forestgatedotnet

Last week, without fanfare, Newham council finally published the report on councillors’ expenses and allowances for 2012/13. As the year in question ended at the start of April and the report is dated May 2013, I’m not sure why it took so long to put it into the public domain.

The report shows that last year the 61 elected members of Council – the mayor and 60 ward councillors – trousered a total of £1,204,422 between them.  But although all animals are equal, some animals are more equal than others.

While all 60 ward councillors picked up £10,734 each in basic allowances, 31 of them got to top that up with ‘special responsibility allowances’ that totalled a whopping £479,353. The most equal animal of all, the mayor, received £81,029.

Average household income in Newham is around £27,000 a year. Thirteen members of the council received more than that in allowances last year. Public service can be so rewarding!

The top ten recipients of council tax cash last year were:

• R A WALES – £81,029
• L T HUDSON – £ 45,528
• I K CORBETT – £ 42,811
• R J CRAWFORD – £ 42,811
• A R BAIKIE – £ 41,776
• U DESAI – £ 41,776
• C MCAULEY – £ 41,776
• C W FURNESS – £ 41,028
• A KELLAWAY – £ 37,635
• E H SPARROWHAWK – £ 33,499

Nationally, the Labour party is rightly committed to getting more women into senior positions in politics. So it is worth noting that this list is entirely male. The only woman in Sir Robin’s senior team – his cabinet and ‘executive advisors’ – is Kay Scoresby and she is joint 12th on the money list. The next highest ranked woman is Forest Gate North’s Ellie Robinson. She chairs the council’s scrutiny commission and collected £23,197 last year – making her the 19th biggest earner.

Among the 20 most senior councillors, with responsibilities that attract the largest allowances, just two are women. When people talk about ‘jobs for the boys’ that is quite literally true in Newham.

Way back in 2010 I wrote a post on the E-democracy forum about Newham setting a world record for the shortest ever council meeting (just 6 minutes). I noted that the council’s own website said that:

“At these meetings the Council makes major decisions, such as deciding the council tax and budget and policy framework documents. It is the real focus for the whole Council to meet and debate major issues and to ask questions of the Mayor.”

Two years later, in August 2012, I found that the website text had been amended. The new version said:

“At these meetings the Council makes major decisions, such as deciding the council tax and budget and policy framework documents.”

Can you spot the difference? Perhaps they thought no-one would notice, but Sir Robin’s disdain for scrutiny has rarely been so obvious.

There’s now an even newer version which sets out the decisions which by law have to be made at full council. It also says:

“The full council is the opportunity for councillors to question the executive [and] chairs of council committees.”

So someone somewhere has given councillors back their right to publicly question Sir Robin!

I hope that the bright-eyed hopefuls recently selected to contest next year’s elections will, once installed in the council chamber, take that opportunity. Holding the mayor to account for his decisions is, in my view, by far the most important part of their job. And it would make a nice change if they actually did it.

Who knows, they might even get answers!

This weekend sees Newham Labour party select its candidates for the 60 seats up for grabs at next year’s council elections.

The original 120 applicants have been carefully vetted and a shortlist of 65 agreed from which each ward can choose its trio of nominees. Mike Law has acquired a copy of the list and published it on his blog.

Comparing Mike’s list to one of currently sitting councillors, it is clear that not all of them have made it through. Some will have chosen to retire, but others are paying the price for failing to please the mayor.

Those strapping on the concrete wellies and preparing to be heaved into the Royal Docks are:

• Paul Brickell
• Leanora Cameron
• Nirmal Kaur Chadha
• Akbar Chaudhary
• Marie Collier
• Omana Gangadharan
• Kevin Jenkins
• Khalil Kazi
• Sharaf Mahmood
• Riaz Ahmed Mirza
• Mike Nicholas
• Gavin Pearson
• Pearson Shillingford
• Mary Skyers
• Rustam Talati
• Alan Taylor

They may be joined by as many as five more after the weekend.

Of course, those nominated to replace them are not 100% guaranteed to collect a minimum of £10,700 a year in allowances for the next 4 years be elected. But they can probably prepare to have the control chips implanted, ready to receive instructions direct from Sir Robin.