Cllr Lakmini Shah, Cabinet Member for Children’s Safeguarding, was among those who discussed the future of the Carpenters estate last week
Here’s a curious tale.
When the Focus E15 protesters turned up at East Ham Town Hall last Thursday to watch Sir Robin and his cabinet discuss plans for the future of the Carpenters Estate they found they couldn’t get into the public gallery because it was already full.
Frustrated, they ended up in a side room where they were unable to see what was going on, with only a dodgy audio feed of proceedings to listen to.
As they were leaving at the end of the meeting they saw a group of Asian women emerge from the public gallery. They weren’t Carpenters residents, as no-one from the estate recognised them.
Who were they and what agenda item had they come to watch being discussed?
It’s great that people are interested in watching democracy at work. But what an unfortunate coincidence that a group exactly large enough to fill the seats in the public gallery should turn up on the same day as the Focus E15 campaigners and prevent them getting in.