ABBAS: “WE WILL CO-OPERATE WITH THE MAYOR”

LondonBangla: Councillor Helal Abbas, Labour Group Leader and staunch rival of Mayor Lutfur announced at Wednesday’s Full Council Meeting that he and the Labour group will be co-operating with the Mayor to ensure delivery of services to the community “if the Mayor worked for the good of the community.” This comes after much speculation regarding the Labour Groups non-co-operation policy after their embarrassing loss of the Mayoral election to ex-Labour candidate Lutfur Rahman. Unfortunately this positive flavour was not reflected throughout the third full council meeting since Rahman’s election as Mayor.

Councillor Josh Peck directed brusque comments towards Mayor Lutfur and his supporters at the meeting. Supporters felt this was an extension of Peck’s£30 DNA kits attacks on the Mayor’s administration last week regarding Rahman’s decision to put £3 million in reserve. The £3 million in question was allocated by Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles to dampen the effects of the spending cuts to councils most in need . Tower Hamlets has qualified for emergency funds of £3.7million for 2011/12. At the meeting it also came to light that Conservative Group Leader Peter Gold had written to Eric Pickles, asking him to take the money back from Tower Hamlets.

The meeting was well managed by Chair Motin Uz-Zaman. Tahmina Begum the ex-Deputy Youth Mayor gave a handover speech for the recently elected Mayor Nahimul Islam and his deputies. A petition to stop Thames Water building a sewage plant on King Edward Memorial Park received strong cross party support including Shadwell councillors and Cabinet members Alibor Choudhury and Rabina Khan.

A petition presented by Raquel Eduardo on behalf of the Olga Children’s Centre and it’s users. They asked the Council for the centre not to be closed and it was revealed that there appeared to be a miscommunication between politicians and the community. Rumours abound in the community that 11 out of the 23 Children’s Centres in Tower Hamlets will be closed. Mayor Lutfur and Cabinet Member for Children’s Services Oliur Rahman assured everyone that no Children’s Centre’s in Tower Hamlets would close and no Family Support Workers would be made redundant, in fact there would be an increase in Family Support Workers. Mayor Lutfur also announced that a new secondary school would be opened in 2014 and 19,000 new homes would be built. Mayor Lutfur also said there had been an 8% increase in the number of jobs under his term as a Council Leader. The good news was unfortunately limited as Mayor Lutfur also stated that £30 million of cuts would have to be made over the next two years.

Mayor Lutfur said this would be through “smarter and more efficient ways of working” and that decisions were being made “in liaison with unions and staff”. Councillor Tim Archer, proposed a motion to record council meetings, saying: “With the new Mayoral system, it’s vital that both councillors and residents in Tower Hamlets scrutinise the work that’s done at the Town Hall. What better way than to broadcast council meetings online, allowing residents to see for themselves how their money is being spent, and what the Mayor and councillors are doing in their name.” This was successfully passed through.

Using the present audio and visual recording facilities already available in the council chamber, it is intended that the facilities to be used to record council meetings and make them publicly available online. Previously, the facilities were used to broadcast a live feed of council meetings to the overflow of the public gallery. Councillor Tim Archer said afterwards: “This victory for accountability will open the workings of the Town Hall to the full scrutiny of Tower Hamlets residents – and at minimal cost to the council taxpayer.”