Good evening and welcome everyone in Assalamu alaikum. My name is Consular Jaya Todri. I'm the speaker of the council and I'll be sharing the meeting. [ Pause ] I would like to thank everyone for attending including the online participant and the member of the public in the gallery. I trust that you will show courtesy. In particular, I want to remind all members of the council of the public that you must not shout out or otherwise disturb the meeting. If anyone does disturb the meeting, I'll ask for them to be removed from the meeting. I had to do this at a decision meeting and I'll not hesitate to do it again. On this subject, I would like to ask the chief executive to serve the words. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm, as chief executive, I consider member safety to be of utmost importance. Following the incident at the council meeting in February, I have been holding discussions with colleagues from facilities management and democratic services and what additional measures can be introduced at council meetings to support members and staff. To this end, I have agreed the following changes which will be introduced from the council meeting on Wednesday the 8th of May this evening and will be continued for the foreseeable future. There will be a barrier with a desk in the super lobby for two queues to be formed, one for allocated tickets and one for the general public. Anybody who does not get a ticket will be directed to the grosser's wing where they can watch the meeting on a screen and basic refreshments will be provided. There will be FM staff at the bottom of each stairway into the chamber to help identify any potential issues and prevent people from filming the public gallery. There will be additional security inside and outside the building to ensure council, staff and visitors to the building feel safe. I have discussed this approach with the borough commander and deployed the council's theos to support this approach. I'll be more than happy to discuss this with any member of the council at their time of choosing. Thank you, chief. This meeting is being broadcast live by the council website. The cameras will be mainly focusing on the council meeting. In view of this, our remind members that residents are looking on councilors to act in a professional and respectable manner and to show the borough in its best possible light. Our therefore remind all members to keep all contribution brief and derive into the subject matter under discussion. Do not stand or start to speak until I have called you. To speak through me and do not address comment to other members of the public gallery. Do not interrupt each other or make comments whilst other members are speaking and to be respectful to each other at all times. Do not criticize officers during proceedings. And most importantly, if I stand, all members must sit down and be quiet. I'll call only take the action as a last result. I'll ask for the remember of any member or visitors should their behavior become disrupted. I'll continue to ensure that all sides of the chamber as a fair opportunity to contribute. To ensure this, I have obtained a list of members to speak for the item. Should any other member wish to speak, please indicate your wish to do so. I cannot guarantee to accept your request. Please also note that supplementary information has been published including two motions for debate. This meeting is in effect follows on from the meeting at the end of March to consider a number of reports for any given -- for -- for -- and given the number of items we have on the agenda. I consider we should be able to complete this meeting within two and a half hours. I trust members will support my effort to hold a well-managed meeting. If the fire alarm rings, please follow the instruction of the facility staff who will direct you to the exit. The last -- the last few months have continued to be filled with the achievement and success of the hour under schools, residents, and business. It was my honor to be invited to celebrate with them. I attended an exhibition of the artwork of our secondary school students, which is outstanding, and enjoyed a fashion showcase celebrating the achievement of women participating in fashion and textile projects. There have also been sports over -- sports over -- also launching their books and new citizens taking part in citizens of ceremony. As you know, the holy month of her mother took place during March and April, and I joined a number of community groups and organizations to their rift together. There were annual events to such as the Lord will visit to the building market for the ceremonial annual rent payment and the Alta Bali Day home or native ceremony. The highlight of the past few months for me has been reading the many nominations submitted for Taram Dersibek Award and learning about the wonderful things being done by people in this borough. It was difficult to continue to choose the final winners from them, and I was delighted to have the opportunity at the award ceremony last month to meet them in person and show them the -- show them that we appreciate all that have done. They have done. Finally, I would like to congratulate Councillor Iqbalu Sen. Alibar Chodji from Air Office, Radia Hussain, and Earthen Call from the supporting families, as well as other staff and residents who took place. We took part in the London Marathon. Well done to you all. [Applause] Okay, agenda item one is apology for absence. I have received apology for absence from Councillor Asma Beckham and Councillor Amy Lee. Any other apology? Apology for lateness, yeah? No, I don't have any apology for lateness. I understand that Councillor Asma is joining us on mine. Oh, Councillor Amy. Okay, Councillor Asma Beckham has joined us on mine as well. I have members here of any other apologies. Agenda item two is declaration of disposable secondary interest. Would any members with disposable regular interest to declare any items on the agenda please indicate? Agenda item three is the minutes of the previous meeting. The draft under six minutes of the ordinary budget and extraordinary meeting of the Council 24th January 2024 and 28th February 2024 and 28th March 2024. At the dark meeting, I agree to the correct record. Please indicate. Thank you, yeah, that's it, sir. [Applause] Agenda item four, all hand double to the chief executive chief Ashley, who has some announcement to make. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just two announcements this evening. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday of last week, the Council ran a successful election for the London Mayor and London Assembly members. Sadiq Khan was again elected as Mayor of London. The turnout for the constituency was 31.14%. Taoham, this is scrutinised more than most when it comes to elections, so they are important for our reputation as a Council and a place. I was happy to meet best value inspectors and representatives from DLAC at the Excel and to receive positive comments about the nature and conduct of the election. I also had the opportunity and pleasure of visiting over 20 polling stations with Detective Superintendent Vicki Stunstel and James Conway, the Borough Commander and best value inspectors. I mention this because I want to pay tribute to the electoral services team, our poll clerks, counters and others, along with all of the services involved in preparing for, voting and overseeing the election. Secondly, on Tuesday, we launched our new insourced leisure service at Myland and our new Be Well brand. The new service, Be Well, will focus on a holistic view of health and well-being, alongside increasing participation and access for residents with a focus on women, girls, older adults and people at risk of or living with a long-term condition. Very much welcome workers transferring over from GLL and last week I had the pleasure of meeting all of them at an induction event in York Hall. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, sir. Now, agenda item 5, five is to receive petitions. One petition has been received for presentation. This is set out on pages 77 to 80 of the agenda. I call on Allet, Olait and Sana's access to the to present the petition to different free speech and democracy. You have up to three minutes to present the petition. For hearing our petition tonight, my name is Alex and our colleagues are from Moon for Justice. Over the last few months, hundreds of Tower Hamlets community members have signed the petition opposing the racist, xenophobic prevent program and demanding the council take action. We need to make sure that Tower Hamlets Council sets a national example of how a local authority can defend the rights of its community to fight and speak the plain truth about racism, about anti-Muslim bigotry in the UK and about the struggle of the Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. We are calling for Tower Hamlets Mayor and the council because we have real concerns about the government-led prevent program as it directly affects Muslims community in this borough. The experience of Muslims who live and work and study in Tower Hamlets, especially the experience of Muslim young people and their families, demonstrate clearly that the prevent is a racist, Islamophobic policy and a restriction of our right for free speech. The situation has become more acute because the UK government is giving political and material support to the Israeli government in the conflict that is inflicting death and suffering on the Palestinian population in Gaza and the West Bank. The people of Tower Hamlets have shown great resilience at this difficult time. Many have demonstrated their support and simply for the Palestinian people, but we are still fearful of the consequences. Many of the borough's Muslim parents are worried about their child innocent comments could lead them being holed before the event. In some situations, Muslim community members and parents have come together to resist the threat of the event as happened recently in a neighboring borough in Wolfenstein. But in most cases, they feel isolated to do that. At the same time, we know that many Tower Hamlets educators, social workers, etc. feel unhappy and compromised by the prevent, regardless of their religion and ethnic minority. We therefore call on the mayor and this council to call a meeting and a series of meetings, local meetings, in Tower Hamlets for members of the community to speak about our experience with prevent and publish its findings. Thank you. Thank you. There are now four minutes for correction. Does any member wish to put the correction to the petitioner? Make sure not make any statement or comment, just a question. Can I ask Councilor Maim thought of them? Well, I thank you for your petition. My question is there are many organizations who are local organizations who are doing prevent work. And my question is, have you had any discussions or any experience you would like to share with us if you had any? Thank you. One of the main things we have a direct experience was in Tower Hamlets College, the New City College, where we went down to give flyers about this petition. And we were harassed by the Deputy Principal who threatened to call the police. And we found out for the students and teachers there that they had been harassed. And our flyers for the petition was physically taken off the students as they walked into that college. And we went back to them yesterday. So that's a direct experience. There have been other experiences in the community that we know that this has happened. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your petition. Is there any evidence that you were aware of that Tower Hamlets residents are self censoring in order to avoid problem with prevent. Thank you once again. I mean, there's evidence that when we've gone out in the community and spoken to people, they have expressed that. We've had students say that, and we have family members and members of our own organization who have experienced. They feel they can't speak out or they'll be threatened. And that is not just in Tower Hamlets, but that's why we expressed. There's been reports from CAGE and a number of organizations who expressed the effect. And I'm sure members of the community have contacted you as Councillors and informed that. Thank you. Just a quick question around the prevent training that's provided within Tower Hamlets. Have you had an opportunity to look at it or see what is provided? And also in terms of the agenda, the focus also around right wing radicalization. Do you feel there should be a greater element around right wing radicalization, particularly as we had a memorial ceremony remembering the 25th year after the nail bombing in Brick Lane? Prevent is just a tool and it's designed, as we all know, to target the Muslim community. And the statistics show that the vast majority of people that are threatened with prevent are Muslims. This policy is thoroughly racist and anti-Muslim. And the intent that it is focused on right wing extremism is just what the government has done in order to gaslight us. So I think it's very clear and I think people should know that prevent is used. Now what we're trying to do, we're against it, it should be abolished and people should not cooperate. That's a number of unions and community organizations have that policy. But we have to, at the same time, we're in a situation where people in this community feel restricted. What we're trying to do is for the council to hold those community meetings where they can hear directly from the community. Our community members can feel safe because it's organized by the council for them to express their personal experience about being self-centered or whatever. That's where we're going to get a real sense of what's happening in the local community, if the council holds those meetings. And I will say one thing to the Labour Party. This should be an all party event and project. And I expect the Labour Party to stand with our proposal and be involved. And I'd like to hear from them. To conclude the discussion that Councilor Abutarlet chose the committee member for safer community who wished to address the meeting in response to the petition. Year about two minutes. Thank you, Speaker, and thank you for your petition. While we have a duty under the Counterterrorism and Security Act 2015, we are fully aware that local context and pragmatism are key important considerations in the council's strategy. Last October, the council and I have been aware of concerns from some parts of the community that there may be potential for misplaced or misguided referrals to prevent. The council has a robust assessment process for referrals to prevent to ensure that correctly made our proportionate and meet the relevant legal thresholds. I was reassured continually by colleagues that referrals were being managed with sensitivity and local context in mind. And many didn't reach the required threshold contrary to what the perception may be in the public. This is something monitored regularly at the contest board. Actually, referrals dropped significantly in the last quarter. By more than a half and many of the cases weren't even directly referencing the Middle East. The majority were non-council referrals. In terms of community engagement, the council has a dedicated team and has been delivering extensive community engagement activities over many years. Much of this activity is about building trust and confidence. This coupled with our referral process is done right and seen as best practice across London authorities or local authorities. That being said, we fully understand the perception issues of frustration within the public, especially in regards to the new extremism definition. If residents still have concerns, they can raise it with the council or myself directly. They could also raise it with Staku, the newly introduced standards and compliance unit, which was created in response to recommendation 34 of the independent review or prevent. I hope the response satisfies you and the rest of your administration is continually working to build trust and confidence in our services. Thank you very much. Thank you, your time is finished. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. That concludes the item. The petition stands referred to the corporate director for communities for a written response within 28 days. Thank you very much. Excuse me. Thank you very much. Agenda item 660, mail report. I'll call upon mail to the month to give his report to council. You have six minutes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Greatness of peace to each and every one of you. Firstly, I would like to congratulate our newly appointed permanent corporate directors for children services and adult services. Stephen Ready and Georgia Jimbani. This is another step towards cementing the stability and long-term security of our corporate management team. And by extension, the corporate stability of this council. Welcome to both of you. Ladies and gentlemen, the 5th of May 2022, the residents of this borough voted for change. They voted for a new brand of politics, one that would put their interest and need first. They voted for a vision, that moved away from cuts to services, a drop in the living standards and the squeezing out of the loved ones by social exclusion and gentrification. A change that listened to their concerns and not the wishes of those with the loudest voices. A change that puts the people of calmness at the heart of delivery with the sole aim of giving them a place they could be proud of to call home. The two years have passed incredibly quickly and I am proud of what this council has achieved during this time. To list every single policy and success that we have had so far wouldn't be possible in 60 minutes, let alone 6 minutes. But I do want to mention some of these deliveries. We have finally given our young people hope for the future. From the reintroduction and doubling. Yes, doubling of our educational maintenance alerts and university adversaries. Thousands of our children can strive to attend the best six forms and universities regardless of their rates, class or economic background. By the start of next year, we will have given over 1600 in my awards educational maintenance alerts awards, now 600 pound for each out and 1200 university adversaries. We believe that no child should be held back from soon their dreams and I am immensely proud of the work that we have done to give our children the best education in our borough. We have become the first borough in the country to provide free school meals for both primary and secondary school children. Meaning that no child in this authority will go hungry. We have taken a broken youth service, staff of funding and resources and brought it back to life, with nearly 14 million pounds of investment each year. Young ta Hamlets will be the benchmark for youth development and growth across the country, encouraging our youngsters to pursue their interest and stay away from temptations of the streets. We have transformed our council into a listening one, with the reopening of five resident hubs across the borough and showing that our residents can speak to a real person about their issues. We are making good progress to meet our pledge to deliver 4000 herms for rent and our track record shows that we are serious about dealing with overcrowding in ta Hamlets. We have insourced timeless homes and showing that our residents receive the best housing services on offer. We have began the process of undoing the closure of the borough's roads that has led to unfair consequences for small businesses, carers and residents and rely on car travel for the livelihood. We took this decision in September 23 and are currently fighting a judicial review to stop a road from reopening. We will continue to fight that proceeding and fulfill our pledge to the people of ta Hamlets to reopen our roads. We have excelled in introducing measures to improve health and well-being across ta Hamlets. On the 1st of May, we are delighted to see our new insourced council, runs sports and leisure services, be brought in house, be well brought in house. And just yesterday, I attended a celebration at the Mylan Stadium. Controlling this service will enable the council to provide bespoke sessions that cater to our diverse communities, building on another policy that I am incredibly proud of. Our decision to provide free swimming sessions to all our women and girls over the age of 16 and all our men over the age of 55. We will continue to do what we can to tackle the health inequalities in our borough that have damaged our residents. We have began to strengthen the council's governance, finances and performances. When we arrived, we found six years of accounts left unsigned. 1.6 million pound worth of battery seats over six years unpaid for. Contracts double paid to social care providers to the tune of 11 million pound and 1.9 million pound of which are still unaccounted for. And five years of unsigned annual governance statements, a legal requirement, ladies and gentlemen, share in confidence. This is about the tip of the iceberg we inherited. I am pleased to say that we have signed off four years of our accounts already and the following two years have been worked on. We have repaid the money that the previous administration left us to deal with. And signed off all our annual governance statements, all while delivering a sustainable, balanced budget that would continue to deliver the best service on offer to the people who met them most, our residents. We have demonstrated that you can run a council efficiently and in compliance with statute requirements, while increasing investment into our services, and showing that our residents are protected from the cost of living prices and the social and economic inequalities that underpin London living. And we have only just begun. There's much more to do and I look forward with my colleagues to delivering for the people of this borough over the next two years and beyond. Thank you. (Applause) Thank you. (speaking in foreign language) Thank you Mr. Speaker and thank the Mayor for the report. So can I first start off by congratulating the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. (speaking in foreign language) For the reflection, the priorities are to handle this priorities. Council House building, rent control homes, funding free school meals, primary schools, cracking down on artificial behaviour, fair freeze and many more. I'd like to take this opportunity to attention to Motion 12.1 and use this time to make a few remarks. This weekend marked the 46th anniversary of Metro Alka Valley and in the past weeks with anniversary of Brick Lane, Nell bombing and the killing of Blair Peach. Each of these anniverses are a reminder of the struggles that those that have come before us. They are a reminder of the threat that men in our boroughs face and they continue to face on this day. This chamber and those who sit in this chamber is a testament to their struggle, including our residents and those who have fled war, want and persecution. The comments made by those in government shows that our fight is not done. The immigration raids, floating prisons, the flights to Rwanda show that our fight is not over. The crackdown on protests strikes on free speech show that our fight is not done. We have just come through a little direction where the main challenges of the morality press in our power and participated in spaces that spoke about our communities, like we have here, in a way that is all too familiar to those who struggled before us. So Mr. Speaker, I've been finished by saying the Mayor and I disagree on much and we'll debate those disagreements later in proceedings. But I feel proud to live in this city and the borough that elects people like we have in this chamber who will have those debates and disagreements with kind common causes in the matter of what matters most to us. So thank you, Mr. Speaker. [Applause] Thank you. Mayor of the Mayor would you like to respond? You have two minutes. [Silence] Agenda item 7 is the motion for debates submitted by the Administration. Please look at your page 822. The debate will follow the rules of debate at council procedure rule 13 and will last no more than 30 minutes. Considered side down, can you please move your motion? As set out in the table, the table papers here, four minutes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Months ago, this Administration announced a budget demonstrating the huge steps we have made over the past two years to reach a point of sustainable delivery where we have invested in our communities and not cut services in a way that it is unreliant on reserves for ongoing costs. This was not an overnight process and required a great deal of work to recover from years of services declined by the Labour Party. By 2022, the services that survived Labour cuts were hanging by a threat. Financial governance and its purposes were not existent and there was zero long-term financial strategy in place for achieving sustainability because they had no vision or ambition for the future of this great borough. Two years on, and this Administration has completely transformed the capacity of our council to provide and deliver for our residents. Our manifesto was far-reaching and ambitious. And although there is still much more we want to do, we have already delivered a great deal to recover from the damage done by Labour and restore our status as a trailblazing council that puts people first. To restore hope in this council for our residents, amongst the many things we have, revitalised a dying youth service with £13.7 million of investment per year, accelerated education by becoming the only council in England to fund free school meals for primary and secondary school children. We reinstated EMA and university bursaries, double the amount of voluntary organisations that received grant funding, resourced a drug treatment centre, women's resource centre and state of art leisure centres, recruited an additional 41 enforcement officers to offset the Labour cuts to community safety and enforcement. We opened a one-year idea store closed by Labour as well as the one-stop shop that provided essential support to vulnerable and the elderly. Reversed the opposition's decision to cut the community language scheme and provided essential support to many residents. Protected 47,000 households from an increase in council tax, putting a stop to 25% hike that residents saw under Labour years. Restored financial governance by recruiting a permanent section 151 officer by signing off and publishing six years of unsigned accounts that had accumulated under Labour and by budgeting a three-year balanced MTFS for the duration of the term, which includes the great initiatives, the transformative initiatives we have for our residents. This success, Mr. Speaker, I must stress, is within the context of sustainable delivery. Gone other days where saving targets are not met and accounts remained unsigned. With this, Mr. Speaker, I formally move this motion. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councillor, I call upon the Council on my interlude at the second motion. You have three minutes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am extremely pleased to second this motion. This week marks the second anniversary of residents of Tower Hamlet's electing the Aspire Mayor and majority Aspire Councillors. This Mayor and the administration has always put our residents first. We have reversed so many Labour cuts, cuts to the youth service, cuts to the community language service, cuts in support for our young people, such as the EMA and bursaries. We have put money into frontline services targeting our most vulnerable families and investing into our young residents. This man and the administration have turned around this disregard of governance of last administration. Mr. Speaker, the stammer party failed to get their accounts audited and signed off for six years in a row. Fade to pay the fact to be on time. Fade to deliver on saving targets for seven years in a row. Fade is of steady inspection and failed to appoint a permanent 151 officer. The list just goes on and on. But one thing they have not failed to cut was their own allowances. In fact, they increased the money paid to Councillors which we have frozen. Mr. Speaker, we inherited a council that was financially unstable with a high-end fire policy and a two-counsel culture which failed to deliver its own strategic plan. Mr. Speaker, I am extremely proud what these men and the administration have achieved over the last two years. We are focused on delivering for all our residents, making sure our most vulnerable residents are protected and giving our young residents the best opportunity to thrive and become successful. This administration has this month's borough leisure service back in house. After an expensive GLLs, our new B well service will be a service of excellent supporting and improving through accessible leisure facilities and health of all our residents. Mr. Speaker, this administration is about delivering for the community. We see the achievement we have set out in our motion as fantastic record. So labor can laugh and they can criticize us, but we will only talk about our achievement and the delivery we are delivering under this man. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Cairnga. I wish to speak. Can I call up and consider Mr. Cairnga? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am deeply humbled and honoured to address this table. Here, the echoes of history mingled with the aspirations of tomorrow. Let us reflect upon the illustrious journey of the Aspire administration. In the face of adversity, we didn't cover who is too tall. We have tackled the cost of living crisis head-on as it threatened the economic stability of our residents. We did not wave on nor did we falter. We have not merely survived. We have thrived. Mr. Speaker, we mobilized nearly £10 million in cost of living support so that every single son and daughter of this borough could navigate the storm with dignity and resilience. But our vision extends far beyond mere survival. We are architects of hope, builders of a brighter tomorrow, champion of revival, to compassion and justice. Our dedication to housing exemplifies these ethos. With nearly 22,000 properties brought back under local control, we have essentially redefined the concept of providing shelter and stability. Mr. Speaker, education lies at the core of our agenda for progress. We have ensured universal free school meals for all primary and secondary students, provided substantial bursaries and support for university and college students, and bolstered services for children and with special educational needs and disabilities. We have boosted culture, business and leisure activities with substantial investments in community programs, business support and leisure facilities. We have created job opportunities, supported local enterprises and provided relief for businesses contributing to a thriving local economy. In our quest for excellence, we have not forgotten our duty to care for the most vulnerable, whether through expanded youth services, culturally sensitive drug treatment centers or initiatives to tackle crime with increased CCTB's additional police patrol hours and enforcement offices. Over the past two years, our administration's achievements have been profound and far-reaching. Touching the lives of residents across Tower Hamlets, we have honored the trust that people of Tower Hamlets placed in us. A landslide victory for mallot for Oman and 24 Aspire Councillors, we have delivered at an unparalleled speed. As we move forward, let us continue to build on this momentum and work together to create an even brighter future for our borough. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Speaker. This motion appears to have been crafted out of desperation to deflect attention from Aspire's own failures. It serves as a smokescreen for Aspire Councillors to engage in their speciality, filibustering and scondering public funds. This tactic of diversion and delay allows them to continue their wasteful practices unchecked, all while the public's money dwindles away. This motion suggests that the current mayor and the Councillor inherited a financially unstable council. However, according to the LGA peer review report, quoted on the Tower Hamlets Council website, I repeat, on the Tower Hamlets Council website on February 29, 2024. I quote, Tower Hamlets has a good record of financial management with strong foundations in place to maintain the future financial sustainability of the organization. Unquote. I have the link available if anyone wants to view the link in the Tower Hamlets Council website. Essentially, this political motion contradicts the finding of the LGA peer review report that the council has cited for publication. Such contradictions typically arise when there is a disconnect between the administrative officers and the political leadership within the council, meaning a council within council. But the contradiction do not cease there, Mr. Speaker, there aren't even deeper. This motion itself acknowledges the substantial lending of millions of pounds to other boroughs, implying the existence of secure and stable reserves. This revelation flies in the face of the narrative of financial instability put forth by the motion, leaving us to question its validity and coherence. The aspire part is allocating millions of pounds for advisors, despite including self-contradictory statements in their motion. Mr. Speaker, the labor group has persistently asked in the aspire administration to do their own best value inspection regarding the millions of pound public money they are spending on their army of advisors. Sadly, they did not listen to our advice and now we find ourselves within a government appointment best value inspector. The motion talk about the cost of living crisis and spiraling cost to complete the new town hall on the same paragraph. I do not know whether the aspire part even understands the meaning of cost of living crisis. According to the crisis UK authority, the cost of living crisis refers... To a period of time during which the cost of every day essentially increase more quickly than average household income, notably the construction of this town hall or card amid the cost of living crisis. Thank you very much. Mark-based, staggering annual inflation rate of 11.1% 41. Thank you very much. Yaha'i, thank you. Mr. Speaker, many in this room will be unaware. That the origins of the word 'spire' actually means to breathe upon. So when we took office in 2022, Mayor Lutvaraman and this administration, I can say breathed life into the borough's education, housing, community safety, the council's finances, social care and the list goes on. The transformation and recovery journey all began when the residents, some of whom are in this chamber, in the public gallery, booted out the Labour Party locally and entrusted 24 independent councillors and their executive mayor to transform public services. Let me be very clear, transformation was absolutely necessary as we inherited a dysfunctional council. Transformation, transformation, transformation. The need for it was vividly clear when we discovered the amateur oversight of our council's finances. The thing that makes everything happen in this council, six years of unsigned accounts, 20 million pounds of missed saving targets, unpaid vat receipts of over a million pounds and lending millions to the city. And lending millions to other local authorities to possibly build an election war chest which failed in a spectacular fashion. As part of our recovery, I am assured that the future of our next generation will be brighter. The universal free school mills in primary and secondary schools, EMA, university grants, a youth club in every ward, new six forms, super school, connecting our children to the best institutions around the world. In addition to a brighter future, we needed to make Tower Hamlet a safer borough. Triple in the size of our Tower Hamlet's enforcement officers, funding more police officers, getting more people into treatment, investing in a dedicated women's centre, upgrading all our CCTV cameras, a new drugs intelligence unit and unlocking the powers of partnership to arrest nearly two drug traffickers a day. Has nearly got us out of the top 10 worst crime boroughs in London. Mr Speaker, I'll start with the definition and I'll end on one. The current Oxford definition of a spice you have a strong desire to achieve. As we progress through our four-year budget, I'm confident that we will gradually be considered as a borough of best practice, award-winning, innovative and on this side of the chamber. To demonstrate a strong desire to achieve and transform the lives of people that work, live and visit our borough. Thank you, Mr Speaker. There's a lot of poetry in the chamber tonight, so I may add to that, if I may. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom. It was the age of foolishness. So begins the opening of Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, which is a great work of fiction. And no, I'm not implying that the administration motion is, in any way, a great work of fiction. But what interests me is that we have two groups of motions presented here tonight, which give different views of the state of Tower Hamlets under the different administrations at different times. And I wonder what would Charles Dickens say of today's world? Now, I know, Mr Speaker, that you are a keen follower of fashion, and I know you would have been watching the Met Gala the other night. And as you'll be aware, there was a picture published of Katy Perry, who in her Met Gala dress, and it turns out she wasn't actually there. It was generated by AI. It was a fake. Even her own mother didn't realize it was a fake. So we're living in an age of disinformation, so it is important more than ever that we in this chamber are precise, we are accurate, and of course that we are truthful. There is information in this motion that I disagree with, which I have a different understanding of. And I think what we need to be clear about, that in this motion, there is nothing new in there. These findings, these financial issues were identified by the Labour administration, and a finance improvement plan was put in place by Labour. And that work was well underway at the beginning of 2022. And the description of this Council as financially unstable, or to claim that there was no governance in place, has only ever been said by a spire. It has not been said by any auditors, and it has not been said by any independent advisors. So let's deal with facts. The motion refers to a spires call for a council-wide audit. Two years, I have sat on the audit committee, and not once have I seen a report or a line from that audit. And this is really important, because this culture of disinformation, or this culture of information that emanates from the Council is really important. It's what our residents need, reliable info. I'm going to give you one small example, Bing collections, this bank holiday. Council comes proudly stated that normal collections would be carried out, and they weren't. We need honest, reliable Council communications, and that is what our residents deserve. Thank you, Councillor. Councillor interjecting. Councillor interjecting. Councillor interjecting. Councillor interjecting. Councillor interjecting. Councillor interjecting. Good evening, Mr Speaker. Thank you for giving me the opportunity. Obviously, the second anniversary of this administration being elected by the residents of Tower Hamlets, absolutely signals that it was a time for change. And this change has happened because we can see this administration's impressive record over the last few years, the radical measures has taken to improve services in key investments where the opposition refers to cuts and services, cleaning up the governance and financial practices across the Council. A three-year budget highlighting the financial discipline and competence underpinning the impressive transformation of this Council. Mr Speaker, Aspire has brought financial innovation, competence to Tower Hamlets, and to the residents who feel that there's something in the horizon, EMA grants, free school meals, which is unprecedented in the whole of England. It's inspired of all the cost of living. This administration has funds and has found funds for the to help the residents in the cost of living. That is a true cost of living when people know that they will save 1500 pounds, you know, three child who are in secondary school. This is cost of living and this is helping the residents to make sure. And this administration has given this and has invested in the people. And we believe going forward this Council and this administration will work for the residents because we have a leader with us who has a vision for the whole of Tower Hamlets and to serve each and every residents of this borough. I urge the Council to vote this motion and rightly celebrate this impressive record. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, we live in difficult times with everything that's happening in the world. The Ukrainian War, the Middle East War, the horrific state of Rafa, the prospect of a Trump-American on the horizon. The media, as we have seen it, has got worse over the years, which has not always been fair and just. All the full truths. Not all of them, and not always, but we have watched all four politicians such as Wella Brotherman and Rishis Sunat try and lie to our faces and spin the truth. But what that has done is make us and public smarter and see through the smokes, screens, lies and deceits. We are smarter about how we process information and how politicians feed to fire. It's unfortunate we live in an age of misinformation and we see it here with this administration tonight. So early this week Mr Speaker, as I was looking forward to see what we'll be debating, I read the administration motion and I thought to myself, here we go again. I knew exactly what this motion was about. It was an attempt to hide the truth, promote themselves prematurely and as usual, shift the blame elsewhere but themselves. Here is the biggest irony of it all. The motion does not shy away from promoting the administration's achievements, but it also says the administration will cooperate with the inspectors. Hold on, if you are so great and everything so rosy, why are they here in the first place? The motion says it will carry on implementing the findings of the L.J. report. Again, if you are so great and things are so rosy, why did we get the report that we did? Let's talk about contradictions. The L.J. report in 2023 was the first time and the only time the two council structure culture problem came up. However, this administration wants people to believe it is a problem they inherited. So let's take some direct quotes from that report. A consistent message that emerged from different areas of the council was that there are two councils in operation at 100, which is impacting on the speed and effectiveness of decision-making. Primary, there is a lack of trust between the mayor's office and senior officers with examples of inappropriate questioning and pressure to feed things into the mayor's office for sign-off. And I'll give you a quote from the report from an officer. I know my job inside out, but I have to check with the mayor's office. Doesn't sound pretty transformative to me. Speaking of shameful shameless contradiction, Councillor Miley and his colleagues want to constantly take a dig out on the SRA increase under labour. I'm pleased that they enjoyed for the last two years. In fact, they topped up with the public purse by funding the mayor's office hundreds and thousands of times. The administration's motion's title in itself is a joke. Two years of transformation. Your time is done. Thank you, Councillor. Thank you, Councillor. Can't see that. Can I start by saying that democracy is a good thing. And it was the people of Tower Hamlets two years ago that did not buy into the so-called labour value. Which was ill-gotten, ill-represented and ill-connected. They actually bought and voted and supported Mayor Lutvarajwan and the Esquire administration. That's a fact, Mr Speaker. Not a collusion and not smokes and mirrors. Fact. The Council, as an entity, operated quite dysfunctionally when we came into this Council. It provided departments that didn't talk to one another. There was no upgrade to infrastructure from the telephony system to the IT system. And even when they spent £140 million on this building, they couldn't get the IT right. That was picked up by the LGAP review, Mr Speaker. Now, we talk about misinformation and hiding truths. Do you know, in which year, the highest amount of money was spent on consultants? It was 2018, Mr Speaker. And in that same year, Mr Speaker, there were loads and loads of consultants. Yet, in terms of financial accountability and sign-offs from auditors, the most basic of councils have those signed off by auditors, Mr Speaker. And they talk about smokes and mirrors. They put processes in place, Mr Speaker. Those processes weren't working, Mr Speaker. It was year after year after year within their administration that they failed to get those accounts signed off, Mr Speaker. But let's not talk about the past, because we're going to talk about that in their motion, Mr Speaker, which is coming next. We talk about financial management and the lack of understanding of financial management by the opposition council as Mr Speaker. Do you know what? Yes, they left huge reserves. Yet, where is a council supposed to spend its money on? The most vulnerable, Mr Speaker. But they were too busy pumping money into reserves and lending it to other local authorities, Mr Speaker. Not spending it on the people of Tower Hamlets during the COVID crisis, during the cost of living crisis. Now, Mr Speaker, they would not spend it on the people of Tower Hamlets. They increased fees, but didn't support the residents of Tower Hamlets. Yes, what are we doing? We are spending that money on the residents of Tower Hamlets, Mr Speaker. Let me finish by a quote by S.E. Hinton. That was then. This is now, Mr Speaker. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. [Applause] Unfortunately, the time limit for the weight of experts, so our last councilor side helmet to you, which you exercise your right of reply, you have three minutes. Sorry. An update with which time is finished. 30 minutes is finished. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you, Mr Speaker. And it's a shame. It's a shame that councilors opposite do not see the transformation we have made in the last two years. It's a shame. That's why they remain as a minority opposition here, not within the administration. Because this is what we have transformed of our and our residents are appreciating what we have done so far. [Applause] Upon returning to office in May 2022, the mayor and his administration inherited the council, which was financially unstable. That's why the auditors from KPMG and Deloix didn't sign their council. Six years of unsigned accounts. Yes, we're going to keep banging on about this. That was six years of unsigned accounts, one of the highest years of unsigned accounts in the whole of London. 20 million pounds of missed savings targets. Millions of pounds lent to neighbouring authorities during COVID-19 and the cost of living crises. Unpaid, that receipt of over 1 million pounds over six years, 11 million pounds of unreconciled adult social care payments with significant risk of duplication. That is red alarms. That's red flags. Spiring costs of complete to complete the new town halls and grants awarded through single applicant processes. That's a shame and it's worrying. That's an audit failure. There were also governance issues. With five years of unsigned annual governance statements. One year budgeting budget setting process, which isn't fit for process. Struggling statutory services reflected in the failed offstead and youth justice report. Rising crime and community safety issues. And a string of interim corporate directors and in statutory positions, including the Section 151 officer. Importantly, to fix this, the strides we have made within the context of sustainable and prudent financial framework. With labour now in opposition and we are no longer a council that writes of tens of millions of pounds of savings. We are no longer willing to squander extortionate sums of agency or consultancy spend. And we are no longer irresponsible to waste millions of pounds on double payments of contracts or accounting failures. This is a new era for tower hamlets. And I encourage members across the chamber to help us continue delivering our ambitious and transformative agenda. By supporting this motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Councillor. We will now vote on the motion moved by side, Councillor side that met. Can those in favour please show? All those against? Any abstention? The motion has carried. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Speaker, under procedural rule 12.1, I would like to propose an amendment to the council's order of business. Over the past month, we have seen several attempts to portray our borough as a dangerous place to live. With the senior MP even referring to as no-go area. This is a sufficiently led to far-right media channels and groups such as Britain First come into tower hamlets. Seeking to capitalise on this hateful and divisive. Those of us who live and work in the borough know that this could not be further from the truth. Those of us who live or work in the borough know that this could not be further from the truth. Those of us in this side of the chamber therefore feel that this is a recent campaign of division and efforts to create a historic community tension that requires an urgent change in order of business to move up the go-to borough motion in section 2.1 of the meeting's agenda. I would like to also make it clear that in the interest of democracy and collaborate the best practice, this side of the chamber will call for an extension of the routine of this meeting, if necessary, to ensure that the position motion is heard and given them fair hearing and time that should be afforded to it. I therefore propose Mr. Speaker that we move to a vote to change this meeting to order of business. Thank you. Can I have a seconder for this proposal please? I fall really second Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's an universal surprise. It's making my life an easier one. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Give me a minute please. Wait, wait. Thank you. Thank you very much. Can I ask everybody to say the please? So we move to agenda item 12 now. Agenda item 12 is to consider motions submitted by the members of the council. Please note that any amendment must be formally moved and seconded before it can be debated. Composer of the amendment should be there for indicate and when called by me move the amendment during the speech. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I stand before you today as a counselor, a worker and a lifelong resident of this great borough. I know that many others in this chamber are too. I'm incredibly proud to call this borough my home and to have been part of and lived alongside the many diverse communities that have not only managed to live and thrive here together, but also fight together and defend each other over centuries. For hundreds of years, tablets has been a go to borough for those seeking refuge and safety from oppression abroad. For centuries, we have stood together against all fascist, racist and groups who have targeted our families and our neighbors. This borough stands as a towering example of how people from different backgrounds can live, work and respect one another built upon the foundations of community and respect. In the last two years, the administration has invested greatly to make Tower Hamlet a go to borough for everyone. Whether they're seeking safety from oppression, a place to raise their family or one of the most or to visit one of the most vibrant places in London. We've invested millions to triple the size of our field service and add a new drugs intelligence unit to ensure that no man or woman feels unsafe walking down our streets at night. We've invested in upgrading parks across the borough with new place spaces, football pitches and facilities for people of all ages. We've begun writing a grand break in New Violence Against Women a Girl Strategy that includes a commitment to a brand new women's resource center, investment in trauma-informed support for victims and resources to protect women from harassment in our nighttime economy. We've opened a new body of work focused on ensuring that asylum seekers and refugees in Tower Hamlet are given the resources they need to not only survive but thrive in their temporary homes. We've opened Victoria Park, the Gem of East London, to events and celebrations of all kinds that will bring local residents of all backgrounds together and increase income generation and business in Tower Hamlet. We've worked with local mosques, churches, synagogues and advocacy groups and a variety of other marginalized communities to fight hate and support community cohesion across a number of boards and forums. And that's only the tip of the iceberg. In the last two years, we have made people, we have made making Tower Hamlet a go-to bar our top priority. In that same time, Labour has focused on expanding its numbers in parliament by welcoming xenophobic bigots into their base. Earlier today, Conservative MP Natalie Elfig, known for her hatred and discriminatory attitude towards Muslims, immigrants and the LGBT community, defected from the Tories and joined the party opposite. She embodies the closed-minded, unbolcoming and divisive mindset that led Paul Scully to call our home a no-go zone and has found the home in the Labour Party. I stand here today as a member of a party that will champion the rightful members of any community to feel welcome and safe in our parks, on our streets and in their own homes. Those on the bench's opposite, sadly, can no longer say the same. In supporting this motion, you will not only be recognised in the inclusive past, present and future of this borough, but also making a statement that the only people not welcome here are those who support and defend hate and division. Thank you. I call upon Councilor COVID-19 at the second motion. You have up to three minutes. Members of my right to speak, Mr. Speaker. Councillor. Does any other member now wish to speak on the motions submitted by Councilor Abutall-Hachoudry? If you have up to three minutes each to speak, I call upon Councilor my entire shelter. Councillor Aminale. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I support this motion and I think it's an important motion. Many at times, the London Borough of Tahham, this has been the butt of jokes of many racist and slumber phobic people who have tried to divide our communities by attacking the Muslim communities. That's basically what they're doing. And so I think it's important that we celebrate their diverse history from the African Somali Sea ferries who came and worked on the docks, from the Bangladeshi community who helped build a claim from the Jewish community, the East End Cockneys. We've always been a community built on communities, a welcoming area where everybody has been welcomed. And we, as the motion says, we welcome refugees and we've welcomed many people who have been fleeing torture and prosecution around the world. It's a borough where people will always be proud to call home. It's a borough that is the original East End. When people talk about the East Enders, it's Tower Hammers really that they talk about the Cockney East End and we have black cockneys, brown cockneys and white cockneys. We're all cockneys here in Tower Hammers. We're very proud of our Cockney heritage. And we won't let people divide us, be it Donald Trump or be any of the Tories. However, a word to the wise, I think sometimes we need to look at ourselves as white people look at us as an easy target. If we look at the Aspire party, we need more diversity in our political representation in this borough, be they female, be they the different ethnic groups here. If we have more diversity rather than trying to divide each other by a name calling about Tories who've come across the Labour side or whatever, then people wouldn't be able to target us. It's not a great look when there's only men or only people of a certain ethnicity group that represent the main political party. So, I think going forward, we as a borough need to celebrate our diversity and become more inclusive and more visibly inclusive and not throw stones at each other when we all live in glasshouses. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you Mr. Speaker. For anyone who liked me came to this borough from another country and made a home here. For well the English politicians speak about Tower Hamlets being an annual coming place, it's like a punch in the guard. For people seeking refuse from around the world, this entire country can feel like no go zone in so many parts of the UK. People are made to feel unsafe because of their skin, colour, gender, religion and sexuality and country of origin. For centuries, those who have been made to feel like they are not welcome in England have found community and safety in Tower Hamlets. Work 10 minutes down any high street in this horror and you will find a diversity of community. Spaces and centres of culture that is rare in the most of the country but not here. I am honoured to be a part of party that is committed to showing the rest of London what a truly welcoming place Tower Hamlets has been for us all. I have seen members of this community from all backgrounds stand together and defend each other against hate, oppression and discrimination. When outside went on the news of speak badly about Tower Hamlets, ISO people, young, old, black, white and Asian, Muslim and non-Muslim residents and visitors speaking up to say how welcome they feel here. They truly want my heart and reminded me how special this place is. I would like to draw special attention to this section of this motion focused on doing more to welcome and protect asylum seekers and refugees. So many people fleece to the UK only to end up in uplift housing and without access to quality food or health resources. It is our responsibility as a council to follow examples set by generations first and ensure that anyone seeking refuse in Tower Hamlets is given the chance not only to stay but to thrive. I hope that everyone in this room wishes to welcome others to their home as much as I do. And that you demonstrate that by supporting this motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Councillor, I am happy to support it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think this is an interesting motion and I am happy to support it. I would just like to focus in on the final point that's made in the motion to state the Council's wish to be designated as the Borough of Sanctuary. Now this is a very interesting point I think because to become a Borough of Sanctuary is a significant thing to do as a council and I would really, really like for Tower Hamlets to become a Borough of Sanctuary. We would join several other boroughs in London, Barnet, Brent, Hammersmith and Fulham, Lewis and Greenwich and Wandsworth if we were to become a Borough of Sanctuary. So I really, it's really just to back up our words with actions that not only is this Borough a welcoming Borough and not only do we stand firm against people who try to, you know, attack our reputation, that we also are a welcoming Borough and that we continue to be a welcoming Borough. So I'd really like to say to the Council, you know, we can make an application and in the application we can show that we really do engage with people seeking sanctuary and that we can include people seeking sanctuary in the processes in order to make sure that our resources are, I don't know if, Mr. Speaker, you're listening to me. Can you have one meeting, please? It's two meetings going. Mr. Speaker, I might... Should I carry on? Yeah? So, Mr. Speaker, I'd like to urge you to listen to my plea. Yeah? Okay. I don't know. Are you concentrating or? Okay. Okay. Great. It's an important motion and I'm happy to support it but I'd also like us to go further. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. Councillor Maim, let's look at that. Thank you, Councillor. We will listen to you. Mr. Speaker, I'm proud to live in town less, work in town less. One of my children were born in town less. It's the diverse Borough and it's a community, you know, a cohesive community and I'm proud of the community. The different community, especially during difficult times, we have proven many, many times whether it's the fascist attack or the ideal or the racism, the community, we come together and we've seen it many, many times in town less. Under many, many leaders and our man, Mr. Rahman, under his leadership, we've seen it. So, whenever there's attack, whenever there's division, we come together and I'm extremely proud of that. And it's an insult to the communities to form a senior MP, to say, town less is a logo on that area. So, extremely important. We, the politicians, we work together but also we will be very careful what we say about the political evolution we have. So, I am supporting this motion. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In principle, I support this motion. I think we can for a second put our politics aside. We, as residents, as elected officials beyond whichever side of the bench will sit, we are proud of this borough. For many of us, my late father and many people I speak in this room found this borough to be a home, a safe home. Many times, there was challenges. We, only last week on the 4th of May, we celebrated, we remember the late Alta Bali, a man who, for many of us in this room, echoes of our father's generation, who suffered at the hands of races. But fast forward for six years, and on the same year that we celebrated, well, a lot of us in this room, we celebrated the wonderful, the beauty of this borough, where his majesty in his first year came to this borough to celebrate everything that we've achieved collectively. Within that year, an opportunist, Tory, who once was a London minister, who wanted to be the mayor of London, who said this, and a lot of you didn't know this, but I know because I happened to know some Tories for my sin, he took the pleasure of wanting to celebrate his long, short-lived, assuming role as a mayoral candidate by booking an appearance at Brick Lane Moss on the day that he actually lost his candidacy to the lipstick wearing Donald Trump. So it was okay for him to book and be in Brick Lane, assuming he was going to be the mayor on candidate for the Tory. But the same person, I'm not going to name him, because he doesn't deserve to be named in this chamber. This is a beautiful chamber of full of beautiful people. This nasty piece of little man decided to share to the world the 100 was no good, a no-go area, which is unfitting as a politician, as a former London minister. So I take it up on myself, and I'm sure many across the bench here, we take it personally. Everything we worked for, and I'm sure a diverse London only spoke so passionately last week, when a million-plus people voted for a diverse, a man who looks like us, who sounds like us, and who delivers for us in London, a Labour Mayor, can I remind everyone, a Labour Mayor. So that shows what, Labour is not going anywhere, Labour is here to stay, Labour is delivering for everyone. Whatever your views are, Tara Hamlet, I say this, in these two years you haven't beautified this borough, it's been hundreds of years of making this melting pot of a borough that is so beautiful for everyone. Now, I want to credit this Mayor, who was a Labour man in the past, 24 years I've been serving in public life in various capacity. I've worked every day tirelessly to make sure the people of this borough have what is rightfully theirs, which is to be part of a greater city, the greater city of the world. So one Tory opportunities, who wants to go and grab headline, because he didn't get his nomination, in fact, he fell to a British Bangladeshi so miserably, he actually did far better. Maybe if the Tories chose him, maybe they would have had a better chance. Maybe, but I think Sadik overall, Labour is a Labour, London is a Labour city. Do you agree? So what I will say, we will not let opportunities divide us. Whatever politics we do in this chamber, one thing we unite, one thing we will say, we are all united, and we will always speak with Peter Gold. Thank you. I have to say, listen to Councillor ALLAN, presumably the Labour group election hasn't taken place. But the glories of this borough are quite extraordinary, of course. I have deep and long family connections of it. When I came here, many, many years ago, I sent a card out with my new address. My late mother's older sister, who was born in the year 1908, and she was a very, very clever young lady, and she won a scholarship to Central Foundation School, except of course her parents, who could neither read nor write, had no comprehension of what a scholarship to Central Foundation meant. And she said, no, no, she's not going to Central Foundation, she's leaving age 12 to go to work. So that was the life of an immigrant community at that time of the early part of the 20th century. Anyhow, I wrote her a card and gave my new address, and she telephoned, and she said, Peter. I said, Yes, Auntie. She said, Your mum wouldn't like her. I said, What auntie? She said, E14. I said, Well, what's the problem? She said, It's the other side of Birdette Road. It's in many ways, personifies what London, Town Hamlets and everything is all about. And I think the idea of this motion here, where we're talking of having an exhibition, what could be a better symbol of that exhibition of the building in Brick Lane? Now, let's begin by just saying the building in Brick Lane that 300 years ago was built as a Huguenot Chapel, the Protestants fleeing the Catholics in the 30 years war, the 30 years war in Europe, who found refuge as near to the city of London as you could get it without actually getting into the city. And they built a Huguenot Chapel to practice their religion. In the 19th century, it became the Brick Lane, it became the Spittlefield Great Synagogue. They handed it over to the Jewish community, and in the 20th century, of course, it's the Brick Lane Mosque, but it is still the same building. And it is a building extraordinarily that in a 300-year period has represented the three Abrahamic faiths, starting with Christianity, moving on to Judaism, and personifying in this century Islam. And if anything, symbolizes the greatness of London and the London Borough Tower Hamlets, it is that building. I will conclude, I really do think, Councilor, your speech was unfortunate, and you may not wish to mention a member parliament who makes one silly line, but just don't ever forget, he's mixed race, and I think you have to be very, very careful when we're talking about this, to attack somebody of a mixed-race origin, a London-room mixed race in quite those tones. It's not in a debate like this, we're coming together, we should all try and stay together. Thank you. Thank you, little Wahid Ali. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, of course, Chair Hamlets is a go-to borough. My colleagues have very eloquently spoken on many aspects of our lives in this speech and diverse borough. Mr. Speaker, I want to champion the achievement of sports in this borough. Every weekend, thousands of our parents turn out with their kids to team sports, such as football, hockey, netball, etc. We stand on the touchline, Mr. Speaker, in all weathers. Cheering on the youngsters, we watch our young residents playing their hearts out, keeping feet, working as a team, enjoying the wins, and determined to come back from the matches that they have not won. We rely on hundreds of unpaid coaches working in their spare time in a voluntary capacity, Mr. Speaker, to make sure that our youth sports thrives in this borough. I know this because I am one of them. I have watched many matches as a parent. I have coached many teams. I benefited from the coaching that I received as a young man. The coaching which saw me play for England hockey team. I have wanted to give something back to the young people and to our sport. The generosity working for the community. Perhaps this is not something that MPs who do not know our borough will easily understand. But certainly, this is one of the bedrooms of our community spirit which makes our borough come alive. Mr. Speaker, Tar Hamlet is very much a go-to borough. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was spoken on this in my response to Mayor's report. Mr. Speaker, I feel very passionate when we discussed Tar Hamlet's past, the past where we faced lots of racism, challenges in this borough. I lived in Brick Lane in 1974 as a child and I can remember still some of those cars when the National Front is to march and to sell their books in Brick Lane. And one of the reasons why Tar Hamlet has always been a place where people come and settle, escaping war and want to persecution and some of the far right obviously cannot accept this and this is why they target places like Brick Lane in the 70s, that's what they did. And if anybody watched the channel for documentary fighting for the far right, that's a gentle reminder of our past. And if you watch that, it is absolutely horrific, you know, what some of those were description of some of those community leaders that spoke in that documentary. And on that point, I just want to pay tribute to all those people who fought racism, challenged racism in our borough in the past, those community leaders, those community activists through their efforts and through their fights. They have created platforms for people like myself and you here to become politicians, counselors and also play active civic role in public life. Mr. Speaker, Tar Hamlet is my home, my children's home. And our residents, all our residents get on very well together. If you look at our schools, all our schools are very mixed and our children, our friends are different culture. And one thing I say in various places that once upon a time, if you told your neighbor by Ramadan, they probably won't understand what it was. If you say to somebody, you're going to an Ifta, probably nothing. Nowadays, if you say to somebody, you're going to an Ifta, they're probably saying to you, like I'm with you. Last thing kind of difference that society has had in our borough, through the efforts that we've all have created, we'll still challenge racism, extremism, equality in this borough. Mr. Speaker, I think we all have a duty and a responsibility, and I think we also have a duty and responsibility to educate our children to become civic leaders of the future. Somebody, I was at an event, somebody described Tar Hamlet as a garden of flowers. And this person said a garden of flowers where different flowers are living together, displaying their different colors, their different smells, and they all kind of coexist. And I think that's a beautiful phrase to end on Tar Hamlet. This is a precious place. We all need to protect it and challenge any form of racism, extremism, because this is our home, but still still be our home, and it's our children's home, it's our future. Thank you, Councillor. Councillors, I would then call it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This positive motion allows us to celebrate what is good about our power, and defeat the falsehood that there are no go areas. A beautiful example of this is, there was a synagogue next to East London Mosque. And when the officials of the synagogue decided to sell it, they first offered to the East London Mosque officials that did not accept any other offer. And this is a beautiful example of a harmonious relationship within our community. And so, and the view is being expressed in this chamber from both sides of the chamber, echoing and indicating only one thinking that there is no no go areas in Tar Hamlet. This administrative motion is a positive response to a divisive narrative, and as the report recommends, the government and the other public figures should take steps to acknowledge and address the lake of social sanctions, Islamophobic discourses and practices trigger, unquote. We need to address the ignorance and Islamophobia underpinning statements such as no go areas, Mr. Speaker. The idea of an exhibition in our iconic town hall should be pursued. For example, Tar Hamlet has the best of London in one borough, and we need to celebrate it. Our diversity and openness represents the best of humanity and demonstrates that tolerance, respect, understanding will always produce caring and cooperative places for people to live. Mr. Speaker, Sheffield became the UK's first city of sanctuary for asylum seekers and refugees in September 2007, 17 years ago, Mr. Speaker. Tar Hamlet needs to take steps to become a borough of sanctuary sooner rather than later. Tar Hamlet should also support civil society organizations and equality bodies concerned with the prejudice and the disinformation to highlight the systemic mis-education about Islam, common in British society, and provide education which will help dispel Islamophobia, Mr. Speaker. Tar Hamlet must also work with boroughs and authorities across London and the country to protect migrants, refugees, and asylum-seeking people from hostile environments all over the world. This administration, I believe, will continue to promote inclusivity, cooperation, respect between and amongst all its communities and will always stand up against any division or attacks on our borough. Mr. Speaker, we must invite those who have negative views to experience the friendliness and the diversity of our borough. Hospitality and acceptance are important in Tar Hamlet's. I urge Council to support this motion. Thank you very much. Mr. Speaker, thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you Mr. Speaker. May I take the opportunity to thank you for mentioning all the London Marathon runners, including myself. And I can promise, at the end of this session, after the business, I will let you touch my medal. The first person. Mr. Speaker, we are immensely proud. I'm proud to be a resident of Tar Hamlet, which is truly diverse. 65% of population is come from different ethnic backgrounds. The linguistically, Tar Hamlet is the fourth in the whole country. We speak more than 90 languages, and that tells us the story of diversity and harmony in our borough. 87% of the residents feel safe, and they get on well with each other. Yet, you will find someone like Paul Scully, calling or mentioning Tar Hamlet as an organ zone, is ridiculously unacceptable. It's the criminalized comment, a reckless hated comment, which incites nothing but hatred. We, in one place, the chamber, asking an undeserved apology from Paul Scully that he should apologize to the resident of Tar Hamlet for making this irresponsible comment. Mr. Speaker, we, it has been home for different in the past and now and in the future. It will be home for people from far and near, for all ethnic groups, all faith and all race. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just agreeing with my colleagues, I would be more than happy to welcome any visitor from Westminster around Shor Barra, that is go to Barra. We have strong, very strong community coalition culture and harmony. I've witnessed myself, thousands of visitors, everyday visiting in Brickland. This is a gateway for Tar Hamlers, and I've seen every day I go every day. That shows this is go to Barra, and we're proud to call this our home. Mr. Speaker, there is no place for hate, and we should strongly support this motion and stand up for ourselves. Thank you. [Applause] Can't hear about the luxury. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's a great pleasure to speak in support of this motion. Thank you for giving me the time. A lot has been said, and I echo everything else that has been said already. Just to remind us all, one of my colleagues did mention city of, Sheffield was city of Sanctuary in 2007, 17 years ago. So I urge everyone to support this motion, and hopefully we become a city of sanctuary for the most vulnerable people. Like myself and a lot of others in this room, my father came here in the late, sorry, late 50s, and I'm still here. My son, daughters were born here. It's an honor to support this motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again, thank you. [Applause] I'll take one more, then we'll move to. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I represent white chapel, a welcoming ward, where different communities leave shoulders with no problems. The vibrant mark can welcome everyone. The town hall welcomes everyone. An exhibition in the town hall celebrating our diversity would be a great development. Mr. Speaker, town hall communities have stood together and fought against racism and hatred in every generation. The mayor and many members from across the chamber face down the national front in the 70s and 80s. A broad coalition of communities expelled the EDL in the 2020s, 2010s. We must value our peaceful coexistence. Mr. Speaker, recent comments about our borough are based on ignorance, Islamophobia, and racism. Mr. Speaker, I encourage council to join me in voting for this motion. The town hall next must work with boroughs and authorities across London and the country to protect migrants, refugees, and asylum-seeking people from hostile environments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. [Applause] Can I call upon Councillor COVID-19 to speak because he without you, all right? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes? Just give me a minute, Councillor. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The diversity of town hamlets, cuts across race, religion, gender, and class. Be it the French oobhanauts that fled persecution. Be it the Irish. Be it the Chinese community. Be it the Jewish people who fled the pogroms in Europe. Be it the Bangladeshi community who made town hamlets a whole. Today, town hamlets is a place that has diversity and can only be described as a go-go zone, which includes the Somali community, the Polish community, and many other ethnicities. And I hope members can celebrate the diversity beyond just ethnicity and gender. And it surprises me that in such a passionate debate, all that's focused on this side of the chamber is our ethnicity and our gender. We carry multiple identities. We communicate in multiple ways. And we have multiple backgrounds in terms of how we've lived and worked and have brought up children. Now, solely focusing on ethnicity and gender only goes to gaslight, the far right, and the bigoted. So, let's not be tainted by limiting ourselves to restrictions and wholesomely celebrate diversity and promote this borough as a go-go zone. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Councillor. Councillor Abut, I do use to accept your right of reply in three minutes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I welcome the comments made by colleagues across the chamber. Town hamlets is truly a go-go zone, as my fellow Councillor has said. I think I'll take, Councillor, I mean, Alice's point around inclusivity and representation. And it's something that the Mayor has made a point about publicly. And it's something that we are seriously committed in addressing in forthcoming elections. With that comment, Mr. Speaker, I wouldn't like to lay the conversation any further. And I'd like to close my comment. Thank you. Full Council will now vote on the motion submitted by Councillor Abut, I would like to see. Candles, in favor, please show. I know it's going to be in your name. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor, thank you very much. Well, I don't have to say all those against, have I? All those against? No. Any abstention? No. Thank you. Motion carried now. So, in the case of the original, we'll have a prayer break. And please, I'll ask everybody to... Mr. Speaker, point of order. If there is a 10 minutes break now, does that mean the extended 30 minutes is also going to extend all of them? Councillor, the 10 minutes. A 10 minutes maximum, please. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair, please. Thank you. Very much. Where is it, where is it? [inaudible] Thank you, Councillor. Can I have your attention, please? Thank you, everyone. Please take your seat. We'll start our post meeting now again. 16 minutes. And there was 16 minute adjournment. The meeting is in. 16 minutes, so we'll start again now. So, now we'll hear the opposition motion. [inaudible] Mr. Speaker, apologies to realise during the course of the discussion on the motion when Councillor Childrie talked about the campaign for the boroughs to be made a boroughs of sanctuary. I've belatedly realised that I work for one of the foundations that funds that gives grants to the campaign for the borough of sanctuary. So, I think I have certainly have an interest and shouldn't have participated in the debate. I did leave, but apologies, I didn't realise that earlier. So, I just wanted to know that for the minutes. Thank you, everyone. Yes, Councillor. Therefore, at the moment that I realised why he'd left when he let me know, I also left and didn't take part in the debate because I think there is an interest there. Thank you. Thank you for your clarification. And our information. Thank you. Good afternoon. [Laughter] As in the item 8 is the opposition motion for debate. The debate will follow the rules of the debate that Council procedure will start in and will last no more than 30 minutes. Motion on best-value inspection. Councillor Mark Francis, can you please move your motion as set out in the table papers? You have four minutes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's now 10 years since officials in Whitehall advised that the former Secretary of State should commission PwC to undertake a best-value inspection of Taohamlet's Council. The best value of duty is defined in law as a duty to make arrangements to secure continuous improvement in the way in which local authority functions are exercised having regard to a combination of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. That decision followed a stream of allegations about poor governance and financial mismanagement at Taohamlet's, which was run at that time by Mayor Rahman. Its remit was specifically focused on the award of grants to community organisations spending on publicity, contracts and the sale of public assets by the Council. On the day it was announced, the Mayor's office issued this statement. I welcome the Secretary of State's decision to spend independent auditors to review the grants processes. This review will demonstrate that the Council acts in the best interest of all Taohamlet's residents. Mr. Speaker, this inspection was supposed to take two months. It ended up taking five. As PwC made clear in its report, the primary reason for this delay was the failure of the Council to provide information on a timely basis, or at all, in relation to a number of important requests by the inspection team. PwC reported that their monitoring officer initially sought to require PwC's inspection team to certify its request for information from the Council. PwC's team rejected this as there was no legal basis requiring it to do so. Next, the Council tried to get PwC to agree it would only be allowed to see legal files on the basis of legal privilege, so that they couldn't be disclosed. Again, there was no legal requirement to do this, and so PwC rejected it. At the same time, PwC said the Council was attempting to prevent the inspection team directly assessing the financial data at a requested PwC say it did not allow this decision until the 20th of June 2014, nearly two months after it was first requested. Mr. Speaker, on the 1st of July, the Mayor changed his tune about this inspection. On that day, he wrote to the Secretary of State to notify him that he was seeking a judicial review of the best failure inspection. PwC notes in its report that the judge who considered this legal action concluded that each of the grounds advanced by the Council were unmeritorious, and the first ground was hopeless. Mr. Speaker, on the 4th of November 2014, the Secretary of State published PwC's report. No one in this Council Chamber, among the public at large, should be under any illusion about that this was anything other than a devastating indictment of Tower Hamlet's Council. In relation to the matter of grant-making, PwC concluded that the Council was failing in its best value duty. In relation to three of the four property sales it looked at, PwC concluded that the Council failed to comply with its best value duty. In relation to grant-making, PwC concluded that the Tower Hamlet's Council failed to comply with its best value duty. In regards to spending on publicity, PwC endorsed off-cons view that monies that were spent inappropriately on what amounted to political advertising for the Mayor, which is a breach of the Code of Practice. Mr. Speaker, this meant that the Council was failing in its best value duty. PwC then went on to conclude that these failures demonstrated that, as a whole, the existing governance arrangements have weaknesses which have resulted in these failures not being prevented. In its view, Tower Hamlet's Council's corporate response to the identification of these failures suggested a tendency towards denial of viscation rather than an inclination to investigate the issues raised. Mr. Speaker, I am not a fan of Eric Pickles, the Conservative Secretariat state who authorised the inspection team, and who responsibility now failed to take action in response to this. But I will say this, any Secretariat state who did not take the most decisive action to protect the taxpayer from what PwC had revealed had been growing on between 2010 and 2014 would be failing in their duty, in their own best value duty. And that's why Commissioners ended up being sent into Tower Hamlet's Council in 2014. And that's why that's the risk that we now pose because of the actions that the Mayor, and his Deputy Mayor, and his Deputy Mayor, have taken risk or repeat of Commissioners coming back into Tower Hamlet's Council. Thank you. (Applause) I have all up on Council. (Applause) Thank you Mr. Speaker. You cannot help but feeling somewhat embarrassed for the opposition, talking about some reports. I was very old, but were in 2024, at the moment, just remind everyone. And in the absence of any real aspiration for Tower Hamlet's, and with such a shameful history in power, they have no other choice but to resort to lies, smears and dog whistle politics. When will they learn that our residents can see right through it? They did in 2010, again in 2014, and then again in 2022. And what is more, Mr. Speaker, they will continue to do so. For as long as democracy prevails and people are given the chance to reject their empty promises, financial chaos and shameful governance and unnecessary cuts under Labor, the residents will continue voting aspired. A clear pattern is emerging here. Labor cannot see this Mayor democratically elected. 2015, the only reason Labor were able to win is because of the underhanded tactics that prevented the Mayor, that prevented this, this Mayor would not stand. While they were in office, they set up a laughable clear-up project, wasting £250,000 that could have gone to residents of Tower Hamlet's and again found nothing. They could win in 2018 because the Mayor was not, because the true Mayor was not standing. They were so afraid of him, even after the dirty tactics had removed him, they tried to prevent him from ever standing again. By holding a mayoral referendum in 2021, wasting £300,000 of taxpayer money during one of the worst and most devastating pandemics this country has ever seen. To remove the mayoral system and return to the two-plus leadership model, the people overwhelmingly reject their attempts to dismantle democracy in the borough with 74.6% voting to keep the Mayor. That's 61,000 people voted for the mayoral system. Where was the best value in all of this wasted money? That could have gone uninvested in our residents. They mentioned the court preparer review. Yet the peers praised our MTFS, a key piece of work that I led on as a lead member. They praised how we have strengthened our governance following years of neglect by Labor Administration, and they praised our ambition embodied in our strategic plan, a vision that Labor could only have dreamt of. They mentioned staff churn, yet failed to mention that this is a common trend when administration change, a point acknowledged in the corporate peer review. Indeed, during their own administration, there was an exodus of 48 senior members of staff just during six months. Thank you, Councillor. Did that not represent stability? Thank you. I call on Councillor COVID-19 to second the amendment. You have three minutes. I reserve my right to speak. I think. It should be published. There's any other member now wish to speak on this subject? Motion submitted by Councillor Mark Kauncees or the amendment submitted by Councillor Saeeda. You have three minutes each to speak. Thank you. I think the previous speaker, thank you, Councillor Admond. I think it illustrated the point of the motion brilliantly. This has been a very serious and thorough report from the LJP review into the Council, which has prompted serious concerns. Rather than addressing those concerns head on, we instead have obfuscation and indeed some sort of cloud of cuckoo land interpretations of what has been going on. Let me quote from an LJ report into the intertail humblis. The Mayor and Chief Executive have set a new moral compass for the organisation. The Council has established a number of programmes to change the behaviours and culture of the organisation. Unfortunately, that's from the LJ report from June 2018, held in the aftermath of the previous Ministry intervention in the Council. The LJ report from September 2023, which has triggered a new inspection from the Ministry, has 18 recommendations. There's 18 recommendations to improve the culture and practices of the Council. And I quote, There is clear evidence and constant reference to a two-counsel culture between senior management and the Mayor's office. It goes on to say, this is generating bottlenecks in the operation of the Council's business, and nextively upon the speed and effectiveness of decision-making. The current Mayor's office model is detrimental to the delivery of the Council's wider business. So let's look and compare between the two reports conducted in an independent way by local government associations between 2018 and 2023. Previously, there's a strong corporate centre with a Mayor working in partnership with officers to direct and drive change in the agenda of the Council, whereas now there are bottlenecks and obfuscation. Now, this is quite a technical thing that we're talking about, you know, peer reports and stuff like that. But this really feeds into the delivery of the Council for its local people, and that is at the heart of the first resolution of the motion. Five million pounds is being spent on the advisors of the Mayor's office. And it's not just a waste of money, but as the LGA says, it's a bottleneck in delivery. And what's worse, lots of that money can be saved, and we can take the first steps towards taking the LGA peer review head-on by getting rid of some of the advisors who write chat GPT speeches. Councilor Mushtaq, I particularly enjoyed your speech, and you must compliment whoever or whatever programme. Hello, James, can you look at me when I speak, please? And again, talking about delivery, the Mayor's spin and the bluster of the past two years, the self-congratulation, doesn't do anything for the people of town Hamlets, yeah? We're missing the targets, we're missing those targets by 30%. The level of recycling has fallen to 16%, the worse in the country, and the Mayor has broken his key and first promise to raise council tax. He broke them, promises, and it's a lack of delivery again and again. And that's one of the heart of this is all about. It's we're looking to head on and tackle the change and the culture of this council so we can deliver for residents, not score political points. So I think it's about time. The inspire members are listening and engaged in a positive way and a construct. Thank you very much. (Applause) Thank you, Mr Speaker. Yes, unfortunately it looks like there was a problem with our electronic publication. We thought it had gone out, but for some reason it didn't. That's our fault, I apologise. If members wish, I would suggest we have a short adjournment. It's not a particularly long amendment, but if you want to have a look and read it then. You're okay, okay. Thank you. Councillor, may I meet a little bit? Thank you, Mr Speaker. When I read the opposition motion, I was reminded how the Labour hates losing. They believe it's their birthright to rule the borough. In 2010, Lutur Rahman was selected by a huge majority to be the Labour Party's mayoral candidate. However, the right wing of the party conspired, smeared and plotted against him and had him removed as candidate. The N.E.C. unfairly upheld this and he was forced to stand as independent. In 2010, he thumped then the Labour candidate by 12,029 votes, receiving 23,283 votes, more than all the other candidates combined. In 2014, the May increases votes, again, to 36,539 votes, smashing in John Biggs by 27,643. Again, the Labour Party had to resort to smears, lies and Qatar to talk with the politics to seek the May's removal. These patches tried to find something on the May they found nothing. The panorama tried to find something on the May they found nothing. The P.W.C. tried, they found nothing. Instead, it took an unfair, biased election investigation and tribunal to get the May removed from office. The May and City of London were forced to investigate and they found nothing. And Mr. May, the investigation costs nearly £2 million of tax by his money. The May has always and will always maintain his innocence and your attempts to drag up unproven allegations. And reinforce that you cannot compete with this administration on policy alone. Instead, you have returned to talk with all divisive tactics. Tactics that in the past have invited far-right an extremist into our borough. We will continue to implement policies which will benefit the people of Tower Hamlets. And let me remind the Labour Party. You might be doing well. You might be happy and celebrated by 2026. It's all that you will be wiped out from Tower Hamlets. Thank you Mr. Speaker. So I got elected in 2015 and was proud to represent my community. But little did I know so much was left behind by the party opposite whom were called something else then. I remember Tower Hamlets Council faced huge significant scrutiny. Commissionists were indeed appointed to oversee the Council. This intervention came as a response to concerns about governance and financial mismanagement. The commissioners were tasked with ensuring that the Council's affairs were conducted appropriately and effectively. Until democratic governance could be restored. I can recall the experience navigating this challenging situation and working together with the Labour Party. Then to restore trust and accountability in the Council. It took nearly three years before Commissions was left. And we the Labour Administration then could finally take decision again to best deliver for our community. Anyone would think after all the intervention and scrutiny the party opposite would change. We have had the LTAAP review recently which provide us with valuable insights into the functioning of our local government. And it is crucial that we address the areas that require attention. The absence of women in the opposition's parties cabinet does not reflect the diversity and inclusivity that our community so rightly deserves. It is a testament to the opposition party's failure to recognize the immense value that the women bring to the table. And it's not just about taking an exercise box for diversity. It's about creating the environment where all voices are heard and all perspectives are considered. When women are represented in leadership positions it sends a powerful message to our community. A message that says everyone regardless of gender has a role to play in shaping the future of child handlers. It is concerning that inadequate relationship between senior officers and the mayor's office has reached to a point where experienced individuals have chosen to leave their roles. The departure of senior good officers is a clear signal that urgent attention was needed and hence we can see what's happening now. However, it didn't seem like the party opposite took this review seriously. Despite this labor administration repeatedly reminding them that changes need to take place. And so after 10 years we had intervention, again entire hammers where we have the best value inspectors. Obviously in the council's governance or a shame. We understand that public trust is earned through resilient oversight and responsible management resources. The best value inspectors are here to ensure that every pound spent in this service in service of our community's best interests. The work isn't confined to a desk or boardroom. They are out in the field engaging with stakeholders, listening and concerns to the concerns and assessing the impact of decisions on the ground. Inspectors are free from political influence. So, you know, party opposition could say, you know, we bought in or whoever's bought in them. They are, you know, free from the political influence and or vested interests. So we'll depart to opposite. Listen at and on the insights and recommendations from the best value inspectors. We must actively engage with the inspection process, provide feedback and work in hand to address the issues identified and realize our shared vision for the best value inspectors. So, I'll be supporting this motion. I hope the party opposition can take to and support all the recommendations that are here that have been presented in the motion. Thank you. Thank you. Can't hear that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before we start, I want to address a few points. The first around council tax, colleagues in this chamber would make you think that the Labour Party wrote their spy manifesto. We know exactly what we meant when our manifesto was written. In regards to comparing inspections from now and 10 years ago, the scope is very different, just ask the inspectors. Mr. Speaker, in 2010, the mayor was the Labour Party candidate for morality after leading the council as leader. The right being of the party smeared, conspired and plotted against him and had him removed as the candidate. Sadly, the Labour NEC upheld this, and the mayor then stood independent and thumped. As Councillor my colleague says, thumped the Labour candidate, winning by more than 12,000 bombs, which was more than all the other candidates combined. The same cohort then resorted to similar smear tactics leading up to 2014 election. By dragging in dispatches and panorama and PWC, and guess what? They found nothing. The met and city of London police investigated and once again found nothing. They exonerated all those investigated at a combined amount of £3 million to the public purse. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Labour Party's definition of best value. They couldn't defeat Mayor of Martin elections or resort to divisive politics, which attracted groups like the EDL and Britain first to knock on our door. To make sure that the mayor doesn't stand and come back to haunt them, the party opposite spent £300,000 on a referendum during COVID to punish the mayoral system. Once again, the public refused to bow down to their dog whistle politics. Look, 2022 was a radical shift when an independent party took over this Council. £2 million to correct their failure. Double payments to care providers, which demand to as much as £7 million. The government didn't do any prosecution against their own MP. In terms of the ONS function and how the motion proposed to the Chair presented. During their time in power, four Labour Councillors, including two current Councillors, the ONS, the ONS, their recommendations, the same will follow with the inspectors. We just need to stop the dog whistle politics. I support the Labour motion because, Mr Speaker, I couldn't help the think of what Labour Chancellor Rachael Reeves said on Monday about the Tory government following their humiliated electoral defeat across the nation. Rachael Reeves rightly accused the Tories of gas slights in the British public by saying that the elections were close. Tonight, Mr Speaker, the applied administration are clearly gaslighting the Tower Hamlet's residence because there is a complete attempt by them to say that everything is well or, as Richard Suneck will say, stick to the plan. As my colleague Mark Francis has said, the administration now has had to welcome inspectors into our borough because another secretary of state has once again become alarmed by the mayor of the recommended administration. If Deja Fu again, a moment that reminds us of a previous secretary of state being alarmed by the mayor of the recommended administration and calling in commissioners. We all watched how that movie unfolded way before next week's major series. Mr Mayor, I would like to make a few points about financial instability. Now, the financial honeymoon that this administration continues to enjoy, as I said before in this chamber, is due to financial management of the previous administration that left the mayor and his administration a hefty reserve, and this administration is now running around claiming it as their own. In terms of women's voices, it continues to be missing in this administration, despite the GLA LGA peer review stating that there's a need to be addressed urgently. The women's commission that the mayor has promised to set up is thus far not democratic, inclusive as each member seems to be handpicked by this administration, making me think that it is merely a tick box. Finally, the Espide Administration can continue living in a parallel universe, as Doctor Who would say, but the residents of Tallahumnits and the Labour group will stay in the real world. The real world that means the Espide Administration in just two years has set alarm bells ringing across Parliament. That means inspectors have come back into our borough. I think the Espire propaganda machine is really good, and maybe they could offer Tories and which soon acts of administration some help, because they need it. Now, Labour will form a government because the British people after 14 years are sick of the Tories, and in just two years, the people of Tallahumnits are already getting sick of this administration. Finally, one thing is clear, Mr Speaker, and it's this, never in the history of Tallahumnits has a Labour administration had commissioners come in to look at what they're doing or had inspectors come in. Continue gas lighting and people of Tallahumnits, and we'll continue to scrutinise in every single move you make. Thank you, Doctor. (Applause) (Applause) (Applause) (Applause) (Applause) (Applause) Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity. So it's been 10 years since the government took drastic action and launched the best value inspection of our council. This inspection reveals shocking irregularities on how our borough was being run. Despite resistors from the mayor and the corporate leadership of the council, the government considered that auditors uncovered irregularity in grant allocation, poverty deals, and even potential fraud and payment in youth service. The shameful mismanagement led to unprecedented intervention, independent commissioners seized control of critical aspects of our council, a devastating blow to the local democracy. The architect of this chaos has never showed responsibility, or I apologise for the damage done to our community trust. It's always someone else's fault, someone else to blame. Striking workers, waste emergency, chaos in housing, broken manifesto promise, council tax rights, rent price, spending millions of mayor's office, experienced staff leaving in droves that is no one else's fault, but their own. Perhaps, Mr Speaker, we're naive on this side of the chamber, then to hope that maybe the different mayor was returning in 2022. Perhaps we should not have been surprised when the last year's to LGA peer review exposed alarming departures, a lack of diverse leadership and a troubling council with an account of dynamics surrounding the mayor's office. Maybe we shouldn't have been shocked when the mayor sought to deflect blame from the peer's review criticism, falsely attributing them to the previous administration. Could it be that we on this side were foolish for thinking that the mayor would in this term subject him some more scrutiny to be more open to answer more questions, no? Unfortunately, it appears few lessons have been learned over the last 10 years, and instead of this council as resident for his risk of more chaos and co-visioned because one man's inability to face up to errors. For the sake of this borough, I hope that this leads to some real changes in the way this council operates, and we do not need to see commissioners back here, but the earlier motion from there I suggest will be expected to believe that lightning strikes the same place twice. On the issue of who wipes out who in future, just remind people in history many, many, you know, the mighty have fallen. For example, Nimrod, a non-rood that we call him, was destroyed by a fly. So in 2026 we will see who gets wiped out and who not. [Applause] Thank you, Councillor, Councillor COVID-19. It is up, you're right. Councillor? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members' opposite spoke about driving change. Let me ask you, Mr. Speaker, what change? Tower Rewards resulted in months and months of council staff striking because they were taking workers' rights away. That's the Labour Administration, the Workers' Party. Disaster and insourcing of waste service, the worst recycling in the country. They speak about £5 million for the mayor's office over three years. Yet, what they don't draw context to is that Labour spent nearly £5 million on consultation and design to prove to themselves that some of the most affluent areas in Tower Hamlets were the most deprived areas, namely, whopping, to put a bus gate in there, namely, Jesus Green to block the roads, and namely, by West to block some more roads. In 2018, Mr. Speaker, they spent £39 million on agency and consultants, and they talk about waste to us, Mr. Speaker. Mayor Lutour-Rahman reached out to offer cabinet posts to female members of the party opposite when he first formed his cabinet here. However, they rejected that offer. Yet, when the LGA came in, they said women don't have a role in Mayor Lutour-Rahman's cabinet, so you can't reject an offer and then cry wolf about it. On many occasions, we have offered paid SRA positions to female representatives, Councillors of the Labour Group. Yet, on one occasion, they took it, and in the other occasion, they wanted to replace her by a male councillor from the Labour Party. Now, Mr. Speaker, we talk about cronyism, and we talk directly about the rich mix. That got called in twice by opposition members, yet still was passed. Have you ever heard of a soft loan? Well, the rich mix got a soft loan of £850,000, Mr. Speaker. No best value involved there. They got further 106 payments from developments that occurred around the area. Yet, when Mayor Lutour-Rahman wanted to claim that money back, there was obstacles created and a sudden write-off. I won't go into details of that. However, what's important is the word cronyism, who led that organisation, Mr. Speaker? That organisation was led by a former Labour MP, former Labour leaders of this council, multiple leaders, and even to this day, former Labour councillors and Labour members operate within that organisation, Mr. Speaker. So, I can't understand the reason why a soft loan would be created. Thank you. Maybe they can explain that in their response. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now. Thank you. Councillor MARX, do you wish to access your rights or pre-blind? You have three minutes. Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I do. Just a little bit. First of all, I want to say thank you to my colleagues, all of my colleagues who supported this motion and supported us in bringing this and bringing this motion tonight and bringing it to the public's attention, because it's long overdue that the members opposite were given an opportunity to apologise for what happened 10 years ago, and the fact that they've sat here and blown smoke in our faces, it's blown smoke in the public's faces all night long, instead of accepting responsibility for not opinions, facts by PWC. These are 200 pages worth of facts that you have completely ignored for 10 years. Mr. Speaker, during that period, we would have hoped to hear an apology from the Mayor and from his Councillors of bringing this terrible shame on our borough, but we don't expect one tonight after what we've heard. On this side of the Council Chamber, we do expect people to learn from their own mistakes, and yet in the last two years, the Mayor and his Councillors have learned absolutely nothing. We have repeatedly warned in this Council Chamber that the actions he and Aspire are taken are treading the same path as they did in 2010 to 2014. They refused to listen to us, and they refused to change course over the debates that we've had. They were given one last chance by the LGA's peer review last autumn, which made it very clear that the governance of this authority was absolutely dysfunctional, that there was a problem of a Council within a Council culture which had begun with the Mayor being elected in 2022, not with John Biggs, with this Mayor who's sitting here in office and refusing to accept responsibility for that. That's why the Government has sent in the best value inspection team to look at Tower Hamlets again, and this is not a narrower focus, this is actually a wider focus. They're concerned about more aspects of this Council's business. Mr Speaker, I don't know what the team is going to, the inspection team will report to the Secretary of State, but I do know that after his 5% hiking Council tax to pay for his advisors, there are thousands of residents out there who do not believe that Tower Hamlet's Council is meeting its best value duty already, and I do know that the independent LGA peer review has already found it's such extensive governance failings that we believe on this side, that the governance is probably even worse now than it was in 2014. Mr Speaker, the model that we have here, the buck stops with the Executive Mayor, the man who's sitting there and has refused to participate in a debate about what happened under his morality previously. The only person in Tower Hamlets who has the power at this stage to stop Commissioners being sent back in to oversee the running of this authority is Mayor Lutferarmann. So far, as we've heard this evening, there is absolutely nothing that he has had to say, but I am prepared to give up the last 20 seconds of my speech to give him a chance to apologise to the people of Tower Hamlets and say that he's actually going to be taking forward the recommendations that are in this motion to restore proper democratic transparency and accountability to Tower Hamlet's Council. Back to move the motion, Mr Speaker. Thank you, Madam Speaker. [Applause] Full Council will now vote on the amendment proposed by Councilor Said Ahmed and the motion submitted by Councilor Mark Kranzis. Starting with the amendment proposed by Councilor Said Ahmed, can those in favour please show? All those against? Any abstention? So, the motion is amendment, amendment is carried. The full Council will now vote on this substantial motion as amended by Councilor Said Ahmed. Can those in favour please show? All those against? Any abstention? So, the motion is carried. Thank you. Thank you, Mr Speaker. I've just had a few questions on timings, so just to let everyone know, we started at 7.04. We had a 16-minute break, so if my maths is correct, we should go to 2020. We only have the one item left, which is only up to half an hour, so we won't actually quite reach that. He says. Okay, thank you. So item 9 report from the Executive and the Council Committee. There is no form of executive or committee for the Council, considering the committee. Thank you. Item 10 is other business. There is no report for the Council to consider at this meeting under this item. So, now it's my favourite item. Item 11 is to receive questions from the members of the Council. Information and response are each limited to one minute. There is 30 minutes for member questions to assist with the timing of the meeting. Members may wish to simply refer to their table question, as set out in the agenda. The French question is from Councillor Kamuros and regarding the Council's account. Thank you, Mr Speaker. Can the lead member provide an update on the Council's outstanding accounts, on the left hand side, for six consecutive years under the previous administration? Thank you. I call upon the Council to respond. Thank you, Councillor Hussain, for your question. All accounts up to and including 2019-2020 have been signed off. The remaining three years, the outstanding years, 2021-21-22 and 2022-23 have now all been published and are expected to be signed off by the auditors by September 2024. This will bring an end to a period of utter irresponsibility, where Labor sat on six years of accounts and forecast millions on unavoidable accountancy fees, bringing us into a parallel situation to Councils that had to issue 114 notices. So, thankfully, it is online and we will keep the change of updating in due course. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. Councillor Kamuros, do you have a brief supplementary question? Yes, speaker, thank you. Can the lead member tell us how much was this course to fix to date and what measures are in place to prevent a repeat? Does Council decide that Madam Chief respond briefly? Thank you, Councillor for your question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Council's accounts remain unsigned for six years at a cost of over two million pounds and rising. And there's been significant approaches and procedures put in place to ensure whatever findings we have encountered, whatever learning was possible that we take into account and put the right fixes in place with the right people and the correct accounting treatment taken up going forward. So, like we've mentioned before, the three remaining years have now been published and are in track to be signed off with our new auditors assigned. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. Question 11.2 is from Councillor Muffida-Bastin, on the football pitch. Thank you. Question is tabled, Mr. Speaker. I call upon Councillor I call to respond. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Council is currently looking at the feasibility of installing 9V9 3G pitch at seven days. In partnership with the Football Association, Football Foundation, this will be placed existing underused, unutilized area. The proposed facility will include floodlights and will allow Council to deliver a targeted community sports program for all as a group, inclusive for women, girls, young people. And we are currently at an early stage of feasibility focusing on logistic of installing such a feasible -- if feasible. We will start the consultation process with local residents, that's the current council policy, and with the potential users, group and the stakeholders to develop an operational plan. Accordingly, which will include hours of use and so on. Initial indicative design. Thank you, Councillor. Thank you. Councillor Muffida-Bastin, do you have any brief stuff to do with your question? I do, thank you. So residents are really concerned about these proposals, particularly the floodlights and the impact that it's going to have on a residential area, but also on an area that backs on to my chute farm. Can the lead member please let us know when the consultation with residents is going to start, and will it include the farm? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr Speaker. As I said once, the feasibility is completed. If it is feasible, then a thorough consultation will be followed and received in review consultant with the operational plan. Thank you. Well, thank you, Mayor Michael. Section 11.3 from Council Member Staggard, as regarding the LGAPL review. Thank you, Speaker. Can the lead member update us on progress with the recommendations following the LGA corporate pay review? That take place in September last year. I call upon Councillor Seiden, but to respond. Thank you for your question, Councillor CUMMING. Thank you, Mr Speaker. The LGA undertook a corporate peer challenge for the Council in September 2023. The report published in December acknowledged that many positive aspects of the organisation's performance and the motivated and focused staff who work for it. The report made 18 core recommendations. These are over 70 suggestions for improvements or review. We were brought together to comprise the content of Council's initial response as set out in the LGA action plan. This was also published in December, three months earlier than requires, as it was considered, important to demonstrate the Council's commitment to improvement. Doing so did not inhibit the contribution of others to the plan over the following weeks and months, as the action plan is a live document. The additional actions can be identified and added at any time. It did, however, ensure that the Council's commitment to addressing every issue highlighted by the peer reviews was transparently made and set to a timetable. Thank you, Councillor. Does Council there, Mr. Councillor, do you have a brief supplementary question? Yes, Mr. Speaker. Can the LGA member tell us how the Council will keep members informed or perhaps engaged throughout the process? Let's continue to say thank you, Mr. Speaker. All political groups and single representatives of parties represented within the Council were briefed on the findings of the review and the action plan by the chief executive. Members, I encourage to remain engaged in the process and suggest additional content for the plan. Members have already attended a briefing by the chief executive. And we will ensure, and we will be sure to arrange further briefings, should there be a demand for this. A considerable amount of progress has and continues to be made in delivering against the actions identified. Prior to your focus fell on a number of critical problem areas of governance that had persisted for a number of years. These covered areas such as the backlog of Council's accounts awaiting external audit to sign off and the absence of published annual governance statements. The opposition will be familiar with these issues as it was they who sat on them during their course of their Administration. Thank you, Councillor. Thank you. The question in Deban 4.4 is from Councillor Asma. It's about liberty, housing association. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the Mayor inform me as to whether he has been in communication with Peabody Housing Association? Peabody tenants across the borough have written to express alarm and about dramatic increases to service charges, with many tenants also raising poor quality maintenance and substandard conditions. I'll call up and go to the government to respond. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Peabody is an independent housing association with the chief executive that is accountable for the residents and a chair of the Peabody Board. The Mayor and the Council are passionate about ensuring residents receive a good quality of service and are committed to continue working with social housing providers to ensure that residents receive good quality housing services. And we will continue to work with them to understand residents' concerns and to support them. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Does Councillor Asma explain to me what housing associations are and how they work? My question was, does the Mayor, as someone who doesn't, I'm not expecting him to control the housing association, but has he had any communication with Peabody? And if so, how did that go? Does Councillor COVID want to chill his phone briefly? If there are specific issues or residents' concerns that Councillor Islam would like to raise, I'm more than happy to look into those specific issues along with the Mayor as well, regarding specific residents. Thank you, please. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Lead Member share how much it costs the taxpayer to unsuccessfully take one of our MP Absana Begum to quote? Can you explain how this is represented best value? Thank you. I call upon Councillor Taheda to respond. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The cost of prosecuting Absana Begum MP were £18,261 for external council, £14,899 for the Investigation Team, £55,457 for legal services, which comes to around just under £100,000 of taxpayer money. It should be noted that the legal and the investigation costs are internal costs rather than expenditure. The legal services time is permitted to be charged at a rate in excess of lawyers' salary hourly rate. With respect to whether this reflects best value and the council is under a duty to protect the public purse. Social housing fruit is particularly prevalent in London within the borough. When prosecuting offences, the council follows the code of crown prosecutors and prosecutors only where the evidential and public interest tests are met. Thank you. Councillor Saffman, do you have a brief supplemental correction? No, that's fine. Thank you. Correction 11.6 is from Councillor Emil Lee about community care. Emil is not here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the lead member tell us what steps have been taken to collect the money out to the council? From the rich mix centre. The rich mix centre was loan substantial amount of money, the taxpayers' money, under the previous labour administration. It is understood, while the loan remains unpaid, more money was given to the organization. Under the last mayor, it will help to provide precise figures and an explanation as to how this constitutes best value. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again, thank you. I call upon Councillor Sidelman to respond. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Councillor for your question. From the record available to the council, it is apparent that the loan, a soft loan to rich mix cultural foundation was repaid as part of a legal settlement. The details, which I don't have, and the amount is substantial, around a million pounds. And the settlement, the legal settlement agreement was approved by the mayor at the time, Mayor Biggs, and who was satisfied that it was in the best interest of the council. So we're not sure exactly we need to, we need Councillor, we need more details to understand what the legal settlement was. And whether the full amount was repaid, details are yet to be confirmed. Yes, Mr. Speaker. I do. Can the lead member tell us if any outstanding amount was written off by the previous mayor? Can he also explain the grounds of the write-off and exactly how much the figures were? Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Once again, thank you. Thank you. Let's consider taking them as a response briefly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I believe the substantial amount was around 850,000 pounds. And in terms of the intricacies of the details of what amounts were written off and what amounts were paid back, we don't have that in hand at the moment. And I believe if the Councillor wishes to ask for a public inquiry to understand the intricacies, which is still unknown, I think we should go ahead and do further investigation to understand what the Council has recovered and what amounts have been written off. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Councillor. I can see next question is from Councillors from my background. She's not here, isn't it? So I'm going to move to the next question. Question 11.9 is from Councillor Harun, me about the community section. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the lead member share feedback from the Council tension monitoring group in relation to the Palestinian flags? Can you tell us how many complaints have been received and what action was taken? Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. The tension monitoring group has existed for several years and has been critical in managing tensions that emerge in the community due to local, national and international incidents. Since the start of the conflict, the tension monitoring group has discussed matters arising from the placement of flags and a number of different views have been expressed in the meetings. There have been approximately 346 queries or complaints since October 2023. The action taken was determined on an individual basis, depending on the context of the placement. Thank you. Councillor Harun, me about the brief. I believe it's covered. Thank you. Question 11.10 is from Council. I'll talk about the moment commissions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the lead member update us on the progress of the Council's Women's Commission and inform us how it will work in relation to the operations of the Council? Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. I'll call upon Councillors to look after this point. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Women's Commission was formally launched during international women's award ceremony on 7th of March 2024. The focus of the Commission is to work as a partnership to identify the key issues for women in the borough and to produce a report setting out recommendations for consideration by the Council and its partners. This will ensure the women's voice are heard and support them to take a position of influence and leadership in the community. The Commission will focus on the following areas of inequalities faced by women in the borough. High unemployment, health, inequality, including the community. Thank you, Councillor. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the lead member provide an update in timelines of insourcing of the Royal House? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Councillor. I'm looking for questions. We have moved from GLL better to our own best brand, which is B well. It's officially transferred on 30th of April, subsequently. The B well started, officially started from Wednesday, past April, May. Welcome even to visit your whole Wednesday, the first of May. Attended by our Secret Good News Deputy Mayor, Corporate Director, Director, myself and other officers. All of these centres were closed for mobilisation from Wednesday, first of May to June 7th of May. Communication and launching, we took place at my land as a centre on 7th Tuesday, which was attended by the Mayor himself. Deputy Mayor, CEO, myself. Thank you, Councillor. Thank you. Councillor, do you have a brief supplementary question? Yes, Mr. Speaker, I'd like to know that if the major centre comes in house, if the staff level may turn on any small card, I'd like to know. Thank you. Does Council like to know, Mr. response briefly? Mr. Speaker, sir, can I ask my fellow Councillors to repeat the question? The question is that we're going to maintain the staff level, the ledger centre, or any small card. No, it's not hard, Mr. Speaker, we're maintaining well. Everything is going well. We have a very short shortfall of the staff, but is mitigation circumstances in place, so we have no bread or no yellow. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor SING. Next question is from Councillor SING. Everybody leaves a service. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the lead member inform me of what the steps are being taken to communicate with residents, especially to those in Bromley South and beyond regarding the changes to the ledger services, especially to those who are not so happy with technology, and those who, for those individuals where English may not be the first language, and reassure them that they will still receive the same services in the interim. Thank you. I call upon Councillor Barlow saying to respond. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We took everything in consideration to making sure the communication is not thorough, trying to reach the every angle of the resident in Barlow. From May to March 10, our each 10 article circulated highlight in the justification for insourcing. What is the changeover process will involve and upcoming offers from 27 March, upcoming soon, website live on B well, website with a clear FQS frequently asked question, over upon changeover, membership and direct debut, et cetera. From the end of March in April, measuring across social media, channel, resident members of Hat teachers, newsletters and council, a WhatsApp group was used to communicate to the resident with the FQS. And in addition to that, we took a number of consultation with different group who were not computer. And literate to making sure the every groups are consulted, children, and women and different other groups have been consulted here in town halls and somewhere else in the bar, throughout the bar. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Councillor Suga, do you have a brief supplementary question? Yes, Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to know if there's been any consultations in Barlow, or if there's any questions in there, I just want to thank myself. Councillor interjecting. We should respond briefly. We didn't take consultation word by word, but people, different groups of people, who have been invited to the town hall. But as a process, the listening admitted will be continuously concerned that residents to shape are insourcing leather services. Thank you. And we, Mr. Speaker, we did have the sports summit to consult with the different sports group, to engage them and to listen to them and taking their suggestion on board. And we'll be continuing to consult with the resident to improve the shape of services to adjust the needs of the resident. Thank you. Thank you. Next question is from Councillor Abdulmalak about the local plan consultation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the lead member provide any end up to date on the outcome of the first local plan or consideration, and if possible, outline any major changing which will help bringing investment and the delivery of out profitable housing? Thank you, Councillor. I call upon Councillor COVID-19 to respond. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Councillor Malick. The local plan has a number of statutory requirements over the three years it takes to produce. We are making good progress with the drafting and consultation milestones, and we are on track to submit to the Secretary of State in February 2025 with the aim of adopting later the same year. In November, December, 2023, the local plan undertook a six-week consultation on regulation 18 draft local plan. This consultation used a combination of in-person and online events alongside the use of print and social media to engage widely with our residents, statutory consultees and other stakeholders. The feedback received through the consultation has been used to shape and emerge our emerging regulation 19 version of the local plan. The consultation statement which summarises in fuller the details of regulation 18 consultation will be published alongside regulation 19 version of the local plan. Councillor, I don't have any brief supplementary questions. No, thank you. Thank you very much. I have time to take another one. Councillor James, can you hear about the bend of an antisocial behaviour? Thank you. My question is table to please. Councillor interjecting. Thank you, Councillor, for the question. I had to raise this with the Baracamanda before the question was submitted, so there are a number of things that we are doing. Hopefully I can update you here. So the police and council have received reports of vehicle crime and criminal damage in this location. Our officers are working closely with the meant police to address this crime through the deployment of our resources, engagement with local residents and businesses to prevent and deter this criminality. We are sharing information and working in partnership with the police to identify all hotspot locations, directing our Theo's to carry out proactive targeted patrols to provide visible presence, submitted a request through our joint operational tasking process with the police for additional police resources to target this criminality. The next one being offering advice and crime prevention methods along with obtaining any evidence to support the police with any criminal investigation. Utilising our CCTV, a deployed CCTV camera has been installed, an owned hotspot to help us capture evidence to support the investigation, and finally utilising comms and messaging posters and signs that will be installed. Thank you. I feel that James can do. Do you have any supplements? Thank you. I do my Saturday surgery every Saturday morning. God is late. And yeah, normally walk past broken cars, down three coles street, around Milligan street, lying that sports weight. So thank you for the update on what has been happening. But just one specific detail I'm after. Can you just say when the temporary CCTV camera was installed and what success it might have had, and what success, that all those things that you've mentioned might have had so far? Because it's an ongoing issue. Thank you. Does council have to introduce you to this one briefly? Thank you, Councillor. I believe the CCTV was installed within the last two weeks. I don't have a definitive date, but after I raised it and I've placed it a few times with officers, and I was raised within the last two weeks. In terms of the outcome of putting it there, it's still an investigation. So they are still reviewing the footages, no decisions, or any action have come from it yet. But as soon as they have it, I'll get them to loop in with yourselves and relevant stakeholders. Thank you, everyone. There is no further business, so thank you for your contribution and close the meeting. Please note that members must wait for the mates to be removed before they leave the meeting. Thank you, everyone. Thank you.

Good evening and welcome everyone in Assalamu alaikum. My name is Consular Jaya Todri. I'm the speaker of the council and I'll be sharing the meeting. [ Pause ] I would like to thank everyone for attending including the online participant and the member of the public in the gallery. I trust that you will show courtesy. In particular, I want to remind all members of the council of the public that you must not shout out or otherwise disturb the meeting. If anyone does disturb the meeting, I'll ask for them to be removed from the meeting. I had to do this at a decision meeting and I'll not hesitate to do it again. On this subject, I would like to ask the chief executive to serve the words. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm, as chief executive, I consider member safety to be of utmost importance. Following the incident at the council meeting in February, I have been holding discussions with colleagues from facilities management and democratic services and what additional measures can be introduced at council meetings to support members and staff. To this end, I have agreed the following changes which will be introduced from the council meeting on Wednesday the 8th of May this evening and will be continued for the foreseeable future. There will be a barrier with a desk in the super lobby for two queues to be formed, one for allocated tickets and one for the general public. Anybody who does not get a ticket will be directed to the grosser's wing where they can watch the meeting on a screen and basic refreshments will be provided. There will be FM staff at the bottom of each stairway into the chamber to help identify any potential issues and prevent people from filming the public gallery. There will be additional security inside and outside the building to ensure council, staff and visitors to the building feel safe. I have discussed this approach with the borough commander and deployed the council's theos to support this approach. I'll be more than happy to discuss this with any member of the council at their time of choosing. Thank you, chief. This meeting is being broadcast live by the council website. The cameras will be mainly focusing on the council meeting. In view of this, our remind members that residents are looking on councilors to act in a professional and respectable manner and to show the borough in its best possible light. Our therefore remind all members to keep all contribution brief and derive into the subject matter under discussion. Do not stand or start to speak until I have called you. To speak through me and do not address comment to other members of the public gallery. Do not interrupt each other or make comments whilst other members are speaking and to be respectful to each other at all times. Do not criticize officers during proceedings. And most importantly, if I stand, all members must sit down and be quiet. I'll call only take the action as a last result. I'll ask for the remember of any member or visitors should their behavior become disrupted. I'll continue to ensure that all sides of the chamber as a fair opportunity to contribute. To ensure this, I have obtained a list of members to speak for the item. Should any other member wish to speak, please indicate your wish to do so. I cannot guarantee to accept your request. Please also note that supplementary information has been published including two motions for debate. This meeting is in effect follows on from the meeting at the end of March to consider a number of reports for any given -- for -- for -- and given the number of items we have on the agenda. I consider we should be able to complete this meeting within two and a half hours. I trust members will support my effort to hold a well-managed meeting. If the fire alarm rings, please follow the instruction of the facility staff who will direct you to the exit. The last -- the last few months have continued to be filled with the achievement and success of the hour under schools, residents, and business. It was my honor to be invited to celebrate with them. I attended an exhibition of the artwork of our secondary school students, which is outstanding, and enjoyed a fashion showcase celebrating the achievement of women participating in fashion and textile projects. There have also been sports over -- sports over -- also launching their books and new citizens taking part in citizens of ceremony. As you know, the holy month of her mother took place during March and April, and I joined a number of community groups and organizations to their rift together. There were annual events to such as the Lord will visit to the building market for the ceremonial annual rent payment and the Alta Bali Day home or native ceremony. The highlight of the past few months for me has been reading the many nominations submitted for Taram Dersibek Award and learning about the wonderful things being done by people in this borough. It was difficult to continue to choose the final winners from them, and I was delighted to have the opportunity at the award ceremony last month to meet them in person and show them the -- show them that we appreciate all that have done. They have done. Finally, I would like to congratulate Councillor Iqbalu Sen. Alibar Chodji from Air Office, Radia Hussain, and Earthen Call from the supporting families, as well as other staff and residents who took place. We took part in the London Marathon. Well done to you all. [Applause] Okay, agenda item one is apology for absence. I have received apology for absence from Councillor Asma Beckham and Councillor Amy Lee. Any other apology? Apology for lateness, yeah? No, I don't have any apology for lateness. I understand that Councillor Asma is joining us on mine. Oh, Councillor Amy. Okay, Councillor Asma Beckham has joined us on mine as well. I have members here of any other apologies. Agenda item two is declaration of disposable secondary interest. Would any members with disposable regular interest to declare any items on the agenda please indicate? Agenda item three is the minutes of the previous meeting. The draft under six minutes of the ordinary budget and extraordinary meeting of the Council 24th January 2024 and 28th February 2024 and 28th March 2024. At the dark meeting, I agree to the correct record. Please indicate. Thank you, yeah, that's it, sir. [Applause] Agenda item four, all hand double to the chief executive chief Ashley, who has some announcement to make. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just two announcements this evening. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday of last week, the Council ran a successful election for the London Mayor and London Assembly members. Sadiq Khan was again elected as Mayor of London. The turnout for the constituency was 31.14%. Taoham, this is scrutinised more than most when it comes to elections, so they are important for our reputation as a Council and a place. I was happy to meet best value inspectors and representatives from DLAC at the Excel and to receive positive comments about the nature and conduct of the election. I also had the opportunity and pleasure of visiting over 20 polling stations with Detective Superintendent Vicki Stunstel and James Conway, the Borough Commander and best value inspectors. I mention this because I want to pay tribute to the electoral services team, our poll clerks, counters and others, along with all of the services involved in preparing for, voting and overseeing the election. Secondly, on Tuesday, we launched our new insourced leisure service at Myland and our new Be Well brand. The new service, Be Well, will focus on a holistic view of health and well-being, alongside increasing participation and access for residents with a focus on women, girls, older adults and people at risk of or living with a long-term condition. Very much welcome workers transferring over from GLL and last week I had the pleasure of meeting all of them at an induction event in York Hall. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, sir. Now, agenda item 5, five is to receive petitions. One petition has been received for presentation. This is set out on pages 77 to 80 of the agenda. I call on Allet, Olait and Sana's access to the to present the petition to different free speech and democracy. You have up to three minutes to present the petition. For hearing our petition tonight, my name is Alex and our colleagues are from Moon for Justice. Over the last few months, hundreds of Tower Hamlets community members have signed the petition opposing the racist, xenophobic prevent program and demanding the council take action. We need to make sure that Tower Hamlets Council sets a national example of how a local authority can defend the rights of its community to fight and speak the plain truth about racism, about anti-Muslim bigotry in the UK and about the struggle of the Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. We are calling for Tower Hamlets Mayor and the council because we have real concerns about the government-led prevent program as it directly affects Muslims community in this borough. The experience of Muslims who live and work and study in Tower Hamlets, especially the experience of Muslim young people and their families, demonstrate clearly that the prevent is a racist, Islamophobic policy and a restriction of our right for free speech. The situation has become more acute because the UK government is giving political and material support to the Israeli government in the conflict that is inflicting death and suffering on the Palestinian population in Gaza and the West Bank. The people of Tower Hamlets have shown great resilience at this difficult time. Many have demonstrated their support and simply for the Palestinian people, but we are still fearful of the consequences. Many of the borough's Muslim parents are worried about their child innocent comments could lead them being holed before the event. In some situations, Muslim community members and parents have come together to resist the threat of the event as happened recently in a neighboring borough in Wolfenstein. But in most cases, they feel isolated to do that. At the same time, we know that many Tower Hamlets educators, social workers, etc. feel unhappy and compromised by the prevent, regardless of their religion and ethnic minority. We therefore call on the mayor and this council to call a meeting and a series of meetings, local meetings, in Tower Hamlets for members of the community to speak about our experience with prevent and publish its findings. Thank you. Thank you. There are now four minutes for correction. Does any member wish to put the correction to the petitioner? Make sure not make any statement or comment, just a question. Can I ask Councilor Maim thought of them? Well, I thank you for your petition. My question is there are many organizations who are local organizations who are doing prevent work. And my question is, have you had any discussions or any experience you would like to share with us if you had any? Thank you. One of the main things we have a direct experience was in Tower Hamlets College, the New City College, where we went down to give flyers about this petition. And we were harassed by the Deputy Principal who threatened to call the police. And we found out for the students and teachers there that they had been harassed. And our flyers for the petition was physically taken off the students as they walked into that college. And we went back to them yesterday. So that's a direct experience. There have been other experiences in the community that we know that this has happened. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your petition. Is there any evidence that you were aware of that Tower Hamlets residents are self censoring in order to avoid problem with prevent. Thank you once again. I mean, there's evidence that when we've gone out in the community and spoken to people, they have expressed that. We've had students say that, and we have family members and members of our own organization who have experienced. They feel they can't speak out or they'll be threatened. And that is not just in Tower Hamlets, but that's why we expressed. There's been reports from CAGE and a number of organizations who expressed the effect. And I'm sure members of the community have contacted you as Councillors and informed that. Thank you. Just a quick question around the prevent training that's provided within Tower Hamlets. Have you had an opportunity to look at it or see what is provided? And also in terms of the agenda, the focus also around right wing radicalization. Do you feel there should be a greater element around right wing radicalization, particularly as we had a memorial ceremony remembering the 25th year after the nail bombing in Brick Lane? Prevent is just a tool and it's designed, as we all know, to target the Muslim community. And the statistics show that the vast majority of people that are threatened with prevent are Muslims. This policy is thoroughly racist and anti-Muslim. And the intent that it is focused on right wing extremism is just what the government has done in order to gaslight us. So I think it's very clear and I think people should know that prevent is used. Now what we're trying to do, we're against it, it should be abolished and people should not cooperate. That's a number of unions and community organizations have that policy. But we have to, at the same time, we're in a situation where people in this community feel restricted. What we're trying to do is for the council to hold those community meetings where they can hear directly from the community. Our community members can feel safe because it's organized by the council for them to express their personal experience about being self-centered or whatever. That's where we're going to get a real sense of what's happening in the local community, if the council holds those meetings. And I will say one thing to the Labour Party. This should be an all party event and project. And I expect the Labour Party to stand with our proposal and be involved. And I'd like to hear from them. To conclude the discussion that Councilor Abutarlet chose the committee member for safer community who wished to address the meeting in response to the petition. Year about two minutes. Thank you, Speaker, and thank you for your petition. While we have a duty under the Counterterrorism and Security Act 2015, we are fully aware that local context and pragmatism are key important considerations in the council's strategy. Last October, the council and I have been aware of concerns from some parts of the community that there may be potential for misplaced or misguided referrals to prevent. The council has a robust assessment process for referrals to prevent to ensure that correctly made our proportionate and meet the relevant legal thresholds. I was reassured continually by colleagues that referrals were being managed with sensitivity and local context in mind. And many didn't reach the required threshold contrary to what the perception may be in the public. This is something monitored regularly at the contest board. Actually, referrals dropped significantly in the last quarter. By more than a half and many of the cases weren't even directly referencing the Middle East. The majority were non-council referrals. In terms of community engagement, the council has a dedicated team and has been delivering extensive community engagement activities over many years. Much of this activity is about building trust and confidence. This coupled with our referral process is done right and seen as best practice across London authorities or local authorities. That being said, we fully understand the perception issues of frustration within the public, especially in regards to the new extremism definition. If residents still have concerns, they can raise it with the council or myself directly. They could also raise it with Staku, the newly introduced standards and compliance unit, which was created in response to recommendation 34 of the independent review or prevent. I hope the response satisfies you and the rest of your administration is continually working to build trust and confidence in our services. Thank you very much. Thank you, your time is finished. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. That concludes the item. The petition stands referred to the corporate director for communities for a written response within 28 days. Thank you very much. Excuse me. Thank you very much. Agenda item 660, mail report. I'll call upon mail to the month to give his report to council. You have six minutes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Greatness of peace to each and every one of you. Firstly, I would like to congratulate our newly appointed permanent corporate directors for children services and adult services. Stephen Ready and Georgia Jimbani. This is another step towards cementing the stability and long-term security of our corporate management team. And by extension, the corporate stability of this council. Welcome to both of you. Ladies and gentlemen, the 5th of May 2022, the residents of this borough voted for change. They voted for a new brand of politics, one that would put their interest and need first. They voted for a vision, that moved away from cuts to services, a drop in the living standards and the squeezing out of the loved ones by social exclusion and gentrification. A change that listened to their concerns and not the wishes of those with the loudest voices. A change that puts the people of calmness at the heart of delivery with the sole aim of giving them a place they could be proud of to call home. The two years have passed incredibly quickly and I am proud of what this council has achieved during this time. To list every single policy and success that we have had so far wouldn't be possible in 60 minutes, let alone 6 minutes. But I do want to mention some of these deliveries. We have finally given our young people hope for the future. From the reintroduction and doubling. Yes, doubling of our educational maintenance alerts and university adversaries. Thousands of our children can strive to attend the best six forms and universities regardless of their rates, class or economic background. By the start of next year, we will have given over 1600 in my awards educational maintenance alerts awards, now 600 pound for each out and 1200 university adversaries. We believe that no child should be held back from soon their dreams and I am immensely proud of the work that we have done to give our children the best education in our borough. We have become the first borough in the country to provide free school meals for both primary and secondary school children. Meaning that no child in this authority will go hungry. We have taken a broken youth service, staff of funding and resources and brought it back to life, with nearly 14 million pounds of investment each year. Young ta Hamlets will be the benchmark for youth development and growth across the country, encouraging our youngsters to pursue their interest and stay away from temptations of the streets. We have transformed our council into a listening one, with the reopening of five resident hubs across the borough and showing that our residents can speak to a real person about their issues. We are making good progress to meet our pledge to deliver 4000 herms for rent and our track record shows that we are serious about dealing with overcrowding in ta Hamlets. We have insourced timeless homes and showing that our residents receive the best housing services on offer. We have began the process of undoing the closure of the borough's roads that has led to unfair consequences for small businesses, carers and residents and rely on car travel for the livelihood. We took this decision in September 23 and are currently fighting a judicial review to stop a road from reopening. We will continue to fight that proceeding and fulfill our pledge to the people of ta Hamlets to reopen our roads. We have excelled in introducing measures to improve health and well-being across ta Hamlets. On the 1st of May, we are delighted to see our new insourced council, runs sports and leisure services, be brought in house, be well brought in house. And just yesterday, I attended a celebration at the Mylan Stadium. Controlling this service will enable the council to provide bespoke sessions that cater to our diverse communities, building on another policy that I am incredibly proud of. Our decision to provide free swimming sessions to all our women and girls over the age of 16 and all our men over the age of 55. We will continue to do what we can to tackle the health inequalities in our borough that have damaged our residents. We have began to strengthen the council's governance, finances and performances. When we arrived, we found six years of accounts left unsigned. 1.6 million pound worth of battery seats over six years unpaid for. Contracts double paid to social care providers to the tune of 11 million pound and 1.9 million pound of which are still unaccounted for. And five years of unsigned annual governance statements, a legal requirement, ladies and gentlemen, share in confidence. This is about the tip of the iceberg we inherited. I am pleased to say that we have signed off four years of our accounts already and the following two years have been worked on. We have repaid the money that the previous administration left us to deal with. And signed off all our annual governance statements, all while delivering a sustainable, balanced budget that would continue to deliver the best service on offer to the people who met them most, our residents. We have demonstrated that you can run a council efficiently and in compliance with statute requirements, while increasing investment into our services, and showing that our residents are protected from the cost of living prices and the social and economic inequalities that underpin London living. And we have only just begun. There's much more to do and I look forward with my colleagues to delivering for the people of this borough over the next two years and beyond. Thank you. (Applause) Thank you. (speaking in foreign language) Thank you Mr. Speaker and thank the Mayor for the report. So can I first start off by congratulating the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. (speaking in foreign language) For the reflection, the priorities are to handle this priorities. Council House building, rent control homes, funding free school meals, primary schools, cracking down on artificial behaviour, fair freeze and many more. I'd like to take this opportunity to attention to Motion 12.1 and use this time to make a few remarks. This weekend marked the 46th anniversary of Metro Alka Valley and in the past weeks with anniversary of Brick Lane, Nell bombing and the killing of Blair Peach. Each of these anniverses are a reminder of the struggles that those that have come before us. They are a reminder of the threat that men in our boroughs face and they continue to face on this day. This chamber and those who sit in this chamber is a testament to their struggle, including our residents and those who have fled war, want and persecution. The comments made by those in government shows that our fight is not done. The immigration raids, floating prisons, the flights to Rwanda show that our fight is not over. The crackdown on protests strikes on free speech show that our fight is not done. We have just come through a little direction where the main challenges of the morality press in our power and participated in spaces that spoke about our communities, like we have here, in a way that is all too familiar to those who struggled before us. So Mr. Speaker, I've been finished by saying the Mayor and I disagree on much and we'll debate those disagreements later in proceedings. But I feel proud to live in this city and the borough that elects people like we have in this chamber who will have those debates and disagreements with kind common causes in the matter of what matters most to us. So thank you, Mr. Speaker. [Applause] Thank you. Mayor of the Mayor would you like to respond? You have two minutes. [Silence] Agenda item 7 is the motion for debates submitted by the Administration. Please look at your page 822. The debate will follow the rules of debate at council procedure rule 13 and will last no more than 30 minutes. Considered side down, can you please move your motion? As set out in the table, the table papers here, four minutes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Months ago, this Administration announced a budget demonstrating the huge steps we have made over the past two years to reach a point of sustainable delivery where we have invested in our communities and not cut services in a way that it is unreliant on reserves for ongoing costs. This was not an overnight process and required a great deal of work to recover from years of services declined by the Labour Party. By 2022, the services that survived Labour cuts were hanging by a threat. Financial governance and its purposes were not existent and there was zero long-term financial strategy in place for achieving sustainability because they had no vision or ambition for the future of this great borough. Two years on, and this Administration has completely transformed the capacity of our council to provide and deliver for our residents. Our manifesto was far-reaching and ambitious. And although there is still much more we want to do, we have already delivered a great deal to recover from the damage done by Labour and restore our status as a trailblazing council that puts people first. To restore hope in this council for our residents, amongst the many things we have, revitalised a dying youth service with £13.7 million of investment per year, accelerated education by becoming the only council in England to fund free school meals for primary and secondary school children. We reinstated EMA and university bursaries, double the amount of voluntary organisations that received grant funding, resourced a drug treatment centre, women's resource centre and state of art leisure centres, recruited an additional 41 enforcement officers to offset the Labour cuts to community safety and enforcement. We opened a one-year idea store closed by Labour as well as the one-stop shop that provided essential support to vulnerable and the elderly. Reversed the opposition's decision to cut the community language scheme and provided essential support to many residents. Protected 47,000 households from an increase in council tax, putting a stop to 25% hike that residents saw under Labour years. Restored financial governance by recruiting a permanent section 151 officer by signing off and publishing six years of unsigned accounts that had accumulated under Labour and by budgeting a three-year balanced MTFS for the duration of the term, which includes the great initiatives, the transformative initiatives we have for our residents. This success, Mr. Speaker, I must stress, is within the context of sustainable delivery. Gone other days where saving targets are not met and accounts remained unsigned. With this, Mr. Speaker, I formally move this motion. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councillor, I call upon the Council on my interlude at the second motion. You have three minutes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am extremely pleased to second this motion. This week marks the second anniversary of residents of Tower Hamlet's electing the Aspire Mayor and majority Aspire Councillors. This Mayor and the administration has always put our residents first. We have reversed so many Labour cuts, cuts to the youth service, cuts to the community language service, cuts in support for our young people, such as the EMA and bursaries. We have put money into frontline services targeting our most vulnerable families and investing into our young residents. This man and the administration have turned around this disregard of governance of last administration. Mr. Speaker, the stammer party failed to get their accounts audited and signed off for six years in a row. Fade to pay the fact to be on time. Fade to deliver on saving targets for seven years in a row. Fade is of steady inspection and failed to appoint a permanent 151 officer. The list just goes on and on. But one thing they have not failed to cut was their own allowances. In fact, they increased the money paid to Councillors which we have frozen. Mr. Speaker, we inherited a council that was financially unstable with a high-end fire policy and a two-counsel culture which failed to deliver its own strategic plan. Mr. Speaker, I am extremely proud what these men and the administration have achieved over the last two years. We are focused on delivering for all our residents, making sure our most vulnerable residents are protected and giving our young residents the best opportunity to thrive and become successful. This administration has this month's borough leisure service back in house. After an expensive GLLs, our new B well service will be a service of excellent supporting and improving through accessible leisure facilities and health of all our residents. Mr. Speaker, this administration is about delivering for the community. We see the achievement we have set out in our motion as fantastic record. So labor can laugh and they can criticize us, but we will only talk about our achievement and the delivery we are delivering under this man. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Cairnga. I wish to speak. Can I call up and consider Mr. Cairnga? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am deeply humbled and honoured to address this table. Here, the echoes of history mingled with the aspirations of tomorrow. Let us reflect upon the illustrious journey of the Aspire administration. In the face of adversity, we didn't cover who is too tall. We have tackled the cost of living crisis head-on as it threatened the economic stability of our residents. We did not wave on nor did we falter. We have not merely survived. We have thrived. Mr. Speaker, we mobilized nearly £10 million in cost of living support so that every single son and daughter of this borough could navigate the storm with dignity and resilience. But our vision extends far beyond mere survival. We are architects of hope, builders of a brighter tomorrow, champion of revival, to compassion and justice. Our dedication to housing exemplifies these ethos. With nearly 22,000 properties brought back under local control, we have essentially redefined the concept of providing shelter and stability. Mr. Speaker, education lies at the core of our agenda for progress. We have ensured universal free school meals for all primary and secondary students, provided substantial bursaries and support for university and college students, and bolstered services for children and with special educational needs and disabilities. We have boosted culture, business and leisure activities with substantial investments in community programs, business support and leisure facilities. We have created job opportunities, supported local enterprises and provided relief for businesses contributing to a thriving local economy. In our quest for excellence, we have not forgotten our duty to care for the most vulnerable, whether through expanded youth services, culturally sensitive drug treatment centers or initiatives to tackle crime with increased CCTB's additional police patrol hours and enforcement offices. Over the past two years, our administration's achievements have been profound and far-reaching. Touching the lives of residents across Tower Hamlets, we have honored the trust that people of Tower Hamlets placed in us. A landslide victory for mallot for Oman and 24 Aspire Councillors, we have delivered at an unparalleled speed. As we move forward, let us continue to build on this momentum and work together to create an even brighter future for our borough. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Speaker. This motion appears to have been crafted out of desperation to deflect attention from Aspire's own failures. It serves as a smokescreen for Aspire Councillors to engage in their speciality, filibustering and scondering public funds. This tactic of diversion and delay allows them to continue their wasteful practices unchecked, all while the public's money dwindles away. This motion suggests that the current mayor and the Councillor inherited a financially unstable council. However, according to the LGA peer review report, quoted on the Tower Hamlets Council website, I repeat, on the Tower Hamlets Council website on February 29, 2024. I quote, Tower Hamlets has a good record of financial management with strong foundations in place to maintain the future financial sustainability of the organization. Unquote. I have the link available if anyone wants to view the link in the Tower Hamlets Council website. Essentially, this political motion contradicts the finding of the LGA peer review report that the council has cited for publication. Such contradictions typically arise when there is a disconnect between the administrative officers and the political leadership within the council, meaning a council within council. But the contradiction do not cease there, Mr. Speaker, there aren't even deeper. This motion itself acknowledges the substantial lending of millions of pounds to other boroughs, implying the existence of secure and stable reserves. This revelation flies in the face of the narrative of financial instability put forth by the motion, leaving us to question its validity and coherence. The aspire part is allocating millions of pounds for advisors, despite including self-contradictory statements in their motion. Mr. Speaker, the labor group has persistently asked in the aspire administration to do their own best value inspection regarding the millions of pound public money they are spending on their army of advisors. Sadly, they did not listen to our advice and now we find ourselves within a government appointment best value inspector. The motion talk about the cost of living crisis and spiraling cost to complete the new town hall on the same paragraph. I do not know whether the aspire part even understands the meaning of cost of living crisis. According to the crisis UK authority, the cost of living crisis refers... To a period of time during which the cost of every day essentially increase more quickly than average household income, notably the construction of this town hall or card amid the cost of living crisis. Thank you very much. Mark-based, staggering annual inflation rate of 11.1% 41. Thank you very much. Yaha'i, thank you. Mr. Speaker, many in this room will be unaware. That the origins of the word 'spire' actually means to breathe upon. So when we took office in 2022, Mayor Lutvaraman and this administration, I can say breathed life into the borough's education, housing, community safety, the council's finances, social care and the list goes on. The transformation and recovery journey all began when the residents, some of whom are in this chamber, in the public gallery, booted out the Labour Party locally and entrusted 24 independent councillors and their executive mayor to transform public services. Let me be very clear, transformation was absolutely necessary as we inherited a dysfunctional council. Transformation, transformation, transformation. The need for it was vividly clear when we discovered the amateur oversight of our council's finances. The thing that makes everything happen in this council, six years of unsigned accounts, 20 million pounds of missed saving targets, unpaid vat receipts of over a million pounds and lending millions to the city. And lending millions to other local authorities to possibly build an election war chest which failed in a spectacular fashion. As part of our recovery, I am assured that the future of our next generation will be brighter. The universal free school mills in primary and secondary schools, EMA, university grants, a youth club in every ward, new six forms, super school, connecting our children to the best institutions around the world. In addition to a brighter future, we needed to make Tower Hamlet a safer borough. Triple in the size of our Tower Hamlet's enforcement officers, funding more police officers, getting more people into treatment, investing in a dedicated women's centre, upgrading all our CCTV cameras, a new drugs intelligence unit and unlocking the powers of partnership to arrest nearly two drug traffickers a day. Has nearly got us out of the top 10 worst crime boroughs in London. Mr Speaker, I'll start with the definition and I'll end on one. The current Oxford definition of a spice you have a strong desire to achieve. As we progress through our four-year budget, I'm confident that we will gradually be considered as a borough of best practice, award-winning, innovative and on this side of the chamber. To demonstrate a strong desire to achieve and transform the lives of people that work, live and visit our borough. Thank you, Mr Speaker. There's a lot of poetry in the chamber tonight, so I may add to that, if I may. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom. It was the age of foolishness. So begins the opening of Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, which is a great work of fiction. And no, I'm not implying that the administration motion is, in any way, a great work of fiction. But what interests me is that we have two groups of motions presented here tonight, which give different views of the state of Tower Hamlets under the different administrations at different times. And I wonder what would Charles Dickens say of today's world? Now, I know, Mr Speaker, that you are a keen follower of fashion, and I know you would have been watching the Met Gala the other night. And as you'll be aware, there was a picture published of Katy Perry, who in her Met Gala dress, and it turns out she wasn't actually there. It was generated by AI. It was a fake. Even her own mother didn't realize it was a fake. So we're living in an age of disinformation, so it is important more than ever that we in this chamber are precise, we are accurate, and of course that we are truthful. There is information in this motion that I disagree with, which I have a different understanding of. And I think what we need to be clear about, that in this motion, there is nothing new in there. These findings, these financial issues were identified by the Labour administration, and a finance improvement plan was put in place by Labour. And that work was well underway at the beginning of 2022. And the description of this Council as financially unstable, or to claim that there was no governance in place, has only ever been said by a spire. It has not been said by any auditors, and it has not been said by any independent advisors. So let's deal with facts. The motion refers to a spires call for a council-wide audit. Two years, I have sat on the audit committee, and not once have I seen a report or a line from that audit. And this is really important, because this culture of disinformation, or this culture of information that emanates from the Council is really important. It's what our residents need, reliable info. I'm going to give you one small example, Bing collections, this bank holiday. Council comes proudly stated that normal collections would be carried out, and they weren't. We need honest, reliable Council communications, and that is what our residents deserve. Thank you, Councillor. Councillor interjecting. Councillor interjecting. Councillor interjecting. Councillor interjecting. Councillor interjecting. Councillor interjecting. Good evening, Mr Speaker. Thank you for giving me the opportunity. Obviously, the second anniversary of this administration being elected by the residents of Tower Hamlets, absolutely signals that it was a time for change. And this change has happened because we can see this administration's impressive record over the last few years, the radical measures has taken to improve services in key investments where the opposition refers to cuts and services, cleaning up the governance and financial practices across the Council. A three-year budget highlighting the financial discipline and competence underpinning the impressive transformation of this Council. Mr Speaker, Aspire has brought financial innovation, competence to Tower Hamlets, and to the residents who feel that there's something in the horizon, EMA grants, free school meals, which is unprecedented in the whole of England. It's inspired of all the cost of living. This administration has funds and has found funds for the to help the residents in the cost of living. That is a true cost of living when people know that they will save 1500 pounds, you know, three child who are in secondary school. This is cost of living and this is helping the residents to make sure. And this administration has given this and has invested in the people. And we believe going forward this Council and this administration will work for the residents because we have a leader with us who has a vision for the whole of Tower Hamlets and to serve each and every residents of this borough. I urge the Council to vote this motion and rightly celebrate this impressive record. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, we live in difficult times with everything that's happening in the world. The Ukrainian War, the Middle East War, the horrific state of Rafa, the prospect of a Trump-American on the horizon. The media, as we have seen it, has got worse over the years, which has not always been fair and just. All the full truths. Not all of them, and not always, but we have watched all four politicians such as Wella Brotherman and Rishis Sunat try and lie to our faces and spin the truth. But what that has done is make us and public smarter and see through the smokes, screens, lies and deceits. We are smarter about how we process information and how politicians feed to fire. It's unfortunate we live in an age of misinformation and we see it here with this administration tonight. So early this week Mr Speaker, as I was looking forward to see what we'll be debating, I read the administration motion and I thought to myself, here we go again. I knew exactly what this motion was about. It was an attempt to hide the truth, promote themselves prematurely and as usual, shift the blame elsewhere but themselves. Here is the biggest irony of it all. The motion does not shy away from promoting the administration's achievements, but it also says the administration will cooperate with the inspectors. Hold on, if you are so great and everything so rosy, why are they here in the first place? The motion says it will carry on implementing the findings of the L.J. report. Again, if you are so great and things are so rosy, why did we get the report that we did? Let's talk about contradictions. The L.J. report in 2023 was the first time and the only time the two council structure culture problem came up. However, this administration wants people to believe it is a problem they inherited. So let's take some direct quotes from that report. A consistent message that emerged from different areas of the council was that there are two councils in operation at 100, which is impacting on the speed and effectiveness of decision-making. Primary, there is a lack of trust between the mayor's office and senior officers with examples of inappropriate questioning and pressure to feed things into the mayor's office for sign-off. And I'll give you a quote from the report from an officer. I know my job inside out, but I have to check with the mayor's office. Doesn't sound pretty transformative to me. Speaking of shameful shameless contradiction, Councillor Miley and his colleagues want to constantly take a dig out on the SRA increase under labour. I'm pleased that they enjoyed for the last two years. In fact, they topped up with the public purse by funding the mayor's office hundreds and thousands of times. The administration's motion's title in itself is a joke. Two years of transformation. Your time is done. Thank you, Councillor. Thank you, Councillor. Can't see that. Can I start by saying that democracy is a good thing. And it was the people of Tower Hamlets two years ago that did not buy into the so-called labour value. Which was ill-gotten, ill-represented and ill-connected. They actually bought and voted and supported Mayor Lutvarajwan and the Esquire administration. That's a fact, Mr Speaker. Not a collusion and not smokes and mirrors. Fact. The Council, as an entity, operated quite dysfunctionally when we came into this Council. It provided departments that didn't talk to one another. There was no upgrade to infrastructure from the telephony system to the IT system. And even when they spent £140 million on this building, they couldn't get the IT right. That was picked up by the LGAP review, Mr Speaker. Now, we talk about misinformation and hiding truths. Do you know, in which year, the highest amount of money was spent on consultants? It was 2018, Mr Speaker. And in that same year, Mr Speaker, there were loads and loads of consultants. Yet, in terms of financial accountability and sign-offs from auditors, the most basic of councils have those signed off by auditors, Mr Speaker. And they talk about smokes and mirrors. They put processes in place, Mr Speaker. Those processes weren't working, Mr Speaker. It was year after year after year within their administration that they failed to get those accounts signed off, Mr Speaker. But let's not talk about the past, because we're going to talk about that in their motion, Mr Speaker, which is coming next. We talk about financial management and the lack of understanding of financial management by the opposition council as Mr Speaker. Do you know what? Yes, they left huge reserves. Yet, where is a council supposed to spend its money on? The most vulnerable, Mr Speaker. But they were too busy pumping money into reserves and lending it to other local authorities, Mr Speaker. Not spending it on the people of Tower Hamlets during the COVID crisis, during the cost of living crisis. Now, Mr Speaker, they would not spend it on the people of Tower Hamlets. They increased fees, but didn't support the residents of Tower Hamlets. Yes, what are we doing? We are spending that money on the residents of Tower Hamlets, Mr Speaker. Let me finish by a quote by S.E. Hinton. That was then. This is now, Mr Speaker. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. [Applause] Unfortunately, the time limit for the weight of experts, so our last councilor side helmet to you, which you exercise your right of reply, you have three minutes. Sorry. An update with which time is finished. 30 minutes is finished. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you, Mr Speaker. And it's a shame. It's a shame that councilors opposite do not see the transformation we have made in the last two years. It's a shame. That's why they remain as a minority opposition here, not within the administration. Because this is what we have transformed of our and our residents are appreciating what we have done so far. [Applause] Upon returning to office in May 2022, the mayor and his administration inherited the council, which was financially unstable. That's why the auditors from KPMG and Deloix didn't sign their council. Six years of unsigned accounts. Yes, we're going to keep banging on about this. That was six years of unsigned accounts, one of the highest years of unsigned accounts in the whole of London. 20 million pounds of missed savings targets. Millions of pounds lent to neighbouring authorities during COVID-19 and the cost of living crises. Unpaid, that receipt of over 1 million pounds over six years, 11 million pounds of unreconciled adult social care payments with significant risk of duplication. That is red alarms. That's red flags. Spiring costs of complete to complete the new town halls and grants awarded through single applicant processes. That's a shame and it's worrying. That's an audit failure. There were also governance issues. With five years of unsigned annual governance statements. One year budgeting budget setting process, which isn't fit for process. Struggling statutory services reflected in the failed offstead and youth justice report. Rising crime and community safety issues. And a string of interim corporate directors and in statutory positions, including the Section 151 officer. Importantly, to fix this, the strides we have made within the context of sustainable and prudent financial framework. With labour now in opposition and we are no longer a council that writes of tens of millions of pounds of savings. We are no longer willing to squander extortionate sums of agency or consultancy spend. And we are no longer irresponsible to waste millions of pounds on double payments of contracts or accounting failures. This is a new era for tower hamlets. And I encourage members across the chamber to help us continue delivering our ambitious and transformative agenda. By supporting this motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Councillor. We will now vote on the motion moved by side, Councillor side that met. Can those in favour please show? All those against? Any abstention? The motion has carried. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Speaker, under procedural rule 12.1, I would like to propose an amendment to the council's order of business. Over the past month, we have seen several attempts to portray our borough as a dangerous place to live. With the senior MP even referring to as no-go area. This is a sufficiently led to far-right media channels and groups such as Britain First come into tower hamlets. Seeking to capitalise on this hateful and divisive. Those of us who live and work in the borough know that this could not be further from the truth. Those of us who live or work in the borough know that this could not be further from the truth. Those of us in this side of the chamber therefore feel that this is a recent campaign of division and efforts to create a historic community tension that requires an urgent change in order of business to move up the go-to borough motion in section 2.1 of the meeting's agenda. I would like to also make it clear that in the interest of democracy and collaborate the best practice, this side of the chamber will call for an extension of the routine of this meeting, if necessary, to ensure that the position motion is heard and given them fair hearing and time that should be afforded to it. I therefore propose Mr. Speaker that we move to a vote to change this meeting to order of business. Thank you. Can I have a seconder for this proposal please? I fall really second Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's an universal surprise. It's making my life an easier one. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Give me a minute please. Wait, wait. Thank you. Thank you very much. Can I ask everybody to say the please? So we move to agenda item 12 now. Agenda item 12 is to consider motions submitted by the members of the council. Please note that any amendment must be formally moved and seconded before it can be debated. Composer of the amendment should be there for indicate and when called by me move the amendment during the speech. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I stand before you today as a counselor, a worker and a lifelong resident of this great borough. I know that many others in this chamber are too. I'm incredibly proud to call this borough my home and to have been part of and lived alongside the many diverse communities that have not only managed to live and thrive here together, but also fight together and defend each other over centuries. For hundreds of years, tablets has been a go to borough for those seeking refuge and safety from oppression abroad. For centuries, we have stood together against all fascist, racist and groups who have targeted our families and our neighbors. This borough stands as a towering example of how people from different backgrounds can live, work and respect one another built upon the foundations of community and respect. In the last two years, the administration has invested greatly to make Tower Hamlet a go to borough for everyone. Whether they're seeking safety from oppression, a place to raise their family or one of the most or to visit one of the most vibrant places in London. We've invested millions to triple the size of our field service and add a new drugs intelligence unit to ensure that no man or woman feels unsafe walking down our streets at night. We've invested in upgrading parks across the borough with new place spaces, football pitches and facilities for people of all ages. We've begun writing a grand break in New Violence Against Women a Girl Strategy that includes a commitment to a brand new women's resource center, investment in trauma-informed support for victims and resources to protect women from harassment in our nighttime economy. We've opened a new body of work focused on ensuring that asylum seekers and refugees in Tower Hamlet are given the resources they need to not only survive but thrive in their temporary homes. We've opened Victoria Park, the Gem of East London, to events and celebrations of all kinds that will bring local residents of all backgrounds together and increase income generation and business in Tower Hamlet. We've worked with local mosques, churches, synagogues and advocacy groups and a variety of other marginalized communities to fight hate and support community cohesion across a number of boards and forums. And that's only the tip of the iceberg. In the last two years, we have made people, we have made making Tower Hamlet a go-to bar our top priority. In that same time, Labour has focused on expanding its numbers in parliament by welcoming xenophobic bigots into their base. Earlier today, Conservative MP Natalie Elfig, known for her hatred and discriminatory attitude towards Muslims, immigrants and the LGBT community, defected from the Tories and joined the party opposite. She embodies the closed-minded, unbolcoming and divisive mindset that led Paul Scully to call our home a no-go zone and has found the home in the Labour Party. I stand here today as a member of a party that will champion the rightful members of any community to feel welcome and safe in our parks, on our streets and in their own homes. Those on the bench's opposite, sadly, can no longer say the same. In supporting this motion, you will not only be recognised in the inclusive past, present and future of this borough, but also making a statement that the only people not welcome here are those who support and defend hate and division. Thank you. I call upon Councilor COVID-19 at the second motion. You have up to three minutes. Members of my right to speak, Mr. Speaker. Councillor. Does any other member now wish to speak on the motions submitted by Councilor Abutall-Hachoudry? If you have up to three minutes each to speak, I call upon Councilor my entire shelter. Councillor Aminale. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I support this motion and I think it's an important motion. Many at times, the London Borough of Tahham, this has been the butt of jokes of many racist and slumber phobic people who have tried to divide our communities by attacking the Muslim communities. That's basically what they're doing. And so I think it's important that we celebrate their diverse history from the African Somali Sea ferries who came and worked on the docks, from the Bangladeshi community who helped build a claim from the Jewish community, the East End Cockneys. We've always been a community built on communities, a welcoming area where everybody has been welcomed. And we, as the motion says, we welcome refugees and we've welcomed many people who have been fleeing torture and prosecution around the world. It's a borough where people will always be proud to call home. It's a borough that is the original East End. When people talk about the East Enders, it's Tower Hammers really that they talk about the Cockney East End and we have black cockneys, brown cockneys and white cockneys. We're all cockneys here in Tower Hammers. We're very proud of our Cockney heritage. And we won't let people divide us, be it Donald Trump or be any of the Tories. However, a word to the wise, I think sometimes we need to look at ourselves as white people look at us as an easy target. If we look at the Aspire party, we need more diversity in our political representation in this borough, be they female, be they the different ethnic groups here. If we have more diversity rather than trying to divide each other by a name calling about Tories who've come across the Labour side or whatever, then people wouldn't be able to target us. It's not a great look when there's only men or only people of a certain ethnicity group that represent the main political party. So, I think going forward, we as a borough need to celebrate our diversity and become more inclusive and more visibly inclusive and not throw stones at each other when we all live in glasshouses. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you Mr. Speaker. For anyone who liked me came to this borough from another country and made a home here. For well the English politicians speak about Tower Hamlets being an annual coming place, it's like a punch in the guard. For people seeking refuse from around the world, this entire country can feel like no go zone in so many parts of the UK. People are made to feel unsafe because of their skin, colour, gender, religion and sexuality and country of origin. For centuries, those who have been made to feel like they are not welcome in England have found community and safety in Tower Hamlets. Work 10 minutes down any high street in this horror and you will find a diversity of community. Spaces and centres of culture that is rare in the most of the country but not here. I am honoured to be a part of party that is committed to showing the rest of London what a truly welcoming place Tower Hamlets has been for us all. I have seen members of this community from all backgrounds stand together and defend each other against hate, oppression and discrimination. When outside went on the news of speak badly about Tower Hamlets, ISO people, young, old, black, white and Asian, Muslim and non-Muslim residents and visitors speaking up to say how welcome they feel here. They truly want my heart and reminded me how special this place is. I would like to draw special attention to this section of this motion focused on doing more to welcome and protect asylum seekers and refugees. So many people fleece to the UK only to end up in uplift housing and without access to quality food or health resources. It is our responsibility as a council to follow examples set by generations first and ensure that anyone seeking refuse in Tower Hamlets is given the chance not only to stay but to thrive. I hope that everyone in this room wishes to welcome others to their home as much as I do. And that you demonstrate that by supporting this motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Councillor, I am happy to support it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think this is an interesting motion and I am happy to support it. I would just like to focus in on the final point that's made in the motion to state the Council's wish to be designated as the Borough of Sanctuary. Now this is a very interesting point I think because to become a Borough of Sanctuary is a significant thing to do as a council and I would really, really like for Tower Hamlets to become a Borough of Sanctuary. We would join several other boroughs in London, Barnet, Brent, Hammersmith and Fulham, Lewis and Greenwich and Wandsworth if we were to become a Borough of Sanctuary. So I really, it's really just to back up our words with actions that not only is this Borough a welcoming Borough and not only do we stand firm against people who try to, you know, attack our reputation, that we also are a welcoming Borough and that we continue to be a welcoming Borough. So I'd really like to say to the Council, you know, we can make an application and in the application we can show that we really do engage with people seeking sanctuary and that we can include people seeking sanctuary in the processes in order to make sure that our resources are, I don't know if, Mr. Speaker, you're listening to me. Can you have one meeting, please? It's two meetings going. Mr. Speaker, I might... Should I carry on? Yeah? So, Mr. Speaker, I'd like to urge you to listen to my plea. Yeah? Okay. I don't know. Are you concentrating or? Okay. Okay. Great. It's an important motion and I'm happy to support it but I'd also like us to go further. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. Councillor Maim, let's look at that. Thank you, Councillor. We will listen to you. Mr. Speaker, I'm proud to live in town less, work in town less. One of my children were born in town less. It's the diverse Borough and it's a community, you know, a cohesive community and I'm proud of the community. The different community, especially during difficult times, we have proven many, many times whether it's the fascist attack or the ideal or the racism, the community, we come together and we've seen it many, many times in town less. Under many, many leaders and our man, Mr. Rahman, under his leadership, we've seen it. So, whenever there's attack, whenever there's division, we come together and I'm extremely proud of that. And it's an insult to the communities to form a senior MP, to say, town less is a logo on that area. So, extremely important. We, the politicians, we work together but also we will be very careful what we say about the political evolution we have. So, I am supporting this motion. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In principle, I support this motion. I think we can for a second put our politics aside. We, as residents, as elected officials beyond whichever side of the bench will sit, we are proud of this borough. For many of us, my late father and many people I speak in this room found this borough to be a home, a safe home. Many times, there was challenges. We, only last week on the 4th of May, we celebrated, we remember the late Alta Bali, a man who, for many of us in this room, echoes of our father's generation, who suffered at the hands of races. But fast forward for six years, and on the same year that we celebrated, well, a lot of us in this room, we celebrated the wonderful, the beauty of this borough, where his majesty in his first year came to this borough to celebrate everything that we've achieved collectively. Within that year, an opportunist, Tory, who once was a London minister, who wanted to be the mayor of London, who said this, and a lot of you didn't know this, but I know because I happened to know some Tories for my sin, he took the pleasure of wanting to celebrate his long, short-lived, assuming role as a mayoral candidate by booking an appearance at Brick Lane Moss on the day that he actually lost his candidacy to the lipstick wearing Donald Trump. So it was okay for him to book and be in Brick Lane, assuming he was going to be the mayor on candidate for the Tory. But the same person, I'm not going to name him, because he doesn't deserve to be named in this chamber. This is a beautiful chamber of full of beautiful people. This nasty piece of little man decided to share to the world the 100 was no good, a no-go area, which is unfitting as a politician, as a former London minister. So I take it up on myself, and I'm sure many across the bench here, we take it personally. Everything we worked for, and I'm sure a diverse London only spoke so passionately last week, when a million-plus people voted for a diverse, a man who looks like us, who sounds like us, and who delivers for us in London, a Labour Mayor, can I remind everyone, a Labour Mayor. So that shows what, Labour is not going anywhere, Labour is here to stay, Labour is delivering for everyone. Whatever your views are, Tara Hamlet, I say this, in these two years you haven't beautified this borough, it's been hundreds of years of making this melting pot of a borough that is so beautiful for everyone. Now, I want to credit this Mayor, who was a Labour man in the past, 24 years I've been serving in public life in various capacity. I've worked every day tirelessly to make sure the people of this borough have what is rightfully theirs, which is to be part of a greater city, the greater city of the world. So one Tory opportunities, who wants to go and grab headline, because he didn't get his nomination, in fact, he fell to a British Bangladeshi so miserably, he actually did far better. Maybe if the Tories chose him, maybe they would have had a better chance. Maybe, but I think Sadik overall, Labour is a Labour, London is a Labour city. Do you agree? So what I will say, we will not let opportunities divide us. Whatever politics we do in this chamber, one thing we unite, one thing we will say, we are all united, and we will always speak with Peter Gold. Thank you. I have to say, listen to Councillor ALLAN, presumably the Labour group election hasn't taken place. But the glories of this borough are quite extraordinary, of course. I have deep and long family connections of it. When I came here, many, many years ago, I sent a card out with my new address. My late mother's older sister, who was born in the year 1908, and she was a very, very clever young lady, and she won a scholarship to Central Foundation School, except of course her parents, who could neither read nor write, had no comprehension of what a scholarship to Central Foundation meant. And she said, no, no, she's not going to Central Foundation, she's leaving age 12 to go to work. So that was the life of an immigrant community at that time of the early part of the 20th century. Anyhow, I wrote her a card and gave my new address, and she telephoned, and she said, Peter. I said, Yes, Auntie. She said, Your mum wouldn't like her. I said, What auntie? She said, E14. I said, Well, what's the problem? She said, It's the other side of Birdette Road. It's in many ways, personifies what London, Town Hamlets and everything is all about. And I think the idea of this motion here, where we're talking of having an exhibition, what could be a better symbol of that exhibition of the building in Brick Lane? Now, let's begin by just saying the building in Brick Lane that 300 years ago was built as a Huguenot Chapel, the Protestants fleeing the Catholics in the 30 years war, the 30 years war in Europe, who found refuge as near to the city of London as you could get it without actually getting into the city. And they built a Huguenot Chapel to practice their religion. In the 19th century, it became the Brick Lane, it became the Spittlefield Great Synagogue. They handed it over to the Jewish community, and in the 20th century, of course, it's the Brick Lane Mosque, but it is still the same building. And it is a building extraordinarily that in a 300-year period has represented the three Abrahamic faiths, starting with Christianity, moving on to Judaism, and personifying in this century Islam. And if anything, symbolizes the greatness of London and the London Borough Tower Hamlets, it is that building. I will conclude, I really do think, Councilor, your speech was unfortunate, and you may not wish to mention a member parliament who makes one silly line, but just don't ever forget, he's mixed race, and I think you have to be very, very careful when we're talking about this, to attack somebody of a mixed-race origin, a London-room mixed race in quite those tones. It's not in a debate like this, we're coming together, we should all try and stay together. Thank you. Thank you, little Wahid Ali. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, of course, Chair Hamlets is a go-to borough. My colleagues have very eloquently spoken on many aspects of our lives in this speech and diverse borough. Mr. Speaker, I want to champion the achievement of sports in this borough. Every weekend, thousands of our parents turn out with their kids to team sports, such as football, hockey, netball, etc. We stand on the touchline, Mr. Speaker, in all weathers. Cheering on the youngsters, we watch our young residents playing their hearts out, keeping feet, working as a team, enjoying the wins, and determined to come back from the matches that they have not won. We rely on hundreds of unpaid coaches working in their spare time in a voluntary capacity, Mr. Speaker, to make sure that our youth sports thrives in this borough. I know this because I am one of them. I have watched many matches as a parent. I have coached many teams. I benefited from the coaching that I received as a young man. The coaching which saw me play for England hockey team. I have wanted to give something back to the young people and to our sport. The generosity working for the community. Perhaps this is not something that MPs who do not know our borough will easily understand. But certainly, this is one of the bedrooms of our community spirit which makes our borough come alive. Mr. Speaker, Tar Hamlet is very much a go-to borough. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was spoken on this in my response to Mayor's report. Mr. Speaker, I feel very passionate when we discussed Tar Hamlet's past, the past where we faced lots of racism, challenges in this borough. I lived in Brick Lane in 1974 as a child and I can remember still some of those cars when the National Front is to march and to sell their books in Brick Lane. And one of the reasons why Tar Hamlet has always been a place where people come and settle, escaping war and want to persecution and some of the far right obviously cannot accept this and this is why they target places like Brick Lane in the 70s, that's what they did. And if anybody watched the channel for documentary fighting for the far right, that's a gentle reminder of our past. And if you watch that, it is absolutely horrific, you know, what some of those were description of some of those community leaders that spoke in that documentary. And on that point, I just want to pay tribute to all those people who fought racism, challenged racism in our borough in the past, those community leaders, those community activists through their efforts and through their fights. They have created platforms for people like myself and you here to become politicians, counselors and also play active civic role in public life. Mr. Speaker, Tar Hamlet is my home, my children's home. And our residents, all our residents get on very well together. If you look at our schools, all our schools are very mixed and our children, our friends are different culture. And one thing I say in various places that once upon a time, if you told your neighbor by Ramadan, they probably won't understand what it was. If you say to somebody, you're going to an Ifta, probably nothing. Nowadays, if you say to somebody, you're going to an Ifta, they're probably saying to you, like I'm with you. Last thing kind of difference that society has had in our borough, through the efforts that we've all have created, we'll still challenge racism, extremism, equality in this borough. Mr. Speaker, I think we all have a duty and a responsibility, and I think we also have a duty and responsibility to educate our children to become civic leaders of the future. Somebody, I was at an event, somebody described Tar Hamlet as a garden of flowers. And this person said a garden of flowers where different flowers are living together, displaying their different colors, their different smells, and they all kind of coexist. And I think that's a beautiful phrase to end on Tar Hamlet. This is a precious place. We all need to protect it and challenge any form of racism, extremism, because this is our home, but still still be our home, and it's our children's home, it's our future. Thank you, Councillor. Councillors, I would then call it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This positive motion allows us to celebrate what is good about our power, and defeat the falsehood that there are no go areas. A beautiful example of this is, there was a synagogue next to East London Mosque. And when the officials of the synagogue decided to sell it, they first offered to the East London Mosque officials that did not accept any other offer. And this is a beautiful example of a harmonious relationship within our community. And so, and the view is being expressed in this chamber from both sides of the chamber, echoing and indicating only one thinking that there is no no go areas in Tar Hamlet. This administrative motion is a positive response to a divisive narrative, and as the report recommends, the government and the other public figures should take steps to acknowledge and address the lake of social sanctions, Islamophobic discourses and practices trigger, unquote. We need to address the ignorance and Islamophobia underpinning statements such as no go areas, Mr. Speaker. The idea of an exhibition in our iconic town hall should be pursued. For example, Tar Hamlet has the best of London in one borough, and we need to celebrate it. Our diversity and openness represents the best of humanity and demonstrates that tolerance, respect, understanding will always produce caring and cooperative places for people to live. Mr. Speaker, Sheffield became the UK's first city of sanctuary for asylum seekers and refugees in September 2007, 17 years ago, Mr. Speaker. Tar Hamlet needs to take steps to become a borough of sanctuary sooner rather than later. Tar Hamlet should also support civil society organizations and equality bodies concerned with the prejudice and the disinformation to highlight the systemic mis-education about Islam, common in British society, and provide education which will help dispel Islamophobia, Mr. Speaker. Tar Hamlet must also work with boroughs and authorities across London and the country to protect migrants, refugees, and asylum-seeking people from hostile environments all over the world. This administration, I believe, will continue to promote inclusivity, cooperation, respect between and amongst all its communities and will always stand up against any division or attacks on our borough. Mr. Speaker, we must invite those who have negative views to experience the friendliness and the diversity of our borough. Hospitality and acceptance are important in Tar Hamlet's. I urge Council to support this motion. Thank you very much. Mr. Speaker, thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you Mr. Speaker. May I take the opportunity to thank you for mentioning all the London Marathon runners, including myself. And I can promise, at the end of this session, after the business, I will let you touch my medal. The first person. Mr. Speaker, we are immensely proud. I'm proud to be a resident of Tar Hamlet, which is truly diverse. 65% of population is come from different ethnic backgrounds. The linguistically, Tar Hamlet is the fourth in the whole country. We speak more than 90 languages, and that tells us the story of diversity and harmony in our borough. 87% of the residents feel safe, and they get on well with each other. Yet, you will find someone like Paul Scully, calling or mentioning Tar Hamlet as an organ zone, is ridiculously unacceptable. It's the criminalized comment, a reckless hated comment, which incites nothing but hatred. We, in one place, the chamber, asking an undeserved apology from Paul Scully that he should apologize to the resident of Tar Hamlet for making this irresponsible comment. Mr. Speaker, we, it has been home for different in the past and now and in the future. It will be home for people from far and near, for all ethnic groups, all faith and all race. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just agreeing with my colleagues, I would be more than happy to welcome any visitor from Westminster around Shor Barra, that is go to Barra. We have strong, very strong community coalition culture and harmony. I've witnessed myself, thousands of visitors, everyday visiting in Brickland. This is a gateway for Tar Hamlers, and I've seen every day I go every day. That shows this is go to Barra, and we're proud to call this our home. Mr. Speaker, there is no place for hate, and we should strongly support this motion and stand up for ourselves. Thank you. [Applause] Can't hear about the luxury. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's a great pleasure to speak in support of this motion. Thank you for giving me the time. A lot has been said, and I echo everything else that has been said already. Just to remind us all, one of my colleagues did mention city of, Sheffield was city of Sanctuary in 2007, 17 years ago. So I urge everyone to support this motion, and hopefully we become a city of sanctuary for the most vulnerable people. Like myself and a lot of others in this room, my father came here in the late, sorry, late 50s, and I'm still here. My son, daughters were born here. It's an honor to support this motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again, thank you. [Applause] I'll take one more, then we'll move to. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I represent white chapel, a welcoming ward, where different communities leave shoulders with no problems. The vibrant mark can welcome everyone. The town hall welcomes everyone. An exhibition in the town hall celebrating our diversity would be a great development. Mr. Speaker, town hall communities have stood together and fought against racism and hatred in every generation. The mayor and many members from across the chamber face down the national front in the 70s and 80s. A broad coalition of communities expelled the EDL in the 2020s, 2010s. We must value our peaceful coexistence. Mr. Speaker, recent comments about our borough are based on ignorance, Islamophobia, and racism. Mr. Speaker, I encourage council to join me in voting for this motion. The town hall next must work with boroughs and authorities across London and the country to protect migrants, refugees, and asylum-seeking people from hostile environments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. [Applause] Can I call upon Councillor COVID-19 to speak because he without you, all right? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes? Just give me a minute, Councillor. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The diversity of town hamlets, cuts across race, religion, gender, and class. Be it the French oobhanauts that fled persecution. Be it the Irish. Be it the Chinese community. Be it the Jewish people who fled the pogroms in Europe. Be it the Bangladeshi community who made town hamlets a whole. Today, town hamlets is a place that has diversity and can only be described as a go-go zone, which includes the Somali community, the Polish community, and many other ethnicities. And I hope members can celebrate the diversity beyond just ethnicity and gender. And it surprises me that in such a passionate debate, all that's focused on this side of the chamber is our ethnicity and our gender. We carry multiple identities. We communicate in multiple ways. And we have multiple backgrounds in terms of how we've lived and worked and have brought up children. Now, solely focusing on ethnicity and gender only goes to gaslight, the far right, and the bigoted. So, let's not be tainted by limiting ourselves to restrictions and wholesomely celebrate diversity and promote this borough as a go-go zone. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Councillor. Councillor Abut, I do use to accept your right of reply in three minutes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I welcome the comments made by colleagues across the chamber. Town hamlets is truly a go-go zone, as my fellow Councillor has said. I think I'll take, Councillor, I mean, Alice's point around inclusivity and representation. And it's something that the Mayor has made a point about publicly. And it's something that we are seriously committed in addressing in forthcoming elections. With that comment, Mr. Speaker, I wouldn't like to lay the conversation any further. And I'd like to close my comment. Thank you. Full Council will now vote on the motion submitted by Councillor Abut, I would like to see. Candles, in favor, please show. I know it's going to be in your name. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor, thank you very much. Well, I don't have to say all those against, have I? All those against? No. Any abstention? No. Thank you. Motion carried now. So, in the case of the original, we'll have a prayer break. And please, I'll ask everybody to... Mr. Speaker, point of order. If there is a 10 minutes break now, does that mean the extended 30 minutes is also going to extend all of them? Councillor, the 10 minutes. A 10 minutes maximum, please. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair, please. Thank you. Very much. Where is it, where is it? [inaudible] Thank you, Councillor. Can I have your attention, please? Thank you, everyone. Please take your seat. We'll start our post meeting now again. 16 minutes. And there was 16 minute adjournment. The meeting is in. 16 minutes, so we'll start again now. So, now we'll hear the opposition motion. [inaudible] Mr. Speaker, apologies to realise during the course of the discussion on the motion when Councillor Childrie talked about the campaign for the boroughs to be made a boroughs of sanctuary. I've belatedly realised that I work for one of the foundations that funds that gives grants to the campaign for the borough of sanctuary. So, I think I have certainly have an interest and shouldn't have participated in the debate. I did leave, but apologies, I didn't realise that earlier. So, I just wanted to know that for the minutes. Thank you, everyone. Yes, Councillor. Therefore, at the moment that I realised why he'd left when he let me know, I also left and didn't take part in the debate because I think there is an interest there. Thank you. Thank you for your clarification. And our information. Thank you. Good afternoon. [Laughter] As in the item 8 is the opposition motion for debate. The debate will follow the rules of the debate that Council procedure will start in and will last no more than 30 minutes. Motion on best-value inspection. Councillor Mark Francis, can you please move your motion as set out in the table papers? You have four minutes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's now 10 years since officials in Whitehall advised that the former Secretary of State should commission PwC to undertake a best-value inspection of Taohamlet's Council. The best value of duty is defined in law as a duty to make arrangements to secure continuous improvement in the way in which local authority functions are exercised having regard to a combination of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. That decision followed a stream of allegations about poor governance and financial mismanagement at Taohamlet's, which was run at that time by Mayor Rahman. Its remit was specifically focused on the award of grants to community organisations spending on publicity, contracts and the sale of public assets by the Council. On the day it was announced, the Mayor's office issued this statement. I welcome the Secretary of State's decision to spend independent auditors to review the grants processes. This review will demonstrate that the Council acts in the best interest of all Taohamlet's residents. Mr. Speaker, this inspection was supposed to take two months. It ended up taking five. As PwC made clear in its report, the primary reason for this delay was the failure of the Council to provide information on a timely basis, or at all, in relation to a number of important requests by the inspection team. PwC reported that their monitoring officer initially sought to require PwC's inspection team to certify its request for information from the Council. PwC's team rejected this as there was no legal basis requiring it to do so. Next, the Council tried to get PwC to agree it would only be allowed to see legal files on the basis of legal privilege, so that they couldn't be disclosed. Again, there was no legal requirement to do this, and so PwC rejected it. At the same time, PwC said the Council was attempting to prevent the inspection team directly assessing the financial data at a requested PwC say it did not allow this decision until the 20th of June 2014, nearly two months after it was first requested. Mr. Speaker, on the 1st of July, the Mayor changed his tune about this inspection. On that day, he wrote to the Secretary of State to notify him that he was seeking a judicial review of the best failure inspection. PwC notes in its report that the judge who considered this legal action concluded that each of the grounds advanced by the Council were unmeritorious, and the first ground was hopeless. Mr. Speaker, on the 4th of November 2014, the Secretary of State published PwC's report. No one in this Council Chamber, among the public at large, should be under any illusion about that this was anything other than a devastating indictment of Tower Hamlet's Council. In relation to the matter of grant-making, PwC concluded that the Council was failing in its best value duty. In relation to three of the four property sales it looked at, PwC concluded that the Council failed to comply with its best value duty. In relation to grant-making, PwC concluded that the Tower Hamlet's Council failed to comply with its best value duty. In regards to spending on publicity, PwC endorsed off-cons view that monies that were spent inappropriately on what amounted to political advertising for the Mayor, which is a breach of the Code of Practice. Mr. Speaker, this meant that the Council was failing in its best value duty. PwC then went on to conclude that these failures demonstrated that, as a whole, the existing governance arrangements have weaknesses which have resulted in these failures not being prevented. In its view, Tower Hamlet's Council's corporate response to the identification of these failures suggested a tendency towards denial of viscation rather than an inclination to investigate the issues raised. Mr. Speaker, I am not a fan of Eric Pickles, the Conservative Secretariat state who authorised the inspection team, and who responsibility now failed to take action in response to this. But I will say this, any Secretariat state who did not take the most decisive action to protect the taxpayer from what PwC had revealed had been growing on between 2010 and 2014 would be failing in their duty, in their own best value duty. And that's why Commissioners ended up being sent into Tower Hamlet's Council in 2014. And that's why that's the risk that we now pose because of the actions that the Mayor, and his Deputy Mayor, and his Deputy Mayor, have taken risk or repeat of Commissioners coming back into Tower Hamlet's Council. Thank you. (Applause) I have all up on Council. (Applause) Thank you Mr. Speaker. You cannot help but feeling somewhat embarrassed for the opposition, talking about some reports. I was very old, but were in 2024, at the moment, just remind everyone. And in the absence of any real aspiration for Tower Hamlet's, and with such a shameful history in power, they have no other choice but to resort to lies, smears and dog whistle politics. When will they learn that our residents can see right through it? They did in 2010, again in 2014, and then again in 2022. And what is more, Mr. Speaker, they will continue to do so. For as long as democracy prevails and people are given the chance to reject their empty promises, financial chaos and shameful governance and unnecessary cuts under Labor, the residents will continue voting aspired. A clear pattern is emerging here. Labor cannot see this Mayor democratically elected. 2015, the only reason Labor were able to win is because of the underhanded tactics that prevented the Mayor, that prevented this, this Mayor would not stand. While they were in office, they set up a laughable clear-up project, wasting £250,000 that could have gone to residents of Tower Hamlet's and again found nothing. They could win in 2018 because the Mayor was not, because the true Mayor was not standing. They were so afraid of him, even after the dirty tactics had removed him, they tried to prevent him from ever standing again. By holding a mayoral referendum in 2021, wasting £300,000 of taxpayer money during one of the worst and most devastating pandemics this country has ever seen. To remove the mayoral system and return to the two-plus leadership model, the people overwhelmingly reject their attempts to dismantle democracy in the borough with 74.6% voting to keep the Mayor. That's 61,000 people voted for the mayoral system. Where was the best value in all of this wasted money? That could have gone uninvested in our residents. They mentioned the court preparer review. Yet the peers praised our MTFS, a key piece of work that I led on as a lead member. They praised how we have strengthened our governance following years of neglect by Labor Administration, and they praised our ambition embodied in our strategic plan, a vision that Labor could only have dreamt of. They mentioned staff churn, yet failed to mention that this is a common trend when administration change, a point acknowledged in the corporate peer review. Indeed, during their own administration, there was an exodus of 48 senior members of staff just during six months. Thank you, Councillor. Did that not represent stability? Thank you. I call on Councillor COVID-19 to second the amendment. You have three minutes. I reserve my right to speak. I think. It should be published. There's any other member now wish to speak on this subject? Motion submitted by Councillor Mark Kauncees or the amendment submitted by Councillor Saeeda. You have three minutes each to speak. Thank you. I think the previous speaker, thank you, Councillor Admond. I think it illustrated the point of the motion brilliantly. This has been a very serious and thorough report from the LJP review into the Council, which has prompted serious concerns. Rather than addressing those concerns head on, we instead have obfuscation and indeed some sort of cloud of cuckoo land interpretations of what has been going on. Let me quote from an LJ report into the intertail humblis. The Mayor and Chief Executive have set a new moral compass for the organisation. The Council has established a number of programmes to change the behaviours and culture of the organisation. Unfortunately, that's from the LJ report from June 2018, held in the aftermath of the previous Ministry intervention in the Council. The LJ report from September 2023, which has triggered a new inspection from the Ministry, has 18 recommendations. There's 18 recommendations to improve the culture and practices of the Council. And I quote, There is clear evidence and constant reference to a two-counsel culture between senior management and the Mayor's office. It goes on to say, this is generating bottlenecks in the operation of the Council's business, and nextively upon the speed and effectiveness of decision-making. The current Mayor's office model is detrimental to the delivery of the Council's wider business. So let's look and compare between the two reports conducted in an independent way by local government associations between 2018 and 2023. Previously, there's a strong corporate centre with a Mayor working in partnership with officers to direct and drive change in the agenda of the Council, whereas now there are bottlenecks and obfuscation. Now, this is quite a technical thing that we're talking about, you know, peer reports and stuff like that. But this really feeds into the delivery of the Council for its local people, and that is at the heart of the first resolution of the motion. Five million pounds is being spent on the advisors of the Mayor's office. And it's not just a waste of money, but as the LGA says, it's a bottleneck in delivery. And what's worse, lots of that money can be saved, and we can take the first steps towards taking the LGA peer review head-on by getting rid of some of the advisors who write chat GPT speeches. Councilor Mushtaq, I particularly enjoyed your speech, and you must compliment whoever or whatever programme. Hello, James, can you look at me when I speak, please? And again, talking about delivery, the Mayor's spin and the bluster of the past two years, the self-congratulation, doesn't do anything for the people of town Hamlets, yeah? We're missing the targets, we're missing those targets by 30%. The level of recycling has fallen to 16%, the worse in the country, and the Mayor has broken his key and first promise to raise council tax. He broke them, promises, and it's a lack of delivery again and again. And that's one of the heart of this is all about. It's we're looking to head on and tackle the change and the culture of this council so we can deliver for residents, not score political points. So I think it's about time. The inspire members are listening and engaged in a positive way and a construct. Thank you very much. (Applause) Thank you, Mr Speaker. Yes, unfortunately it looks like there was a problem with our electronic publication. We thought it had gone out, but for some reason it didn't. That's our fault, I apologise. If members wish, I would suggest we have a short adjournment. It's not a particularly long amendment, but if you want to have a look and read it then. You're okay, okay. Thank you. Councillor, may I meet a little bit? Thank you, Mr Speaker. When I read the opposition motion, I was reminded how the Labour hates losing. They believe it's their birthright to rule the borough. In 2010, Lutur Rahman was selected by a huge majority to be the Labour Party's mayoral candidate. However, the right wing of the party conspired, smeared and plotted against him and had him removed as candidate. The N.E.C. unfairly upheld this and he was forced to stand as independent. In 2010, he thumped then the Labour candidate by 12,029 votes, receiving 23,283 votes, more than all the other candidates combined. In 2014, the May increases votes, again, to 36,539 votes, smashing in John Biggs by 27,643. Again, the Labour Party had to resort to smears, lies and Qatar to talk with the politics to seek the May's removal. These patches tried to find something on the May they found nothing. The panorama tried to find something on the May they found nothing. The P.W.C. tried, they found nothing. Instead, it took an unfair, biased election investigation and tribunal to get the May removed from office. The May and City of London were forced to investigate and they found nothing. And Mr. May, the investigation costs nearly £2 million of tax by his money. The May has always and will always maintain his innocence and your attempts to drag up unproven allegations. And reinforce that you cannot compete with this administration on policy alone. Instead, you have returned to talk with all divisive tactics. Tactics that in the past have invited far-right an extremist into our borough. We will continue to implement policies which will benefit the people of Tower Hamlets. And let me remind the Labour Party. You might be doing well. You might be happy and celebrated by 2026. It's all that you will be wiped out from Tower Hamlets. Thank you Mr. Speaker. So I got elected in 2015 and was proud to represent my community. But little did I know so much was left behind by the party opposite whom were called something else then. I remember Tower Hamlets Council faced huge significant scrutiny. Commissionists were indeed appointed to oversee the Council. This intervention came as a response to concerns about governance and financial mismanagement. The commissioners were tasked with ensuring that the Council's affairs were conducted appropriately and effectively. Until democratic governance could be restored. I can recall the experience navigating this challenging situation and working together with the Labour Party. Then to restore trust and accountability in the Council. It took nearly three years before Commissions was left. And we the Labour Administration then could finally take decision again to best deliver for our community. Anyone would think after all the intervention and scrutiny the party opposite would change. We have had the LTAAP review recently which provide us with valuable insights into the functioning of our local government. And it is crucial that we address the areas that require attention. The absence of women in the opposition's parties cabinet does not reflect the diversity and inclusivity that our community so rightly deserves. It is a testament to the opposition party's failure to recognize the immense value that the women bring to the table. And it's not just about taking an exercise box for diversity. It's about creating the environment where all voices are heard and all perspectives are considered. When women are represented in leadership positions it sends a powerful message to our community. A message that says everyone regardless of gender has a role to play in shaping the future of child handlers. It is concerning that inadequate relationship between senior officers and the mayor's office has reached to a point where experienced individuals have chosen to leave their roles. The departure of senior good officers is a clear signal that urgent attention was needed and hence we can see what's happening now. However, it didn't seem like the party opposite took this review seriously. Despite this labor administration repeatedly reminding them that changes need to take place. And so after 10 years we had intervention, again entire hammers where we have the best value inspectors. Obviously in the council's governance or a shame. We understand that public trust is earned through resilient oversight and responsible management resources. The best value inspectors are here to ensure that every pound spent in this service in service of our community's best interests. The work isn't confined to a desk or boardroom. They are out in the field engaging with stakeholders, listening and concerns to the concerns and assessing the impact of decisions on the ground. Inspectors are free from political influence. So, you know, party opposition could say, you know, we bought in or whoever's bought in them. They are, you know, free from the political influence and or vested interests. So we'll depart to opposite. Listen at and on the insights and recommendations from the best value inspectors. We must actively engage with the inspection process, provide feedback and work in hand to address the issues identified and realize our shared vision for the best value inspectors. So, I'll be supporting this motion. I hope the party opposition can take to and support all the recommendations that are here that have been presented in the motion. Thank you. Thank you. Can't hear that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before we start, I want to address a few points. The first around council tax, colleagues in this chamber would make you think that the Labour Party wrote their spy manifesto. We know exactly what we meant when our manifesto was written. In regards to comparing inspections from now and 10 years ago, the scope is very different, just ask the inspectors. Mr. Speaker, in 2010, the mayor was the Labour Party candidate for morality after leading the council as leader. The right being of the party smeared, conspired and plotted against him and had him removed as the candidate. Sadly, the Labour NEC upheld this, and the mayor then stood independent and thumped. As Councillor my colleague says, thumped the Labour candidate, winning by more than 12,000 bombs, which was more than all the other candidates combined. The same cohort then resorted to similar smear tactics leading up to 2014 election. By dragging in dispatches and panorama and PWC, and guess what? They found nothing. The met and city of London police investigated and once again found nothing. They exonerated all those investigated at a combined amount of £3 million to the public purse. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Labour Party's definition of best value. They couldn't defeat Mayor of Martin elections or resort to divisive politics, which attracted groups like the EDL and Britain first to knock on our door. To make sure that the mayor doesn't stand and come back to haunt them, the party opposite spent £300,000 on a referendum during COVID to punish the mayoral system. Once again, the public refused to bow down to their dog whistle politics. Look, 2022 was a radical shift when an independent party took over this Council. £2 million to correct their failure. Double payments to care providers, which demand to as much as £7 million. The government didn't do any prosecution against their own MP. In terms of the ONS function and how the motion proposed to the Chair presented. During their time in power, four Labour Councillors, including two current Councillors, the ONS, the ONS, their recommendations, the same will follow with the inspectors. We just need to stop the dog whistle politics. I support the Labour motion because, Mr Speaker, I couldn't help the think of what Labour Chancellor Rachael Reeves said on Monday about the Tory government following their humiliated electoral defeat across the nation. Rachael Reeves rightly accused the Tories of gas slights in the British public by saying that the elections were close. Tonight, Mr Speaker, the applied administration are clearly gaslighting the Tower Hamlet's residence because there is a complete attempt by them to say that everything is well or, as Richard Suneck will say, stick to the plan. As my colleague Mark Francis has said, the administration now has had to welcome inspectors into our borough because another secretary of state has once again become alarmed by the mayor of the recommended administration. If Deja Fu again, a moment that reminds us of a previous secretary of state being alarmed by the mayor of the recommended administration and calling in commissioners. We all watched how that movie unfolded way before next week's major series. Mr Mayor, I would like to make a few points about financial instability. Now, the financial honeymoon that this administration continues to enjoy, as I said before in this chamber, is due to financial management of the previous administration that left the mayor and his administration a hefty reserve, and this administration is now running around claiming it as their own. In terms of women's voices, it continues to be missing in this administration, despite the GLA LGA peer review stating that there's a need to be addressed urgently. The women's commission that the mayor has promised to set up is thus far not democratic, inclusive as each member seems to be handpicked by this administration, making me think that it is merely a tick box. Finally, the Espide Administration can continue living in a parallel universe, as Doctor Who would say, but the residents of Tallahumnits and the Labour group will stay in the real world. The real world that means the Espide Administration in just two years has set alarm bells ringing across Parliament. That means inspectors have come back into our borough. I think the Espire propaganda machine is really good, and maybe they could offer Tories and which soon acts of administration some help, because they need it. Now, Labour will form a government because the British people after 14 years are sick of the Tories, and in just two years, the people of Tallahumnits are already getting sick of this administration. Finally, one thing is clear, Mr Speaker, and it's this, never in the history of Tallahumnits has a Labour administration had commissioners come in to look at what they're doing or had inspectors come in. Continue gas lighting and people of Tallahumnits, and we'll continue to scrutinise in every single move you make. Thank you, Doctor. (Applause) (Applause) (Applause) (Applause) (Applause) (Applause) Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity. So it's been 10 years since the government took drastic action and launched the best value inspection of our council. This inspection reveals shocking irregularities on how our borough was being run. Despite resistors from the mayor and the corporate leadership of the council, the government considered that auditors uncovered irregularity in grant allocation, poverty deals, and even potential fraud and payment in youth service. The shameful mismanagement led to unprecedented intervention, independent commissioners seized control of critical aspects of our council, a devastating blow to the local democracy. The architect of this chaos has never showed responsibility, or I apologise for the damage done to our community trust. It's always someone else's fault, someone else to blame. Striking workers, waste emergency, chaos in housing, broken manifesto promise, council tax rights, rent price, spending millions of mayor's office, experienced staff leaving in droves that is no one else's fault, but their own. Perhaps, Mr Speaker, we're naive on this side of the chamber, then to hope that maybe the different mayor was returning in 2022. Perhaps we should not have been surprised when the last year's to LGA peer review exposed alarming departures, a lack of diverse leadership and a troubling council with an account of dynamics surrounding the mayor's office. Maybe we shouldn't have been shocked when the mayor sought to deflect blame from the peer's review criticism, falsely attributing them to the previous administration. Could it be that we on this side were foolish for thinking that the mayor would in this term subject him some more scrutiny to be more open to answer more questions, no? Unfortunately, it appears few lessons have been learned over the last 10 years, and instead of this council as resident for his risk of more chaos and co-visioned because one man's inability to face up to errors. For the sake of this borough, I hope that this leads to some real changes in the way this council operates, and we do not need to see commissioners back here, but the earlier motion from there I suggest will be expected to believe that lightning strikes the same place twice. On the issue of who wipes out who in future, just remind people in history many, many, you know, the mighty have fallen. For example, Nimrod, a non-rood that we call him, was destroyed by a fly. So in 2026 we will see who gets wiped out and who not. [Applause] Thank you, Councillor, Councillor COVID-19. It is up, you're right. Councillor? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members' opposite spoke about driving change. Let me ask you, Mr. Speaker, what change? Tower Rewards resulted in months and months of council staff striking because they were taking workers' rights away. That's the Labour Administration, the Workers' Party. Disaster and insourcing of waste service, the worst recycling in the country. They speak about £5 million for the mayor's office over three years. Yet, what they don't draw context to is that Labour spent nearly £5 million on consultation and design to prove to themselves that some of the most affluent areas in Tower Hamlets were the most deprived areas, namely, whopping, to put a bus gate in there, namely, Jesus Green to block the roads, and namely, by West to block some more roads. In 2018, Mr. Speaker, they spent £39 million on agency and consultants, and they talk about waste to us, Mr. Speaker. Mayor Lutour-Rahman reached out to offer cabinet posts to female members of the party opposite when he first formed his cabinet here. However, they rejected that offer. Yet, when the LGA came in, they said women don't have a role in Mayor Lutour-Rahman's cabinet, so you can't reject an offer and then cry wolf about it. On many occasions, we have offered paid SRA positions to female representatives, Councillors of the Labour Group. Yet, on one occasion, they took it, and in the other occasion, they wanted to replace her by a male councillor from the Labour Party. Now, Mr. Speaker, we talk about cronyism, and we talk directly about the rich mix. That got called in twice by opposition members, yet still was passed. Have you ever heard of a soft loan? Well, the rich mix got a soft loan of £850,000, Mr. Speaker. No best value involved there. They got further 106 payments from developments that occurred around the area. Yet, when Mayor Lutour-Rahman wanted to claim that money back, there was obstacles created and a sudden write-off. I won't go into details of that. However, what's important is the word cronyism, who led that organisation, Mr. Speaker? That organisation was led by a former Labour MP, former Labour leaders of this council, multiple leaders, and even to this day, former Labour councillors and Labour members operate within that organisation, Mr. Speaker. So, I can't understand the reason why a soft loan would be created. Thank you. Maybe they can explain that in their response. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now. Thank you. Councillor MARX, do you wish to access your rights or pre-blind? You have three minutes. Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I do. Just a little bit. First of all, I want to say thank you to my colleagues, all of my colleagues who supported this motion and supported us in bringing this and bringing this motion tonight and bringing it to the public's attention, because it's long overdue that the members opposite were given an opportunity to apologise for what happened 10 years ago, and the fact that they've sat here and blown smoke in our faces, it's blown smoke in the public's faces all night long, instead of accepting responsibility for not opinions, facts by PWC. These are 200 pages worth of facts that you have completely ignored for 10 years. Mr. Speaker, during that period, we would have hoped to hear an apology from the Mayor and from his Councillors of bringing this terrible shame on our borough, but we don't expect one tonight after what we've heard. On this side of the Council Chamber, we do expect people to learn from their own mistakes, and yet in the last two years, the Mayor and his Councillors have learned absolutely nothing. We have repeatedly warned in this Council Chamber that the actions he and Aspire are taken are treading the same path as they did in 2010 to 2014. They refused to listen to us, and they refused to change course over the debates that we've had. They were given one last chance by the LGA's peer review last autumn, which made it very clear that the governance of this authority was absolutely dysfunctional, that there was a problem of a Council within a Council culture which had begun with the Mayor being elected in 2022, not with John Biggs, with this Mayor who's sitting here in office and refusing to accept responsibility for that. That's why the Government has sent in the best value inspection team to look at Tower Hamlets again, and this is not a narrower focus, this is actually a wider focus. They're concerned about more aspects of this Council's business. Mr Speaker, I don't know what the team is going to, the inspection team will report to the Secretary of State, but I do know that after his 5% hiking Council tax to pay for his advisors, there are thousands of residents out there who do not believe that Tower Hamlet's Council is meeting its best value duty already, and I do know that the independent LGA peer review has already found it's such extensive governance failings that we believe on this side, that the governance is probably even worse now than it was in 2014. Mr Speaker, the model that we have here, the buck stops with the Executive Mayor, the man who's sitting there and has refused to participate in a debate about what happened under his morality previously. The only person in Tower Hamlets who has the power at this stage to stop Commissioners being sent back in to oversee the running of this authority is Mayor Lutferarmann. So far, as we've heard this evening, there is absolutely nothing that he has had to say, but I am prepared to give up the last 20 seconds of my speech to give him a chance to apologise to the people of Tower Hamlets and say that he's actually going to be taking forward the recommendations that are in this motion to restore proper democratic transparency and accountability to Tower Hamlet's Council. Back to move the motion, Mr Speaker. Thank you, Madam Speaker. [Applause] Full Council will now vote on the amendment proposed by Councilor Said Ahmed and the motion submitted by Councilor Mark Kranzis. Starting with the amendment proposed by Councilor Said Ahmed, can those in favour please show? All those against? Any abstention? So, the motion is amendment, amendment is carried. The full Council will now vote on this substantial motion as amended by Councilor Said Ahmed. Can those in favour please show? All those against? Any abstention? So, the motion is carried. Thank you. Thank you, Mr Speaker. I've just had a few questions on timings, so just to let everyone know, we started at 7.04. We had a 16-minute break, so if my maths is correct, we should go to 2020. We only have the one item left, which is only up to half an hour, so we won't actually quite reach that. He says. Okay, thank you. So item 9 report from the Executive and the Council Committee. There is no form of executive or committee for the Council, considering the committee. Thank you. Item 10 is other business. There is no report for the Council to consider at this meeting under this item. So, now it's my favourite item. Item 11 is to receive questions from the members of the Council. Information and response are each limited to one minute. There is 30 minutes for member questions to assist with the timing of the meeting. Members may wish to simply refer to their table question, as set out in the agenda. The French question is from Councillor Kamuros and regarding the Council's account. Thank you, Mr Speaker. Can the lead member provide an update on the Council's outstanding accounts, on the left hand side, for six consecutive years under the previous administration? Thank you. I call upon the Council to respond. Thank you, Councillor Hussain, for your question. All accounts up to and including 2019-2020 have been signed off. The remaining three years, the outstanding years, 2021-21-22 and 2022-23 have now all been published and are expected to be signed off by the auditors by September 2024. This will bring an end to a period of utter irresponsibility, where Labor sat on six years of accounts and forecast millions on unavoidable accountancy fees, bringing us into a parallel situation to Councils that had to issue 114 notices. So, thankfully, it is online and we will keep the change of updating in due course. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. Councillor Kamuros, do you have a brief supplementary question? Yes, speaker, thank you. Can the lead member tell us how much was this course to fix to date and what measures are in place to prevent a repeat? Does Council decide that Madam Chief respond briefly? Thank you, Councillor for your question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Council's accounts remain unsigned for six years at a cost of over two million pounds and rising. And there's been significant approaches and procedures put in place to ensure whatever findings we have encountered, whatever learning was possible that we take into account and put the right fixes in place with the right people and the correct accounting treatment taken up going forward. So, like we've mentioned before, the three remaining years have now been published and are in track to be signed off with our new auditors assigned. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. Question 11.2 is from Councillor Muffida-Bastin, on the football pitch. Thank you. Question is tabled, Mr. Speaker. I call upon Councillor I call to respond. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Council is currently looking at the feasibility of installing 9V9 3G pitch at seven days. In partnership with the Football Association, Football Foundation, this will be placed existing underused, unutilized area. The proposed facility will include floodlights and will allow Council to deliver a targeted community sports program for all as a group, inclusive for women, girls, young people. And we are currently at an early stage of feasibility focusing on logistic of installing such a feasible -- if feasible. We will start the consultation process with local residents, that's the current council policy, and with the potential users, group and the stakeholders to develop an operational plan. Accordingly, which will include hours of use and so on. Initial indicative design. Thank you, Councillor. Thank you. Councillor Muffida-Bastin, do you have any brief stuff to do with your question? I do, thank you. So residents are really concerned about these proposals, particularly the floodlights and the impact that it's going to have on a residential area, but also on an area that backs on to my chute farm. Can the lead member please let us know when the consultation with residents is going to start, and will it include the farm? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr Speaker. As I said once, the feasibility is completed. If it is feasible, then a thorough consultation will be followed and received in review consultant with the operational plan. Thank you. Well, thank you, Mayor Michael. Section 11.3 from Council Member Staggard, as regarding the LGAPL review. Thank you, Speaker. Can the lead member update us on progress with the recommendations following the LGA corporate pay review? That take place in September last year. I call upon Councillor Seiden, but to respond. Thank you for your question, Councillor CUMMING. Thank you, Mr Speaker. The LGA undertook a corporate peer challenge for the Council in September 2023. The report published in December acknowledged that many positive aspects of the organisation's performance and the motivated and focused staff who work for it. The report made 18 core recommendations. These are over 70 suggestions for improvements or review. We were brought together to comprise the content of Council's initial response as set out in the LGA action plan. This was also published in December, three months earlier than requires, as it was considered, important to demonstrate the Council's commitment to improvement. Doing so did not inhibit the contribution of others to the plan over the following weeks and months, as the action plan is a live document. The additional actions can be identified and added at any time. It did, however, ensure that the Council's commitment to addressing every issue highlighted by the peer reviews was transparently made and set to a timetable. Thank you, Councillor. Does Council there, Mr. Councillor, do you have a brief supplementary question? Yes, Mr. Speaker. Can the LGA member tell us how the Council will keep members informed or perhaps engaged throughout the process? Let's continue to say thank you, Mr. Speaker. All political groups and single representatives of parties represented within the Council were briefed on the findings of the review and the action plan by the chief executive. Members, I encourage to remain engaged in the process and suggest additional content for the plan. Members have already attended a briefing by the chief executive. And we will ensure, and we will be sure to arrange further briefings, should there be a demand for this. A considerable amount of progress has and continues to be made in delivering against the actions identified. Prior to your focus fell on a number of critical problem areas of governance that had persisted for a number of years. These covered areas such as the backlog of Council's accounts awaiting external audit to sign off and the absence of published annual governance statements. The opposition will be familiar with these issues as it was they who sat on them during their course of their Administration. Thank you, Councillor. Thank you. The question in Deban 4.4 is from Councillor Asma. It's about liberty, housing association. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the Mayor inform me as to whether he has been in communication with Peabody Housing Association? Peabody tenants across the borough have written to express alarm and about dramatic increases to service charges, with many tenants also raising poor quality maintenance and substandard conditions. I'll call up and go to the government to respond. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Peabody is an independent housing association with the chief executive that is accountable for the residents and a chair of the Peabody Board. The Mayor and the Council are passionate about ensuring residents receive a good quality of service and are committed to continue working with social housing providers to ensure that residents receive good quality housing services. And we will continue to work with them to understand residents' concerns and to support them. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Does Councillor Asma explain to me what housing associations are and how they work? My question was, does the Mayor, as someone who doesn't, I'm not expecting him to control the housing association, but has he had any communication with Peabody? And if so, how did that go? Does Councillor COVID want to chill his phone briefly? If there are specific issues or residents' concerns that Councillor Islam would like to raise, I'm more than happy to look into those specific issues along with the Mayor as well, regarding specific residents. Thank you, please. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Lead Member share how much it costs the taxpayer to unsuccessfully take one of our MP Absana Begum to quote? Can you explain how this is represented best value? Thank you. I call upon Councillor Taheda to respond. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The cost of prosecuting Absana Begum MP were £18,261 for external council, £14,899 for the Investigation Team, £55,457 for legal services, which comes to around just under £100,000 of taxpayer money. It should be noted that the legal and the investigation costs are internal costs rather than expenditure. The legal services time is permitted to be charged at a rate in excess of lawyers' salary hourly rate. With respect to whether this reflects best value and the council is under a duty to protect the public purse. Social housing fruit is particularly prevalent in London within the borough. When prosecuting offences, the council follows the code of crown prosecutors and prosecutors only where the evidential and public interest tests are met. Thank you. Councillor Saffman, do you have a brief supplemental correction? No, that's fine. Thank you. Correction 11.6 is from Councillor Emil Lee about community care. Emil is not here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the lead member tell us what steps have been taken to collect the money out to the council? From the rich mix centre. The rich mix centre was loan substantial amount of money, the taxpayers' money, under the previous labour administration. It is understood, while the loan remains unpaid, more money was given to the organization. Under the last mayor, it will help to provide precise figures and an explanation as to how this constitutes best value. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again, thank you. I call upon Councillor Sidelman to respond. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Councillor for your question. From the record available to the council, it is apparent that the loan, a soft loan to rich mix cultural foundation was repaid as part of a legal settlement. The details, which I don't have, and the amount is substantial, around a million pounds. And the settlement, the legal settlement agreement was approved by the mayor at the time, Mayor Biggs, and who was satisfied that it was in the best interest of the council. So we're not sure exactly we need to, we need Councillor, we need more details to understand what the legal settlement was. And whether the full amount was repaid, details are yet to be confirmed. Yes, Mr. Speaker. I do. Can the lead member tell us if any outstanding amount was written off by the previous mayor? Can he also explain the grounds of the write-off and exactly how much the figures were? Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Once again, thank you. Thank you. Let's consider taking them as a response briefly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I believe the substantial amount was around 850,000 pounds. And in terms of the intricacies of the details of what amounts were written off and what amounts were paid back, we don't have that in hand at the moment. And I believe if the Councillor wishes to ask for a public inquiry to understand the intricacies, which is still unknown, I think we should go ahead and do further investigation to understand what the Council has recovered and what amounts have been written off. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Councillor. I can see next question is from Councillors from my background. She's not here, isn't it? So I'm going to move to the next question. Question 11.9 is from Councillor Harun, me about the community section. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the lead member share feedback from the Council tension monitoring group in relation to the Palestinian flags? Can you tell us how many complaints have been received and what action was taken? Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. The tension monitoring group has existed for several years and has been critical in managing tensions that emerge in the community due to local, national and international incidents. Since the start of the conflict, the tension monitoring group has discussed matters arising from the placement of flags and a number of different views have been expressed in the meetings. There have been approximately 346 queries or complaints since October 2023. The action taken was determined on an individual basis, depending on the context of the placement. Thank you. Councillor Harun, me about the brief. I believe it's covered. Thank you. Question 11.10 is from Council. I'll talk about the moment commissions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the lead member update us on the progress of the Council's Women's Commission and inform us how it will work in relation to the operations of the Council? Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. I'll call upon Councillors to look after this point. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Women's Commission was formally launched during international women's award ceremony on 7th of March 2024. The focus of the Commission is to work as a partnership to identify the key issues for women in the borough and to produce a report setting out recommendations for consideration by the Council and its partners. This will ensure the women's voice are heard and support them to take a position of influence and leadership in the community. The Commission will focus on the following areas of inequalities faced by women in the borough. High unemployment, health, inequality, including the community. Thank you, Councillor. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the lead member provide an update in timelines of insourcing of the Royal House? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Councillor. I'm looking for questions. We have moved from GLL better to our own best brand, which is B well. It's officially transferred on 30th of April, subsequently. The B well started, officially started from Wednesday, past April, May. Welcome even to visit your whole Wednesday, the first of May. Attended by our Secret Good News Deputy Mayor, Corporate Director, Director, myself and other officers. All of these centres were closed for mobilisation from Wednesday, first of May to June 7th of May. Communication and launching, we took place at my land as a centre on 7th Tuesday, which was attended by the Mayor himself. Deputy Mayor, CEO, myself. Thank you, Councillor. Thank you. Councillor, do you have a brief supplementary question? Yes, Mr. Speaker, I'd like to know that if the major centre comes in house, if the staff level may turn on any small card, I'd like to know. Thank you. Does Council like to know, Mr. response briefly? Mr. Speaker, sir, can I ask my fellow Councillors to repeat the question? The question is that we're going to maintain the staff level, the ledger centre, or any small card. No, it's not hard, Mr. Speaker, we're maintaining well. Everything is going well. We have a very short shortfall of the staff, but is mitigation circumstances in place, so we have no bread or no yellow. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor SING. Next question is from Councillor SING. Everybody leaves a service. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the lead member inform me of what the steps are being taken to communicate with residents, especially to those in Bromley South and beyond regarding the changes to the ledger services, especially to those who are not so happy with technology, and those who, for those individuals where English may not be the first language, and reassure them that they will still receive the same services in the interim. Thank you. I call upon Councillor Barlow saying to respond. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We took everything in consideration to making sure the communication is not thorough, trying to reach the every angle of the resident in Barlow. From May to March 10, our each 10 article circulated highlight in the justification for insourcing. What is the changeover process will involve and upcoming offers from 27 March, upcoming soon, website live on B well, website with a clear FQS frequently asked question, over upon changeover, membership and direct debut, et cetera. From the end of March in April, measuring across social media, channel, resident members of Hat teachers, newsletters and council, a WhatsApp group was used to communicate to the resident with the FQS. And in addition to that, we took a number of consultation with different group who were not computer. And literate to making sure the every groups are consulted, children, and women and different other groups have been consulted here in town halls and somewhere else in the bar, throughout the bar. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Councillor Suga, do you have a brief supplementary question? Yes, Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to know if there's been any consultations in Barlow, or if there's any questions in there, I just want to thank myself. Councillor interjecting. We should respond briefly. We didn't take consultation word by word, but people, different groups of people, who have been invited to the town hall. But as a process, the listening admitted will be continuously concerned that residents to shape are insourcing leather services. Thank you. And we, Mr. Speaker, we did have the sports summit to consult with the different sports group, to engage them and to listen to them and taking their suggestion on board. And we'll be continuing to consult with the resident to improve the shape of services to adjust the needs of the resident. Thank you. Thank you. Next question is from Councillor Abdulmalak about the local plan consultation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the lead member provide any end up to date on the outcome of the first local plan or consideration, and if possible, outline any major changing which will help bringing investment and the delivery of out profitable housing? Thank you, Councillor. I call upon Councillor COVID-19 to respond. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Councillor Malick. The local plan has a number of statutory requirements over the three years it takes to produce. We are making good progress with the drafting and consultation milestones, and we are on track to submit to the Secretary of State in February 2025 with the aim of adopting later the same year. In November, December, 2023, the local plan undertook a six-week consultation on regulation 18 draft local plan. This consultation used a combination of in-person and online events alongside the use of print and social media to engage widely with our residents, statutory consultees and other stakeholders. The feedback received through the consultation has been used to shape and emerge our emerging regulation 19 version of the local plan. The consultation statement which summarises in fuller the details of regulation 18 consultation will be published alongside regulation 19 version of the local plan. Councillor, I don't have any brief supplementary questions. No, thank you. Thank you very much. I have time to take another one. Councillor James, can you hear about the bend of an antisocial behaviour? Thank you. My question is table to please. Councillor interjecting. Thank you, Councillor, for the question. I had to raise this with the Baracamanda before the question was submitted, so there are a number of things that we are doing. Hopefully I can update you here. So the police and council have received reports of vehicle crime and criminal damage in this location. Our officers are working closely with the meant police to address this crime through the deployment of our resources, engagement with local residents and businesses to prevent and deter this criminality. We are sharing information and working in partnership with the police to identify all hotspot locations, directing our Theo's to carry out proactive targeted patrols to provide visible presence, submitted a request through our joint operational tasking process with the police for additional police resources to target this criminality. The next one being offering advice and crime prevention methods along with obtaining any evidence to support the police with any criminal investigation. Utilising our CCTV, a deployed CCTV camera has been installed, an owned hotspot to help us capture evidence to support the investigation, and finally utilising comms and messaging posters and signs that will be installed. Thank you. I feel that James can do. Do you have any supplements? Thank you. I do my Saturday surgery every Saturday morning. God is late. And yeah, normally walk past broken cars, down three coles street, around Milligan street, lying that sports weight. So thank you for the update on what has been happening. But just one specific detail I'm after. Can you just say when the temporary CCTV camera was installed and what success it might have had, and what success, that all those things that you've mentioned might have had so far? Because it's an ongoing issue. Thank you. Does council have to introduce you to this one briefly? Thank you, Councillor. I believe the CCTV was installed within the last two weeks. I don't have a definitive date, but after I raised it and I've placed it a few times with officers, and I was raised within the last two weeks. In terms of the outcome of putting it there, it's still an investigation. So they are still reviewing the footages, no decisions, or any action have come from it yet. But as soon as they have it, I'll get them to loop in with yourselves and relevant stakeholders. Thank you, everyone. There is no further business, so thank you for your contribution and close the meeting. Please note that members must wait for the mates to be removed before they leave the meeting. Thank you, everyone. Thank you.