Tag Archives: newham

Academy antics

7 Mar

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Councillors are so opposed to academies they are paying millions of pounds for this one to expand

Last Monday Newham council passed a motion, proposed by Cllrs Mas and Salim Patel, declaring itself opposed to local schools converting into academies.

Given that half of all Newham schools are already academies and that by April 75% of local primaries will be in ‘multi-academy trusts’, this is all a bit late. Where have these newly radicalised anti-academy councillors been for the past few years?

It also raises an interesting question about the mayor’s apparent preference for expanding academies at the expense of local authority maintained schools.

Back in April last year, Sir Robin and his cabinet approved a plan to expand Brampton Manor Academy and Forest Gate Community School by a total of six forms of entry. Under the plan Brampton would take in an extra 120 pupils a year (on top of the 300 who already join year 7 each September) and FGCS would take an extra 60.

Despite the two schools being academies and therefore directly funded by the Department for Education, Newham council will be footing the bill for the extra classrooms required. And what a bill – the expansion was costed at over £29 million. That’s around £1 million per additional classroom.

Cabinet April 17

Headteachers in other local schools were, understandably, very concerned. They argued that there was no solid evidence that these extra places will be needed. Creating permanent additional capacity at these two academies will likely mean fewer pupils enrolling at other local schools, reducing their income and, potentially, threatening their long-term viability.

To add insult to injury, funding of a previously agreed special educational needs development in Stratford was cut by £7 million to pay part of the cost.

And now it appears the academy expansion bill is getting bigger. On 22 February – less than a week before full council passed its motion – Sir Robin’s cabinet approved a new capital budget that allocated £34.75 million for the extra classrooms at Brampton Manor and Forest Gate schools – an increase of almost £5 million (17%) in less than a year.

Cabinet 220218

None of this was mentioned in the anti-academies motion, or in the debate. Did the councillors Patel not know, or were they sparing Sir Robin’s blushes?

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Hustings

24 Feb

Details of the mayoral selection hustings have been announced:

Dear member,

As part of the process to select Labour’s candidate for Mayor of Newham, we will be holding two hustings meetings for you to hear from the candidates and ask them questions.

They will be held at:

Tuesday 27 February at 7pm at Royal British Venue, 30A Church Road, London, E12 6AQ

Thursday 1 March at 7pm at Old Stratford Town Hall, 29 Broadway, London, E15 4BQ

Entry is restricted to members who are eligible to vote in this selection. Please bring your membership card or other ID with you and you will only be allowed to attend one of these meetings not both.

We look forward to seeing you next week.

Thanks,

London Labour Party

There doesn’t appear to be a mechanism for members to pre-register a preference for which session to attend and it isn’t clear quite how people who go to the first one will be kept out of the second. But I’m sure the rule-abiding members of Newham Labour Party wouldn’t try to do anything improper!

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Head to head

21 Feb

RoksvsRobin

Out with old, in with the new?

The Labour Party has written to local members to confirm the shortlist for the mayoral selection:

Last night, the selections panel for the process to select Labour’s candidate for Mayor of Newham interviewed candidates to decide the shortlist that members in Newham will select from.

Their decision is that the shortlist will comprise of:

Rokhsana Fiaz
Sir Robin Wales

Voting starts on 1 March and there will be at least one hustings event – details of which have not yet been confirmed.

In the meantime, party members can get a flavour of the two candidates by reading the in-depth Q&As each has had with London blogger Dave Hill:

Q&A with Rokhsana Fiaz

Q&A with Sir Robin Wales

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Banner headlines

15 Feb

Mwarne 2018 Feb 15

Just as the open selection for Labour’s mayoral candidate is about to get underway, the council has seen fit to install a series of new banners across the borough. These extol the virtues of the Dear Leader’s policies, showing him surrounding by his adoring and grateful public.

This is a straightforward misuse of public money to support a candidate in an internal party selection.

And even if the trigger ballot had gone the other way and Sir Robin was already the Labour nominee, how can you justify this blatant propaganda barely 10 weeks ahead of the election?

The trouble is that Wales Rob-in has been in office so long that council officers can no longer distinguish between working in the public interest and working for him. 

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Over and out?

15 Feb

Councillor Forhad Hussain is not seeking re-selection as a candidate for the elections in May.

He has written to residents and colleagues to let them know:

After eight enjoyable years serving as a local elected councillor in Plaistow, I sadly write to inform my ward residents and local Labour colleagues that I will not be re-standing as a councillor candidate in the upcoming local elections in May 2018. I have thought about this decision a great deal, it was not an easy choice to make but I feel that I need to focus on my young family and develop my career further outside Politics.

However, this is not the end of my involvement in Politics. I will continue to help the Party to win in May’s local elections and in the next General Election to bring in a Labour government.

I would like to thank the Mayor, my local Councillor and Labour party colleagues, council officers, and most importantly Newham residents for their continued support during my time as an elected Councillor and Cabinet Member.

It has been my honour and privilege to represent Plaistow North. I will always cherish the memories I have of working with local residents to deliver many successful community projects. Some key highlights for me include the development of First Avenue Community garden, Plaistow Big Local Glen Rd Murial Project, our first Christmas Tree and Lights switch-on outside Plaistow Station, saving our local library and converting it to an oasis of community activity, the Queen’s visit to Lister Community School and the Tour de France and the Paralympic flame going through Plaistow High St. There are so many more highlights I could mention!

I am really proud of these achievements and my part in making them happen and believe that they have left a lasting legacy in terms of community cohesion.

I want to wish good luck to potential candidates in the Newham local labour Councillor selections. If selected and elected, you have a huge responsibility to help Newham residents improve their lives and support them in the continued challenges they face in everyday life under this vicious Tory government.

My final message to new Councillors: please always remember the reason why you became public servants. Put the interests of Newham residents’ first and deliver local services to improve the lives of our residents. Most importantly do this with a smile on your face! ☺

Many people thought Cllr Hussain would announce a run at the mayoral nomination once the trigger result was formalised. If he was considering that, he’s obviously decided against.

That he’s also decided to stand down altogether is a big surprise. I’m not sure what it says about the state of the Labour Party in Newham, but it’s not good.

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Going LOBO

13 Feb

Top 50 local authority LOBO borrowers

Newham are, by some distance, top of the LOBO league.

(Via Debt Resistance UK)

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What’s Next?

12 Feb

Copwatcher 2018 Feb 12

On Twitter, Kevin Blowe asks the obvious question:

If Sir Robin Wales is ousted as Mayor of Newham, what happens next?

Ideas please for unraveling the legacy of hard-right Labour council. Some suggestions:

  1. No more ugly, expensive developers’ gold-rush skyscrapers in Stratford

  2. 100% social housing on the Carpenters Estate

  3. Ending the council / police / immigration enforcement operation to harasss and disperse homeless people in Stratford

Off the top of my head:

  • Abolish the directly-elected mayoralty and return to leader & cabinet
  • No more ‘jobs for the boys’
  • End the out-placement of council services into arms-length companies

And Newham Co-op Party secretary Gill Hay adds:

A re-commitment to use all possible empty housing in the borough for housing people in need.

Feel free to add your own suggestions on Twitter or in the comments.

UPDATE:

Some suggestions from Twitter:

  • No pensions for Mayor or council
  • End of Mayors special advisor payouts
  • A sponsor to cover costs of Under The Stars etc.
  • Sell Building 1000
  • No more photos of the clowns in the Newham Mag
  • Proper independent scrutiny
  • A realistic policy for Council tax to avoid more cuts
  • Instigate a thorough forensic examination of ALL the authorities finacial dealings over the past 16 years
  • No giving away council buildings to hipster developments from outside the borough that speed gentrification
  • No turning music venues into trampoline parks
  • No more donkey & sand posters for the mayor’s £4 million gigs
  • Limited terms for mayors/council leaders

Thanks to Sites of Newham, Mike Law, Damnably Records, Kevin Mansell, @iainaitch and @StopCityAirport

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London stadium enquiry

12 Feb

London Stadium 886749

At the Council meeting on 4th December, Sir Robin announced a review of the decisions that led to the “investment” of £40m into the former Olympic Stadium, which part-funded its transformation into a new home for West Ham United. The review would also cover the due diligence undertaken (or not) and advice provided to the Council.

Daniel Fenwick, Newham’s Director of Legal and Governance, has now written to councillors to announce the appointment of a senior QC to lead the enquiry:

The Mayor and Chief Executive instructed me as Director of Legal & Governance to lead on the review for the Council and I write to announce that I have appointed Peter Oldham QC to undertake the review of the Council’s decisions to invest in the former Olympic Stadium.  The decision to instruct a QC provides the Council with senior and independent scrutiny of the Council’s decision-making and an expert legal analysis of the decisions made.  It will also enable to obtain legal advice on any rights or remedies the Council may have in respect of the decisions made.  Mr Oldham is a leading QC on local authority matters and his details can be found here.

He will be assisted by Peter Lockley, a junior barrister at the same chambers and will, if required, have access to support from the Council through myself and external expert advisors, if he requires.

It is anticipated that Mr Oldham will complete his review by the middle of March for submission to the Mayor and members.  It is the Council’s intention to make as much of the report as possible publicly available but I will  need to consider whether any legal advice provided to the Council must be kept confidential to protect the Council’s interests at this time. If this situation arises, I will consider the ways in which such information may be shared with members whilst remaining confidential.

I am in the final stage of agreeing the Terms of Reference with Mr Oldham and will circulate these as soon as they agreed and they will also be a public document.

The draft terms of reference, which are due to be finalised today (12 Feb), outline the purpose of the enquiry:

…to produce a report for submission to the Mayor and members, addressing the following issues:

4.1.1.  A narrative of the Council’s Decisions (and related activity) to invest in the Stadium;
4.1.2.  A review of the Council’s rationale for the Decisions and whether or not the Decisions were reasonable to make in all the circumstances, including:

(a) the financial and operational projections that underpinned Newham’s original investment;

(b) the due diligence conducted by and on behalf of the Council and Newham Legacy Investments during the time period stated and whether or not any liability to the Council may arise;

(c) To identify further steps to be taken with regard to any matters identified at b. 

4.1.3. To identify any lessons that the Council can learn for future investments and decisions and what further steps the Council may take.

Although this is not a public enquiry, and the expectation is that meetings and interviews will take place privately, it appears Mr Oldham has the option to decide otherwise.

Included within the scope is the original decision to invest £40m in a joint venture with West Ham, which was aborted when Boris Johnson cancelled the procurement. Newham could have walked away at that point, so it will be interesting to see what, if anything, turns up to explain Sir Robin’s utter determination to throw £40m at the stadium come what may.

The final report is due to be delivered on 23 March and, as Mr Fenwick says, the intention is to make it public. However, this is Newham, so I expect that as many FOI exemptions as possible will be applied to prevent anything seriously embarrassing from being revealed. 

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Data warning

7 Feb

Selection meetings for the 20 ward Labour parties to select their candidates for the council elections in May have been confirmed for 17/18 and 24/25 February.

Martin Tiedemann, regional organiser of the London Labour Party has written to all of the long-listed candidates – rumoured to be more than 100 people – to remind them of the code of conduct and rules for selections.

Membership lists are only available to short-listed candidates… and we will therefore not be providing lists to any candidates, given sort-listing and selection will happen at the same meeting in Newham.

Some candidates, including sitting councillors and CLP or branch officers, may have existing copies of membership lists in relation to the roles they hold. These lists must not be used to canvass for support fore the upcoming selections.

Improper use of membership data, including passing on to other candidates, may be a breach of law or of Labour’s rules, and may put your position on the longlist at risk.

Given that membership data has so recently been mis-used in Newham, this is pertinent advice. But it really hands an advantage to sitting councillors and branch officers. They almost certainly don’t need to use the data to talk to their members – they already know who they are and how to reach them if they want a chat. And I’d be hugely surprised if they resisted the temptation.

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Sir Robin says NO!

29 Jan

Sir Robin has finally had to confront reality. He cannot win the trigger ballot if it isn’t rigged by his mates.

But he is putting a brave face on it.

In an email sent to local Labour members this evening he is calling on them to vote for an open selection at the branch trigger ballot meetings:

I am writing to ask you to vote no in the upcoming trigger ballot meetings so that we can have an open contest for Labour’s candidate for Mayor of Newham.

I have also written to all the organisations affiliated to the Newham Labour Party thanking many of them for their support and asking that if they do take part in the up-coming trigger ballot, that they vote no.

Over the next couple of months I want Newham Labour Party members to give their mandate to a Mayoral and 60 councillor candidates, so that we can unite as a party and focus on the Labour-led values and manifesto that we take to residents in the May local elections.

It is important we have an open debate about the vision that we present to the people of Newham.

We can be proud of our achievements that have changed peoples lives for the better:

  • Council Tax frozen for nine years without making cuts to vital frontline services.
  • The largest increase in employment in London, with over 35,000 jobs filled with Newham residents through our jobs brokerage service Workplace.
  • Initiatives such as universal free school meals and Every Child a Musician with 1.2 million musical instrument lessons delivered that have contributed to Newham having some of the best school results in the country. 
  • A ground-breaking private-rented sector licence, that has allowed us to prosecute more criminal landlords than the rest of London combined.
  • The creation of council-owned small businesses, protecting jobs and services and innovating with public-sector reform.

That is the radical agenda that we have been following since I have been Mayor and continues to drive my vision for Newham in the future. It is this record and vision that I want to proudly defend and promote in an open selection.

That is why I am calling on all members and affiliates in Newham to vote in favour of an open selection if they attend their branch meetings to cast their vote on the trigger ballot.

So please vote NO to result in an open selection.

Of course, this could be a huge fake-out and he hopes the email will keep the No voters at home and his friends can all turn up to automatically re-select him. But let’s take him at his word. Labour members should turn up in droves to vote No and win the open selection they wanted in 2016.

You have to wonder why Sir Robin didn’t say this to the NEC or the press a month ago, rather than just at the point the trigger ballot meetings are starting. The open selection, which he now says he wants, could have started sooner and allowed alternative candidates to organise their camp… oh, right. 

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