Four public meetings from 12 to 19 October: the Hermon Hill re-vote on Wednesday, the £1.25bn pension fund on Monday, a new economic strategy on Thursday and SEND, youth justice and performance figures on the 19th.

Four Redbridge Council meetings with published agendas sit between Monday 12 and Monday 19 October, all at the Town Hall on Ilford High Road. The one most people will care about is Wednesday’s Planning Committee, where a vote on nine flats at 142 Hermon Hill is being taken again because the September vote was ruled invalid.

Every meeting is open to the public. Papers are on the council’s committee site.

Monday 12 October, 5.30pm: Local Pension Board

The board that oversees the council’s pension scheme meets in Committee Room 2. Its quarterly update records the fund’s value at £1,251m on 30 June 2026, up £90m from £1,161m at the end of March. The fund returned 8.44% over the quarter against a benchmark of 7.41%, which the report puts down to the recovery in global equity markets.

The board also takes a paper on the government’s pooling reforms for local government pension schemes. Agenda.

Wednesday 14 October, 7pm: Planning Committee

Three applications in the Council Chamber, and it is the last committee before the council’s new rules end call-in on 31 October:

  • 142 Hermon Hill, South Woodford, nine flats and a shop on the old Fir Trees pub site, listed “for vote only” after the 16 September vote was treated as invalid on legal advice. Officers still recommend approval; 124 people objected. Our report.
  • 13 Granville Road, Ilford, the retrospective shared house for up to 24 people that members voted nine to two against in September. A follow-up report answers each of the four refusal reasons they raised.
  • 12 to 15 Woodbine Place, Wanstead, a three-storey block of four shops and offices behind the sixteenth-century corner building on the High Street, with 83 objections and an officer recommendation to approve. Our report.

To speak, contact the Committee Support Officer on 020 8708 2159 by 5pm on Tuesday 13 October. Agenda.

Thursday 15 October, 7pm: Regeneration and Economic Development Committee

This committee has a public question time as item 4, and then two presentations.

The first is from Local London, the partnership of nine east London boroughs, on its Local Skills Improvement Plan.

The second sets out the framework for a new Redbridge Economic Growth and Investment Strategy 2027 to 2032. The slides describe the borough it is meant to fix:

  • a population of 310,300, up 11% since 2011, the eighth highest rise in London
  • an employment rate of 68.5%, against the government’s 80% target
  • 22.1% of working-age residents economically inactive, more than two points above the London average
  • a 17% vacancy rate in Ilford town centre, against 4% to 14% in the borough’s other centres
  • 94.7% of businesses with fewer than ten employees

Councillors are asked whether “People, Business, Place and Investment” are the right four headings for the strategy. Town centre regeneration comes back to the committee on 3 December. Agenda.

Monday 19 October, 7pm: Overview and Scrutiny Committee

This is pre-decision scrutiny of three reports going to Cabinet on 22 October.

SEND improvement. The report is the council’s first full public account of progress since the Department for Education issued an Improvement Notice on 3 September 2025, after the inspection report of 30 June 2025. It says 80 of the 175 actions in the Priority Action Plan were complete by August 2026, and that:

  • 48% of new Education, Health and Care Plans were issued within 20 weeks over the last 12 months, above the national figure of 46.1% for the first time
  • eight children were waiting more than 30 weeks for a plan in June 2026, against 47 in June 2025
  • the number of children missing from education fell by more than 90%, to 38 in July 2026
  • 26 young people are on supported internships

Cabinet is asked to approve a new SEND and Alternative Provision Strategy on the same night.

Youth justice. The Youth Justice Plan 2026 to 2029 records 40 first-time entrants to the youth justice system in 2025-26, the lowest number recorded locally, and three children given custodial sentences. Serious violence offences sentenced fell from 24 in 2023-24 to 14 in 2025-26. The service’s budget is £1.517m, of which the council finds £0.964m.

Performance, April to June. The quarter one scorecard is the last under the old framework. The misses:

  • households in temporary accommodation rose from 2,815 to 2,884, against a target of fewer than 2,700
  • no new School Streets were delivered, against a target of five for the year
  • 59.8% of care leavers were in education, employment or training, against a target of 69%
  • 426 children were electively home educated, above the previous baseline

And the hits: the recycling rate reached 36% against a 35% target, 97% of fly tips were cleared within a working day, and 100% of major planning applications were decided on time. Agenda.

Coming up

  • Thursday 22 October: Cabinet and the General Purposes Committee. Agendas were not published by 10 October.
  • Tuesday 20 October: the Shareholder Committee has been moved to 16 November.
  • Thursday 12 November: Cabinet is due to decide a Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy for 2026 to 2036. The notice of decision was published on 9 October; the strategy itself is not yet online.

What it means for you

  • Three consultations are open. The council’s Corporate Plan and Borough Vision, launched in the Leader’s update on 9 October; the Crime and Feeling of Safety Survey, open to anyone aged ten or over until 1 December; and the Ilford town centre plan, which closes on 30 October.
  • If you have a question for the Regeneration committee on Thursday, the agenda lists public question time but not a deadline. Ask the Committee Support Officer, Ashley Woodstock, on 020 8708 2947.
  • Our council tax and planning pages explain where the money and the decisions come from.

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