The Newham Labour Councillor Ayesha Chowdury, who is allegedly not dealing with her constituents in a polite or appropriate manner.
Recently I asked for anybody who had knowledge of the dodgy politics in the London Borough of Newham to step forward and speak up. Well they have and one source has made an extremely grave allegation, not only about how drug dealing may be going on in or around an Asian-run student bar in Beckton, but also about how complaints on this issue have been ignored by a Labour councillor. Furthermore, there may be collusion or over-friendliness between some council staff and the dealers or customers themselves. I’m reporting the allegation as I’ve received it, in the hope that others will contact me with further information about this story.
My source tells me of some potentially dodgy shenanigans going on in Beckton in the London Borough of Newham. The background to the story is this:
Newham Council runs a draconian and expensive residents’ parking system in the borough which is very relevant to this story. Also in Beckton (behind Cyprus DLR station) is the University of East London Beckton Campus. On that campus is a student union bar, called the Underground Bar, now allegedly run by a group of ‘Asians’. Now neither I nor my source is alleging that the management of the bar know of or condone the drug dealing that is said to be going on, but cars are pulling up near the bar on a regular basis, then various ‘Asians’ and others are running from the cars into the bar and leaving five minutes later and driving off. To many people, this would look like a suspicious form of behaviour, often seen when drug users drive to their dealers, park up, get served and go off again.
Now this is the sort of stuff we see all over the country with drug dealers and their customers, what makes this story different you might ask? Well, this is where the Controlled Parking Zone issue comes in. It appears that people allied to either the alleged dealers or the customers have removed road signage showing that the area is a controlled parking zone. Specifically they have removed the signs which are close to Cyprus DLR station. Because the signs are gone, this means that parking enforcement is not legal in that area. Consequently these new ‘free’ parking spaces are being used quite a lot for the comings and goings of alleged drug traffickers and users. There is a constant stream of cars using these spaces, people going across the railway bridge towards the Underground Bar and then returning five minutes or so later.
Naturally this has got up the noses of the locals, who not only have to pay hundreds of pounds per year for the ‘privilege’ of parking their cars in the street, but now also have to put up with what looks like drug customers taking the piss out of the parking and having nothing done about it for ages.
As should always be done in these situations, those who were being discomforted by the comings and goings and the fake ‘free’ parking issue took the matter up with the council. Some of the residents contacted their local Labour councillor Cllr Ayesha Chowdhury and one resident alleged that Cllr Chowdhury ‘brushed off’ their concerns and that she ‘didn’t seem to want to know’ about the problem. If the information that I have received is correct and she did treat her constituent like this, then that is wrong. How can parking issues and drug dealing on a councillor’s patch not be a councillor’s problem? Some of those who have had communication with Cllr Chowdhury told me that they have been given the impression that Cllr Chowdhury ‘doesn’t want to know’ about the drug dealing problems centred round the axis of the Underground Bar and Cyprus Station.
After much complaining to the local council, eventually the council sent down some parking enforcement wardens to placate the residents, who by now were also being subjected to alleged drug customers getting more and more lairy and even moving residents’ rubbish bins seemingly in order to park up and score drugs from dealers in the area.
What happened next gobsmacked my informant. A local authority parking enforcement officer was called one day by a resident concerned about the misuse of a parking space and a car pulled up and occupied the illegal ‘free’ parking space. Rather than give the driver a ticket or tell him to move, the enforcement officer acted all ‘hail fellow, well met’ with the driver, and it was quite obvious to my informant that the ‘Asian’ parking attendant and the ‘Asian’ driver knew each other.
This seeming closeness between the enforcer and the illegal parker struck the person observing it as worrying and out of place in that situation. It may be a leap but it is not impossible that there may be some collusion going on here between some council workers, in this case parking enforcement officers, and criminals in Newham. Newham is a borough that has had a past history of corruption, although in the past it was Masonic corruption and I can’t help but wonder if corruption has indeed returned to the borough, but this time corruption based on religious and ethnic allegiances instead of the Lodge.
Cllr Chowdhury needs to get her act together and help to get something done about this problem and not just ‘pooh-pooh’ residents’ concerns about both the parking issues and the possible corruption and criminal behaviour that this problem may have helped to bring into the light. She needs to work with the police and the University authorities and those running the bar to sort out what is going on in the bar and on the streets and to enforce both parking and drug laws.
I’d like to end with a message for Cllr Chowdhury. Lack of enforcement of parking rules and drug dealing in your area IS your problem, along with other agencies. Maybe you need to decide whether your priorities are acting for and on behalf of your constituents or climbing the very dirty and greasy pole which is Newham Labour Party politics?
If anybody knows anything else about this extremely worrying story then please get in touch with this blog via email
ed****@fa***********.net
Addendum:
Councillor Chowdhury has previous ‘form’ for dodginess as in this Daily Mail story from 2011 where she was shown to be living in a council house even though she had a considerable property portfolio
What about the police? Leaving aside the parking infringements for the moment, why can’t the police investigate the alleged drug trade arrest and pass to the CPS if the evidence is sufficient?
This is what I can’t understand. I understand the police in that area are not exactly shining stars but the Councillor should have told the constituent that she would have liased with the police if people were unwilling to get involved with the police themselves, not just brushed off residents concerns. The junkies and their friends are certainly organised enough to remove controlled parking zone signs to get themselves free parking which makes me believe that there is some form or corruption of council officers going on. Either financial corruption in the form of being paid to turn a blind eye or corruption based on the grounds of not enforcing against those the same religious ideology as the alleged offenders.
Stupid example I know but perhaps pertinent,I was in the back of a taxi last year and caught in 3 lane traffic,I didn’t have a seat belt on and neither was the driver,3 times a police car pulled alongside us and looked in but not once were we pulled,I was expecting a fine but nothing.Only after did I think I was not lucky but because I had a Pakistani driver it would have probably been too much hassle for the police to pull him?make up your own minds.
Very pertinent. Sometimes the police are distracted or unobservant but it is not inconcievable that plod are giving Muslim drivers an easier ride because of fears of local Islamics kicking off.
It was in the area Containing many Islamists just before the area where the police barricaded in the pub the so called edl supporters collecting on behalf of the Lee Rigby fund.still its nice to know we have community policing for one and all!and no im not an edl supporter,just wanted a taxi to St George.