Over the past three weeks we have seen some truly horrific sights followed by remarkable displays of strength and unity.

I can only imagine the horrors that victims of the London Bridge attack, Grenfell Tower fire and the van driver attack in Finsbury Park have witnessed.

No words will be able to take away the suffering these people are feeling, however I send my deepest condolences to all those affected.

Newham Council is doing our bit to protect our communities. We are carrying out further assessments of our tall tower blocks and working with our police partners to provide additional reassurance to the Muslim communities during this time.

Terrorism is designed to strike fear in to people’s hearts, to leave us living on edge, afraid to go about our daily business. But that is not the way of Londoners and not the way of Newham’s residents.

We will not be cowed by those who think they can take lives and maim others to further their cause.

Instead we will join in with events like the Great Together last weekend, where Newham residents united to celebrate the life of Jo Cox, the MP for Batley and Spen who was killed in her constituency last year.

We will come together to celebrate our talents and strengths.

Our communities will also send donations of food and clothes to those affected by the Grenfell Tower fire. I don’t know about you, but the sight of bags, upon bags of donations being sorted by hundreds of volunteers helped to lift the spirits during what was a dark time.

Jo’s words: “We are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us” are even more poignant this week than ever.