I #VotedRokhs - Official UNISON Labour Link candidate!

"I've voted - have you? Please share if you've #VotedRokhs so we can show Labour members that it's time for a change, a new vision and a new way of doing things for the people of Newham. Really pleased that I am the official UNISON backed candidate! 
#VoteRokhs

Check out:-

https://www.rokhsana.org/

https://www.facebook.com/Rokhsana4Newham

https://twitter.com/rokhsanafiaz

Eligible members joined Labour Party before July 1 2016. Election finishes Noon Friday 16 March 2018. 

‘It’s a disgrace that housing workers live in worse conditions than those they are trying to house’

Access to good, affordable social housing is key to family and social health, community service group conference hears

“It is a disgrace that housing association workers are living in worse conditions than the people they are trying to house.“

That was UNISON community service group executive speaker John Gray quoting a housing association chief executive at the annual conference of community delegates in Southport this weekend.

He was speaking as delegates debated a motion noting that “years of below-inflation pay rises and massive increase in rents and property prices mean that many housing association and voluntary workers live in privately rented shared, damp, expensive, overcrowded and insecure homes.”

Like many who provide public services, housing association and voluntary-sector workers find themselves spending most of their wages on rent and travel, leaving nothing over to save for a better home.

It is time for community, voluntary and housing association staff to be recognised as key workers, when it comes to getting access to “affordable housing,”, declared Mr Gray.

Conference agreed, and called for a campaign to “provide safe, secure and affordable homes for them” alongside working for extra funding for the sector, and better wages.

But delegates recognised also that “affordable housing” doesn’t necessarily match the description on the tin.

In particular, “affordable rent” isn’t something that’s calculated by looking at real incomes and working out what would be a reasonable housing cost.

It is defined as 80% of market rents. And market rents are calculated essentially by asking estate agents: “How much could we rent this home for on the private market?”

But housing is more than a simple market calculation ­– especially when the market is one where private landlords are trying to maximise their income in the midst of a housing shortage.

“Access to good quality social housing,” declared Lola Oyewusi from the union’s housing associations branch, “is essential not just to provide shelter, but to good family and social health.”

As delegates debated an emergency motion on the back of a UNISON Greater London report on how the lack of truly affordable housing is driving key public service workers out of the capital, Tony Power of the service group executive told delegates that “the issue of affordable homes is an issue across the country”.

And yet, he added, “truly affordable homes are what housing associations were created for.”

hat tip UNISON website

Vote Rokhsana for Newham Mayoral Ballot #RokhsTheVote

I have come back today from UNISON Community conference and have just voted online for the candidate supported by Greater London UNISON Labour Link, Rokhsana Fiaz.

Rokhsana is committed to policies which are very important to UNISON's such as building 1000 homes at a social rent; anti-privatisation of public schools and services and a massive increase in youth provision to counter the knife and acid crime epidemic in Newham.

She is also a tough, intelligent, pragmatic, no nonsense leader, who has the skills and experiences to the job.

It is also about time that Newham (and London) had a female directly elected Mayor (DEM). There is only two female Labour DEM out of 24 in the entire country. 

We also need change in Newham and we need someone who can be a unifying force to unite the Party in order to win in the local elections in May. 

Labour Link, Diversity & the Housing Crisis: Waltham Forest LG UNISON AGM

Last week I was honoured to be invited to be a guest speaker at Waltham Forest Local Government branch AGM. This was my speech.

"Thank you Chair for inviting me and giving me the opportunity to speak today about a mixed bag of important issues:- the importance of UNISON Labour Link, encouraging diversity in UNISON and what to do about the housing crisis in London.

Firstly, a little bit about me. I actually live in Newham but only about 200m from the boarder with LBWF and I work in social housing.

I used to work for Tower Hamlets Council and was a shop steward then eventually a local government assistant branch secretary for many year but was tupd over in 2007 to a Housing Association.

I am now the branch secretary of the London Housing Association branch, your London UNISON regional lay treasurer and Chair of the London UNISON Labour Link Committee. I also happen to be the UNISON NEC member for Community and in my spare time, a Labour Councillor for West Ham ward in Newham.

Let me start by talking about UNISON Labour Link. I think that people should never forget that it was the trade unions who were the driving force behind the creation of the Labour Party in the early 20th century. The unions realised that they had to have a political voice and legal support in Parliament in order to defend workers.

In UNISON you have a choice of 2 separate political funds to join. Whether to affiliate to the Labour Party via affiliating to Labour Link or into the non Labour Party “General political fund”. It is your choice unlike many other trade unions and I fully respect the wishes of members who want the union to campaign but do not support the Labour Party.

To complicate the matter the arrangements will change in future months because the Tory anti trade union act passed last year, is trying to damage the Labour Party by making it difficult for unions to fund the Party but this basic separation and choice will remain.

But let me make clear the role of UNISON Labour link is not just to support the Labour Party locally and nationally, it is to change the Party, and make it electable again by being more pro-worker and pro-union. The way to do this is not for the unions to just offer warm words and wave cheques but to encourage rank and file members to join and fully participate in the Party.

Look, the Labour Party is not and never has been perfect and did lose its way for many years. However, to be clear, I firmly believe that the worse day of any Labour Government is far, far better than the best day of any Tory government.

You as local government workers know this better than most. Not only have you had 8 years of Tory austerity forced on you, 8 years of effective pay cuts, 8 years of job cuts, 8 years of massive rises in rents and mortgages, but you are trying heroically to deliver services to your residents with budgets slashed and ripped to pieces. You see, this should be of no surprise to you because this is what Tories do when in power. This is why the unions had to have a political voice at Parliament. This is why you need to join the Party and campaign to put Jeremy Corbyn into Number 10 Downing Street ASAP.

Next a little bit about getting more involved in UNISON especially in all our self organised groups. There is a brilliant course run by London UNISON called “lost in Unison” and I recommend it if you are considering getting more active in the union, since to be honest, it is more than a bit complicated. We activists speak too much jargon and frankly, we just put off ordinary members from participating and becoming active.

Remember, many of you may not want to be a shop steward or a safety rep but you have the skills and life experiences necessary to offer to the union, whether that is by for example helping to organise Black members or young members in the branch. I am sure that your branch will be more than happy to speak to you and advise you on who to become more active not only in the branch but the region and national unison.  Your London UNISON convener for Equalities is Liz Baptist who is standing for Labour in Waltham Forest in May.

Finally – the Housing Crisis in London and what can we do about it. LG workers have had a double whammy of massive pay cuts and massive increase in housing costs.

Look, we all know that the fundamental reason for this housing crisis is political. The Tories simply do not believe anymore it is the role of the state to intervene in the Housing market and it is down to individuals not the state to provide housing and people will have to afford what the market dictates and like it or lump it.

So we need a change of government for any long term solution. It is not enough for us to just sit on our hands and wait for Jeremy to become Prime Minister. But it is difficult since the only way you can build truly affordable homes for rent and sale in London is if someone steps in and pays a subsidy or a grant to bring down the cost of that home.

So until we have a Labour government, who will tax the better off and the rich to provide that subsidy we have a problem. But you can make changes and if I can give some examples of the changes that you, here and now can do to make a difference, not fundamental change, but make a difference by working with your local Labour party and unison.

In Newham there was a large key worker project for public sector workers including many local government care workers. The housing association, One Housing is the landlord and they proposed to increase overnight rents by up to 40%. I was proud to support the residents with the help of Labour Party activists, Councillors and other trade unions to fight these proposals and with a couple of months, One Housing put the rent rises were put on hold. To be clear this was the resident’s victory since they self organised but it is an example of what unions and Labour party members can achieve.

Another example was a recent planning victory in my ward west ham. There was a proposal to redevelop the Ford motor showrooms and only 25% were to be “affordable”. Local Labour Party including UNISON members of my own branch led the fight against the developers and we demanded at least 35-50% affordable and I am pleased that the planning application was knocked back at the last committee meeting. I told the developers that we want to work with them, we don’t want a large plot of building land lying empty but we will fight you every step of the way, if you don’t include enough social housing. I think they got the message.

So, finally my message to you all is don’t get angry with this Tory Government, get organised. Organise in UNISON and get organised in your Labour Party and I hope to see you all at a victory rally for Prime Minister Corbyn, sometime very soon".

Later this month I will be speaking at the Richmond Local Government AGM and debating consequences of Brexit with Vince Cable MP. My own branch AGM on 20 March will take place in the House of Commons and we have Angie Rayner MP as our guest speaker. 

Vote Rokhsana as your Labour candidate for Mayor of Newham

Vote Rokhsana Fiaz as your Labour candidate for Mayor of Newham 

Dear Member,

I’m Rokhsana and I’m asking you to vote for me as your Labour candidate for Mayor of Newham. You can read more about me and the detailed plans for Newham here.


From tomorrow, you'll be receiving details about how to vote from the Labour Party, so keep an eye out for your letter in the post!

This selection is a choice between Newham as it has been, and Newham as it needs to be. It’s time for a fresh start, a new vision, a different way of doing things.

It’s time to put our people at the heart of everything we do as a Labour Council by democratising how we do things for and with them.

As your Labour Mayor, housing will be my top priority. I will embark on the most ambitious programme of building new Council homes at affordable social rents for a generation - so that our residents can stay in Newham. This means:

There will be: 

• A Newham Housing Delivery Plan because there is land to build thousands of genuinely affordable at social rent new homes we need for our people. 

I will start:  

• To build 100 new Council owned homes in my first year let at social rent levels, with a target of at least 1000 over my first term.

I will ensure: 

• That 50 percent of Council and private homes built in Newham over the next four years will be let at social rent levels. 

Read more about my plans for housing below. 

With me as your Labour Mayor we can show what great things Labour in power, working together with its people, can achieve locally.

Please give me that chance to be that Mayor. I will work hard for you, your family and everyone in Newham.

Best wishes,
Rokhsana
e: info@rokhsana.org w: rokhsana.org
Twitter @rokhsanafiaz Facebook @rokhsana4Newham Instagram  rokhsana_fiaz
#RokhsTheVote #NewhamRokhs 

HOMES

There is a housing crisis in Newham and many of our residents cannot afford to live here anymore. Nearly 24,000 people were on Newham’s Housing List and around 4500 households were homeless in September 2017. But Newham has the land to build over 35,000 homes over the next 10 years.
As your Labour Mayor, I will embark on a programme of building new Council homes at affordable social rents so that our residents can stay in Newham.
I will also: 

• start 100 new Council owned homes to be let at social rent levels in my first year with a target of at least 1000 over my first term, which will include homes for residents with disabilities. A Newham Housing Delivery Plan will be produced in my first six months;

• ensure that at least 50 percent of Council and private homes that are built in Newham over the next four years are let at social rents and are owned by the Council. This is a challenging but achievable target;

• terminate the proposed Carpenters Estate Joint Venture scheme and consult directly with residents about producing a resident-led Masterplan for its future. This will include the largest proportion of socially rented Council homes on the estate that is possible, aiming for a minimum of 50 percent;

• let 50 percent of all homes being built or which have planning permission by the Council’s private sector development company Red Door Ventures at social rents on long term tenancies.  I will look at using the other 50 percent of homes for innovative long-term solutions aimed at helping Newham residents to stay in the Borough;

• end the current NewShare scheme, which sells off 250 void Council homes each year, immediately;

• rigorously scrutinise all right to buy applications and campaign for an end to Right to Buy;

• support the creation of at least one Community Land Trust in Newham;

• tackle homelessness with compassion and care, so that people who become homeless are housed within Newham, wherever possible. We will look at Housing First type models and innovative forms of temporary accommodation as well as permanent Council owned homes;

• build on the Council’s Private Landlord Licensing scheme to pursue private landlords more vigorously and fully use the new powers in the Labour sponsored Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Bill. 

Happy St David's Day: Hapus Dydd Gŵyl Dewi!

Hat tip Sonia Klein

See what the Daily Mirrors take on St David's Day. 

Eve of Poll for Rokhsana Fiaz as Newham Labour Mayoral Candidate

I spent this evening alternating from delivering #NewhamRokhs leaflets in the freezing cold and snow to sitting in an over warm campaign office stuffing envelopes and attaching labels.

There was an absolutely fantastic effort by dozens of Labour Party members from all over Newham (East Ham and West Ham CLP) to sort and deliver our second leaflet to members.

The vote is supposed to start from tomorrow (Thursday 1 March). All members deemed eligible to vote should receive a letter from London Labour Party with instructions and code numbers on how to cast their vote on the internet. I must admit to have some personal concerns about eligibility & this internet process but lets see what happens.

Yesterday, there was in East Ham the first of two hustings. After a rather macho & at times unpleasant speech and Q&A by candidate, Robin Wales, who was making unnecessary & snide comments about his opponents. It is was a refreshing pleasure to hear Rokhsana explain her vision & answer questions openingly and starting with what "We" could achieve collaboratively if she was Mayor. Not the "Me", "Me" and more "Me" from her opponent.

The selection will finish on Friday 16 March.

Check out Rokhsana's website and Facebook

The speech that never was - West Ham Ward Labour Councillor selections 2018

Since on Saturday I was affirmed by West Ham ward members as a Councillor candidate for May, I was not able to give my speech - so will blog it here instead :)

"My name is John Gray and I have lived in Newham for the last 30 years and have been honoured to be a Newham Councillor in West Ham ward since 2010.

· Even though I am seeking a 3rd term as your Councillor the reason why I am standing here today is that I want to be a change candidate in Newham for the next 4 years. While we have done many fine things as a council over the years, we desperately need fresh political leadership and a fresh approach.

· Not only at the top of the Council but also amongst backbench Councillors. The directly elected mayoral system gives such mayors huge powers and they must be held accountable by Councillors brave enough to stand up for their constituents, regardless of the consequences.

· For example, I have been a supporter of the London Living wage foundation since it was founded in 2001. It is completely unacceptable that we still have 17 years later, hundreds of workers employed as agency or in house contractors, providing Newham Council services on poverty pay. Doing often dirty, hard, manual labour for a measly £7.50 per hour, compared to the £10.20 per hour, the Living Wage Foundation thinks is the absolute minimum to live on in London. Not only do they have rubbish pay, but they are on insecure zero hour contracts, no pensions, no company sick pay. They are even forced to opt out of the working time regulations, so they can be even further exploited.

· We need proper financial checks and balances in place in Newham Council to stop the continuing financial governance problems such as the £530 million we have committed to 50-70 year toxic derivative LOBO loans and £60 million of Newham resident’s money wasted down the plug hole on the London Stadium.

· At the moment Newham Council officers are going up and down the country buying car parks, warehouses, shopping centres in order get money to try and offset government cuts in our grants to councils. I understand the need and lay blame with for the cuts where it lies – which is this thieving tory government but if we are going to borrow billions of £s, where are the checks and balance in place to make sure that this money is invested wisely?

· As a founder member of “Newham against Austerity” I want to support our Schools to remain in the Newham family of Schools and campaign against all education cuts.

· I want to bring back in-house the management of the many outsourced Council Services, stop the use of bailiffs by the Council against the poor and vulnerable and the Council to sign the Ethical Care Charter.

· We need to build decent homes at social rents not homes for private market rent.

· We desperately need better youth services to stop gang and knife killings, we also need accessible citizen advice provision across the borough.

· I work in social housing , a school governor, Pension and Charity trustee and UNISON trade union activist (and member of its National Executive Committee)

· I have been Lyn Brown MP Parliamentary agent for the last 3 General elections & Vice Chair campaigns of West Ham CLP.

· Please also support my Councillor colleague John Whitworth. We have worked together as a team to stop the 40% rent rises of housing association key workers and working with branch members, we persuaded the planning committee to tell the Ford Show room’s developers to get lost until they change their plans and provide far more social housing homes for rent. John and I have been leading the campaign in Newham to call Executive power to account and support Mayoral candidate, Rokhsana Fiaz, in her call for a referendum on the future of the directly elected mayoral system in Newham.

Thank you for your time and hope that I have earned your trust to be your candidate.

Rokhsana Fiaz Interview: On Newham's 'Unhealthy' Mayoral Model, Dog Whistle Politics And Diversity

'I'd be the first directly elected woman of colour' in the UK (hat tip Huffington Post by Paul Waugh)

Rokhsana Fiaz is an EastEnder, through and through.

Born in Mile End Hospital, she grew up in Newham and has lived there for most of her life. She worked in a local McDonalds, went to school and college not far from her current home.

No stranger to challenges throughout her career, she has now embarked on her biggest political task of all: replacing the UK’s longest serving Mayor, Sir Robin Wales, as the leader of the East End borough.

“I want to do it because I absolutely love Newham. It’s the place I obviously call home. I’ve grown up there, lived there all my life.”

Known as ‘Roks’ to her friends, she has been a councillor for Custom House ward for four years. But her frustration with the state of her local area – and of the council - has led her to seek the top job.

“My experience of local government leaves a lot to be desired, especially in Newham, where there’s a lot of ossified thinking,” she says.

Fiaz doesn’t directly name Wales, but she doesn’t need to. As the ‘change’ candidate in the Labour selection race, she makes clear her impatience with the status quo.

Since putting herself forward as the person to end Wales’ 23-year reign, the former media and charity worker is particularly sick of being told she lacks the ‘experience’ of her rival.

“This idea that you need someone with experience. You just have to sit there and question ‘OK, this experience of 23 years and £52m has just been squandered [on the London Stadium]’, I’m not sure that’s good experience.

“It’s a quite facile line to throw out. Local government still is resistant to people from different backgrounds. There’s a reluctance to see the range of skills and competency that someone can bring to the table, because they just don’t look like you, because they may not necessarily have served 23 years in a specific local authority.

“I don’t have 23 years of blankness on my CV. I’ve got 23 years of very much being on the front line, getting my hands dirty.

“I’ve set up my own company, employed and managed teams, won contracts with the EU, I’ve spoken at the State Department. I’ve got an OBE [for her work on race, faith and identity]. You don’t have those three letters after your name if you don’t have much experience.”

Sir Robin Wales is undoubtedly proud of his record on jobs and homes and services. But Fiaz says that while the headlines may look good, the reality for some in the borough is very different.

“If people can’t feel it in a palpable, tangible way you need to question how real that actually is.

“My experience is of being a councillor representing one of the most deprived wards in Newham, notwithstanding the great strides we have made.

“It would be nuts to ignore the impact of having an anchor institution like Westfield, or there are all these wider drivers pushing regeneration towards the east.

“But to say all that success is uniquely down to one individual begs some questions about your collaborative approach. And your willingness to accept great things come from working with other people.”

Fiaz says that when she first became a councillor in Custom House she was “horrified” because “here was a community that had largely been ignored”.

“It was an area where the council had essentially just managed decline. I was dealing with residents who were hostile, pessimistic, had lost hope, couldn’t even believe the possibility they had councillors who would stick up for them and fight their corner. And I just remember thinking to myself ‘this is not what Labour is about for me’.”

Within two years she says she secured a £1m estate regeneration programme, took on the outsourced private sector management of empty council homes and secured backing of the whole council. “What is the point of being in politics and calling yourself in Labour if you cannot change this? If I had my way I’d end the contract.”

Fiaz says her deep roots in the area are what connects her most to her constituents.

“I’ve always been motivated around issues of equality and social justice. As someone growing up in Newham in the 1970s where it was the rise of the National Front, those things really touch you as a child and you can’t ignore that.

“Very early on I considered myself to be a community activist and wanted to change the world for the better.”

Before she went on to set up a community engagement consultancy, one of her early jobs was for the northern TV company Granada, and it was an eye-opener.

“I remember my first foray into media at Granada, a kid from the depths of East London coming from a very diverse community entering this corporate sector where everyone was white. It was that moment where I understood issues around social mobility, where because of your class or background you’re moulded.”

At this point, she can’t resist a comparison between her own experience of racial diversity and that of Wales, a Scot who grew up in Ayrshire before moving down to London.

“Individuals that come from a very narrow, monocultural space…I understand he grew up in Scotland. I’m not quite sure what the ethnic mix back in the day was. It wouldn’t have been half as diverse as what it was like for me growing up in Newham,” she says.

“So, I don’t find that mindset or that view in terms of entitlement surprising, I just think it’s a bit sad.”

East Ham’s local Labour party has been effectively suspended since early last year after allegations of irregularities.

But she can’t hide her anger at the Newham Mayor’s recent remark that ‘community politics’ was partly behind multiple sign-ups of Labour members opposed to him.

“I think ‘community politics’ is a really lazy attempt by some individuals to play pretty appalling dog-whistle politics. It’s disgusting.

“It’s too easy to create bogeymen and monsters and it’s irresponsible for any public figure to use that kind of language, given we live in an age of heightened racism, Islamophobia and polarisation. I think we should be doing as much as we can in terms of building bridges.”

“As a woman of colour, I have witnessed and I have experienced the way in which race politics is played to benefit existing hegemonies. For me there’s something fundamentally important about doing ethical politics.

“You can have different ideas on policy, but I would not tolerate this. I’ve heard the sentiment ’Newham is going to be the next Tower Hamlets’. Unpack exactly what you’re saying.

“For me, as a woman of colour, who is a Muslim, it just says ‘Tower Hamlets - Muslims’, ‘Tower Hamlets - Extremism’, ‘Tower Hamlets - White Flight’, ‘Tower Hamlets - We’ve Got To Be Really Vigilant’. I think it’s disgusting.”

Wales is well known by local party members and has strong backing among trade unions like the GMB. Does she have the depth of support needed to defeat a rival who has been around for decades?

“I’m 47 years old, I’m not a baby. I would not have gone for this if I wasn’t serious about my competences. And I don’t need anyone’s permission to step up to the top table.

“It’s a travesty that in London, a global, hyper-diverse city, only 15 leaders of councils in London are women. And only two of the 33 council leaders are people from minority ethnic backgrounds and they happen to be men.

“I think I would be the first directly elected woman of colour [in the UK]. That’s exciting. My aspiration isn’t just for myself it’s about breaking glass ceilings and making the way for other people to come through. I certainly don’t anticipate being around for 23 years…”

The longevity of Robin Wales is a constant theme. But Fiaz insists that she is as determined to challenge the whole policy of having a borough run by a directly-elected mayor.

Introduced by Tony Blair across the UK in the 2000s, the mayoral model replaced council leaders with an executive post and powers that Jeremy Corbyn has long criticised.

Fiaz is making one of her key pledges a promise to set up a democracy commission that she hopes will include a referendum in her third year, asking residents if they want to junk the directly-elected mayoralty and go back to a council leader and Cabinet.

She says that the fact that 59 out of the 60 councillors in Newham are Labour raises real problems of accountability and challenge.

“I’m chair of [the] scrutiny [committee] and I also sit on the audit board. And the system of governance that we have presently in Newham, the directly elected mayor model, in the context of a one-party state, I don’t think is particularly healthy,” she says.

And the issue has been compounded by Wales’ style of leadership, she suggests.

“In terms of democratic accountability, transparency and I think it has been compounded by the fact that you have had a very small narrow group of people at the helm representing the political hegemony.

“Their reluctance to look outward I don’t even think has got anything to do with politics. I think sadly it must have something to do with some innate fear and anxiety and insecurity. I would certainly be running a council that is outward looking.

“I would enhance residents in decision making. There is a very top down, hierarchical leadership style. We are going to have to go through an educative programme both in terms of ourselves as local party but also with our public.

“I will be setting up a commission to look at our directly elected mayoral model. I will be working toward and I will be hoping to hold a referendum on the model in my third year.

“Personally I’m agnostic on it, but I just think in the context of a one party state in Newham uniquely, it hasn’t worked. And I think it has led to the very polarisation that people will badge as ‘community politics’. Look at your culpability as politicians who have secured the levers of power and influence in our local party. How dare you use a dog whistle to cover what actually it is you’ve done.”

In the suspended East Ham CLP, where she is a member, the lack of party democracy is another issue for Fiaz. “I’ve not been to a GC [general committee] meeting since February 2017, which broke out in chaos. But it was engineered chaos…there was a lot of choreographing going on there to stop a constituency from functioning.”

Fiaz is clear that if she wins it will be because she has harnessed support from across the spectrum of the party, from Momentum to more traditionally ‘centrist’ members, and across all communities.

Like many members locally, she stresses it is “lazy” to look at the battle with Wales through the prism of left-right. “Newham, like its people, represents the full spectrum of opinions. There isn’t one dominant faction,” she says.

And Fiaz says that Jeremy Corbyn has united the party, even if only on the labels members attach to themselves.

“About a year and a half in to Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, after much hilarity amongst a certain group of councillors, they all began to call themselves socialists,” she says, with a smile. “So that’s quite interesting to observe...”

Forest Gate North Labour selects Sasha, Anamul & Rachel

A great picture from the end of last night's Labour Party selection meeting, where local members voted overwhelmingly to return their existing Councillors, Rachel Tripp and Anamul Islam, as candidates for the local elections in May. The vacant position was filled by Sasha Das Gupta due to the standing down of our super ace Councillor, Seyi Akiwowo.

I chaired the meeting and well done to the successful candidates and good luck to those who missed out this time.