Vision for the borough

Barking and Dagenham

Our Vision for Barking and Dagenham in 2020

Our aim is that 'together we will build communities and transform lives'. This web page sets out briefly what we want to achieve over the next 10-15 years.

Our area has real strengths: many outstanding primary and secondary schools and confidence throughout our education system; much garden and green open space with many parks; a lively community that enjoys sport and recreation and has much talent in performing and other arts.

Ours is an area that many people are proud to call home, and spend their lives here. We are close to central London, the countryside and the coast. Most striking is that this is a borough where large families and groups of friends extend help to each other. This is a place of many confident and entrepreneurial individuals that is proud to be in the east end and enjoys its proximity to Essex.

Over the next 10-15 years our aim is to promote what is already good, but to grow in strength and confidence as a locality and overcome the problems our people face. We will continue to improve our skills base, work hard to reduce health inequalities, make this a cleaner and safer place to live, work or visit and improve the life chances of all people, young and old.

Our borough has some long-standing areas of deprivation that require concerted effort by all local agencies and communities, and the support of regional and central government. The arguments for action have been won - our purpose now is to insist that this is translated into investment and regeneration schemes that make a difference to people's lives.

It is estimated that our population will grow by over 100,000 people, with developments taking place all over the borough, for example Barking Riverside, South Dagenham, Dagenham Dock, Barking Town Centre and other/estate-based schemes. The community's requirement is that the local economy and income levels must benefit from this activity.

These must not be piecemeal exercises in building, but complement each other through high quality design, mixed and sustainable use, good transport links and excellent infrastructure to make this a better place for existing and new residents and businesses.

We know that high quality change will help to promote community cohesion and celebrate diversity, and we will not tolerate low quality change that could aggravate community tensions.

There are great opportunities to regenerate through the arts and leisure, for example to make better use of the Rivers Thames and Roding as amenities for the whole of London, and to continue with our passion for stunning visual public arts. Barking and Dagenham is an area with much heritage, and we are ambitious to promote this to meld the old with the new.

Much of what needs to be done will be through partnership. As a key public institution we not only have a role to excel at partnership working in order to promote better public management and community sector delivery, but also to be a customer-focused provider that is respected within and outside the borough for the quality of individual services and joined-up solutions.

More than any other factor, the excellence of an organisation is determined by the quality of its people, and our intention is to continue to invest in developing talent.

Finally our vision and message is that the community will achieve this vision - because it deserves and wants nothing less!

Councillor Charles Fairbrass MBE|

Leader of the Council

Rob Whiteman|

Chief Executive

Contact

Regeneration Enquiries

3rd Floor

Maritime House

1 Linton Road

Barking

IG11 8HG

Tel: 020 8227 3930

Fax: 020 8227 5326

Textphone: 020 8227 3034

Email: regeneration@lbbd.gov.uk|