Transcript

[BLANKAUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [INAUDIBLE] Good evening, councilors. Before the commencement of business, I would like to start the council meeting by calling on my faith leader, Arch Chican John Kidd, or to say a few words. [BLANKAUDIO]

Thank you very much. Madam mayor, thank you so much for the invitation, and it has been lovely to get to know you and your work over the last few months, is fantastic. Today, I come here today both as a resident of the borough, and, as you heard, the Arch Deacon of Wonsworth which is a job that gives me oversight over the Anglican churches in this borough, and also in Richmond and Kingston boroughs. I think the first thing I want to say very briefly is thank you to all of you as elected representatives and to the officers of this borough. All you do to make this such a wonderful diverse community for your service, for what you do to enable the health and happiness of others to give an opportunity for all for education, care, and safety, not least I think for the most vulnerable in our community. I understand that Councillor Jaffray is introducing hope as a theme for this year, and I was reflecting a little about that. Hope is a very powerful word, it is transformational, and if we think about it, we know how desperate it is to be without hope. In the Christian faith, much of our reflection is on hope. We do not understand that to be the same as optimism or wishful thinking. We have a sense of hope as being rooted in our faith, and especially in our understanding of what will be, of what should be, a world of justice and of goodness, of peace, of goodness, of goodness, of goodness, of goodness. We look forward to what will be, we see glimpses, we see signs of that world we long for and pray for, the world together we seek, those signs, those glimpses build our hope and strengthen our determination and our commitment to work further. And when we look, and when we look around this wonderful borough, we see many signs of hope. The goodness of people, the generosity of so many, we see places of transformation and acts of kindness, we see communities working together, meeting together, lives lived well, lives spent for the common good. Thank you for what you do as a council and as individual councilors to inspire and build hope in other people. May that be our shared partnership across this borough. Now I will say a prayer. God of love we offer thanks for this borough, for all that is good, for all that gives joy and for every sign of hope. God of grace we pray your blessing on this borough, on all who contribute to its life, on all who work together for the greater good, and all tonight who are in need. God of wisdom we ask your blessing on the work of this council for skill in listening to one another, for wisdom in decisions and in everything truth and the service of all. Amen. Thank you Mr. John Kiddo, that was very lovely, thank you. So apologies have been received from Councillors Hebelton, Kirk, Davies, Govindia, Humphreys, Lawless, Lee, Locker, Paul, Rigby and White. Are there any other apologies? Item number one, the minutes of the annual meeting held on 22nd May have been circulated. Are there any objections or abstentions to me signing the minutes as a correct record? Thank you. In the absence of any objections or abstentions I will take that as agreed. Thank you. Item number two is my announcements. So good evening everyone and welcome again to tonight's meeting. Members may be aware, but it is my sad duty to inform you that former Councillors Neville, Daniels, Shawn, Creighton and Lewis, Lee's have passed away. Can I ask members to stand for a minute silence before Councillor Cooper pays tribute to former Councillor Dad, to formula Councillor Daniel's. Councillor Osborn pays tribute to former Councillor Creighton and Councillor Brooks will pay tribute to former Councillor Lee. Councillor Hamilton will also read out some tributes to former Councillor Creighton on behalf of Councillor Govindia who regrettably could not be present to do so himself. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANKAUDIO] [BLANKAUDIO] [BLANKAUDIO] [BLANKAUDIO] [BLANKAUDIO] [BLANKAUDIO] Thank you. It feels wrong in the way having to pay a tribute to Neville Daniels, but because Councillor Belton, just once is not here this evening, he's normally the person who pays a lot of the tributes and because he served for such a long time on this council, so he had the privilege which I did not of actually serving with Neville Daniels when he was a Councillor, and it was in that sort of, rather fraught council between 86 and 90 when there was a one seat difference between one side and the other. So I don't think we just had a long list of apologists this evening, I don't think very many apologists were allowed in that period at all as far as I understand it. But I wasn't there at that time, so I'm afraid it falls to me to pay a tribute. I stood with Neville Daniels in the Bedford ward, both of us unsuccessfully, and indeed at one point, it seemed as if almost everybody who was a Labour councillor in Montsworth and possibly on the Conservative side as well, I don't know, had to stand in Bedford ward before they could be elected, and I was really fortunate, there's a very long list, I'm not going to go through them. I was really fortunate to be selected and to stand with Neville Daniels. There are not many people that you meet in politics who are as nice as he was, I'm certainly not going to point towards the House of Commons, because we sure will be as long as to our normal favourites there. What I am going to do is I'm just going to read something, there's a really lovely order of service, I did go to his funeral, I left one of these in the members room, so if you do get the chance, it's full of amazing photographs. But what it says in the beginning, and this is all it says about his biography, Neville Daniels was born on the 22nd of December 1936, it was his nature to be a humble and wise friend to all. He was articulate, and used his voice to benefit the communities he lived in, leaving a deep impression on many, and that was so true at the funeral, he was one of six children born in Guyana, and they were all boys, so we had a lot of stories about dancing and cricket and obviously they needed to find girls, that was quite a big feature, and of course the funeral was absolutely enormous, because I think not just Neville and his childhood sweetheart who both moved here from Guyana in that generation was given so much to so many aspects of our lives, politics onwards, the Windrush generation. And it was an amazing life that he left behind of dancing and cricket and real enjoyment. He came here in one of many who came to rain in London and actually not being treated very well, but he stuck at it and he became a Councillor, and he also, even when he wasn't on the Council, gave an awful lot to the community. He was involved in teaching cricket, he was a school governor, he did many of the things that we all do to this day, and I will just say, if you haven't had a look at this, I really would recommend that you have a look and just look through, there are some amazing photographs of him in all walks of his life. He was a real friend and it was a privilege to stand with him. Thank you, Madam Matt. Thank you. Thank you for that, Councillor Cooper. Could I ask Council, Council, or Osborne to pay his tribute, thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Sean Crichton was a memorable, unique citizen, community activist and Councillor. And there was much that he did that should be remembered, too much for us to get through this evening. But if you were to look for a physical lasting legacy for Sean Crichton, straight away you would find the product of the housing project that he worked on, called Solon. You'll find terraces of dwellings all over the borough, which simply would not exist if it were not for Sean Crichton and his colleagues in Solon, where he was a leading light. And Solon tells you something about the unique characteristics of Sean Crichton because he had a shy, quiet, unassuming manner, but a phenomenal memory and a lightning fast mind, which unique combination meant that he was the master of what I would call the surreptitious lecture. If you talk to him about Solon and said to him, where did it get its name from, he would say straight away, well, it's the first two letters of south London, and the first three letters of London Solon, south London that bricks, I'm sure you're also thinking of something else, Solon evokes a person. Obviously, he evokes the great Athenian poet, philosopher, statesman, Solon, who laid the very foundations of Western democracy two and a half thousand years ago, because Sean, in addition to everything else he was, was one of the best historians of what he was talking about, but an excellent historian, and having delivered the occasional surreptitious lecture, Rex, do you realize where you're standing right now, or this person did such and such, or this is the day when, and so it went on the gamut from ancient Athens, through to modern labor history in Wandsworth, and in particular with modern labor history, he was quick with people like me, to remind me of the roots and origins, the labor party, my role as a scholar on Wandsworth council, indeed the true path that I ought to be following, because that was the kind of friend that he was. I knew Sean for about 40 years, I first met him in the two brewers across the road, and like everybody who knew him, I shall miss him as will the labor movement in Wandsworth, as will the heritage community in Wandsworth, because at the end of the day, Sean Creighton was one of a kind. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Arspon. Could I ask Councillor Brookes, who will pay tribute to Council believes. Thank you very much Madam Mayor, Lois was a remarkable public servant, full of determination with, and even surprises right until the end of her long life. Long before joining the Council, she was involved in the Rahamaton Festival, and once her daughter had grown up, decided to take the plunge into local politics. In 1982, she was elected in Bedford Ward. In the either gender at a funeral that I attended with, Councillors given the and Councillor Graham, it was clear that the achievements she was most proud of was her campaign against the curb crawlers on Bedford Hill, a place with a far more notorious reputation than today. For weeks on end, Lois and a group of local residents collected and reported car registration numbers to the police, while pushing the Council and the local MP to drive through legislation leading to the Sexual Offences Act of 1985. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough for her to retain her seat in '86, but she was soon back here in 1990 as a Councillor for the Wonderful Thames Field Board, where whose residents she served for 12 more years and where she continued to serve as our branch president until 18 months ago. Lois would adamantly refuse to let down anyone. She had been elected to speak for residents, to represent them, and to fight their fights. She did not become a Councillor for power or preferment to be of service, although the one preferment she greatly enjoyed, was serving as deputy mayor in 1997 to 1998. To close, I mentioned that she was full of surprises until the end. She'd often talked to fun times in Switzerland, but one remarkable secret that was revealed to her funeral that surprised us all, was that in the post-war years before she married, she'd worked for MI6 based in Zurich, running agents beyond the Iron Curtain. She'd never said a word about it until very late in life, when she accidentally revealed it to her daughters in critique of inaccuracies in a recent BBC Spider Island. Lois was a remarkable person from a remarkable time, and I will borrow her, I was lucky to have her. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you Councillor Librix. I forgot to ask Councillor Hamilton to read out some tributes to former Councillor Kritan, please. Thank you, Madam Mayor, and I offer his tributes on behalf of Councillor Galindia, who is unable to be here this evening. Councillor Galindia wrote. Sean and I spent a brief time together on the Council, but because we were near neighbours, we remained in touch for much longer. Our paths crossed several times again, despite his move to Croydon. Sean's passion for local history was real, and had a particular facet. This is what Godly been interested in John Archer's contribution to the borough. Sean had done extensive work on the subject, writing a biography, and having been the promoter of the John Archer commemorative Royal Magdal stamp and the blue heritage blue plaque. Sean did much more to celebrate John Archer's life thereafter, and it was no surprise. 4 years ago, almost to the month, when I proposed to the Council that we celebrate John Archer's life with a suitable memorial, Sean volunteered to help. Sean was passionate about the project, and despite his ill-health, he was always willing and happy to contribute. Although the project appears to have run into the ground, which disappointed Sean, I will remember his commitment and enthusiasm with fondness. Our politics were different, but for sure, no point was worth conceding. Discussions carried on beyond the town hall, and often at the two brewers, and up St. Anne's Hill. Those were fun times, when political difference did not mean dislike or disrespect. Sadly, we now are, where we even mourn apart. Thank you, Councillors, for your tributes. So it is my first four council meeting, being the Mayor of Onesworth, and what a privilege this is for me, especially as it is South Asian Heritage Month, a time for us to celebrate the contributions of the South Asian community. I am proud to be the first Pakistani mayor of the borough, but it comes with its extra responsibilities of representing a community which is still underrepresented. My theme for the year is hope. Hope is looking forward, and it is an essential element of our existence, a reason for us to strive to be ambitious. My nearly two months as mayor has been a very different experience, like no other. I have received immense respect and love from the residents of Onesworth. I have been complimented and appreciated. For that I am ever so thankful to the great people of Onesworth. It is amazing being your Mayor. My fantastic Deputy Mayor, and I have been very busy with events all around the borough. Having already visited four schools, been to many street parties, reopened the renovated Lido opening of the Putney Library, and having held interfaith cadet and refugee events in the parlour. We have also been engaging with the youth and deputy mayor who are really enjoying the experience. I think it is important to agree on some basic housekeeping rules. These meetings are for Council Business exclusively. You have all been elected to represent residents in your ward. A trust has been put on you to make the best decisions for the residents of Onesworth. The residents and I expect you all to behave with integrity and honesty. We have members of the public viewing online. Let us remind them of the reason why they voted for you. Communication is very important in getting your message across, but has my understanding many matters have already been discussed in OSC meetings beforehand. Let us try to keep to the agenda of the meeting. We have a lot of business to cover in little time. I make a plea to all members to maintain good order. Do not make unnecessary disruptions. As politicians, we can disagree, but it is important that we always maintain respect for each other. After 14 years, we have a new government, and I wish them all the best. I offer my congratulations to the three MPs who have been elected to represent Tabara. For the candidates who stood to be parliamentary candidates in Onesworth and were unsuccessful, my congratulations to you. Last week, it was very refreshing to hear King Charles's speech and his expectations from his government. His attention to detail to problems both national and international was inspiring to listen to. Especially as he pledged to support countries which are going through crisis such as Ukraine and Palestine, and finding a solution to the conflicts. Let us remember the motto of our borough that we serve. Onesworth Council staff, councillors and MPs do a fantastic job in looking after the borough. Let us continue to strive for the people of Onesworth. I would like to make the council aware that is now 30 years that Councillor Grimston has sat on this council. [APPLAUSE] We thank Councillor Grimston for his long service. I would lastly like to wish the mace bearer, Tohaka Daniel Rashid. Farewell as he leaves my team. I thank you for serving the borough and wish you all the best in the future. [APPLAUSE] Although I said finally before, but there's one more thing I need to add. So it is Councillor Ospins. He will be giving his first made in speech tonight. So we look forward to your first made in speech. And thank you all. And let's continue with the agenda. On tonight's agenda, can members please note that a number of supplementary items have been circulated and these are required to be considered as a matter of urgency. The reasons are set out in full at the top of those items. Is that agreed? Thank you. Please, could all speakers keep to time and wind up your speeches when the red light comes on. When the red light comes on, you will have 30 minutes remaining to wind up. 30 seconds, sorry, sorry, sorry. This is to allow as many Councillors to participate. This is the end of my announcement. On item 3, are there any members who have any declarations of disposable, procunatory interests? Are there other registrable interests or non-domestrable interests relevant to any matters to be considered at the meeting? Councillor Cooper. Just in case anything comes up that's relevant to the Greater London Authority, including MOPAC, TFL, all the fire brigade, I would just declare it's non-preunatory but just for transparency purposes that I am the London Assemblymember for Merton and Wandsworth. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Lettila. Yes, again. I am Wandsworth, Councillor Tennant. Thank you. Item number 4 relates to ceiling-off documents. Is this item received as information? Thank you. On item 5, members, please raise your hands to indicate if you have a petition to hand in. Councillor Graham. Councillor. Sorry. Mr. Graham. Thank you, Madam Mayor. On behalf of the residents of Wandsworth's common, I'm requesting want to Council to urgently install CCTV cameras for the toast rack Wandsworth's common and the Magdalene estate to help protect our residents. Councillor Corner. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I have a petition from residents in 9L urging the council to invest and improve urgently riverside walk in the area to increase bin capacity, improve planting, install signposts and renovate the 9Ls per billion. Thank you. Would you like to bring it down? Any other petitions? Councillor? Councillor Lettila. Councillor Lettila. Sorry, Chair. Thank you. I have a petition on behalf of over 500 local residents and saying no to the glass mill tower. Thank you. If you could bring your petition down. Any other petitions? No. No. Thank you. Item number six is Leader's questions. Before we begin questions, may I remind all members of the over period for member's question to the Leader and Cabinet members is 45 minutes. With 20 minutes for Leader's question and 25 minutes for Cabinet member's questions. However, if the Leader's questions overruns, this time is taken off the Cabinet member's questions. So, question? Thank you, Madam Mayor. Customer practice in our council meetings has been that each questioner gets the right to reply forward the first question. So, in other words, they get the first supplementary question and that it has always been our practice as long as anybody here can remember that the follow-up question, the second supplementary is then passed to the other side of the Chamber, to the Opposition Group. So, what I'm proposing tonight is that we stick to that usual arrangement, that we stick to the way that we've done it before, and as we've had notice from the Leader of the Committee, that he wants to break with this agreement in general and use both supplementary questions, which is not our normal practice and not how people have seen us do that before, that we suspend, so the understanding order 36, that understanding order 36, that we suspend the standard order 11A15, and that way we can follow our usual convention, the way that we always do it, which is Councillor Richard Jones, and welcome, welcome to being a new member of the Opposition, I hope you learn fast, that he can then use his first priority question as usual, and then the second will then go to our side of the Chamber. And vice versa, just as our—when our members ask a question, they can follow it up with another supplementary, thank you. Adonis, standing order 36, I've just got— Councillor interjecting. Have you got a seconder? Councillor— pepperoni I just got— Councillor interjecting. Oh, that might just cut through all this. As Councillor ABS knows, standing order 11, paragraph A, sub paragraph 15 does give me the priority for the second supplementary. I did intend to use my second supplementary tonight, because the practice over the last two years has been for the leader not to ask questions that we put to him, and I thought, well, when we have a first go at getting an answer in the first supplementary, we don't get an answer. So I thought we might use the second supplementary as the rules give us the right to do. However, what I propose is before we take the vice-destructive— Thank you. —of the spending-sounding orders, here's my sort of the solution. I'm sorry, but— No, no. This is not a right to apply. No, I don't know. What I propose is, we see— Sorry, this is not a right for disruptions either. What I propose is, we see how we go with questions. Sorry, I'm not asking you for proposing anything. If the leader answers my question, there won't need to be a second supplementary. Is there a seconder? Seconder. Seconder. Thank you. Members, the motion before you is to suspend the operation of standing order 11, A, 15, sorry, to comply with our convention, convention to have a second-stop amendment— I've got a question. When was the last time? Can you see I am talking? When was the last time standing order? Sorry, this is very rude behavior. Sorry, I just mentioned that we do not want unnecessary disruptions, we've got a lot of— When was the last time standing orders ever suspended in this training? This time is coming out of the leader's questions. On the points of order, if you're— I think the motion has been made and under order 11, A, 15 to comply with our convention to have the second— Can you please stop being disruptive? I am speaking, and that's very rude. To have the second supplementary question posed by someone other than the member who posed the question— All in favor? Any abstentions? Thank you. All against? Any abstentions? Thank you. The motion has been passed. 426 against 19 abstentions zero. Question number one, please. Thank you, Madam Mayor. As it's been some time before we last met as a full council, I'd be grateful I could take just a moment to acknowledge some of the things that have happened since then. First of all, Madam Mayor. Sorry, is that within your question? Yes, I'm coming on to my question. So I asked the questions here before me, so would you just like to ask a question? I was just asking as this convention, and I did this time last year when Councillor NAN was in the chair. I just wanted to welcome you to your place, Madam Mayor, and just see how nice it was to see you in the mayor's chair this evening. It was unfortunate that Rishi Sunak announced a general election on the day of the mayor making that you did recover from that attempt of his distill your thunder. And you've had a busy schedule ever since, including, of course, quick training to become the returning officer in our elections. But thank you so much for the service you've performed already. You've had a dizzying two months in your diary. It was lovely to see you at the old York Road Festival. We know you're going to do as proud as mayor, just as your predecessor did. Thank you, that's very kind. Would you like to-- Yes, I would. Thank you. I would just like to, on behalf of the Conservative Group, just acknowledge and congratulate Miss Kiyastama for the historic election win to congratulate our boroughs 3 MPs, to congratulate Councillor Yeonny Cooper on her re-election to the London Assembly and, of course, congratulate Miss Lipman on his election victory in the West Company by election. And that brings me on Madam Mayor to question number one. Last month, to Kiyastama, I won a substantial general election victory for Labour. Two months ago, Labour so won, for the general, for greater London Assembly and London mayoral elections. Yet, on the same day, Councillor Hogs' administration lost a Labour-held Council seat in the East Companylaugh. Sorry, I have this question in front of me. And so do all other Councillors, please. On the point of order, we also happen to lead as a councillor. So, will we just have that taken as a red card? Sorry. Yes. We have the lead as a councillor in front of us as well. So, will that just be taken as a red card? And we move straight to supplementary. I don't know what you're saying. The question could be read out, surely the answer can be read out. Madam Mayor, it's just that the public at home can't follow. If we don't read out the question, but the leader gives his answer already, we have done this in the past. In fact, I think we did this in the last councillor meeting. Sorry. These questions are actually published online as well. Yes, as I know, but so is the leader's answer. So, it wouldn't make any sense if I can't read out the question, but the leader can then give his answer. Leader, can I ask you to answer the question, please? Madam Mayor. Madam Mayor. Madam Mayor. Madam Mayor. I'm sorry, Madam Mayor. I can't ask the question, but the leader's allowed to give his answer. That doesn't seem fair. It might be helpful if I just read my question. Please. Thank you. Can you just call to the questions? Yep. I will. Thank you. Okay. I'll now read out my question. One last month, a key star award is substantial general election victory for Labour. Two months ago, Labour also won the Greater London Assembly and London mayoral elections. Yet, on the same day, councillor Hogg's administration lost a Labour held seat in West Putney to the ones of Conservative candidate, a dramatic bucking of current national and regional trends. Does councillor Hogg's administration's failure to listen whether on proposed, aspert and scheme, deteriorating waste collections and street cleaning, will the rapidly rising charges for our council, tenants and leaseholders account for his loss in the West Putney by election? Or is there some other explanation for why Labour leaders seem to be running everywhere in the country except here in Wandsworth? Leader, would you like to respond to that? I'd like to thank the councillors, Joe, who were finally getting his question out and welcome him to his new position. I'd also like to welcome you as well, Madam Mayor. It's an absolute pleasure to see you and it's not whether we have elaborate welcomes. It's whether we actually respect your ruling and we respect your office and I apologise for the appalling disrespect so far in this meeting. It is true that Labour won a decisive victory in this month's general election across the country and here in Wandsworth that's a mandate to deliver change, to restore service and respect to politics. It's also true thanks for drawing our attention to it that Labour saw victories in the London mayoral elections, returning local boys to Deep Khan for a record third term in office. Discussions are, of course, already well underway to see how we can work more closely with our government, our excellent local MPs and City Hall to ensure the best outcomes for Wandsworth residents. This is a time of real opportunity and I look forward to discussing it in the debate on our motion later. The administration is, of course, aware of the concerns of residents in West Putney as demonstrated by May's by-election result and we're looking at those issues in the ward to ensure that we best address residents' priorities as we do in all wards. I would like to say a special welcome to Councillor Austen, it's lovely to have him and his small dog as part of the Council and I know many, many Councillors enjoyed spending time in West Putney in the by-election. You have lovely neighbourhoods, you have strong communities and I know you'll be a powerful voice for them in this town hall. This administration is proud to be leading a decade of renewal across the borough, becoming an outward-facing resident-focused listening council and will continue to work hard for all their residents. Thank you. I think the leader for his answer, but there wasn't really very much about West Putney in his answer at all, and so I've just really added loss as to why he thinks he did win and he can lose that by-election. If Councillor DICODM wants to heckle, it could be here all night. I'm sorry, I haven't actually answered that. I'm not sure, I'm about to ask the question yet. Well, can you please answer the question? OK, I will ask the question. So because the Labour group have actually voted to suspend standing orders and limit my supplementary this evening, I'll be very careful in choosing my one supplementary, which is this. In the spirit of generosity, I want to be fair to Councillor HOG, because people say Councillor HOG doesn't have a sense of humour, but he does have a sense of humour. In his answer, he just said, this is a listening council. About 20 times in the press releases I could find at a Google about five minutes, and also his developer's protocol, which he launched only eight months ago, states that the council expects all developers, and when it comes to the Ashboard and of course, the council is the developer. It expects all developers to engage meaningfully with residents. Madam Mayor, West Putney residents have just had the most meaningful engagement and exercise. Madam Mayor, could we move to a question rather than a small amount of work? So my question, this is really a poor start, the questions of being interrupted, they're being ruled out of order and they're being heckled. I will ask my question now. We have just had the most meaningful consultation exercise in West Putney Ward, which was the bio-election. In that exercise, voters rejected somethingly, the council of Hogs plans for inappropriate overdevelopment. So it's a simple yes or no question. Will he now listen to West Putney residents and cancel that land development? [Applause] supplementary question to the leader. I'm sorry about this, Madam Mayor, I think we might get through one question to the leader at this rate. Councillor Ritchie Jones has given his own vision for a listening council, we just have to listen to his voice till the end of time. That question once the leader would have got us through it. I know he's new to this job and I really don't want him to get better at it but I would gently suggest bringing a question about how bad we are at winning elections, when you've just had your worst result for 200 years, he's not ideal. You're asking why does Labor seem to be winning everywhere except him Wansworth? Criticising Labor's record in Wansworth since I've been leader, it's pretty eccentric. So let's look at the record since I was first elected leader of Wansworth Labor in 2016. Remember, you see you get lectures on elaborate good sense and taste and decency and the second he's not hearing his own voice. He's just braying arrogantly across the council chamber, welcome the new leader. 2016, we remember another slick Tory boy David Cameron was riding high, he was going to run the country for decades. Then in 2016, Tooting by election saw Rosanna wins for Labor, 2017 general election, Marsha wins Betsy for labor, 2019 general election, Fleur wins Putney for Labor, you remember that one. 2016, 2021, 2024 Sadiq and Leony won the London elections for Labor. Since 2016, we've won by elections in Tooting, Queenstown, Thursday and Bedford, twice, Tooting Broadway twice and does anyone remember what happened in the 2022 Borough elections in Wansworth? That's right. After 40 years of inward looking Tory austerity residents voted for a Labor Wansworth council. Students have turned their backs on you, arrogant, entitled, Tory boys around the fashion. You need to go away and take a long, hard look in the mirror because the people have spoken. We've got three fantastic new MPs, we've got a council that's fairer and more compassionate and that we are changing to be resident focused and outward looking. We are going to get on with this new government, with City Hall to benefit all residents in Wansworth, after years of chaos and prejudice and division from this Tory government. Because just imagine what we can achieve with the government that's on our side, not in our way. The second supplementary, I was going to ask if the Leader of the Opposition had actually been paying attention and had taken in, what had happened recently. Is that the question? That is the question I was going to ask, but I think Councillor HUGH is really disposed of that. In a spout of generosity, I'm going to offer my second supplementary back to the Opposition and see if they can do any better this time. Thank you. I'm very grateful for that, I truly am. Second supplementary is this. Yes or no, will you cancel the Ash Merton over development? Wasn't that a supplementary question just a question? I didn't get a yes or no answer at all to that, so what's the answer? It's really not a hard question or it's not a just one to do. There goes again. Can you just get him an enormous mirror and two speakers so he can just listen to himself all evening. Sorry, Leedai, I can't accommodate you with that. Please, would you like to answer the question? So the reason I didn't get into it before is because he knows perfectly well he's had an answer on this before. The by-election is not a binary choice. People in different ends of the wards were talking about different issues, I don't think Councillor Austin, he'd be able to tell you ten different things people said about the doorstep about different issues. You can't just respond immediately but yes, all 1000 home sites remain under constant review. You're not going to see those Ash Burton sites, they haven't come to planning yet, they're not coming to planning next month. We're going to look at them, we're going to consult with local people, very happy to talk to local ward Councillors about this and the thing that's been very successful about the Alton Plan is it's a whole placemaking approach, you're actually going to a neighbourhood, you ask people what you want and you get much more buy-in for that level of development as well. So I don't think anyone would stand here and say, I've received that election result there for these outputs fall off the other ends. And as I say, I'm afraid you're slightly clinging onto West Partney as one small dangling thread while the whole of the rest of the thing is on fire behind you. This is not a good time to be a Tory. Thank you. Question number two. Thank you Madam Mayor. But new refuge collection arrangements continue to cause chaos across the borough, almost two months since their introduction. Councillors have received large numbers of complaints from residents who have taken to social media to vent their frustrations and they seem for themselves the mess and disruption caused by changes to the arrangements and changed collection times. New food waste caddies have lain in streets uncollected. In one case I'm aware of, for six weeks, with rotting contents attract in burning and adaptably undermining confidence in the new scheme. All the variables in the launch of this scheme were entirely within the administration's control. The administration could have introduced these changes at any time of its choosing. So there really is no excuse for not planning properly. Teething problems with any new scheme are to be expected. But this has turned into a widespread, multi-week prolonged shambles. My simple question to the leader is, what's his explanation for how it all goes so wrong? Thank you. If I could ask the leader to give a short response because we're early running out of the leader's time. Thank you, Madam Mayor, we are absolutely committed to providing brilliant basics for our ones worth residents. That's why we guarantee your weekly rubbish collection without adding a penny onto your council tax. We've recently delivered this manifesto pledge to roll out food waste and small electrical collections to allow residents the option to live greener and more environmentally friendly lives. This is all part of our greener borough plan and residents are embracing the change. In the first six weeks, we have recycled over 300 tonnes of food waste, which will be turned into fertilizer and energy for the grid. That saved the council 50,000 pounds already. We're collecting, on average, an extra 11 tonnes of recycling every day. However, we do recognise that there have been teething issues and I do apologise for that. We've missed collections. There's been variable times for the recycling and the refuse collection and there have been issues with wheelie bins as well. But we are working hard with our colleagues in the waste department to resolve this. We've introduced more collection rounds. We've hired more staff to deal with the added pressure on the service. We're hiring project officers to help oversee our plan and we're purchasing an additional food waste vehicle to cope with demand. And thank you, obviously, to all the Councillors, I know many of you are actually getting involved in food waste, which is excellent. So at this stage, mis-collections are not where we would like them to be, but over recent weeks they have been trending down thanks to the steps we've taken. And I promise we will keep working hard until the service is top-class, which is exactly where residents rightly expect it to be. Thank you. I appreciate your response. supplementary question, Councillor Richard Jones. Thank you, Madam Mayor, and I'm grateful to the Leader for his answer. The Leader will have seen, like we all have, the absolute despair and frustration on social media from residents about this. And whilst I'm encouraged that there seems to be some sort of plan now in place, does the Leader regret that there wasn't a plan from the outset to deal with teething problems? Does he regret the fact that those changes that were planned to collection times were never communicated to residents, the plan to fix it is not communicated to residents? And finally, does he share my regret that because the rollout for the last two months has been so botched, many residents have actually given up on food waste collection, which means that no matter if we fix the problems now, some people have just lost faith in the system and they will never recycle their food waste under the new regime. Leader, would you like to answer that? Yeah, absolutely. I think Councillor Richard Jones is supplementary. I mean, that's not the evidence on food waste. We're seeing increases week on week and obviously as we roll it out to high-rise blocks and extra blocks around the borough by the end of the year, I think you'll see us hitting really quite ambitious totals. I mean, I just find some of this a little rich, you know, that some of these decisions were in Agift, but I'm afraid some of them were your responsibility. It was in your control to invest in the deteriorating fleet of vehicles, but you didn't. It was in your control to negotiate a waste contract that had the best interest, the ones with residents at heart, but you didn't. We inherited one of London's worst recycling rates and the fleet of vehicles that were ready for the bin, but ones with residents are voted for change and we are delivering on that mandate. We're investing in more environmentally friendly waste vehicles, which have 90% lower carbon emissions, and we're helping residents take control and be greener and tackle climate change. I mean, let's just look at the basic service. We've rolled out food waste and we guarantee your weekly bin collections. So residents can put out their waste, their recycling, and if they choose their food waste and their garden waste at no extra cost and that gets collected every single week, the majority of councils have moved away from that. We guarantee it will continue. So we're taking no lectures in the party opposite about how we should run our services when your government has starved local councils of resources. Thank you. Second supplemental question. Councillor science. Thank you, Madam. Councillor Layton, I agree with him, but in many streets where this is working well. In these days of WhatsApp groups, in many streets, I'm finding in West Hillwood, I suspect that colleagues may be finding elsewhere, that there are some specific streets where the word has got round through the WhatsApp group that it doesn't work. And so while it's not a general problem, there is going to need to be, to agree with me, there is going to need to be a very targeted approach to win back the confidence of those streets. And secondly, can I just ask him why he refers to food waste, which under the Tories would have been sent to landfill. This bar has not used landfill for many, many years, as far as I'm aware. Can I ask him why that comment is there? Was it his comment? Was it one of his advisers' comments? Was it one of the officers' comments? Because it's slightly worrying if we still fit, if the Administration thinks we still use landfill when it's been so many years since we stopped it. Thank you. And I'll also lead you to answer the question, please. Thank Councillor Groomston for the question, and congratulate him on his three decades of service. I wasn't aware it's that long. He's quite right about WhatsApp groups, which I think is something all policymakers need to come to grips with. Hopefully, everyone has their new bright side coming through the door, and of course that used to be the primary way we communicate. You don't have to tell me what the street WhatsApp group is like if the recycling is not taken in or food waste is not done right. We're very aware of this. We're investing in our communications functions so we can actually get into those Facebook groups for your building or the WhatsApp group for your street and know a lot of these grew up during COVID. But you're right, you know, once something hasn't landed properly and there's teething problems with it, which there has been when this has been introduced across London, and many other authorities will now, you know, be required to do it, you have to catch up and we're aware of that. We've invested a huge amount, I think there's an attractive design to some of the communications but we'll re-double our efforts. And in terms of landfill, yeah, that's just an error. I'm sorry about that. It's burned, like, I mean, I suppose maybe years and years ago it may have been, but, yeah, I apologise for that error. Thank you. The time for leaders' questions has now finished. Madam Mayor, pursuant to standing order 28, may I propose that the Council now adjourn for one minute to draw attention to this Council's welcome of the autumn renewal. Do you have a seconder? So you've said one minute. Councillor interjecting. Councillor B Marshall, how long do you've said one minute? Please speak to introduce your motion. Thank you, Madam Mayor. The primary purpose of Council estates is to provide Council homes. This seems like a statement of the obvious, but in recent years, many Councils have reacted with hostility and denial when Council tenants have said such things. Instead they have pursued regeneration projects which are more for the benefit of incoming private buyers. Sadly, the previous One's Worth Administration was one of those Councils and left us with an autumn master plan that would cram over 1,000 homes into a small space with over three quarters of those being for a developer to sell on the market. As a lifelong resident of the autumn estates, this is what drove me to become politically active. I think it's fair to say that the party opposite has not always been happy with my interventions, whether as tenant or as a Councillor. The irony is that if the original master plan had been more like the renewal proposal that has just passed the housing committee, I wouldn't be in this chamber today. If they don't like me being here, they would only themselves to blame. We have put forward a plan that is over 40% Council housing, and totals nearly 60% affordable housing. Instead of demolishing an architectural icon or a book house, we propose a radical scheme of renovation. The same goes for the two residential blocks on the south side of Dame Breavaniu. Local shops will be provided with new premises. Local residents will be given priority when it comes to allocating the new Council houses. All this is with extensive restaurant consultation and involvement and subject to a ballot at the end of the year next year. What is more, a community mini-bus will link up parts of Rhyhampton that the TFL services do not. When the Rhyhampton University bus returns in September, residents will be able to use it for free. And we will continue to press TFL for improvements in their bus services. As tenant champion, I'm proud of the huge amount of work that I and my colleagues have put into this. I see my role as helping not just existing tenants, but also potential tenants who are homeless or struggling with irresponsible, extortionate private landlords. As Councillors, we get far too many cases like this. The renewal will provide a net increase of at least 130 Council homes. In combination with the homes for one's worth programme, this will finally make a difference. I appreciate the support that the Conservative Councillors gave to the renewal paper at the Housing Committee last week and I urge all Councillors, all members, to give their full backing to the awesome renewal. Thank you, madam mayor. (Applause) Thank you. Would the leader wish to respond? I think I'm going to respond on this one. Yeah, I'll try and keep it brief. But I think one of the greatest scoundrels of the last 14 years is that we, every year, we lose more social homes than we build. So during a period of the worst increase in homelessness, in temporary accommodation use, in overcrowding, in our growing waiting lists, we're losing council homes each year. And that is, I think one of the things that has the biggest impact on the life outcomes, mental health, well-being, physical health, and overall kind of suffering that we experience as day-to-day Councillors, I think even the opposition side will see the case work that comes in. I was often forwarded onto me of some of the most appalling conditions of overcrowding of people who are currently in the private rented sector being bounced around and desperate for a social home. The allton, the allton has always been a really difficult, really kind of, a challenge for house building because it's about improving the existing residents' life experiences and improving a neighbourhood that has for years and decades had underinvestment, was also trying to additionally build council housing. And that's why we moved away from the real estate speculative joint venture, which was to, as my colleague said, deliver basically minus one council home. Again, be part of that tradition of losing council homes in regenerations that we're spending millions of pounds of public money and actually just delivering homes for sale often bought up by landlords and adding to the problem that we have. So it's been an absolute joy working with Matthew and someone who lives on the allton estate, who grew up on the allton estate, who loves the allton estate. It's been an absolute joy working with ward Councillors, with local community champions like Angus from Allton Action, like Reverend Joshua, like residents who I know who have come to these meetings and watched the allton renewal plan, it's a bit of everything that everyone wanted and it's not everything that everyone wanted, but it's something that we can really be proud of, 60 per cent of that scheme will be affordable housing. I don't know of any other regeneration London that's going to achieve that. And on this question of housing, you know, one of the things we did when we took over the council was we inherited your thousand homes program, which, you know, to give you credit was going to deliver 400 council homes out of the thousand and we wanted all thousand on that public land to be council housing. And so our only change in policy was to flip those units to council housing and you are now often campaigning against the schemes that we had inherited from you to again stop that change in direction whereby we lose more council homes than we build. Given the state of the crisis, given the fact that we have the highest record of people in temporary accommodation than we have ever had in this country ever, I just don't think that that is a sustainable or realistic. It might be politically worthwhile in the short term. You might get a by-election, but I think it is morally wrong and I think what we're seeing from the current, the government is taking difficult decisions that are in the best interests of this country that are about delivering for those people who might not have a voice, who are writing to us from bedsits, who are writing to us with seven kids in a two-bedroom apartment that's filled with mold. That is what we have to think about, not just political points scoring. So thank you very much for this agenda. I hope the autumn can be a pioneer over the next decade of what regeneration should look like. Thank you. Councillor Tillay, you're satisfied with the explanation provided and would you like to withdraw your motion or would you like the motion put to the vote? I'd like the motion, but to the vote, please. Councillors, the motion before you is that the Council do now adjourn for one minute to draw attention to this Council's welcome of the autumn renewal. All those in favour? The Council is now adjourned for one minute. the motion. the motion. the motion. the motion. the motion. the motion. would you like to take your seats again? So the WIPS have agreed that item 16, the motion on the declining competence of one's worth Council under Labor will be taken next. Can I ask Councillor Richard Jones to move and Councillor Per Boyer to second the motion in their names? Mr Peter Graham, would you like to take the mic for? Thank you, Madam Mayor. It's been an interesting few weeks in one's worth and in general, I spent the election in Peterborough where outside beat the odds, but sadly not our opponent when we finished 118 votes short. I can say now with some experience, there's nothing quite like a Friday morning train back to London, post recount having lost and on those sleep. But that feeling was capped when I got home by a pungent odor wafting across the forecourt of my building. And on tracking it down, I found that my blocked bins hadn't been collected for over a fortnight. So for me, the reality of Labor in Power hit rather sooner than expected. Then came my mail full of plans to rig the Council's constitution against the opposition and bypass any scrutiny of future changes. And then the extraordinary events of last week. Not only had 6,558 votes gone missing from the election results that you read out, Madam Mayor, for Putney. But the official declaration had simply been changed on the Council's website without any notice or statement or publicity. There has still a week on been no press release from the Council. Instead, we have the observed spectacle of the electoral commission responding to people on social media because this Council waits, quoting a statement that's buried deep on one's website and that only went up at all because we protested about its absence. It's worth noting a contrasting precedent. When emails to voters went missing in March 2022, the Council then issued a press release and a Q&A the same day. It put out reassurance on social media. It put an apology on the front page of the Council's website and emailed not just those affected, but everyone signed up to the Council's new services. Now we have nothing. And what's changed, control passed from us to you. Ironically, it was a diligence of a member of the Putney Labour Party that exposed the election mistake, only for this one's worth Labour administration to forgo any credit whatsoever by trying to kill the story. And when you refuse to tell people, they draw their own conclusions. The Lib Dem candidate was among those less speculating and this is his view on why the Council refused to give a clear version of events or publicise what happened. This is his words. The simple answer is pride. The proper answer is a lack of accountability, something that has unfortunately only grown with the influx of new Labour Councillors. He goes on, the Labour Chair refused to allow the issue even to be discussed at the most recent Council meeting. In much the same way, it is limited discussion of its housing plans and finance plans and pretty much every topic where it could be embarrassed. It's not just us saying that your authoritarianism and your failure to submit to scrutiny is getting noticed outside of this building by other parties and by residents. The executive wasn't in charge of the election count but it is in charge of publicity. The mistake wasn't the result of a political decision but the ongoing publicity blackout is, you had a choice, you could have insisted on oppressories, insisted on reinsuring people on social media, insisted on contacting the voters directly affected, as we did in the equivalent circumstances. You could have insisted on transparency. Instead, you chose silence and to residents that smells as badly as the putrified stench emanating from their uncollected bins. It smells as badly as rigging the constitution and suspending the standing orders of this Council as badly as ignoring the ash burden after they cast their votes by the hundred. It stinks. This is an administration in denial and you're not just damaging your own reputation, which is, after all, yours to lose, it's rather worse than that. On an issue as fundamental as our election process, your silence is damaging trust in our democracy itself. Thank you. Councillor SRI. Good evening and thank you. I'm obviously going to speak about the way services as that's a matter of responsibility. The first thing is to say sorry, sorry to the 10 people that you quote, the social media, sorry to you Councillor Graham that you didn't get picked up, but please tell us, you could have emailed them, you could have phoned me and said look, sort this out and I would have sorted it out. Let's say that to the 10 people in the social media, contact me, get in touch with me. My email address is on the website, contact me and we sort it out. And so all the Council is in this room, honestly, we all are desperate to make this work. Just let me know and the officers and so-go will sort it out. But it's interesting that you're making such a fuss about this in this motion tonight because you're not sending in loads of extra members and inquiries. So I chair, obviously I'm looking at this all the time, this really matters to me. In the six weeks running up to the change of service, you sent in 66 members and queries under the old contract, your contract. In the six weeks following the introduction, you sent in 78 members and queries. So that's 12 more in six weeks, that's not smelling of a big problem to me or it's so it's either there's not that big a problem or maybe you're not doing quite enough work for your residents. If you're not sending problems on social media, email me, let me know, let the officers know. You're not sending emails into the officers either, they said they don't have a couple. We all want to sort this out, it's nobody having it on social media because we can't monitor everybody's social media, everybody's WhatsApp groups. Let us know and we will sort it out. And actually, one of the bad members and queries, you can guess who's done, most members and queries, of course, Councillor Grimston, because he puts us all to shame me, there's so many memories and queries and I have reached out to Councillor Grimston. There is a particular problem. We are going to address that and in terms of communication that you mentioned, absolutely we're doing targeted communication. We've got officers going out on some of the problem rounds. Our officers going out with Circo, literally knocking on doors saying we're doing this, we're doing that, we're going to be doing more of that, we're going to be doing targeted door knocking, keeping it entirely, it's going to go out wherever there's a problem. So we are aware that people are not quite aware of all the changes and it was a shame because we had a very extensive communication campaign planned with me fronting it up obviously and then she called an election, you know, who knew that was going to happen? But actually a few people didn't know, they didn't make it as they placed some bets but so we had to sort of reroute really quickly with the columns and maybe it hasn't made everyone just this one. But we did send a teasily flute to everybody that was going to get the collection. Nobody that got the brown box with the silver bin inside, they got a leaflet instruction of exactly how it was going to change. It seems that not everybody read that leaflet. You know we've done as much as we can, it hasn't quite worked, we're going to be doing absolutely targeting communications. We are introducing extra rounds as Councillor Hobbs said, we've got extra food rack, waste round each day, recycling round each day, extra vehicles, extra staff, we're doing everything we can to make this happen. And actually you know it's going really well so far. We've collected all this waste, food waste over 320 tonnes so far. If that carries on throughout the year that will save us and our taxpayers £300,000 this year. On the recycling, we collect, we collect 11 tonnes more each day of recycling which you didn't expect and that's part of the problem is we, this would be more successful than we thought so we had to put on more services. That could end up saving us another £400,000 a year. So this new service actually is delivering on all levels, it's doing what our residents asked us to do. They wanted food waste, they wanted to improve recycling, it delivers on the environmental fund, this is what we have to do is the right thing to make government regulations ask us to do it and it's saving our taxpayers money. So it's a win all around. So I just have to ask residents to be patient a little bit longer with us. We think we're going to get this right, we're sure we're going to get this right. Our contractors are as committed as we are to putting this right, we're working every day we meet, every day we work with there's a problem, we look at how we're going to solve it. After 12 weeks we go into a period where we can now start penalising them, we've got a very strict regime of key performance indicators and we'll find them if things go wrong which is not something that you guys ever did but I don't think we're going to be finding very much because we are absolutely committed to sorting this out. So I just say bear with us, let us know when there's a problem. You can email me direct and I will pass it on and we'll sort out the problem so we'll have the excellent service that all our residents deserve. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Bervin. Thank you very much, Madam Mayor. The waste collection service is the one service that most of our residents engage with and it probably is the only service that a lot of them engage with. So it is important that we get this right. I have always been an enthusiastic recycler so I'm glad to see this extending. 30 years ago I had to take my newspaper and glass down to the station where the large recycling bins were located. We progressed on to home collection for paper and glass, the glass having to be split by colour and inter colour co-ordinated sacks, not so efficient especially with one jar of marmite a month. Then along came the bags for all recycling including plastics, much easier and more efficient. Also the public tip, it's mugglers' waves opened and ones worth refuse services were running well. Oh dear. We have a new super duper system. In June the chatter on Tutu W., was all about how excited they were about the start of the food and waste collection. Was that excitement shared with my colleagues here? Good. Well, the word on street now is that the ones that are appreciating it most are the rats. Within a fortnight I was spotting bins with rat size holes. The excited residents of Tutu and now complaining of mis collections at least one road has not had food waste collections for several weeks in a row yet they reported. Another reported that Tutu back is now one of the biggest rubbish dumps. The residents in Ellsfield told me that her food waste in rubbish was not collected while the recycling had been. Her neighbour was the other way around. The recycling team are leaving cardboard boxes which have been put out to be collected but not in a plastic bag and they're being left. Walking down one road I saw the recycling had been put out on the pavement by one of the teams and then left there for five days despite having been reported. In other roads, piles of bags are just left obstructing the pavement for days. It is obvious that the service is not up to par and that the mis collections are random in nature and only randomly sorted. I appreciate that some problems might get sorted but will residents who have seen evidence of rats chewing their bins or residents, contending with maggot infested bins, continue to use them. I don't think so. Which brings me to another issue raised by the residents. The fact that we now have three lorries going to each house instead of one, three lorries versus one lorry, three times more traffic, three times more congestion. We are told that the council's propaganda, that these lorries are powered by cooking oil by a form of biodiesel which emits 90% or up to 90% less carbon. That could be possible in case when they are freewheeling down the trinity road underpass, passing an abandoned Christmas tree, but that's another matter. I have been trying to understand these claims and doing so, I've been talking to scientists and reading scientific reports. What I have learnt is that just because biofuel is renewable does not mean it's a wonderful fuel. The benefits are very debatable, depending on the fuel mix, the weight of the vehicle, the speed which it, and also the effect that the temperature has on the fuels combustion. It is also a greater or lesser degree, less efficient, therefore consumption will be higher. I have learnt that according to the government department of energy that 100% biofuel can be up to 74% lower than petroleum diesel in carbon emissions. But the greenhouse gases CO2 is higher and also quite alarmingly knocks another pollution pollutant that between 30 and 100% higher. If you then multiply by three, these emissions, for the three vehicles, you can now see that there will be an increase in green, and earth fall. But it's smoke and mirrors cannot hide the fact that the new waste contract is not as green as one's worth council would like to believe. Thank you, council, about your could I ask council as one? Yes, thank you Madam Mayor. When I first looked at this resolution I thought here's a bit of inter-party knockabout, I've come up with some Labour party attacks on them and let's have a good session in the council chamber talking about their inability to accept change and so on. The more I thought about it, the more I came to the view that what we are being up - goodness me, I'm not really on a red light already, am I? Yes, I am. Yes, I know, yes, Councillor Graham, I know you're from the land that time forgot. I'm pretty sure I have got a bit more time left. Okay, go on, I have not meant to be ages and if it was ages I apologise straight away. But you were ribbing me. So, that's not the spirit of the democracy review and it's not what the constitutional changes are about and it's not what we're trying to achieve. There are too many assertions in the resolution that I don't have time to deal with, but let me pick a few. There's the suggestion that what we're trying to do is to reduce the number of occasions when we vote on topical issues, that is most certainly not the case. We may be trying to move towards a situation where there are discussions on topical and local issues and try and combine the two and that we move in that direction. That is certainly the intention. Secondly, be quiet, Councillor Graham. Secondly, there's a point here about the way in which executive members and cabinet members are expected to answer questions. I've watched that process in this Council Chamber on and off since 2006 and cabinet members and executive members by and large, actually even with short notice they give pretty good answers to what goes on from both sides. But who is this helping? Who is this process for? Is it for the public who are watching? Is it for the people are looking at the minutes of these meetings? Is it for the Councillors here or do we really want to know what's going on? Do we want considered answers or what? Are we trying to catch people out in some sort of knockabout school kind of public debate or are we actually seeking to know what's going on? What we're trying to do in the constitutional changes that we're setting forth is to setting forward, putting forward, is to try and increase the amount of information that people are getting as a result of the process. And on the matter of the votes in Patney on July the 4th, I take many of the points that have been made over the weeks since then. And I understand that there's a difference between a political decision and a technical decision of the administration, but I believe that the line between the two is more blurred than we would like. And I believe that we need a proper investigation of what happened both on July the 4th and in the weeks after, and that I am doing everything I possibly can to make sure that a proper investigation of that kind takes place, which, first of all, has all-party involvement in it, secondly, involves outsiders in the investigation because I believe there may be national implications that need to be addressed and brought out in the discussion and the investigation. Thirdly, to make sure that there is a proper written report which everyone can see and discuss in a formal meeting in this Council. It is not a knockabout subject for this Council in a resolution tonight. I'm appalled that it's in this resolution tonight, in the form that it's in. I think the minority party really ought to be ashamed given that they know what I'm trying to achieve on this, that they've put it in. And I am therefore, I am therefore saying to people, we must throw this resolution out because it should not be something which the Councillors have their hands on. It is vitally important that politicians keep out of this and stand back and have a hands off approach to it. Thank you very much, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Councillor Osborne. Now I'd invite Councillor Richer Jones. Thank you, Madam Mayor, thank you for the speech we've heard so far. I've got to say, I've spent a lot of very good, very long and productive hours with the Council that I was born in committee and in this Council. I've never known Councillor Osborne not to be appalled by something and got a nice little reminder of the outrage this evening. The resolution tonight that we put forward as a Conservative group talks about incompetence, but it also talks about secrecy and the increasing secrecy that we see in this Council. And I want to be clear up front that mistakes are going to happen. There is no Council that doesn't make mistakes, particularly when you're doing new things. There will be teething problems. Certainly, we make mistakes and we're in a administration. And the issue isn't about the mistakes as such, or that we are seeing them with increasing frequency. It's the reaction of the administration when mistakes happen, which fears between either a thin, skinned denial, personal attacks, a cover-up, or sometimes you get a very odd form of gaslighting and that's really not helpful, and it's not really how this authority as an administration is going to serve the residents of our borough. Now, tonight, the administration is doubling down on the approached we've seen over the last two years and they're bringing forward under item nine, sweeping constitutional changes, which are just battling down the hatches, trying to avoid scrutiny, trying to avoid answering questions, so that essentially these mistakes can't be discussed out in the open but instead they are buried further and further. And I know that the sad thing is I know this is not in the best tradition of Wands of Labour. I know that because my favourite member of Wands of Labour sadly is not here this evening, that's Councillor Bellton. And I was sort of charmed by Councillor Cooper's remarks at the start of this meeting where she talked about the Councils of Olds and the one in 1986. I can imagine it was like because we're treated to Councillor Bellton's contributions in this chamber, but Councillor Bellton has a passionate, full-throated, double-barrioed advocate for all the politics that I think are completely wrong, but he does so passionately, he does so openly and gosh, he loves the debate, the contrast with this administration that doesn't like to make, that seeks to shut down any discussion, that any policy is really quite market. I regret the fact that Councillor Bellton is in here tonight. I cannot believe he supports a word of these changes that were ran through the general purposes committee last week. Indeed, my assumption is that is why you took him off that committee because there is no way he would support these changes. There is not time to detail all of them and just how egregious they are, but I can pick up a selection. The first is that essentially the administration is abolishing a German debates. A German debate in this chamber are pretty much the only occasion where a cabinet member is called on to give an answer to something they haven't had notice of and therefore can't pre-script carefully their answer. It's one of the few mechanisms we have in this chamber to make sure the cabinet members are on top of their brief that they can respond to questions, sometimes at urgent, sometimes at materialized until the day of the council meeting itself and also frankly give their honest answers not their scripted, sanitized answers that they will never really give under the strange new emotional notice arrangements that are now replacing their German debates. Secondly, in the strange new matters of local interest, which are replacing a German debate, which are now on motion anyway, they can't actually be raised by all the members of the council, it can only now be raised through the group whips. So what that means is the right of any member of this chamber at the moment to raise any issue under a German debate to any cabinet member has now been taken away and that's in the hands of the whips. You know, it hasn't escaped my attention that that gags labour councillors as well. So if a Labour councillor is concerned with refuge collection, a motor raised on German debate to councillor Legasse, they no longer can, because council abbs won't let them do so. So the change is abolishing the ability of one of the parties to raise a requisition. A requisition is a special meeting that previously, a quorum of councillors could raise if there was a specific issue of concern that hadn't been ventilated properly in an OSE. We exercised this right once in two years, we did it once in two years because the agenda on finance committee was so full, even the labour chair of that committee admitted that the agenda was full and actually thought the requisition was quite timely. I'll finish there because there's not enough time to wrap it through it all. But just to say that this is the most thin-skinned scrutiny-avoidant administration this council has ever seen. All these changes that are being washed away tonight, the previous Conservative administration had them for 44 years. We relished the debate and the challenge. This administration is scared and hates challenge and will change the rules to avoid challenge. Thank you. So let's move on to the vote. All those in favour of the motion please raise your hands. And those against. Any abstentions? So the results are 4.19 against 25 and 0 abstentions. Motion has been lost. Thank you. We're going to move on to question to the cabinet members. So question number 12. Question number 12. Thank you Madam Mayor. Question 12 on women's safety to the cabinet member for health please. Thank you. Thank you Madam Mayor, it's great to see you. And can I genuinely thank Councillor Hayj, for this question. Because I'm taking it as be written in the spirit of collaboration and that being the case, I'm prepared to work with any political party mainstream industry. A possible exception of the forum? Sorry, Councillor Henderson, can I ask you to speak more into your mic please. Thank you. Sorry, I have difficulty getting my legs between the fairly narrow space. As I say, I'm very prepared to work with all political parties in the interests of the ones with residents, I never believe the four should be a party political issue. Unfortunately reform and I don't know if the earth is indulgent or of Andrew Tate has tried to bring in, I mean, exacerbate the situation considerably and clearly tries, attempts to try to empower young men, who he perceives as to having been an ascologist, only going to make the end inside of the issue worse. Sorry, I'm actually waiting for a procedure on my throat. But this is also an extremely opportune question. I'm sure council members will be appalled at, as you report from the National Police Chief's Council yesterday, estimating that two million women are victims of violence perpetrated by many years and I'm going to read through these statistics because they really are quite a bit stark, one in six homicides are linked to domestic abuse, 20 per cent of all police recorded crimes, more than one million offences each year. Recorded cases of hope increased by 37 per cent between 2018 and 2023, now running at 3000 a day, child sexual abuse at the next pointation has increased by more than 400 per cent between 2013 and 2017, I am very pleased that a new Labor Government has actually committed to halving the incidence of violence at all to women within the decade and certainly this council's but work on fog over the past two years certainly reinforces that with more than doubled the resource as be put into hold from only to over office and the launch of the law strategy on July the 8th which I'm saying that everyone needs and she sets out a very clear path in terms of how we're proposing to tackle or form in the future. Thank you. Thank you. A supplementary Councillor Worro? Sorry. A supplementary Madam Mayor. I would just like to thank the cabinet member for health for his response and also to highly commend the Council of the Dobrez for all of her hard work on tackling violence against women and girls. Over the past few years I have spoken to many women in Balham, platform south and indeed across the borough about safety concerns. There are far too many examples which go under the radar, women feel unsafe commuting to and from work including walking through the poorly lit areas of Wonsworth Clap and the Tutankhamons. The increasing antisocial behaviour on Balham high road, attempted robberies in tutank where women have been threatened with knives, the attacks on Wonsworth Park, the serial attacks and rapes on Wonsworth Common and the domestic abuse some women suffer every day. From my experience working with women's charities I would very much welcome the opportunity to meet with the cabinet member, Councillor Dobrez, Councillor Delasoo-Gel and work cross party on this very important issue. Thank you. And again, can I thank you, Councillors? So for my part I'm more than happy to meet with you and fellow Councillors. In fact, there was a meeting of the Community Safety Partnership Board in which we received a very comprehensive report on everything that had been done in Balham and I asked specifically the question to the extent which local Councillors have actually been consulted on that. I was told that he had been, but the intention was to actually give them a formal presentation. So I'm certainly very, very happy to take our on that offer, if I important. We want to actually choose violence against women and guns. We know there is a problem. There is quite clearly a serious national problem which the National Police Chiefs actually describe as an emergency. We need to do whatever we can within Wonsworth Attack with Act. They will not immune to what happens in society as a whole and what happens within nation as a whole. But nonetheless, I'm certainly committed to doing as much as we can to certainly reduce the instance of law within Wonsworth. Councillor interjecting. Thank you. [Applause] Second supplementary. Councillor Aural. Thank you, Mayor. The cabinet member for health has referenced Wonsworth's new vogue stretchy in his answers. For those that have actually not read the stretchy or even looked at it, how would the new stretchy asset by this administration actually improve support for survivors of domestic violence and domestic abuse? Councillor. Councillor Aural for his question. The strategy is really encompassing. I think the most important part of it is it is a partnership strategy. It engaged a wide range of different stakeholders and the strategy is very much based upon the experience of some of the members of domestic abuse and that I think is very, very important indeed. There's been a local focus on this and the strategy was informed by a comprehensive means assessment which has actually contained at the back of the strategy of certainly recommending people looking at that. But it also goes a third attack on a number of things which hadn't been covered in the original stretchy particularly, or recognition of people with multiple approaches, also clearly recognise saying that domestic abuse etc is actually associated with two wider crimes. Also the report puts a very considerable emphasis upon the safety of places particularly in respect of women and girls but also young people who are now suffering a quite disproportionate increase in violence towards them. So, it is very much consistent with policy for example, education and ideal time strategy and or wider in terms of the place of strategy. It is only by these type of means through engaging the community, engaging local stakeholders and we can actually tackle this scourge once and for all. We can't do it by ourselves, counselors or the counselors can't make a wave of magic bond. But working with a community is working with the place of working with stakeholders. I genuinely believe we can inroads into what is as I said a complete scourge. Thank you Councillor. Madam Mayor, under the Honor Standing Who A28 I move an adjournment of the Council meeting for thirty seconds to acknowledge the appalling effect of the closure. Sorry, um Councillor CASSIDY, the hour is not up yet. Question number 13. Thank you Madam Mayor. Question number 13 on the New Sport and Leisure Strategy to the Cabinet Member of the Environment. Thank you Councillor C what I have just for people that haven't read the question that it asks about our new strategy. We're calling it ones worth moves together and it's our overarching strategy to get everybody more active in ones worth using sport, using physical exercise, using could be gardening, could be walking, could be cycling, could be tennis, could be able to physical activity. We know how beneficial that is for people particularly people suffering any kind of ill health, physical health, mental ill health. We know how much activity can contribute to their well-being and when this time of health inequalities that we're also aware of this strategy very much speaks to that because certain activities will be targeted at certain target groups. The question asks what benefits we hope to see while I hope to see many many many more people taking part in our sport's activities. We have a very active population already because we have a lot of young people in the borough but there are some people that are not accessing our services for whatever reason. There's a range of reasons and we've done a lot of research, we've listened to a lot of people and we are addressing as many of those reasons as we possibly can and one major barrier to people joining in our activities is funding so they don't have enough money in their pockets. So we have introduced a very, very generous concession scheme. Any person on universal credit or any other kind of mean tested benefit, any child off preschool meals is entitled to our very generous offer which is free activities during off peak times, half-price during peak times and we have 250 free tickets to the lie to every day. So that's just the start and we're just aiming to get many more people moving active and more healthy. Thank you very much, Casa. Casa, thank you for your reply. I just wondered if you'd like to elaborate more on the groups of people who need special encouragement to become more active and how the strategy is going to support this. Yes, thank you for that. So one particular target group actually is women and girls because we see there's many more men, athletes and women, women, girls lose interest if that's the right word in sport, in about teenagers and there's lots of reasons for that and quite often it's to do with having the boys around and often with women it can be to do with having men around. So we are going to be promoting women-only sessions, girls-only sessions. We have our partner enabled to do the girls-only session recently, it was very, very successful and there are girls that want to do sports but they want to do it in a single sex environment so we're providing those sort of activities. There's going to be a whole working group that would be looking into how we encourage women and girls more and anybody here that would like to be involved with that would be very welcome. Also there's obviously older people it's very important that they stay active. People with disabilities we've got to make sure that our activities are accessible for them. There are certain demographic groups that we know are more prone to certain illnesses so it's about encouraging them to get active, maybe encouraging them with a healthy diet. There are people for whom transport is a problem and we're looking at could we provide, like we talk about Roehampton. It's not a swimming pool near Roehampton but if we're providing transport which we are down the hills of pearl then let's take people to the swimming pool as they'd like to go and we know that some people would like that and they could enjoy the free activities there. So childcare is an issue for some people, looking at how we can provide childcare so it's basically listening to residents what is it that's stopping you engaging and what can we do to help you get over those barriers and get you moving. Thank you Councillor Gassler. Seconded by Dr. Lenshee. Thank you Madame Mayor. Thank you Councillor. Over the most recent winters thousands of our ones with children have been unable to pay football, rugby and other sports for their schools and our local clubs sometimes for weeks at a time yet in land with the pitches always seem available. Do they have less rain in numbers, did they have less rain in numbers this in last year and are we expecting our children to be able to pay club sport this winter. Thank you. Thank you, it's a really strange question because it was your administration that didn't invest in the pitches for all those years so we've inherited these terrible pitches in a terrible state so we are investing and you will see last sort of springtime there was a tractors going out and they put sand and that tries to dry out the fields but yeah it is a huge problem because they haven't been maintained for years and years and we do have a real deficit of playing pitches in this borough which we're working towards trying to get some more, we're working with the football foundation, we're working with other partners and we're trying to get some more into service but it's very odd question coming from you because we're trying to clear up the mess you left. Thank you, Councillor 14. Sorry sorry sorry, question number 14. For Councillor Brooks? Question number 14 is the count number, thank you. Yeah, thank you very much Councillor Brooks for the question regarding the 85 bus, I regularly engage with Trump for London on the issue, I've written to them numerous times, I'm a Councillor for O'Humpton so I couldn't be more aware of the issues regarding the performance of the 85 bus and the issues that that causes for residents. In fact, last night I was chairing the Western area housing panel and residents raised with me their concerns about the 85 bus and I wrote again today to TFL, through TFL I've also been in contact with London United which is the operator of the service. Now, TFL has responded to say that the route 85 regularly gets caught up in congestion on route from Putney Bridge Station and they undertook a detailed analysis that indicated that the service would actually be more reliable if the timetable was adjusted to slightly reduce the frequency. So that's why they put that measure in place to increase the reliability, they are monitoring the situation closely and I'm in touch with them about that. Our officers have also done a very detailed analysis of the issues with the buses in the New Bay area and have made some excellent suggestions to TFL regarding how they could have improved which would involve some minor route changes and we're in discussion with TFL about those. We've also introduced a northbound bus lane on Putney Bridge and we're working with TFL on a major upgrade to the junction at the south of Putney Bridge which should help to improve the traffic flows as well as making it safer for pedestrians and cyclists. So please rest assured this is an issue at the top of my agenda. Supimentary, Adam Matt. Thank you for the answer, very thorough. A lot of the extra congestion in Putney is caused by Hammersmith and Fulham Council closing roads to non-residents in as part of their clean air scheme. It's causing havoc in Wandsworth. We asked before, but will the Labor Administration call upon their colleagues to end that scheme because of the impact it's having in Wandsworth? Yeah, thank you for that supplementary. Yes, as I've said before, we have been in touch with Hammersmith and Fulham regarding that scheme. I think that the scheme has clearly had benefits in terms of reducing congestion in the side roads but we continue to be in dialogue with them. Thank you. Second supplementary from Councillor Fraser. Thank you, Madam Mayor and second supplementary. We heard earlier from about the Alton renewal plan, helping one of our most prized areas of the borough. Could the Cabinet member tell us a little bit more about the transport plans which will accompany these plans? Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Fraser. Yes, we were delighted, as Councillor Till have said, to introduce our Alton renewal plan. We've been very closely involved in the development of that and discussing it with residents. We did put a major focus on how we can improve transport in the area when we did the consultation last year. Residents fed back that improving transport in Remhampton is a major concern for them. We're absolutely delighted that we're partnering with the University of Remhampton to enable the public to use for free the university bus which will be a real benefit because it goes up to Putney Bridge station and then down to Wimbledon. We're also introducing a free mini bus service which will be operated by ones with community transport. These are just some of the things we're doing to improve transport across the borough. I'm really delighted that we are doubling our investment in road and pavement repairs. Our roads and pavements are in a shocking state with 36% of our railroads needing resurfacing and 30% of our pavements due to years of neglect under your administration. We are doubling our investment there. We're working on the final designs for our major cycle schemes on Queenstown Road in Bernwood Lane. We're shortly starting a consultation on a network of quite cycle ways across the borough. Just some of the things we're doing to improve transport and active travel across ones with. Thank you. Thank you. Question number 15. Question number 15 to the current member for finance about the audit committee and how well-run our finances are. Thank you very much for that question. I was very pleased to hear this. It's a really interesting endorsement of our first year of administration. Our external auditors presented their interim value for money report for $22.23 to the audit committee and gave us a clear clean bill of health across all three areas of reporting. Financial sustainability, governance and improving economy efficiency and effectiveness. We achieved a lot in our first couple of years investing where we need to in order to deliver our priorities whilst driving efficiencies and protecting frontline services. This has been done in a planned and measured way, so there are no surprises. We'll continue to use our resources to the best effect and to deliver our ambition to be a fair, greener, more compassionate council. We're delighted to be delivering for our residents where it matters most. Some of the things we're doing include we've set Britain's lowest council tax and will launch a decade of investment in our public infrastructure paid for by property developers. We've doubled investments in our roads and pavements. We're building 1000 affordable council homes for local people. We will launch access for all Britain's most generous concessions offer so no one in ones with needs to miss out. We will host the London Borough of Culture in 2025 inviting all residents to participate in celebrations. We've invested £80 million in green energy transition funds and will be a carbon neutral council by 2030. We are open to the world as a borough of sanctuary for refugees and support our residents with London's largest cost of living support package. We will continue to fight to save children's cancer care at St George's, investing new community facilities at Springfield Hospital and new GP facilities such as in Nine Arms. We organise ones with first citizen assembly on air quality and are now implementing the recommendations. We've doubled funding on domestic abuse services, installed more CCTV and will hire extra law enforcement officers. We remain the safest in a London borough. This administration is proud to lead a decade of renewal across the borough, becoming an outward facing resident focus listening council. We will continue to work hard for all our residents. I would just like to thank the officers for all their hard work throughout the year and in completing their counts. In particular, Mrs Mary who's sitting over there, Ms Burston, Ms Wilson, Mr Giuliani, Mr. O'Sullivan and all their colleagues. Your hard work and commitment is very much appreciated. Thank you.

That was rightly noted that the auditors, financial auditors have responsibility for governance, a somewhat unhappy arrangement following the removal of district auditors. How long does you think it will be before the administration's refusal to answer basic questions, like, for example, her own answer in the following question on the debt profile becomes a governance issue. These are areas where we have asked factual questions, where we know the officers have the facts and yet she has blocked and denied an answer, referring it back to committee where these figures are not provided. How is that acceptable in governance terms and why won't she answer questions? Thank you for your question. I don't actually think that's correct. Well, if you ask questions on 16, I might give you an answer. Obviously, the auditors don't agree with you. oring question 16. >> No, it was actually question 15, but as the time is up, so I think we should move on from this part of the meeting. If I could invite Councillor CANDY to bring you an answer, please. >> Thank you, Madam Mayor, apologies for my earlier over eagerness. Understanding Order 28, I'm meeting a council meeting for 30 seconds to acknowledge the appalling effect that the closure of Hammersmith bridge is having on the day-to-day lives of ones with residents. To condemn the inaction of Hammersmith council and the mayor of London on this critical issue, and to call for immediate action by the new government to agree to a suitable solution to get the bridge open. Preferably transferring the ownership and responsibility for the bridge to TFL. Do you have a seconder? Councillor Iooss? And how long do you wish the council to adjourn for? >> 30 seconds. Please speak to and introduce your motion. >> Thank you, Madam Mayor. Anyone who attended any of the hustings in Putney will know what an important issue this is for residents. It came up time and time again, with supporters of all political parties being rightly frustrated and enraged that their day-to-day lives continue to be disrupted and that area blighted by the closure of this strategically important bridge. The bridge has been closed for five years, extending journey times, increasing traffic and pollution and causing stress and inconvenience to thousands. The fact is that Hammersmith council has utterly failed to look after this strategic asset and has failed to get the bridge open. My view and one that is shared by many residents that I have spoken to is that the sensible pragmatic solution lies with the mayor of London. TFL have an overarching responsibility for transport facilities within London. They control already six strategic crossings from Tower Bridge to Lambeth Bridge and have historically paid 85% of the cost of bridge repairs owned by councils. They have got plenty of money for other strategic projects. As an example, they are funding a 1.2 billion times in the east London. Why not invest here to get this area moving again? But of course the reality is that residents don't really care who pays for it. They just want someone to take responsibility for it and get on with doing it. I put the blame at the door of Hammersmith council and TFL, both of whom have been playing the politically cynical game of asking the Conservative government to pay up, despite responsibility for this bridge being devolved. Well now the games have to end and we have to have a way forward. The Labour MP, Fleur Anderson has been calling for the Conservative government to fund the bridge repairs. Perhaps she can now persuade this Labour government to do so, although I do know that they didn't have it in their manifesto. In any event, I think that this council needs to speak up for its residents, who are so badly affected by this, and use all of its influence to unanimously say that this shambles has to end. The Labour Council in Hammersmith, the Labour Mayor and the Labour Government now have no political fig leaf to hide behind. One of them needs to pay up, so who is it going to be? Councillor Yates, would you like to respond to that? Yes, thank you Madam Mayor and thank you Councillor Cadey. As I've already noted, I'm Rohhampton councillor, and I regularly talk to residents about the problems that the closure of Hammersmith bridge causes in Rohhampton and Putney. Clearly it's a crucial transport link, and reopening it to vehicles, and particularly buses would be very important for reducing congestion and improving the bus services that we've just been talking about. Now it was closed in 2020 due to micro-factors, and therefore public safety concerns. It was built in 1857, and it's one of the world's oldest suspension bridges, and it's a grade to start listed building. Now this makes it extremely expensive and difficult to repair. Last year, I attended a fascinating presentation by engineers working for Hammersmith and Fulham Council, who have come up with a plan for how best to repair the bridge, which involves lowering onto a barge, taking it away, and repairing it off-site, as the most efficient means of repairing it. Clearly not an easy job, and these things don't come cheap, so it's now estimated to cost around £250 million. Now in 2021, the government suddenly told Hammersmith and Fulham Council that they would need to pay an unprecedented 33% of that £250 million, which is clearly impossible for Hammersmith and Fulham Council. Now I find out really extraordinary, Cari, that you raised this issue, because this issue is at your door. In case you don't remember, your government was in power for the five years that this bridge has been closed, and you did nothing about it. You just let the costs skyrocket. The MP for that area, Andy Slaughter, asked for a meeting every month with the transport ministers in your government, and he never met with them. This is all part of the appalling neglect of public infrastructure across the UK by the failed Tory government, which was rightly voted out by the electorate so recently. So we see the sewage in our rivers and our potholes in our roads. So as the Labor Administration, in charge of ones with Council, we've been working with Hammersmith and Fulham on their efforts to reopen the bridge, and we're very glad to have supported the fantastic campaign by our brilliant MP for Putney Flirt Anderson. To reopen the bridge, we'll go on working with Flare Anderson, and we look forward to working with a new Labor government on this issue. We know we will see a new positive attitude to supporting our fantastic capital city from the new Labor government that's committed to working closely with the Mayor and London Councils on the many challenges London faces, including infrastructure. Thank you. Councillor Cady, are you satisfied with the explanation provided? No, not Madam Mayor. Would you like to withdraw your motion? Or would you like the motion put to the vote? I would not like to withdraw a motion. I'd like it voted upon please. Councillors, the motion before you is at the Council Agerns, the Council meeting for 30 seconds to acknowledge the appalling effect of the closure of Hammersmith Bridge is having on the day-to-day lives of ones with residents. To condemn the inaction of Hammersmith Council and the Mayor of London on this critical issue, and to call for immediate action by the new government to agree to a suitable solution to get the bridge open, preferably transferring the ownership and responsibility for the strategically important bridge to Transport for London. All those in favour? All those against? Any abstentions? So the results are 19, 4, 25 against and zero abstentions. The German motion is lost. We now turn to report number 1, items for decision. I move reception. I move reception of that report and we'll ask the Council whether they approve the recommendations in paragraph 1. Proposed changes to the Constitution paper number 24-194. Is the recommendation approved? All those in favour? All those against? Any abstentions? Thank you. So we've had 25, 4, 19 against the motion is carried forward. Paragraph number 2, housing and your resources. Paper number 24-171 is recommended. Recommendation A in that report approved? Let's go. We're going for the vote. All those in favour? All those against? Any abstentions? Okay. Thank you. So we have 25, 4, 18 against and 1 abstention. The motion will be carried forward. We have been advised that the opposition group would like a separate vote. We've just gotten it. On the same paper, recommendations B to I approved? Agreed? Thank you. The WIPS have agreed that item 17 will be taken next. Item 17 is the motion on Wandsworth's contribution to the new mission-driven government. Can I ask Councillor HOK to move and Councillor Acanola to second the motion in their names? Seconded. An amendment to the motion has also been circulated. May I ask Councillors? Richard Jones and Hamilton to move and second their amendment. A second amendment? Thank you. A second amendment to the motion has also been received and circulated. May I ask Councillors Peter Graham and Councillor crADY to move and second their amendment? Seconded. Can I ask Councillor Ambish to speak? Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'd like to say first congratulations to you, Madam Mayor, on taking the chair of the Council. I'm sure all members wish you well for the year and will actively support you and your charities. I'd also like to welcome the council, Councillor Austin. I look forward to working with you in West Partney, Councillor Austin. I look forward to hearing your name and speech. I would also like to thank our retiring chief executive, Mike Jackson, for his diligent and dedicated service to the Council and wish him and his family well for the future. Now turning to the motion, I'm delighted to support. It is great that the Council agenda is in sync with the Labour Manifesto for London and indeed for the whole country. Our once-worth values are in line with the government's values. Government should be about service. We hear from Kia Starmer. This is in tune with Once-worth motto on our crest. We serve. The government believes in devolution. This I think means that they believe in local government. Decisions are best-taker locally and local decision-makers know best. In preparing this speech, I reread the Labour Council Manifesto for 22, ambitious for all. The section on security for all had an uncanny resemblance to the current Labour Manifesto for government take back our streets. I wondered, did Kia Starmer copy how once-worth manifested. We are proud to have the lowest crime level in a London and of course we want our streets to be even safer. The government promises action on violent crime and on life crime to be reduced by half over the next decade. This year we will go closer working between local police and our youth offender team. The government promises to tackle violence against women and girls. The police recently identified this as a national emergency with an epidemic of two million women affected each year and I'm glad there's cross-party support on this issue from the question from Councillor Hedges earlier. We've already doubled our response to domestic violence in line with the violence against women and girls' strategy and our strategy was developed by women who have lived experience of domestic violence. We've increased our investment in more CCTV, both cameras and monitoring personnel. This helps prevent crime as well as catching criminals. The government promises to develop youth hubs offering mental health support, mentoring, careers advice targeted at young people at risk. This complements some of the excellent interagency and partnership work provided by our youth bus and family hubs. These youth hubs will go some way to replace the swinging cuts in the youth services over the last 14 years. The government promises to increase neighbourhood policing and particularly safer high streets are a priority for the government. We have a strong foundation here in onesworth Council of working together with our neighbourhood police teams in our ward panels. This is effective work with the police and helps prevent crime and prevent antisocial behaviour. We have a huge opportunity to work with the government, to work with the Mayor of London as we are aligned to deliver benefits for the whole community. Please vote for the motion as it is unamended. Thank you. Can I invite Councillor KORNNER to give a speech? Thank you, Madam Mayor, and I joined Councillor AMBASH in welcoming you to your role and wish you well for the year ahead. Now, when I was reading this motion, it did, firstly I must point out that many of the measures that are listed in the list are actually measures that we support. So, for example, us being the safest in a London borough, that is not something that is new, that was happening under the previous Conservative Administration. We voted for the Access Forestry Program Committee. But when you also look at these, many of these, you are actually quintessentially conservative achievements and priorities. It perhaps reflects the fact that the Labor Party has moved so far to the right in recent years that this Administration is now backing them. And we welcome the continued commitment to low council tax, even though they did say they would cut it, so we do need to see how that plays out in future years. Carbon neutrality again was something that we committed to in the Warren's Work Environmental and Sustainability Strategy back in the previous Administration. But it does require a lot of government support to make work. So, now that we have a Labor Council claiming that they'll be able to work effectively with the Labor Government, let's see them put pressure on their colleagues in Whitehall and Westminster to give us the support that we need to deliver that. And finally, on supporting the improvement of community facilities, well, we had incredible plans to regenerate the Winnes Family Estate, the Oldton Estate, and, of course, pursue the 9L3 Generation. These are conservative achievements, and we've seen a bit of backsliding on these from the Labor Administration in the last two years. So, I don't think that their actions have necessarily matched the words in this motion. But for the—with regard to this motion today, I do think that—and I do recall Councillor AMBASH's comments about being ambitious for all. They've set out a load of things that were happening any way, many of which were conservative initiatives, and actually they've missed a load of opportunities to align further with the government's missions to—really build Britain. And I want to give them some ideas for what they could pursue in the next couple of years of their administration. So, for example, on our opportunities and breaking down the barriers to those, I think we would all agree that early years are the most important. So, why is it that nursery funding and staffing in places—nermentally such as in Eastwood and in Balaam—have had staffing reductions, and I refer them to the question that my colleague Councillor Geoffrey's has put to them today in the pack. On the free school breakfast, which we have supported locally, we do need to see more, I think, from this Council, to support schools, to develop the infrastructure that they will need to deliver that, and to support staff as well, to deliver the breakfast clubs effectively, especially as we know the teacher workload and, indeed, recruitment and retention is such a major issue at the moment. And I haven't heard anything substantial from this administration about supporting six-form education and young people who are post-GCSEs and moving on to looking at post-18 opportunities such as university. We need to see much more from them on that if we are to break down the barriers to opportunity from cradle to adulthood. Finally, on streets—oh, sorry, next up on streets. Nife Prime is actually up in one's worth by 6P3 percent last year. So, we need to see a huge amount more from this administration to deliver on their pledge to cut prime using property developer levives. And, again, on youth workers, the headcounts for those who have actually gone down in the last two years since later COVID, despite them pledging to recruit more. So, we've got some more words about promises to deliver more. Let's see it put into action. Finally, to kickstart economic growth, well, this administration doesn't have a good record on that at all. They need to do much more. The first one that they can do, and I speak Councillor Yeats, has left her place, to just get work with Labour colleagues to reopen Hammersmith Bridge, bring back the North Dakota Road pedestrianisation, which was supported by so many businesses in that area, and thousands of residents in the position, and give certainty to businesses who want to invest and build in nine-ounce and contribute to that regeneration with projects there, rather than taking away funding that was previously committed to that area. We need to see much more from this administration to truly align to the missions that the government has set out, rather than just the warm words on this motion. Thank you, Councillor Kohner. Could I invite Councillor Vassaradj? Thank you, Madam Mayor. As hostility, violence, and discrimination sadly spread around the world, here in Wandsworth, we have shown that we are a place of welcome and love, inclusive of all, irrespective of belief, ethnicity, disability, and background. When this Labour administration came into power in May 2022, we made a commitment to becoming a borough of sanctuary. And two years later, I stand before you for the great sense of pride to say that Wandsworth has been accredited by the City of Sanctuary as a borough of Sanctuary. This award is a recognition of the work we have done as a Council and future plans to come. This accreditation wouldn't have been possible without our steadfast refugee volunteering community sector organisations here in Wandsworth. We listen to those who have lived experiences of being refugees and asylum seekers and developed our sanctuary strategy. I am pleased this new Labour government will scrap the previous government's veranda scheme, which has already cost taxpayers £700 million and waste of the time of a thousand civil servants. I am proud this Labour government will end the inhumane housing of asylum seekers in barges and that the BBC Stockholm will no longer be used as micron accommodation by the Home Office when the contract comes to an end. Here in Wandsworth, we will continue to break down barriers and ensure opportunities for all of our residents. We developed services that address barriers to employment, training, childcare and transport with targeted support for vulnerable groups including refugees, asylum seekers, care experienced young people and those on benefits. This Council has the largest cost of living fund in London £15 million. We are a living wage employer, offer free school uniform and breakfast clubs, collaborate with partners for free events for our residents and in 1.75 million borough of Sanctuary fund. However, we haven't stopped there as we know there are families in Wandsworth who are still at a disadvantage. We want to create a borough where every resident has opportunities to thrive and so we have put forward our new plan access for all. We are committed to creating Britain's best concessionary offer to help tackle disparities in access to sports and leisure and make Wandsworth a fairer borough for all without adding a penny to residents' council tax. Wandsworth won the Paragrains trophy at the London youth games beating the other 32 boroughs in London. We invested in our children with disabilities and broke down access barriers to sports. Sports should be a fundamental right for all to thrive, grow and stay healthy and fair. The brilliant Wandsworth Creation Centre is offering our generous free gym and sports programme with a thousand package bookings made to date. We understand in order for our residents to make full use of our access for all, residents need to be in good health and our children need to be looked after with the best care. One of the worst illness in the battle is cancer. Cancer is a vicious and deadly disease that can destroy families. Now picture a child with cancer and as a parent you are being told your child has to go to central London miles away from your home here for pediatric cancer care. You can't take your child on public transport as they are immunosuppressed and you don't have a car. How is your child supposed to get the cancer treatment they need? Families battling this disease are already undergoing the most stressful period of their lives, never mind the difficulty of driving and parking in central London. St. George's Hospital has 25 years of experience delivering pediatric cancer care, which can't be replicated at the Evelina. This is why Wonsworth is leading a joint campaign with seven other boroughs to prevent the closure of the pediatric cancer care at St. George's. As a council we recognise importance of investing in our community health facilities, especially to tackle the conservative-created crisis in the NHS and adult social care. We are pleased to announce our plans for the Springfield Village which will house 56 units of modern supported housing for residents with social care needs such as burning disabilities, mental health care needs and care levers. The NHS is at the heart of this country and it is time we build an NHS fit for the future. This Labour administration in Wonsworth has been delivering change for our residents for two years and now we look forward to change across our great nation with a Labour government and a Labour London Mayor. Thank you. Can I please take this opportunity to thank our amazing refugees, BCS groups on behalf of this Council? I'm so proud that Wonsworth welcomes refugees, Capekale and Mindswork UK are here in the gallery with us today and they have stayed this late so can we please just give the round of applause. Thank you. Could I invite Councillor Austin to give his first speech? Thank you very much. This is exciting. I do hope all members are going to be able to keep up this level of energy for the next two years. Madam Mayor, can I start by paying my respects to you as I am there? I'm sure that you will do us all proud over the next 12 months. I know you are already working hard to represent our borough and I look forward to seeing you on a visit to Port West Company very soon. There is little, perhaps, that we will agree on tonight, especially in the wake of Labour's triumph in the general election. The drawn of partisanship is even in this Chamber is strong and I hope I can at least resist the tribal urge at times. As the new Councillor, one thing that I have not been short of is advice. Perhaps the best tip I have been given so far is to reach out to my Labour ward colleague. I am very grateful for Councillor Ambat for meeting me earlier this week. Yes, there is much that we will disagree on and I am sure we will be campaigning against each other very soon. I have no doubt for a second that he works hard to represent and serve our residents. Having been Mayor himself, I am sure that the Mayor is the embodiment of the concept of service to our wonderful borough. It is there on our coat of arms, on our very motto, We serve. Like everyone else in this room, I have been active in local politics for a number of years and I did hope in due course to get the chance to serve alongside my wonderful colleague Councillor Sutter's. But for me, that chance probably came a couple of years earlier than I expected. In thinking about what I wanted to say this evening, it forced me to reflect on just why I am here. My party is if we are honest in the doldrums and it has been there for some time. The Mayor of London and indeed Councillor Cooper won my ward on the same day I did. I did say because I think I have a key skill this Council badly lacks. Something that is ultimately going to be the undoing of Councillor Hogg and his rather expensive leadership coterie. It makes, I make a good living because unlike the Labor Administration, I am a good listener. I am a good listener. I can sell a big house, a bad listener. Well, they are stuck in someone else's spare room. Tonight's Labor motion is focused on the sense of mission-led government. Yes, the mission we may have changed over the years. Firstly, there was little reference to housing. Now, housing and planning is a key pillar of the aim to get more growth. I have nearly 20 years of property industry experience and I want to build more homes. Building is a good thing. We all want growth, even Comrade Dickident wants growth. I am sure he was delighted by the election result. Like me, he was thrilled by the stunning victory we saw on the Fourth of July, especially in his lengthened north. Nice to see that it is not only those who are the Red Princes and Princesses or those backed by the Tony Blair Institute getting on. Social mobility in action, it is not. The King's speech and the announcement from the Chancellor about speeding up planning are words this Council should take seriously. Fortunately, the Labor Government understands this and is about to send Councillor BEELTON extra resource in the shape of, you guessed it, one whole planning officer. That is what the National Policy means for the individual local authority level. Transformational is not. As for growth, well, for one I am grateful to the cabinet member and the leader for the way that they have helped me grow my vote. Labor wellbeing does need help. Neither he nor this Councillor are quite as quick on their feet as they once were. In all seriousness, though, with no way and three aspers and applications were submitted on 30 January and 5 February 2024 respectively. We are now looking at what in some cases is a small application, seven units on court is the largest 43 units and even after 200 days of deliver and delay, my residents will, I do not know what the Councils does, what they are going to do. If it doesn't come in September it will be over 250 days. This is not in the hands of external large corporate. Residents on Hayward Gardens, Innis Gardens and elsewhere have been waiting too long for the outcome of an application going from one place to the Council to the next. Now, I know that it has been a nuisance for the cabinet member for housing. His proposals are not liked in part need and he believes that these sort of dense Councillor states, he is familiar with the nor better or appropriate just a few yards from Putney Heath. But it just goes to show he and his colleagues do not understand my residents more and Putney more broadly. The only mission this cabinet member and his leader seem to be on is one to ruin various bits of Putney. You can develop successfully without listening to people. You cannot develop successfully without listening to people who live there and bring them in support with you. This Council is shown no intervention meaningful engagement with the people who live here and whose lives will be irreversibly harmed by this overdevelopment. Council ASSISTANT and his alumni of the Tony Blair Institute might have more in common than we think. Both want to press ahead with no regard for the community. Madam Mayor, I do listen, that is why I am here. That is why I beat the odds and even on the day when we conservatives lost badly, as for agents, hogg and dicoden, keep going with your mission because for us on this side, we will be eternally grateful in 2026. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you, Council Austin, for your first speech. I am a bit disappointed about the remark of our Councilor Beltan and I hope that you do, you can reflect on it and I would leave it to Councilor Beltan to respond if he wishes to. Sorry, what point of order, what point of order sir. How was that any different council boarder? The board made a very similar remark. Councillor interjecting. Sorry, but I mean the person is not here. You knew that. Sorry, Madam Mayor, the reason I'm here, this is not open for discussion. Thank you. I don't want to discuss. The reason I have my hand up is because if I have caused any offence, Councilor Beltan, I apologise sincerely. That was not my intention at all. He's not here so I'm sorry. He's not here. Yes, I'm not here apologising to me. So let's move on. Councillor Eyland, please. Thank you, Madam Mayor. For the first time since May 1977, almost half a century ago, Labour is in power in Wandsworth, in London and nationally. A lot has happened in the 14 years since Labour was last in government. These have been years of loss and waste. Osterity was a political choice, and its effects have been devastating, particularly for residents who rely on public services, including the NHS, which had their funding and investment slashed. Between 2010 and 2020, central government funding for local authorities fell by 40 per cent. But for many, the country has yet to recover from the financial crisis that began in 2008. The average worker is now 14,000 pounds worth of per year than if earnings had continued to rise at their pre-crisis rates. It is the worst period of wage growth since the Napoleonic Wars. There, the one clear objective of austerity was to reduce public debt. In 2010, public debt was approximately 65 per cent of GDP. But by 2024, it declined to £2.5 trillion, 100 per cent of GDP. This is what failure looks like. Low pay, precarious jobs and chronic underinvestment. The trains are late, the housing market is broken. The sea and rivers are contaminated with sewage, and you can't even be sure if it is safe to drink tap water. Life expectancy has fallen, and shamefully, rickets is back. Nearly a quarter of the UK population live in poverty, including more than 4 million children. Having to rely on charity to be able to eat or stay warm has become shockingly commonplace. Food bank use, and the number of families living in temporary accommodation are at record highs. In 2010, there were 35 food banks in the UK. In 2024, there were nearly 1700. It doesn't have to be this way. In Wadsworth, we are leading the way to kickstart economic growth. Following this trust is disastrous budget which crashed our economy. Wadsworth residents were faced with a cost of living crisis. We froze council tax, resulting in our residents paying the lowest council tax in the country. By placing more money directly into the pockets of our residents, the local economy can directly benefit. We welcome the Labour government's pledge to devolve power across England, giving local authorities more influence on how and where we invest, and enabling us to target issues which matters to our residents. We have already begun the decade of investment in public infrastructure by doubling investment in roads and pavements in streets and on our estates, and carrying out essential maintenance across the borough, as seen on Wadsworth Bridge, where work was completed on time with minimal disruption to residents. We are rebalancing provision of affordable and social housing. In the past year, we opened two new libraries and we will keep all of our libraries open because we believe that they are vital community assets. Last week, the Finance Committee approved a new initiative to create one borough wide investment plot, collecting money from developers to be distributed across the borough. Developer funding from Nynelms will help to improve transport infrastructure in Southampton and in the wider area. This is the first step in rebalancing investment and maximising benefits for all residents across Wadsworth, regardless of where they live or work. As part of the decade of renewal, we have invested £80m in green energy transition funds and will be a carbon neutral council by 2030. We hosted a net-zero summit with partners from the borough to support our ambition to become a net-zero borough by 2043. Decarbonisation projects delivered at multiple counsellor locations, such as the Family Hub at Yvonne Car, where heat pumps, PV's and LEDs achieved a 50% reduction in energy consumption. We are internationally recognised for the work we are doing to decarbonise our buildings and fleets of vehicles. We are one of 120 locations worldwide to achieve a carbon disclosure project A rating. As a listening council, we organised one's first system on air quality, launched our air quality action plan and we are implementing the recommendations. While the party opposite supported a decade of austerity and underfunding in local services, Wadsworth labour is proud to meet the ambitions of its communities by investing in our public infrastructure and in our residents. We welcome the Labour government and the opportunity to shape our country's future. We believe that by working in partnership with the Labour government, we can be integral to its success. Thank you very much. Madam Mayor, thank you so much for a very successful first meeting. I think you have done a grand job for us every councillor here. Considering the lateness of the hour, I would like to propose to complete the remaining business as specified in standing order 32. Thank you very much. Do you have a seconder? Seconder. As a council has sat for more than two and a half hours, it has been moved and seconded that the remaining items of business on tonight's agenda will be disposed of in accordance with the provisions of standing order 32, which means that the necessary motions to deal with reports for decision shall be formally moved and seconded and immediately voted on without debate. Is the motion to deal with the remaining business in this way agreed? Do we need a favour? Those in favour? Against? Abstentions? Thank you. So 25/4/19 against and zero abstentions. The motion has been carried. We are going to go back to the original motion which was moved by Councillor Berbericha Jones and seconded by Councillor Hamilton. All those in favour? Those against? Abstentions? So 4/18 against 25. One abstentions. The amendment is not carried. Moving on to the second amendment which was from Councillor Peter Graham and seconded by Councillor Caddy. All those in favour? Those against? Any abstentions? So 4/19 against 25, zero abstentions. The amendment is not carried. Okay. So the substantive motion to the vote. All those in favour? Against? Abstentions. Sorry did you get that? So we have 25/4/18 against and zero abstentions. The motion is carried. Sorry, I'm going to correct that. There was 25/4/18 against and one abstentions. The motion is carried forward. Moving on to motion 3, the whips have agreed that item 17 will be taken next. Item 17 is a motion on the proposed asperton and with no way development. Can I all in favour? Madam Mayor, can I request a named vote please? I'm going to ask you to make a motion. I'm going to ask you to make a motion on the proposed. Thank you. . Okay. Good evening, Councillor. Thank you. I'm going to ask you to make a motion on the, Councillors, if you could please when I call your name indicate whether you wish to vote for, against or abstain and can I just remind you to use your microphone so those watching online can hear you? Councillor Acanola. Against. Councillor Ambash. Against. Councillor Anand has left the meeting. Councillor Aks. Against. Councillor Austin. For. Councillor Ayers. Okay. Councillor Beleton is absent. Councillor B tree. Councillor Burchil. Four. Councillor Boswell. Against. Councillor Brookes. Four. Councillor Caddie. Four. Councillor Colle. Against. Councillor Cupp is absent. Councillor Cooper. Against. Councillor Corner. Four. Councillor Cretard. Against. Councillor Crivelli. Four. Councillor Davies. Councillor Ella Stoshoul. Councillor Dicculum. Against. Councillor Dobress. Against. Councillor French. Against. Councillor Fraser. Against. Councillor Gasser. Against. Councillor Cassane. Four. Councillor Vindeurs absent. Councillor Mrs Graham. Four. Councillor Mr Graham. Four. Councillor Grimston. Councillor Hamilton. Four. Councillor Hedges. Four. Councillor Henderson. Against. Councillor Hogg. Against. Councillor Humphreys. Absent Councillor Island. Against. Councillor Geffries. Four. Councillor Justin is absent. Councillor L fertilis also absent. The Lee is absent. Councillor Lockett. Councillor Marshall. Against. Councillor Mayokas. Against. Councillor McLeod. Against. Councillor Osborne. Against. Councillor Owens. Four. Councillor Pawd is absent. Councillor Pridham. Four. Councillor Richards Jones. Four. Councillor Rigby is absent. Councillor Stock. Against. Councillor Suttas. Four. Councillor Sweet. Four. Councillor Tiller. Against. Councillor Catherang. Against. Councillor Whitey is absent. Councillor Worl. Against. Councillor Yates. Against. Councillor Candon. Thank you. [ Pause ] >> Thank you. [ Pause ] >> Thank you. [ Pause ] >> Thank you. [ Pause ] >> Thank you. So we have 18 for 26 against and zero abstentions. The motion is not carried. We now turn to executive report number two. If the whips agreed beforehand that the report can be taken as a whole for information. Thank you. I move reception of the motion. Motion of the report can paragraphs one to six be received? Sorry. I will ask Councillor Dicke them to deal with paragraphs one to six from the report relating to the housing overview and scrutiny committee. That all agreed. Finance overview and scrutiny committee. Councillor Ireland. Thank you. Item number 12 is planning applications committee report number three. Councillor is. Thank you. Sorry. Moving on to item number 12, it's from the planning applications. Councillor Ayes will move reception of report number three. It's that paragraphs one to eight from page seven. Halfway information is I agreed? Yes, I agreed. Item 13 is from Richmond and one's worth joint staff committee report number four. Councillor Hoeck. Paragraph point one on page 11 is for information. Is that agreed? Thank you. Item 14 is the report of the chief executive on representatives on outside bodies, paper number 24 to dash 198. Are these recommendations agreed? Item 15 is the supplementary item extended leave of absence, paper number 24, dash 207 is a recommendation approved. Item 16 is the proposed amendments to committee membership paper number 24 to dash 213 is a recommendation approved. Thank you, Councillors. That concludes the business of the meeting for this business. Have a good night.