As January 2020 began, A teenager was fighting for his life and another youth was in hospital after being shot.

The victims, aged 17 and 18, were rushed to hospital after being gunned down in St James Street, Walthamstow, late on December 29, 2019.

Armed police were deployed, but there were no arrests.

A week later, a Metropolitan Police officer was hit by a car and left seriously injured.

PC Jon Casey was trying to use a stinger to stop the driver of a grey Mini Cooper S in Chigwell Hill, Woodford Green, at 12.10am on January 6 when he was hit by the driver.

The car, with false ‘67’ year plates, was found abandoned in Chigwell.

In Epping Forest, councillors questioned whether a decision to spend £23.8 million on high street property was “copper-bottomed” investment.

Epping Forest District Council’s cabinet voted to go ahead with the purchase of Centric Parade in High Road, Loughton, which includes several shops and residential properties, on January 6.

Loughton town councillor Chris Pond said: “I wonder if this is really a copper-bottomed, silver-plated investment, as has been assumed, given the future of retail in the country as a whole and the fact that units in that parade have become vacant with considerable regularity.”

The leader of Harlow Council supported plans to scrap a rule allowing developers to turn former office blocks into flats without seeking planning permission.

The Local Government Association (LGA) called for permitted development rights to be scrapped after figures showed the number of office to residential conversions made in England.

Permitted development rights allow office blocks to be converted into housing without planning permission and such conversions in Harlow include Terminus House in the town centre.

Cllr Mark Ingall, leader of Harlow Council, said: “The unplanned conversion of offices to residential homes has had detrimental effect on Harlow and has impacted on those who have been moved into such developments from other areas.

And detectives investigating three fatal stabbings in Ilford charged a man with possession of a weapon.

Two men, aged 29 and 39, were arrested on suspicion of murder following the deaths of three men, aged 29, 30 and 38 years, in Salisbury Road, Seven Kings on January 19.

Gurjeet Singh, 29, of South Park Crescent, Ilford, was charged on January 21 with possessing an offensive weapon in a public place.

And Members of Britain First stormed a Sharia council.

Shortly before 1pm on Monday, January 20, Paul Golding. leader of the far-right political organisation, along with two associates, burst into the Islamic Sharia Council, in Francis Road, Leyton.

The trio filmed a video claiming the centre was a “barbaric” Sharia court operating a “parallel legal system”.

The centre, opened in 1982, provides mediation and counsel on matters of faith and culture that are not covered by English courts.

Khola Hasan, a scholar at the Islamic Sharia Council, said: “We are not a court. He [Paul Golding] makes a point of saying that we call ourselves a council as if we are trying to hide the fact we’re a court. We never have been, we have always been a council.”