With election fever hotting up, reporter Janine Rasiah spoke to three Newham residents about the issues that matter to them and how they are planning to vote.

Newham Recorder: Josie Harper, from StratfordJosie Harper, from Stratford (Image: Archant)

As a life-long Newham resident, Tina Dugard has seen a lot of changes in Newham.

Newham Recorder: Tina Dugard gave us her thoughts on the upcoming local elections.Tina Dugard gave us her thoughts on the upcoming local elections. (Image: Archant)

The 48-year-old, who currently lives in Custom House, says the borough has been both better and worse but believes the current crop of predominately Labour councillors deserve to stay in power.

Newham Recorder: Zoulfa Boussora, 52, from StratfordZoulfa Boussora, 52, from Stratford (Image: Archant)

“I think we have got a good bunch of councillors overall and they do their level best for the borough and most of them live here and work here,” she said.

Although she has voted for the Liberal Democrats when she was younger, she now thinks that their policies are a “bit wishy washy” and believes that lack of investment in the area is a key problem.

“The biggest issues we have got is the poverty and the deprivation, and the public sector is stretched,” she said. “There are not enough police stations and there have been so many cuts from central government. I have seen time and again that programmes have been started in the area but they need to be carried on in order to see the benefits.”

Josie Harper, from Stratford, has always voted for the Green Party because her mum votes for them - but this year she is going to consider her vote more carefully.

“This year I am going to think about it because it affects people and what is going on locally,” the mum-of-three said. “I have spoken to a few candidates when they have knocked on the door and I realise that a vote for the Green Party is a wasted vote.”

Josie, 33, wants to see more activities on offer for young people and says she is more interested in candidates’ policies than what their political alliances are.

“There is so much going on and what the area needs is somebody who can manage that because it seems like things are all over the place at the moment,” she added.

Zoulfa Boussora, moved from Algeria to the UK in 1995, intially living in Westminster before moving to Stratford 14 years ago.

She has always voted for Labour and plans to continue to do so.

“I think there is communication between people and the Labour party and they work with people in different communities,” Zoulfa, 52, said.

“They give school meals to pupils which helps parents and they are working to create jobs.”

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