Resident Disatisfaction?

It is evident that even one-time allies have now fallen out with the mayor. Those who put in great efforts to get her selected are sadly disappointed and want change.

One such is Mohammed Uddin, who can be found writing  for ‘Newham Muslims on Twitter/X here. 

Time was that the dissent that he raises would have been raised within the local Labour Party, but as we know, Labour has lain dormant for four years. Now it spills out into the public arena. 

Uddin conducted a bit of local research.

We have to note a couple of caveats; the numbers are small (64) and they were self-selecting, we have no idea how representative the respondents are.

That notwithstanding, the report he publishes suggests the battle lines for the next election.

Top of the list is crime and ASB, where the Fiaz approach has been to sack her enforcement officers. She is reported to have something of a strained relationship with the police, making joint work rather difficult.

Then comes street cleansing and fly-tipping. Newham might congratulate itself on awards, but those of us who live in the borough have a very different experience. There is no doubt that the state of the boroughs streets have become worse under Fiaz’s tenure.

Housing and homelessness come in next. Housing is a perennial problem. The mayor’s performance has been poor, particularly when we reflect on the abysmal scoring in the Social Housing Regulator’s report. Her claims to have built many new homes rests on the numbers of projects underway that she inherited from Wales. Still, even if she had built double the number, the demand would exceed supply, so despite poor performance, this one would have dogged any incumbent.

Parking and Traffic Management come fourth. We note elsewhere that Newham is less interested in traffic management and more interested in raising revenue, apologies, that should read parking enforcement. Enforcement  for the primary purpose of raising revenue feels like an abuse. The voters appear to think this too.

Lastly, cuts in youth services are damned. It may be because the recent draconian cuts imposed on community youth groups still smarts. Having promised an expansion of youth work in her election pledges, this feels like a betrayal.

On top of this Uddin notes the alienation of councillors from their communities. Again, we repeat the caveats, but if people see their taxes increase, the condition of the borough decrease and feel alienation towards either (or both) councillors and Labour, this could signal problems in 2026.

It’s a short report and available here.