SUBJECT: RE: REGARDING THE FUTURE OF COMMUNITY SPACE & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN BARKING AND DAGENHAM
TO: PARTICIPATORY CITY TRUSTEES, LBBD COUNCIL & FUNDERS OF THE EVERYONE EVERYDAY PROJECT
Dear Participatory City Trustees, Councillors and funders,
We are local residents and concerned individuals who are passionate about community assets in the borough. We would like to request a meeting with you to discuss the legacy of community assets in Barking & Dagenham.
We would like to discuss with you:
1. What are the specific actions that will ensure there is a legacy for the warehouse and Everyone Everyday programme?
2. What is the plan for free and accessible maker and community spaces across the borough?
3. Will the council, funders, and other stakeholders, meet with us to be part of the solution we so badly need, for a real legacy and real partnership working?
Since the announcement of the closure of the Everyone Everyday project in January 2023 residents, makers, and community groups have met together every week to look at long-term solutions for securing spaces which have been taken from them. Given this experience they deserve a meaningful response rather than the wall of silence that has been the default from organisations that chose to put around £9m into the Everyone Everyday and related projects. The lack of responsibility legacy planning is real concern.
Although LBBD Council and the Participatory City charity have decided to close the Everyone Everyday warehouse, leaving residents without access to what has become a vital community space, the need does not go away. As the cost-of-living crisis, austerity, inequalities and pressures on public services all intensify, the importance of community and maker spaces increases.
The recent impact and evaluation report that the Participatory City team has produced only compounds social problems because it is silent about the concerns that have been raised and misrepresents the reality of the project and the current situation. Even more serious, it is silent about what happens next now that the Everyone Everyday project is moving on, the warehouse closing and with no significant legacy in place.
To date the council refuses to meet residents to consider the business plan developed by the friends of the warehouse group, to discuss solutions, but only to say there is no alternative. This approach urgently needs to change. There is always an alternative. There is always a better way, working together.
It is not unreasonable to question where the money went and what the long-term plan is.
It is not unreasonable to care about community and maker spaces and want to safeguard them.
It is not unreasonable to want to meet to talk about solutions, about wanting to work together.
After five long years of asking it’s time to put the interests and voices of residents and makers at the centre of this process. We therefore call on power and resource holders to do the right thing and work together with the residents’ group who care passionately about their community space to secure the right outcomes for everyone.
Signed
Barking & Dagenham Citizens, Citizens UK
Barking and Dagenham Heritage Society
Billy Martin – Resident
Company Drinks Team
Coral Martin – Resident
Corina Sava – Resident
David Townsend- Resident
Ellie Semon-Keane – Resident
Geoff Venables – Resident
John Dumbleton – Resident
George Sugden – Resident
Isalina Ferriara – Resident
Jacqueline Laoudi – Resident
John Allan – Resident
Karla Ndomahina – Resident
Kevin Hudson – Resident
Lai Ogunsola- Resident
Marion Hull – Resident
Marta Hawkins – Resident
Municipal Enquiry
Neil O’Connor – Resident
Perry Blott – Resident
Pete Mason – Resident
Pete Miller – Resident
Peter Hawes – Resident
Rebecca Bowker – Resident
Reggie Bhouar – Resident
The Ripple Effect Group
Terry Hughes – Resident
Venilia Anorim – Resident
Vincent Martin – Resident
Vishal Narayan – Resident
Yasser Shakoor – Resident