As colder nights take hold across the Royal Borough, residents are turning up their boilers and snuggling beneath their beds to keep warm. Those without homes don't have that luxury and the colder nights can be deadly. Homelessness is on the rise, both in the Royal Borough and nationally--and it can happen to any one of us. It is so easy to lose your home and everything you know--and everything you are. It just takes the loss of a job, the loss of a parent, or the breakdown

On a recent field trip to East London, my Year 11 Geography students and I learned a few lessons on regeneration that could help us here in the Royal Borough. My students visited Stratford New Town, Hackney New Wick and the East Village, where worn shops and homes were transformed with sparkling, modern buildings and clean, Olympic-quality leisure centres. They also plucked the courage to survey residents to get their thoughts on their regenerated communities. Though resid

For too long, residents across the Royal Borough have endured a local government that seemed more interested in seeing what it could get away with than in how it can best serve them. Examples abound, whether it’s paving our precious green belt with unaffordable homes, cancelling the expansion of one of the finest primary schools in the country or heaping international scorn upon us in the run-up to the Royal Wedding. When residents dared to complain, they’ve been ignored or

Over the last ten years or so I’ve become more and more involved in my community. I’ve been really concerned how the disadvantaged in our community are losing out and have seen how vital a helping hand from volunteers is in getting them back on track. I’ve helped where I could, whether volunteering for a local charity or actively participating in a planning matter. Several people have asked why I don’t become a Councillor. Up to now, I’ve always thought this was a role for