Transcript

So thank you everybody. As may I'd like to welcome councillors, guests, members of the public and officers to this meeting of council. Just a reminder, there are no scheduled fire alarms this evening, so if the alarm sounds, please leave the building by the nearest exit. The meeting point is on Buckner Road. Please note that we have a lot of items and speakers to get through tonight, therefore it would be appreciated if members of the council could keep to their allotted time slots of speaking, which I will highlight during the meeting, in order to ensure that all members get their chance to speak. Now it's time to move on to the first item of business on the agenda tonight, which is declarations of interests. Does any councillor wish to make a declaration of interest on any business before the council meeting tonight? Thank you. The next item of business is to agree the minutes of the previous meeting. Are the minutes of the annual council meeting held on the 17th of July 2024 agreed as a correct record subject to amendments set out in the order paper? Thank you. The minutes from the 17th of July 2024 are agreed. Apologies for absence have been set out on the order paper. If there are any more, please advise democratic services after the meeting. Before I give my announcements, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on the passing of Lord Herman Ousley. Herman Ousley started his career at Lambeth Council as a junior officer and returned as assistant chief executive for a period during the 1980s and early 90s. And following a stint heading up the Inner London Education Authority before its abolition by the government, he returned to Lambeth as its chief executive. In both roles at Lambeth, Herman's successes including initiating and progressing significant development in equal opportunity awareness and policy, both within the council systems and as a good practice example in wider local government change agendas. Lord Ousley was also the chair and chief executive of the Commission for Racial Equality from 1993 to 2000. Lord Ousley was the chair of Kick It Out for 25 years from its launch in 1993 as a campaign called Let's Kick Racism Out Football. He was knighted in 1997 for services to local government and community relations in Great Britain and was appointed as a member of the House of Lords in 2001 where he sat as an independent peer. Lord Ousley was a first-rate orator and his infectious enthusiasm and drive was inspirational for councillors, officers and residents. He was passionate about equality and public services and is a massive loss so our thoughts and prayers are with his friends and family. Lord Ousley's passing has also coincided with Black History Month and as a theme this year is reclaiming narratives, it's a poignant reminder to commemorate and celebrate the contributions of the black community to Lambeth. As mayor I've attended many events so far this month with many more scheduled so I'd just like to say a really big thank you to everyone who's been involved in organising and hosting different events. I also supported the Lambeth's Carer Awards that celebrated unpaid carers and their contributions to our community and also as I hope members would have noticed as they walked into the chamber there's Hate Crime Awareness Week so it's a massive privilege to be able to attend the launch on Sunday with Councillor Robson and see the amazing work being done to eradicate hate in our society. And finally I'd just like to highlight the work of the Youth Council. So I attended the Youth Council Summit last week which aims to inspire young people and raise awareness around the opportunities for young people in the borough and we'll be hearing more from the Youth Council later on this evening. We'll now turn to the next item on the agenda which is petitions and deputations. Council will receive a deputation this evening. The deputation will be on clean up stratum. Please can Juri Peggy Schmidt-Solta and Kizzie Ross come to the front of the dais please. Welcome. So you have five minutes to address the council and then once you're finished please wait for response from the cabinet member. My neighbour Kizzie Ross. We both are residents of Kingscore Road. Thank you for this opportunity today for letting us speak about the challenges that we're facing on Kingscore Road but before I get into the challenges I would like to thank the council for the new bike nest as well as the trees that planted in the past and whenever we have raised any issues that it has been looked in. However there are challenges and these challenges are one we are unhappy with the level of litter, fly tipping, blocked drainage and the street cleaning on Kingscore Road. Being close to the high street and lots of fast food joints specifically KFC which is very popular we get loads of fast food rubbish on the street and this gets blown down the road because Kingscore Road is a kind of a wind tunnel and also people who come to eat in this joint some of them sit in the car, eat inside the car and dump the rubbish on the street. In addition KFC staff and some of the business have been leaving their rubbish on the street and we have reported this to the council in the past and it has been addressed and thank you for that again. And second people have been dumping their building material as well as household waste on this on the pavement and this are not collected quickly enough. Some of the residents have been using the pavement as a for flighty thing and again dumping their household waste such as old furnitures, mattresses which we get all the time and there's a left on the pavement for a long time uncollected and unclear which is kind of impact many of us walking through the street. And lastly Kingscore Road is a unique road not only that is close to the high street and loads of popular fast food joint it also one of the most straight road to the commons for pedestrians which means we get loads of traffic and this adds the rubbish being dumped on already a litter road. So what I'm going to do now is hand over to Kizzie to talk about what are the residents doing and what kind of support we would like from the council to address this. Thank you. Good evening council members. When I first moved to Kingscore Road I was surprised by the incredible sense of community, a vibrant togetherness I hadn't personally experienced in London before. Just this year, this summer, the residents came together contributing both their personal time and money to plant flowers in the beds along the street. This is a tight knit community with a huge sense of pride in the road, something rare and incredibly precious in a city like ours. However, over the last two years I've witnessed a troubling decline. Fly tipping has increased dramatically, litter from the eateries on the high street and bins now cover the road. What began as an occasional issue has really spiralled into a daily frustration. Just this morning, I stepped outside to find a discarded mattress on the pavement, blocking me from pushing my child's pram onto the road. These incidents are not only unsightly but demoralising. They undermine the hard work and pride we've invested in our streets, leaving residents feeling discouraged. Kingscore Road is unique in its location and we feel this needs to be reflected in the level of service our road receives. As mentioned, it is the main path to the common antebellum and it does have a very high level of footfall and therefore litter. Unfortunately, the low levels of street cleaning and slower responses to waste collection have left residents feeling disheartened. People are beginning to feel that our efforts no longer matter. The standard services we had have become sporadic and without timely intervention, these issues will only grow worse. I'm here today to ask for your help. Kingscore Road has the potential to be a model of community spirit in Streatham but we need the council's support to maintain that. Specifically, we need more consistent and more regular street cleaning, better enforcement against fly tipping and quicker responses to waste collection issues. These may seem like small things but they are essential in resolving and restoring the pride and connection that made Kingscore Road such a wonderful place to live. We the residents are more than willing to do our part. We've demonstrated that through our efforts to beautify the street, come together in times of need and look out for one another. Now we need the council to step up and do its part too and provide us with concrete plans to tackle the declining state of our road long term. To be clear, we are asking for the basics to be done right. By addressing these basic but crucial services, we can ensure that Kingscore Road remains not just a road but a home that people are proud to live on. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. Please just stay where you are while a response is provided by Councillor Rosina Chaudry, Cabinet Member for Sustainable Lambeth and Clean Air. Councillor Chaudry, you have three minutes. Thank you. Thank you for coming tonight to share your concerns about Kingscore Road and the other areas in our community. I understand the frustrations around street cleanliness and the impact of fly tipping has on your daily lives. As someone who's lived in Streatham for many years and has served as a Councillor for 10 of those, I know full well that we don't always get things right and some areas can at times be overlooked. I just wanted to reassure you that we're doing everything we can. We're committed to addressing the issues, the ones that you've mentioned, and we want to deal with those as quickly and as effectively as possible. So I just wanted to share with you our current approach. We have regular street cleaning schedule in place, ensuring that our streets are cleaned routinely. When fly tipping is reported, we aim to respond within 72 hours on residential roads. In the past year alone, we've dealt with over 7,000 fly tipping cases across the borough. To tackle the problem proactively though, we recently introduced a method where our teams drive down every road twice a week, removing fly tips even before they've been reported. We've seen some positive impact. For example, in September, we had 21 fewer incidents than the previous month. So it's a minor improvement, but we know we've got a long way to go and I acknowledge that, you know, we do have a long way to go on it, but it's a sign of progress. So I mean, beyond these routine efforts, we're constantly working to raise the standards of our street cleansing services and issue financial penalties where they fall short. This includes reviewing routes for more frequent cleaning when necessary, better waste management and stronger coordination between our frontline staff and supervisors. Our environmental enforcement team is actively targeting fly tipping hotspots to hold offenders accountable. And since April this year, we've taken enforcement in 287 cases of fly tipping and issued up to £115,000 worth of fines against offenders. So in response to the specific concerns about Kingscourt Road, I'm committed to ensuring we take direct and immediate action to improve the situation. So we'll arrange for a council officer to visit the area with the contractor to understand your situation and assess what improvements are needed, whether it's a deep clean or enhanced monitoring. And this visit will allow us to track the situation closely and make any necessary adjustments. So we take these issues really seriously and we'll continue working with you to ensure that our streets are clean, safe and accessible to everyone. And I want to thank you again for your input tonight. It's been really, really valuable. So thank you for taking the time to come and tell us about Kingscourt Road and I look forward to seeing a lovely and clean Kingscourt Road again. Thank you. Thank you for your invitation. A written response will be provided within 10 days. So thank you. I will now accept petitions from councillors. Please indicate by raising your hand if you have a petition to present. When called on, please just state the number of signatures and a petition title. No lengthy speeches, please. Democratic Services will collect the petition, so please remain seated. Petitions being received this evening will be verified by Democratic Services following the meeting and officers will contact the lead petitioner with further information. Please note if a petition is not received in accordance with the council's petition scheme, it will be rejected. So can everyone raise their hands if they have a petition, Councillor George? Sorry, sorry, Councillor George. Thank you, Councillor George. I just want to say thank you, Councillor George. Yeah, cool. Anyone else? Sorry, Councillor Griffiths. Thank you. I've got a petition here called Clean Up Streatham with 218 verified signatures. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Oh yeah, Councillor Harris. Thank you, Mr Mayor. I've got 229 signatures on a petition to halt the spiralling cost of Lambeth residents' parking permits from Hyde Farm residents. Thank you. Anyone else? No? Cool. The next item is cabinet statement. Councillor Claire Holland, you have five minutes to address council. Thank you very much, Mr Mayor. Colleagues, we come together tonight with the benefits of having a Labour government in power nationally already being felt. It has ended the junior doctor's strike, scrapped the render bill, started setting up GB Energy and bringing the railways and buses into public ownership, taken action against water bosses who pollute our water for their profit, launched planning reforms and the renters' rights bill, established a child poverty task force and kick-started a devolution revolution and so, so much more. But colleagues, 14 years of austerity takes its toll. It is not simply the over £250 million in cuts in government funding and savings we've had to make that have impacted our budget and therefore our communities. It is also pernicious policy decisions and measures introduced by the Lib Dem Tory coalition government that continue to have a devastating impact. What we are seeing playing out now, whether that is to do with the lack of investment in social housing or investment in the upkeep of our public realm, is to do with the structural impacts that that dreadful coalition government started. Take council tax benefit, abolished by the Lib Dems and Tories back in 2013 and in its place, an underfunded council tax support scheme that puts the burden on local authorities to support residents on low income to help pay their council tax. The abolition of the decent homes grant and the reinvigoration of the right to buy and the refusal to have a national house building programme. A rent settlement introduced in 2012 that was unbroken by the government and multiples times since. Decisions that have cost our housing revenue account almost £1 billion, money taken out of our budget used to fund repairs and major works on our tenants homes. But despite 14 years of failed and pernicious national government policy, we have built the first council homes in a generation and we're delivering improvements to housing services. But the cost of these cuts and unfunded burdens put on us by successive Tory and Lib Dem governments since 2010 are being felt today and the community of impact is devastating. It has been a shameful pattern of cuts and a culture of disdain for our communities which is being felt in our services now. And on top of that, we're left with a housing crisis, a public health crisis and a social care crisis. We have rising need and complexity of need, a dramatic reduction in resources and skyrocketing costs, crises caused by Tory and Lib Dem austerity. So we are finding ourselves facing a perfect storm and I see it across London, councils announcing tough decisions on services due to unprecedented demand on top of 14 years of economic and public service vandalism. And as our new government is having to make tough decisions, so we too will have to make tough decisions. But we warmly welcome a government who is engaging, who is listening and wants to partner with local government. These challenges will not be fixed quickly, it will take time to rebuild, but we will work closely with government to deliver for our residents and to make sure that we stand up for and strengthen Lambeth's diverse community that makes us such a special place. Mr Mayor, as you said, it has been wonderful to celebrate diversity truly as our strength for our extensive Black History Month programme. And this year's theme is reclaiming the narrative and ensuring black people's role in history is never overlooked and that everyone's story is told. As you said, the council has a big range of events put together with and by our communities, cementing equity and justice at the heart of all we do. Mr Mayor, it was also a privilege to attend the Be Lambeth Awards earlier this month. The evening was a brilliant celebration, a fulfilment of our manifesto commitment to recognise the outstanding achievements in skills and employment across Lambeth. They really showcase the diversity and talent we are lucky to have in our borough. These are just a couple of areas that Lambeth Council has been making a real difference on, alongside taking radical action to reduce carbon emissions and make our neighbourhoods safer and healthier, bringing forward plans to build more council homes and so, so much more. In the past, it is often felt like we've had to tackle some of the challenges with both hands tied behind our back. But now we stand ready with our experience and expertise to work with government to remedy the issues of the past and together meet the challenges of the future. Thank you, Mr Mayor. Thank you, Councillor Holland. We will now move on to the majority opposition statement. Councillor Donna Harris, you have three minutes to address council. Thank you, Mr Mayor. Let me begin by congratulating the leader of the council on her election as chair of London Council's as an important cross party role. The position will see her leading the charge for London to secure a better financial deal for the new government, a vital task at this time. I'm pleased to see Councillor Holland's name on the letter from the local government association to the chancellor last week, urging her to use the upcoming budget and local government finance settlement to support local authorities and delivering essential services. This includes, of course, addressing the pressing issue of temporary accommodation and that support is certainly needed here. Lambeth is currently trying to free up accommodation by serving section 21 no fault eviction notice notices to 118 families. Yet at the same time, the Labour government is pushing through the renters rights bill, which will appeal section 21 altogether. Angela Rayner's ministry is determined to end what it calls the scourge of these evictions as quickly as possible. So let's hope Rachel Reeves can come through with the funding needed to bring Lambeth's 421 empty homes and properties back into use as an alternative way to house these people. This is something we as Liberal Democrats have been calling for since November last year. I stress the importance of the budget because Labour's government is not off to such a great start. Labour has spent 14 years railing against austerity, ignoring the fact in 2010 they themselves planned deeper cuts than those made by the coalition. Austerity ended with the Cameron Osborne government and it became a distant memory during the Johnson and Sunac years of borrow and spend policies during Covid. Yet now in power, Labour clings to austerity policies. Keir Starmer keeps the two child benefit cap, while Rachel Reeves abolishes the winter fuel payment for 10 million pensioners. And while Labour spent its party conference disagreeing about winter fuel payments, at the Liberal Democrat conference, we all came together to pass a motion on maternal and neonatal care, which began its life right here in this chamber, supported by the proposed by Lambeth Lib Dems. Tonight, we bring forward a motion on winter fuel payments, which if Lambeth Labour vote against, I hope they will all sleep easy and warm in their beds tonight. Labour now hold the reins of power across the country. This upcoming budget they need to deliver or Labour will be remembered as the party that dined out on austerity for a decade and a half, but only to resurrect it when they came to power. Thank you, Mr Mayor. Thank you, Councillor Harris. We will now move on to the next item of business, which is Councillor questions. 25 minutes is set aside for supplementary questions and answers. Can I remind Councillors to keep answers and supplementary questions short and concise to enable us to get through as many questions as possible in the time allocated? The first question is from Councillor Donna Harris to Councillor Daniel Adilipour. Councillor Harris, do you have a supplementary question? Yes, I do, Mr Mayor. I'd like to thank the cabinet member for his answer. However, I have to say we asked a very simple question and the answer for all its complexity does not actually answer the question. We were asking for the current position. So will he tell me now how much seal money has been paid to Lambeth, which is unspent and unallocated at this present time? Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Adilipour. Can you provide a response? Thank you, Mr Mayor. I thank Councillor Harris for her question, but I think it's a repetition of her first question. So I refer to the answer I gave, encourage you to study the figures I've provided and to read the statement of accounts that's published over here. Thank you. Thank you. The second question is from Councillor Nicole Griffiths to Councillor Rosina Choudary. Do you have a supplementary question? Thank you, Mr Mayor. Thank you for the response to my question and to the deputation, Councillor Choudary. And I would also like to take this opportunity to publicly thank officers for their speedy interventions when issues are reported directly to them across Streatham. However, the lack of street cleaning isn't really addressed in the answer. So please, can you let us know what further measures will be taken to ensure that the streets and gullies across Streatham will be kept clean and as weed free as possible? And just to be completely clear, we do not want any return to the use of glyphosate. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Choudary. Can you please provide a response? Thank you, Councillor Griffiths, for your question. I'm not sure where the issue of glyphosate came from. There is no intention to bring the usage of glyphosate back. We were very clear on that. But what I will say is that, yes, we acknowledge that streets haven't been clean as they could be, but we are taking action. I've asked officers to prepare and implement a performance improvement plan with significant additional scrutiny and support for CERCO since mid-September. And hopefully, we will start to see improvements soon. But yes, I hope that answers your question. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from Councillor Tom Swayne Jameson to Councillor Dilipour. Do you have a supplementary question? Thank you, Mr Mayor. Thank you, Councillor Dilipour, for your answer. It's very comprehensive. It's really heartening to read so much good news coming across the borough. More specifically, though, I wonder if the Community Connections Fund has yet been distributed to benefit young people in my ward of Boxhall? And if so, how? Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Dilipour. Can you please provide a response? Thank you, Councillor Swayne Jameson, for your supplementary question. I'm pleased to say that, yes, in the first round of funding, a number of schemes in the north of Lambeth did get grant funding to support young people. One in your area I draw particular attention to is the Black Prince Trust, which serves the community in Kennington and Boxhall. And we managed to support a really ambitious project there to refurbish their kitchen. I had the privilege of visiting that myself. And with that kitchen refurbishment, when they're training young people in culinary skills to equip them for the workforce, and at the same time, they're producing low-cost meals for the local community as well. So it's a really ambitious, exciting project. I look forward to seeing more come through in the Boxhall area in the next round of funding. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from Councillor Kim Banton to Councillor Fred Cowell. Do you have a supplementary question? Do you want to just try another mic? My question is for Councillor Cowell. Following from the amazing support that families with sickle cell had gotten from Lambeth last year through this cost of living crisis, are we able to extend this for another year? Thank you, Councillor Cowell. Could you please provide a response? Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Councillor Banton. And your work in relation to the sickle cell affected community is something that you've had a passion for many years now from before you were elected. And there's been an incredible amount of work done specifically on this. In terms of the extensions and the budget coming, we're going to wait and see the specific offer in the budget. But I can also tell you, as officers have been working with us on this, that we are currently working with the local hospital trust to identify an initial group of residents who are affected specifically by sickle cell, and help work with them with other voluntary and private sector providers to help provide financial support, specifically with energy bills, look at energy efficiency in their homes, and a series of other targeted measures that specifically affect those suffering from sickle cell who are more vulnerable and prone to changes in temperature. So that's one of the sort of targeted responses that we're going to be able to carry on throughout the next year. Thank you. The next question is from Councillor Scarlett O'Hara to Councillor Donatus and Yanru. Do you have a supplementary question? Yes, I do. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Lambeth has made a significant investment in Brixton Library, including accessibility with a lift, a toilet in the Children's Library and a new space for hire. It's fantastic to see this in Brixton, and are there any plans to invest in other libraries in the borough? Thank you, Councillor O'Hara. Can you please provide a response? Thank you, Councillor O'Hara, for your question. Yes, Lambeth Council is investing a further $1.7 million into refurbishing and innovating our libraries. Lambeth's 10 libraries, as people know, provide essential services and community space for thousands of residents. And that is why we are committed to those 10 libraries. And as already outlined, important for generating incomes, especially making sure those incomes are used to improve our assets. Recent refurbishment works have already taken place in Downing and Stratham libraries, and a $1 million overhaul of Brixton Library was completed in August, as you stated. The latest investment marks the start of a major and ongoing programme of refurbishment and assets replacement across all libraries. In addition to our structural improvements, the latest investment will help libraries to innovate, also to put them in a firm footing for the future with new income opportunities. The $1.7 million will be allocated across several projects, including $850,000 for the redevelopment and refurbishment of South Lambeth Library, Clapham and Manette libraries, to create additional letterbook spaces for meetings and community events, refurbish events areas, address water ingraines and other issues, and also upgrade electrical and heating installations at Manette. We are committed also to spend $40,000 to improve some improvements in event rooms across the library network, $250,000 to replace shelving and furniture, $360,000 for the installation of heating loops and also hearing loops, replacement of self-service kiosks, health check machines and upgrade our audio visual equipment to improve accessibility for all. We are also spending $200,000 to replace racks and upgrade public access pieces and laptops, ensuring that all our libraries remain digitally inclusive. We are also spending in Manette library every area of Manette library to be refurbished. We're also looking at Clapham library, including redecoration, refreshing of all main areas, particularly the cafe areas, toilets and meeting areas to be improved. So all these are in addition to everything we're doing to make sure our libraries remain a focal point for our communities. Libraries becomes, for me, is the borough's living room, not only to make our young people to have a space they can go, particularly in Brixton, we created a space where young people can come in instead of standing up at KFC or McDonald's. Similar things we need to spend to refurbish all areas of interest for young people so that they can come meet their friends, use it as equitable space within our equity and justice framework. So the investment in the library is to address all issues of inclusivity and also making sure we feel free not only to read, to socialise as well. Thank you very much. Thank you, Councillor. The next question is from Councillor Judith Kavanagh to Councillor Fred Cowell. Do you have a supplementary question? Thank you, Councillor Cowell, for your answer. Can I check? Am I right in understanding that the new entrances to the cemetery will mean that it will now be possible to cycle through the cemetery to West Norwood? And if so, could you explain how this brilliant improvement can be handled sensitively, bearing in mind the needs of mourners and those visiting their loved ones. Thank you. Councillor Cowell, could you please provide a response? Thank you very much. I mean, Council, I have to say that what is going on in West Norwood at the moment is truly remarkable. We're set to open up one of the largest green spaces in the borough following a heritage lottery funded project of £5 million and opening up that green space to the borough includes opening up to the one in four Lambeth residents who every week get on their bike. We will be having cycling through the cemetery. The regulations are specifically being changed to allow it and also to make sure that it stays on the paths where already vehicles and such as hearses etc can drive but not expand out into the rest of the cemetery. We're working very closely with other cemeteries that have done this in the local area such as, for example, Nunhead Cemetery and hopefully providing a truly fantastic green space for the entire community, especially those who like to cycle from Knights Hill to Gypsy Hill. That will enable people to really appreciate one of the biggest green spaces that we have in the entire borough. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from Councillor Ben Curtis to Councillor De La Porte. Do you have a supplementary question? I do indeed Miss Smith. Thank you very much indeed and thank you very much indeed Councillor De La Porte for your answer. I commend the good work that's been done. Just a quick one from me. Of the remaining 562 that were identified cases, is there a time scale in place to fix those specific issues and obviously if that's not known would you be able to write to me with the details of those? Thank you Councillor De La Porte. Please provide a response. Thank you Councillor Curtis for your important supplementary question. What I'd say is that we are prioritising the most serious of the works that need to be done, which is what we've done throughout this. I'm pleased to give a reassurance tonight that we have no ACM clad in buildings left in Lambeth and we have taken swift action to take immediate remediation works on nine buildings to address clouding issues. There are further six buildings that have related works that need doing to them that will be scheduled early in the new year. The outstanding works of the map that you mentioned are the less serious end of the scale but if you'd like me to provide further information please do write to me. I'm happy to look into it. Thanks. Thank you. The next question is from Councillor David Brinson to Councillor Tim Windle. Do you have a supplementary question? Yes I do, thank you Mr Mayor. After years of denial from a previous Tory government we now have a government that will take decisive action and implement buffer zones around abortion clinics, which is a pressing issue in my ward. What is the expected time scale for the implementation of a buffer zone on Brixton Hill so that women can access health care free from harassment? Thank you. Councillor Windle could you please provide a response? Yeah thank you for your question and further to my initial answer, a buffer zone should be in place from the end of the month for 31st of October. It will be up to police to enforce protest outside those clinics but we're still awaiting guidance from the College of Policing and the Royal Courts of Justice on exactly what that looks like. We'll be working very quickly to implement this as quickly as we can to make sure they are in place. I just want to say that Lambeth is really proud of the role that it played in bringing this change in and I think that the local community owes you Councillor Brinson and other councils in Brixton a real debt of gratitude for the contribution that you've made to making this policy a reality. I think this protects women's right to choose, it protects people making a difficult decision during a potentially very vulnerable time in their lives and importantly it also protects those staff who are delivering this vital service. Thank you. The next question is from Councillor Tina Valcasal to Councillor Donata Sanyanwu. Do you have a supplementary question? Thank you. Thank you Councillor Sanyanwu for your answer. We have a couple of weeks left in the month. Can you recommend any events that members of this room tonight can attend? Thank you. Thank you Councillor Sanyanwu. Can you please provide a response? Thank you Councillor. There's a booklet here which the council has produced with our libraries. All these events are fantastic events so whether it is arts, history, workshops, for young, for old, for the children. Every event I hear, everyone you attend you will enjoy. The booklet is important because it directs you where it is happening. Would I recommend one, two or three? I recommend all because every single one of them will lead to us understanding the Lombard history because the Lombard history is the black history and the black history is the Lombard history. So in a sense we're celebrating in October however the history is a consistent ongoing. It is important that we do not lose the history of African, Caribbean and other minorities that they have helped to create the country that we have today. So there is no black history without us here, every single one of us, following and understanding that. There is also no black history. I have to say it started in Lombard. We were the front leaders in relation to celebrating who contributed to the lives of many people in this borough and across the country. So please attend every one of them that you can because every one of them will tell you who you are and that is who we are. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next question is from Councillor Scott Ainslie to Councillor David Amos. Do you have a supplementary question? I do Mr Mayor, thank you very much. So thank you very much for the answer to the question. I wonder, I'm sure all the ward members here will be curious about this. Please could you define how you allocate funds fairly and how you do and how do you check it in practice? I mean for example I raised in my question the Stretton Space Project. How does the amount of money that they've received compare say to the Brixton House as an arts venue? Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Amos can you please provide a response? Thank you Councillor Ainslie. Very helpful question, original question and supplementary. Every fund that we directly control and funds that we bid to, each of those have criteria which you'll be well aware of and that's the most important thing to establish and to keep under review and measure the allocations to organisations across Lambeth to make sure it's consistent with those criteria. There's one that I'm most familiar with which is the Social Value Fund where income is derived from our contractors and the criteria for that fund are set within the parameters of our 2030 ambitions for Lambeth, our values and priorities as an administration. So I think it's always good to get feedback directly from organisations who bid, whether they're successful or otherwise and obviously from local councillors and I hope that my original answer set out quite how much has been invested in Stretton and the specific project that you indicated. And just finally the council has brought together an overall approach to the various funds that it's involved with to make sure that the funds don't operate in isolation and that they pass all the tests we wish them to do so. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from Councillor Dominic Armstrong to Councillor David Amos. Do you have a supplementary question? I do, thank you Mr Mayor. It's fantastic to hear about the £1.1 million being invested in active Lambeth and the innovative ways in which the council is generating new income revenue, particularly within the concepts as laid out by the leader of the council in her statement of the 14 years of economic mismanagement by the Tories and the Lib Dems as well. Can I ask is there any plans for this £1.1 million to be invested in the active Lambeth site by Stretton Common and also what other innovative ways of generating revenue to fund the vice and services that we do? Are the council planning if you could share that with us today? Thank you Councillor Amos, can you please. Thank you for your supplementary. Clearly tonight we have the capital investment programme that has the responsible cabinet member on behalf of cabinet I'm proposing that we support as full council and that sets out the overall strategy and the specific themes and priorities given the limited resources that we have to spend in capital. So a huge amount of work has gone into that throughout most of this calendar year, particularly as we've had to take some difficult decisions given our limited resources. But more work will follow once hopefully we sign that off this evening and that will involve working in more detail on the specific allocations to particular organisations, to particular places and in the area that you've raised in Stretton itself. So I'm happy to commit to providing further information to you as you've raised the question but also by working with fellow cabinet members, many who lead on the areas as we've heard from Councillor and you already tonight around libraries and I'm happy to provide more information in that respect. However you have actually touched on one of the crucial criterion for project selection and that's where there's an opportunity to generate income, especially as we have to borrow for much of our capital programme and that income generation will help us pay for the capital but also to raise a surplus that we can invest in providing vitally needed services. I was going to give you two examples of schemes that I'm pretty sure you're going to be aware of that are already underway or will be underway as a result of the existing capital programme. Councillor Anouette has touched on most of them but I'll be happy to set out in more detail, especially when we get to the next stage having signed off the programme tonight. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is Councillor Rebecca Spencer to Councillor David Amos. Do you have a supplementary? Yes thank you. The Tories have obviously left local authorities across the country at absolute breaking point. With our biggest financial pressure being the sheer need for temporary accommodation due to the soaring demand, does the cabinet member see any help on the horizon for my new government for the financial pressure of the temporary accommodation? Thank you Councillor Amos. Please provide a response. Thank you Councillor Spencer. This is not my last question tonight by the way. So as we've already heard from our leader at last we have a government that understands and supports local government with real insight into our challenges. Many MPs, Ministers have been Councillors themselves and an obvious commitment to meeting the needs of vulnerable households and families. You've rightly touched on the challenge of temporary accommodation and the increase in demand and rising prices has compounded the impact that our leader talked about which has been going on for 14 years of austerity. We know that with temporary accommodation it's not just the increasing demand. I think last week we housed as a council 140 households who all came to us desperate and needing temporary accommodation. So the government has inherited a financial mess from the Tories and the Lib Dems and it's going to take time to sort out, we all know that. Though it has already committed to longer-term financial settlements which we hope to see sooner, that it's going into less wasteful competition between councils bidding for funds so we've got greater certainty and security about our central support and the ending of no-fault evictions which you've already heard about this evening. So all of that will help us address our temporary accommodation challenge but I do want to end by paying credit to our staff right across the council who are working so hard with sensitivity, expertise and commitment to deal with households in such a desperate place as we try and find them temporary accommodation. Thank you. Thank you and sorry to disappoint you Councillor Amos but that was your last question because the 25 minutes allocated for questions has now expired. So we're going to move on to the next item on the agenda which is the reports. The first report this evening is a verbal report from the Lambeth Youth Council. We'll be hearing from youth councillors and youth council coordinators so if our speakers would like to step up to the floor and come to the front and give their introductions. Introduce yourselves first. We need to get a group of young people to really shape the way the future of Lambeth looks and I think that we started to really get that down. You know we've done a lot of campaigns that you'll hear about soon. We've done the Lambeth Youth Summit, we've done a bunch to really help show what Young Lambeth really is about and what we want to see going forward. We'd like to also give a huge shout out to Ghana who after our presentation will be sending out a form which will report to you around all the stuff that we've done in the past but we can't really do it and we want future plans as well so please do look out for that. I'd like to hand over to some of our amazing youth councillors to really highlight all the amazing work we've done over the last 12 months. Thank you. Hi everyone I'm really excited to be standing in front of you guys. My name is Leah Hamdoun and I've been working on a project 'Beyond You' which is basically aiming to get more young people involved in fitness opportunities. Now as a young person myself, no offence guys, Lambeth doesn't have the best gym facilities or leisure centre opportunities available and that's exactly what I want to post-stop to. So I looked into some of the statistics that Lambeth released and we found out that 18% of young people achieve 60 minutes of daily activity so that's only 18% of young people. On top of that looking into membership costs, junior memberships for under 16 cost £20 with an additional £12 setting up fee so that's £32 for somebody who's under the age of 15 to be paying and it gets worse. So if you're the age of 16 or above you actually have to pay £40 for a membership. Now as a young person trying to go to the gym obviously it's impossible to go to the gym without the gym membership so this is one of the most important things that we found but the worst one that really incentivised me to start this campaign was the fact that 35% of those who live in extreme poverty only get 30 minutes of activity each week. So in seven days 35% of people in deprivation are only getting 30 minutes, half an hour. So some of the stuff that I've been working on was first with the youth summit that was two weeks ago I delivered a workshop to 100 young people where we got them to understand what they want to see with leisure centres so they devised a whole plan on what they wanted to prioritise and on top of that 50 young people gave me their email addresses as they wanted to be part of the campaign. They were passionate of letting their voice be heard because they felt like this was an issue that needed to be addressed but my most proudest achievement has been with my survey that I've created and I've sent out. I've had almost over 200 young people sign that survey and here are the three most important statistics that I found. 88.2% of those who responded said they don't frequently visit a gym. These are all young people in London 88.2%. On top of that 55.7% said that membership costs are the most important factor when deciding when to go to gym which ties into the statistic that I showed you before about the membership costs and finally 55.2% so over half of the people that responded said they don't feel comfortable using gym equipment and facilities and this simply comes down to a lack of knowledge, a lack of understanding and a lack of opportunities for young people to really grasp and understand what the leisure centres have to offer. So my end goal of my campaign is to make gyms accessible for those 35% of people in deprivation but also for all young people including those with SCND needs and focusing on offering classes, changing the gym prices, having more information and overall building a safe community for young people. I don't want Beyond U to be a project that forces young people to go to use gyms. I want it to ensure that young people are gaining the confidence that they need and all the information that they need to utilise leisure centres in the way that they want to. I want Lambeth to be a borough where if a young person who feels like they want to be an athlete, who feels like they have potential to do something further with sports, I don't want them to think oh I live in Lambeth there's nothing I can do about it. I live in Lambeth, there's so much I can do about it. Thank you. Hi guys I'm Olivero, the co-chair with Shana Kay who unfortunately couldn't make it for today but I think she'd agree with me when I say it was an absolute honour to host our third U summit. I'd like to give a special thanks to Mr Mayor and Councillor Dr Mahabed Hashi for coming onto the stage, talking with the young people and really carrying out what the core value is of the youth council. It's really about connecting the young people with the borough and I think we carried that out beautifully by my advice. So we've broken records across the board this year, over 600 ticket sales, largest organic reach, most organisations and stores in attendance that we've ever had, best young person to adult ratio of all our events and most young people signed up directly from schools and peers. I really do hope that we can see a lot more of you guys to come to the next one because we really are building momentum for something that I think, well I am passionate about and think will be big in the future. Thank you guys very much. Good evening everyone, my name is Tamani. I, alongside my co-authors, they can't be here today, Charmaine, hosted, along with the men, an event which allowed young people from around the borough to get an opportunity to speak to the veterans. I kind of break down that wall which we feel a lot of people have when it comes to the police because if you are a person who grow up in a background like a lot of the different places in London, for example, Brixton, there's this big stigma around the police and by that I mean a lot of people believe that they can't go to the police or the police aren't there for them per se, so the council felt it would be amazing to hold an event which essentially allowed young people to speak to the police, understand the different roles, responsibilities that you can have within the police and also show them that police officers are humans too. In the same way which we are humans, they have fears, they have lives, they have wants and they aren't just necessarily there to break down people. So at this event, we were able to have more than 50 in attendance which was able to really spread the word because we gave out different details which explain people's rights so they would understand what they could do in situations where they feel like they're scared, what they're able to do, what they can say and if anything does go wrong, which we hope after these types of events doesn't happen in as high of a frequency, they know where they can go on the right channels to help deal with those problems. So through this event, we essentially just brought young people and the police together and just destigmatised the police and the borough and helped young people, so thank you. Hi everyone, I'm Alex James and like Ricardo said, I run the youth council alongside him and got our comms manager. I want to say a big well done to our young people for doing a brilliant job of giving you a lot of insight on what we've been up to this year. I wanted to thank councillors individually but if I was to thank all of you, I would be here for too long so I'm going to thank you all as a whole for hearing us out and I want to ask from you guys how, because we don't buy, we would love it if you got, if you look a little bit more involved with what we're doing, whether that's supporting Leah's campaign in any way you can, we'd much appreciate that. Whether it's just dropping in, we run from Thursday during term time, five to seven, if you ever want to come in and possibly some of our really talented young people would love to shadow anybody that's willing to within you, within the council, to get an insight of what you do so we can build a better connection with the council. I just want to say thank you, thank you for having us. Thanks guys, thank you for your report. We'll now hear from Councillor Nicole Griffiths, Councillor Matthew Bryant and Councillor Mohamed Hashi. Councillor Griffiths you have three minutes. Thank you Mr Mayor, thank you so much. Oh those speeches were so beautiful, I'm blown away as I am every year by everything that you do, so well done. I just want to apologise, I'm so sorry not to make the summit this year. I've made the last two but I was away. I'll be at the next one, yeah I'll definitely be at the next one. I've been scribbling notes as you were talking so I'm not going to make much sense here, sorry, but I just wanted to say, I just want to say thank you, huge thank you to Mel and the team and everybody who supports you guys and can you see it all going. Scott and I, I mean we keep saying yeah we're going to be coming to a meeting and we're going to be, we still haven't managed to do it but we will and we'll come and we'll talk to you guys and also from the shadowing point of view, I mean if you want to come and learn about green politics then we would be more than happy for you to come and shadow us at any point really that suits you. I just, on that point connecting to young people, connecting across the borough, I know last year I was just saying wouldn't it be great if actually you sat in on these sorts of meetings and that you also were able to contribute to motions, to questions and that you were included in committee meetings, so actually you got to have your say and that we truly heard the voice of young people across the council at all stages and that would be very, very welcome and so I've been working for the past year at Roots & Shoots College which is up in Kennington, amazing group of young people and I know I was talking to Mel about actually putting you guys in touch because I think there's some students there, they all have quite severe learning disabilities who would actually maybe could be included in some of the youth council work that you do and I just wanted to pick up on what you said about access to gyms and green spaces. When I was young there were youth clubs, there were places that, lots and lots of places where young people could go and it was safe actually to go to those clubs and to go to parks and to go to open spaces. I know that's not what the experience here in Lambeth is, so what I've heard you say is that there should be more open and free access to gyms and access to trainers and Active Lambeth needs to be able to do everything it possibly can to include young people, it is fully inclusive young people, so I hope I've understood that right and just to say I think that's it, I probably have my three minutes, anyway thank you so much and I'll see you all soon. Thank you very much, Councillor Curtis you also have three minutes. Thank you so much indeed Mr Mel, I must say I'm getting so slightly worried that every year that this report comes before council, you guys are looking younger and younger and I am looking older and older and I don't know whether that's just the ageing effects of being a Councillor but well done for a fantastic report and for a fantastic year. I'm so sorry I wasn't able to make the youth summit in October, I was caught up with a whole range of work things but I'm so delighted to hear of your successes and of course we would be absolutely delighted to have you shadow any one of us and learn about Liberal Democrat politics and what centrism means. The moment of young people in politics is not only critical for the health of our democracy locally and nationally but for challenging the status quo and encouraging all of us young and old to do better and young people as you've alluded to in Britain and Lambert face really serious challenges and thank you to your amazing work to make sure that those issues are being heard by us here and by young people across Britain and thank you so much to you all for being here and to Mel who assists you in the most wonderful way and as I've said before and I'll say again I mean I look forward to seeing some of you join us up here in the future but with any luck your superior skills won't put me out of a job. So congratulations again on behalf of the entire LibGEM group you should all be incredibly proud of yourselves well done. Thank you Councillor Pettis. Councillor Hashi you have three minutes. Thank you very much I was going to say I'm even more concerned when Ben says he's feeling older and older I wonder where that leaves me. I'm delighted to be able to speak on this group of talented young people who are invested in making sure young people's voices are heard and supporting them in getting access to opportunities as well as being at the heart of decision making. The Lambert Youth Council coordinators are young people who have taken the responsibility of supporting younger Lambert Youth Council Councillors to excel so I specifically wanted to thank Ricardo, Enes, Alex, James and Gala for all their hard work. They have ensured that our young people are not shy about expressing their feelings as we've heard tonight. Over the past year these coordinators and youth council have worked tirelessly tirelessly on several campaigns such as understanding financial literacy, providing safe spaces for young people to talk about their experiences, representing Lambeth at the London Youth Assembly, representing Lambeth during the Our Generation Our Vote national campaign at the House of Commons, bringing youth groups together to hear their opinions and delivering on the Lambeth Youth Council annual youth summit with a record 600 young people in attendance. I think that's a trap guys. I will say they keep saying that we should come to the youth summit but if you don't have Instagram you probably won't get the invite. This is a generation of young people who we as councillors should be actively supporting and they continue to inspire me with confidence that our future is in safe hands so thank you very much and thank you Mel. Thank you speakers. I would just like to say with the shadowing opportunity that's a really good idea and I recommend everyone takes it up. I had two of the youth councillors shadow me over the summer and I had a lot of fun. I don't know about you guys but I thought it was really good, that's cool. So yeah just so everyone's noticed this report is for noting. The second report this evening is the Capital Programme 2024-28. You'll hear from Councillor Scott Ainslie, Councillor Matthew Bryan and Councillor David Amos. Councillor Ainslie you have three minutes. Thank you Mr Mayor. The Greens want more investment in local communities. We've been asking for an updated list of capital projects and appreciate the work officers have put in to see it presented here at council this evening. We have long been concerned however with the equitable distribution of funds across the borough. Cabinet members tell us that the southern wards are getting their first share but they haven't told us how this compares to the north or the middle of the borough. When we asked about section 106 investments the learners ward was second last on the list with only £18,000 allocated to a CPZ consultation. Meanwhile 17 out of 25 wards have over a hundred thousand of individual projects allocated and some with millions. This is not reassuring. There is not enough detail in these reports to see where the money is being spent. The only location specific projects are in the north and centre of the borough. Where is the £13.8 million in traffic reduction and air quality improvement schemes going to be spent for example? We need to know more about the projects that make up these figures to understand who is benefiting most from the investment. On section 106 a report from the home builders federation in 2023 showed that Lambeth was sitting on the second highest value of unspent section 106 funds in London of nearly 50 million. A figure that has been rising for two decades. Why have I also with section 106 projects from 2015 some of them still haven't been spent the balance in 2023. I mean why are these projects taking that long to complete or are we just sitting on money when frontline services are suffering effectively amplifying labour austerity. As usual there is not enough transparency or accountability. I asked the cabinet last week about the amount that was spent specifically on St Leonard's. The leader skipped over my specific question on my ward just giving a general wash answer of Streatham has got its full share. We have been seeking a meeting with the corporate director to discuss our concerns for nearly a year and we have now been told that our meetings with individual corporate directors are restricted. How can we help but feel that this is yet another attempt to veil the workings of this council from opposition members. We have valid questions many of which have been posed by residents by ignoring also ignoring voters who are looking for new alternatives to this secretive one-party state. All we are asking is who decides which project receives investment. Are developer funds being effectively used to maximise outcomes for our communities and is there a strategy to ensure equal distribution of capital investment across the borough. When you don't answer our questions people wonder if it's because you don't want them to know the answers. Thank you. Thank you Councillor. Councillor Bryant you have three minutes. Thank you Mr Mayor. This report was discussed at cabinet on Monday last week so I'll keep my comments brief this evening. We as a group are obviously clearly disappointed that the capital programme for the next four years is much less ambitious than the previous iteration. This reflects the council's financial position and obviously the huge increase in borrowing costs since 2020. What we hope is interest rates come down it may be possible to expand the programme of schemes that are funded. We also need to recognise that this report only tells half of the story with regard to the council's investment in its facilities and infrastructure. The other half is the capital programme funded through the housing revenue account. This is obviously we understand that this will be published later it would have helped perhaps to have the two together and we very much hope that when we do see it it will include increased investment in schemes to decarbonise homes and reduce the cost of energy bills for council tenants. Looking at this programme before us we're pleased to see that the programme includes almost £8 million of funding for the new homes programme and Councillor Adleport confirmed last week that this should finance a minimum of 500 new homes in the borough by 2030. We should be watching progress on this very closely. We also welcome the allocation of £1 million to upgrade or replace estate play areas but we'd like to know which estates will benefit from this and whilst it is good to see £2.5 million allocated to the tree planting programme which is an issue very close to our hearts in this group the council needs to make sure that it has an adequate and properly funded maintenance programme or else we'll see vast numbers dying as has happened unfortunately in the last planting season. However we do have a number of concerns and caveats then these mirror really the comments already made by Councillor Ainslie. First there's no read across in this programme in this capital programme from the corporate carbon reduction plan which the council published just three weeks ago. Second there's no information here on the geographical spread of the schemes across the borough and finally as Councillor Ainslie said more eloquently than I can probably, we would like to see far more transparency as to how decisions are taken about which schemes are funded and which are not. Thank you. Thank you Councillor. Councillor Amos you have three minutes. Thank you chair. So tonight as I've already held in my answers earlier I'm presenting Lambeth Council's capital investment programme for 2024 to 2025 and propose that its recommendations be endorsed. In the four years since the last capital programme the council has invested over 273 million pounds, a very ambitious programme on a wide range of projects across the borough, maintaining school buildings, improving our wood-winning parks, open spaces and leisure facilities and investing in roads and the public realm to encourage active travel and adaptations to a changing climate. However the world looks very different now to only a few years ago in 2020, Brexit, Covid-related trade disruptions, the impact of the war in Ukraine with levels of inflation not seen in over a generation and these have all had substantial implications for our capacity as a council to fund capacity capital programmes and this has come in other ways in terms of higher construction costs, labour costs and a decrease in developer contributions as growth and developments have slowed or even stopped. So Lambeth Council's capital programme as fellow councillors will know is made up of funding from development contributions, our own borrowing during very challenging times or from external grants and matched funding. I've got to say that hearing the Greens talk about better spending of development money is pretty rich and somewhat disingenuous and frankly I'm serious given how much of the potential development growth they've opposed during the time that I've been a local councillor. So the funding situation has been compounded by 14 years of Tory and Lib Dem assisted austerity under investment in public services, a carousel of Conservative governments with frequent instability of leadership. So reflecting this new reality since 2020 this report outlines an additional 89 million pounds of capital investments over the next four years, a hugely ambitious programme especially given our financial challenges, with the focus on funding capital projects based on identifying external ground funding, encouraging growth and the development contributions it brings to the borough and prudent borrowing which can show return on investment. This capital investment will contribute to maintaining assets, enhance our youth officer, support vulnerable residents, improve our environment and public realm, develop income generating schemes that support the land of 2030 ambitions, contribute towards the council's financial stability and enable the council to provide the safest most efficient and highest quality services possible for our residents. Please support the programme tonight, thank you. Thank you speakers, we will vote on this report later in the meeting. The third and final report this evening is the constitution 2024-25. We will hear from Councillor Nicole Griffiths, Councillor Donna Harris and Councillor Scarlett O'Hara. Councillor Griffiths you have three minutes. Thank you Mr Mayor, thank you for the report. We accept the updates but I have a couple of comments and one of the changes that we're voting on this evening is to include reference to the seven principles of public life, the Nolan principles and the Nolan principles represent the standards that the public expects those in public life to operate by on their behalf. They include openness, objectivity and accountability. These are not principles to ignore but to live and work by. People in the public eye are viewed as role models by those we are elected to serve and represent which is why it's entirely reasonable for us to request a seat on the constitutional working group. Scott and I represent nearly a quarter of Lambeth's residents, there is no valid argument to continue to exclude us. The working group provides a space and opportunity for political groups to work together, bringing ideas and residents concerns about the constitution to the table. Officers as civil servants also adhere to a set of principles, integrity, honesty, impartiality and objectivity, therefore it is unnecessary and I suggest unacceptable to restrict access to officers to any councillor. Yet very recently the two minority political groups who have councillors elected by a third of the Lambeth electorate have been told that any future meetings with the council's corporate directors will only take place with the interim chief executive in attendance. There's not only blocks our access to officers, it places an unacceptable restriction on officers to do their job. That of keeping councillors up to date with all the council does regardless of political party so we can properly do our job of representing those who elect us by participating fully in council business. Green party councillors have said on many occasions that they would like to work cross-party with greater cooperation to find consensus. I am becoming increasingly concerned that instead of values including the Nolan principles dictating the politics by which this administration operates by the politics are dictating their values, thus creating an administration determined to silence and ignore opposition whenever they can. This is reflected at every full council meeting including this evening. Despite green councillors representing nearly a quarter of Lambeth residents the motions we present to council are not debated and blatantly ignored by the ruling group. Thank you councillor. Councillor Harris you have three minutes. Thank you Mr Mayor. Most of the proposed changes to the constitution are undisputed and we naturally support the efforts of tidying things up including the updates for the corporate director of finance. However I raised an issue in the working group that I feel deserves attention, that is the amount of time cabinet members spend answering supplementary questions during full council. We all want to hear their responses, that's why we ask questions but too often the answers are simply far too long-winded. Of course we don't want to restrict cabinet members for explaining the complexities of certain issues and we understand that it can take a moment to gather one's thoughts. However we've all noticed that supplementary answers to questions to opposition members frequently become long-winded and veer totally off topic, while questions from Labour members seem designed to give cabinet members an opportunity to deliver lengthy self-congratulatory speeches. This is not scrutiny, this is grandstanding and frankly a waste of time. The working group decided against imposing a time limit on answers but I'm pleased the concern was acknowledged. The chief will have agreed to brief the Labour groups on this, the Labour group on this and I hope it leads to more focused and concise answers, although this obviously hasn't happened yet. Another matter I wish to raise is the change proposed by the acting chief executive regarding how opposition councillors meet with her and the corporate directors. The suggestion is to consolidate these meetings into one 45-minute session with the chief exec and all corporate directors. My concern is why this proposal wasn't brought to the constitutional working group. There is nothing in the constitution that gives the interim or any other CEO the authority to make this decision unilaterally. Secondly, there's a practical issue. These meetings are frequently cancelled for various reasons. With separate subject-specific meetings, the cancellation of one doesn't disrupt the other but if we merge them we risk losing out on critical opportunities to engage. Additionally, cramming multiple topics into a single larger meeting will inevitably reduce the time available for thorough discussion on each issue. The constitution grants opposition councillors the right to briefings to fulfil their role and this approach undermines that purpose. I'll be discussing this with the interim chief exec outside the full council but it's important to put on record that decisions like this should never be made behind closed doors by officers. We must never forget the crucial role that strong opposition groups play in supporting gut governance, accountability and decision-making within this council. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. Councillor O'Hara, you have three minutes. Thank you, Mr Mayor. Most significantly, we have added the Nolan principles to our constitution. Named from Lord Nolan who set up a committee on standards of public life in 1995 following the cash for questions scandal involving several Tory MPs in the Tory government at the time, the Nolan principles provide a set of standards for the conduct of people in public office. We wanted to include these ethical guidelines in our constitution to remind us what our residents can expect from all of us as we carry out our duties. These principles underpin everything we do be it dealing with casework on behalf of our residents, scrutinising papers for our work on committees or working alongside our colleagues and council officers. They guide our treatment of each other and of our hard-working council staff, particularly our busy and diligent facilities staff who are working to keep us safe. These values are echoed across our allocation of seats on committees, allowing a generous number of opposition councillors on almost all of our committees. And giving comprehensive answers to questions to cabinet can only be beneficial, offering more, not less detail on actions of the council. I will bring members' attention to the crucial role of our scrutiny committees, forensically examining decisions and putting forward considered recommendations. And note that all of our scrutiny committees have members of the opposition parties sitting on them as part of our commitment to the principles of openness and accountability. The chairs of our planning and licensing committees also demand high standards of integrity from their members with the necessity for members to declare interests in items, approach each item without a predetermined mind and to ask probing material questions to guide their objective decision-making. Indeed, I am confident that members of all our committees act without fear or favour while carrying out their duties, aware of the weight of their responsibility that rests on their shoulders and keen to support their residents fairly. We view it as an honour to represent our residents and we take this role extremely seriously, sharing leadership in our communities and behaving with integrity in our roles. This is the high standard we have set ourselves and the approach to leadership that we will show. Thank you, speakers. We will vote on this report later in the meeting. We will now debate the two motions that are listed on the Order Paper. The first motion is the Liberal Democrats' motion on winter fuel allowance. The speaking order is as listed on the Order Paper. Councillor Bryant, you have five minutes to open the debate. Mr Mayor, we are simply not prepared to allow another winter to go by when pensioners are fearful of turning up their heating even on the coldest winter days. Those are the words of Gordon Brown when he introduced the winter fuel allowance back in 1997. So it seemed both galling and outrageous that one of the first decisions of the new Labour government was to scrap this allowance for 90% of pensioners and restrict it to those in receipt of pensioner credit. Then to rub silt in the wounds, only weeks later Ofgem announced that energy bills would rise by a further 10% from October. Mr Mayor, this is not a minor issue here. Here in Lambeth, 26,000 people received the winter fuel payment in 22-23 and of those 26,000, 18,500 will lose their payment under this new arrangement. Our motion this evening calls on the government to rethink and we do this for three reasons. First and foremost, the new threshold is far too low. It's clear that the group of pensioner households on low income is far larger than just those on pensioner credit. Second, linking the winter fuel payments to a means-tested benefit creates a cliff edge for those who just miss out. According to policy and practice, 130,000 elderly people have incomes less than £500 above the threshold. Some of these people will be worse off than those who receive pension credit. And third, the decision is being implemented far too quickly, putting unnecessary pressure on those groups who help pensioners. Furthermore, the Department of Work and Pensions is not even bothered to publish a proper impact assessment of this change. Now I'm sure we'll hear lots from our Labour colleagues about the £22p black hole in the public finance that Rachel Reeves has identified. But her protestations of shock and surprise would carry more weight had it not been for the fact that independent experts such as the Institute for Fiscal Studies have been warning for months before the election that public spending plans simply did not stack up. However, even if we set these arguments aside, the amount raised from this draconian measure plugs just a small fraction of this fiscal gap. And why do you announce it as a standalone measure before you've reviewed all the other options open to you? Others may point to the fact that pensioners as a group have higher incomes now than they did back in 1997. This is indeed the case, largely due to actually the introduction of the triple lock by the Coalition Government in 2010. However, there are still millions of pensions with cut incomes well below the living wage who do not receive or qualify pension credit. These are not affluent retirees and yet they too are set to lose their winter fuel payment. Now on this side we do not disagree with some form of means testing of these benefits, but we oppose the narrowness of the means test being put forward. We oppose the way in which it's being affected and we oppose the undue haste with which it is being introduced. So until the Government comes to its senses, this Council needs to step in and protect our most vulnerable residents. That's why we are calling this evening for Lambeth to introduce its own local winter fuel payment. Councils up and down the country and of all political persuasions are already doing just this and we need to follow suit. In Sutton, pensioner households that are struggling financially can apply for a payment of up to £300. In Portsmouth, pensioners who are in receipt of housing benefit for Council tax support will be eligible for support. A local scheme will at least give people time to adjust to the loss of their winter fuel payment, something that this Government has failed to do with its botched plan. Mr Baer, as the Leader herself said in Labour's manifesto for the 2022 elections, we will help people feeling the pressure from rising energy bills and the cost of living crisis and make sure support is always there for those who need it most. Let us this evening put those fine words into action. Thank you. Chancellor Winder, you have three minutes. Thank you Mr Mayor. I find this motion hypocritical from the same Lib Dem party that supported the abolition of trial trust funds, the abolition of health in pregnancy grants and the abolition of the education maintenance grant. Given Lib Dem expertise in cutting support for the most vulnerable, I'm not surprised that winter fuel allowance wasn't reformed under the last Lib Dem Government. Why would the Lib Dems try to reform such a poorly targeted way of reducing poverty when instead the Lib Dems can cut working tax credits and child tax credits, the Lib Dems can abolish Sure Start and the Lib Dems can cap the local housing allowance? Pensioners of the least likely age groups be in poverty but many of them are still in poverty and which is why winter fuel allowance is being maintained for those on pension credit and this is why I'm glad it is a Labour Government making this change, a Labour Government saving the public finances, saving the economy and protecting the most vulnerable. Labour and Lambeth take this seriously too. We're in the process of finalising our aging wealth strategy and nobody wants to be taking support away from those who need it. There are two groups we're worried about. Firstly, those who are eligible for pension credit but not receiving it and we're doing some fantastic work with Lightning Reach and Every Pound Counts to make sure people do claim pension credit and secondly those pensioners who are just too affluent to be eligible for pension credit. The motion suggests Lambeth uses the Household Support Fund to support the most vulnerable pensioners. Lambeth is already using the Household Support Fund to support the most vulnerable pensioners. The motion suggests using Lib Dem Run Sutton as a model for additional support to vulnerable pensioners. Lambeth Support offers more to vulnerable pensioners and families than Sutton's. Sutton offers £300 to vulnerable pensioners but only £150 to other vulnerable households whereas Lambeth offers up to £1000. The motion also suggests looking to Lib Dem Run Dorset which only offers supermarket vouchers taking away resident agency, choice and dignity from its struggling residents. I'm sure that Lib Dem colleagues in summing up will want to acknowledge the benefits to the vulnerable residents of Lambeth and the country that the Labour Run Council provides and I'm sure that all colleagues will join me in condemning the policies of the last Lib Dem and Conservative government. Policies such as the Lib Dem supported benefit cap, the Lib Dem supported bedroom tax and the Lib Dem's contribution to the toxic legacy of austerity and underinvestment that the Labour Party has been left to clean up. Thank you. Councillor Nighy you have three minutes. Thank you Mr Mayor. This is my first speech as a Councillor for Knights Hill Ward following this May's by-election and I'd like to start by thanking my colleagues in the Chamber who worked so tirelessly to help get me elected and we were also elected to government this summer. The first time in two decades that the public have trusted us to spend their money wisely and the Tory's economic mismanagement as it was pointed out earlier have indeed left us with a two billion pound black hole in the nation's finances and let us not forget that it was the Lib Dems who brought this mission tonight that helped usher the Tory's into power all those years ago. I say to them this is the legacy of your decision to prop up the Tory's, you're the co-architect of austerity which has caused so much misery to so many and now it's our job to clear up your mess and let's not forget that it was a Labour government that did create the winter fuel payment in the first place. In 1997 when it came in no one could have predicted the financial situation we now find ourselves in and this Tory-Lib Dem mess is the reason we now need to means test the winter fuel payments. It's not an easy thing to do but the Labour party doesn't shy away from tough decisions. Rather than being a universal benefit winter fuel payments will target those most in need. An estimate suggests that around seven and a half thousand Lambeth residents will still benefit from the winter fuel payments. We've also been proactive in identifying and supporting households that will need that support. So since 2023 we've used data to identify households in the borough that could be eligible for pension credits and writing to them and encouraging them to apply and through these campaigns we've supported over 500 households to claim pension credit through which they can access up to £3900 and 88 residents in the past three months alone have signed up to pension credits. Along with topping up their income and giving winter fuel payments pension credit also gives you a passport to things like NHS dental treatment, housing benefits and carer and disability allowances. The council will continue to run these campaigns in conjunction with London councils to ensure as many residents as possible get to benefit from those. We've also been on residents' side throughout the cost of living crisis so the council conducts entitlement assessments to residents who reach out to us for financial support so we can signpost them to the benefits that are relevant to them and as a council during the cost of living crisis we've supported over 27 and a half thousand households and reached over 9000 of our most financially precarious residents with targeted payouts like those made through our household support fund and we continue to face the harsh realities of the cost of living crisis. We also have an ambition to make Lambeth one of the best places to age well and we'll continue to work with our older residents and support them wherever possible. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Cowell you have three minutes. Thank you Mr Mayor. We've in Lambeth have passed an ambitious cost of living package which addresses some of the concerns directly raised by the Lib Dem motion. This includes taking people of pensionable age that qualify out of paying council tax, granting them exemptions. This includes, as already asked by this motion, to directly target those in need of pension credit. Councilor Niaher's speech outlined some of the successes of the scheme and we've been running this before the winter fuel allowance for over a year now helping over a thousand residents claim access to over three thousand pounds each. We also recognize following a very constructive meeting of the overview and scrutiny committee last month at which we had a really productive dialogue with Councilor Curtis that there is a need, as the motion says, to increase our efforts in this regard and Councilor Manley-Brown and myself have asked officers specifically to look at whether we can use the same techniques which we have successfully used in encouraging those eligible for free school meals to take up the provision. We also too as well have ambitious new schemes working with private sector partners and with voluntary sector partners to hold advice surgeries about improving energy efficiency in the homes, to directly target those who are of pensionable age needing help in their homes and also to, in a new ambitious pilot scheme being launched, directly help with things such as retrofitting. I could go on Mr Mayor but the really important thing about everything that I've said so far is that it is directly targeted to those most in need. Our entire cost of living program is directly targeted to those most in need. This motion specifically commits the Council and I quote to request the Council to lobby for the scheme to be abandoned immediately and revert to the existing system. Let's be clear about what the existing system means. It means cash transfers to the one in four claimants that are millionaires. Councillor Bryant talked about the Institute for Fiscal Studies assessment of the scheme. The Institute for Fiscal Studies own research showed that the majority of this money is not currently going to cover fuel. There are over 40,000 claimants of this that are getting payments to overseas bank accounts, no doubt having retired to slightly sunnier climbs than the United Kingdom. This is nothing more than asking the Council to directly commit resources to continue a transfer to the most wealthy. Now I appreciate the Lib Dems are going after what's left of the Tory blue wall and I welcome them in doing this but this is perhaps cosplaying the Tories a little too closely at this point. We in Lambeth are going to continue to target support to the Lib Dems. Target not support to the Lib Dems, target support to the most vulnerable. Little bit of a slip there guys but we will support you on that. We won't support you to continue transfers to the most wealthy because where it comes in need it should be allocated to those in need. We have been doing this in Lambeth and we're very proud to oppose this much. Thank you. Councillor Ainslie you have three minutes. As we've heard the Lib Dems have at best been hopelessly inconsistent with where they stand on genuinely investing in the people of this country to systematically tackle the despicable levels of inequality in the UK. Whilst we walk the chance to debate this motion we cannot gloss over the fact that it was the Lib Dems who ushered in another Tory raid on public finances. A ruthlessly regressive and ruinous 14 years of political choices that took us out of the EU. A decision that the OBR estimates by 2035 will have lost the UK 4% of GDP. That's 311 billion pounds. That's over three times the annual NHS budget. And under the cloak of fiscal responsibility the political choice of austerity unleashed the systematic dismantling of public services across the board including benefits and turbo boosted inequality. At the last election Labour was seen as the least worse option but from what we're hearing on the doorstep there's already bitter regret about trusting Labour and their political choice to continue their red brand of austerity. No one can dispute that there are pensioners who receive interfuel payments who don't need it. No one can dispute that the Tory coalition government have left our public finances and public services in ruins. When the Chancellor says there's a 22 billion black hole hidden in the Conservatives budget that needs to be filled I believe I believe her. But what I don't believe is that this hole needs to be filled by taking from the most vulnerable in our society. Pensioners who are entitled to pension credit but don't claim it because it requires filling in a needlessly over complicated 20 plus page form with 200 plus questions on it. Pensioners who are just over the limit for being entitled to pension credit. Pensioners who are actually acutely vulnerable to cold and damp conditions in their homes because of decades of failures from Labour. Coalition and Tory governments to invest in insulating the cold and dampest homes in Europe. Pensioners who are being pushed into fuel poverty by this government. Pensioners who cannot wait until next year for the state pension uplift. The hole in the public finances must be filled. How it is filled is a political choice. At the general election only the Green Party proposed a wealth tax paid by less than one percent of households. A policy applauded by the UK's patriotic millionaires. This would have filled the hole and it's on its own. The government has chosen fuel poverty for pensioners instead. Now I know that there are members opposite who are extremely concerned about their party's policy on this and I hope that they will support our amendments to this motion and push our MPs and the government to find a better solution for our pensioners and support our officers in the every pound counts and the cost of living teams to go out and proactively help the 90% of Lambeth residents who have still not claimed the pension credit that they're entitled to. As ward councillors Nicole and I have asked these teams just one sentence Mike if I may quickly thank you Nicole and I have gone out to as ward councillors and asked these teams to visit sheltered housing schemes to help pensioners do this and we'd encourage our colleagues to do the same in their wards. Thank you. Thank you Councillor. Councillor Curtis you have five minutes to close the debate. Thank you very much indeed Mr Mayor and I do genuinely appreciate Councillors Carroll and Manly Brown coming to speak to me at the overview scrutiny committee on this matter and of course Councillor Carroll I look forward to taking up on your funding offer of our party. There can be no doubt that times are tough across departments in Westminster in the regions and in local authorities and we are not going to stand here and deny that but cutting the winter fuel payments is not the answer and I think councillors across this chamber actually know this. If the winter fuel payments are scrapped the number of people eligible for payments to support their energy bills will fall as Councillor Brown has alluded to from 12 million to 1.2 million. That's four and a half million pensioners who live alone and 1.6 million pensioners who are registered as disabled. Of the 26,000 people in Lambeth who receive payments in 2023 only seven and a half thousand will keep them. This obviously comes alongside Ofgem's announcement about the energy price cap rising. Now of course the winter fuel payment system is not perfect, of course it's not, but ripping off the bandage without reviewing the damage is regressive and will damage the livelihoods of millions of people across the UK. So as I often do, as members will know when summating a motion, I'll run through exactly what this motion seeks to do. Firstly we're calling on Lambeth to introduce a payment to make up for the shortfall that Westminster isn't willing to pay using the Household Support Fund. Now certain councillors as you've heard have led the way on providing a framework for how this could work. We want to use Lambeth resources to redouble public information campaigns to encourage greater uptake of pension credits so that more people can get access to the benefits for which they are entitled. There is 16 million pounds of unclaimed credit in Lambeth split between around about four and a half thousand residents, verified by the council's own welfare take-up partner policy and practice. Next we ask to write to the chancellor calling for the policy to be abandoned showing that Lambeth is united in opposing these cuts and write to the MPs that represent our borough in parliament. Although the Member for Kaplan, Brixton and Hill seems to have seen sense by not showing up to the parliamentary vote on winter fuel. So nothing particularly egregious right, I mean it's just a codification of our support here in Lambeth that we want to ensure that support continues for our most vulnerable residents. It's likely the belief of councillors in this revenue system does need to be adapted but as I say ripping off the band over that adequate support who are relying upon the payments most is the wrong move and it seems we're not alone in thinking this. Alongside our local parliamentarian in Clapham, Brixton and Hill a slew of other Labour MPs have also seen sense. Not critically however the Labour membership seems to have seen sense. Labour conference even rejected the proposals of the leadership that we are seeking to protest against tonight with many of the trade unions backing the motion. Unite and the communication workers union have condemned the policy so I do wonder what local branch members might say if this room decides to reject the motion. Now no one said governing was easy but we are and we are in unprecedented times but Labour has unlimited power in this chamber based on sheer numbers alone and I will add the most incredible whipping operation I think I've ever witnessed. Control of the Mayor Royalty and the London Assembly and City Hall an untouchable majority in the House of Commons. Every single political decision that affects the lives of our residents is made by the Labour Party including this one. Ministers in Westminster are no longer heartless Conservatives they're Labour politicians and you all now have a direct line to the people making those decisions. Tell them to end the freeze on fuel duty, institute a land tax or enforce the payment of VAT on private jet flights which would find you the money that was needed to balance the books not cut winter food payments because it's the most vulnerable in Lambeth who will suffer first. I urge members to back this motion and send a powerful message tonight from Lambeth across the River to Westminster and Whitehall. Thank you. Thank you councillors. We now move on to debate the Labour motion on standing up for our diverse Lambeth community. The speaking order is as listed on the order paper. Councillor Jaffa you have five minutes to open the debate. Thank you Mr Mayor. In Lambeth we are proud to be home to people from all across the world and to people of all faiths. We value the rich variety of cultures we have in Lambeth and the tolerance that exists between them all. Lambeth has long been a place of sanctuary that offers a warm welcome and safe space to many different communities but we don't take that diversity for granted. We know that it takes work, support and understanding to hold communities together. As a faith champion I take that commitment very seriously and work with every day alongside my fellow councillors, cabinet members and council officers to help improve communication and understanding between our different faith communities. The riots and attacks in parts of the UK in summer were upsetting and frightening for our communities here in Lambeth. They were based on hate and intolerance and fueled by racism, particularly Islamophobia. Though we don't see violence in Lambeth, the events in other cities caused distance and worry for members of our Muslim communities, Black communities and our sanctuary seekers. On my visits to three mosques in the borough people talked to me about their fears and worries. They were concerned that they would be singled out because of the way they dress or attacked at the place where they prayed. We even had to have the police attended Friday prayers to ensure the safety of worshippers. Asra who looks after the key food classes in my mosque, at the straighten mosque said to me it was good to see the police there and I was very grateful that Saleha, that is me, had arranged it. We were grateful to the police for their presence but we shouldn't have to rely on them to keep us safe when we are just praying as usual at our mosques. We were also grateful to the mayor, Mr Mayor and to the cabinet member for safety safer communities, Councillor Hachi, who came to the mosque to provide reassurances to our members. The leader of the council, Councillor Holland, also came to visit us. Thank you. It really felt that we were standing shoulder to shoulder in our borough against the outbreak of hatred and racism elsewhere in the country. Other faiths too have reached out to express their solidarity including Rabbi Goldman at the liberal synagogue in Stratham. We have built a good relationship and we like to stay in touch and as chair of faith together in Lambert, an organisation supported by Lambert council, that brings together many faith communities. I know we have a sound thriving and active forum representing the wide range of faiths within Lambert. We are not taking our diversity for granted. We should all be rightly proud of our diverse communities and of our inclusive borough. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. Councillor Harris, you have three minutes. Thank you, Mr Mayor. Recent months have revealed fractures in our society, fractures we can no longer ignore. Violence, anti-immigration and Islamophobic protests swept across the UK, leaving entire communities living in fear. Mosques were attacked, asylum seeker accommodation vandalised and local businesses targeted. Muslim friends and neighbours feared leaving their homes and countless others from ethnic and religious communities had to adjust their lives to avoid the violence. This is not the Britain we want. This is not the Britain that we will accept. Those involved were a mix of extremists, opportunists and people with real opinions about immigration. Let's be clear, these acts of violence were coordinated and driven by the extreme right forces. They preyed on political and social anxieties. Their divisive message was given a platform by elected politicians, in particular the Conservatives and Reform. While over one thousand arrests were made, the question remains, what led us here? How have we become so polarised that nearly one in three Britons sympathise with these protests? Council, this is a moment for national reflection. Trust in politics is at an all-time low. Economic exclusion, social isolation and political disenfranchisement have deepened these divides, leaving vulnerable people open to manipulation by extremists. The Liberal Democrats stand firmly against hatred. We believe that people from all over the world enrich our economy, culture and communities. We condemn in the strongest terms the racist and Islamophobic attacks that scarred our nation. We support the government's efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice and join the Prime Minister in condemning those who use tragic events, like those horrific murders in Southport, to fuel hateful violence. But condemnation is not enough. We must address the root cause of unrest. Economic hardship, social isolation and political alienation create fertile ground for extremism. Until we tackle these underlying issues, extremists will exploit them. However, this is not just about stopping extremism. It's about rebuilding trust in our political system, strengthening communities and ensuring that everyone, regardless of race, religion or economic status, is valued with a stake in our country's future. This motion gave Lambeth Labour the opportunity to foster dialogue, promote understanding and offer citizen-led solutions to heal our divided society. However, it oversimplifies the issue by reducing our community to rigid categories. Instead of offering hollow assurances and praising their leader with a letter, a more effective approach would have been to establish a citizens' assembly here in Lambeth and push the government for a public inquiry, steps that would provide long-term solutions, not simply a tick box exercise. Thank you, Mr Mayor. Thank you, Councillor. Councillor Griffiths, you have three minutes. Thank you, Mr Mayor. At the heart, this motion is a statement of solidarity and it gets our full backing. As Greens, we have always stood in solidarity with every community that was and is targeted, attacked or threatened by racist violence. We've made a couple of amendments concerning the role of Councillors and to ask for any letter that is sent to the Prime Minister to be cross-party. I hope that the ruling group accepts these small amendments in the spirit with which they have been made and votes for the motion as amended. Whilst the motion receives our full support, I also see a wasted opportunity to challenge the status quo, to call out an openly right-wing press, politicians who purposefully use language to drive division, to name fascism when we witness it and to question any stereotyping that feeds prejudice. We need to publicly protect our freedoms, question the heavy reliance and use by the police of CCTV and facial recognition and ask what the police and security services have been doing to monitor the far right over the past decade. The motion states it is our moral responsibility to play our part in welcoming some of the most vulnerable people fleeing war, persecution and abuse and that we should be proud to be going above and beyond for our sanctuary seekers. Absolutely and it is also our moral duty to tell the truth. What we witnessed in our streets in the summer was fascist violence fuelled by racism and Islamophobia. Only by naming it and understanding it clearly what it can be, oh sorry, and understanding clearly what it is can we work to defeat it. The engine that drives fascism is racism and we need to speak up with one voice to celebrate diversity, to defend all our Muslim and global majority citizens and their rightful place in UK society. Let's do all we can to defeat an ideology which uses organised political violence to undermine our society, divide communities and compromise the state and its institutions including the judiciary and the police. The rise of the far right and fascism has been fuelled by toxic and divisive rhetoric from some in the previous government. We must demand better from our new government and I sincerely hope that that will be the case. It's only right that the UK continues to welcome those who need sanctuary and a place to call home not just for humanitarian reasons. We support all the efforts of the council, community leaders, third sector organisations and individuals who are working to bring communities together in the face of any attempt to inflame divisions, be that across Lambeth or beyond and especially in the areas which were targeted who have united peacefully against hate. Thank you for bringing this motion to council and I'd like to thank you Solaire for your excellent proposal speech. Thank you councillor. Councillor Barzinji you have three minutes. Thank you Mr Mayor. Four months ago a dark but hopefully very short chapter in the UK history took place. Across the country our society suffered a wave of racist rioting whipped up by far right agitated, targeted mostly at people seeking sanctuary. It is a painful reminder of how fragile our communities can be when hate is given a platform. Thanks to the people of Lambeth our community have been very peaceful during this dark chapter of our country. Our diverse community and faith leaders stood together side by side in the face of violence and intimidation. The people of Lambeth did not let fear and intimidation win. While they were drafting cruel policies like Wonder Bill we in Lambeth signed up to be a borough of sanctuary. While they were busy with their inflammatory rhetoric trying to divide our community here in Lambeth we stood strong, we came together in the face of attempt to divide our community. Lambeth has a proud history of standing up against racism, injustice and discrimination. The anti-slavery campaigners of 18th century were based here. We have got a proud history and we got to protect that proud history of Lambeth. As a person of a refugee background I understand why the communities affected by the racist and Islamophobic rioters were shocked, followed by confusion, anxiety as people tried to understand why this is happening. Over the years discriminating against people seeking sanctuary has not only become a commonplace in language but has also been reflected in the policies of previous government. Every use of dehumanising language has a long-term negative impact whether it is visible or not, especially when you are already vulnerable. Refugees and sanctuary seekers because of losing their homes, jobs and families they feel isolated from their culture of origin. Unaccepted by the new culture a lacking social support can lead people to feel rejected and alienated. We know that the vast majority people in the country don't share the values of racist rioters. It is now on all of us as the community to call out the racist minority and make sure Lambeth stays a place where everyone is treated with compassion and respect. We must strive for a society that embraces diversity, fosters inclusivity, justice and stands against all forms of discrimination. Thank you. Thank you councillor. Councillor Adam you have three minutes. Thank you Mr Mayor. We're a borough of sanctuary and committed to ensuring we remain a welcoming, safe and inclusive space for all the diverse people who arrive in our borough. In collaboration with our communities and local organisations we've been working hard to create an environment that fosters a sense of community and belonging to those who have come here after me through difficult journeys. A place where sanctuary seekers can look forward to starting a new and stable life for themselves and their families. We've been working to make sure our ethos of inclusion and celebration of diversity is embedded throughout our institutions. Our schools have been awarded and some are in the process of becoming accredited schools of sanctuary. This is the case with our libraries who are in the process of becoming accredited libraries of sanctuary. The violent riots and attacks on asylum seekers over the summer have been distressing not only for our sanctuary seekers but all of our communities who are strongly opposed to any form of racism and hatred and believe it has no place in our borough. Our sanctuary services team have been proactive in working with our BCS organisation in providing information to our sanctuary seekers in hotels and in disposal accommodation and how to stay safe and who to contact in case of any incidents. We had regular drop-in meetings with an ongoing communication with our local police and borough commander to coordinate action plans in case of any rioting. Over the last two years since becoming a borough of sanctuary through our regular engagements with our sanctuary seekers like our sanctuary services forum which is made up of people with lived experience of migration, council officers, councillors, BCS organisations to review our work, make sure that we're responding to the needs of sanctuary seekers and to respond properly to any emerging needs. Our weekly drop-in and in-person engagements in our asylum hotels and through projects that we commissioned to support sanctuary seekers, for example like the welcome project and as well as of course refugee week celebrations we continue to promote a message of welcome and inclusion and of Lambeth as a safe place that sanctuary seekers can call home. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Hashi you have five minutes to close the debate. Thank you very much Mr Mayor. In the wake of the recent far-right riots across the UK the capital's most vulnerable and marginalised communities have been profoundly affected. As the debate rages over the possible root causes of the riots the initial trigger for the violence is undisputed. On July the 29th a teenager of a knife attacked several children attending a dance class in Southport near Liverpool resulting in the death of three girls aged six, seven and nine. False reports initially posted by an obscure crime website wrongly identified the killer as a Muslim asylum seeker who had just arrived on a small vault. The false news quickly spread and affected many members living in our communities. These riots have not only sown fear and division but have also exacerbated existing social inequalities. It paints a stark picture of a city grappling with fear, distrust and a growing sense of insecurity. I even got a message forwarded from family members in Somalia telling me that rioters were planning to come to Stockwell. They clearly didn't notice myself and Tina representing the area. What people often forget is the strength and resilience of places like Lambeth. They forget that our foundation is built not on bricks laid here but by the people who have shaped these communities. Starting to sound like a presidential debate isn't it? I look at some of the experiences I went through growing up here and being a victim of a stabbing at the age of 15 and being shot at the age of 23 while breaking up a fight. Who would have believed that I'd be standing here today as an elected councillor? This would have been impossible without the support of adults and the community around me at the time. From the youth workers who were ever present on my estate to the shopkeepers who would come and knock on my door to see how my mum was. That feeling of love, compassion and community is what we need to focus on regaining. There are many communities that are currently feeling forgotten, overlooked and unseen who need our support and need to know that there are people standing up for them. I believe that with all my heart that we have more in common than the differences that separate us and that is what we must remind ourselves every single day in the face of those who want to take it away from us. That is why we must ensure that our talented and gifted young people like the members of our youth council, our youth forum and young advisors know how much we love, appreciate and value them and that we will be there to support them every step of the way. As I said a few years ago at Labour Conference let us be kind to one another so it can be a key trait that our young people take forward and pass on because looking at the state that Tories have left the country in we're going to need it. Thank you. Thank you to all the councillors for your contributions on each of the debated motions this evening. We will now move on to tonight's voting. We will begin with voting on the reports listed on the agenda. If there is no dissent the recommendations will be carried. If there is dissent we will move to a vote. You have three choices, voting for, voting against or abstain from voting. Tonight we will be voting by a show of hands starting with the capital programme 2024 to 2028. Are the recommendations in the report agreed? We will move to a vote by a show of hands. Please raise your hand if you're voting for. Please raise your hand if you're voting against. Please raise your hand if you wish to abstain. Thank you. The recommendations in the report are agreed. The second report is the constitution. Are the recommendations in the report agreed? We will move to a vote by a show of hands. Please raise your hand if you're voting for. Please raise your hands if you're voting against. Please raise your hands if you wish to abstain. Thank you. The recommendations in the report are agreed. We now move on to voting on council motions. Council will first consider motion one from the Liberal Democrats on winter fuel allowance. There's one proposed amendment to this motion from the Greens. We will vote on the amendment first. Is the amendment from the Greens agreed? We will move to a vote by a show of hands. Please raise your hand if you're voting for. Please raise your hand if you're voting against. Please raise your hand if you wish to abstain. The amendment from the Greens is not carried. As a result, we will now vote on the original motion from the Liberal Democrats. Is the original motion agreed? We will move to a vote by a show of hands. Please raise your hand if you're voting for. Please raise your hand if you're voting against. Please raise your hand if you wish to abstain. The original motion from the Liberal Democrats on building on winter fuel allowance is not carried. Council will now consider motion two from standing up for diverse Lambeth community. There is one proposed amendment to this motion from the Greens. We will vote on the amendment first. Is the amendment from the Greens agreed? We'll move to a vote by a show of hands. Please raise your hands if you're voting for. Please raise your hands if you're voting against. Please raise your hands if you wish to abstain. The amendment from the Greens is carried. As a result, we will now vote on the motion from Labour as amended by the Greens. Is the motion as amended agreed? We will move to a vote by a show of hands. Please raise your hand if you're voting for. Please raise your hand if you're voting against. Please raise your hand if you wish to abstain. The motion from Labour as amended by the Greens on standing up for a diverse Lambeth community is carried. Council will now consider motion three from the Greens on clean up stratum. There is one proposed amendment to this motion from Liberal Democrats. We will vote on the amendment first. Is the amendment from Liberal Democrats agreed? We will move to a vote by a show of hands. Please raise your hand if you're voting for. Please raise your hand if you're voting against. Please raise your hand if you wish to abstain. The amendment from the Liberal Democrats is not carried. As a result, we will now vote on the original motion from the Greens. Is the original motion agreed? We'll move to a vote by a show of hands. Please raise your hand if you're voting for. Please raise your hand if you're voting against. Please raise your hand if you wish to abstain. The original motion to clean up stratum from the Greens is not carried. Council will now consider motion four from Labour on extending local voting rights. There are two proposed amendments to this motion from the Greens and from the Liberal Democrats. We will vote on the Green amendment first. Is the amendment from the Greens agreed? The amendment from the Greens is carried. This now becomes the substantive motion. We will now move to a vote on the Liberal Democrat amendment to the substantive motion. Is the amendment from the Liberal Democrats agreed? The amendment from the Liberal Democrats is carried. As a result, we will now vote on the motion from Labour as amended by the Greens and Liberal Democrats. Is the motion as amended by the Greens and Liberal Democrats agreed? Fantastic. The motion from Labour as amended by the Greens and Liberal Democrats on extended local voting rights is carried. Council will now consider motion five from Labour on giving land with control on speeding enforcement in Albora. There are two proposed amendments to this motion from the Greens and the Liberal Democrats. We will vote on the Green amendment first. Is the amendment from the Greens agreed? The amendment from the Greens is carried. We will now move to a vote on the Liberal Democrats amendment. Is the amendment from the Liberal Democrats agreed? We'll move to a vote by a show of hands. Please raise your hand if you're voting for. Please raise your hand if you're voting against. Please raise your hand if you wish to abstain. The amendment from the Liberal Democrats is not carried. As a result, we will now vote on the motion from Labour as amended by the Greens. Is the motion as amended by the Greens agreed? The motion on giving land with control on speeding enforcement in Albora from Labour and amended by the Greens is carried. That concludes the business for this evening's council meeting. Thank you all for your attendance and participation tonight. The next council meeting will be on the 22nd of January 2025. Good night. [BLANK_AUDIO]