At Full Council on Wednesday 30 March, Andrew Blake-Herbert was formally appointed as the new Chief Executive for Havering Council.

Andrew is very familiar with Havering, joining the Council from Slough Borough Council in September 2009 as a Group Director of Finance and Commerce.

During his time with the Council his role expanded to Group Director of Resources and  as joint Managing Director for oneSource, subsequently becoming Deputy Chief Executive.

Cheryl Coppell OBE is due to formally retire in May this year, allowing for a clear handover period to Andrew Blake-Herbert.

More details here.

Havering has a successful record at the Balfour Beatty London Youth Games, having won 16 times and is currently 4th in the London Youth Games 2016 Leader Board with many more competitions to go. Like us on Facebook for latest results.

Want to get involved? Participants are eligible to compete for Havering if they live or attend a school in the Borough.

Coaches are also needed for several of the competitions.

Training and trials for many London Youth Games competitions for young people in school years 7-13 start straight after the Easter Holidays. 

We are particularly recruiting teams for the Mini Swimming (Years 4-6) and Main Swimming (Years 7-12) competitions.

Find out more, including training dates, here and submit your application to join the team here.

If you use Havering Council's green bin service for your garden waste you need to act fast as your contract ran out on Thursday 31 March, but it's not too late to renew, just click here today.

Each bin costs £35 per year and is emptied every two weeks.

Click here and log on to MyHavering to renew your bin today. If you have already renewed your contract, thank you.

If you have had problems with the online renewals we apologise, the problem has now been fixed and we would ask you to try again. For the time being green bin collections will continue to allow anyone who had difficulties time to renew.

If you have not used the service before you can register online here.

The new Romford Housing Zone has received full funding from City Hall, a move that will be widely welcomed by local residents, with the announcement from The Mayor of London that the scheme will receive £34.9 million.

The funding will support the delivery of around 3,300 new homes, that are split across a number of sites in the town and will help improve access routes to Romford station. Detailed plans can now be developed and will take into account social and community infrastructure needs. There will be full consultation on the detailed plans with residents and businesses.

More details of the Romford Development Framework are available here.

On Friday 18 March 2016 at Barkingside Magistrates Court, Mr Janak Patel was ordered to pay a total of £619 for selling alcohol to a 15-year-old female volunteer

Mr Patel, who was the premises licence holder and Designated Premise Supervisor at Mcintosh News, 19 Mcintosh Road, Romford, RM1 4JU, pleaded guilty to the offence under section 146 for an under-age sale of alcohol to a minor. 

He was fined £290 for the offence, ordered to pay £300 costs and a victim surcharge of £29, a total of £619.

There are two events at Fairkytes Live as part of Jazz Appreciation Month.

Jonny Hepbir and Jason Henson (pictured) are performing at Fairkytes Arts Centre, Hornchurch on Friday 8 April. Book your tickets here.

On Friday 29 April Leandra Varanda and Jonathan Preiss will be performing. Book your tickets here.

See details of other events in the Fairkytes Live programme here.

From Monday 11 April a 10-week art and crafts class is being run at  Fairkytes Arts Centre, Hornchurch, between 4pm and 5.30pm.

From Saturday 16 April, 10am - noon, a pottery class is running at the same venue. Both classes are for children over the age of five years.

More details, and how to book your place, are available here of all classes and workshops at Fairkytes.

B Company The 4th Battalion The Parachute Regiment is now recruiting in Romford.

A launch event is taking place at Romford Army Reserve Centre, 312 London Road, Romford, on Saturday 9 April, 1pm – 5pm. 

You’ll have the opportunity to get hands on with all the latest kit including VR powered by Oculus Rift, Crew Served Weapons Systems, parachutes and the latest state of the art new issue equipment unique to 16 Air Assault Brigade.

Above all you can ask serving Soldiers from the Parachute Regiment any questions you have about the opportunities and benefits available in the Army Reserve.

Click here for more information or email 4th Battalion Parachute Regiment.

Havering Local Studies and Family History Centre, based at Romford Library, is looking for volunteers to help local people with their research, catalogue and archive artefacts and help arrange exhibitions.

If you are interested please complete the online form here for more details.

Havering is representing London in the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) Britain in Bloom competition 2016 and we need your help to win. Watch our video on how you can help.

Every garden, hanging basket or planter that is packed with flowers and colour will help create a good impression on the judges. Find out more about what Havering is doing for the competition here. 

You can also like our Facebook page here.

Havering Council is looking to recruit apprentices across the organisation.  

This will be the third year Havering has appointed Apprentices, who will be employed on two-year Fixed Term Contract obtaining NVQ Level 2 qualification in their first year of employment and NVQ Level 3 in their second year of employment where eligible. 

Details of available apprenticeships will be available here.

​Havering Bereavement Services will commemorate the borough’s civilians who lost their lives during the Second World War in Havering and elsewhere this April. (Pictured: Hillfoot Avenue after bomb on 19 April 1941, photo courtesy Havering Libraries Local Studies)

A short interdenominational Service of Remembrance will take place in Romford Cemetery on Tuesday 19 April at 11am, led by the Mayor’s chaplain, the Revd David Banting.

The council would like to know of any residents who have memories of that night that they would like to share, or if they lost family members during the blitz and would like to take part in the event. Please email details to South Essex Crematorium.

More details available here.

New opening hours

The opening hours for Havering libraries have changed and now are:

Collier Row, Elm Park, Gidea Park, Harold Wood and South Hornchurch: Monday and Tuesday closed; Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 10am – 4pm; Thursday 2pm - 8pm.

Harold Hill, Romford and Upminster: Monday and Thursday 10am – 8pm, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 9am - 5pm Saturday 10am – 4pm.

Hornchurch:  Monday to Friday inclusive 1pm - 10pm, Saturday 10am - 3pm.

Rainham:  Monday and Wednesday 10am – 8pm, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 9am – 5pm, Saturday 10am – 4pm.

Find out more about Havering's libraries here.

The Mayor of London and London Assembly elections are on Thursday 5 May. A by-election will also take place in the Heaton ward on the same day following the resignation of Philip Hyde.

The Referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union will be on Thursday 23 June.

You need to be on the electoral register in order to vote. You can register to vote here.

If you need to update your details or if somebody has moved out, you can email the elections team.

Find out more about these votes and the deadlines, how to be added to the register or how to apply for postal or proxy votes here. 

If you own a dog a new law means it must be micro-chipped before Wednesday 6 April.

You can get your dog micro-chipped at your local vet or by The Dog’s Trust. More details here.

Havering Citizens Advice Bureau has changed its opening hours and services from Friday 1 April.

More details here.

More than 98,000 subscribers now receive the award winning email updates from Havering Council including:

NEW THIS MONTH

Launching this month is a new email update for Havering Music School giving details of concerts, classes and other news. Sign up here to receive your copy.

The full list of award winning email updates currently produced by Havering Council can be seen here.

You can access information on everything happening in Havering by visiting our website.

You can also follow us on Twitter @LBofHavering, check out the Havering YouTube channel, see us on Instagram and stay up-to-date with Havering events on our Facebook page.