which deliver a whole range of benefits for local communities; providing places to relax, exercise, hold events and to learn and to play.
We asked residents and park users to help us set out Havering’s priorities for its parks and open spaces over the next 10 years in order to meet the objectives set out in national, regional and corporate plans and policies.
1488 responses were received to the consultation.
The survey results have been reviewed and recorded and they will be included in a draft report to inform our new Parks Strategy.
The Government announced that from 2030, new petrol and diesel cars will be prohibited from sale within the United Kingdom. Over the next decade the number of electric vehicles within the country and within the borough is expected to significantly increase.
In order to meet this challenge, Havering Council carried out a consultation activity from July 2021 to July 2022 seeking residents’ views on having Electric Vehicle Charging Points (EVCPs) publicly available and asking where residents would like to see them installed, if they owned an electric vehicle and if they planned to buy one.
356 responses were received to the consultation:
The survey results have been reviewed and recorded and they will help with planning the future roll out of the EVCPs across the borough.
Since the survey went out Havering Council has received £346k of Government funding from the Office of Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) to deliver 68 Charge Points in Council operated car parks and up to 80 on street charging points across the borough in 2023. The Council will soon begin a procurement exercise to appoint a Charge Point Operator and the intention is to begin delivery of the charging infrastructure in the coming months.