News from Barking & Dagenham – October 2024 – Part 2
Riverside project to be doubled
The gigantic new build project ‘Barking Riverside’ with 10,000 flats, seven new schools, 21 hectares of park and sports areas is breathtaking. 2,700 flats have already been occupied and 1,000 more are currently under construction.
The development company overseeing this project has now presented new plans that go far beyond the approved 10,000 flats. The total number is to grow to almost 20,000, four additional schools are to be built and two parks. The plans are already so concrete that they can be discussed by the city council.
Lots of counterfeit cigarettes
City inspectors spent two days scrutinising ten shops in Barking and Dagenham. The focus was on illegal cigarettes and nicotine products. Sniffer dogs were important helpers for the investigators. Apparently they had the right shops in their sights. They found 35,820 illegal cigarettes in drawers behind false walls and hydraulic metal boxes. The value of the confiscated goods is estimated at almost £54,000.
‘Export’ of homeless people
Barking’s neighbour Newham is in the process of buying a complex of 63 flats in Dagenham. They are still under construction and are due to be occupied in December. Of these, 43 are intended for young people who were previously under municipal care and are now to become independent. 20 are reserved for homeless people. Newham has a particularly high number of homeless people, some of whom have to rent bed and breakfast houses and other accommodation on a daily basis. The city hopes to save a lot of money by buying the flats. There is no mention of the fact that social problems are also being shifted across the city boundary.
