Did you blink? Cos you have missed it

John “one job” Biggs is now free from commitments to City Hall and is now holding down only one job – running Tower Hamlets. But he’s clearly still a busy man.

On 1st June, a notice went up on Tower Hamlets Council’s website announcing that John Biggs was holding his third Mayoral Assembly – on the burning topic of the day, housing and planning. Members of the public were invited to come and put questions to him in person, or email them in to the Town Hall in advance, or even tweet them to Mr Biggs. So far, so good.

The “Mayoral Assembly” is what John Biggs has put in place to show that he’s in touch with the people and accessible – in contrast (he says) to his precedessor, and in line with his transparency policies. Before this month, he had held two previous assemblies: if he continues at the rate of three hours a year, we shall doubtless all feel that he is much more accountable.

The only problem with this statement of intent was the date of the Assembly – 2nd June, just 24 hours after the notice went up on the website.

In the old days, a mayor might have put notice of a public meeting in East End Life, the Council’s weekly information sheet, which would have given more notice of the meeting to more people. John Biggs, as we know, made it an election pledge to close the newspaper, came in to office, held a review, and then closed it. The reason why John Biggs wanted to close the paper? He thought it had too much content about the mayor…

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