Minutes of CHRA meeting, 20th November 2025
Please see here for the Minutes of our recent Residents' meeting. This is the last official meeting before Christmas, although there will be a Christmas event for CHRA attendees and local residents at Chadwell Heath Community Centre (formerly Robert Jeye's Library) on Wednesday 10th December, from 6.30 til 8.30pm. Guests are very welcome to dress for this Christmas occasion, pop in for a short while, and to bring food to share. Of course, there is no pressure to bring a dish (Please remember to include a list of ingredients to avoid allergic reactions!). Come and meet other residents, members of the CHRA committee and local Councillors for an informal chat.
Join us at our CHRA meetings
All residents living in Chadwell Heath and Whalebone Wards (Borough of Barking and Dagenham) are welcome to attend our meetings, which are held from September to November and from January to June, every 2nd Thursday of the month, at the United Reformed Church Hall, Beresford Gardens (top of Mill Lane and Ashton Gardens).
Each meeting begins at 7.30 and ends at 9pm. Previous guest speakers have included local M.P.s, members of Be First, senior members of Barking and Dagenham's Council departments (including Parking, Pest Control and Environment), members of the Greater London Authority, and the Police Commander. Our local Councillors and police also are frequently in attendance to discuss local issues and answer residents' questions.
We look forward to seeing you soon!
Police news
Local Crime statistics - please click on the following links for updates:
Whalebone ward crime Chadwell Heath
Local residents are invited to attend Safer Neighbourhood Ward Panel meetings, which are held regularly for Chadwell Heath and Whalebone Wards. If you have any ongoing issues affecting your community which police may be able to help with, the Ward Panel meetings are a good place to discuss these. Such issues may even become a police priority/promise, which involves a commitment from local officers to deal with elected local issues.We would also like to encourage younger people to attend these meetings and give us their view on local issues. Please email any info/requests to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
For a list of Whalebone Ward's 2025 meetings, click here. For details of Chadwell Heath Ward panel meetings, see here.
Please visit the Violence against Women and Girls, Advice stand at various venues throughout the year.
For more local police information, please go to https://www.met.police.uk/area/your-area/met/barking-and-dagenham/ and click on the appropriate team (eg Chadwell Heath, Whalebone) in the list at the bottom of the page.
SIGN UP TO MET ENGAGE
The metropolitan police have introduced a new online system which enables residents to find out what is happening in their area, and communicate with their local police. To find out more, or sign up, please go to www.metengage.co.uk.
86 Bus Route - update
We continue to put pressure on TfL to improve public transport for residents to travel to and from Queen's hospital.
Despite numerous letters and emails from Councillors and individual CHRA members, to Geoff Hobbs (Director of PublicTransport Planning) and Seb Dance (Deputy Mayor of London), our request for a short extension of the 86 bus route has continued to be rejected by TfL.
A petition, requesting that the route of one or two 86 buses per hour should be extended to Queen's hospital, was signed by over 800 residents, and gained support from our Councillors, as well as Jon Cruddas, M.P., Margaret Mullane and Unmesh Desai (London Assembly member). Despite a wide variety of reasons being given for our request, a limited number of excuses has been given by TfL for its rejection. We have decided to continue our petition, and now have added this on Social Media sites.
In September, a response to a letter sent by our Secretary (see here) led to a response from Geoff Hobbs, Director of Public Transport Service Planning.This failed to take into consideration the points that had been raised by CHRA, and contained a number of incorrect and irrelevant statements. While it had previously been suggested that a member of TfL should try to take the journey with residents, to experience the difficulties, Mr Hobbs suggested that we could meet to talk with local "planners". While an improvement, this was not felt acceptable.You can read the response from Geoff Hobbs here,
Our Secretary sent a response to Mr Hobbs and received a reply in January. Again, it fails to acknowledge the serious issues that have led to us requesting a direct route to the hospital. You can read copies of both emails here.
All correspondance were copied to Margaret Mullane, M.P., along with Members of the Greater London Authority (GLA) and Jaz Athwal, M.P. Margaret was invited to a meeting with TfL, again with a negative response. However, she was able to persuade TfL to agree to meet with our residents, at a special CHRA meeting on Thursday, 3rd July. Although this was very well attended, and residents were able to express their views in detail, it seems we shall have to wait some time before they reconsider our request.