The phantom leafleter of Forest Gate struck again last night, delivering a pre-election message to local households.
Previous examples of the phantom’s work:
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Oh Noor!
5 May
According to the Newham Labour website, Ahmed Noor “is dedicated to making Newham a better place for everyone.”
What could be more embarrassing for a local councillor than to be served with an enforcement notice by his own council?
That is the fate which has befallen Plaistow South’s Ahmed Noor.
Councillor Noor, like so many of his nominally Labour colleagues, owns a large number of properties in the borough that he rents out. One of these is at 238 Romford Road, Forest Gate. Quite properly, he lists this fact on his register of interests.
Unfortunately for Cllr Noor the property has at some time in the past ten years been converted from offices to ‘a house in multiple occupation’ without planning permission. Worse still, according to the enforcement notice (my emphasis added):
The conversion of the property to a house in multiple occupation provides a poor quality of accommodation which is to the detriment of the persons who reside there, and at a neighbourhood level, harms the objective of creating healthier neighbourhoods and delivering convergence. It is therefore contrary to policy … and the requirements of the Lifetime Homes Standards.
Given Newham council’s well-publicised determination to improve the quality of rented accommodation in the borough this is quite an extraordinary situation.
And it could get even worse.
As part of its drive to improve local housing Newham has pioneered a private rented property licensing scheme:
It is now against the law for any landlord to rent out a property in Newham without a licence. We work with the Metropolitan Police and other agencies across Newham to find unlicensed properties and take legal action.
If you are found guilty you could face a fine of up to £20,000. You could also have control of your unlicensed properties taken away … and be ordered to repay up to 12 months rent to us or your tenants.
A search of the property licensing database for 238 Romford Road produces no results. How exactly does Cllr Noor explain that? As a member of the council he can hardly plead ignorance – not that that would be any defence.
I’m sure the members of Plaistow South Labour party will be keen to hear what he has to say, as will his fellow Labour group members on the council.
Thursday’s by-election in Stratford & New Town is unlikely to be the last in the borough this year.
Leading questions
27 Apr
The council is ‘consulting’ on the future of the Upton Centre, which it suddenly closed late last year. One question – shown above – asks residents what their priority would be if the council had just over £4.4 million to spend on something; of course, redevelopment of the Upton Centre is right at the very bottom of the list of options.
When Sir Robin decided to bung £40 million – almost 10 times as much – into converting the Olympic stadium for the benefit of West Ham United FC and its multimillionaire owners, no such consultation took place.
And no-one was asked what they might prefer the council to spend such a vast sum on.
UPDATE: The whole consultation is bogus. The bias is evident in the questions and in the assumptions that underlie them, as Caroline Tomes has explained on Storify.
Who wants to be a millionaire?
17 Apr
Beckon lead councillor Ayesha Chowdhury owns a property portfolio worth in excess of £4 million
On Monday Newham council officers and the police forcibly took back possession of a flat in Stratford that had been occupied by its former tenant and the Focus E15 housing campaign. Jasmin Stone, the most prominent of the campaigners was arrested and later bailed.
It is the latest in a long line of incidents that highlight the chronic shortage of social housing in the borough and the council’s complete lack of interest in those who need it most. When anyone dares to challenge the mayor’s priorities – “developers, developers, developers,” to borrow a phrase – he has no hesitation in sending in the heavies.
The ‘developers first’ policy means that the gleaming glass and steel towers going up in Canning Town, Royal Docks and Stratford contain few, if any, affordable units. Properties are openly marketed to overseas investors with the tagline ‘no social housing’.
With hundreds of council homes being deliberately left empty and new builds aimed squarely at the investment market, the thousands of families on the social housing waiting list have few options. Demand for private rented accommodation has rocketed and rents have soared – along with the housing benefit bill – transferring wealth upwards into the ever-expanding pockets of the rich.
Which is good news for the large number of Newham councillors who are private landlords.
Take Beckton’s Ayesha Chowdhury, for example. She has amassed a portfolio of Newham properties that – based on estimates from property website Zoopla.co.uk – is now worth more than £4 million. Zoopla also provides an estimate of her potential monthly rental income. If all Cllr Chowdhury’s properties are let out at these rates she’ll be pulling in close to £19,000 a month.
| Purchase Price | Current Value | Increase | Monthly rental | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 82 Downings, E6 | £105,000 | £238,000 | £133,000 | £1,100 |
| 95 Lonsdale Avenue, E6 | £55,000 | £165,000 | £110,000 | £790 |
| 6 Truesdale Road, E6 | £122,000 | £260,000 | £138,000 | £1,200 |
| 100 Park Avenue, E6 | £72,000 | £185,000 | £113,000 | £890 |
| 199 Tollgate Road, E6 | £65,000 | £172,000 | £107,000 | £828 |
| 10 Harrier Way, E6 | £249,000 | £370,000 | £121,000 | £1,700 |
| 27 Trader Road, E6 | £198,500 | £295,000 | £96,500 | £1,365 |
| 5 Hogarth Close, E16 | £185,000 | £296,000 | £111,000 | £1,588 |
| 47 Plymouth Road, E16 | £140,000 | £219,000 | £79,000 | £868 |
| 205 Tollgate Road, E6 | £57,500 | £152,000 | £94,500 | £732 |
| 18 Eric Close E7 | £189,000 | £264,000 | £75,000 | £1,021 |
| 96a Plashet Grove E7 | £160,000 | £188,000 | £28,000 | £903 |
| 5 Chelmsford Close, E6 | £225,000 | £334,000 | £109,000 | £1,546 |
| 203 Tollgate Road, E6 | £160,000 | £197,000 | £37,000 | £950 |
| 5a Hogarth Close, E6* | £75,000 | £195,000 | £120,000 | £1,000 |
| 39 Albatross Close, E6 | £191,600 | £287,000 | £95,400 | £1,380 |
| 20 Viscount Drive, E6** | £205,000 | £210,000 | £5,000 | £1,011 |
| TOTALS: | £2,454,600 | £4,027,000 | £1,572,400 | £18,872 |
* New build – estimated construction cost
** My estimate – actual sale price not yet available
This might be portrayed by some as a story of hard work and a reward for enterprise. But until 2011 Cllr Chowdhury lived in social housing, paying a subsidised social rent while building her private fortune. She only moved into one of her own properties when the story appeared in the national press.
Despite this she was reselected as a Labour candidate for last year’s council election and rewarded by Sir Robin with an extra £6,679 a year as mayoral advisor and lead community councillor.
As the old saying has it, money goes to money.
Where’s Robin?
16 AprThe start of the election campaign has seen Twitter flooded with pictures of activists out doing their bit for the party. Newham’s Labour councillors have been doing their bit, in locations from East Ham to East Dunbartonshire.
Councillors Jose Alexander, Unmesh Desai, Ayesha Chowdhury & Susan Masters in East Ham
Councillors James Beckles, Aleen Alarice and Terry Paul in West Ham
Councillors John Whitworth, Aleen Alarice, John Gray, Julianne Marriott and Neil Wilson campaigning with Mike Gapes in Ilford
Tahmina Rahman with fellow councillors Gray and Abdulmuhit
A rare sighting of Forest Gate community lead councillor Rohima Rahman campaigning in Ilford with Unmesh Desai, Jose Alexander and Stephen Timms
Lyn Brown talking to voters in Stratford with councillor James Beckles and by-election candidate Charlene McLean
Eight Newham councillors on the doorstep in Scotland: Forhad Hussain, Ellie Robinson, David Christie, Joy Laguda, Hanif Abdulmuhit, Terry Paul, Lester ‘3 jobs’ Hudson and Tahmina Rahman.
There is one highly notable absentee from these pictures. Concerned citizens and Labour activists alike have to ask, where’s Robin?
General election update
7 Apr
The brainiacs at FiveThirtyEight.com have come up with constituency-by-constituency predictions for the UK general election.
Their prognostications for the two Newham seats make for predictable reading. I doubt it took them very long to come to forecast the winners or their overwhelming share of the vote.
If I had any quibble with their forecast, I’d say they have significantly over-estimated the likely Lib Dem scores. In my view, they’ll be lucky to save their deposits.
Maternity blues
23 MarMore embarrassment has been heaped on the mayor and his fellow councillors over the expulsion of Charlene McLean.
The Evening Standard covered the story under the headline Councillor ‘dumped’ from authority over time off after giving birth prematurely.
The story says local party members are outraged and quotes one ‘angry member’:
“This is a working class mother who had time off during a very difficult pregnancy and was then caring for an unwell, premature baby.
“Despite that, she was injudiciously dumped from the council. Charlene is a dedicated Labour member committed to her residents but not seen as a leadership loyalist. That’s valuable on a council with no opposition.”
The normally supine Newham Recorder also got in on the act, headlining their story New mum dropped as Stratford councillor in maternity leave dispute.
Both stories include the council’s claim that then-councillor McLean was misadvised by an unnamed officer and that neither senior officials nor the executive were aware of this.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for Newham Council said: “In this case, an officer provided incorrect information to another member regarding statutory maternity leave and it appears this advice was passed on to Ms McLean.
“Neither the council’s executive or the council’s monitoring officer were aware that incorrect information had been provided to Ms McLean.
“Had the council officer or Ms McLean informed the monitoring officer or the council’s executive, steps would have been taken to agree an extended period of absence for Ms McLean.”
But documents released under the Freedom of Information Act throw this claim into dispute. Mike Law asked last year for details of the amount of individual casework allocated to councillors between June and September. The reply he got in October includes this:
He then asked a follow up about case work in October, November and December. That was answered last week:
The information governance team knew she was on maternity leave, but we are supposed to believe Sir Robin and none of his executive did.
One of Charlene McLean’s fellow councillors in Stratford & New Town is Richard Crawford. Aside from being a long-standing friend and drinking buddy of Sir Robin’s he is also the full-time, 5-days-a-week mayoral advisor on ‘resident experience’. Odd that he either never noticed Cllr McLean’s absence nor thought to mention it.
Equally odd is that the other councillor who was on maternity leave at the same time had the fact announced on her profile page on the council website:
Both of Farah Nazeer’s fellow ward councillors are members of Sir Robin’s inner circle of full-time advisors. They knew she was pregnant and was on maternity leave, but apparently failed to spot Charlene McLean was in the same condition.
The council’s executive are not the only ones who were selectively inattentive. I am told Labour chief whip Steve Brayshaw called two other councillors in – Sheila Thomas and Amajit Singh – to make sure they remained legal whilst ignoring Charlene McLean’s absence.
There is something deeply rotten in the state of Newham Labour. Claims of mayoral and executive ignorance are transparently an attempt to cover that up.
The Casual Vacancy
20 Mar
There is going to be a council by-election in Stratford & New Town ward.
Charlene McLean has been removed from office under section 85 of the Local Government Act 1972:
if a member of a local authority fails throughout a period of six consecutive months from the date of his last attendance to attend any meeting of the authority, he shall, unless the failure was due to some reason approved by the authority before the expiry of that period, cease to be a member of the authority. [emphasis added]
The circumstances in which the by-election has been triggered and the timing – so close to the general election – reflect very badly on the leadership of Newham Labour party, which has done nothing to support a young mother in exceptionally difficult circumstances.
As (now ex) councillor McLean explained in a letter sent to all ward members last week, before her removal was confirmed:
Last August, I gave birth to my baby daughter Esme two months prematurely. Prior to that I had to go on sick leave due to serious pregnancy complications, which risked both my life and that of my baby. Following her birth, I spent over three months monitoring her care at the specialist neonatal intensive care unit at the Royal London Hospital, and then at Newham General. Once she was allowed home, I had to provide specialist care for her, which required my full and uninterrupted focus.
That is why I believe that what has happened to me warrants a full and urgent discussion among Council Members concerning the Council’s maternity leave policy for expectant Members, and those who have become new parents.
As you can imagine to now have to deal with this situation is agonising, but with the support of Ward Members, my fellow Councillor colleagues, Terry and Richard, and the wider Newham Labour Party; I am hoping that I can come through this.
I am in the process of discussing next steps with the national Labour Party and London Region, as well as the Chief Whip of Group, if a by-election has to be called because of the mistakes made by the Council. As such, I do intend to seek selection as the Labour Party Candidate for Stratford and New Town ward if such a situation arises.
Charlene McLean was led to believe she was on approved leave – as the Local Government Act allows – but she wasn’t. And no-one bothered to tell her.
Although she points the finger at poor advice from unelected officers, the real culprits are her own comrades. The mayor, the Labour group chair, the chief whip and other leading councillors knew what was going on and did nothing.
I am old enough to remember a time when Labour whips in parliament carried dying MPs through the lobbies on stretchers to ensure the government survived. This lot couldn’t be bothered to organise a babysitter and a taxi.
Backbench councillors and ordinary members need to ask why not. If Labour chief whip Steve Brayshaw doesn’t offer his resignation, councillors should demand it. Others within the leadership group need to take a long hard look at themselves too.
A borough as diverse as Newham needs a council made up of people from a wide range of backgrounds and at different stages in their lives, not just middle-aged men. The council has a moral responsibility to ensure that people are not excluded from taking part just because they are starting a family.
But as it is led by a mayor who thinks it’s okay for his Equalities lead to do her work unpaid that is not a priority in Newham.
Members in Stratford ward passed a motion last week calling for Charlene McLean to be immediately reselected as their candidate.
Last night, on direct instruction from Labour’s London regional office, the Newham local campaign forum voted unanimously to do just that. It is overwhelmingly likely she will be back on the council before the end of April.
Nonetheless, local Labour party members are furious. Or as one person put it to me, they are “going fucking mental.” They’ll have to spend time and resources fighting a council by-election when they should be out campaigning for the general election. Nearby Ilford North is a key Tory-held marginal. If Ed Miliband wants to be prime minister it’s a seat Labour must win.
They also know how embarrassing this is. Residents are being asked to go to the polls two weeks before the general election to re-elect a councillor they only voted into office 10 months ago. All because the overwhelmingly white and exclusively male cabal at the top of Newham Labour party failed to support a young working class black woman facing immense personal difficulties.
It would be harsh on Charlene McLean but if voters decided to punish Newham Labour for this, who could blame them?
The job’s a joke – and it’s on us
23 Feb
Some residents want to talk to Richard Crawford about their experience
After much delay Newham council has finally published details of what the mayor’s fleet of advisors and cabinet members are supposed to be doing in exchange for their ‘special responsibilities allowances’.
And what dismal reading they make.
Far from being detailed job descriptions, with performance measures that we can use to judge whether they’ve actually done what they’ve been paid to do, they are insultingly brief – a few bullet points of meaningless management jargon.
Take this example:
Advise the Mayor on all matters relating to resident experience, including:
- To take a strategic overview of all resident experience – across the whole organisation.
- To understand and learn from what residents value.
- To interpret the feedback we receive from residents – informing the Mayor about analysis and trends.
- Oversee the contract compliance function of the organisation
Having read that I still have no idea what Richard Crawford actually does. And this is a full-time, 5 days a week job for which he gets the maximum allowance of £33,735 on top of his £10,829 basic.
Councillor Ken Clark is similarly well-rewarded for his ‘work’ as Executive member for Building Communities and Public Affairs. His time is, allegedly, fully accounted for by this:
Advise the Mayor on all matters relating to Community Neighbourhoods in Newham.
- Promoting economic, community and personal resilience.
- To drive up activity, satisfaction and resilience in community neighbourhoods – empowering residents to lead and shape their community.
- To be the eyes and ears of the council, sharing information and local intelligence – feeding that information back into the council to better improve what we do.
- To provide political leadership to Newham’s public affairs profile – ensuring the needs and views of Newham residents are heard by decision makers across and outside of Newham
To borrow a much-loathed bit of consultant-speak, “what does success look like?” How will we know if he has ‘driven up’ activity, satisfaction and resilience in community neighbourhoods? With no baseline to measure against and no targets, there’s no way to tell. And I don’t suppose the mayor cares. The jobs are a joke; a set of phantoms conjured up to justify stuffing cash into the pockets of his closest allies.
The ultimate proof of this is that special responsibility allowances are
calculated according to the days considered by Council or the Mayor to be requisite to fulfil the duties set out in the Job Profile and / or Portfolio of the Office Held
In practice it is always the Mayor that decides how many days a job needs to take. So the likes of Crawford, Clark, Desai, Furness, Baikie and Ian Corbett all have jobs that require five full days a week. It doesn’t matter what the job is, it always takes 5 days. And it therefore always pays top whack.
Perhaps while PwC are looking at the books the Audit Commission could ask them to do a ‘value for money’ study on the mayor’s advisors. The results would be very interesting.
Guilty!
3 Feb 
Sir Robin being restrained by councillor Obaid Khan
I was going to blog about the Standards Committee’s verdict on Sir Robin’s conduct at the Newham Show back in July, but I can’t improve on this excellent account in the Evening Standard, other than to point out that Sir Robin was not restrained by a member of the council’s staff but by a Labour councillor, Obaid Khan.
Nor could I give more insight into what happened than Kevin Blowe, who made the formal complaint.
Not titling his post Sir Robin Wales, My Part in His Downfall was definitely a missed opportunity.
forestgatedotnet 