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Emergency staff and frontline workers helping vulnerable people can now apply to park for free in council-owned car parks and parking bays across Barking and Dagenham during the coronavirus pandemic.

The council is making key worker permits applications available from today, in a move to help these important staff continue providing vital services to the local community. Residents will also be able to park for 5 mins in CPZ zones without a permit, so they can drop off essential items outside loved ones’ doors, while socially distancing.

Enforcement officers from Barking and Dagenham Council have been out in force shutting down a number of businesses operating illegally in the borough despite government guidance asking them to close during the coronavirus lockdown.  

During a planned operation, enforcement officers identified and shut down nine businesses operating when they should have been temporarily closed down.  

The businesses ranged from vape shops, beauty suppliers and hand car washes to scrap metal yards.  

Barking and Dagenham Council is asking for your help to prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus.   

Following the latest guidance from the government, a number of businesses should now be closed for the foreseeable future to make sure we’re doing everything possible to stop this virus spreading.  

Local resident, Hamza Sharif is now a qualified plumber and in full employment following contact with the council’s Job Shop.

Hamza had always wanted to be a plumber and first approached the Job Shop aged 15, but as he was too young, he was signposted to the Technical Skills Academy where he completed a Level 1 in Plumbing. 

Barking and Dagenham council and local social sector launches a coordinated project to support vulnerable people and harness local goodwill during global coronavirus pandemic.

A project called BD CAN – which stands for Barking and Dagenham Citizens Alliance Network, has officially launched in the borough today (23 March 2020) to help co-ordinate community support for local people affected by coronavirus, but it’ll be bigger than that – it will also be one of the key places to go for anyone who wants to help others during the pandemic. 

Residents across Barking and Dagenham looking for work and training opportunities are being encouraged to take part in the Job Shop ‘Registration Week’ which takes place from Monday 16 to Friday 20 March. 

Staff and councillors who know or work with residents looking for work are being urged to direct them to the council’s job shops at Barking Learning Centre or Dagenham Library, Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 4.00pm. Residents can walk in and do not have to book an appointment.

Barking and Dagenham’s sixth annual Women's Empowerment Month officially kicked off at Barking Town Hall on Friday 6 March, with a host of inspirational guest speakers and performances.



The launch featured Polly Neate CBE, Chair of The Barking and Dagenham Domestic Abuse Commission, Zahra Ibrahim, Director of Excel Women’s Centre, and Jessica Soares Paim, The Young Mayor.

A schoolteacher has been fined almost £20,000 for selling counterfeit replica premier league football kits and Calvin Klein brief sets. 

Mrs Bobbi Ehsan of Loxham Road, Chingford was caught by Barking and Dagenham Council enforcement officers during a routine visit to Dagenham Sunday Market on 17 June 2018.   

In total, enforcement officers seized 381 fake replica football kits and Calvin Klein brief sets.  

Residents of Alfred Gardens in Barking can now breathe a sigh of relief after the council secured a Closure Order on a property which has been a source of anti-social behaviour since last August.

Residents living in and around the property have had their lives blighted by anti-social behaviour, including violence, public urination and defecation, drug taking and intimidation of other people. 

Following joint work between council officers and the police, on Thursday 27 February at Barkingside Magistrate Court secured the Order. 

A case has finally closed on a local solicitor who was caught out for failing to license two premises in Dagenham.

Ms. Kate Okoli, who works in a local solicitors in Barking, has been fined £10,000 following a three-year battle after she was initially investigated in 2017, in relation to several properties. She has since been prosecuted for failing to license both premises on Hewett Road and Neville Road.