Live from the Council

The meeting ended at 22.46.  Good night.

22.34  Cllr Clare Harrison then moved motion 12.10, which was on the Trade Union Bill currently going through Parliament.  Cllr Saunders seconded the motion.  Both spoke up, as you might expect, for trade union freedoms and against government attempts to curtail these – and, rather more surprisingly, for democracy in general.  Cllr Oliur Rahman backed them up in their opposition to the Bill and support for trade union freedoms: he could not help pointing out, though, that past Labour leaders had backed Tory anti-union laws (which Labour found hard to accept).  Cllr Peter Golds had a little heckle.  Cllr Chapman spoke, claiming to be from the “real party of working people”, saying that the Bill aimed to balance the rights of employers with the freedom to strike.  Cllr Saunders moved that the Council now proceed to a vote, which was passed.  Cllr Golds asked that he be recorded as being against the motion. The meeting then broke up: the councillors remaining in their seats managed to vote the resolution through.

22.30  Cllr Rabina Khan managed to get a further “councillors’ question” in: asking what John Biggs was doing to support victims of domestic violence.  Cllr Shiria Khatun replied, saying that the Council was doing a variety of things, a list of which she read through.  Cllr Khan came back, asking if the Mayor had put a bid in to a new government fund which was for support of domestic violence victims:  Cllr Khatun did not know.

22.30  Cllr Rachel Saunders then moved a procedural motion to hear motion 12.10 (and extend the meeting in order to deal with that matter).

22.26  Cllr Dave Chesterton asked for the progress on John Biggs’s review of parking permits.  John Biggs said it would get underway in the next few months.  The problem was that there was pressure on parking but also pressure for parking permits.  Yes, people in car free developments did sometimes need to have cars.  Cllr Chesterton said that the double yellow lines on Blackwall Way were still there (as discussed last Council).  He also asked for provision of short term bays for loading and unloading in some of the car free areas (and places like Blackwall Way).  John Biggs said that the yellow lines should be done away with by the end of November.

22.24  Cllr Andrew Wood asked about progress with the South Poplar Opportunity Area Planning Framework.  Cllr Blake said things were progressing.  Cllr Wood said there was already over-development in these areas and residents needed reassurance.  Cllr Blake appreciated local concerns: things were coming up and she hoped everyone would get involved.

22.19  Cllr Marc Francis asked a question about Gateway Housing Association, which had been award a contract to look after various care homes but had had a negative CQC assessment.  Cllr Whitelock replied, thanking Cllr Francis for raising this issue.  She had found out that the buildings Gateway took over were not in good repair – but that was no excuse for leaving them in a poor state.  She had been horrified to see the audit report.  She ran out of time before she could finish her answer.  Cllr Francis came back pointing out that the CQC had now inspected another Gateway Home, which was again found wanting.  He wanted Cllr Whitelock and John Biggs to deal with this.  Cllr Whitelock said she would.  She pointed out that the CQC had re-inspected the first property and there had been some improvement, but she would ensure there was more – and that councillors were told about things like this earlier in future.

22.15  Cllr Oli Rahman then asked John Biggs to explain what he was doing on the TUSH Co-op.  He referred to something Cllr Saunders had said and told John Biggs that Cllr Saunders had just reassured him that she would not be trying to be mayor in 2018.  There was some banter about this, and Cllr Rahman went on to suggest Cllr Saunders might, if she was giving up hope of being mayor, be considering being a parliamentary candidate.  There was some discussion about whether John Biggs was breaking his Party’s election pledges or not: he said not.

22.13  Cllr Danny Hassell asked Cllr Rachael Saunders what she was doing to improve the life chances of the borough’s five year olds.  Cllr Saunders responded at speed – and therefore fairly inaudibly.

22.09  Cllr Chris Chapman asked whether East End Life would be made a quarterly publication.  John Biggs said this would be the case by March.  It would take time to be Code-compliant as the Council had to find out how to replace its communication functions.  Cllr Chapman said the timescale was unacceptable, as the Council was continuing with a non-Code Compliant publication and was expensive – and it was contrary to John Biggs’s election pledges.  John Biggs said he was keeping to his pledge, but there did need to be a strategy to cope with communicating.  He would scrap East End Life and hoped this would save money, but there needed to be processes in place to communicate before it was scrapped.

21.41  Cllr Amina Ali asked for an update on the new town hall.  (Why?  She could have asked him…)  John Biggs said that he was proceeding as agreed at Cabinet.  He had asked Cllr Dave Chesterton to keep an eye on how proposals were being progressed, in particular appointing contractors and the like to work on the project.  He then pointed out there happened to be a motion on this item later on the agenda, and he moved (successfully) to take the motion now.  He then moved the motion, indicating that he respected the work done by the previous mayor (yes, really – it was not all a Punch and Judy show) and this was being progressed.  He wanted “access points” across the borough – like One Stop Shops (many of which Labour closed, of course).  He had brought the motion to demonstrate to the public that councillors were really behind this big project.  Cllr Islam, Deputy Mayor, seconded the motion: it was not clear what he was saying, but at the end he called for support for the motion.  Cllr Oliur Rahman spoke next and was pleased that John Biggs had endorsed the decision of the previous Administration to move the civic centre to Whitechapel: it made John Biggs look good, which was always nice (until 2018, when Cllr Saunders may be the mayor…).  Cllr Amy Whitelock spoke next: she represented part of Bethnal Green and welcomed the fact that local access points in Bethnal Green (and the Isle of Dogs) would be maintained.  A Conservative explained his Group supported the proposal because it would keep all staff together, it was on good transport links, it would be funded by selling off redundant buildings, it would be supported by the local access points (which had to be good and located in the south, given the population growth), the building was flexible (unlike Newham’s new building, parts of which were now being rented out).  This was conditional upon the project coming in on budget, £77 million.  Cllr Ohid Ahmed then spoke: Cllr Saunders heckled him and the Speaker did not intervene.  Cllr David Edgar spoke: pointing out that he was pleased that the Lib-Dems’ folly of moving to Mulberry Place had now been exposed.  The proposal to review the Town Hall provision was a longstanding proposal: officers had done a great deal of support and all Groups had been briefed.  This project offered the best income from disposals (and related savings on keeping those buildings empty).  He shared the Tories’ desire to keep the project on budget and thought it important that there was cross-party support.  Cllr Rabina Khan thanked officers for their work, under both Administrations.  She welcomed the proposal to have our own, freehold, civic building.  She asked councillors to consider car park space around the Civic Centre, as there was already difficulty for those visiting the hospital to park.  She welcomed the proposal for a cross-party group to work on this, but she also wanted a stakeholders’ group so there was a community involvement enshrined in the procedure.  She offered this as a friendly amendment, but John Biggs would not accept it as an amendment (though he would bear this in mind).  Cllr John Pearce spoke in favour of One Stop Shops (even if not in name) and welcomed John Biggs committing to them.  Cllr Aminur Khan (Whitechapel) welcomed the agreement to support the Whitechapel decision because it would be good for Tower Hamlets and offered savings.  Perhaps Cllr Saunders was getting bored, or perhaps she had another item on the agenda she wanted to reach – but she proposed a procedural motion to move to a vote.  However, John Biggs then replied to the debate anyway.  He said his door was open to all councillors whenever they wanted to discuss this project.  He aid his own proposals were different in some respect from the previous proposals.  First, he said there was more on access via IT means.  Second, he emphasised co-location (of NHS or landlords).  Third, he was stricter on disposal, which would save the security costs of keeping empty buildings going.  He added that anything at Canary Wharf was unaffordable.  He would set the new Chief Exec a performance target of being on budget.  He thought Cllr Rabina Khan’s amendment was constructive, and he was indeed meeting several Whitechapel groups (not least to ensure that things like affordable workspace were not swept away) to ensure the historic strengths of Whitechapel were retained.  The Speaker then put the amendment to the vote: the Independent Group voted for and Labour against, with Tories and independent independents abstaining.

21.39  Cllr Khales Ahmed asked how many families were in bed and breakfast.  Cllr Islam gave an inaudible reply.  Cllr Ahmed asked an inaudible supplementary question.  Cllr Islam admitted that numbers had increased, largely due to families being evicted from private accommodation and not being able to afford any alternatives in the private sector and promised to work hard on this.

21.38  We are now on to questions from councillors.

21.28  John Biggs had tabled a written report.  He said he had attended 235 meetings since his last report – and was working too hard, which was difficult for him as a part-time mayor with two jobs.  He was meeting the new Chief Executive regularly, and the commissioners (he hoped they would leave, but was building a constructive relationship with them in the meantime).  He was reluctant to build a new Town Hall but had agreed to move to Whitechapel (this was the solution Mayor Lutfur Rahman had found).  He warned that there would be a very big budget gap over the next three years and it would be difficult to balance the budget.  He had spent time looking at cleansing contracts: he thought the previous Administration may have taken too much money out of that budget and this may have to be changed.  He was cross about LMU moving out of the Borough and about Boris Johnson calling in the planning application on Bishopsgate Goods Yard (had he not seen this coming?).  He had met the Chief Executive and Chair of One Housing Group and told them they should run a good housing service, not just a property development opportunity (there were no reports they had agreed to change their ways).  He was meeting Circle 33 leaders next week over similar problems.  He was worried that spending on fire and police services in London may be reduced.  John Biggs then nominated Jenny Fisher, for a prize for misrepresentation, in respect of her headline on her newspaper about the fireworks.  Goodness.  Cllrs Oli Rahman and Peter Golds gave spirited reports of their own.

21.22  A Mr Sean Michael then asked what the Council could do about East Thames Housing Association which was evicting 142 key workers in the area.  John Biggs got to answer this one.  He mentioned that his Cabinet Members had answered some of the  earlier questions on his behalf, as they were up to speed on their portfolios and he wanted them involved.  (This, of course, is exactly what Mayor Lutfur Rahman used to say – which the Labour Party derided.)  He said he was meeting the Chief Executive of East Thames next week and he would work to find a solution.  Jack Gilbert asked a supplementary question, stating that some residents had key worker type jobs, though they were not officially key workers – but the landlord had stopped third party agencies from contacting them to offer support, which he wanted changed.  John Biggs said that he had made representations to East Thames as soon as he found out about what was happening and would do so again.  He then said something strange about the borough being “bipolar” – by which he meant there was housing for the poor and the rich but nothing much in between.  Did he mean “polarised”?  He was brought back to the point and said he would work for better housing for all.

21.18  Owen Corrigan, who pointed out that he was an officer of the local Labour Party, asked what was being done about hate crime: anti-islamophobic crime had fallen, but anti-Semitic and homophobic crime had gone up.  Cllr Khatun answered again, stating that much work was being done with other agencies such as the police and bodies such as housing associations.  Mr Corrigan asked that more resources be spent on this work, after Paris.  Cllr Khatun said that islamophobic crime was not recorded, though they were starting to do so, and she thanked him for turning up tonight and giving them the chance to talk about this important topic.

21.15  Michael James then asked for progress on the plan to set up a Private Landlords’ register.  Cllr Islam replied, stating that the Cabinet would consider options in February 2016.  Mr James referred to the new Housing Bill, which gave Councils more power to tackle rogue private landlords, and asked how John Biggs would ensure that the Councils did more about rogue landlords, under other powers.  Cllr Islam, who had been almost inaudible the first time, was almost equally inaudible but it was possible to hear him repeating that the Cabinet would consider this next February: its papers would be online, so Mr James could read them then.

21.11  The next question asked John Biggs what he was doing to increase the number of jobs for women, particularly BME women.  Cllr Khatun answered. (This is strange, as when it was in opposition Labour always used to condemn the practice of Cabinet Members answering questions on behalf of the mayor.)  She gave some statistics about ongoing work and reported that she had set up a group in her ward, which had some 45 women members.  The supplementary question asked whether John Biggs would set up a task force to deal with the very high female unemployment in the borough.  Cllr Khatun referred to her group, which had set up a social enterprise to enhance their existing skills which (apparently) would generate jobs for themselves (she did not explain how).

21.06  The next question came from a resident on the Barkantine estate, referring to freeholders who would be affected by One Housing Group’s moves to bulldoze and redevelop the estate.  He understood that if OHG went ahead, they would ask the Council to help them with CPOs, so would the Council help the freeholders buy up parts of the estate via CPO.  Cllr Blake said that she would keep talking to residents of the Isle of Dogs.  The questioner offered to facilitate a meeting between Cllr Blake and the 42 freeholders.  This was taken as the questioner’s supplementary question, which disappointed the questioner, who was then allowed to ask his prepared supplementary question.  He asked the Council to ensure that if the redevelopment went ahead, to ensure that the freeholders received “like for like” properties in the area.  Cllr Blake said the council supported residents and the provision of more and better housing but she could not give a precise answer.  Both parties agreed to keep talking.

21.02  Now we are on to questions from the public.  Yippee.  The first question is from Lilian Collins about Poplar Baths.  She thanked the previous mayor and all those in the community who had helped get the project – with the baths and the housing – underway.  She wanted to know when both would be ready for local people to use.  The answer was that the handover date was 24th June.  Ms Collins then said she wanted to ask her supplementary question to Cllr Rabina Khan: but the Speaker and those on the Labour benches rushed to say that she could not ask Cllr Khan a question.  Ms Collins said that she had only wanted to thank Cllr Khan – it was wrong not to thank people who had helped just because they were no longer in office.  There was much smirking on the Labour benches, as if councillors were not impressed by this attempt to bend the procedural rules.

20.51 The third petition asks Shadwell ward councillors and John Biggs to support businesses in Chapman Street railway arches being kept open and protected from any attempts by Network Rail to regenerate (gentrify) the area in a way which would increase rents substantially.  The petitioner, a Mr Matthew Wood, thanked Cllr Rabina Khan for her help to date.  Cllr Oli Rahman asked the first question: whether traders had met Network Rail.  Mr Wood said they had put views forward, but Network Rail put in a planning application which ignored their concerns. Cllr Rabina Khan  was next: congratulating the businesses on providing local employment.  She compared plans for Chapman Street to what was done to Atlantic Road in Brixton.  The petitioner thanked her, again, for her help to date.  Cllr Asad said he also shopped in Chapman Street – and he could recommend the fish that were sold there, which were very tasty.  He also said it could be difficult to park: Could the Council to anything to help?  The petitioner said they were trying to get improvements, though parking was difficult across London, as this would improve business.  Cllr Rachel Blake asked what the Council could do to help the local businesses operating in this area.  Mr Wood said the railway arches were important to new businesses, though they were not always perfect from the off.  John Biggs then replied.  He applauded the businesses in Chapman Street, who had helped transform the area.  He said the businesses were perhaps victims of their own success, as having initially helped them Network Rail had come to see the area as one they could get more money from.  Affordable workspace was important, and he would talk to Network Rail about how this could be protected.  He had met them already, and the petitioners – and would meet them both again.  He wanted the businesses that had helped bring Chapman Street back to life to be able to stay, though he should also look into how the council could help any businesses that needed to move.

20.50  The second petition asks John Biggs to open a new Idea Store on Bethnal Green Road.  At a time of swingeing cuts, he is presumably very unlikely to agree this as there is neither the capital to build or acquire one nor the revenue funding to keep it open (the current budget proposals suggest shutting all Idea Stores on Sundays, for example – not expanding provision).  In fact, the petitioner is not present, so the petition falls.

20.40  The first petition is from residents living around the A12 Blackwall Tunnel Approach Road.  It is not immediately obvious which road they mean, but they are asking for a 30mph speed limit to slow the traffic down.  Julia Rodrigues put the motion forward: she says the A12 is noisy, unhealthy and unsafe – in particular, it is hard to cross the road as the traffic lights do not give pedestrians enough time to cross and the underpasses are not safe.  Does she mean the A102?  There is already a speed limit of 30mph on the A12.  The limit on the A102 is 3omph up to (but possibly not down from) the new pedestrian crossing which was (stupidly!) put into the A102 some months ago.  Various councillors have agreed with the petition and asked the petitioner to give more details – still without saying where we are talking about.  Surely the Council doesn’t have the power to set speed limits on the A102. John Biggs has said something convoluted about trying to draw traffic away from the area and would the petitioner agree and she would (most confusing).  Cllr Rachel Blake referred to the fact that more homes are being built in this area, so maybe the road layout needs looking at again, afresh – the petitioner agreed, pointing out that the way the A12 divides the community will make the expensive new homes less attractive to new residents.

20.30  The Council has now adjourned for ten minutes (why?) and when it comes back it will go on to petitions from the public.

19.58  Cllr Amina Ali (not MP of Bradford) asks to move standing orders as there are some Somali dignitaries present and she wants a motion to be taken – this is agreed.  Cllr Ali then reads a speech about Somalis’ contribution to the UK.  She is standing up and therefore fairly far from the microphone – so she is virtually inaudible.  It turns out the motion she is proposing notes that Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 but has not been recognised by the UN and the African Union.  The motion resolves to support the campaign for Somaliland to be recognised as an independent state.  John Biggs speaks next, pointing out that it is unusual for Tower Hamlets Council to support resolutions dealing with the governance of other countries, but he thinks it is appropriate to do so in this case.  He drew a parallel between the case of Bangladesh, which had sought independence from West Pakistan, and Somaliland now.  Cllr Oli Rahman supported the motion and also drew a parallel between the same two countries: both having won independence by blood, sweat and tears.  He referred to the number of countries which had recognised Somaliland and said that Bangladeshis understood what it is like to struggle for history.  He also regretted that a former Leader, Cllr Michael Keith, had abolished the post of Twinning Officer, which had not helped keep international ties, e.g., with Sylhet. Finally, he referred to a Labour minister who had not listened to lobbying and had told those asking him to recognise Somaliland to go away and come back when the African Union recognised them. Cllr Rahman promised those present the unequivocal support of his Group in their struggle for recognition – and he got a nice round of applause for his rousing speech.  He was followed by Cllr Rachael Saunders, who sneered at Cllr Rahman and then said that she was pleased to see a policy which the Labour Party had held for some time now become public policy.  The Conservative Group indicated that government policy was to work closely with the authorities in Somaliland but to wait for Somalia and other African countries to recognise Somaliland before Tower Hamlets Council (not a body which had the power to grant statehood) tried to do so.  Various other councillors spoke.  Cllr Rabina Khan welcomed the Somali visitors who were filling the gallery, particularly the women.  She also drew parallels between Bangladesh and Somaliland, and regretted that the motion before the Council tonight had been brought as an emergency rather than being part of the main agenda.  Cllr Amina Ali replied to the debate: again, almost inaudibly.  The motion was passed, with all those present voting in favour, except the Conservative councillors, who abstained as promised.  One of the government representatives from Somaliland was then invited to address the council to express his thanks for their support – but as he got into his stride, the Speaker asked him to hurry up which rather took the shine off it.

19.53 The new Monitoring and Stuff Officer has read the apologies: struggling rather with councillors’ names – not a great start.  There are some extra declarations of interest (mainly from councillors associated with the Rich Mix Centre).  Cllr Oli Rahman pointed out that the minutes record that opposition leaders speak after the mayor’s report, but not who speaks or what they say.  He asked the Constitution Review Group to look at the time allocation: opposition leaders are allocated one minute  each.  Labour councillors have a good chuckle at this request.

19.46  We have a minute’s silence to honour those who suffered in Paris last Friday.  Then John Biggs proposed to suspend the ordinary business in order to take a cross-party motion  on the events in Paris. Everyone agrees, and Biggs introduces a rather tame motion, which says that we shall always oppose the politics of hate and agrees to write a cross-party letter of condolence to the Mayor of Paris. That’s the second time Biggs has called for the writing of a letter on a major political matter: it’s really not very much.  Cllr Oli Rahman, Leader of the Independents, has supported the motion, calling also for us all to fight Islamophobia and not see this as an act by true Muslims.  One of the members of the press recently called for Muslims in the borough to “assimilate”: I am not confident the current Administration understands just how much work has to be done in that area  Cllr Peter Golds, Leader of the Tories, backs the motion too: congratulating Cllr Rahman for initially proposing it.  Cllr Abjol Miah – Leader of a Group of two independent independents – also gives his support and refers to work being done to combat ISIS.  He insists that Muslims are not represented by ISIS.

19.10  Here we are at the Council. The Speaker has introduced the Council’s new Chief Executive and a Head of Democratic Things and Monitoring (I may not have got that quite right) – more new high-paid officers…