TheBuzz_Issue2_A4_8pp_Nov21_digital

The BuzzWinter 2021 News and views from Barking Town Centre Christmas is coming In this edition – can you bear the wait? 2 Brass band entertains Barking Meet the Barking Beat We’ve always been Barking mad for Christmas in 80,000 vaccinations this borough but this year we’re extra excited as 3 Magic mural lights up wonderful Paddington™ will be here all the way from Peru! winter’s night 4 Get your business booming again Paddington™ will be at Barking Town Hall Square on More front than Brighton Saturday 4 December meeting youngsters at intervals 5 Business spotlight: between 11am and 5pm. He’ll be at the Christmas You can move on up in buzzing Barking Lights switch-on too! We mean business 6 Let’s get digital! The event will feature local dance groups, Christmas Can we hold hands here? carols and songs, family entertainment and an elf 7 Lighting up your home? hunt! Also, children get to visit Santa’s Grotto and Elf and safety notice receive a FREE gift. 8 What’s on? Let down your hair this Christmas! Youngsters will also get a chance to meet Paddington™. Hope for the homeless at Christmas I bet you can’t bear to wait for this – we can’t! See pages 7 and 8 for more Christmas cheer

What’s new in town? Brass band The band accompanied a series of ‘activations’ entertains Barking designed by local people to restore a sense of pride in and around the area and to encourage people to A brass section entertained commuters and passers-by better connect with one another. outside Barking station this month as part of a bid to brighten up the station’s surroundings. The activities included performances by local musicians, graphic artworks by local artists Emmanuel Oreyeni and Susanna Wallis, sculptures created by Adriana Jaros, new seating areas, and more than 100+ plants. They are the result of three months of research undertaken by local social enterprise Street Space, on behalf of Be First, which attempted to identify the things that local residents felt made the station feel unsafe. The plan is to introduce and test creative ideas to make the area feel safer. It’s a long term project to improve perceptions of safety in the area, and the team is still keen to hear what you think. Find out more at: oneboroughvoice.lbbd.gov.uk/activation-station 80,000 vaccinations Meet the The B&D GP Federation has now delivered a Barking Beat staggering 80,000 vaccinations to local people since January thanks to the help of local volunteers. Inspector Dan Bacon leads a new Metropolitan Police The team is now operating from new premises in the town centre team which old Burtons-Topshop unit at the heart of the Vicarage aims to build local Field Shopping Centre. They offer vaccinations to confidence and partnerships anyone aged 12 years and over, and for all doses. within the Barking community. A dedicated They operate a walk-in service every Friday and team of 25 officers will be Saturday between 9am and 5:30pm, and other days devoted to the town centre depending on demand. Alternatively, you can book from 6 December 2021 an appointment at www.nhs.uk/covid-vaccination or especially at peak periods. phone 119. As part of the Met’s Neighbourhood Policing policy, They also run occasional private clinics for vulnerable the team is one of 19 being set up in town centres groups as well as being the hub for care home and across London. Barking’s team has been selected housebound vaccinations in the borough. from experienced officers with local knowledge and community engagement skills. The team is keen to point out that they could only have achieved what they “We want to work with local residents, businesses have with help from the local people and shoppers to build a safe and welcoming town who serve alongside the staff and centre in Barking,” said Inspector Bacon. Based at clinicians of the borough’s GP Fresh Wharf Road, the team will be a regular visible practices. If you’d like to lend a presence around the town and we want people to hand you can sign up at talk to us so we can help resolve their problems and www.lbbd.gov.uk/ tackle anti-social and criminal behaviour making become-a-volunteer Barking a great place to be in.’ 2

Magic mural lights up wonderful winter’s night A light display lit up a stunning mural and From left to right: Mural artist Jake Attewell, the Barking sky last week as part of a Councillor Saima Ashraf, Leader of the Council, celebration of the town’s heritage. Darren Rodwell, Selina Papa from the project funders the National Lottery Heritage Fund, The event attracted dozens of viewers to watch the and Simone Panayi. stunning show which animated Jake Attewell’s mural on the side of McDonald’s in Short Blue Place. Scan this QR code to see the mural Simone Panayi, Community Engagement Officer at come to life. Be First, said “It was a super show which brought Jake’s mural and Barking’s heritage to life in a very special way. It was a really wonderful winter’s night.” 3

Get your business booming again Karen West-Whylie Barking’s busy Enterprise Centre (BEC) is now offering support to local businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors who need help to get their company on the road to recovery as the pandemic eases. The support starts with a free diagnostic phone call with a business coach who will help assess your challenges and explore the type of help required. This may include one-to-one support with staffing solutions, business diversification planning, and funding and investment advice. Karen West-Whylie, Chief Executive of the BEC, explains: “In addition to a range of mentoring and support options, we will help local businesses draft a business recovery plan, which could also be a passport to some £5,000 of support from the council.” “Our coaches offer one-to-one support to improve the long term resilience and sustainability of local companies and safeguard jobs and the local economy while we’re at it.” Find out more and register on the beccic.co.uk/recoveryprogramme/ More front than Brighton You’ll have seen that a number of shopfronts in East locally listed and we’re keen to preserve and Street and Station Parade are currently covered in enhance them. So, we’re delighted to have funding scaffolding. from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to do it.” It’s all due to a £1.8m programme of improvements So, next time you’re passing, don’t forget to look up to the town centre and, in particular, to refresh the to see the emerging new-old face of Barking’s shops. historic facades. And, if you’re a shop owner in East Street or Station Parade who would like financial help to improve your “The reason we want to do this,” explains Simone shopfront, please email [email protected] Panayi, “is because for years many buildings in the conservation area have got into disrepair. Many are 4

Business spotlight You can move on up in buzzing Barking Four years ago Adelina Mengri was “I am pretty confident about next year as long as selling clothes and shoes from her small we don’t get a mad breakout of Covid again and stall in the bazaar in Vicarage Fields. another lockdown. If things go well, I would want to employ someone locally as I am just on my own at Today Adelina has moved up in the world – well, the moment.” on to the first floor in the shopping centre where she now has a shop to herself next to the Post Office. “I am so pleased to be able to get bigger premises as demand for my branded clothes has really increased even with the tough year we’ve had due to Covid,” said Adelina. “Barking has been great for me and I have really seized the opportunities the area and the UK have given me. The key thing is if you work hard, you can make it here.” Adelina is looking forward to a bright future next year. We mean business If you run a local business, then you could profit from signing up to the borough’s Business Forum. It offers: • latest news about investment and local development activity • information about forthcoming events and networking opportunities • new funding and business support initiatives, with insights about business growth • webinars and events • local procurement opportunities. Sign up to our business forum newsletter, here www.lbbd.gov.uk/barking-and-dagenham-business-forum 5

Let’s get digital! If you’d like to get up to speed with the digital age, Councillor Sade Bright then Citizens Online can help you. Citizens Online is a digital skills charity, backed by the council, who provide resources and training to borough residents. They’ll team you up with a volunteer who can help you to develop your computer and internet skills – whether communicating online through sending and receiving emails, creating a CV and much more. Sade Bright, Cabinet Member for Employment, Skills and Aspiration, explained: “Whether you are a complete beginner or just want to brush up your skills, there is something for everyone. The service is free and offers free and friendly support, so please do get in touch.” Get in touch at www.lbbd.gov.uk/digital-at-barking- and-dagenham or call in to the Barking Learning Centre. And if you’d like to volunteer find out more at www.lbbd.gov.uk/become-a-volunteer. Can we hold hands here? Barking based Studio 3 Arts has displayed a series of posters around the town centre, as part of a new project about LGBTQI people’s experiences in the borough. They are the brainchild of artists Grace Duggan and Matty May who have produced audio soundscapes which tell the story behind the statement on each of the posters: queer joy can happen here; and, we can’t hold hands here. The soundscapes deal with issues of identity, safety, and belonging in relation to Barking. On each poster an embedded QR codes link to the audio soundscapes. We’re delighted to reproduce one here. 6

Lighting up your home? Last year, while we were in the grip of the pandemic, So, if you’re putting up the decs on your home this the Citizens Alliance Network created a map Christmas, why not add your details to the map so showing where people had dressed their home with we can all enjoy them? Christmas lights. It was a really fun way for people oneboroughvoice.lbbd.gov.uk/christmas-lights-map to tour around to see some of the spectacular light displays in the borough. Elf and safety notice FIMNADRAKLELTTTHOEVNISAIUTGSHATNYTEALVAENSDIBNETEHNETTEORWEDNINSQOUUARREP,RBIZLCE AND THE DRAW. Get your walking boots and your detective hat on and help Santa find what his naughty Elves are up MCLAREN THE PARTYBOX LIBRARY to at Barking Mad About Christmas on Saturday 4 December between 11am to 5pm. SUYA HUT FAIRGROUND CHILDREN’S ATTRACTION CLOTHES STALL Join the Elf hunt to find the whereabouts of the Elves, scattered around the Town Square, the Barking For more information please see Learning Centre and Barking Market and get your www.lbbd.gov.uk/christmas report card stamped at their six locations. Then hand in your card to gain your magical pass to visit the main man himself, for a FREE gift. Remember, ‘He’s making a list, checking it twice, he’s going to find out who’s naughty or nice’, so no cheating. All stamps will be different at each location. 7

What’s on? Let down your hair Hope for the this Christmas! homeless at Christmas The Dame (Betty Bouffant) and Loopy Louie (Dan Whitley) getting carried away with Christmas Time was that Barking Station was a bit of a magnet for homeless people. But no longer, thanks to some Are you getting carried away with Christmas yet? really fantastic work from local charity, Thames Well, if you’re not yet why not pop over to the Reach. Broadway Theatre to let down your hair and see this year’s pantomime, Rapunzel? Thames Reach has been working with the Council’s The Brothers Grimm tale runs from 2 December to safeguarding and housing teams to target support for New Year’s Day. homeless people around the town centre. They work For more details go to throughout the year but, of course, at this time of year www.thebroadwaybarking.com/sales/genres/ they focus on Crisis at Christmas where homeless pantomime/rapunzel---a-tangled-tale people can find a safe, warm place to stay, hot meals and a Christmas dinner and companionship. If you’d like to support this fantastic work, please check out www.crisis.org.uk Acknowledgements The Buzz is funded with support from the Welcome Back Fund, a European Regional Development Fund and HM Government programme to support town centre recovery. It is produced by Be First for the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. It is distributed to approximately 16,000 households in and around Barking. If you would like to advertise or share your news, email [email protected] Photographs by Andrew Baker and Jimmy Lee. Working in partnership