Transcript

Thank you. Good evening. I would like to welcome the Mayor, all members, and our guests to the town, Old Town Hall, Stratford. I would like to welcome the members of the public and press who are physically attending or watching on YouTube. The meeting has been filmed for broadcast on YouTube. Please note that cameras are focused on everyone within the meeting. I would like to take this opportunity to remind the public that to enable the Council to conduct its business if there are any interruption at today's meeting, I will ask the individual or individuals to stop and give a warning. If this continues, I will give a second and final warning. Should the disruption continue, I will ask security to remove the person or group from the Council Chamber and will adjourn the meeting. Members of the Council, please can I ask that you indicate when you wish to speak or by raising your physical hand. I would like to advise members in order to comply with the allocated time for speakers. If you go beyond your allocated time, you will be automatically muted. Please can I ask the members and officers to introduce themselves when speaking. I would like to ask everyone to turn their mobile phone in silent mode. We are not expecting the fire drill this evening, so if the alarm sounds, please remain calm and follow the instruction of the Town Hall staff, the fire assembly points accessed by Western Lane. Before we move on to the main agenda, I wish to inform you that Agenda Item 17, temporary accommodation tax and finished work update will not be considered at this meeting. The report will be considered at a future meeting. Thank you. I'm now moving to Item 3, minutes of the last meeting. I move the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on the 21st of October 2024. Sorry, my apologies. I need to take Item 1 for apologies of absence. Is that what, Councillor Blossom-Young? Go ahead. My point relates to Item 2, Chair. My apologies. My point relates to Item 3, the minutes of the last meeting, so I don't know if you want to take apologies first. Sorry, we couldn't catch you properly, so could you repeat yourself, please? I'm sorry, my point relates to Item 3, the minutes of the last meeting. I understand you want to go back and do apologies first. Sorry, I'll continue because I missed an item. Apologies for absence, the page actually covered, so I missed that, so we'll go through again. Item 3, thank you. Thank you, Chair. So on Item 3, page 26 in the report book, just motion 3, the proposal was Councillor John Morris, not Councillor John Gray. Noted. Thank you. Thank you. Now moving to Item 1, apologies for absence. I have received apologies for absence for this evening meeting from Councillor Muhammad Ghani, Imam Huq, Susan Musta, Councillor Miraz Patel. Are there any other apologies for absence from Councillors to be recorded? Councillor Jennifer Bailey. Yes, Madam Chair, I've got a few apologies. Lester Hudson, Susan Masters, Tony Wilson, Mariam Dalwood, Celine Patel, Musso Alum, Caroline Coburn, Muzibul Rahman, Miraj Patel, Rohit Dasgupta, Imam Huq, Muhammad Ghani, Shaban Muhammad and Thelma Adoye. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Jennifer Bailey. Councillor Carlin. Thank you, Councillor Terrible. I'm now moving to Item 2, Declaration of Interest. Are there any members wishing to declare any disclosable pecuniary interest or any other interest they may have in any matter which is to be considered at this meeting? No? I'm now moving to Item 3, Minutes of the Last Meeting. This is where something personal is mentioned. I move to the Minutes of the Meeting of the Council held on 21st of October 2024. Do I have a seconder, please? Thank you, Councillor Jane Loftus. All those in favour, please raise your hand. Thank you. All those against, please raise your hand. Any abstentions? Agree the minutes. Thank you. I'm now moving to Item 4, Adaptations. The Chief Executive agreed to request for the two adaptations from the following groups. Applecart Arts seeking funding from the Council for their venue. The flourishing community E20 residents seeking support from their mental health and wellbeing. The first is from Applecart Arts. The subject to be raised is the situation at the Applecart Arts, the Performing Arts venue housed by the Nihom Council at the old register office. I now welcome the representative from the Applecart Arts and call on Stephanie Shaw, Angela Hillier, Christopher Goh, Osin Moholand, Nicola Burt. Hello, I'm Stephanie Shaw. I'm a Nihom resident and I represent Equity, the Performing Arts and Entertainment Trade Union. And I'm here to ask, will the Council step in to save Applecart Arts from closure before Christmas by using its reserve funds or funding set aside for its Borough of Culture 2025 bid to issue an emergency £100,000 grant. I will now read a statement from Peter Morton, a Nihom resident and Artistic Director of Applecart Arts. He says... Before you read the statement, I would like to allocate the time. You have five minutes and you have five minutes for answering questions, questions and answers. Is that okay? Yes, thank you. Thank you. Applecart formed as a charity in 2011 with the aim of providing professional pathways into the creative industry. Over the last 13 years, it has grown into a charity that provides a significant impact, not only on Nihom's creative landscape, but also offering an important cultural venue for emerging artists from across the country. The expertise of Applecart's team, alongside their working experience within the industry, has enabled the charity to elicit and support and advice from across the sector. It is this experience that has attracted growing partnerships with East London University, Royal Docks, East Bank, Culture Within and the GLA to name a few. These substantially larger organisations understand that they will not be able to affect any lasting cultural legacy within the borough without the support of grassroots organisations. These partnerships are due to come online in 2025 in the form of various projects which will create substantial impact across Newham, providing jobs, training and a growth in infrastructure. Over the last three years, Applecart was forced to relocate and begin the renovation of the Passmore Edwards Library. This work is currently ongoing, but as yet we have invested over £70,000 in the restoration. Overall, we calculate that the local authority has benefited hugely, saving upwards of £450,000 in 24-hour security over the last three years. If Applecart were to close, we estimate the ongoing cost to the local authority would be greater than the match funding we are asking for to secure its survival. It's also worth considering what will be saved. A much-loved public heritage building, providing a welcoming space where local people can gather to celebrate their lives. A vibrant, inclusive hub for artistic expression, where since opening our new venue, over 700 emerging artists and 105 theatre companies have already showcased their work, reaching over 18,000 people. Essential wellbeing and educational programmes, benefiting over 2,500 students and local residents, offering career pathways and creating over 44 work experience opportunities since 2022. Bespoke community projects and events like outdoor festivals and cultural initiatives, which engage local families, youth and underserved groups. During the launch of Newham's London Borough of Culture bid, the mayor stated, I want Newham to be at the forefront of culture across London and beyond, creating lasting change and benefits that will be felt by all our residents, as well as making Newham a destination and home for the very best cultural and creative organisations. I wonder how the local authority think that this desire could come into fruition if it doesn't begin supporting or at least talking to the grassroots organisations that might bring it about. The mayor has wisely highlighted the cultural sector as a prime target to develop growth. Investment in culture in the UK has a return at four times the investment. In the last two years, with very little financial support from the local authority, Applecart has injected £1.2 million into the local economy. We are asking for an urgent investment of £100,000 from the local authority to enable this work to continue and to give a sign that it is serious about supporting growth in the borough's cultural sector. Thank you. Now, we at Applecart are storytellers, so I think it is prudent to end with a story. There was once a landowner who owned a plot of brown soil. He told the local community that he yearned for a garden with flowers and herbs with grasses. But his fingers weren't green and he didn't know seed from a bulb. A local gardener who had experience working in the great gardens across the land approached the landowner and said, gardening is my life. I've dedicated all my years to horticultural knowledge. I'd love to help you grow a garden. The landowner allowed the gardener onto a plot and watched as he worked away digging furrows, planting bulbs and sowing seeds. And after a time, green shoots began to spring from the dark earth. The gardener approached the landowner and said, your garden is about to bloom and with the most beautiful roses and reeds and succulent herbs. All I need is some fertilizer to feed the growing plants. The landowner looked at the gardener in the eye and said, find your own fertilizer. And then he stamped on the green shoots and killed them dead. The next day, he went out into the town and shouted in the square, are there any other gardeners out there? Thank you very much. Any members of the council wish to put questions to the deputation group? Councillor Nate Higgins, Councillor James Buerkle. Hi, Councillor Nate Higgins, Stratford Olympic Park Ward. Firstly, I just want to say thank you for the work that you do. I've used, I went to drama school myself before becoming a Councillor. I used apple carts facilities to rehearse for my auditions, which were then successful. So I feel a huge debt to the organisation and have signed your petition and shared it on social media and so on. What do you think the consequences for young people growing up in Newham of losing a venue like apple cart arts or an organisation like apple cart arts would be for young people growing up in Newham? I think acknowledging that apple carts is the only grassroots organisation doing what it does would have a devastating impact on young people in Newham and their relation to the arts in general. I would challenge anybody to name another organisation that does what we do and supports people the way we do. I have grown up in Newham all my life and I did not think a career in the arts was a possibility until I joined apple cart arts. So it has an impact. You're seeing the impact in front of you. You yourself are an impact of what we do. To ignore that would be to your own detriment. Thank you. Now I would like to call up Councillor James Buerkle. Thank you chair. I just wanted to know if you did get the £100,000 what's your long-term plan? Obviously arts charities around the country are suffering many cuts so it would be good to know if you get the £100,000 what's your two-year, three-year, five-year plan and how do you make arts funding in Newham more sustainable especially for apple carts? To be able to have support from our borough council means that we can show organisations like Arts Council England that we have the support of this local authority. Without that why should anyone else support us? So someone has to take the first step and I think it is your duty as the borough council to take that first step. In terms of what our plans are long term we have middle and long-term funding booked in as you heard from 2025. We are working with schools both inside and outside of Newham, inside and outside of London actually, to create that funding. We have got contracts booked in with various schools and various organisations. What we are looking for is some short-term cash funding to help us into the new year. Thank you. I will call Councillor Joshua Guttrell but before that I just want to note that the issue any question will be referred to the relevant director or service for the attention. So can I call Councillor Joshua Guttrell. Thank you chair and thank you for the presentation. I think like many colleagues I've been to apple cart arts and I think I appreciate the good work that the organisation does and has done for a great length of time including in bringing to life an historic building which is really valued. I sit on the board of the Theatre Royal Stratford East which is an organisation which is really rooted in the cultural heritage of Stratford, of Newham, does tremendous work but unfortunately like a lot of organisations like yours as well no matter how good the work the funding pressures continue and the movement of a model away from relying on public funding but actually having to prove financial viability while not always possible is something that we're grappling with and I wonder because I don't think any of us would want to see apple cart art cease in its work we'd all want to should we have the luxury to do so fund absolutely every piece of work that it would like to do is there any possibility that the council could help either through the intelligence that we hold skills and capacity we hold everything other than for the finances unfortunately we don't currently have to help apple cart arts thrive into the future with a business plan that would make it viable so that those artistic endeavours are still accessible locally and can be self-sustaining. Thank you. Newham council do not have the information at their disposal to put forward the work that we put forward. We have an artistic director who has worked in this industry for most of his life we have a producer that works tirelessly and is always working over time to make sure that our productions are put on and that our work is seen by the most amount of people what we do and the knowledge we have will be lost. Thank you very much your time is up thank you for your adaptation. The second adaptation first is from the flourishing community e20 residents a group seeking support for their mental health and well-being project. I now welcome the representative from the flourishing community and column whom I believe the speaker will be Jill Hines thank you and I I will give you five minutes for your presentation and five minutes for questions answers thank you thank you next slide please. Hi everyone I'm Jill Hines I've been a proud Newham resident for the past nine years and I've been a well-being trainer and coach for the past 18 years. We at the flourishing community are a non-profit community of residents around the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park that deliver free positive psychology training to make the communities around the park one of the healthiest happiest and most resilient in London and set a new standard on the regenerative impact of the Olympics from a mental health perspective. Today I'll be sharing some data on the top well-being skills that Newham residents want to develop in 2025 and the four things you can do to help them develop these skills. Next slide please our well-being model is founded on the principles of positive psychology clinical psychology is highly effective in curing mental illness but the challenge is that it often waits for people to get sick before they're provided help. So first we encourage you to embrace positive psychology scale and democratize well-being skills today for free and as early as possible in life so that we don't get sick in the first place but also make the right choices to go north of neutral and thrive. Next slide please. Second we also encourage you to explore well-being holistically the perma v model of well-being by Martin Seligman the father of positive psychology proved that cultivating multiple well-being pathways lead to higher life satisfaction reduce mental health disorders and even reduce mortality risk for physical illness. So we ask Newham residents which of these well-being skills would you like to develop in 2025. Next slide please. So we're early in our early days of our research but we have found that Newham residents have a fascinating diverse set of aspirations for 2025. Now vitality so eating healthily exercising and sleep is at 18 percent so still an important priority so please continue providing support here but vitality at 18 percent is really interesting in that it not only forms a small portion of what residents want and that a greater 82 percent go beyond our traditional notions of well-being. In fact the top pathway that residents now want to cultivate is engagement at 25 percent. Residents want more time to pause take mindful walks savor their food and honestly just have fun through their hobbies outside of work. Interestingly positivity and relationships are tied at third place with 16 percent so residents still yearn for authentic relationships where they are seen and valued for who they really are. Similarly resident mindsets are always shifting towards more positivity. It's now becoming less about owning more things or having a higher salary instead residents want to learn how to be more grateful for the blessings they have embracing failure as a force for growth and staying resilient in the face of change. Lastly it's been really fascinating that residents are acknowledging the nuance between achievement and meaning that having a job doesn't equate to manifesting their purpose so people are seeking deeper ways to leave a lasting legacy express their values and activate their strengths. I think these well-being results are really fascinating it shows that new residents appear to be increasing in well-being intelligence and are experimenting with different pathways towards their own health and happiness. If you're curious about the well-being skills in your area please ask your residents to fill out a survey through the QR code above and we'll be happy to share the specific data for your area. Next slide please and lastly we encourage you and your residents to please join our free well-being training across 60 well-being skills and all the six perma view well-being pathways. Our hope is that through our joint efforts we will not only prevent mental illness but also give people a sense of agency that our health and our happiness is not determined or limited by our genes or our socioeconomic status but through our everyday choices to build self awareness self-compassion and self-care that we ourselves build a life of lasting health and happiness. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Julia. I understand you have your other two members of the group Ondana Mentola-Haines and Simona Peliskai. Yes thank you. I understand that your presentation you have five minutes now the questions answer is does any members of council wish to put any questions or limitations. Councillor Neil Wilson. So Councillor Neil Wilson cabinet member for health and adult social care. I was interested in your presentation that you mentioned data and I would like to highlight that a lot of the work that we're already doing at the health and well-being board and indeed of this full council when we embrace that a thematic council approach with health well-being and happiness. Just some quick questions really from me and then I may if I can indulge the chair just make a few observations. Be intrigued interested not intrigued interested on how many people you've sampled in your data set and you said you were at the early stages of that and you made the assertion about how many residents talked about vitality compared with positivity and you mentioned phrases about people being grateful and embracing failure and jobs not necessarily being a lasting legacy. My challenge back would be that we represent all residents in Newham some of whom are in very limited employment with very low skills because of their adverse child experiences or other issues and we have necessarily to embrace all of our residents whether they've perceived failure or not and my final point question really is you said that we might prevent mental health. We as a borough are very keen to work with our partners not least in the east london foundation trust but also gps and primary care and indeed the voluntary community in face sector to have a more preventative approach. Mental health is all of our responsibility and so I welcome the presentation but just a few observations at this point thank you. Thank you council. Thank you so much all really helpful questions. I'm going to try to answer all of them I hope I remember them. So the first question you had was a number of people that we had surveyed for this so I did mention we're in the very early stages it's a very small group of people so at the moment we've just been able to survey 475 people so this is really a space that our councilors have given to us so that we can encourage you to have your residents to also participate so we can have a more representative sample and secondly in terms of what we mentioned about positivity in the sense that so basically what I said was it's less about having more things and having a higher salary so we're not saying that people should be under a salary level that would not allow them to maintain good health and have shelter what we're noticing is that people are trying to get themselves off this hedonic treadmill of like I want the next promotion I want the next formation I want the next house and the bigger house and the bigger house and that people want to find a way to be able to balance work and life and the things that they're able generate through their work they want to be able to convert them into more positive experiences as opposed to climbing the corporate ladder what was your third question I forgot sorry there are three things oh about embracing failure I got it now yes absolutely so what we found is that a lot of individuals are really kind of really hard on themselves they beat themselves down when they fail so what we're trying to encourage people to adopt is um instead uncertain parts of their lives to embrace a more growth mindset what that means is to be less judgmental about themselves about the outcomes they deliver and instead take a step back and pause and reflect that although you didn't get the perfect outcome that you wanted you still gain because there are learnings from experiences and your ability to bring yourselves back up is it's a learning and an outcome in itself so I hope that's helpful thank you Jill do any other members wish to put any questions um Councillor Danica thank you very much Jill um my question and what really inspired me about what you're doing is the holistic approach and is there anything that we can do as Councillors when we safeguard our residents to try and improve their wellbeing even when that's just seeing them in our Councillor surgeries or anything we we can give them hints or and I know you have about 40 seconds to say that yeah thank you so much um and I think it's it really ties down to some of the initial data that we're seeing is that a lot of conversation are very much innovation to healthy eating and exercise and sleep which are really good but apparently um it's it's very diverse in terms of how people are able to tap into these positive emotions so it's also asking a more diverse set of questions of like are you having an opportunity to manifest your purpose what are your strengths do you have a chance to apply them at work do you have a chance to like really pursue your passions outside of the office and an opportunity to enjoy things for the sake of just indulging in the process as opposed to pursuing a certain outcome everyone has different ways in terms of tapping that positivity and I think we should be really inclusive in terms of giving people that range thank you I'd like to um thanks um Deputation Group for giving up your time to speak to us this evening thank you so much Jill that concludes this item I'll move on to the next item I'm now moving to item five petitions are there any petitions by any members sure we have a petition from West Ham Park LTN group counselor do you want me to bring this up please present your petition to the joys round there so if you could joys there yeah thank you as stated in our constitution the petition will be referred to the relevant corrupted directors for their attention and response and responses acknowledging the petition and setting out how the matter will be dealt with will be sent to the counselors within 10 working days so thank you counselor and I'm Islam or counselor Knight Higgins thank you chair I'm presenting a petition on behalf of save Debden campsite which over 2700 residents have signed uh depth in count campsite has provided a safe space for generations of young people of newham to camp explore epping forest and experience a different kind of environment from their daily urban life it has presented transformational opportunities for thousands of young residents it provides respite for people across all the communities of our diverse borough newham counts have decided to sell it off and make a short-term financial fix for their ailing budget this is clearly something they can only do once we must be clear that the interests of newham's youth can't be abandoned and the council must look elsewhere to fix their budget the future of debon campsite must be guaranteed for the use of the next generation of our young people it needs recognizing developing and promoting it needs to be at the heart of newham's delivery for youth newham council must take the sale of debon campsite off their financial plan thank you counselor blossom young uh thank you just to remind colleagues that the petition for the east london gymnastics center remains live thank you counselor blossom young are there any other petition to present no thank you i'm now moving to item six questions by the public there are three questions from the members of the public accepted under rules 15 of part four of the constitution their questions along with the responses are attached on the order paper on the supplementary agenda published earlier today question one and response is published in the supplementary agenda question two is from the stepney show who has indicated that she wished to ask the questions public stepney show please ask your questions she left the room stepney show oh she has left the room all right so i'll move to the uh questions three uh is from rob uh colander who has i indicated that he wished to ask the questions in public rob calendar please ask your questions hello my name is rob calendar i live in the royal docks and my question is regarding the royal docks upgrade project uh the royal docks corridor update upgrade project started in april 2022 and is scheduled to complete by february 2025 the work has been sporadic with many weeks with few if any workers seen on site phases 1 b 2 and 4 are still incomplete with no visible work started on part of phase 2 between botania gate and the tidal basin roundabout slip roads though all of these phases should be finished by now phase 5 was meant to start in march yet it's only started in september it's not clear how this project has been monitored and how the contractors are incentivized to keep to the schedule please can the council give a realistic update on these works including an updated completion date thank you thank you council search dues to respond by reading out the response please thank you thank you uh thanks rob for the question um the project is being completed in phases to best coordinate the works between the adjacent developments doctors light rate light railway dlr utilizes works and silver town tunnel works this coordination is trying to minimize disruption for all types of transport modes phase 1 b is substantially completed coordinating works with the dlr activity caused a small slip in the program however works should be completed by the 90th of december 2024 so that's thursday phase 2 is partially complete there have been some issues with the properties underneath the flyover and the waterproofing and structural joint replacement of the structure this work has been pushed back a little to when there is drier weather to avoid disruption to properties under the flyover works will recommence in the spring and should be complete by the end of the summer 2025 phase 4 is due to complete at the end of january 2025 the delay was caused by the coordinating works on the highway to minimize the disruption whilst utility companies provide combined heating and power to the silver town keys development phase 5 is still to be programmed this phase is forecast to be completed on site at the end of march 2025 delays have been due to tems water and uk power networks working to provide water sewerage and power connections to the new adjacent developments once again these works have been coordinated in such a way as to minimize disruption to the network the council's highways contracts are use a schedule of rates which means the contractor only gets paid for the work done therefore it is in their interest to complete the work as quickly as possible as they cover their own overheads management and site welfare costs this desire to complete works to program is balanced with the requirement to coordinate works with other essential highway activity to minimize network disruption as much as possible thank you councilor service um although we don't have stephanie uh show in the room but i would like to ask the mayor oksana fears to respond her questions so she can hear it later or she can get respond later thank you very much chair um colleagues um i'm noting that stephanie so apologies for the mispronunciation asked a question with regards to apple cart arts and i know that there had been a deputation and there was um very persuasive and powerful appeals to the council with regards to saving in this interim period to apple carts arts there was also a public question submitted will the council step in to save apple cart arts from closure before christmas by using its reserve funds or funding set aside for its borough of culture 2025 to issue an emergency 100 000 pound grant um in the absence of councilor rohit desk up to the deputy cabinet member for equality social justice and culture um i'm stepping in to provide the stated and published response which i think is appropriate for me to read out um in the interests of transparency i want to firstly say the council indeed the administration welcomes the contribution the apple cart arts plays as do many other local art organizations in the borough in the creative and cultural landscape of newham and it was very apt for stephanie and her other colleague to acknowledge the value that we have placed on the creative and cultural uh institutions of our borough as a driver of growth in our local economy and the opportunity that that presents it is already supporting apple carts through a subsidy to the rent they pay the council on their premises in plaship park which reflects the social value placed on the contribution apple cart makes to the borough this subsidy is assessed annually based on the social contribution they make in the current year the subsidy from the council to apple cart is 65 000 pounds i would add in addition that this is outside of any um commissions that apple carts have received uh through the work of the events uh culture and heritage team of newham council for this current municipal year however it is important as again part of transparency the council's budget is under significant pressure and any underspend on existing budgets this year is being used to help address these financial pressures it is therefore not possible for the council to make new financial commitment to apple cart from the existing cultural budget this year moreover it is not appropriate for the council to make arbitrary decisions about where its investment is directed without due process as part of our governance arrangements and in alignment with a strategic policy framework that informs how investments and resource allocation decisions are made future budgets including for culture will be determined through the council's budget setting process and in accordance with the building affair newham corporate plan and building newham's creative future strategy that relates to our cultural strategy and plans in this borough thank you very much thank you um uh that concludes this item and i'll now move to the next item i'm now moving to item seven announcement by the chair my public engagements i would like to inform the council that i have attended around 18 public engagements in my role as the first citizen both inside and outside the borough this includes a number of newham citizenship ceremonies held at the newham town hall where i have been delighted to welcome the new citizens to our borough um victory day of uh bangladesh today is a victory day of uh bangladesh happy victory day as the history marks on this day in 1971 bangladesh was recognized as an independent country on the world map after freedom fights due to our full council commitments i know that many of us will be unable to participate in the community celebrations typically held to um commemorate uh this significant day however we plan to honor the occasion later in the month as various events are organized throughout the december month uh vote of thanks to richard arnold on behalf of the council i wish uh to thank richard arnold the outgoing fire uh commander for newham for his service of uh to our residents and i would like to invite him to say a few words about his life serving newham as the station commander uh good evening uh good evening everyone and thank you for inviting me and thank you chair for allowing me to address the full council this evening i've been the borough commander for newham for nearly four years and i will be leaving the borough as i've been successful in being appointed to the rank of deputy assistant commissioner i take up my new post at the beginning of january although i am really pleased with my upcoming appointment it is and i generally mean this a heavy heart that will be leaving this great borough in the four years i've been the uh commander for nfb newham we've built up some great partnerships across the borough ranging from our community awareness days such as our recent fire safety work that we did the joint open days with the police and the london borough of newham at the stations and the support that we received from newham council when we opened up the pop-up shop at westfield and i'm really pleased to say that we also brought eid to the fire station we're the only fire station in the whole of london that do this and if you're ever in the area please pop along because you will enjoy it and of course um our ongoing charge safe campaign and it's which is really important especially this time of year uh just to keep you updated um i do try and send out i do forget very forgetful but i try and send out a borough commander's newsletter and it's just to let you know of all the work and the great work we've been doing in the borough you will continue to be supported by the great station commanders in the room who understand the needs of the borough and who have created projects such as the autism fire and water safety initiatives especially this has obviously come about following the tragic fire at napier road the london fire brigade's borough risk management plan is also there and being created to support the borough's help to support the borough and help identify the risks within the borough the london fire brigade in newham have gone one step further by dividing the borough wards amongst our three stations in our 12 watches this allows each watch to have a more local understanding of the community needs and of course when the new bow commander joins i'll make sure they're informed of this work and help it grow these are just a small snippets of the work we've achieved in the last four years and i hope you will continue to support my new replacement the new bar commander will be confirmed in the next few days and i will update council and who this will be and i will also ensure that there's a robust handover i will end by thanking you all for making my time as bulk and wonderful newham great fulfilling enjoyable and it's been very challenging as well so thank you thank you so much for your time with us and we know that you are extremely busy and have appreciate you giving us your time to speak to us this evening i again thank you for your service on behalf of council i wish you all the best for the future thank you so much for attending this evening thank you i'm now moving to item eight announcement by the mayor of xanapies i invite mayor of xanapies just the council to make an announcement you have up to 10 minutes thank you very much chair um look firstly can i just thank uh with sincerity and love our borough commander richard because he's been absolutely an amazing leader since he came to newham i remember one of my first earlier meetings when he him and his then deputy christopher talked through the fire risk profile of newham and it was really stark by way of comparison to other local authorities and since then the collaborative effort in raising awareness of how fires start in homes has really up to gear and he was right in mentioning the collaboration that also led to us doing a pop-up fire campaign in westfield and of all the things that richard has done in his stellar leadership of his fire service team here in newham there are the stories of hope as well as the stories of sadness and without necessarily going into the detail one can't even begin to imagine some of the stories of desperation and sadness that richard and his team have had to deal with most recently um the courage and fearlessness that richard's team undertook when they were dealing with the amongst the most saddest of tragedies with the fire in east town where three young children passed and his colleague that led that fire fire response actually is leading the way on something quite remarkable in terms of fire safety advice and guidance for those households where there are children with special educational needs and disabilities and i'm very much looking forward to seeing that work continue in your honor and in your legacy so richard thank you so much and once again congratulations on your appointment to your next leadership role and no doubt you will be doing that with the diligence and purpose firstness that you've been doing your leadership here in newham for the rest of london um i wanted to um also uh echo the words of the chair with regards to today's significance uh be in bangladeshi victory day and send my best wishes to all those from our bangladeshi communities celebrating independence day today and also congratulations to lim brown and pellet watson for being um awarded or conferred the honorary freedom of the borough by members earlier at the extraordinary meeting um i'm looking forward to meeting them and other newham civic award winners uh when they receive their awards next year in february and chair and members you all know that work is underway to finalize our draft budget proposals that will be published next week ahead of cabinet consideration of them on the 9th of january and we look forward to confirmation by government in the next few days of newham's provisional funding allocation for the year ahead which we will obviously welcome the new funding that will be announced uh following the recent local government finance policy statement particularly around social care send and homelessness and i look forward to seeing what that means for newham and while government has invested an additional 1.3 billion in the next year's local government settlement we know that we are facing huge financial challenges as a country so we continue to discuss with government our need for exceptional financial support and we'll be submitting uh our application imminently uh i wanted to just remind members and residents watching tonight's proceedings of full council the the exceptional scale of financial challenge and the requirement of exceptional financial support is a consequence of the exceptional crisis in temporary accommodation and the rising need for social care our commitment to sound financial management means we cannot shy away from difficult decisions such as consulting on issues around the future of children's center provisions and the future of our commissioned youth offer and our libraries and yes in these difficult financial circumstances how we best support those who need help most and whether we can still afford a generous council tax reduction scheme unlike all councils we will have to look very carefully at council tax levels which in newham are the sixth lowest in london and significantly lower than the average for london boroughs but chair let me assure members that the draft budget that we will be bringing forward and published next week will have the mission of building a fair newham at its heart we will continue to support the government's mission of delivering 1.5 million new homes we will continue building the genuinely affordable homes that new residents need and we will continue to ensure new becomes the best place for children and young people to thrive where we build an inclusive economy for all and where the just transition to the climate emergency is at the heart of what we do and central to our approach will be transforming how the council works and operates including putting right the failings identified by the regulator of social housing this week we will be updating members on the good progress we are making in delivering our lga pair challenge action plan and we're not complacent we know that there's more to do particularly to transform the culture of how the council works truly putting people at the heart of everything through excellent resident experience but i wanted to share one example of where we are seeing really good progress our corporate contract corporate contact center recently hit the milestone of answering 93.3 of calls in a day that's a fantastic achievement through hard work from the team by looking at how they deliver the service to deliver better outcomes for residents by way of comparison colleagues the 97.3 percent of calls in a day is in contrast a year ago it was 40 percent so that is a significant transformation chair members will no doubt be looking forward to the christmas break next week and enjoying some well-deserved rest with family and friends my thoughts will also be with all those council staff and our partners particularly our amazing voluntary and community and faith groups who will be working tirelessly over christmas period to support the most vulnerable in our community and those that are isolated for example this morning i went to body dow's community association over in east ham and i met with a local resident group of those residents with dementia and their carers and i've promised that we would be working with them to improve their experience of services our partners like richard and his colleagues from newham's london fire brigade are a key part of how we must work differently in the future not the council taking the lead not the council pretending to have all the answers but working together on common issues challenges and opportunities so that we can achieve more together for this fantastic borough and its brilliant people and this collaboration unlocks new partnerships and innovations such as the work that we are doing with the university of east london on data and ai helping us to deal with some of the biggest challenges we face such as homelessness and temporary accommodation including damp and mold and i'm looking forward to working with all of our partners next year in 2025 as we develop a new borough partnership before i conclude colleagues i wanted to make two announcements and bear with me the first um is in regards to my um cabinet so colleagues colleagues you will um know that we place a great value on the health well-being and happiness of our residents young and elderly we've placed our response to the climate emergency at the center of what this administration does in response to the existential crisis facing humanity therefore i'm really pleased to announce this evening that i am going to be appointing uh counselor john whitworth as the cabinet member for air quality and climate emergency so that he is driving forward in that centrality of decision making at the heart of cabinet the second uh announcement that i wish to make really reflects on the value and importance that i've placed on children and young people in our borough throughout my tenure as mayor may 2018 i made it clear the ensuring that youth voice and youth safety are going to be uh the defining feature of my administration as the mayor of newham i wanted to at this point mention um or reference the words of the secretary of state for the department of culture media and sport when back in november she announced the um national youth strategy intention uh your time is up may i chair um please request three minutes if i may we have a long i'll give you two minutes that okay let's compromise thank you very much chair so um colleagues the secretary of state mentioned the announcement of a national youth strategy she said as we embark an ambitious plan to evolve power to local leaders and communities we are determined to champion that change not just at national level but in every part of government we will take this conversation to our towns villages and cities in every region on their terms not on ours to allow young people to challenge us every step of the way they will be in the driving seat and we will make sure young people are empowered at local regional and national level so that funding flows to the things that matter to them the most consequently colleagues i am pleased to announce that i will be appointing uh councilor melanie onovo as our cabinet member for youth power which will cover youth empowerment participation and safety on that note i wish everyone a very happy festive period and look forward to you to meeting with you and working with you in 2025 thank you chair thank you thank you thank you very much um ruxana affairs you didn't take two minutes so i'm very pleased you have given my time back um now i'm now moving to item 10 uh announcement by the chief um sorry item nine uh any updates from the cabinet members i'm now moving to item nine uh any members of the cabinet who wish to update council will be allowed to speak there shall be no debate or questions allowed does any member of the cabinet wish to speak you will allow to be speak for up to three minutes council strip pressure are you speaking no council sarah ruiz thank you chair thank you colleagues i thought it would be um you would appreciate an update on our send service so we were inspected in 2023 and it was no surprise to most of us that we were required to submit a written statement of action this was co-produced with parents children and stakeholders it was submitted to the department of education for approval and was monitored on a monthly basis by the department of education we have worked tirelessly to deliver on our written statement of action the initial improvement was overseen by counselor josh garfield and i thank him for his enthusiasm during that period of time we have just now been re-inspected and i am pleased to report that we have moved out of written statement of action we have now got to the middle step there aren't gradings but we're out of written statement action we still have a huge amount to do but we know exactly what has to be done we know that there are two key issues transition and alternative provision and i would probably add passenger transport to that um not necessarily a high priority but actually budget-wise it is a high priority we know we have considerable work to do in those two areas alongside improving the quality of our education health and care plans my thanks to all the officers led by alex weberly for their determined efforts to improve the lives of our children thank you thank you thank you counselor series does any other members members of the cabinets to speak no thank you i'm now moving to item 10 announcement by the chief executive i invite abby bago chief executive to make any announcement thank you chair oops is my mic on no is it on now ah perfect um i'll keep it very brief i just wanted to thank all counselors on behalf of myself and all the officers of the council it has been a particularly challenging year um and your support and your kind of guidance over the last 12 months has been absolutely critical for us as a council um so i just wanted to thank you on behalf of myself and all the senior officers of the council i wish you all a very rested merry christmas or seasons greetings if you don't celebrate christmas and i look forward to working with you all in the new thank you very much i'm now moving to item 11 overview and scrutiny program on future commissions councilman's update is outlined on pages 35 on the published agenda councilman you have up to five minutes to present your report with another five minutes allocated in total proposing answering questions that may be the first to congratulate john and melanie to their promotion to eye office within the council congratulations to you both and i look forward to seeing you at scrutiny that is where we can work collaboratively for the people of this borough okay i rise to provide a brief update of scrutiny work since october i can report that overview and scrutiny and the scrutiny commissions continue with our busy work program i should be clear from my report our focus remain on conducting scrutiny in order to contribute to finding solutions to our to the very real issues faced by newham council and by our residents and to drive improvements in our service through collaboration and long and long-term thinking chair our scrutiny committee are scrutinized a variety of important issues all outlined in my report however i should like to highlight a particular strand of our scrutiny work which is particularly close to my heart is particularly close to my heart in 2021 a scrutiny commission was set up to examine black boys relationship in our borough before i go further let me be the first to say that i'm not alone in thinking but while this work is necessary and important this piece of work has gone on for far too long the commission's work explored the relationship as it relates to social political criminal justice economic health educational attainment and other relevant social policy dimensions the roots to underachievement within the black community and its boys are a result of structural inequality poverty class and environment these are all areas where our council has spheres of control and influence with our main levers within education social care and youth justice youth justice between july and october we have a series of focus group sessions and meetings for the exploring the relationships in these areas i've long been concerned that the narrative on black boys has not changed since i came to the uk in the 80s yet the establishment of this commission met with some resistance and since our work has been stymied at various levels within our council it begs the question therefore that if this is my experience if this is the experience of the commission what is the reality for our boys who do not have an amplified voice two particular focus groups were agreed for school governors and teachers and they were invited disappointedly more governors showed up only one assistant a teacher attended of the 60 schools in this borough chair this demonstrate some of the systemic challenges and reason for the persistent problems problems the very people who are charged with educating and nurturing our boys did not show up for a conversation about how we can address the issues faced by these young people this has gone on for far too long our boys are being excluded to the pros our boys are suffering from low education unattainment our boys are over represented in the criminal justice system and all that we are asking for is a conversation of how we can address this and with no show is disappointing disappointing disappointing and i hope but in the new year we can redress this problem and that when i'm retired from this council thank you the narrative would be different it wouldn't be that they are on the achieving they are over representing the criminal justice system it would be that they are achieving and the criminal justice system they are much over represented thank you now we have five minutes for questions to answer does any members wish to put any questions council sarah is it's not a question chair it's um i feel like i am i have to apologize for the non-attendance of the school governors and teachers not that i may add it was anything whatsoever to do with me but um i do apologize tony um i think it's very bad form and i will ensure that um those two focus groups do take place in the in the new year and because i more than anybody want to see the end of this scrutiny this task can finish so i will work with you and uh officers in scrutiny to ensure that those two workshops happen thank you thank you thank you sera counselor james thanks a lot for your report council of a comma and i kind of echo what you've said about um i guess the shameful side of it um it is shameful and it's disappointing from our schools that they couldn't um attend your meeting the work you've done in terms of black boy um scrutiny committee has been commendable um as a counselor a black man and raising a young black mixed race boy in the bar i think these questions are duly um noted and need to be answered as a governor of the prue i think it's you do see on a day-to-day basis the over representation of young black children overall and black boys within the prue there are a number of different um i guess social factors that that impact our young boys and i would ask you um what are the quick wins this council can make and our schools can make so that we can improve the life chances of young black men and boys growing up in this borough thank you one of the things that i would recommend when we come to the next stage of reporting is that we have about one or two schools that we pilot and give these boys a nurturing environment rather than because the boys like every other um ethnic boys transition from primary into secondary and somewhere between year seven and when year nine they seems to lose their way by year nine it's over for them the part way too often for some of these boys seems to be engagement in the criminal justice system a lack of engagement um in education hence the low educational attainment we need to work closely with the schools the school teachers their teachers and the governors because they are the ones who have these boys apart from their own environment for the longest um period and that is why i'm very much disappointed and call it out here i shouldn't be made to call it out here some people told me but if i call it out it will spoil the working relationship with the schools and the governors but you know what the boys future is more important than relationship with school governors and it is more important for me because for there's too many of our young boys i'm not achieving so the relationship what about the future of these boys what about their prospects in life what about the economic well-being their mental health and everything that goes along with it isn't that important i think that is more important than safeguarding the relationship between schools and a teacher that didn't turn up anyway so there's no relationship thank you i'm mindful of the time so i'm going to allow a few members to speak and i will request you to make a short please thank you okay uh firstly councilman calmer i know how much passion you have for this subject and i know that you in your working life do so much to help the young boys who you refer just so that there's no miscommunication you do recognize that when you invited the the ceo and head of the further education colleges of newham and the sixth one they did turn up for the the the scrutiny meeting is that right that is correct they turned up kingsland secondary school turn up and saying bonaventure and they're the only ones but on the colleges turned up that is nuvik newham college are you aware of the conservation thank you very much for um your update council mcconnell and i just really want to to echo some of the sentiments that have been expressed in this room uh particularly reinforcing the comments made by councilor sera ruins with regards to the um accountability that she will charge through the education service as it relates to the schools that had been invited and decided not to come i think we have as an administration highlighted or put the spotlight on issues of disproportionality and cultures within schooling educational environments and institutions that marginalize our young people particularly those from our communities of color and black boys given the disproportionate impact on them and their life chances including what you've cited with regards to outcomes and proximity to the criminal justice system i'm looking very much forward to ensuring through the collaborative spirit that counselor sera rose counselor madeline sally ponton and now the new cabinet member for um youth power uh counselor melanie onovo to be working with you to holding our schools to account and i wanted to just conclude by saying this as i was um talking about the appointment of melanie i alluded to or mentioned uh the announcement by national government around the new national youth strategy they're going to be embarking on the biggest national conversation amongst and with young people in a generation or if ever in this country and i very much hope that that national conversation for young people but led by young people thank you have at its forefront young people from newham including those young black men in newham that have experienced the levels of exclusion that your reports and work have highlighted so that we can bring that thank you can i invite um uh joshua girlfriend and then carlin thank you thank you chair and count thank you um counselor mccormand as somebody who has sat on the committee and served on the committee but also led on the education portfolio i wanted to to to point out something that i'm sure you'll agree with but inquire a bit more on and that is the schools in our borough which go a great length to ensuring that they serve that holistically the whole journey of a young person through their school career and do everything they can to keep them in the school community and those unfortunately that decide that academic rigor in order for it to take priority must ensure must end up second preferencing everything else that is vital in a child's upbringing a child's education i would argue and i would hope the committee would would argue that academic rigor need not take a back seat for a school to completely nourish educate and protect our young people from being excluded both from their school communities and from our own community as a borough and i would um really welcome your comments and your remarks on what the council can do to support the schools which follow that ethos and help encourage the schools which don't to see a brighter future for our black boys thank you can i request carlin to come and be short please we are mindful of the time we've got heavy agenda item thank you chair counselor mccormand i listened to what you said and you said something along the lines of since the 1980s it's far too long i want to ask you how are we going to ensure the rights of our black children not just boys not just girls their children how are we going to show the rights of those young people when they have special education needs and disabilities and they often are overlooked by a system that wasn't made for them thank you if i um start with um um first of all i welcome the remarks and assurances given by the mayor um in terms of um josh what um you said what we need to do is to really understand the issues facing these young people we do not understand it and i know we don't understand it because when we are doing this scrutiny work and we asking for the questions and we asking for data we ask the information we don't have it as a council our partners don't have it and you cannot fix something that you don't know what the problem is and you cannot fix something that you don't know how to fix so therefore we need to look at what is causing um the exclusion from school into the pros what is causing the biggest thing when they go into year seven they're okay and between year seven and year nine something seems to have gone drastically wrong and nobody can i do not know the answer to that and no one can tell me what it is this is gone drastically wrong between that time and by year nine year ten which is very important in terms of the GCSE they've lost it they've lost their way and therefore the attainment is low that is the very time you're in nine each day ten they're being transitioned into the pro and all of those things so we need to really have a serious conversation with our partners in education now we can address these issues i'm in terms of um the children with send needs again we need to look at that and all we can really and i'm pleased Sarah as amongst that our send provision is improving we need to continue to work in that in that respect because again or too often we do not always understand what the issues are we do not always understand what parents and these children are facing and i work in a college and i see um send um students there and i think the culture that i work at is provided a very excellent and send can i just say thank you so much counselor Anthony McMahon for your kind report and respond thank you and i wish you all if you're celebrating a very merry christmas and if you're not celebrating have a wonderful break thank you so much i'm sorry uh madeline i won't be able to take your questions now i said i'm sorry i won't be able to take your point now i have allocated additional time and that's been taken away thank you i'm now moving to item 12 members questions under rule 16 of part four of the constitution i can inform the chamber that there are six questions received and accepted by the chief executive the questions with the published responses can be seen on the water paper published earlier today the questions are from counselors sabia kamali nate hagen's denny killing eric chaudry joshua garfield and terry paul questions one i call upon council sabia kamali to ask her questions thank you chair um counselor sabia kamali representing stratford ward i am here today to raise an important concern regarding the safety and well-being of victims of domestic abuse as we are aware hashed abrella 24 has been brutally murdered in a neighboring borough not long ago shul p bacon was found but burnt in e-stamp there are not the isolated incidents they are stark reminders of the violence women face daily whether on the streets or behind closed doors domestic abuse is rising but many women suffer in silence too scared to speak out they endure years of emotional physical and mental abuse because they fear they won't be believed or protected all too often we only act after women is brutally murdered as we've just observed the white ribbon campaign 16 days of activism i have to ask what is the council doing to make women feel safe what concrete step out being taken to tackle the root cause of domestic abuse ensuring survivors are heard and supported and created a borough where no women has to live in fear for her life thank you can i call upon council anil ulson and amar birdy to respond please that's fine councilman paz one thank you chair um thank you um counselor kamali for this really important question um i've got quite a lengthy respond for that um the council recognizes the increasing issue of domestic abuse and the necessity for proactive measures to ensure women's safety and support survivors the recommissioned domestic abuse committee service designed in collaboration with survivors aims to enhance support and inclusivity these services are culturally competent with diverse workforce providing support in multiple languages to address the needs of newham's diverse population the impact of these services evident with 45 of services service users identifying as asian british 20 as black african caribbean sorry caribbean black british and 27 as white domestic abuse workers are co-located with other services such as substance misuse mental health family hubs to ensure accessible support for survivors this approach has prevented abuse from escalating by providing support at site survivors may already be visiting the new service includes specialized support for survivors facing multiple disadvantage and harmful practice with dedicated independent domestic violence advocate service advocates providing intensive support and advocacy the local authority has partnered with various groups to ensure culturally sensitive accessible service for all included faith leaders lgbtq plus support organizations and groups assisting those with multiple disadvantage and specific health needs newham offers refuge provision especially for black and asian women with additional external funding for therapeutic intervention and support for those with no recourse to public funds the council domestic abuse strategy 2022 to 2025 emphasizes inclusivity and survivor involvement focusing on prevention early intervention and addressing intersectionality the strategy has made significant achievement including the creation of a domestic abuse model embedded across the partnership and increase awareness and training for domestic abuse safe lives a national organization focused on improving responses to domestic abuse has conducted an independent review of our service with focus to intersectionality equality and equity a new strategy addressed sex workers has been developed with input from residents individuals with lived experience and specialized women's services the strategy is waiting cabinet approval during strategy development process has been made in tackling the associated anti-social behavior and enhancing support for sex workers with increased utilization of dedicated services a monthly safeguarding panel is in place for women at high risk risk of harm from homicide due to sex work or sexual exploitation the council has implemented various initiatives to ensure women's safety in public spaces including training workshop campaigns against harassment and misogyny these initiatives aim to educate empower residents particularly women and girls to recognize safely intervene in harassment situation the use of national police street safe app allows residents to report location where they feel unsafe providing valuable data to address specific concerns across the borough overall the council's effort had a significant effect effect significant impact on improving support for survivors of domestic abuse enhancing women's safety in public spaces and fostering a more inclusive and responsive community thank you chair thank you councilman does counselor sabia kamal do you have any supplementary questions thank you um questions too i call up and counselor nate hagen's to ask your questions please thank you chair council tax is an unfair tax which hits our poorest residents the hardest that's why the green group is committed to ensuring our most vulnerable residents do not pay any council tax at all by expanding our council tax reduction scheme this is fundamental to our belief that it's the biggest that the biggest burden should fall on those with the broadest shoulders this is a commitment the labor group previously committed to working towards but the labor administration has now proposed cutting the council tax reduction scheme from a cap of 90 of a resident's liability down to 70 among other cuts that's at the same time as having increased council tax by over 10 since the last election what impact assessment has been done on the proposal to save over four million pounds by taking it from the pockets of our most vulnerable residents thank you counselor charlene mcmillan to respond to the questions or to confirm as published thank you counselor for your question um this administration as you know is committed to building a fairer newham including supporting our most vulnerable residents and tackling poverty with the aim that all our households should be able to build their financial resilience to thrive and be successful and be able to weather the wider economic ups and downs like all councils we have to pursue this goal in the context of the financial powers available to us and currently incredibly challenging financial position with a forecast funding gap of 175 million pounds over the next three years driven by the rising costs of temporary accommodation and social care the future of key services for some of our most vulnerable residents depends on our being able to find savings and to increase income which is why we're exploring many options in our budget setting process newham council tax is currently the sixth lowest in london our average band d rate is 16 lower than the london average the council tax reduction scheme known as ctrs sits alongside this as an important mechanism to support those who are least able to pay it's currently noticeably more generous than those of other neighboring boroughs and currently provides some 27 million pounds worth of relief from council tax liability we remain committed to continuing that scheme but we're looking at options to make some amendments to it in the light of our wider financial position 9.4 million pounds of the relief provided in current scheme goes to support 8 000 pension age households who will not and would not be affected affected by the proposed changes a consultation is currently underway on the options for change and it can be found on the council's website and has been widely promoted across various channels in an effort to reach as many residents as possible the impact assessment together with the consultation findings will inform this council's decision making on whether to implement changes in the scheme to deliver savings as part of the budget setting process for the 25 26 financial year thank you council honest councilor nate haggins do you have any supplementary questions thank you chair and thank you council uh easter um talk of weathering the wider economic up and downs is just completely out of touch with the reality the residents we represent are facing i asked what impact assessment has been made the answer appears to be was there was none or at least none that can be shared here before labor decided to go out and consult on grabbing 4 million pounds from our poorest residents labor must have known the fear this would strike in our communities presumably that's why it hasn't even been posted on the council's social media the cabinet member says the council tax reduction scheme works alongside having one of the lowest council tax levels in london the reality is that labor has increased council tax by the most it is legally allowed to every year since i was elected if it was up to them our council tax would be even higher and the reduction scheme needed that much more it is only the council tax reduction scheme that has protected residents from the harshest impacts of their decisions martin lewis has campaigned remarkably to demonstrate the disastrous impact on vulnerable residents when they can't pay where monthly payment plans can be cancelled within just seven days of a missed payment meaning a missed 140 pound payment can result in a 1668 pound bill just three weeks later liability notices and bailiffs can come next the council i have asked you to ask questions please i'm asking it but that's long questions to respond so i'm the next sentence is the question chair the next sentence is the question so all this time you have given your statement i'm asking my supplementary question chair so i ask you've asked our poorest residents to pay four million pound more will you promise those residents now that your decision won't result in bailiffs showing up at their door when they inevitably can't pay councilor annister do you want wish to respond these questions thank you to say first of all that the consultation is open until january the 14th and while it's available on all sorts of platforms perhaps the most important thing is that our libraries and our library staff have been fully trained in helping and enabling residents to respond so we're looking forward to having responses from as many residents as possible and i would ask you all pleased to encourage your residents to make those responses all our decisions are subject to an equalities impact assessment and that will come out at the same time as the consultation sadly with the best will in the world i can't promise that bailiffs won't come to to a person of course i can't but we will do our absolute best as always to support our residents in every possible respect thank you councilor annister uh question number three i call up on council danny killing to ask your questions please i've recently been committed by officers that pesticides and weed killers will be stopped in council owned estates and parks can i ask them what date they will be stopped and will this administration request the same from our private providers including queen elizabeth olympic park and west hand park i call up on councilor sarah to respond these questions or to confirm as published thank you thanks for the question danny uh the use of herbicide glyphosate to eradicate weeds has ceased in our parks this follows the services being in sourced in 2020 and is widely seen as being a practical and realistic approach in parks in our housing estates we continue to routinely treat hard surfaced areas with glyphosate goodness me however we are committed to phasing this out over the next year we will be undertaking a small trial to review the suitability of alternative methods of weed management this trial will inform the creation of a borough-wide integrated weed management plan at this time and ahead of undertaking this trial we are unable to provide a date when this will be achieved we are aware that many external parks landowners have also eliminated the use of glyphosate so we do not need to make requests to these external organizations councilor killing do you have a supplementary question i do thank you um if we there's no date there's no deadline there's no obligation there's no commitment and no urgency so let's move to a commitment that was promised in the general election promising to ban neonicotinoids which killed 1.25 billion bees with just a single teaspoon would you spearhead this and implement it in our borough to meet the labor general election commitment thanks danny i mean i i can go back to officers and get you a more up-to-date answer but i think it's realistic that we will do we're starting the trial and that depends on how that goes you know the last thing that i want a i don't want to have these um i'm not even going to ask that glyphosate but actually the majority of our residents want the weeds out of the the gutters and stuff so we have to find a singularly practical way of dealing with that so but i will go back to louise and i will ask her for a better update thank you council i now move to question four i call upon council alex charger to ask this question it's been more than a year since the council introduced emissions-based visitor parking charges across near him this was done in the words of the council to protect our health and climate while we can all agree on the need to tackle the climate emergency there is a risk that this policy disproportionately impacts people on lower incomes this may be due to those on lower incomes relying on street parking rather than driveways being able being only able to afford to purchase older vehicles or requiring a vehicle for their work has the council conducted an analysis of the impacts of this policy on car owners with lower incomes and are they able to produce independent evidence that the introduction of this policy is directly contributing to a reduction in co2 emissions across the borough thank you councilor sir sorry council this time john my apologies answer john moore is to respond thank you chair the council understands the need for a careful balance to be struck between reducing emissions to tackle the climate emergency and ensuring that parking charges remain affordable for those who need to drive the balance is one of the core principles within our just transition plan and was an important consideration in how emissions-based charging was designed and introduced last year in respect to the analysis the data isn't available to allow the comparison between visitor parking user information with income levels to be undertaken however an analysis undertaken on vehicle emissions by comparing parking data from the last three months with the same period in 2023 to look at how the new changes do charges over the share this analysis has found a number of positive trends firstly the average co2 emissions of vehicles of vehicles parking in them is down by 4.12 per grams per kilometer three percent this overall trend has primarily been driven by a 52 percent increase in parking sessions by vehicles in the lowest pollution category category and an increase in sessions by electric vehicles this demonstrates the power of pricing to influence driver behavior however the data also shows that the use of diesel vehicles has remained stable and that the number of sessions by the highest polluting vehicle is down by only one percent while the council understands your concerns in respect of pricing we also need to recognize that around half of the households in them do not own a car and that car ownership levels are the lowest amongst the lowest incomes and that the poor air quality with much of which results from vehicle emissions is linked to one and 13 deaths in new every year this is why it is the right why it is right that the council took steps last year to induce emissions-based charges and why it is also right that cabinet agreed earlier this month to introduce a diesel surcharge and higher charges for the most polluting vehicles in 2025 as a bold and necessary step to tackle this public health crisis head on by incentivizing greener transport choices and discouraging the use of high polluting diesel vehicles we are not only improving air quality by accelerating our journey towards a cleaner greener borrow thank you councillor john morris councillor alexander do you have supplementary question yes thank you uh councillors and residents will appreciate the need for policy interventions to be informed by evidence while there is some interesting and important content in the council's response it is mostly irrelevant to the question asked which is regarding the impact of emissions-based parking charges on newham's low-income residents information about electric vehicles is great but ultimately does not relate to the question of low-income residents forcing poorer residents to pay more in parking charges will not lead them to being able to afford electric cars furthermore the council will appreciate that correlation is not causation and the stats provided are nothing more than correlation as such will the council commit to undertake undertaking a review of emissions-based parking charges to specifically assess its efficacy as a policy to address climate change and to assess its financial impact on lower income car owners in newham thank you councillor john morris do you wish to respond chair i would like to remind councillor chowdhury that the annual cost of owning a carny in in the uk is between three and a half thousand to three hundred three thousand and eight hundred pounds uh per year and in fact a colleague in london council was a conservative councillor just this week mentioned that um the cost of owning a car could be as much as 300 pound per month with the utmost respect to councillor chowdhury if you own a car you are wealthier enough to pay the emissions-based charging and transition to a much more cleaner healthier form of transport thank you thank you councillor john morris uh i move to number question five i call upon councillor joshua garfield to ask your question please thank you chair happy to take the question and answer as tabled and move to supplementary yeah yep thank you for your answer councillor ali in the first paragraph of the answer covers the question in its entirety my follow-up council rally would be can you please confirm that nobody with any pecuniary personal pecuniary interest will be involved in budget setting processes for 25 26 i call upon councillor jill frugali to respond um these questions or to confirm as published thank you council garfield for your initial question and uh and madam chair for allowing me to respond in terms of your supplementary question this is something that i need to go back to legal and clearly to make sure that we council's interests are are fully protected that regard and a response will be sent to you in due course thank you thank you the final questions number six i call up and consult a report to ask your questions and i'm yeah this is the end so the questions will be published and will respond to him um i i'm now moving to item 13 speeches for members in accordance with the part four rules of procedures of the council's constitution paragraph 17 two speeches have been accepted from council lee's corning on her hard work uh what work as the new counselor and counselor mahamud means regarding texas are going up and reduction in services so therefore i call uh first the counselor lee's gone in um to come and give you a speech you have up to five minutes thank you liz crowning forestgate north thank you chair and good evening to my fellow counselors officials members of the public and all it's a real privilege to have been elected as a counselor by the people of forestgate north and a labor counselor at that the party that brought us the minimum wage the climate change act and lifted a million children out of poverty and so much more most recently after 15 years of decline and division under the conservatives the new labor government has committed to build 1.5 million new homes and has clean power by 2030 and re-nationalize our ailing railways i'd like to pay tribute to my predecessor sasha das gupta a devoted counselor and trade unionist i wish her well as she starts her next chapter in spain and my thanks also go to my co-counselor rachel trip who's expert in trade union and rachel trip whose expertise and kindness have been invaluable in helping you learn the ropes forestgate north is a fantastic ward to represent its residents are as wonderfully diverse as they are fiercely proud of their heritage from its quaker beginnings to surviving the blitz and coming together this year to resist the brutish hate crimes on our pride flags this is a community bursting with life indeed our people are second to none i was lucky enough last week to accompany our new mp uma kumaran on a visit to adessa infant school where i'm a governor i left in no doubt that the children are going to blow the lid off their nativity play thanks in no small part to their tireless teachers it's also clear however that they are facing serious challenges their funding for special educational needs simply hasn't kept pace with rising demand and attendance post-covid is a struggle more widely our ward has pockets of serious anti-social behavior and knife crime and there's far more tip fly tipping than we'd like despite improvements all this is with a backdrop of serious financial headwinds for the whole borough which will inevitably have to fall in part on us so it's my job and what i take very seriously to be a strong advocate for residents and support them in the challenges that lie ahead you won't be surprised that housing is the number one issue i'm seeing in my surgeries and inbox and i hope that now having a national labor government will see some of that pressure lifted lifted off renters and especially those in temporary accommodation plainly there's a mountain of work to do and we owe it to everyone in newham to get it right i look forward to working with you all on this merry christmas happy holidays and thank you very much thank you council lee's corning um now i would like to call up on councilman to give his speech and can i remind the council there will be no debate after the speech thank you you're five minutes done just waiting for the clock good evening comrades colleagues officers i stand here tonight to address pressing concern shared by many across this chamber and indeed the entire bar it it touches the heart of every residence who calls newham home the failure of this labor administration to make the lives of the resident better over the past few years we have seen the borough go backward on nearly every metric that matters residents are facing many challenges and instead instead of offering solutions this administration has only made things worse no now more than ever people of the newham need a council that works for them and this council is not working let me outline why the labor run council has put up the council tax by an eye-watering 26 since 2018 at the same time our financing remains disarray despite raising taxes year after year we have little to show for it fly tipping is out of control turning our street into dumping grounds and eroding the quality of rights life of residents residents satisfaction has limited down to a striking 48 percent in just three years these figures are not just numbers they reflect the daily frustration and despair of families workers and businessmen who expect betters even worse housing regulators has exposed the shocking feeling in the way this council manages housing the people who rely on these services are being let down at every turn promises made to resident have been broken free visitor permit scrapped free first car permit scrapped this administration has introduced increased emission charges that penalize very people who keep our borough moving professional drivers and small businesses introducing the ltns without meaningful consultations these are regressive policies that hurt hard-working backbone of newham over the recent years we have lost city farm hartley and kensington youth center west am united for their bowling ground east and market working men clubs bowling cinema gasworks sport ground bottom layer center now the gymnastics center and the potential and potentially the debdon house camping center a much needed escape for many of the borough's children the biggest problem here is a lack of leadership and vision labor party has no plan to reverse these trends there is no strategy this administration only playbook is to text residents more and deliver less labor has no long-term plan for the growth and prosperity but tonight i wanted to give you give the people of newham hope i want to tell them change is coming the day the days of chaos under the labor administration will soon come to an end our borough deserve better and we can deliver it i envision a newham where every residence feel valued where services are reliable where families can thrive where businesses can grow a newham that works for all colleagues the people of newham deserve the very best they deserve the council that work for them not against them they deserve a leader who will lift them up not drag them down and they deserve a brighter future than what this administration has delivered post 26 2026 election this region will become a reality the newham independents are ready to deliver the leadership the borough so desperately needs and mark my words we will win and we will win big thank you commerce thank you i will now move to the next item i now move to item 14 treasury management the report is outlined from pages 81 on the published agenda i call on councilor julica ali to move the report councilor julica ali i didn't hear that so it moved this okay do you have a seconder please thank you um we now move to the debate does any member wish to speak no can you now move to the recommendation which are outlined on page 81 on pub on the published agenda all those in favor please raise your hand thank you all those against please raise your hand any abstentions thank you item 15 constitution review approval of new council procedures rules the report is outlined from page 107 on the published agenda i call on mehruxana fears to move the report mehruxana fears you have up to five minutes thank you very much um colleagues i'm just really going to ask that you um note the contents of the report and i just really wanted to say thank you for all those members of the constitutional working uh constitutional review working group for similarly to the new civic awards their diligence um in bringing this refreshed updated uh council procedural rules to tonight's full council meeting um it's all pretty self-explanatory and just commend the report to members tonight and finally wanted to thank um the hard work and input of the council officers that have been working really hard on the constitutional review working group and that includes our colleagues from the council's legal and governance service area um and also um colleagues um sarah storak and robert caesar so thank you very much um because we wouldn't have got through with the quality assurance that members rightly require as we go through something so fundamental and important which is our constitution here at the council i will finally like to conclude by reflecting on the importance of constitutions in a institution such as a local authority because they provide the ethical framework through which we as a local authority a public body operate and the coming sections of the constitution that will be reviewed is very much driven in the spirit of what i announced uh back in may 2022 that we will be embarking on this constitutional review because the constitutional review needs to be fit for purpose and needs to be indicative and responsive to the complexities of elected representatives with a democratic mandate both at award level and indeed borough-wide and as i reflect on some of the words mentioned by members this evening i wish to remind colleagues that the level of transparency and good governance is exactly the reason why we are putting the spotlight on the inefficacies of public service delivery because our residents deserve the best they deserve the best in service delivery and they deserve the best in member practice that includes members that are driven by public purpose not by ego who are driven by a motivation for public good not to hold on to power and public office for ego they are important aspects of what a constitution can initiate an engender an ethical grounded in a moral compass culture and practice of a council which is fit for purpose for the 21st century that pursues justice that puts the spotlight is willing to speak truth to power yes but also call out bad practice thank you very much thank you mayor oksana fears do i have a seconder please thank you councilor nate kelling um we now move to the debate oh sorry thank thank you chair um i won't keep us long i have i have to say if i thought on the day that i got elected in some of the conversations that we had soon after that i'd find myself one day seconding a constitutional change from with with the mayor um i don't think that that would have happened um so this this report actually does represent quite a large distance that quite a lot of people in the council and both staff and elected members have gone in terms of figuring out what it means to be a multi-party council and a transparent council and we owe a lot of that to people like the the monitoring officer rachel and other members of staff for really helping us guide our ways through this i want to quote um i don't think she'll thank me for doing this but councilor chatter who on the constitution working group asked about what we're going to do to socialize these changes because we've you know we made changes back in may and then there was some period of chaos where members didn't quite know what was going on and that that's not right we're all members what the constitution does is it protects our rights in in doing the work that we do to represent the people that we do and if you don't know your rights in the constitution then you can't do your job um and some people will sit up an evening and just read a constitution from cover to cover probably many people won't do that so we need to think about how we uh really socialize within each and every one of us what your rights are because that will help you to do your job properly and get the best for the residents that we represent i guess the last thing i want to say is members on the constitution working group will probably reflect in the same way that i did that the early days weren't quite as positive of some of the later days in terms of our ability to find agreement and common ground and so the members on that working group have really had to learn how to work with each other and compromise and it's i guess it's my hope and has always been my hope that the rest of us can also learn that in in perhaps areas that are slightly less arcane than the constitution for the things that really matter to the people that we represent so i really do urge members to to take this with the good spirit from from all parties that this represents and to to vote for it thank you thank you for that thank you we now move to the debate does any members wish to speak no thus can we move to the recommendations which are outlined on the page 107 on the published agenda all those in favor please raise your hand thank you all those against please raise your hands any abstentions no thank you the report has been approved i um item 16 pulling the district and places review 2024 the report is outlined from the page 133 on the published agenda as the chair i move this report do i have a seconder please thank you council madeline uh we now um we now move to the debate does any members wish to speak no uh can we now move to the recommendation which are outlined on the pages 134 on the published agenda all those in favor please raise your hands thank you all those against please raise your hands any abstentions no thank you um item 17 as stated earlier this report has been deferred i will now move to the next item item 18 civic awards the report is outlined from pages 173 on the published agenda i call on ruxana fears to move the report um colleagues i just wanted to um again just commend and thank all members of the new civic awards panel um including members uh council rahima raman um and also council femi falola council danny keeling and uh council rohit duskoopton imam hack especially wanted to give a thank you to um the young people it's really testing and challenging um process because there are so many excellent nominations uh for the civic award categories that cover good neighbor award outstanding contribution award youth excellence award and the like as set out in this paper i um must say the quality of the applications over the three years that we've been running the new civic awards has just mushroomed and grown and grown and it really puts a spotlight on the brilliance that exists in our borough the everyday acts of kindness and of love of wanting to change the world that exists in our borough it really has been a pleasure discussing the profiles of the individuals with all of the civic board members and the young people had their own dedicated focused and targeted set of conversations as they deliberated on the nominees for the youth related category i think all of us should be really privileged if you're not already to be elected representatives serving the wonderful residents of our borough and the variedness of our communities and at a time especially of great challenge that has been evoked across the debates this evening i am so taken aback by the lengths that people will go to help uh strangers neighbors people down the street um through a passion and a love for this borough so it's both a thank you and a deep appreciation for all of those people that nominated individuals across all the categories for those that didn't get through and you know been conferred an award we've done a couple of special shout outs to those organizations that rightly should be commended and it was a really tough call and especially wanted to say thank you to um our officer colleague uh jennifer webster who i think is in the hall and if she isn't um i really hope that we're able to click this part of the video because she pulled out all the stops and turned around the process for us to be able to assess the nominees with real diligence and within a very short time frame so my thanks especially to jennifer webster on that note i commend this report to members of council and look forward to any debates and additional contributions particularly to members that have been involved in this determining process thank you chair thank you um yes do i have a seconder please thank you counselor jenny killing thank you chair um this is my first time doing the awards and one thing that i was really really concerned about in previous years was the amount of uh people putting themselves forward and being shortlisted and and the fact that us as counselors pushing that message out to get into those communities so then we actually find these brilliant community projects and these people helping so many people in their areas in their communities and reaching even further afield and i think we've really done it this time but we had so many shortlisted people and it was such a lengthy amount of people with such long stories about all the great work they've actually been doing um and it wasn't just even new and based it was going further afield in different areas um i just wanted to say on on the youth board absolutely excellent work they went out and they even did their own panel they did their own marking um i can't remember the exact number was it 12 people mayor yeah it was right about 12 people um 12 young people and actually in our groups giving them that voice and giving them that chance to be heard and actually represent and tell us who they think as well because at the end of the day our communities aren't just built around adults they are built around younger people as well um and as always this is i just really wanted to push as well there's nothing political at all and and working as one council is something definitely within the civic awards i really look forward to the actual awards in february thank you thank you councilor denny killing uh we now move to the debate does any members wish to speak can we now move to the recommendations which are outlined on page 174 on the published agenda all those in favor please raise your hand thank you all those against please raise your hands any abstentions no thank you the report has been approved item 18 special urgency and um point of order chair or point of clarification can we move um the standing orders or very the standing orders to bring the motions forward and then continue the meeting i don't think i don't think most people want to extend i mean do you want to extend the meeting just by suspending the standing orders to 10 30 to finish the agenda off sorry um i'm afraid councilor and i'm slum it doesn't um fit in the new uh review review constitution uh line uh therefore what is the procedure to vary the standing orders um can we be guided by the monitoring officer if not can we suspend the standing orders until the agenda is finished no maybe it goes to 12 o'clock can i can i take can i um ask monitoring officer to come in please go on another half an hour yeah it doesn't exist the rule anymore but we do can extend the time till 10 o'clock thank you they don't want to well he did said he did say so cancer and only slum are you okay with the following the agenda item as we are running in order it's fine as long as we follow the president's set when it comes to motion that's okay thank you thank you um there's only two items left to go to the motion so i'll be very quick um i move to um item 18 special urgency and exempt from the call and procedures decisions the report is outlined from the page 8 185 on the published agenda i call on um counselor anthony mcculman to move the report thank you do i have a seconder please thank you council sarah we now move to the debate does any members wish to speak no can we now move to the recommendations which are outlined on page 185 on the published agenda all those in favor please raise your hands thank you all those against please raise your hands any abstention thank you the report has been approved item 20 appointments we have two reports to consider under this item the first is item 28 appointment of independent person outlined from page 189 on the published agenda as chair i move this report do i have a seconder please happy to second chair thank you i now move to debate does any members wish to speak no thank you can you now move to the recommendations which are outlined on page 189 on published agenda all those in favor please raise your hand thank you all those against please raise your hands any abstentions thank you the report has been approved item 20 b appointments of committees summary of changes outlined from pages 193 on the published agenda as chair i move this report do i have a seconder please thank you counselor madeline we now move to the debate does any members wish to speak no can we move to the recommendations which are outlined on page 193 on the published agenda all those in favor please raise your hands thank you all those against please raise your hands any abstentions thank you the report has been approved thank you i'm now moving to item 20 motions there are two listed for consideration of this meeting mainly recruitment balance for each ethnicity and each protected characteristic in workplace i knew i'm going to get this wrong and reform the olympic park fixed estate charge i would an amendment from counselor sabia kamali has been received for the second motion i will remind the members of the council procedures rules 25.1 points of order this relates to an alleged breach of the council rules of procedures of the law 26 point personal explanation this applied to the members consider they have been misquoted or misunderstood motion one i call upon counselor shanta fred does to propose her motion which is outlined on from pages 212 on the published agenda counselor fred does uh you have up to five minutes uh good evening all and thank you chair um chancellor failures counselor for his time i hope colleagues have read this motion recruitment balance on each ethnicity and each part characteristic in the workplace proposed by me seconded by counselor simon rush whilst many challenges of discrimination produced within the workplace they often start with poor recruitment process that create iniquity and over representation of some groups over others the council is already committed to a policy and practices aim to ensure there is no discrimination within the workplace relating to any of the nine protected characteristic and that our work reflects the community it serves councils know that nationally according to office of national statistics black asian and minority ethnic unemployment is record high showing the need of organization make an even greater effort to recruit from underrepresented communities pakistani and bangladeshi people will have the lowest rate of employment at 61 percent in the uk the council believes that to counter under representation of any aspect of our community accurate and detailed recording monitoring and reporting of the unemployment rates relating to all protected characteristic is essential councils consider this is to be important in helping to identify and resource gap within the community process and to achieve a more driver's workforce with which represent the drivers of the bearer therefore the council results to ensure and draws recruitment policies process procedures positive encouragement applicants from people to drive us background and protected characteristics as under the equality act 2010 namely age disability gender gender reassignment marriage civil partnership pregnancy maternity race religion belief sexual orientations and the caregivers which is an additional protected characters characteristics of our council to conduct a new recruitment surveys similar to similar to which council utilize when assessing the gender pay gap ethnicity pay gap to report on the diversity of applicants to understand the necessary actions to ensure effective recruitment read this under representation to those with political characteristic we understand lbn operates diverse recruitment panels we move that in addition hr communication effectively and shows that there is a diverse applicant pool such such such a statement of encouragement can include it is our aim to develop and endorse candidate pools and include applicants from all backgrounds and communities and encompassing all political characteristic therefore i urge colleague to support this motion thank you thank you councilor shanta fedders i call upon councilor sam rush to second this motion please thank you chair um i'll second this motion um the motion is is to ensure with clear communication from hr as it will expand its brilliant of it will expand its brilliant diversity in ensuring this happens with recruitment also make sure applications are always aware of this in the wording when the vacancy application is sent out to ensure all backgrounds and communities are always protected and recognized under all protected characteristics as an active union member i wholeheartedly agree with this motion which is why i'm seconding it encouragement to find work for all under the equality act is key in a multicultural society growing in growing our understanding of each other this often happens in the workplace especially when you consider that is where working adults spend most of their work time throughout their working lives a fully mixed working group will only encourage togetherness which is never a bad thing where divine and conquer is always a bad thing history tells us this and this motion will help lb newham continue in diverse improvement in the in its workplace i believe it will work hand in hand with the employment rights bill currently going through parliament which will strengthen all workers rights regardless of their ethnicity religion sexuality disability and in fact all equality rights under to under the 2010 act i second this motion thank you thank you councilor i'll see how many um we'll now move to the vote uh debate members you have up to three minutes but mindful of the time because we um just we approach it to 9 30 is it 9 30 no yeah no yeah councilor john gray uh yeah thank you chair uh council john gray west ham and as somebody who works full-time as a trade unionist i was asked actually to give my thoughts on this um excellent motion to be absolutely clear this is all about fairness and equality for all newham is a major employer in um newham council is a major employer and it's important we set a good example to all the other employers i do um as a student of history member that the deliver party were able to win power in the past partly on the way they treated their workforce and they were able to prove that they would make a difference and treat workers properly and that's the same for protected characteristics now we need our newham council workforce to reflect newham and my final thing is just to add something is that i'm again really pleased that the new labor government is going to introduce a duty on councils to consider to promote social economic class as a protected characteristic not not totally as other protected so but the council will have a duty to make sure that the workforce also in my view reflects the social economic class again using the term political black black people suffer from trans um you know transsectionality and get my teeth in properly that people also suffer because they're black because they may be disabled but also because they come from working class background and i'm sure across this chamber we would unite to to stop this thank you um members i just want to because the time is half nine and we're finishing in half nine but we have a motion uh to uh finalize for the second motion so um chip i'm asking whether you would like to increase the time for another half an hour after half an hour you have can we suspend standing orders by 15 minutes chair yeah can i ask the people can i ask the members who wish to um extend the time can you raise your hands please yes yes yeah i think most of the members wish to um extend the times up to half an hour and i would allow that to till 10. chair move 15 minutes unless unless you want to use your can i explain if we say up to half an hour it doesn't it doesn't have to be half an hour you can take it 10 minutes 15 minutes or two minutes so i'm allowing to do up to half an hour and this is your right to exercise how many how long you would like to do that so i'll leave that to you now thank you counselor blursome yang and i'll ask counselor medlin for the next please uh thank you chair i would like to um support my colleagues in this um motion look newham is um underpinned by its diversity we know that we know that that's our strength and we know that when um when everyone thrives then we all thrive together so we've got to make sure that our recruitment practices attract the widest possible fields of candidates um to work in this excellent and amazing borough and to make sure that the diversity of our workforce reflects the community that this council serves and the motion really rightly notes the under-representation of global majority communities in employment particularly in the pakistani and bangladeshi communities but there is similar under-representation in employment amongst communities with other protected characteristics um for example 53 percent of disabled people are in employment compared to 82 percent of non-disabled people um 62 percent of care leavers aged 19 to 21 are in some form of education employment or training but that leaves 38 percent who are not um there are things we're already doing newman's already a disability confident employer our interview panels are diverse once people are in employment employee-led inclusive support networks exist across the council and that encourages a vibrant diverse and inclusive workplace the encouragement statement that the motion calls for would make explicit our commitment for recruitment and retention of staff from all of our diverse communities and for those with protected characteristics and i think the motion highlights a really important point about monitoring and reporting of the diversity of applicants to jobs in the council um i think that's a really welcome step and would show progress that the council is making and also highlight where there is further to go there's a wealth of good practice out there on how to make recruitment processes and practices more inclusive and from job role design to how we advertise where we advertise who we advertise to to shortlisting and to more inclusive interview processes our council already does a lot of these and this motion simply seeks to strengthen that and increase the work we're doing and i would urge colleagues to support it thank you thank you councilor balsam yeah councilor madeline thank you i give huge support as i'm sure my colleagues and comrades do here tonight for this motion this motion has taken a while to come before the council because of the hard work and diligence that's been undertaken by the proposal and seconder and we applaud them for it so thank you very much both of you for my own point of view as somebody born brought up in newham i for many years have been some categorized on applications monitoring forms as other and it's very hard for people when they are not represented properly within either the monitoring information or in within the actual council or in the organization in which they work to feel fully included and i must admit in the past there have been times when i've looked around where i've worked and tried to see if there's anyone that i can speak to in my home language and there usually isn't although there are people here tonight um so i give huge support to this the disability equality act 2010 is the bread and butter of my daily work it's something that i work with in schools as a counselor and within the cabinet as an education deputy lead newham has led the country and london in many aspects of inclusion for many years in the last century we were actually leading on the inclusive housing allocation to ensure that communities within newham were um were appropriately housed in the appropriate house in the appropriate place rather than pocketing people into enclaves or ghetto wires in communities has happened in other boroughs and that's something that we should be really proud of and something that leads to the community cohesion that we have today we are also one of the national and international leaders in the last century in inclusive education which thank heavens is being brought back into favor fashion and financial support by the current labor government after many years of um exclusion with a small e being undertaken across a range of different types of schools and therefore i give my wholehearted backing to my colleagues for bringing this motion and i ask you to support it thank you counselor matlin any other members wish to speak counselor mahamud meza thank you council firdos and council rush bringing this motion i welcome this motion looking to ensure that council is a more diverse organization newham is one of the most diverse in the country and such we need to ensure that our organization reflect the people itself newham independent is supporting this motion thank you thank you counselor major now um counselor shant affair does he have right to uh you have the right for the last reply do you wish to uh say anything further thank you uh we'll now move to the vote all those in favor please raise your hand thank you all those against please raise your hands any abstentions thank you that's uh that is carried out thank you okay now i call up in council denny killing to propose your motion which is outlined from page 213 unpublished agenda counselor denny killing you have up to five minutes london is a beautiful place full of parks and green spaces these parks are amenities for all to enjoy harbor communities as well as give londoners the vital breather from urban sprawl green spaces whether owned publicly or privately are a right not a privilege and residents should not have to pay any extra to live opposite a park unlike of every other park user residents in the olympic park have to pay an extra charge on top of their council tax it's called the fixed estate charge an extra tax on already squeezed residents after rises in council tax and the inequality crisis that the tories have created by paying this charge as a resident you gain no special benefits bonuses or extras compared to every other londoner this charge is already set to surpass council tax despite providing none of the services or benefits that residents receive unlike council tax it is indexed links to rpi which has left it set to double every 10 years this is simply unsustainable for the residents we represent in the olympic park the charge itself covers a large 560 acreage of london with a national sporting complex and a public park extending far beyond and outside the comparatively small residential states which are obliged to pay for it there is no direct community association between residents of child manor and any of the sporting venues all of which are commercially run the income from the charge makes a substantial and increasing contribution to the cost of maintaining the grounds security and venues of the post olympic estate leasehold and freehold agreements refer only to the grounds it is a charge designed ultimately to free the gla from any contribution to main maintenance of the great estate leaseholders and freeholders on the child manner estate are paying more than their council tax in monthly contributions to the fixed estate charge this is a destination where tourists come for events at london stadium velodrome aquatic center a space where people come weekly to run cycle and a place for people to benefit their mental health the park benefits everyone who visits it and should be fully funded by the gla and their partners this is dividing our communities with financial contributions especially in a time where people are squeezed already by unfair costs from east london energy a monopoly on residents energy costs and further costs coming from service charges in the area too february 2023 saw the labor deputy mayor of london published a review on the fixed estate charge counselors those elected by the residents to represent them were prevented from contributing despite acknowledging that the rate was a financial burden to residents and it was not set up in an equitable way the recommendations will do nothing at all to address this unfairness the olympic legacy must be for all but this charge directly stands in the way of that goal now chop manor residents association has launched a campaign to reform the fixed estate charge asking initially that the indents index linking be scrapped additionally the security in the park this charge pays for does nothing to keep the residents who pay for it safe from the thieves that the olympic development is attracted to their communities in east village and glasshouse gardens who do not pay the charge they have their own security only those who pay the charge are left with this without the security that they pay for therefore it is unreasonable that the aldc's olympic legacy the great estate with its large acreage and multiple commercial entertainment and creative venues is considered part of the grounds of a cluster of peripheral residential areas it is unreasonable for small geographical neighboring communities to pay for the maintenance of a regional and national estate with venues so clearly designed built and advertised for london-wide and national and international purposes and lastly it is unreasonable that the lldc can change who pays the charge social housing were charged for some years and they're not with no refund forthcoming which is also unreasonable and no clarity and transparency as to whether social housing landlords now pay the charge on behalf of their tenants these charges are unjust and unreasonable let's stand up for our residents and ensure the right action is taken here thank you councilor jenny councilor nate takings you're seconding you have up to three minutes thanks chair um i want to start by acknowledging the work the trouble manner residents association has done campaigning on the fixer state charge there's representatives of the association in the public gallery and we're here representing them today and they've done some amazing work so i just want to thank them as has been laid out in great detail by my colleague the fixer state charge is deeply unfair and isn't contributing to undermining the founding belief of the communities we represent that the olympic legacy must be for all the park exists to benefit all and the vast majority of people who use it will not be payers of the charge at the mayor of london election i listened to residents and worked with green candidate for mayor of london zoe garbett and green candidate for city and east joe hudson small to ensure our manifesto committed to a reform of the fixer state charge including the actions outlined in this motion as green councillors we committed at our election to listening to residents and bringing what they say what they have to say to this room that's what we've done in our motion i'd like to use the rest of my time as time is short to address labor's amendment let's start with where labor agrees with us that there is an exploration of funding the olympic park through a london-wide precept and that we must find alternatives that is only fair the park benefits all the only sustainable thing to do is for all to pay that's positive that there is consensus in this room around this and i look forward to working with scrutiny to make that happen if this motion passes we must make the mayor of london listen to residents but labor's amendment significantly weakens the action we are calling for they reject the notion that the fix the state charge contributes to the olympic park an unaffordable place to live they don't understand the reality of the people we represent incredibly they also reject our calls for the rpi inflation indexing of the charge to be ended that contradicts their own submission to the mayor of london's fix the state charge review where they said even the office of national statistics has stopped using rpi as the measure to link increases owing to its unreliability in measuring general inflation the council also agreed that the fix the state charge is too high but labor are rejecting our calls on behalf of the residents association to take immediate action to reduce these charges back to 2014-2015 levels the council acknowledged that the uh fix the state charges are a significant economic burden on local residents but with this amendment labor are gutting immediate action to address this worryingly most worryingly of all they also remove all of our calls for the mayor of london to use her influence on the mayor of newham to use her influence on the board of the lldc which levies the charge to take action to reform the fix the state charge why should we tie our hands behind our back in fighting for our residents without actions to back this up this is just words greens will vote against this amendment to ensure the motion calls for immediate and strong action and we call for all councillors to do the same thank you thank you thank you councillor nate haggins please note we have received an amendment to this motion which is outlined on the supplementary agenda i call on councillor sabia kamali please please present your amendments you have up to three minutes thank you chair um councillor sabia kamali stratford ward moving the amendments um i'd like to address the green party's motion on fixed estate charges let me be clear from the outset we in the labour party oppose fec in this current form because we recognize it places an unfair financial burden on our residents you can see this by actually reading the submission the council made to the lldc inquiry which can be seen on the link on the order paper however simply rejecting with provide without providing a practical and sustainable solution is not the answer that is why we have provided alternative solution as amendments put forward by myself and councillor john gray solutions that genuinely serve the best interest of our community not just soundbites the fec was introduced to fund the upcoming of public spaces shared facility and green areas in the queen elizabeth olympic park while the park is great asset the current funding model has been viewed unfair and many residents have raised valid concerns about the structure lack of transparency and affordability we must acknowledge these issues and take meaningful actions through the conversation with residents we've heard the following concern the cost of charge which are unaffordable for many practical low-income households the lack of transparency around how charges are calculated and spent a belief that maintaining public space should be funded through border public investment not by charging local residents directly these concerns are real and must be addressed with tangible solution the green party's motion well as best as is well intended is flawed in several ways simply rejecting the fec without offering a viable funding alternative risk creating a substantial financial gap this could result in the neglect of public space or a shift in the financial burden to resident by higher council tax are the green proposing that all london has covered these costs if so what does this mean in increasing council tax how will that be fair the motion offers no answer to these questions our labor mayor has been engaging proactively with the lldc to address these challenges and to push for a fairer funding model the green motion disregards the ongoing work and could hinder the progress we've made in working together with the lldc and other stakeholders our amendment offers real solution not just empty rhetorics unlikely the green motion which suggests fake ideas with no clear funding model labor is proposing concrete action that balances the need of residents with the need of sustainable funding we already working with the lldc on other stakeholders to achieve these reforms and we believe these approach will create lasting positive changes we stand with the residents in opposing the current structure of the fec we also oppose a green motion because it fails to provide a workable plan labor's amendment granted in fairness transparency and sustainability are the best path forward to protect our residents while securing the future for queen Elizabeth park i urge my fellow councilor to reject the green motion and support labor's amendment which offer practical resident focused solution together thank you that our community deserve thank you thank you councilor john gray as i understand you'll be um seconding this motion so you have up to three minutes yeah thank you uh chair uh council john gray westland ward uh second in this motion and yes i would like to echo uh the comments before thanking the residents for pushing this but also i would advise everybody to actually look at the newham submission the newham council submission to the ldcc about the charges and let's so again a number of really really uh stretching demands that have not yet been met but we are there and also what i am concerned about um the motion uh from the from the green uh party is there's no mention as newmas put in that the lion's share of the cost of running that park surely must be met by the businesses that have chosen to locate themselves within the park these these are not sort of a you know uh to one man and his dog businesses these are big international rich companies who have decided to locate themselves in the park and we feel that they should be the ones who pay the lion's share but look we are in a funding crisis not only in newham but in london and nationally this was a conservative mayor boris johnson who brought this charge in it is a conservative government which has wrecked our economy and our public finances for the previous 14 years what we cannot do any commitments until we know how we're going to pay for it our section 151 officer has told all councillors that we are facing possible bankruptcy we are facing that we will run out of money to do anything that we are not obliged to do by law and even then by the lawful services we've had to provide we're going to have trouble getting them so listen read what we've submitted work with us to come around and get a more honest and equitable funding regime but just don't play silly games thank you thank you council john gray um councilor danny killing as the move of the original motion do you accept the amendment we now move to the debate on the amendment members you have up to three minutes of each chair can i say that we move straight to the vote oh i think i was too late councillor medlin i call on councillors and comrades to support this motion from sorry the amendments on the motion from my colleagues councillor john gray and um councillor sabia with regards to the olympic park 70 of the visitors to the park are from the local boroughs and from local businesses the businesses pay nothing at the moment we have large cultural institutions at the moment i may be wrong in that i may be wrong in that and i would be grateful if you just text me what i've got wrong there many of the businesses don't pay a lot of money towards the use of the park let me get that right my apologies whilst 70 percent of the low of people in the local area do use the are the users of the park they're not helping to pay towards the park it's a small minority who are actually being asked to pay the fec those people don't actually all of them sorry not all of the people who live in e20 or in and around the park actually in the legacy area are even being asked to pay for the park which it seems to be unfair as per the new and submission in 19 in 2022 we do ask for a look at the way in which this is being calculated and the area both geographic and in terms of the diversity of the people being asked to help to fund this it's unfair and it's inappropriate at the moment and we ask you to support the amendment thank you does any other members wish to speak may i um ask that we move to the vote on the amendment um counselor nate haggins i've already said my prepared remarks but i just want to respond to a few specific things that have been said the first is i yes the conservative mayor boris johnson brought in the fix the state charge but siddiq khan's been in for quite a while now he's had time under varying level uh economic circumstances to bring in funding if he wished to make changes to the fix the state charge he had the opportunity during the review and he hasn't so i i think at this point you really just have to own it the fix the state charge is labor party policy um and in terms of action on um businesses paying the fix the state charge yes it's not in our motion because the green party london assembly member shawn berry has already been or then london assembly member shawn berry was already working on highlighting the inequalities around business payments of the fixed estate charge um and then another counselor says that you know that their amendment is about action our amendments about words i i truly don't see how that could be the case it's the opposite the amendment is taking out much of the action that this motion calls for and then inserts a bunch of words without explicitly saying who's going to do it or how it's going to get done and then i guess finally i i just want to say i have i actually do have a huge amount of respect for for council sabia kamali and the work that she does for for the people that she represents it's so some of that is truly the best of what we've seen from counselors but we heard similar about um when when counselor merza and myself brought um calls for stratford market village to be funded by the council that you know it's you you have to come with the detailed detailed plan or otherwise it's not possible um and then it happened and i guess what i'd say is this is calling for it the the park doesn't fund newham the park the park charge funds the lldc we're calling for the council to use its convening role and its lobbying role on behalf of residents to the lldc into the gla that doesn't cost newham a penny um and and it's frustrating to hear these what i think of as tory misinformation arguments around how public finances work to avoid action so as represents this isn't really about party politics as representatives of stratford olympic park the area with the most people who pay this charge we've been asked by our residents for this action so we brought it to this room to ask for it and fundamentally the labor party has said no and they're cutting a bunch of the things that we've asked for that doesn't have to be about party politics they didn't have to say that it doesn't cost them a penny to ask the lldc for these things but even that is too much to ask we're going to keep representing our residents and we call for for people to listen to the representatives of the residents most affected and vote against this amendment thank you councilor nate hagan um may i look son of fears can we take this to a vote um okay sorry i would just like some clarification i put my hand up three times this is the third time where i'm going to be asking if we can go straight to a vote i understood the first time i put my hand up because i missed councilor madeline pontin's hand fine the second time i put my hand up and it was deferred to a contribution on the amendment can we just have some clarity at the point at which someone says can we move straight to the vote what is meant to happen and can we just have some diligence to follow in council procedural rules as appropriate so when the question be put then it's to be put but i heard you say oh i'll leave it now councilor pontin so yeah so that was the first one the second one i love it okay so can i can i please put the amendment to a vote yeah um i think there's been a bit confusion because as soon as you raise your hand councilor madeline um wanted to debate and she came forward and therefore i have given opportunity to uh councilor nate hagan's and now i'm in the position to uh ask the members uh who wishing to uh put questions uh all those in favor to raise their hands to go for straight to the vote so please uh all those in favor please raise your hands on the amendment no first it is first it's voting on the question be put neat that's the vote on that now it will go to amendment so i'm going to ask again can i call up members to vote for the questions to put on please raise your hands thank you all those against please raise your hands uh any abstention one thank you so therefore i can uh the mover the motion has finally right of the reply and so check can point of origin the people the members wish to vote on the straight to the amendments can you raise your hands please amendments yes it's already got amended so members are voting on the amendments please raise your hand thank you i want to move a procedure can i finish this part please all those in um against please raise your hands i've got four there uh any abstentions none thank you sir can i move a procedural motion please point of order chair can we just move straight to the substantive vote as amended please yeah we have to go straight to the substantive thank you sorry you want to yes that's the green group that's fine we'll do that so we're going to go to the vote of on origin um on original motions people all members guillotine is about to fall can we just take a substantive motion as amended to a vote please no that's we've done that we've done that if everybody's speaking together i don't think so i can is allow me to chair the meeting appropriately because we just voted on amendments and you have agreed to approve the amendment now we'll be voting on the original motion that been proposed by the council jenny killings as amendment as amendment yes so members who all in these favors please raise your hands as amended we have i have repeatedly said that as amen and those and thank you and all those are against please raise your hands thank you any abstentions none thank you this motion is carried yes yet members i did not declare the meeting has been closed yet so please pay some respect thank you as this is our last meeting before christmas i would like to wish you all a happy christmas and the wonderful festive season with your loved ones and good wishes for the new year i hope that you enjoy the rest of the evening i declare now the meeting has been closed thank you everyone for attending