I began my day by joining in with the ‘World’s Biggest Coffee Morning’.  It was held at Barclays bank on High Street North, and was one of a series of events held across the UK celebrating Macmillan’s 100th birthday.  Macmillan hope to raise £320,000 this year, which will go towards continuing helping cancer sufferers and providing support to their family.  Barclays bank was well chosen for this event as, so the staff told me, it is the busiest branch in the country!  A great many delicious cakes were on offer, and many donations were made.  

I then went to meet Kim Bromley-Derry, the Chief Executive of Newham Council, to have one of our regular catch-ups.  We discussed parking in some detail.  I voiced local traders concerns that the Council’s ticketing of parking on forecourts for unloading and loading vehicles would harm their business.  We then discussed possible changes to parking meters in the borough.  Kim told me the Council was beginning a review of parking in October, and for this there would be consultation with businesses and residents.  We discussed the effects the repaving works on the High Street had had on local traders – some had reported a dramatic reduction in takings as a result of the disruption.  A meeting is to take place next Wednesday between the Council, businesses and traders, in which plans to boost shopping in East Ham will be considered.  We also talked about the future of the new Olympic stadium.  We also discussed plans to build on the existing cluster of technology companies in East London, working with the Greater London Authority to create a Tech City, and he agreed to keep me informed about this.

I then met with Robert Dolan, Chief Executive of East London NHS, and John Wilkins, the Deputy Board Director.  We discussed the mental health and primary care services that were being improved in Newham.  Robert and his team are developing support for people with mental health problems or primary care needs in their own community and home, rather than in hospital.  People prefer it and it costs less.  Robert promised to keep me posted about developments.

At the end of the day I called round to see Mr Steve Modi, the proprietor of a popular electronics shop on Romford Road, to discuss the issue of parking on forecourts and share with him what Kim Bromley-Derry had told me this morning.  We agreed to keep in touch.