Transcript

Can I please take this opportunity to thank Rashid for walking me in this evening for the first time? Thank you very much. Okay, so let's get to it. Item one, the minutes. Can I ask that we sign the minutes of the previous meeting? Yes. Excellent. And item two, declarations of interest. Are there any declarations, are there any interest to declare? No. Wow. Marvellous. Okay, so item three are my mayoral announcements. Sorry. Apologies. We've received apologies from councillors Kandaka, Nargan, Ball, Ostermere, McMurdy, Gallagher and Kaye this evening. So the order of business, which is item two under item three, if you know what I mean, is as per the agenda. Number three is declaration of discussion items, and I can confirm that no items have been declared. So, I would like to make my announcements this evening. And, yeah, just want to say good evening once again. And before I update you on my activity in recent months, I would like to let members know the sad news that a former councillor, Dave Yorris, passed away last week. He was a councillor for Holloway Ward from 1982 until 1991, and during that time he had been the chair of the finance committee and the pensions fund. And I am sure that for all of us, I speak for all of us, when I say that our thoughts are with Dave's family and loved ones at this time. And I would like to invite you to share in a moment's silence for reflection on his passing. Following our last full council meeting in December, I continued to share in the festive cheer, and particularly enjoyed attending the Streets Kitchen Lunch in the Assembly Hall on Christmas Day, and the Hanukkah Menorah Lighting at Islington Green on Boxing Day. And many thanks to the organisers and the volunteers for making these important community events possible. More recently, I've had a great time attending festivities for the Lunar New Year at Islington Chinese Association, and Benji Park Mosque's 20th Anniversary Celebration. Last week, I attended a reception to welcome Palestinian women from Abu Dish in the West Bank, and was pleased to host them in the parlour to hear more about their experiences and their work with the Abu Dish Friendship Association. I found that one of the greatest joys, to be honest, of my term has been to visit organisations that play such an important part in supporting Islington's diverse communities, and it's always such a pleasure to speak to other guests at these events. I might have been known to dance once or twice, sometimes and rap. Anyway, you can't really stop me. Oh yes, last week I made my very own TikTok debut with DJ AG online, the Black Cultural Centre, to celebrate Caribbean's new residency. It's also been a real honour for me and the Deputy Mayor to take part in events held by the Council to mark important national and international dates. I attended the launch of the South Asian LGBTQ Heritage Project at the Islington Museum, which coincided with the start of LGBTQ Plus History Month. The event, it explored the rich history of South Asian LGBTQ activism here in Islington through the lens of Club Carly, and was just such a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the progress that's been made over the last 30 years. I felt really, really emotional, really proud and really inspired that we are members of such a brilliant, brilliant borough. Anyway, I'm going slightly off script, but you know. In January also, the Deputy Mayor participated in the Borough's very moving Holocaust Memorial Day event and the theme this year was for a better future, which, you know, is something we all want, right? Anyway, I'd like to give special thanks to the musicians who performed and contributed their personal experiences to the commemoration, which was an important opportunity for people to come together, learn both from and about the past, and to take actions to make a better future for us all. And events like all of these highlight that each of us have a role to play in building a better, more equal future. Therefore, I'm really, really looking forward to seeing all of you at the Ben, Civic and Ben Kinsella Awards next month, where we'll come together to celebrate the contribution of some wonderful individuals and organisations who have contributed so much to life in Islington. And I'm also just going to quickly take your pieces to welcome our youth council here. Yeah, if we're looking for inspiration, look that way. I'm also looking forward to marking International Women's Day. I've already attended celebrations organised by the Finsons Park Trust and the Kurdish and Middle Eastern Women's Organisation and have further events in my diary in the coming weeks to mark this important day. One thing that hasn't changed, though, since December is that Liverpool, have I mentioned that we're still properly? If it makes the Arsenal fans in the chamber feel better, rest assured, next year's mayor probably won't be providing such regular updates on his team's fortunes. Just saying. I can't know where he is, actually. I can't see him. In all seriousness, as I've been thinking about the time I've spent in recent months, the theme is clear. Islington really does stand for us all, whether it's DJ Ritu helping young gay South Asian people express themselves, or the atrocities of Finsbury Park Mosque standing up against hate, or Street's Kitchen welcoming everyone to their Christmas dinner in the Assembly Hall next door. But, you know, we always stand up for what is right. And in these troubled times, I couldn't be proud of the community where I serve and where I live. These are the people who make us what we are, a community where everyone is welcome. And finally, I just want to give a big thank you to our Corporate Director of Communities and Strategy and Change, Raj Chand and Dave Hodgkinson, the Corporate Director of Resources, will both be leading the Council this spring. Dave and his team have worked exceptionally hard to balance our budget through these difficult financial times, and we wish him and Raj all the best for their future endeavours. Also, a warm hello to Minty, who is a shadowing counsellor, Zammet, alongside her studies. We wish you really good luck in your upcoming exams. All these young people. God, I feel a bit old. Anyway, right. Item five, length of speeches. Could I remind everyone to take note of the timer and stay within the permitted length for speeches. Please, could I remind everyone to use their microphones and to speak into them clearly and turn them off again once you have finished. Before the start of business this evening, I would like to remind everyone of the public sector equality duty. The equality duty requires the Council to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation. I'm actually overheating, so I'm going to take my hat off. Sorry. Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. Foster good relationships between people who have a protected characteristic and those who do not, including tackling prejudice and promoting understanding. And the protected characteristics are age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership, race, religion or belief, gender and sexual orientation. And finally, a reminder that this evening, this meeting is being webcast and live on the Council website. Woo! Thank you. So, we will now move to the leaders' announcements. Sorry, you threw me with your woo-woo. Sorry. Good evening, everyone. It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to this Budget Council Weekend. As you know, I've even wrote a speech, which is unusual for me, so to get this right. As we set our budget for the coming year, I'm reminding you all of your incredible dedication and hard work to ensuring a balanced budget for our community. Your commitment to making Islington a better place for all its residents is truly commendable. Madam Mayor, as we present the 25-26 Budget, I want to say, while this administration has a lot to be proud of in these challenging times, While local authorities up and down the country are declaring themselves bankrupt, we have delivered a budget which reflects our unwavering commitment to creating a more equal borough. At the core of this budget is our five missions, which aims to continue to support the most vulnerable in our communities. We've ensured people can have a safe place to call home, including $200 million in boosting homelessness support and prevention over the next two years. We are supporting an inclusive, fair local economy by enabling delivering 1,000 apprenticeships and putting 5,000 people into work. We are creating a greener, healthier borough for all by continuing to invest in proven recycling and by planting 600 trees a year. We are committed to making Islington a child-friendly borough where young people can fulfil their potential and empowering people across the borough, providing the right support more quickly and more efficiently. I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone across this council who is engaged with the budget setting process, including colleagues on these benches and officers across all directorates. Your input and collaboration has been invaluable. As members, we have a legal duty. We will remember that you have a legal duty to pass a balanced budget. And I'm confident that this budget will serve our community well in the coming years. But I would just like to take this one-minute opportunity to thank my colleague, Councillor Ward, as this will be his last budget. He's going nowhere for B's. But he's really dedicated. It is not easy doing a budget in these times. So I just would like to give him a big round of applause. Thank you. I'm also very pleased to announce the continuation of our buyback schemes. This initiative has been instrumental in increasing the number of council homes that we buy, providing a safe and affordable housing for our residents, by repurposing properties that were previously sold under the Right to Buy scheme, which people know are very against Right to Buy. We are taking significant steps towards ending homelessness and ensuring that everyone in Islington has a safe place to call home. And I really want to thank Councillor Wolfe because he's continued pushing, pushing for more funds. So well done, Councillor Wolfe. Madam Wen, I know one of your great highlights this year was opening the BAT Cultural Centre. And I'd like to echo my delight on how successful it has been. Since its launch, the Centre has became a vibrant hub for learning, creativity and engagement of the community. With the first operators, Black History Studies, bringing over 900 visitors. So if you haven't been, please go. Last week, Madam Mayor and Councillor Chappan welcomed our second operator, Karen B. Eats, who will be in the space for the next three months offering weekly community canteens and spoken word nights. The model of rotating between different operators is providing to be highly effective, allowing us to offer a diverse range of programmes and services to celebrate and promote black history and culture. This approach is particularly fitting as we undergo our asset reviews, ensuring in future that all our resources are used to the most impactful way possible. And lastly, not least, I want to really congratulate, and I want a big cheer for this, our Children's Services Team, that they were judged outstanding by Ofsted Inspectors for the second time in a row, with inspectors finding children's experience are at the heart of the local authorities' thinking. Everyone in this chamber, give a big clap for Children's Services Team. We are one of only four London boroughs to hold the top rating under the current inspection framework for both Children's Services and Youth Justice Service. I'd like to put on my record, Children's Services, you are such a high-performing team, and this is what we want right across our council. Madam Mayor, despite the financial challenges we face as a council, there is so much to be proud of together. We are making Islington a better place for all its residents. Let's continue to work together with compassion and determination. We need to achieve our goals and get there for our residents. Thank you. I will now call on the Leader of the Opposition Group, Councillor Hammond-Ash, to respond. Thank you, Madam Mayor. For 14 years, Islington has been a punching bag for the Tories. They've mocked our borough, they've deprived us of funding and sent it to their mates in the shires, and we've suffered. 300 million worth of cuts, a 45% slashing of our spending power. Each and every one of us in this room will have a litany of stories that bring that story to life. The overcrowded family that's impossible to find a new home for, the child with special educational needs who is struggling to get support, the older person who can get neither sheltered accommodation nor the support they need at home. These are real people, not numbers on a ledger. I've been coming to this council chamber for over a decade. I've seen this council make devastating and difficult decisions, not of our own making. Throughout that time, our Labour colleagues have told us things would be better when we got a Labour government. Well, here we are, and things are worse. Another 10 million worth of cuts is an insult to every Labour voter who backed a vision for change. Scrapping the winter fuel allowance and keeping the two-child benefit cap too. A promise of poverty for old and young alike. Time after time, Rachel Reeves and team have made decisions that make things worse for this council, not better. Raising national insurance contributions and not fully covering the cost of councils is an outrage. It's robbing the poorest in this borough to feed the Westminster beast. Islant should not be having to send over 2 million more to the Treasury when we have to make almost 10 million worth of savings. That's the substantial figure. That covers the costs of the cuts of the charity grants, the review of youth services, the scaling back of the Christmas lights. And the evidence is, building, that things won't get better. That this Labour government is ideologically committed to austerity. Just this week, we heard that the increase in military spending will be paid for by slashing the international aid budget. Not by wealth taxes, but by taking support away from the world's most vulnerable. How long before Labour learns that you don't make the world safer by starving kids? But that's the ideology on display. And more is coming. We're being warmed up for more budget cuts. The Chancellor has ruled out borrowing or tax increases. Departments with unprotected budgets are being prepared for cuts of more than 1% a year. One such department? Local government. Without some fresh thinking, without some much-needed insight, Labour is committing itself to the same stagnant economy balanced on the backs of the poorest and most vulnerable that the Tories have delivered for 14 years. This has not changed. This budget is a dark evening for Islington. We will now move to Item 5, Petitions. We have received no new petitions this evening. So we will now move to Item 6, Petition Debate. The Council will now debate the petition presented by the previous meeting on public toilet provision. Before the Council's debate begins, please could I invite Cornelius McAfee to come forward and then introduce the petition again. Thank you. You have two minutes. Oh, I didn't know where you are. Oh, there you are. Hi, Cornelius. You have two minutes to introduce your petition. Good evening, Madam Mayor and all present. I'm Cornelius McAfee and I'm proud to represent Luz Frislington, a community organisation formed in October 2022 to address the broken and unhygienic toilet provision in our area. You may have seen the shocking photos from our many audits. Islington has long taken pride in its diversity and inclusivity. Poor provision ignores the needs of the vulnerable. Pregnant women, young families, the disabled, pensioners, and those like myself suffering the consequences of cancer. And prevents us from participating fully in the pleasures of urban life. The petition seeks to improve public toilet provision by engaging residents, developing a public toilet strategy, installing targeted town centre toilets, and enhancing street signage. Sadly, the decision-making process has been completely top-down. A public toilet strategy was only recently presented to us without prior resident involvement. Town centres like the Nags Head and Archway are underserved. This is a question of social equity. A community toilet scheme was rejected, despite success in 13 boroughs. Hard copy maps for those unable to use technology were similarly denied. All the redundant automated public toilets, APTs, have been removed and will be replaced by new APTs. APTs are prone to mechanical failure and antisocial behaviour unless properly maintained. We have one new APT and six holes in the ground. In the most recent audit, the borough has the same number of working public lavatories, three, as were operational in the first audit, two and a half years ago. Surely we can do better. Thank you for that, Cornelia. The Council will now begin the debate and we will allocate up to 15 minutes for this. I understand the motion to debate the petition will be moved by Councillor Chapman. Councillor Chapman, please have you moved the motion to start the debate. Thank you very much, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Cornelia. Thank you to the Lose Business in Campaign and to Age UK who supported them in bringing this petition tonight. Cornelia, you and I and some of your colleagues had what I felt was a very productive meeting a few weeks ago. I made clear to you then, and I'll reiterate it here in the Chamber, that this Labour Council absolutely recognises the importance of providing accessible public toilets. It's a public health issue, it's an equalities issue, and it's key to making sure that everyone can take full advantage of everything this Labour has to offer. So I think we are on the same page. Your petition is helpful in that it's got some very clear asks. The first one of which you alluded to is for us to publish a strategy. The strategy I shared with you a few weeks ago was a draft strategy, so part of my sharing that was the engagement and consultation you're looking for. We can carry on with that public engagement, and I'm hopeful that in the next few months we'll be able to publish our strategy. And that strategy has got three pillars. We're going to deliver it with investment in automated toilets, an investment in changing places, facilities, which I'll talk about, and an increased number of local businesses offering the free public use of their toilets. So I'm pleased to say we've got a budget of £1 million to replace seven automated public toilets, and I think that will mean that those will operate 24 hours a day across our borough, and we'll be able to have better data when they go out of service. I completely acknowledge that automated toilets in the past, they've gone out of service and that hasn't been addressed quickly enough. But I'm confident now that we've got better data coming in through this new provision that will enable us to make sure that doesn't happen. I'm particularly pleased that we've received grant funding, which we've decided to match to create three changing places toilets. So these are larger toilets which are accessible to disabled people. They have equipment in them such as hoists, curtains, and adult-sized changing benches along with spaces for carers. I'd also remind the Chamber that we've got staff toilets at Chapel Street Market and a pop-up urinal base in Cowfoss Street. We've also got, of course, all of our toilets that are available in our own sites, so that's our libraries, leisure centres, our offices, and community centres. They're not always open 24 hours, and I agree with the campaign that we can do a better job of signposting availability, and we'll continue to think about ways of doing that. You talked about paper, hard copy, printed maps. As I explained to all of you a couple of weeks ago, that would be an ongoing job of updating that information as it went out of date and toilets became available and then weren't available. So I think we need to think collectively and imaginatively about how we can get the message out there. We've got 15 toilets across our public parks, and we've also got partners like Arsenal who provide access to their toilets. Your petition also calls on us to use our influence as a council to get businesses, particularly across the town centres, to sign up. And I'm pleased to say we're absolutely doing that. At this moment, we're rolling out a business engagement campaign. We'll run through the spring with a specific aim of increasing provision of toilets by getting businesses to sign up for the Toilets for London app. In the first instance, we're engaging with our businesses that we already work with to provide safe havens or that are engaged with our town centre groups. But we will go wider than that. When we met, I talked about the challenges that there are there about getting business who have obviously got no obligation to provide public toilets. But we will want to have conversation with them, get them to understand that actually they want customers, they want people coming into the town centres, and if they can provide facilities, that will help. But look, we've got more to do around letting people know where they can find toilets. We've got more to do around making sure our automated toilets are constantly clean and constantly in a good state of repair and 24 hours a day accessible. It's an iterative process. We'll publish a strategy. We'll be getting data on these toilets. We'll continue to work with you and with other residents to improve things. Because our overriding mission as a Labour councillor, as you know, is to make Islington a more equal place. We absolutely recognise, we absolutely recognise that the provision of public toilets for all of our residents is central to that mission. So I'm grateful that you've come here tonight. I'm grateful that you came to see me in the town hall. You know that I've committed to continuing to engage with you constructively as we move through a draft strategy, publication of a strategy, and then implementation. So thank you very much for coming, and I look forward to an ongoing conversation with you. And would any other councillors like to speak? Councillor Burgess, please. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Councillor Chapman. I'm really, really pleased that progress has been made on this. Our members might remember about 18 months ago, I moved to motion in this chamber. It was 10 o'clock at night, so you might not remember all that clearly. And that was to make Islington working towards becoming an age-friendly borough. This was an initiative started by the World Health Organisation, which is an organisation that we still believe in, this side of the, what was it, the ocean. Yes, we do, don't we, yes. And as Cornelius has explained, having access for public toilets is really important, not just for old people who won't go out if there isn't anywhere available, but for people on certain medications, for pregnant people, and for children who always need conveniences at the most inconvenient time. So thank you for your work. Please keep up the speed on this. We need it all to happen as soon as possible. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Councillor Heather, please. Yeah, thank you, Madam Mayor. I just want to thank Luce Rizziton and I want to thank Councillor Chapman as well for a quick response to this. When I was the Mayor, before you, Madam Mayor, I was lobbied by Luce Rizziton at a community meeting at the Winter Park. And I said then, and I've always been working on this anyway, one of the things I want to address is that I'm a councillor in Finsbury Park Ward and we have the Nags Head Town Centre in that and we also have the Finsbury Park Town Centre. In terms of the Nags Head, one of the clauses in here is really right because there's a lot more that business can do. So, for example, we campaigned for years for a public toilet facility in the Morrison site there. And Morrison's eventually opened a brew cafe and there were two beautiful toilets in there. But because of Morrison's, you know, edit, national, not even national edit, they closed all those down and that meant that the toilets were quite out of use as well. But what I've always done is that within the town centres, I've always encouraged businesses to let people use their toilets and there's a lot of that. The trouble is, is that it's not always known. So, for example, at the Nags Head Selby's, you can go and use their toilets. The other one that we've campaigned on, Finsbury Park Walkhouse, it's not just me, the three of us, is about McDonald's. McDonald's in Seven Sisters Road. Not only can anyone use their toilets, but we actually got it in the licence review that they would allow delivery drivers to use the welfare facilities as well. So, you can be assured you've got my total support on this to do this and I know that the rest of the, I'm assuming the rest of the council will support as well. We do need to, we do need this. It requires some infrastructure, but it requires a lot of information and communications as well to actually say to people, you can use these toilets. And the other thing about that is, is that it's good that what it does, because what it can do is it can actually enlighten these businesses to let people use their looser, they will use their custom there as well. So, please support this meeting. Councillor Russell, please. Thank you, Madam Mayor. And thank you to Luz for Islington for coming here this evening and for all the work you've done over such a long period of time to raise the importance of this issue of the lack of public toilets. It's an issue for older people, it's an issue for disabled people, it's an issue for workers, for postal workers. Now all the post office sorting offices are being closed down and everyone's working out of the back of vans. It's an issue for people who are doing deliveries for Amazon and these other companies and obviously for the food delivery riders who are riding around our borough on their bikes delivering takeaway food to people. It is absolutely shocking that because of austerity, we have across the country got into a situation where we don't even know how many public toilets have been lost. And it is really welcome that Councillor Chapman is talking about a strategy that we're getting. I mean, the automated toilets are kind of, you know, they're better than nothing. They're not as good as a proper public toilet that you can just walk into, but I get, you know, why you've done it. But it is really, really important that we keep pushing, A, to engage with residents, listen to where people think we need toilets, think about where we can do better, think creatively about opening up council buildings, making sure that people know where the toilets that are free to use are. Because the number of conversations I've had with people who can't afford to walk into a cafe and ask to use their toilet because they're worried they might be asked to pay for a cup of tea and they can't afford it. If you're homeless in our borough, then finding somewhere to be able to go to the toilet can be really difficult and challenging. So I think everything that we can possibly do to make this situation better and to improve the number of toilets that we have is absolutely critical. And I think these, you know, the fact that groups of older volunteers are going around our borough, auditing the toilets, trying to raise this to our attention is a real alarm bell. We really ought to be able to do this much better. And so I hope that the new strategy works really well. I hope there is really good engagement, not just with older Islington residents, but also with parents, with, you know, all the different categories and groups of people, disabled Islington residents. You know, let's reach out to all the different groups we can to make sure that we are doing as best as we possibly can for everybody. But most of all, thanks to Age UK Islington and the toilet campaign. Councillor Chapman, you have a right to reply. Thanks. Look, I'll be brief because I think we're in danger of just vigorously agreeing with each other here. Thank you all for your constructive comments. We will continue the dialogue and I will make sure that I do go out to as many people as I possibly can to continue this conversation. I do hear the concerns about automated toilets. I think we're in a better place with the seven that we're going to have. We will keep, you know, we will keep on top of it and I would like, you know, we're not a massively, geographically, we're not an enormous borough. I think that we can have a situation where we've got automated toilets, some manned toilets, toilets in our community centres, in some of our anchor institutions, in our municipal buildings, in the town hall and libraries and that there'll be a network of clean, accessible, including changing places toilets, which is very important, spread throughout this borough. And for those of you who don't know about it, go on the Toilets for London app. It's really excellent. It's current information. I know that not everyone has got a smartphone and that's why we will continue to think creatively about how to make sure that everyone knows where they can access a clean toilet at any time. Thank you. APPLAUSE Cancillors, please could we formally note the petition and the points raised in the debate? Thank you. For the members of the public who attended to observe the petition debate, I thought you might like to know that you do not have to remain in the chamber for the rest of the evening if you don't so wish and are welcome to leave at this point if you wish to do so. OK, so I am now moving to item seven, which is questions from the members of the Youth Council. I'd like to warmly welcome you again this evening. Up to 20 minutes is allowed for Youth Council questions. When I call your name, please read your question. The executive member will then answer the question for you. As per Part 4, Procedure Rule 19.3 of the Constitution, as this is a Budget Council meeting, no supplemental questions are allowed this evening. Thank you. So, the first question is question A from Deputy Young Mayor Thomas Brown to Councillor Champion. Executive Member for Environment, Air Quality and Transport. Thomas, please would you like to answer your question? Ask your question, not answer it. Ask it, sorry. We want young people to enjoy green space and get involved in activities such as tree planting days. What plans does the Council have to make isn't in a greener, safer, healthier place and specifically involve local residents and young people? Thank you very much and thank you, for your interest actually. I mean, I know and I'm very clear from conversations with children and young people across the borough how important green space and nature more generally is to them and if I ever do forget, my colleague and the Executive Member for Children, Young Persons and Families will constantly remind me. In a borough like Islington where many people, children, young people don't have their own gardens, it's so important that we're given the opportunity not just to be in green space, not just to walk through, play as well but also to get involved I think as you say and we try and do that from a fairly young age so we work with organisations such as Gladden Classroom, Octopus and the Ecology Centre which is up in Highbury who alongside our own green space teams are passionate about supporting children and young people to get involved and it is really important, I remember a conversation with a member of the Garden Classroom team who said that actually when they start working with some of the younger children it sometimes can take them up to 30 minutes to want to be able to touch the soil because it's not something they naturally do but actually when they do they're really excited about what they find within it and I remember someone coming running up and showing me bugs and things and I also remember a conversation with a friend's group who were working with children on food growing and they were saying that for some of those children actually eating food from the ground is a kind of peculiar idea so I think you're absolutely right that getting involved and getting involved is really, really important I think the other one of the things I'm probably most pleased about is the way the Council's White Spark teams use green space to work with the children and the families that they support and from a very early age then children become used to the green space and become part of it In relation to tree planting I know very important to many people we do already work with schools to go there and do some tree planting but also then they will help maintain by watering and sort of keeping them alive and that's very, very early days but we've also started working with schools to make the areas around the school gates more attractive and greener giving children the opportunity young people the opportunity to help design spaces and also to look after them if they want to and I know in my conversations with the children of Robert Blair School that this gives them a real feeling of pride and ownership In relation to residents more generally we do an awful lot green spaces very, very community focused so really encouraging and enabling people to look after local spaces and whether that's on the states or local parks and not only does that make it more attractive it also creates a great sense of community which really benefits people for wider than just the immediate I think also we're just trying to start building on that model to try and bring that out into the streets so if it isn't to green these together projects where people can say ask for greening within their streets and the understanding that they look after them thriving neighbourhoods programme on the estates where we do the same thing so I absolutely agree with you I think we've got many many opportunities to get involved if you have any ideas please let us know because we always want to do more thank you thank you councillor champion the next question is question B from member of the UK youth parliament Derek Coy to councillors Saffi in Longo executive member for children young people and families Derek would you like to ask a question for you our aim is to work with councillors officers and senior managers police and community organisations to try to reduce crime and ban to Islington what local initiatives can the young people of Islington look forward to during 2025 which will improve our youth safety throughout the world thank you very much Derek nice to meet you again I know youth safety was one of your top manifestos during your campaign as I promised you to say improving the youth safety across our borough is the most priority for this council and also the partnership we are working with yes I know we are working very hard and we managed to reduce the number of young people entering the youth justice system we also reduced the number of young people getting involved in knife crime and also youth violence as I promised you during your campaign to say 2025 we are going to launch a huge engagement because we need to think about our next strategy and we need to hear the voice of our young people as many as possible voice of parents and carers voice of teachers and ed teachers and also voice of elected members it will be a huge campaign because we need to make sure and to check what is working what is not working where is the gap and what we can do differently and as I promised you guys this is your strategy meaning we are going to work side by side you are the one you are going to be on front of leading these engagements because we are going to do it in different form as young people previously approached me they need a group section with the police and with different partners to discuss what we want to see across by reducing youth crime that is going to be part of engagement we are going to have engagement online we are going to have face to face we are going to have the voice of parent champion we are going to have the voice of VCF organization who are going to lead that engagement piece with you young people because we want to make sure for the next step we are going we need to carry on and reduce really the crime and what our young people are getting came for your safety can face we care about you and we want to make sure when you are moving across Eglinton Borough you feel safe we are in a mission together and together we can do better I'm going to have another meeting with you guys to have a proper plan ease your approach and we are going to follow your steps thank you very much thank you councillor happy and gonga and thank you it's much appreciated and the next question is from our member of London Youth Assembly Ryden O'Brien Kingston councillor Williamson executive member for health and social care Ryden please would you ask your question our aim is to improve mental health for young people and reduce the stigma around poor mental health what are the main objectives to improve health and wellbeing services for young people in Islington during 2025 will you respond you have three minutes well thanks very much well first of all congratulations I think you know that's very much in order democracy only thrives when really good hard working honest people are prepared to stand for election and to stand up for their constitution so congratulations for doing that at such a long end now to answer your question you've asked a question about health and wellbeing but look at the first bit your first statement in your question I've been termed as being what are the key objectives for children and young people's mental health and wellbeing rather than the whole health and wellbeing so the council has kind of got two key priorities at the moment with regards to children and young people's mental health they are to make it easier to find out where you get the help you need from and the second one is around early intervention and prevention now with knowing where to go we are working with the NHS to try and create one easy front door so that any young person who needs help with their mental health and wellbeing knows where to go but also as part of that working with GPs and other health professionals so they also know where to send children and young people and they know what support and help is available the second priority this council has really prided itself on early intervention and prevention and that includes in the mental health of our children and young people in the borough there's a couple of different ways that we do this I'm just going to pull out a few examples this is not exhaustive I've got reams of pages of lots of like stats but I won't go into that we don't have time so there's sort of two ways that we do a bit of early intervention broadly one of them may be targeting specific groups where we know there's a particular issue so for example we've got an initiative around supporting black young men and their mental health because we know that there's a high prevalence of poor mental health around young black men and boys and so we've got quite a lot of initiatives particularly targeting in schools around mentors and additional counselling the other ways that we do a lot of early intervention prevention is about upskilling staff and professionals that work with children and young people so for example we are rolling out the I always forget the exact name of it the Islington Trauma-Informed Practice for School Service now this provides schools and teachers with the understanding that children who've had adverse childhoods will often have developmental needs and behavioural needs and that the teachers need to respond to those in a really trauma-informed way to get the best behaviour and the best out for that young person another example is we've got funding from the NHS I believe last year and we're starting to expand out even further the school's wellbeing service now this supports schools and the teachers and staff working in schools so that they have the schools that they need to help young people who have mild to moderate health needs as I said this isn't exhaustive but that's just some examples of how practically the council supports early intervention for ensuring mental health and young people so thank you thank you councillor Williamson and thank you Biden that was very good to hear that question now our next question is from the young mayor Jimmy Joseph to councillor Halloran leader of the council Jimmy please would you ask your question following the youth council election in which 5,000 young people voted we have recently completed an eight week introduction aimed at giving us the knowledge and skills required for the role of elected youth councillors what advice hints and tips can the council leader provide us we recognise a long service and experience in public office well first of all I'm a bit jealous with the 5,000 votes so well done you I would like to I mean I could talk about first of all as well I'd like to invite you all to come and talk to me about your induction and what you felt about it was there things you'd like to do I'd like to hear feedback I think public service is all about listening being kind and just giving there's a you know I don't see in the world the people a bit nicer and listening you can work together with everybody this borough is not like every other borough and I talk to London councils they say you really do in Islington people do look out for each other when there's horrible attacks on a borough we stand united it doesn't matter what colour what race there's a bit of a fargo with your opposition and everything else but that's just politics but genuinely if you're here to serve and if you're here you've been elected to the voice of your young people I think you owe it to them to listen what are the issues and really then fight for it you have to you don't always get everything you want there's a lot of compromise you will find but I really think it's a great start it's very hard to put yourself forward it takes a lot of courage to just put yourself forward I didn't go into being a councillor I've always been in the community serving and I thought I'll just do this for one time but it gets into you and you just think I want to make a difference how do I do it so I'd love to sit with you all and talk and give you some hints and things but I won't all night because Madam Mayor will stop the clock and she's very strict but well done I would say well done but if I would say get try and work together it's really important to work together ask if you don't know something listen there's a lot of experience cancers everywhere talk to people but you you are the future we're all going to be dinosaurs you are the future and you know we need your voice like Councillor of Congo said we're not doing anything without hearing the children's voice when we when I said in my speech about empowering our mission now is to empower people to to work with us you know we want people to take care of themselves we will help you but your voice is important your needs are important so let's work together thank you for that Councillor O'Halloran and thank you Jimmy for your question okay so now I'm leading on to item eight questions from members of the public up to 30 minutes are allowed public questions and questions are available in the agenda papers as is as our budget council meeting our procedure rules do not allow questions without notice this evening as I mentioned earlier as per procedure rule 19.3 of the constitution no supplementary questions are allowed for public and councillor questions at the budget council meeting therefore there is no requirement for questioners to come to the microphone please remain seated the first question is question a Raphael Swinerton to councillor champion executive member for environment air quality and transport councillor champion please will you respond you have three minutes I was told that it's Rachel Swinerton and yeah I don't think anybody's here this evening I'm not sure okay okay in which case there will be a written response to this question question is question B from Sheridan Cape to councillor Wolfe executive member for homes and neighbourhoods councillor Wolfe please will you respond you have three minutes thank you thank you for your very important question Sheridan to be really clear any evictions by theory have not been at the request of Islington council and we're very sorry to hear the residents of Carlton Road are being evicted we do not as a council support any evictions that are being conducted by the private landlord the Ori housing of Carlton Road and the council is providing support for all tenants who may be evicted the Ori are a national provider of temporary accommodation for homeless households as you know and are independent from Islington council going forward I want to offer this reassurance we will not be using any property as temporary accommodation at Carlton Road and we will liaise with other London councils on the sensitive nature of this matter locally Islington council have also liaised with the Ori housing and we will be asking that this private landlord be sensitive to the needs of each tenant if the Ori plan to evict any tenant due to rent arrears or any such issues they will be asked to advise us of any planned eviction work to enable us to prevent any homelessness from this landlord's property at Carlton Road all evictions by the Ori will be at the discretion of the courts and Islington council will be offering advice to residents impacted although we have no control over this independent private landlord we will ensure that they follow the legal framework if they evict any tenant from Carlton Road and we will work with all tenants at Carlton Road to ensure we prevent all households from becoming homeless so I want to thank you very much for this important question thank you council the next question is question C from Irene Zedler is Irene the best this evening I don't believe so in which case oh yes oh sorry Irene I didn't spot you this question this question for councillor Ward executive member for finance and performance madam mayor as chair of the pensions committee councillor Convery will take this question I did think that the script had been amended to say that but no problem sorry no it had I was just doing I missed it we're not that choreographed in this case Irene thank you very much indeed for this question in thanking you I was sitting on a paid tribute to a number of other people in the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in this Luton specifically Majid Shafiq Esme Waterfield and El Shade Tasfey with whom I've had over recent months some very purposeful engagement positive dialogue and challenge not surprisingly your question refers to 75 companies which are listed by AFSC which is the American Friends Service Committee which is a well renowned very distinguished Quaker organisation in the United States strictly speaking the PSC petition that we took at the last meeting referred to 22 companies identified by the AFSCs as being and I quote complicit in the war on Gaza now just over two years ago we did have holdings in seven of those 22 companies and as a result of several investment decisions taken since then five of those companies are no longer held and it's worth reiterating that pension fund itself does not directly own shares in any companies we own units in large pooled funds along with other investors our strategy is to choose funds that match our standing as a responsible institutional investor with investment beliefs and principles which we which stress high environmental social and government standards and compliance with human rights tomorrow we will be finally publishing a full disclosure full listing the pension funds corporate bonds and equities there are almost 2,000 of them both bonds and shareholdings worth almost 1.3 billion and it shows that we still do have two residual holdings in companies but no other companies on the list of 22 the first of them is called Valero Energy and on the 10th of March the pensions committee will be recommended a decision to softly change our actively managed global equities holding which is managed by World Bank of Canada through the London collective investment vehicle platform the purpose of that investment decision is to further improve the funds carbon footprint by moving into a very similar fund to the else of obviously sustainable global equities fund and as a indirect result of that investment decision Valero Energy will no longer be held on Palantir technologies this is a very controversial fund it sits in the legal general investment managers ESG Paris aligned selective index funds we recently consolidated all of our passive global equities into this fund at the time we were told by LGIM that Palantir wasn't in the funds and on that basis we made that investment decision it turns out that it was over the coming months there are a number of routes being explored to resolve this but whatever we do or however we do it it must be lawfully done but we have a determination to be as sound and ethically invested pension fund as we can thank you thank you Councillor Convery the next question is question D from Kaz Roy are you here this evening Kaz oh marvelous please come to the lecture and this question is for Councillor Champion executive member for environment air quality and transport Councillor Champion please will you read out the question and then response you have three minutes thank you very much for your question but also for work you do both I think it's isn't and recycling champion but also with the the past isn't and climate center whom I know council work as well there's a lot of bumping into you at then there's a lot of bumping into you at reuse events and repair cafes and actually just helping us staff the stalls at some of some of the festivals that we do one of the areas we are very keen to develop is working with community groups local residents and voluntary groups and of course schools and if we are to significantly reduce waste and increase reuse and recycling we read many many different voices coming into the conversation and you are one of those voices so thank you very much in answer to your specific question yes we have been allocated money from the EPRS to offset the costs we already incur in disposing of packaging so it is right that we use some of the money to offset the significant budget pressures we face but it is also an opportunity to use the funding to try and increase our increase our service to reduce our waste and increase our recycling rate and officers are working through the options at the moment as we have a new corporate director for the environment who starts next week he has many many years of experience in this area and it's only it's being right that he helped shape this so there's work going on and it will come forward in the meantime we will continue with the important work we're already doing which includes two million pounds investment to improve waste and recycling on the estates and we are starting to plan the rollout of food waste recycling above shops for April 2026 and that's the last category of properties without a food waste service we're also increasing our work with schools we've got a dedicated officer starting next week understand and we're also learning from the food waste trial we undertook last year which included quite a lot of door knocking and underpinning all of this is the development of the new data platforms which will help us to focus our resources better so in short i can't give you a precise answer now but i can reassure you that reducing waste increasing reuse and recycling is a real priority and the opportunity afforded by the EPRS funding is seen in that light ultimately though to really change the dial we need more national regulation to reduce the waste of source and we will be doing this doing what we can as possible from the waste authority and on our own right to work with the labour government to make that happen thank you councillor champion and thank you thank you for your question and we have right so our next question is question E from morag gilley is morag here marvelous and this is to councillor bell bradford executive member for inclusive economy development and jobs councillor bell bradford please can you respond you have three minutes You have three minutes. Thank you so much Madam Mayor. Thank you Maura. Tell me if I need to speak louder. I want to thank you for your question and I think it comes at a really important time. As you know, we're at a crossroads when it comes to development. Whilst we're building phase one development and they had planning agreed for the whole development as a whole through legislative changes to fire safety which I won't go through because you're all very well versed in it and we're both far and I have been in the scheme. They've had to come back to planning. I think it's important right now that we remain applying pressure on a large level like Peabody to commit to what they already committed to us once the planning to make sure we have 42% affordable housing on a site like Holloway Prison. Holloway Prison is a once in a generation site and we need to make sure that they deliver on the promises they already promised to us in the first round of planning. I also note in your question your thanks to Islington Homes for All and the role that community you played in securing that. I'd also like to thank the local councillors, the Labour local councillors in those wards and the neighbouring wards who I saw in the room being fierce with those developers making sure that they deliver them those promises and since then in further meetings have been holding them to account to make sure that they don't get away with not providing us with 42% homes and the bedroom spaces we lost as promised. The second part of your question asks if we can commit to 50% genuinely affordable council level target rents for all future private developments going forward. The short answer is we can't do this. The reason why is because our local plan commits us to a 15-35% split and as you know with the planning body being a quasi-judicial body we can't deny applications that meet our local plan policies otherwise we'll lose our appeal and if we lose enough of our appeal I think it's about 10% then the National Inspectorate makes the decisions for us. And it was the National Inspectorate that took out lots of our most radical policies from our last local plan and their views on social housing are far, far worse than the likes of Peabody. So it's cognizant and unasked that whilst we hold our private developments to account on a local plan an incredibly radical local plan I'd say the most radical in the country especially in London requiring 50% genuinely affordable housing we can't commit we can't commit to forcing people to provide 50% all affordable housing council rents because it's not part of our policy that we want it to be but the inspector wouldn't allow. But where developers don't meet our policies have further housing provision further housing provision especially of council rent housing is always our top priority. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Raquel Bradford. And the final question is question F from Bronagh Todd. Bronagh, are you here? Excellent. Please come down. And this question is to Councillor Ward Executive Members of Finance and Performance although I believe this question has been passed to Council of Convery as the Chair of the Pensions Committee. Thank you very much indeed Bronagh for your question. As with Irene's answer I'm afraid I'm reading out some words written down I prepared earlier because a degree of precision is needed here. As I said to answering Irene's question the pension fund doesn't own shares of companies we own units of pooled funds and you're asking very particularly about how we might design in future pooled funds. Roughly a half of our equities are in pooled funds managed presently by the London CIV the collective investment vehicle and present there are I believe 10 different funds that pool equities on the L-CIV platform all of which have been designed to meet the requirements of the CIV's customer boroughs. Each borough voluntarily buys into those pooled funds or not in some cases. And the seed investor model that you mentioned in your question is exactly how the CIV has until now designed and offered each pool to London boroughs. Now unfortunately this is going to change over the coming 12 months or so as a result of the government's drive to consolidate the local government pension scheme. The government is still reviewing consultation responses from LGPS administering authorities like ourselves but it is possible that for each asset class the government may specify maximum pooling in which every London fund might have to pool all its equities into one single passively managed fund and one single actively managed fund. I hope that isn't what's going to happen but that is where the direction of travel and the so-called mega funds might take us. London boroughs all have different individual investment strategies and in the reorganisation of the LGPS each borough will retain responsibility for its investment strategy. And this bumps up against the principle of having one mega fund for both active and passive. We have said to the government that the LCD needs to have some flexibility in designing the pools that we join and I can envision perhaps two or three funds which would cover the range of different investment beliefs and principles that some of the London boroughs have and we are already talking to a dozen other London boroughs who have investment strategies very similar to ours and therefore to try and design a pooled fund which will meet our high ethical and environmental expectations. And in preparation for this I intend to bring a report to the June meeting of the Pension Committee which will further review our investment criteria and will in particular review the fund's exposures to investments in conflict affected and human rights affected areas particularly where those companies may face operational reputational legal and financial risks. And the purpose of these reviews will be to further amend the investment strategy later in the year to help design the LSEV's pooled fund offering to match our high ethical standards. As a result of this I hope that Islington will continue to be a borough with the highest ethical investment standards that members of the funds contributors pensioners current employees and residents of this borough can have some pride in. Thank you Councillor Conway Thank you Bruna And that concludes our public questions for this evening. We will now move on to item 9 which is questions from members of the council. Up to 30 minutes has allowed for questions from councillors so please note that question and responses should not exceed three minutes and as explained earlier there will be no supplementary questions. So the first question question 8 is from Councillor Gonru to Councillor Safi Ngonba Executive Member for Children Young People and Families. Councillor Safi Ngonba please will you respond if you have three minutes. Thank you Madam Mayor thank you very much for your important question Presley I know really you care about our services especially on special needs children. Madam Mayor I want to put on the record as Executive Member for Children Young People and Families are going to for my commitment to make sure that neurodivest people are receiving every single help and support they need in the education and also are being encouraged to thrive because we have to make sure they are receiving every single help they need and we are meeting their needs. That is what I want to put in record as into my role as Executive Member Commitment. In line with the duration of travel locally and nationally more capital resources and support staff should be indeed be invested in the system especially for it to be putting in place in elementary school to support our children with autism ADHD and mental health because we know mental health is causing huge problems on our young people especially after COVID that means we need more resources nationally. Madame Reflection of that Glad Eglinton Council in 2022 this has been reflected into our same strategy and I'm pleased to say that the more resources we receive from the new government of 3.2 million pounds increase is helping us in higher needs block for us to support our young people as much as possible for one year academic year 2025 2026 and I'm pleased also to say the new government is going through consultation for them to reform the education system in general and SENS is on top of their priorities and that's why it will give a clear idea how to meet the current needs because across the scheme we are finding very challenging in case of high rights and complex needs of our children and young people I'm pleased to have a minister come to visit us in Eglinton to see I know we are not the best but we are doing much better than across other London boroughs that is what they wanted to learn from us and part of my commitment and my engagement to them is that we need more resources and also we need to empower our ministry schools how they can make sure they have skills to respond to the needs and the current needs to our children and they take it on board I think it will be a good idea for all of us to watch what the new government is going to bring because you can see really there is that kind of appetite to answer to this challenge they are having including your question you asked about how our people referral unit can work in schools to support our young people and school in general that also is on the agenda and what we are planning to do is to empower schools themselves to stand and to support their people I think we are expecting for a good thing now thank you Madam Thank you and thank you Rosalind for the question the next question is question D from Councillor Hayes to Councillor Ward have I missed one oh sorry I did how did I do that sorry anyway Councillor Convery next question is from Councillor Convery to Councillor Council Champion Executive Member for Environment Air Quality and Transport Council Champion please will you respond I'm sorry everybody you have three minutes thank you although we are trying to support a shift to the most sustainable forms of transport we absolutely know that for some people they will continue to need to rely on vehicles and actually for some people they will really want to rely on vehicles so supporting transition to electric vehicle is therefore very important we know that lack of charging facilities is a real barrier for people wanting to switch in relation to a question about what we're doing to meet the light of demand we do have an ambitious programme and we are among the highest ranked local authorities I'm going to read this bit because I got myself in a mess so the current supply of charge points in the borough we are easily meeting the minimum level of demand projected for 2028 and we do this apparently by checking something called the National EV Insight and Supports tool which assesses the demand for electric vehicles and helps inform decisions on where to delivery the charge infrastructure in the borough the NEVIS data also shows Islington is one of the highest ranked local authorities in the country for the distribution of charge point infrastructure where we ranked 6th and for supply of infrastructure compared to demand where we ranked 5th however we are taking any opportunity we can to bring in more funding along with four other boroughs we have recently secured a total grant of 4 million pounds to divide between us and this will also help us to accelerate our programme we are also working with TFL to deliver rapid charging facilities on the TFL road network so although we are doing a lot we also know that in order to try and meet demand and try to stimulate demand going further is important and we will continue to be ambitious and we will continue to take opportunities that we are presented with thanks for that answer and the next question is question C from Councillor Heather to Councillor Safi Ngongo Executive Member for Children and Young People Councillor Safi Ngongo please will you respond you have three minutes thank you thank you Gary for your question I know really you care about your local school in your own world I'd like just to let you know Hulspark was academised on the 1st of November 2024 that means last year and it's the bridge trust academy who's taking over the properties and according to the requirement under the academisation Act 2020 10 that means if a school becomes academy they have to take a land including the building including the plants and the equipment and the building the land and equipment is being they took it over for 125 years for lease that means it's for that amount of length according to the Act and so far because your second question it was about how the premises cost and when we evaluated last year that means last March full spark premises cost around 14.5 million pounds and also the council didn't incur any costs because the DfE themselves they gave one off grant to school to work the deficit that means in Clinton council we didn't enforce on any matter of that deficit because I know your question it was really to make sure in Clinton council deal if we pay the deficit from school not is the department of education themselves deal with it once again thank you for your support I know you are already there on front of helping your local parents and young people thank you again thank you councillor Heather thank you councillor Safin Dongo and so the next question this time is actually from councillor Hayes councillor Ward executive member finance and performance councillor Ward please would you respond and you have three minutes thank you so much for your question councillor Hayes and yes absolutely as if a decade of crippling cuts crippling austerity wasn't enough then Liz Trust crashed the economy we're on video she can sue me if she wants Liz Trust did crash the economy and that has a real world effect on people right across this borough the twin evils of inflation and interest rates have made crippling austerity so much worse for this council and this borough research from London council shows that in real terms the capital's boroughs have seen a 28% fall in funding per resident over the past 14 years and we now have a Labour government who has been left to clean up that national mess and that national disgrace Islington's budget protects front line services and gives much new support to those in need we have had to make hard choices and we have had to make savings elsewhere to protect front line services we have maintained support for adults and children services and we are so proud of our outstanding children services support for special educational needs and disabilities temporary accommodation and homelessness our Labour council will continue doing all it can to protect front line services to protect our residents in good times and bad thank you so much for your question thank you councillor walk and thank you councillor hayes for questions the next question is question e from councillor pandell to councillor weeks executive member for community safety councillor weeks please will you respond you have three minutes thank you Zika for your question I know as women and girls champion this means a lot to you the impact of Islington's war strategy 21-26 has involved significant financial investment to increase and improve warg services in the borough including 2,472 survivors were supported in 23-24 because of us doubling the number of survivors supported by specialist warg services it's also included funding a warg counselling service for survivors with specialists by and for provision in a number of languages which saw 138 survivors supported in 23-24 introducing new family support workers in Islington refuges seeing 92 children supported last year also establishing one of four clinical health pathways for survivors who have experienced non-fatal strangulation in the UK in 2024 Islington's IDBA services provide exceptional outcomes for survivors of warg just in 23-24 alone after completing the intervention 83% of survivors felt safer 89% of survivors felt more confident and reported improved self-esteem and 94% of survivors felt able to recognise abusive behaviour it's not withstanding that I accept that there is still more work to do to eradicate violence against women and girls and working together with you as women and girls champion police partners and neighbouring local authorities I believe we can continue to make positive change just yesterday I was in that event with 50 people all dedicated to doing some more in this area to eradicate this scourge and for me I even feel even more confident about the change that we can make because in the election manifesto the Labour party pledged to half Borg in a decade Jess Phillips the Minister for Safeguiding and Board understands the urgency and has it she said that she has a very firm commitment to this as well and after plus she was sorry I lost my word so okay I I'm sorry the Prime Minister has also said that she feels the pressure from him to get this work done once again thank you for your question thank you for your word thank you for your question it's so important this is amazing work that you guys are doing you have to keep championing next question is from Councillor Hyde for Councillor Safi Ngongo Executive Member for Children and Young People Councillor Safi Ngongo please will you respond you have three minutes yes madame thank you very much Sarah for your question yes indeed we are very happy for the outstanding result we received from Children's Services and also for our youth justice and I think also I am proud of myself for my leadership really to be honest with you thank you yeah Councillor I know your question you want to make sure we ready make sure we see this result and what I want to reassure you yes because when we are working to help our children our young people and families it's not just a bad off test it's every single day work we are doing this is a good testimony for the work we are doing and this place of inspection when they are coming they realize what we are doing is what really our families are expecting for us to keep on top of the game because we know the needs of our young people our families is changing regularly and very quick it's for us to make sure how are we meeting those changes as quick as possible and how are we making sure our system is working the voice of parents the voice of carers the voice of children and young people themselves matters is to work alongside with them especially through intervention early intervention matters to avoid any situation to be escalated by wrapping them with a good help and support at early age that is what we can see our system is working I want to assure you we're going to carry on with this good work because we love our children we love our children we love our young people we love our families we're going to do everything and our outstanding thank again for your question thank you very much for your answer councillor thank you councillor for the question so the next question is question G from councillor staff to councillor champion no not champion sorry chapman and executive member for equalities communities and inclusion councillor chapman please can you respond you have three minutes thank you madam thank you very much for this question so as you know this has really stepped forward to meet the refugee crisis and we've got one of the largest refugee settlement programmes here one of the largest homes for Ukraine programmes across London and what that means is we've really become a centre of excellence and actually we've become a centre of excellence nationally and I'm really proud of our and I'll just give a shout out here of our refugee and migrant service our no recourse to public funds and I can tell you that we are looked upon enviously while neighbours in London but across the country actually they've really made sure that we're a beacon of good practice and also not to just hold that work within their own service but to make sure that everyone whether they work in the housing department whether they work in children's services recognises that creating a culture of welcome is everyone's job and one way they've done this is by really excellent partnership working so they work with organisations like Health Prom the Union Chapel up the road the Islington Space Forum Muslim Wellcare House really in communities to understand where is the need amongst our refugee and migrant residents and how to meet it so that's what you've asked me is how are we going to make sure that this culture of welcome and the great work we're doing as the borough century continues so you'll know that we've got a three year welcome strategy 2027 to 2030 and we've got a couple of key commitments there around capacity building in our communities in our VCS organisations developing and sharing the knowledge that we're amassing and our partners are amassing communicating our mission and I'm very passionate about that and our successes and working in full collaboration with our communities but that's although well that's a strategy I want to just tell you some things about how that plays out in practice what can we look forward to so I'm pleased to say that this we've managed to get some central government money to build community cohesion we're going to be rolling out through our community centres six community cohesion events this spring and that's the purpose of those events is to build cohesion between new and existing communities which I think is very important we're moving forward with our work around schools of sanctuary and libraries of sanctuary in addition to being a borough sanctuary that's really important you've flagged the sanctuary grants program so we're going to start seeing the benefits of that because this year we'll be giving away 500 thousand funds through the scheme to community organisations that directly support refugees and migrants and crucially those funding decisions have been informed by the lived experience of members of the panel who have sought asylum we're developing the comms strategy I met with a guardian a couple of weeks ago to really shout about what we're doing and to let people know how they can contribute to the work we're grabbing all the government funding we possibly can to ensure that we're to enable us to buy homes that we can use for resettlement and I know you and I have done a lot of good work that I feel very proud of around influencing and I'm running out of time but influencing government policy around getting rid of the three days and you're out of our hostels once you've got your decision to remain and also pointing out the appalling conditions in one of those hostels that has led to the decision to close it which I'm very pleased about I'll just finish by saying this last year we know there was appalling racist Islamophobic violence in this country but we did not see it in Islington that's testament to the work that we do here that our officers our communities our residents and I know you and I and our colleagues are absolutely committed to carrying on that work thank you thank you for that Councillor Chapman and thank you for the question Councillor Staff and I mean I would like to just remind everybody that one of the tenets of my year is the culture of welcome to Islington because we are a welcoming borough and yeah everybody's welcome no one isn't anyway thank you very much and next question is question H from Councillor Yudorva Armstrong to Councillor Ward please will you respond you have three minutes thank you thanks for your question Councillor I can't answer it directly because we haven't got that information but to be blunt there are no properties in the private rental sector at LHA rates in Islington we know that from our own internal research with also big thanks to shelter and the borough investigative journalism the average private rent in Islington was 2260 in December 2024 nowhere near what should be nowhere near LHA rates that's where the work of John Wolfe and team in buying back X right to buy properties is so important and that continues at pace funded by our new Labour governments who are trying to repair the guests left by 14 years of Tory austerity average rent in December 2024 were 1995 for one bed 2488 for two beds 3 beds 2779 none of these are anywhere near local housing and LHA rates and Councillor Jacob Arsonson that's why we need your help because I remember quite a few dark nights in the history of this borough I remember in 2018 when Green Party candidates opposed new council housing at the Golden Lane Estate I remember in 2020 when Green Party candidates joined the protest against new council homes at Dixon Club Court I remember again in 2020 when Green Party candidates opposed and campaigned against new council homes at the Wedmore Estate and I remember in 2022 when the 415 social rent homes on the hallway prison site that council Bell Bradford is working so hard on they were called monstrous and a horror by a Green Party candidates so we are fighting to tackle homelessness along with the new Labour government who are funding buybacks that council John Wolfe and team are working so hard on but you've got to help us you've got to stop opposing council homes as a party thank you thank you thank you councillor ward and the next question is question I from councillor Bashir Ibrahim to councillor ward councillor ward please will you respond you have three minutes thank you very much for your question councillor Ibrahim and may I say you're very well addressed tonight thanks for making the effort I am proud to say that Islington's cost of living support is one of the highest in the country and in this budget reaffirms our commitment to looking after residents through difficult times and staying on the side of residents a slogan I was elected on a slogan that 48 councillors in this chamber were elected on this council's continued to provide support to those who need it most by maintaining our council tax support scheme which means that 8,000 families across this borough pay no council tax at all other local authorities have reduced it we have found creative ways to keep that going I am so proud of that all labour councillors across this chamber including yourself should be so proud of that thank you so much thank you councillor Ibrahim and now we can move to item 10 which is the interval the meeting will be adjourned for a short break please return to the chamber at 9 of size thank you now councillors please be up standing we will now move to item 11 resolution to extend to extend 6 rule section 85 for the local government act 1972 councillor craig please would you move the recommendation formally and would any other councillors like to speak no excellent okay in which case we can have the right to reply councillor but there's you know you can reply to nothing I will waive my right to reply in the interest of time okay we will now vote on the recommendations in the report all those in favour all those against and any abstentions well the recommendation is carried thank you very much we will now move to item 12 the opponents report this report was circulated in the second discharge of papers councillor craig please would you move the recommendations formally and would any other councillors like to speak no okay again councillor craig you have a right to reply no thanks okay so we will now vote on the recommendations in the report all those in favour and all those against and any abstentions recommendations are carried we will now move to item 13 which are the budget proposals for 25 26 and the medium term financial strategy amendment for the budget proposals was circulated in the main dispatch papers councillor ward please would you move the recommendations in the report thank you madam mayor madam mayor i am so proud of all of my labour colleagues this evening despite 14 years of crippling Tory austerity a national mess that the new labour government has been left to clean up our labour council is still protecting Islington residents through good times and through bad our labour manifesto that 48 out of 51 councillors stood on was clear no one in our society should experience homelessness and that's why this year's budget includes a commitment to 200 million pounds over two years to boost homelessness support and prevention and Councillor Wolfe is doing a brilliant job buying back new council homes and despite everything he's still delivering new council homes like Dixon Card Court 25 homes where families have moved in I'm so proud to see families desperately move into that development a development opposed by the Green Party at every turn Madam Mayor that was a dark night in the history of Islington Councillor Bell Bradford has been working hard supporting an inclusive fair local economy and he's delivering a thousand apprenticeships and putting 5,000 people into work what a brilliant team doing such great work Councillor Rowena Champion and team are creating a greener healthier borough investing in recycling and planting 981 trees last year are you going to cover this year are you going to cover this year and Councillor Staffing the Gongo and team and of course members across this council are working hard to make us into a more child friendly place where young people can fulfil their full potential and provide a seamless offer of support our thriving neighbourhoods projects are 200 projects in the first round of funding and that's improved recycling facilities and of course so proud of the new playground in Holloway Ward that the Holloway Conisters fought so hard for but we've also made some hard choices strong stewardship has left this council in a strong place but this council is about delivering its five missions and that includes making savings to set a balanced and legal budget we're not shying away from that and that's why we protected front line services and tried to make savings in the back office where possible that's why our resident experience programme is all about empowering people across the borough providing the right support at the right time ensuring a quicker more effective response to resident inquiries improving the council's online offer saving money and making services better for residents right across our borough and that's why this Labour council is also protecting the council tax support scheme which we brought in last year which has brought 100% council tax relief to 8000 households across this borough Madam Mayor 12 amendments have been tabled this evening I will say the same thing I have said last year and the year before with 7 days notice there really isn't anything we can do with these I have had discussions with opposition colleagues and we have had that during the course of the year I encourage that let's keep that up but a genuine plea if these amendments are about putting on a show full council getting some text on a leaflet or getting a quote in the press by all means carry on if you actually want to work together for the people of this borough you've got to talk to us but Madam Mayor there does seem to be an anomaly we don't have a full set of papers I believe there's one further amendment that the independent councillors actually want to table this isn't the neighbour council there's always a policy of insourcing where we can we've insourced our repair service back in house we've brought our partners contract back in house the independent councillors have got another amendment they want to outsource opposition to the green party I haven't seen any sight of that is that going to table sometime during the meeting no independent councillors turned up at the January executive to scrutinise the budget but of course there are actually two chances to scrutinise the budget you can also come to the February executive meeting to scrutinise the budget how many independent councillors turned up at February executive meeting to scrutinise the budget what do we reckon that's right absolutely zero now you don't need to explain this to me I don't care you've got to explain this to the people of Islington so I say to our independent councillors read the small print on that outsourcing contract that you've signed with the Greens seriously read the small print this is the party that has spent the last decade opposing council homes in Islington this Labour council stands for a more equal Islington will you stand with us tonight or will you take the easy way out thank you Madam Mayor thank you Councillor Ward councillor Harriman please would you second the budget thank you Madam Mayor I just want to I'm not going to do a long speech I'm going to reserve the right I'd just like to say that we have a legal duty to set a budget people got elected on our manifesto and I expect every councillor that's working here for the residents to vote on this budget Councillor Hamdash please would you move your amendment you have three minutes to speak thank you Madam Mayor I want to thank all the officers that have worked with us on the budget amendment particularly Sophie and Christopher so first of all new cars are getting one centimetre wider every two years on average bigger heavier cars take up more space adding to congestion and proves more danger to people walking and cycling than small and medium sized cars just a 10% increase in the height of a car carries a 30% higher risk of people walking and cycling being killed or very seriously injured in collisions SUVs also use almost a quarter more energy than medium sized cars many no longer fit in parking spaces and their weight means that they cause more wear and tear on the roads adding to the council's bill for fixing potholes and road surfaces the average retail price of an SUV is 59% higher than that of a hatchback this is not an everyday car Paris introduced a special tax on SUVs tripping the cost of parking on cars larger than 1.6 metric tonnes and in a referendum 55% of Parisian voters back the levy such a levy is long overdue in London and in our budget amendment we're proud to propose Islington Council becomes the first in the country to institute one our proposed levy of £300 on cars over 2 tonnes and £150 of cars heavier than 1.5 but less than 2 brings in more income than your parking proposals and does so in a fairer way putting the tax on those who can afford it most those buying the most expensive cars on the market we think this makes more sense than the flat increase you are proposing on parking fees that rewards the borough's most polluting cars with proportionally lower increases on resident parking fees and once again this year we're proposing a fairer rate for parking on estates for people that aren't estate residents it's time to stop incentivising people from outer London and beyond driving into Islington with cheap parking below market rates our budget also includes new blue badge offices to help disabled residents claim exemptions from the LTN scheme we've all had casework where residents have struggled to navigate the scheme this is much needed thank you thank you councillor Sinclair please would you second the amendment thank you madam mayor and good evening as deputy leader of the independent group I stand very proud of our proposed opposition amendments to the budget and this labour budget although appreciation is given for the hard work falls short of our principles which is one of anti-austerity fairer together and more decent and better social housing I wish to thank members and officers with the drafting of our proposals for those who are still confused about our group we are four independent councillors who were elected as labour councillors in 2022 our common reasons for resigning were that we no longer felt that the current Labour Party with its current leadership registered or represented our views from their ongoing stance and complicity in genocide in Gaza the continuation of arms sales to Israel their refusal to abolish the two child tax policy the cutting of wind fuel allowance to pensioners and their treatment of Jeremy Corbyn played a role in our resignation we formed a working group with the three elected Green Party members and are now at the active opposition as a lifelong Islington resident I have seen the many changes in our community with the continued increase in austerity it is visible to see that this has resulted in further suffering in the households of our residents Islington has always prided itself with being a borough that supports the most vulnerable in our community but the reality is alarming yet we are here today talking about cuts to our children and youth services our proposed budget amendments can address these challenges and ensure that our children and youth are provided with care and support they so desperately need we can have further five key workers one principal SEM worker who also proposed and we also propose to fund four targeted youth supporters and one manager there are currently over 1800 Islington children and young people within EHCP in the last five years the number of students requiring EHCP grew by more than 50% now representing one in every 20 children current waiting times are up to three years for EHCP and these are far too long causing severe distress and anxiety to parents and parents and pupils we know that 80% of EHCP assessments are completed within 20 weeks but over 90% are rejected at the six week stage parents that go on to the tribunal have a 100% chance of success this proposal if agreed would provide needed support for children and young people with SEM in their families especially children who are transitioning into the next phase of their education who may be experiencing a delay in diagnosis these additional SEM workers can ensure that decisions are made and that children and young people can obtain the level of care they desperately need the additional targeted youth support workers would work to support our young people focusing on those excluded from mainstream education or experiencing emotionally based school avoidance this resource work in youth hubs community centres schools adventure playgrounds and other settings requested by young people will be of vital use currently we have no clear path for post 16 year olds who have been excluded from mainstream the focus of the youth workers will be to work with young persons and to try and get them back into mainstream education our current I've got one sentence to go Madam Mayor sorry our current alternative provisions are not working with children as some in our provisions are not even achieving one GCSE youth support workers will help to enable children and young people back into mainstream education support them into successful pathways and to make positive choices and that is why I second our amendment Thank you for that and we are now opening both the budget motion and the amendment to debate would any councillors like to speak Madam Mayor I'm proud to speak in support of this budget a balanced budget those councils that didn't balance their budgets now have to take out huge loans to keep going and have to sell off assets and outsource services in order to repay them in 2019 I supported our declaration of a climate emergency and six years later I'm speaking as chair of the environment climate change and transport scrutiny committee in support of a budget that sees our labour run council continue to invest in protecting our borough from this climate emergency Madam Mayor the impact of climate change are felt at a local level by our residents hot summers with 40 degree temperatures increased flooding from extremely heavy rainfall and power cuts are all risks to our residents we need to protect the most vulnerable from these risks we can and are influencing climate change adaptation our liveable neighbourhood schemes have seen air quality improve and improve the well-being of our communities this budget commits us to invest in more liveable neighbourhoods it also commits us to plant 900 more trees which will reduce temperature and provide shade during hot summers Islington's high proportion of flats and properties with little or no garden space make achieving high recycling rates difficult and we are working hard to engage with residents across the borough to increase our recycling rates this budget commits us to continue to invest in improvements in recycling we have a labour government that understands the risks that climate change poses to the economy and is committed to becoming a clean energy superpower by 2030 in Islington we have completely decarbonised our waste recycling centre and the decarbonisation the decarbonising of Archway Pool is underway the election of a climate change denier to the US presidency does not bode well for the world's government's ability to tackle the climate emergency the importance of having a labour government and a labour counter working together to defeat the climate emergency cannot be underestimated mental and physical health improve when the air is cleaner when there are pleasant green spaces around us and when we engage in active travel Madam Mayor I'm proud to support today's budget as it sees us protect frontline services and continues to see Islington Council lead the way on tackling the climate emergency thank you thank you thank you tonight I'm proud to stand before you all and highlight the exceptional work and being done for Islington's children and young people the greatest investment that we can ever make is in our children and young people and it's an investment that always pays off and they're not just the change makers of today but the leaders of tomorrow and today Islington boasts despite what you've heard today Islington boasts the best funded children's services in London we should all be proud of that and that investment is not just a financial commitment it is a testament to the dedication for nurturing the potential of every young person in Islington and giving them the best start in life and the reason why this makes me personally quite proud is two things firstly in 2021 I became Islington's first ever young people's champion as one of the youngest counties at the time I thought it was important to champion the voices and views of young people and propose this important role at the time but more importantly I am proud because I am a success story of Islington's long standing investment in its children and young people for being born in our local hospital to study in our schools and our college and finally to being twice elected as a councillor and stand in front of you today as a young Islingtonan done good but despite years of underfunding from previous Tory governments we have persevered and ensured that our children and young people receive the opportunities that they deserve and I'm pleased to say that our efforts have not gone unnoticed as the leader alluded to earlier our children's services has been rated outstanding by Ofsted for the second time in a row and every child deserves to be provided with a brighter future because when we invest in their education their dreams and most importantly their potential we invest in a borough a city and a world filled with innovation compassion and hope and this project further underscores our commitment to being a child-friendly borough where every young person can thrive no matter their background or ability from say farming at risk children to provide exceptional support for those in care our dedicated teams work tirelessly every day to make sure that every child gets the opportunities that they deserve and we will continue to invest and provide the best funded and the highest quality services in London so by voting for this budget tonight we are building a brighter more equitable future for our children but tonight our opposition have a choice to make do you back our children and young people or do you play politics and if they want to play politics I say bring it on because some of them were elected as Labour councillors yes it's shamelessly propping up the greens and if you're looking for any deficits tonight there's a democratic deficit on those benches over there so do the decent thing do the decent thing on design and let your residents decide if they want this greeny independenty whatever you want to call it politics or if they want a Labour representative on their side because tonight my Labour colleagues will be voting to back our children and young people and I hope you do the right thing and back our young people too thank you very much I'd say now Councillor Safi and Gongo but I'd just like to remind everybody to keep their time in place thank you very much it's very difficult to follow you but here for me I think it would be a good idea for me to remind our colleagues from opposition because I'm very confused for your rationale about increasing the five full-time workers on sand because our problem is about sand I think there is a lack of narrative and it's not clear really where you are coming from from your own amendments here and if you record in December I call for a meeting regarding our sand systems and you are fully aware the government is looking across the whole system but it looks like you are pushing us in the corner just to look up one small group of young people and really with not telling us what is the problem and what we can do differently here it's better to be clear when you are making your amendments it's better for amendments to be and to have a clear rationale which you don't have it here really to be honest with you and I think it would be a good idea for us to back this proposal and also to give the government a chance for the new review it will going to help us quite a lot and I want to touch also your second point in proposal 7 where you are asking our youth workers to engage with young people regarding persistent absence I want just to reassure you they are doing it really already they are doing day in and day out in additional you are aware we even update two members of your opposition are attending our scrutiny they are aware this labor council we manage to take 700 pounds from the mayor funds to tackling persistent absence we are doing it already for us to see again you are putting to your amendment what we are doing already is a big confusion please don't play politics in life of our children let's support the children and let's build them corporate parenting that is what they deserve and that is what they can be able to see this afternoon politics not with the future of any child in excellent terms thank you very much thank you councillor Catherine London and councillor you've got a breath armstrong please thank you Shane I was not planning on speaking but I think there's been a lot of comments made that require some clarification and also unwinding or unspinning or whatever that might be called that came out from across the bench there so first and foremost Hvington does have the best children nurseries and centres in fact I'm so proud to be selling my children there and they've gone there and some of them have moved on as well and I know many others potentially would be in a similar situation what I'm not proud in this budget is to see that in the forthcoming year there will be an over 1 million pound cut from children's centres with nurseries now that is going to be devastating for these nurseries I know we've got less children in our essential borough but we should be empowering our nurseries to draw children to come to them because we know that that is where they're going to receive the excellence that Islington is able to provide and then we do have one of our nurseries and children centres is actually named after Margaret Macmillan who is a pioneer of getting meals and getting the meals act through to make sure that our young people can get food she's also a pioneer to make sure that children's play gets pushed to the front and centre and we know how important that is as part of the development I'd like to then shift over to some of the questions that were raised in terms of the amendment yes there is a crisis there's been a call to arms about our absenteeism in schools Islington has got the worst attendance in secondary schools across all of in the London boroughs and that is the challenge that's been set to us we as the opposition can see the challenge we are not afraid to invest money into what we know works we do not have to reinvent the wheel we do not have to pilot something that we already know works like breakfast clubs we can go straight to the solution we can put money in and we can solve this problem that exists so this is what we're offering to you and when it comes to SEND I'm so proud of the work that was carried out across the opposition group we know the huge need we've got some children waiting for three years to get a diagnosis to get their education of get line that is halfway through the primary school that is halfway through the secondary school of education before they receive anything and what this amendment you talked about detail this amendment specifically drew attention to that crucial transition between primary and secondary school where we lose our children because we don't support them properly so what I would encourage you to do is to reflect on what this budget is offering a different way of approaching things investing the things that we as the council know works doubling down on some of those ideas thank you madam thank you very much for that and Councillor Russell oh no not Councillor Russell yes please all right I'm not going to take the time sagging off people I've worked with for many years I'm going to say what I've got to say I'd like to congratulate the Labour group on working on this budget for Islington although there is a few things we would do differently obviously which is where our amendment comes from and you would be surprised if we didn't put in an amendment I appreciate that trying to stretch the pittance from central government is almost an impossible task and there's only so far you can stretch an elastic band before it breaks we've all heard of the black hole the Tories left in their wake and it is always going to be hard for the council and for the government to look to take care of that but for a Labour government to enter into an austerity that George Osborne would blush at is truly appalling to watch three months after being interviewed talking about how bad pensioners had it under the Tories Kirstama went and stopped their winter fuel allowance giving many pensions the choice of eating or eating. The government then chose to continue at the two child limit for benefits plunging more households into poverty which was a point where I resigned. The pittance then turned his back on the waspy women despite showing full support for them when in opposition. Now we have Stephen Timms MP the Disabilities Minister saying there's going to have to be three billion worth of cuts from disability benefits so the Labour Party has hit the ground running and by the Labour Party I don't mean these I mean what you're having to deal with from up above. So the Labour Party has hit the ground running attacking the most vulnerable in our society. But it's okay everybody they found some money and are now able to spend 13.4 billion on the military so that we can now send our children to into war with new boots. Let's also remember that in 2021 Kirstama attacked the Tories for cutting the international aid budget and now he's doing exactly that. So we've got no money to help the most poor and vulnerable at home or abroad. But we seem to have plenty of money for military adventures. In the words of the late great Tony Benn, if we can find the money to kill people we can find the money to help people. Thank you. Thank you. I saw an email that you sent us on the 28th of February in 2024 where we raised the idea of greater parking charges on SUVs inspired by the SUV tax in Paris that was in 2023. We've had 12 months. This is an idea that we have talked about repeatedly in all spaces. We've raised with officers. We were delighted when officers told us that finally DVLA were giving us the information on the weight of cars so that we can start to take a lead from progressive places like Paris. This isn't a new idea. This is something Labour have had the opportunity to percolate and to work with for a while just like the campaigners who've been engaging with them across the country. So this is an idea as time has come. We need to catch up to Paris. SUVs, these expensive cars, they need to pay their fair share, whether that's because they're ripping up the roads, whether that's because they're damaging the climate, whether that's because they're contributing towards the air pollution. We've got a good idea here and I hope in whatever way you take it, whether that's tonight, next year, the year after, we need to get this right and we need to introduce it as soon as we can. Councillor Ward, you have the right to reply on the main budget report. We have three minutes. Let's be clear, Madam Mayor. I asked the Green Group a direct question. If you've got amendments, tell me now, I'll do what I can. You didn't give me any amendments. We saw them seven days ago. Madam Mayor, I want to thank everyone who's spoken on the budget tonight. Councillor Clarke talked about how this Labour Council is tackling the climate emergency. Councillor Ibrahim spoke with great passion about our outstanding children's services, as did Councillor Saffi Magongo. Madam Mayor, we are doing everything we can to ensure high-quality services across this borough. But I am disappointed about what we have seen from the Green-led opposition tonight. Just to clarify, there's one opposition group. It's a Green-led opposition group. There is not an independent group. There's just one group. Most importantly, if the Green-led opposition wants to do more for the borough's children, then you've got to do your own homework first. Your amendment doesn't even acknowledge that at July 2024 Executive, six new posts, six new mentor posts, contemplating on attendance, were created. I'm not surprised you missed this. There were no independent concerts at that Executive meeting. You've talked about raising £7 million for parking based on weight. But you also want to do a report on parking based on height and on length. What do you actually want to do? Do it by weight this year, then jack it up by height and by size next year. This is a hodgepodge. This is a complete hodgepodge. We do want to look into this. Councils across London are want to look into this. Come and talk to us about it. Don't present us with this back-of-the-envelope hodgepodge. And there's no amendment about helping people who want to walk, cycle, wane and use public transport. This Labour Council is delivering a greener budget. On this blue badge officers, we've already, that late last year, one of our parking contractors agreed to create a new blue badge officer. We did that through procurement, through social value. We've already done that. There is more than ways to do things than just constantly put up parking charges. Most importantly, I do need to highlight, as I did last year, Madam Mayor, the section 151 officers' comments. If we don't meet these targets, and those are very, very ambitious targets for income, you've said, this will have to come out of contingency, and it will have to come out of reserves. You can't play politics with people's lives and people's lifelines. We need to set a serious, balanced legal budget. I'm so proud of our Labour Council tonight. We've set a legal budget that protects frontline services. On a personal note, Madam Mayor, this is not only my last budget, this is my last speech from the front bench, because the next time will be an annual council in May. It's been an honour and a privilege to be part of this executive, and to have done both the housing and planning, and the finance briefs. I want to thank every council officer. I want to thank every member across the chamber who's helped me. I want to thank Richard Watts, Kaye Cummish-Woods, and my friend, leader Unu Hallowin, for putting their trust in me. I'm not from this borough, but like so many others, I've made my home here with my family, and I've felt incredibly lucky and incredibly welcome. As they sing at the Emirates, North London forever, whatever the weather. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. And on that note, we will now vote on the amendment. In accordance with the local authority's standard regulations, 2014, as amended, this will be a recorded vote. When your name is called, please state whether or not you're in favour of the amendment or against it, or if you abstain. Councillor Bell Bradford. Against, Madam Mayor. Councillor Bosman-Quarty. Against, Madam Mayor. Councillor Burgess. Against. Councillor Champion. Against. Councillor Chapman. Against. Councillor Chowdhury. Against. Councillor Sinka-Ona. Four. Councillor Clark. Against. Councillor Comfrey. Against. Councillor Craig. Against. Councillor Croft. Against. Councillor Gilgun. Against. Councillor Gill. Against. Councillor Graham. Four. Councillor Hamdash. Four. Councillor Hayes. Against. Councillor Heather. Against. Councillor Hyde, Councillor Ibrahim, Councillor Jackson, Councillor Jeeps, Councillor Jeeves, Councillor Councillor Yeager Varys-Armstrong, Councillor Corrana, Councillor Clout, Councillor McHugh, Councillor Nanda, Councillor Nathan, Councillor North, Councillor Al-Halloran, against Councillor O'Sullivan against Councillor Ongongro against Councillor Pandor against Councillor Potts against Councillor Russell against Councillor Safee Ongongro against Mayor change Councillor inherent Councillor Sheaac against Councillor Staff against Councillor Turan against Councillor Ward against Against. Councillor Wayne? Against. Councillor Weak? Against. Councillor Williamson? Against. Councillor Wolfe? Against. Councillor Zammett? Against. Thank you everybody. The amendment is lost. We will now vote on the recommendations in the main budget report. This is also a recorded vote. So as before, please state whether or not you are in favour of the recommendations in the main budget report or against them, or if you abstain when your name is called. Councillor Bell Bradford? For. Councillor Bossman-Kwasi? For. Councillor Burgess? For. Councillor Champion? For. Councillor Chapman? For. Councillor Chowdhury? For. For. Councillor Sinker-Owner? Against. Councillor Clark? For. Councillor Convery? For. Councillor Craig? For. Councillor Croft? For. Councillor Gilgum? For. Councillor Gill? For. Councillor Graham? For. Councillor Hamdash? Against. Councillor Hayes? For. Councillor Heather? For. Councillor Hyde. Four. Councillor Ibrahim. Four. Councillor Jackson. Four. Councillor Jeeps. Four. Councillor Yegavaris Armstrong. Against. Councillor Karana. Four. Councillor Klute. Four. Councillor McHugh. Four. Councillor Nanda. Four. Councillor Nathan. Against. Councillor North. Four. Councillor Ahalirran. Four. Councillor O'Sullivan. Four. Councillor Ngong'ou. Four. Councillor Pandore. Four. Councillor Potts. Four. Councillor Russell. Against. Councillor Safi Ngong'ou. Four. Councillor Sheik. Against. Councillor Staff. Four. Councillor Terran. Four. Councillor Ward. Four. Councillor Wayne Councillor Weeks Councillor Williamson Councillor Wolfe Councillor Zammett Thank you, the recommendations are carried Thank you Thank you everyone That concludes the business for this evening