London Borough of Havering

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Template:Infobox London Borough The London Borough of Havering is a London borough in East London and forms part of Outer London. The principal town in Havering is Romford and the other main settlements are Hornchurch and Upminster.

1 Population
2 Neighbours
3 Industry and commerce
4 History
- 4.1 Settlement
5 Districts
6 Transport
7 Places of interest
8 Politics
9 Twinning
10 See also
11 External links

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Population

The borough has a population of 224,582 in 93,200 households over 43 square miles (111 km²). There is a high ratio of area per capita as large sections of Havering are parkland and 6,000 hectares (more than half the borough) is greenbelt protected land. Those areas of development are extensive but rarely intensive. It has, at 3%, the lowest unemployment rate in Greater London and one of the lowest crime rates.

Havering has a significantly higher proportion of residents in white ethnic groups than other outer London boroughs (95.1% — 2001 census). The Indian population is the most significant minority ethnic group in Havering (1.2%). The Upminster constituency is the least diverse in Greater London.

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Neighbours

Havering is bordered to the south with the London Borough of Bexley by the River Thames, to the west with the London Borough of Redbridge and the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, to the north with Essex and the east with Thurrock.

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Industry and commerce

There are over 7,000 businesses based in Havering. Romford is the main commercial hub of the borough with a small district of mainly office development close to the railway station. There is also some industry to the south between Rainham and the River Thames.

The main retail district is also located in Romford with several interconnected or nearby shopping arcades to the main Liberty Shopping Centre. Romford Market is located to the north of Romford and is the largest market within the borough and in the surrounding area. Hornchurch and Upminster are the other main retail centres with extensive high street shopping areas.

Romford has a developed night-time economy with one of the highest concentrations of bars and nightclubs anywhere in Greater London outside the West End. Because of this concentration of entertainment facilities in one place and transport options radiating from that district, there are no other significant entertainment zones in the borough.

Havering London Borough Council is currently lobbying the Government to allow a 'super-casino' to be built in the south of the borough. [1]

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History

Image:Arms-havering-lb.jpg The London Borough of Havering was created in 1965 by the combined former area of the Municipal Borough of Romford and Hornchurch Urban District which had been transferred to Greater London from Essex by the London Government Act 1963. The name originates from the Royal Liberty of Havering which covered broadly, but not exactly, the same area and had been abolished in 1892.

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Settlement

Because of London Underground and fast rail connections to central London from transport hubs at Romford and Upminster much of Havering has considerable residential development which has occurred throughout the last century.

The development of the borough came in two distinct phases. The first middle class suburban developments were built in the late Victorian and Edwardian period. The garden suburbs of Upminster, Emerson Park and Gidea Park (also known as Romford Garden Suburb) were spurred on by the building of the railway lines through Havering from Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street in the late 19th century.

In the 1930s the District Line was electrified and extended to Upminster with new stations at Elm Park and Upminster Bridge. Also at this time new industries near to the area such as the Ford Motor Company plant at Dagenham caused a new wave of mostly working class developments along the route of the new Underground line. In addition to this, to the north of the borough, the large housing estates of Harold Hill and Collier Row were constructed to deal with the chronic housing shortages and early slum clearance programmes in central London.

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Districts

This pattern of 'garden suburb' with inter- and post-war housing development still exists in the borough today. Plans to extend existing developments in much of the borough are blocked by the strict Green Belt laws. In contrast to this, the southern part of Havering adjacent to the Thames is within the London Riverside section of the Thames Gateway redevelopment area. New open spaces and large scale house building to provide an entirely new residential community is planned.

The most built-up areas are the traditional garden suburb districts of Hornchurch, Emerson Park, Gidea Park, Harold Wood, Romford and Upminster. These places have developed over the last hundred years to form a large area of continuous urban sprawl with increasingly less clearly defined notional boundaries.

Also part of the sprawling residential area are the later developments are Ardleigh Green, Chase Cross, Collier Row, Elm Park, Harold Hill, Rainham. In contrast, Havering-atte-Bower, North Ockendon, Noak Hill, and Wennington are outlying districts which are less intensively developed and are surrounded by large areas of open land.

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Transport

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Roads

The M25 motorway forms part of the borough boundary to the east with North Ockendon the only settlement to fall outside. The A12 (near Romford) and the A13 (near Rainham) are the main radial routes to central London to the north and south of the borough respectively.

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Public transport

Image:HaveringLU.png The District Line of the London Underground runs roughly through the middle of the borough serving Elm Park, Hornchurch, Upminster Bridge and Upminster. There is an extensive network of London Bus routes in the borough, linking all districts to Romford and other places beyond the borough.

The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway (operated by c2c) passes through the borough in two places. The mainline, running adjacent to the District Line serves Upminster while a branch line serves Rainham. The Great Eastern Main Line (operated by 'one') passes through the north of the borough serving Romford, Gidea Park and Harold Wood. The Upminster branch of that railway, which is entirely contained within the borough, serves Emerson Park and Upminster.

New transport options, linked to the Thames Gateway project, including further stations on the Rainham branch of the c2c line and the building of the East London Transit are being considered.

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List of stations

Elm Park tube station - District Line
Emerson Park railway station - 'one' Great Eastern
Gidea Park railway station - 'one' Great Eastern
Harold Wood railway station - 'one' Great Eastern
Hornchurch tube station - District Line
Rainham railway station - c2c
Romford railway station - 'one' Great Eastern
Upminster station - District Line, c2c and 'one' Great Eastern
Upminster Bridge tube station - District Line

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Places of interest

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Politics

The borough is split between the parliamentary contituencies of:

Before the next election the boundaries of these constituencies will change such that there will be a new Hornchurch and Upminster constituency and Rainham will become part of the new cross-borough Dagenham and Rainham constituency.

Havering also has a more diverse spread of political parties in local government than most of Greater London, with 18 of its' 54 councillors elected in 2002 coming from outside the three main political parties- the greatest number of such local party influence in a London Borough. The Liberal Democrat party was not at all represented in the local council elections in May 2002. Smaller parties such as Third Way (UK) and the IWCA are also active. In light of recent defections from The Conservative Party, the current composition of the council is as follows;

The Conservative Party 20 seats
Residents' Association of London 17 seats
Labour party 11
Independant 6 seats

Elections are taking place on May 4th 2006 for all of Havering's 54 council seats. 224 candidates are standing for election; 54 Labour, 50 Conservative, 49 Residents, 25 Independents, 17 UKIP, 14 Third Way, 7 Greens, 6 Lib Dems, and 2 BNP.

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