By Shahanara Begum
Mayor Lutfur has denied accusations made against him by Cllr Rachael Saunders at the Full Council Meeting that he was refusing to work with cross party colleagues saying, “I have four cabinet positions for the taking which I have offered to my cross party colleagues who have as yet refused to take.” He spoke out at a press conference called to discuss the effects of the £80 Million cuts in the Councils budget. Independent Mayor Lutfur says he has invited cross party colleagues to work with him on numerous occasions and each time Labour/Conservative/Lib Dem colleagueshave refused to work with him and that this is well documented.
Currently Mayor Lutfur, his Deputy Ohid Ahmed and his four Cabinet Members, Cllrs Alibor Choudhury, Rania Khan, Rabina Khan and Oliur Rahman are working flat out keeping services in Tower Hamlets running, many of them having to double up their portfolio of work to fill all vacant cabinet positions.
“We are working very long hours to keep things running and would be glad if cross party colleagues were willing to share the work in Cabinet” said Mayor Lutfur.
“There is the option of hiring external people into the cabinet positions; however I would prefer to hire elected Councillors as it is more democratic. I am willing to wait a little bit longer to see if my cross party colleagues change their mind.” He continued. Addressing Cllr Saunders concerns who said Mayor Lutfur had refused to meet with MPs Jim Fitzpatrick and Rushanara Ali Mayor Lutfur said, “MPs Jim Fitzpatrick and Rushanara Ali expressed a desire to meet with me on the first Monday of each month as had been the practice with Ex-Council Leader Abbas. I was also willing to do this and had an email sentfrom my office asking for them to suggest a time convenient to all parties.”
It later transpired no further communication was made with the Mayor’s Office with regards to this meeting and MPs Jim Fitzpatrick and Rushanara Ali turned up at the Town Hall at 8am on Monday Morning. Mayor Lutfur says his office was on no occasion given prior notice of their intention to meet him and that this is well documentedin communiqués between the MPs and his offices.
“I often work until 3am at night to ensure delivery of services to the residents of Tower Hamlets; I do not feel the need to come in to the Town Hall at 8am unless there is a necessity to do so. I would have been there had I been aware that the MPs were planningto meet with me. I had no prior knowledge of this.”
The MPs then met with Chief Executive of the Council Dr Kevan Collins. Mayor Lutfur says “at no time did the MPs ring my office to ask if I was in therefore I feel they came in only to meet with the Chief Executive and not myself. It is they who have snubbed me and not the other way round.” In related news Mayor Lutfur at a press conference at the Town Hall said “I would like to work with all Tower Hamlets politicians to deliver to the community. We are facing a 20% budget cut with 500 job cutson the cards; this is not the time for petty politics”.
Mayor Lutfur has announced that forced redundancies will be a last resort in Tower Hamlets Council after an £80 million budget cut demanded by the Coalition Government. The Mayor and his Deputy Ohid Ahmed said at a press conference that 500 employment positions needed to be removed as part of the cost cutting measures to deal with the Coalition cuts. Already 200 positions many as yet unfilled had been deleted, posts such as the Deputy Chief Executive position had not been filled since Luthfur Ali’s departure and will now no longer remain available. Deputy Mayor Ahmed says “Mayor Lutfur had had the foresight during his term as a Council Leader to leave some Council postsvacated in expectation of the future budget cuts. These unfilled positions will now be removed painlessly and with no legal implications”.
Of the other 300 job cuts expected on the cards the Mayor and the Deputy said they would encourage voluntary redundancies and had put aside a pot of money to fund this. They would also restructure jobs to ensure Council employees were moved to different departments if possible. They would also take advantage of retirements and naturalmovement of employees to ensure the job cuts would be as painless as possible. Mayor Lutfur said “front line youth services will be safe as will childcare provisions. The jobs in the Education Sector will not be affected as that money is ring fenced.”