My First Pint in a Pub for a quite a bit (Thank you and all the best Julianne)

Very sad to hear tonight at the first Newham Full Council meeting since the start of Covid19 that our fabulous Cabinet Colleague for Education, Cllr Julianne Marriott, is stepping down from her post.

However, every cloud in life has a silver lining - and many thanks to Julianne for my first pint in a (socially distancing) pub since lock down (with other colleagues).

I will post a more considered post on our Council meeting and Julianne's contribution to the transformation in our borough very soon.

Hat tip photo Charlene M

"Coronavirus: Newham Council approves more than £60m worth of council tax and business rates relief"

Headline is from the Newham Recorder and picture of Newham Mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz at our 2nd "urgent" Council Cabinet meeting of the current crisis on Friday (3rd April).

Because of legal requirements that all Cabinet meetings had to have at least 3 members present, the Mayor, myself and Cllr Julianne Marriott (Education Chief) were physically present at the meeting with certain senior officers (ironically this requirement was changed the following day).

Other Cabinet and Executive members (and Chair of Scrutiny)  skyped into the meeting as well as senior managers.

As the Recorder reports, we discussed and approved 3 proposals (see live Facebook feed of the meeting https://www.facebook.com/newhamcouncil/videos/2634262050189672/)

We agreed over £60 million of Council tax and business rates relief. Some 20,000 of the poorest Newham families and Households (around 20% of all liable to pay) will now pay zero or little Council tax.

A 100% discount on business rates for eligible businesses who will be also able to apply for grants of between £10,000 to £25,000.

Leisure, retail and hospitality businesses, as well as nurseries are the main beneficiaries of the grants. So your local private gym, clothes shops and pubs should be able to apply for help.

We also agreed to safeguard our critical and essential public services such as bin collections, highways safety, child protection, social care, youth safety, temporary and emergency accommodation

Extra powers were also approved for our Chief Executive and Directors to increase the power to make urgent procurement decisions due to the COVID emergency (subject to consultation with the appropriate Cabinet member). These powers will only be for COVID issues and will last for 6 months and reviewed in 3 months. Cllr Marriott clarified that we can rescind these powers sooner if they are not needed any more.

Cllr Sarah Ruiz (virtually) asked the question about will the Government deliver on their promises to pay for all this? In the light of 10 years of austerity this is a fair point. I also asked that we press for greater clarity and guidance from the government on what they have promised. For example we have undertaken significant expenditure on moving homeless families and children into more suitable self contained accommodation? Will we get the money back and what about afterwards? Will we get the money to properly house these families for the long term?

It was a sombre meeting, knowing how important these issues are to everyone who lives or works in Newham. We were also conscious that we are making these important decisions, without all the usual constitutional and governance arrangements.  I think we have muddled through imperfectly but in the finest traditions of British local government, adapting and evolving to meet the most serious national crisis in my lifetime. 

Protecting Public Health in the Stratford Centre - Special Newham Council Cabinet meeting 27.3.20

On Friday evening we held a special virtual Cabinet meeting under the Council's urgency rules in order to agree to ask the Courts to close Stratford Shopping centre between 8pm and 5am.

This was chaired by our Executive Mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz.

It followed Government advice (and financial support) to protect all rough sleepers by offering suitable alternative accommodation.

We had to have a quorum of 3 cabinet members (Mayor, myself and Cllr Julianne Marriott) physically present since the Government have not yet been able to change these legal requirements. As you can see we exercised self distancing but it would be better to hold all such meetings virtually.

Cabinet member for Adult Services, Cllr Zulfiqar Ali, presented the report from his home online.

However, other Cabinet, Executive and Scrutiny Chairs were able to Skype into the meeting to ask questions on the report to ourselves and our chief officers present, which  included our Chief Executive, Monitoring officer, Director of Adult Social services and Director of Public Health (in person and online).

There was a robust but constructive debate on the report which resulted in unanimous support for the call to close the centre overnight to save lives. Only the vote of the 3 Cabinet members actually physically present were legally valid.

On Saturday morning the Court agreed to issue the order and the Stratford Centre was closed. We were able to house around 30 rough sleepers on Saturday and 15 last night. Without being complacent in the slightest, I cycled around the Stratford Centre early this evening and I only saw one rough sleeper. No doubt there was more.

Many, many thanks to the Newham Council & homeless charity outreach officers and all our  voluntary sector colleagues for their superb work and commitment to protecting our most vulnerable. 

Newham education chief slams government funding for 'most vulnerable' pupils

Hat tip Newham Recorder (NB Children in pic are not SEND)  "The council chief responsible for education has slammed the government over how it funds education for the "most vulnerable".

Newham Council is proposing to change how it allocates money to mainstream schools to support pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) as it anticipates an overspend of more than £8million.

Cllr Julianne Marriott, cabinet member for education, said: "What our young people really need is for government to properly fund their needs and to act on the recommendations of the education select committee which found that local authorities have been 'set up to fail' by government."

A Department for Education (DfE) spokeswoman said: "No child should be held back from reaching their potential. Our SEND review will look at how we can improve the support children and young people with SEND currently receive so the system works for everyone, in every part of the country."

Cllr Marriott made the comment while launching a consultation on how the council can "better allocate" the government money it gets for the borough's "most vulnerable" youngsters.

The government provides funding for pupils in Newham with the highest special educational needs and disabilities.

The council expects to overspend on its high needs block - the pot of money that funds pupils with SEND - by £8.2m by the end of this financial year. This means that the Department of Education will order Newham to provide a budget recovery plan.

The National Audit Office reports that eight out of 10 local authorities overspent their schools high needs budgets in the year 2017-18.

The council has provided an extra £1.3m this financial year and for the following two years but the funding is still dependent on a grant provided by the Department for Education.

The town hall says changes are needed to ensure a better match between the individual needs of SEND children and the funding schools get, and to reduce the amount of overspend.

The DfE spokeswoman said: "We are increasing high needs funding for local authorities by £780 million next year, boosting the total budget for supporting those with the most complex needs to more than £7 billion in 2020-21."

The proposal only relates to pupils with high level SEND going to mainstream schools in the borough and does not affect pupils in special schools, resource provisions in mainstream schools and pupils attending schools outside Newham.

People can share their views until Tuesday, March 3. For further information visit newham.gov.uk/SHN

Newham Full Council Meeting 14 October 2019: A minutes silence, Cabinet report on Education & Keynote Speaker Duncan Bew

Picture collage from last night's Full Council meeting in the Old Town Hall in Stratford. It was a short but emotive meeting. Starting off with the Newham Mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz, requesting that the meeting has a minute's silence in memory of the young man tragically killed on Thursday just across the road from this hall.

By coincidence, Cabinet member for Education, Cllr Julianne Marriott, delivered a regular report on the excellent exam results that many schools in Newham have achieved this year and innovations such as the Healthy School Street pilot.

There were petitions presented by Councillors on behalf of their constituents (including one from my ward in West Ham presented by fellow Deputy Mayor, Cllr Charlene McLean). A Motion was passed on changes of Council procurement to make it better on quality and enable Community Wealth Building. There was also a number of minor procedural motions and a fantastic first speech to Council by Cllr Beligica Guana on Indigenous Resistance Day.

Our keynote speaker ("Partners report") was Duncan Bew, whose day job is a Trauma Surgeon in Kings College Hospital and also the Co Chair of the Newham Youth Safety Board. Duncan gave a sobering presentation on his experiences as a Trauma surgeon in East London  but also a positive message that things can and will be done in Newham to address knife crime and youth violence.

In the Q&A I asked Duncan whether he thought UK laws on the probation of drugs increased the risk of violent gang crime? He answered that Gang crime was only responsible for 10% of all murders but such crime was strongly linked to economic deprivation and that young people may get involved in gangs and drug dealing since they think it is an "easy" way out of poverty. 

Newham Free School Uniform competition - cute picture alert!

"Hoorum and Diya wearing their new school uniforms. Their families won a full uniform pack by completing their school applications online. 2020 eAdmissions open 1 Sept. #Newham #BackToSchool2019". Hat tip Cllr Julianne Marriott, Cabinet Member for Education

View from my office

Welcome to Newham

UNISON Housing Associations Branch AGM 2019: Sarah Jones MP Keynote speaker

I am really pleased that Sarah has agreed to be our Keynote speaker at our branch AGM on March 12 at Portcullis House. She is a local London MP and a Shadow Housing minister.

Before the meeting we will have a tour for members and their guests of the Great Hall and the House of Commons (many thanks to my Newham colleague, Julianne Marriott who has "volunteered" to lead on this tour - she is a qualified blue badge tourist guide)  and after the meeting a branch meal and social at a nearby restaurant.  

Marching Against School Cuts

Picture collage from yesterday's evening demo and rally in Westminster against cuts in school funding. Despite the rain, it was a cheerful, noisy and well attended event. Newham Labour Group met up with local activists beforehand at Stratford Station (second time within 4 days) led by our Mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz and cabinet member for Schools, Cllr Julianne Marriott, to travel to the demo together.

We all arrived at the rally somewhat wet and bedraggled but signed the "Enough is enough" petition on cuts to school funding to send to Chancellor, Philip Hammond. I had to leave rally before main speakers, Angela Rayner MP and our Leader, Jeremy Corbyn MP to attend my local Newham Citizen Assembly in Stratford.

(Hat tip pictures stolen from various Party members & activists twitter & Facebook accounts). 

Newham Cabinet Meeting Monday 5 June 2018 - Free Schools & Scrutiny

This was the first cabinet meeting of the new administration which I thought went really well. Making actual executive decisions is a very different experience to being a backbencher Councillor.  It is a more than a little strange how quickly you get use to change.  I also like the fact that four of us took a bus to this meeting from Newham Dockside.

See what the Newham Recorder thought about some of the key issues below:-

”Newham Council to rethink £660,000 rugby pitch plan in West Ham

At Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, members rescinded the cash earmarked to build the pitch at the Memorial Recreation Ground in West Ham.

The plans were passed under the borough’s former mayor Sir Robin Wales weeks before May’s election.

However the plan was called in by the scrutiny committee when councillors suggested the huge sum could be “better spent” elsewhere.

Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz, who was a member of scrutiny under the last administration, approved the recommendations and said the council will be looking at alternatives ways of spending the money.

Cllr John Gray, cabinet member for housing, said this was the first time the scrutiny committee had been successful in stopping something in its 12-year history.

He added that it was good to see the committee “have some teeth”.

(JG It was made clear that the Rugby club may still get the money pending a new review of Parks and Leisure. The monitoring officer said that Scrutiny structure had been in place for 17 years!)

New free school in Royal Wharf development ‘reluctantly’ approved by Newham Council

"Newham Council has “reluctantly” passed plans to build a free primary school to serve one of the borough’s largest new developments.

The new free school at Royal Wharf was given the green light by mayor Rokhsana Fiaz on Tuesday night.

The school will serve the Royal Wharf development, which will have more than 3,300 homes when finished.

The Britannia Education Trust, a charity which also set up the Britannia Village Primary School in Silvertown, has signed on to run the facility.

Free schools are a type of academy set up by parents, teachers, charities or businesses and funded directly by central government but independent of local council control.

Earlier this month Ms Fiaz said she had “significant concerns about the government’s policy of academisation and the lack of accountability this type of school structure creates for local communities”.

However, the cabinet said it was “urgent” the school was set up to take its first intake of pupils by September 2019 and the free model was the only way of achieving this.

Councillor Julianne Marriott, cabinet member for education and children, said: “This development already has around 2,000 people living on it and will have roughly 8,000 people by the time it is finished.

“We have no choice to agree this proposal to ensure our children can attend a school near their home and we fulfil our duties as an education authority. But it is a travesty that the only way we can have new schools in the borough is through free schools.”

Ms Fiaz added: “We will be bringing forward the full council motion on academies to the July cabinet.

“We will be asking government to enable us to build our own schools where demand determines it, give local authorities more powers to take over failing academies and to enable schools to return to local authority control.

ATN Sky 827 Bangla interview on Newham Trigger

A fascinating evening spent talking Mayoral trigger ballots and Newham politics on Sky channel 827. I wish other community media were as interested in local politics as ATN Bangla.

Myself, Cllr John Whitworth, Cllr Julianne Marriott, Cllr Anam Islam and West Ham CLP Treasurer (and former senior Councillor) John Saunders spent a fascinating 90 minutes being interviewed live answering questions from the presenter and emails from viewers.

The TV presenter was the always impressive, Doros Ullah, who I used to know when he was a Tower Hamlets Councillor and I was a local UNISON branch officer.

I will try and search for a youtube link. 

"Labour sets Newham mayor ‘trigger ballot’ re-run dates"

Check out below another insightful article by "OnLondon" journalist Dave Hill, about the Newham Mayoral trigger.

I am more than happy with my quote in this article except, perhaps to make clear that I spoke as a Labour Party activist and that I am an elected lay "official" of UNISON and not an employed officer of the union. 

"The re-run process for deciding if Sir Robin Wales will again be Labour’s mayoral candidate for Newham without having to win a separate selection contest will be completed by the end of 11 February, according a timetable set by the party’s London regional body.

Voting arrangements for members of Labour ward branches within the East Ham parliamentary constituency will be directly run by regional officers in line with an agreement reached following legal action by party members in Newham, who were unhappy with how the original affirmative nomination or “trigger ballot” had been conducted.

While individual party branches within the neighbouring West Ham CLP have been given leave to run their own meetings to decide which way to cast their re-run trigger ballot votes, the London region will organise the East Ham meetings themselves in Newham Town Hall over the weekend of 10 and 11 February. An email from the party’s deputy regional director, seen by On London, explains that this is because “we believe their branches have not met for some time”.

The re-run process for deciding if Sir Robin Wales will again be Labour’s mayoral candidate for Newham without having to win a separate selection contest will be completed by the end of 11 February, according a timetable set by the party’s London regional body.

Voting arrangements for members of Labour ward branches within the East Ham parliamentary constituency will be directly run by regional officers in line with an agreement reached following legal action by party members in Newham, who were unhappy with how the original affirmative nomination or “trigger ballot” had been conducted.

While individual party branches within the neighbouring West Ham CLP have been given leave to run their own meetings to decide which way to cast their re-run trigger ballot votes, the London region will organise the East Ham meetings themselves in Newham Town Hall over the weekend of 10 and 11 February. An email from the party’s deputy regional director, seen by On London, explains that this is because “we believe their branches have not met for some time”.

The London region informed members at the beginning of the year that a re-run would take place. Its decision to treat the East Ham branches differently appears to vindicate claims made during the legal action and by its supporters that East Ham CLP as a whole has not been being functioning correctly and that this influenced the way the original trigger ballot process, held during the autumn of 2016, was administered.

Eligibility for the re-run ballot is restricted to those members and affiliated organisations judged to have legitimately taken part in the original process and which have maintained those party links.

On London has been told that two of the organisations that voted in the original trigger ballot, both of them in favour of the incumbent mayor going forward automatically as his party’s candidate for 2018, will not take part in the re-run.

One is the Newham branch of the Fabian Society, which it was claimed was not in fact affiliated to East Ham CLP when the original ballot took place. The Newham branch has been found by Fabian Society headquarters to have failed to follow the organisation’s own procedure for deciding how to cast trigger ballot votes.

The other is the trade union Bectu, which disaffiliated from the Labour Party nationally at the end of 2016 due to its merger with another union, Prospect. This was unconnected with claims that the Bectu branch which voted in the 2016 trigger ballot had not paid its affiliation fee and should therefore not have been eligible. Bectu’s headquarters were unable to confirm to On London that the fee had been paid.

On London has reported that another participating union, the TSSA, which had a branch affiliated to East Ham CLP, appears to have been treated differently from other affiliated unions with the likely effect that its vote was cast in Sir Robin’s favour rather than against.

Sir Robin was confirmed by Labour’s governing National Executive Committee as having secured the candidate nomination by 20 votes to 17, despite a request made in January last year by 47 party members in Newham, including 10 councillors, to establish an inquiry into how the trigger ballot was run.

A 13-page letter listed seven votes cast in the ballot that backed Sir Robin it considered questionable, including those of Bectu, TSSA, Newham Fabians and three ward branches.

It also questioned how the trigger ballot rules were explained and interpreted, pointing out that in the case of some unions individual affiliated branches cast one vote each while Unison, despite having six affiliated branches, cast only a single vote on behalf of all of them. The Unison vote was against Sir Robin’s automatic re-selection. On London understands that Unison intends to cast six votes in the re-run.

Should Sir Robin fail to secure a majority in the fresh trigger ballot, an open selection contest will ensue in which he will have the automatic right to stand. Other possible contenders include Councillor Rokhsana Fiaz, who is said to be considering whether she would seek to enter the race.

Some Newham members, including Councillors Julianne Marriott, Charlene McLean and John Gray had tried to get the NEC to rule that an open selection contest should take place immediately. According to unconfirmed reports, their case was considered at a recent meeting of the relevant NEC sub-committee but rejected in part because representatives of unions were opposed. Unlike the trigger ballot, the franchise for the open selection would be restricted to party members and conducted on a one member, one vote basis.

Gray, a Unison officer and one of the 47 signatories of the January 2017 letter to the NEC, has nonetheless welcomed the trigger ballot re-run. He told On London that Fiaz would be “one of a number good candidates who might run if Robin loses and could help build unity after the first, disastrous selection process”.

"Labour members call for immediate ‘open selection’ to choose Newham mayoral candidate"

Another sensible article from "On London" journalist Dave Hill on the Newham Mayoral trigger debacle. He features Newham Councillor and former mayoral advisor (one of the very few female advisors) Julianne Marriott, calling for an open selection. The NEC are meeting tomorrow and I have also lobbied its members calling for the same thing.

"Labour Party members in Newham having asked the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) to order an immediate open selection contest for choosing their candidate for May’s mayoral election in the borough, rather than re-running the disputed “trigger ballot” that initially saw the incumbent Sir Robin Wales go forward automatically for the role.

Newham Labour councillor Julianne Marriott reported on Twitter yesterday that she had emailed the NEC with the request, stating that she does not believe “a re-run of the trigger ballot is in the best interest of Newham residents”. Her fellow Labour councillor Charlene McLean has written a letter to Labour’s general secretary Iain McNicol in her capacity as chair of West Ham Consitutency Labour Party making the same appeal on behalf of herself and her fellow CLP officers.

The interventions follow Labour’s acting Greater London regional director Neil Fleming informing local members last week that the original trigger ballot – or affirmative nomination process – which was held in autumn 2016 would be re-run from regional level following claims that there had been a number of irregularities in its administration by the party’s local campaign forum and a resulting legal challenge when the NEC failing to investigate them.

Fleming did not give a date on which the re-run trigger ballot would start and there are concerns locally that conducting it and then completing a possible ensuing open selection contest should Sir Robin fail to secure the majority he needs for automatic re-selection would create unmanageable time and organisational pressures with the election only four months away, and accentuate tensions within the local membership.

Re-selection processes for sitting Labour councillors have yet to be completed, meaning that ordinary members are already being asked to absorb campaign literature and attend special meetings. The original mayoral trigger ballot process took approximately five weeks to complete.

McLean’s letter expresses concerns that “there is no longer sufficient time” in which to run a new trigger ballot process and any open selection contest that might follow, adding the view that “it is the Labour Party’s delay in addressing our concerns which has created this urgency”.

She also reminds McNicol that West Ham CLP, one of the two CLPs in Newham, passed a vote of no confidence in the original trigger ballot process in January 2017, reaffirming this the following November, and says there has been “no constructive engagement” with them on the issues raised.

Elaborating on her reasons for writing to the NEC on Twitter, Marriott expressed her personal expectation that “a re-run trigger ballot will go to open selection” and that this would result in a delay in Newham residents “knowing who [the] Labour candidate is [and] what they stand for”. She added that she thinks a new trigger ballot and possible wider media coverage of it “unlikely to be positive experience for residents and members”.

Sir Robin is seeking an unprecedented fifth term as Newham’s Mayor, having previously been leader of the council under the previous local government system in the borough. Labour’s political dominance in Newham is such the eventual winner of the internal candidate selection contest is almost certain to go on to become the borough’s Mayor in May.

This article was updated on 8 January at 17:25 to include details from the west Ham CLP letter. Previous coverage of the Newham trigger ballot dispute can be read here."

"Veteran Newham mayor faces deselection fight ahead of local election contest"

For once, a balanced article by the London Evening Standard about Labour Politics. I and many other Councillors and Party members support the call by Cllr Marriott, Charlene Mclean and West Ham Labour Party for an open selection to decide the next Labour candidate.  I think that the "trigger" process in Newham has been completely discredited by the so-called previous "process".

Robin Wales has been in charge of Newham since 1995 and if he is not "triggered" then he would have been in power for a staggering 27 years (until 2022) without any open democratic process since 2001.  

The directly elected Newham Mayor is a hugely powerful position responsible for over 300,000 residents, employing thousands of staff and a Billion pound plus turnover.

There is also not enough time for another "trigger" before May 2018, which practically everyone believes will result in Robin Wales being "triggered", which will automatically lead to an open selection. 

We also have not finished the appeals for Council candidates who did not pass their initial interviews.  We therefore have no Labour candidates in place to organise the May election for the 60 Newham Labour seats.

"Veteran Newham mayor faces deselection fight ahead of local election contest"

Labour members in the borough have written to the party’s National Executive Committee calling for an open vote to pick their candidate.

Newham Labour councillor Julianne Marriott, who was behind the letter, said she did not believe another trigger ballot was “in the best interests” of residents.

It comes after Sir Robin called for the first result to be scrapped after legal action was launched.

Charlene McLean, chairman of the West Ham constituency party which passed a no-confidence vote in the ballot, has also written to Labour general secretary Iain McNicol. In her letter, seen by the Standard, she warned there was not “sufficient time” to run a new trigger ballot, followed by an open selection if Sir Robin were deselected, as the local elections were in just four months’ time.

The calls follow the disputed trigger ballot in autumn 2016 which Sir Robin won by 20 votes to 17. Eleven out of 20 local Labour wards called for other candidates to be on the slate.

It was announced this month that the trigger ballot would be rerun following claims of irregularities and a legal challenge.

Ms Marriott said: “I believe we should go straight to an open selection as that will be the result of a rerun of the trigger ballot.”

The successful candidate is almost certain to become mayor in the Labour-dominated borough".

Hat tip pic Jo G

Reception for Councillor Anam Islam

The picture is from the reception held this evening in the Palm Tree, Romford Road to honour the recent election of my good political comrade (and friend) Anam Islam, as a Councillor for Forest Gate North.

I was invited with other Councillors (Cllr Ayesha Chowdhury, Cllr Rokhsana Fiaz OBE, Cllr Julianne Marriott) to speak to the reception and congratulate Anam.

I told the packed reception, how as a Forest Gate resident, I was proud to have a fellow trade unionist with such good politics who wants like me, to bring about change, to be one of my excellent local ward Labour Councillors.

Anam gave a speech thanking his agent, Alan Griffiths, Labour activists from Forest Gate, Newham and Tower Hamlets for his election victory and that he vowed to serve all residents in Forest Gate North and Newham to the very best of his ability.

There was a fantastic atmosphere at the reception with supporters present from different communities and all over East London. It was also really friendly and welcoming. It was obvious to me that people not only liked Anam but were really proud of him becoming a Councillor.