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Excitement is growing in Barking and Dagenham after preparations to begin building the first OnSide Youth Zone in London moved up another gear.

Councillor Darren Rodwell, Leader of Barking and Dagenham Council along with Deputy Leader, Cllr Saima Ashraf, Councillor Worby and the Young Mayor joined up with young people who have been working with OnSide to unveil a giant banner at the site.

The council has welcomed an announcement to review the accident and emergency services at King George Hospital.

The decision from the East London Health and Care Partnership (ELHCP) follows an independent investigation by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) into the proposals to change the Redbridge hospital into an urgent care centre.

On 30 September and 1 October, the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham held the UK’s first-ever social cohesion hackathon in partnership with local technology company DigiLab.

The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham has been granted an injunction, thought to be the first of its kind in England and Wales, which bans unlawful campsites from being set up as well as prohibiting fly-tipping.

In total, 133 sites will be protected across Barking and Dagenham, including parks, open spaces, schools and industrial sites, all of which have experienced unlawful encampments in recent years.

Be First – Barking and Dagenham Council’s pioneering urban regeneration company – today issued an invitation to ambitious investors, entrepreneurs and businesses to help build London’s largest film studios and media complex in Dagenham.

Announcing the hunt for partners, Barking and Dagenham Council’s Leader, Cllr Darren Rodwell, said: “We are looking for like-minded partners to help us bring world class film studios to Dagenham.

“It will be an east end epic which will create hundreds of quality jobs and inject millions into the local economy.”

New figures released by the Department for Education show the progress of pupils academically in Barking and Dagenham is one of the best in the country.

Called Progress 8, the measure determines how well students develop between the end of primary school and the end of secondary school.

A score of 0 is the national average and would mean pupils made the expected progress by the time they left, while a positive score shows further development. Barking and Dagenham has an average Progress 8 score of 0.21. This places the borough 20th out of 151 local authorities in England.

Two of Barking and Dagenham’s senior councillors have been shortlisted for the prestigious LGiU and CCLA’s Councillor Achievement Awards 2017.

London’s first OnSide Youth Zone has been given the green light after the council and the Greater London Authority approved a planning application.

Building work on Parsloes Park, Dagenham – at the corner of Gale Street and Porters Avenue – will commence later this year.

When it opens in 2018, the Youth Zone will offer a wide range of activities for young people aged between eight and 19 and up to 25 for those with additional needs seven days a week, including dance, sport, art, music, drama, media, employability and mentoring programmes.

The Leader of Barking and Dagenham Council has written a stark letter to the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, outlining how a Met Police trial, which launched in April 2017, is struggling to deliver effective policing in the borough.

Students across our borough are celebrating their A-level results today with provisional figures showing 97.9% achieved an A* to E grade – matching the performance of other youngsters nationwide.

The number of pupils receiving top grades A* to A increased at Dagenham Park School by 13% compared to last year, while Robert Clack School and Barking Abbey also recorded increases of 2.4% and 2.3%.