Transcript

Please be seated. Thank you. Good evening, everyone, and As-Salaamu Alaikum. This annual council meeting is a special meeting of the council to elect a new speaker of the council. Appoint councillors to serve as chairs and members of the committees for the forthcoming municipal year, and consider any reports necessary. I would like to thank everyone for attending, including the online participants, and the members of the public in the gallery. I trust you all will show courtesy and professionalism. In particular, I would like to remind all members of the public that you must not shout out or otherwise disrupt the meeting. If anyone does interrupt the meeting, I will ask for them to be removed from the meeting. This meeting is being broadcast live via the council website. The cameras will be mainly focusing on the council meeting. In the council meeting, in view of this, I would remind members that residents are looking on councillors to act in a professional and respectful manner and to show the power in its best possible light. I would therefore remind all members to keep all contributions brief and relevant to the subject matter under discussion, to not stand or stop to speak until I have called you, to speak through me, and do not address the comments to other members or the public gallery, to not interrupt each other or make comments whilst other members are speaking, and to be respectful to each other at all times, to not criticise officers during the proceedings, and most importantly, if I, the monitoring officer or the chief executive stand, all members must sit down and be quiet. Although I would only take the action as a last resort, I will ask for the removal of any member or visitor should their behaviour become disruptive. If the alarm rings, if the fire alarm rings, please follow the instructions of the facility staff who will direct you to the exits. A number of papers have been published for this evening meeting, so please make sure you have all the necessary information and the papers. There is a main pack with the reports. There are also a few copies of a pack which includes the Council's constitution, but to save paper, this pack is mainly provided electronically. Additional information including nominations to various positions and committees has been published separately today. Finally, just to inform the meeting, I understand that he is a candidate in the election of a new Speaker. Our current Deputy Speaker, Councillor Suluk Ahmed, has considered it appropriate to resign from the post and has delivered that resignation to the Chief Executive today. I would now like to hand over to our new monitoring officer, Supriya Iqbal, who is going to introduce herself. Before that, I would like to acknowledge the GLA member of the London Mayor, GLA member of the London Mayor, GLA member, Mr. Umesh Deshai is here. Give him a big round of applause as well. I would like to acknowledge that I am going to now pass it over to our new monitoring officer, Supriya Iqbal, who is going to introduce herself. Good evening members. Hope you can hear me. Okay, good. First of all, thank you all for appointing me as your monitoring officer. It is a great honour to work for Tower Hamlets. Tower Hamlets is an exciting and dynamic borough and has a special place in my heart as I grew up in Tower Hamlets and have a deep connection to this borough. This is my first meeting as monitoring officer and I wanted to take this opportunity to make my expectations clear with regards to conduct and debate at council meetings. As elected members, you have all signed up to abide by the member's code of conduct when you are acting in your capacity as members. During council meetings, you will need to ensure at all times you are mindful of the member code of conduct, the member officer relations protocol and council procedure rules. I wrote to you all prior to the AGM to remind you of relevant provisions of the code and the protocol. As elected representatives, you are here to represent your constituents and to act in the public interest. These meetings, as you are aware, are held in public and we have members of the public here and the meetings are webcast for viewing by your residents and the wider public. Therefore, you need to ensure that the way you conduct yourselves in this chamber is mindful and upholds the dignity of your position as elected members. Our residents and members of the public are watching you. And as I said in my letter, government envoys are also watching these meetings to observe how these meetings are conducted and behaviours within the chamber. You need to ensure you conduct yourselves in an exemplary way to serve the public and uphold the reputation of this borough. You need to promote and support high standards of conduct and treat other members, officers and members of the public with respect. As politicians, you are here to debate, debate and having different views are all part of a healthy democracy. As members, you can express, challenge, criticise and disagree with views, ideas, opinions and policies in a robust way. But you must do so in a civil manner. You should not subject individuals, groups of people or organisations to personal attack. Disrespect towards members, officers or others will not be tolerated and I, as monitoring officer, will intervene if I witness such behaviour. May I remind members to be mindful of the rules of debate as set up within the council procedure rules. If you wish to speak, and as the speaker has just reminded you, you must indicate and you can only do so when the speaker invites you to speak. Please do not talk across the chamber at each other. You must address the speaker when you speak. When the speaker speaks, you must stop speaking and sit down. Similarly, if I, as monitoring officer, speak or the chief executive officer speaks, you must stop speaking and sit down. At any point during the meeting, if I or the chief executive officer stand up, you must stop speaking, sit down and listen to what is being announced. I would also like advance notice of motions and amendments. Even urgent motions or procedural requests. This gives me time to consider the implications. Thank you for your cooperation. Before the council is asked to elect a new speaker, the current speaker of the council will address the meeting on his term of office and his work over the last year. Ladies and gentlemen, I am councillor Saif Uddin Khalid. I am the speaker of the council. Firstly, I would like to thank my colleagues in this chamber for giving me the opportunity to be the first citizen of this power for the past municipal year. My heartfelt gratitude to Mayor Luthu Rahman and aspired colleagues for your nominations and colleagues of Labour Party, Green Party, Conservative Party and Independents for putting your trust on me as your speaker. I pay tribute to my constituents at Bromley North, Constitutions of Bromley North of Tower Hamlets for electing me as your councillor, which gave me the opportunity to serve as the speaker of the great London borough of Tower Hamlets. You put your faith in me to be the ambassador for Tower Hamlets and to chair the meetings of the council. I have done my very best to carry out both duties in a fair and impartial manner and to promote the borough wherever I go. It has been an honour of my life, my lifetime and absolute privilege to be the first citizen of this wonderful great borough and an unforgettable year. I have tried to attend all invitations I have received to events in the community, celebrating milestones and achievements with the people of Tower Hamlets and visiting their organisations and I thank them for their warm welcome and hospitality, including the welcome and hospitality I received during my visit in Bangladesh from organisations, institutions, government officials and citizens of Bangladesh where I was born. I have also regularly attended citizenship ceremonies and welcomed the new citizens to the borough which I have really enjoyed speaking to them and learning about their new, about our new citizens. This is important for the first citizen and I was happy to be invited to join in. I also invited mayors, speakers of other London boroughs in our historical town hall and they all kindly received our hospitality. We held a successful Civic Awards event a couple of weeks ago where we celebrated people who live, work or study in Tower Hamlets and who have gone above and beyond to improve the lives of our residents and make the borough a better place. The nominations for the next year's awards will open later in the year so please keep an eye and make sure to nominate those people you know of who deserve to be recognised. I chose to support two charities during my time that work to provide support to young people and their families, the Sikh Children's Trust and Osmani Trust. I spent much time at the beginning of my time thinking about how best to help charities I wanted to support during my time in the office. I took the decision not to hold a fundraising event but to do things a little differently this year. In order to do this the first time JustGiving pages were set up for the speakers supporting each charity with direct links and QR codes helping to share the pages and making it easier to donate. This information was shared with colleagues and partners and highlighted at the recent Civic Awards event. My hope is that they will be able to build more long term relationships and that this will continue beyond my term as your speaker. I am hopeful that this will start a shift in focus from raising funds for charity to raising awareness of local good causes. It is not about us and how much we have raised at a single event rather it is about promoting the organisations in our borough who do amazing work and making sure people know that they exist so that they can get as much support as possible. During my time as the speaker I have had the privilege to announce the results of two constituencies, Bethnal Green and Stepney, Poplar and Limehouse in the recent, in the last UK parliamentary election as the returning officer. I particularly congratulate Rishnara Ali MP, Afsana Begum MP and Umar Cameron MP for their victories in the election and their continuous efforts in the public service in our borough. I will also congratulate our former colleague Rachel Blake for her win as an MP and of course I believe and I hope that she will also continue her efforts in public service. I would also like to recognize all my councillor colleagues and officers of the council for their support, cooperation and respect throughout my time as your speaker. I pay tribute to their continuous efforts and dedication in public service. I would like to recognize and pay tribute to our councillor colleague, councillor Iqbal Hussain, who is probably the first councillor of London Borough of Tower Hamlets, to complete two consecutive marathons in 2024 and 2025. Give me a big round of applause. And he raised funds for two wonderful charities, Asma and Lungs UK as well as Water Raid respectively. Congratulations, thank you councillor Hussain. Wherever I went, I tried my level best to encourage members of the community, in particular members of the younger generation to engage into community work, public service, in particular in the democratic decision-making process. Tower Hamlets and this great chamber building, I hope, I believe will remain as a beacon of hope, a centre for democracy for our generations and generations to come, including my two children, Hassan and Jumana. For those who have, and of course for those who will come from various parts of the world for better life, including those fleeing tyranny and persecution, they come to Tower Hamlets and proudly say that this is their home. In this very chamber, we would like to exercise fair politics, we would like to bring about fantastic public services, innovative developments for a safer life, better housing, safety, security, policing, traffic management and all aspects of public life, making the best use of technology, including the artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning to make this borough as one of the best boroughs in London. We want to ensure our work in public service is fair, accountable and just so that one day, all of us can look back and proudly say that we were there in the very building at the heart of Whitechapel, fighting for each and every resident of this great borough for underprivileged communities, regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity, political opinion and gender. I have a dream that one day, a speaker from this chamber would become the Speaker of the House of Commons, a member of the House of Lords, the Speaker of the House of Lords. A councillor of Tower Hamlets from this chamber would go on to become the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, inshallah. I invite all members of the community to visit the town hall and whenever you come, bring your family and children. We may not be able to offer you much hospitality, but we promise you we will be able to encourage you and your generations to become a councillor, speaker, mayor, a GLA member, London mayor, members of the House of Commons, members of the House of Lords and even the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Ladies and gentlemen, politics matter, democracy matter, get engaged. I would like to thank my family for supporting me during my year as a speaker and of course to my concerts. In particular, my wife Sayida Saifa Khaliq, who recently joined me at the Royal Guardian Party at the Buckingham Palace. I also thank my concerts, Barristan Nurulhuda Junaid, Hasnath Choudhury and Mukhammal Haqq for their support and company to various events I attended with them. I would also like to thank Mehdi Menian, Trish, Farhana, Benny, Konika and other members of Democratic Services for their brilliant support to me. A special thanks goes to my constant great companion, Danny, who has advised and supported me throughout. Thank you, Danny. Thank you so much for your support. I would also like to take this opportunity to offer my sincere apologies to all my councillor colleagues, the mayor, officers, members of the community. If any of my conduct or behaviour or my shortcomings at any time have made you upset, please forgive me. Going forward, I will continue to serve the residents of my ward for the members of the community in this great London bar of Tower Hamlets and will enjoy my role as a councillor working with my colleagues to deliver for them. I also offer my full cooperation to the incoming speaker for any assistance she or he may require in the upcoming municipal year. Finally, once again, I encourage members, officers, members of the community in the gallery and online, who are online, to get involved into public service in the democratic decision-making process so that we can build a just and fair society together. Thank you all for listening to me. Thank you, speaker. Does any member wish to respond to the speaker's address? I'm conscious of time, so I propose to take around four or five contributions. So please indicate if you wish to speak. Let me make a note. Sorry, please keep your hand up so I can make a note. Thank you. Okay. All right. Can I have Councillor Siradulis Lum first? Thank you very much, Ms. Iqbal. First, it feels like only yesterday you elected Speaker. Time flies very quickly. Can I just on behalf of my group and myself thank you for the hard work that you've done over the past year and particularly the charity work, the raising funds for your charities that you've done. I'm sure we'll find out how much you've raised in due course. I'm sure it's a large amount of money. Can I also thank you for chairing the meetings in the Council Chamber, being impartial, and certainly you have brought some vigour in the Council Chamber. We've enjoyed your chairing skills and, again, thank you. And I think your speakership over the year, the community engagement you've done, the feedback that I've certainly received, people have appreciated the leadership and the civic role that you've played in this Council, putting this Council at a good light. And thank you for your call for people getting involved in democracy, which is really important, and especially our younger generation need to get more involved in this succession plan for this Council to continue. Thank you for doing that as well. And look forward to working with you over the next year. And, again, look forward to joining the backbenchers and the colleagues here again. Thank you again. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Islam. Can I have Councillor Abdullah, please? Thank you. Mr. Speaker, I can start by saying a fair speaker, one who has allowed people to speak fairly in this room, being impartial. All the merits and all the criteria of a good speaker. But in saying that, obviously, as my colleague has said, that you've done great things to improve the image of the borough. It was great to see your wonderful photo at the Buckingham Palace. I'm glad the King recognised and invited you for tea when you were absent from an engagement in the borough when Her Majesty came. Enough said about that. But I just want to finish by saying that whoever the next speaker becomes, I hope the tradition of leaving that side, coming on this side, is followed. So I look forward to that opportunity, because two are already on this side. So I look forward to seeing whoever becomes a speaker from maybe that side, maybe, that they will see sense and will come and join on this side of the bench. Thank you. Enjoy your retirement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Councillor Ola. Can I have Councillor Shubo Hussain now, please? Thank you. All I'd like to just really say is thank you for being impartial. Thank you for actually being fair. And thank you for being here you are. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Ola. Can I have Councillor Kabir Ahmed, please? I'll be very brief. Mr. Speaker, thank you and well done for your charitable works. We know that youth are important to us and work raising money for the youth. Thank you, Councillor Ola. Can I have Councillor Farouk Ahmed, please? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, all I can say is this, that I can echo everything what has already been said. But I'll add on to this that what you have done on a very difficult circumstance, sometimes I have witnessed, and I'm sure in this house some of the councillors will not disagree with me, that you have handled it so good, so fantastic, and you've done a very well done job. And I thank you for the effort of the whole thing, what you have done here and abroad, and we are really proud of you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Councillor Ahmed. Can I have Councillor Ola. Ola, Ahmed now, please? Thank you, thank you, everyone. I just, I would like to echo what everyone has said. Just, Councillor Khaled, Mr. Saifuddin Khaled, was an outstanding speaker, everybody will agree. He was a different kind of speaker. He was a role model for our next generation, I must say. He was, resilience, professional, he maintained professionalism and dedication. Wherever I went, I went to many places, obviously you can see I have access to many communities, but obviously wherever I went, everybody actually praised Mr. Saifuddin Khaled. And he has, he has increased our, the image of this para immensely. And I must say that we hope the next speaker will be like him. He will be impartial and he will continue to work hard to increase the image of this para. Thank you, Khaled, for everything you have done in here and abroad. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you, Councillor Ahmed. Can I have Councillor Jahed Chaudhry now, please? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm going to echo my colleague. You said in your speech you had an unforgettable year. I agree with you. Obviously, you had an unforgettable year. And we had an unforgettable year with you as well. So thank you for giving us this unforgettable year. But I've, I've watched you during your politics last two, three years. You had a passion for our, I know very well, you have passion for our youngsters to get involved, especially our community from, you know, from Tower 100, involved in politics and decision making. And you worked hard. And I've seen your engagement. You've been, whenever you go into an organization, event, you always, in your speech, you encourage people to come to politics, come to decision making. And I commend for you, commend you for that. And I think you've done a fantastic job for this year. And I hope the current and upcoming speaker continue that work. And thank you for giving us, again, an unforgettable year. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Chadwick. Can I have Councillor Mayim Talibdar, please? Thank you. On behalf of our group, I would like to thank the speaker for his work, especially his focus on youth and community. And I hope after tonight you'll continue that work. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Talibdar. I started off by saying I was going to take four or five contributions, so I'm going to have to cut it short. So I'm just going to take one more. Can I have Councillor Bustin, please? Thank you. And congratulations, Shupriya, on your new role. Mr Speaker, thank you so much for your service over the last 12 months. I would say that it's probably been a really difficult 12 months for you personally, but also making sure that we're well-behaved within this chamber. You may have noticed that I have sort of slightly moved up the table. At the start of this last year, I think I was over here between my friends, Councillor Sultana and Councillor Kahn. And now I'm up here. I hope one day I will be in that seat as well. Maybe tonight. We'll see. But this isn't about me. It's about you. So, yes. Thank you so much for being impartial, allowing us time to speak, allowing time for debate. I think you've been particularly good when it comes to the petitioners, who are our residents, and allowing them the time to get their points across and make sure that they feel that they've been heard in this chamber, which is ultimately what we're all here to be doing. So thank you so much. Thank you, Councillor Bustin. I was going to cut it short, but I think you've all been so quick. So I'm going to be generous and have two more councillors. So I had councillor Kabir Hussain and then councillor Maisha Begum. Thank you. Peter Gold, after. Mr. Speaker, I believe your work, your outstanding commitments to this council and to this great borough is remarkable. Your enthusiasm towards the young people is commendable. Your professionalism, your energy, and most importantly, your commitments towards the people of this borough, this council, is fantastic. I wish you all the best in your future and ever. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Hussain. Can I have Councillor Maisha Begum? I'll keep it very short. First of all, welcome to the chamber, Ms. Iqbal. I look forward to working with you and how you work with the team as well. Can you hear me now? Great. I'll echo what our cross-party members have said as well as my colleagues. You've been a very fair speaker. You've been trustworthy. You've been accountable. I'll echo what you've done and the humility you've brought forward. There's one thing, like even myself, sometimes we forget to do is talk about the unsung heroes. But you have never failed to recognise the people behind the scene. I just want to acknowledge that. Even in your speech, when you mentioned Danny, I see him. He's your partner in crime. So I just want to say thank you so much for doing that. I recognise the work that goes behind the scene that the officers do and that you have done. And also, being the youngest in the chamber as well, you've also given me very solid advice. And I just want to say thank you from the person. Thank you, Councillor Begum. And finally, Councillor Gold. Thank you very much. Mr Speaker, very quickly. Shortly after you were elected to this position, the general election was called. And you were catapulted into being the actual returning officer. It doesn't mean to say, obviously, you did the work of the actual returning officer and staff. But you did preside over the declaration of the result, which was done. And I can only say that those who had seen the declarations in many places, the declaration of the result in Tower Hamlets was absolutely exemplary. And I think that the way it was taken and your own presiding over it added to that. So thank you for that little bit of national publicity for our great borough. Thank you, Councillor Gold. I will now return the proceedings back to the Speaker. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the first item of business for decision this evening is to elect a councillor to serve as Speaker of the Council for the upcoming municipal year. May I please have nominations for the position of Speaker of the Council for 2025-26? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to nominate Councillor Suluk Ahmed for Speaker. Thank you. Do we have a second? I would like to formally nominate Councillor Suluk Ahmed. Second. Oh, sorry, second. Second. The nomination. Thank you, Councillor Ahmed. Are there any other nominations? I would like to nominate councillor, Rebecca Sulukhana. Thank you. Do we have a second? I have a second. Thank you. So, full council will now formally vote on the proposed nomination to elect a Speaker of the Council for 2025-26. I'm going to now ask all those in favour of the nomination to elect Councillor Suluk Ahmed as the Speaker of London Borough of Tawah Hamlets for 2025-26. All those against? Any abstentions? Any abstentions? Any abstentions? Any abstentions? Any abstentions? Any abstentions? Any abstentions? Okay. Thank you. Mr. Sanyam. Thank you. With that, I therefore declare that Councillor Sulukh Ahmed is duly elected to serve as the Speaker of the London Borough of Tawah Hamlets for- for 2025-26. Congratulations, Mr Speaker. Could I now please invite Councillor Silouk Ahmed to come onto the dais and the proposer and the seconder of the nomination to join him to witness the Speaker signing the declaration of acceptance of office? And, of course, if there is with the official photographer, can you please come forward to record the signing of the new Speaker of the Council? Good evening, all. Just to explain the procedure for those who haven't seen it before. So, the outgoing Speaker and the incoming Speaker have gone off to a side room where the chain will be taken from the outgoing and put on the incoming. And then the outgoing Speaker will take his seat in the main well of the Chamber. And the new Speaker of the Council that we've just elected will be coming in and doing the procession a bit like you saw at the very start. And then we will start again. So, it will take a few minutes. So, feel free to talk amongst yourselves, but quietly. And we'll carry on in a minute. And for those who are wondering, the supplements we're handing around, we've got some late additions of memberships and things. So, we've got copies being printed and circulating and we will try and get them to everyone as and when we can. Please be seated. Thank you. Is that CO1? No, it's. All right, okay. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Good evening and a very warm welcome to you all. Thank you for coming. I especially want to thank all my family here today. Especially, that's my son. He's waving his hand. I've got my lovely daughter, younger daughter here, Elaya. She never knew right what I do here, so she's witnessing herself. I'd like to begin by sincerely thanking my colleagues for electing me as a speaker for the year ahead. I am truly grateful for the trust you have placed in me to serve as an ambassador and the first citizen of Tower Hamlets and to preside over the meetings of this full council. It is an incredible honour to stand before you here today not only as an elected member but as a speaker of this great borough, London borough of Tower Hamlets. Tower Hamlets is where I grew up as a child where I have spent nearly 50 years of my wonderful life in Tower Hamlets. My late father, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant him Jannah, was a tailor by profession, Mr. Shamu Zali. he was well known in the area those who lived there you probably know him. He was a professional tailor and a businessman who dedicated his life to the garments trade in Brick Lane area. His story is one of many that reflects the hard-working spirit of our community. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have supported me since 2014 when I first became the councillor in Tower Hamlets. As a speaker I will do my very best to represent the people of this chamber and of our borough. I am fully committed to serving the residents of Tower Hamlets with fairness transparency and integrity. We are proud of our multicultural community here in Tower Hamlets. A borough recognised recognised and celebrated for its diversity resilience and unity. This award-winning borough is a wonderful place to live and work and it is made stronger every day by the contribution of the people from all backgrounds. Tower Hamlets has always welcomed new residents from around the world and may have chosen and many have chosen to call it home. this is something we should not only be proud of but continue to support. Together we must keep creating opportunities for everyone especially through education training and employment so that all our residents can thrive and succeed. This borough is truly remarkable it is it is a place where history made culturally politically and socially for generations. People people have come here to rebuild their lives to raise families and to shape the communities they live in and long may that continue. Finally during my term as a speaker I intend to support two charities one will focus on supporting young people with special education needs and disabilities and the other will support the homeless and the sleeping rough I will be announcing my chosen charities at the next council meeting. To support me through the years to the year ahead I have chosen two consorts one of them is my son Fahim Azfar Ahmed and a close family friend and a younger brother Aulad Mia thank you all once again for giving me the opportunity to serve you as both a councillor and now as your speaker I look forward to the year ahead with hope humility and a deep sense of duty to the people of Tower Hamlets thank you very much thank you now before we turn to our agenda for this evening I would remind members that the meeting is being held in public and residents are looking on councillors to act in a professional and respectful manner and to show the borough in its best possible light to do that end I would remind members to keep all contributions brief and relevant to the debate I will be looking to enforce the three minutes rule by banging my gavel once when you have ten seconds you ask your speech time left I will I'll make a sound with the gavel to raise your hand should you wish to speak to not to stand or start to speak until I have called you to speak through me and do not address comments to other members or the public gallery to not interrupt each other or make comments whilst other members are speaking and to be respectful to each other at all times and most importantly if I stand all members must sit down and be quiet I have obtained a list of speakers from each item and I will follow this list if any other members wish to speak please indicate by indicate but I cannot guarantee that I can accept your request the second item now we here is item of business for decision the second item of business for decision this evening is to elect a councillor to serve as a deputy speaker of this council for 2025 26 may I please have nomination for the position of deputy speaker of the council for 2025 26 councillor Mayim Taligda thank you mr. speaker congratulations i would like to nominate councillor bella luddin thank you is there a seconder councillor ahmed is seconder thank you mr. speaker and congratulations on your appointment i would like to formally second the nomination for councillor bella bella would did thank you is there any other nomination for the deputy speaker yeah thank you mr. speaker and i would like to congratulate you on your appointment could i kindly nominate councillor alili almond do you have a seconder to it yeah thank councillor sure thanks thank you unless anyone else wishes to speak full council will now vote on the proposed nomination to elect a deputy speaker of the council for 2025 26 all those in favour of the nomination to elect councillor belal uddin as a deputy speaker of this council 2025 26 can you put your hands up please yeah any yeah this okay this time all those who against any abstentions okay yes the nomination is carried yeah okay I'm pleased to declare that councillor belal uddin is duly elected star and to the speaker of the power I look forward to working with you over the year thank you now we move to agenda item three any apologies any apologies yeah council I believe councillor I asked me send these apologies any other further apologies for absence no okay we go to yeah we move to agenda number four is declarations of disclosable pecuniary interest would any member who has a disclosable pecuniary interest on any other item on the agenda please indicate any thank you we move to agenda number five sorry can I ask all members and the public people in public Gary please can you be quiet and just let the meeting be conducted nice and smoothly thank you I move to agenda number five is the minutes of the previous meeting the draft undecided minutes of the council held on 2nd of April 2025 have been circulated with the agenda are the draft minutes agreed as a correct record thank you move to agenda number six is to receive announcement I understand as this is I I GM there is there are no announcements I believe yeah thank you agenda item seven is noting report on the mayor's cabinet and executive appointments for 2025 26 the report appendix has been tabled and has been published on the council's website and through the can you please be quiet thank you on the council website mod.gov app I will ask the mayor to introduce this report and move the recommendation you have three minutes thank you thank you mr. speaker I would like to propose as tabled thank you I'm happy for Mayim to lead the show today anybody seconding it I'll formally second it I'll call on the council because it's done does any other member wish to speak you will have three minutes if you can show your interest thank you does the council note the mayor's executive scheme of delegation I don't see any objection and so we will take this as noted anonymously move to agenda number eight is the report on proportionality and establishment of committees can councillor Mayim Talibda deputy mayor please introduce the report thank you mr speaker the report before you reviews the proportionality as required section 15 of local government and housing act 1989 the act recommends the establishment of committees and sub committees as sets out in the council constitution and proposes the allocation of places on those committees between the political groups and represented on the authority I move and we agree to the report as table thank you thank you councillor I call councillor Kabir Ahmed to second the report you have three minutes also thank you does any member wish to speak councillor Mark Francis me straight away thank you very much congratulations speaker on your election and good luck in all of your work in the year ahead in the community but also in this council chamber congratulations also to councillor Belaluddin on his election as deputy I want to add my thanks and congratulations to councillor Saifuddin Khaled for the year that he spent as speaker particularly as has been said the work that he's done in the community and his efforts to inspire young people but also the way that he has served as chair of this council chamber in the most difficult circumstances imaginable for him and us collectively I think he's done a really incredible job and I think is somebody that people should look at in the role who take this role in future and seek to emulate where they are able to I wanted to just make a comment about the way a change that I think is proposed to the structure and the chair of the audit committee so I'd been on audit for several years and then I came off for a while and then I came back a year ago and when I joined a committee I think Councillor Haroon Meal was chair in the meeting and we had lots of good meetings lots of things to get our teeth into but I think that one of the things that clearly have come through in audit is about the need for there to be a sense of separation between the executive the majority party and the chair and the leadership role of the committee and one of the things that I noted in the best value inspection report was the recommendation that there should be an independent chair we obviously have an independent person on the committee already but it's recommended that move to an independent chair and I think that's reflected in these papers here tonight but my concern is about what happens between now the end of this committee and the appointment of somebody independent presumably with a degree of expertise also in audit as well and I think that particularly in the last few months under Councillor Mofida Bustin's chairmanship of that committee it's been doing some really important work and my concern is that all just stops because we no longer have a chair of the committee the next meeting that scheduled was July and I think that's too big a gap for us to go without a chair actually being in post so I really would encourage us as a full council this evening to seek to elect a chair again of that committee and I certainly hope that Councillor Mufida Bustin would continue in that role thank you thank you councillor is there anyone else yes councillor arm mr speaker as councillor francis has raised a query I just want to highlight that within the council papers of today page 105 clearly identifies that the next full council meeting is on the 16 July 2025 and the next audit committee meeting is dated which is on page 106 of this report identifies the next audit committee meeting on the 28th of July 2025 which is some nearly two weeks after 12 days after the full council meeting so I believe we have plenty of time from now to the scheduled next audit committee meeting to appoint an independent chair within the council's constitutional structures and I would like to welcome the recommendations that are in there for an independent chair thank you oh sorry councillor gold thank you very much mr speaker congratulations on your election I'd like to concur with councillor francis very much here although we will be moving to an independent person to chair the meeting I think between now and July the committee should not be headless it needs to have somebody to be at the top because who knows what situation could come up where a meeting is necessary a committee reports need to be considered and decisions need to be made and I think to leave a committee particularly a working committee of the council effectively rudderless up for certainly a two month period is not a good idea and as I say I concur very much with councillor francis and I think the meeting tonight should elect somebody to chair that meeting until certainly the independent person is appointed whether or not the committee meets councillor thank you mr speaker and congratulations on your appointment look forward to work with you over the year I also echo councillor francis and councillor gold councillor amur of course makes a valid point about the timing of audit committee just because of any eventualities mr speaker can I suggest recommend that the council does approve councillor buster as interim chair of the audit committee just in case there are delays to independent member to chair the audit committee there could be delays and we need somebody in interim to make sure that the audit committee is chaired until that appointment is made congratulations to you speaker on your election can I just make a comment here I very much note the suggestion in the paper for an independent chair of the audit committee and I fully concur of that decision I believe I understand the concerns of Councillor Francis Councillor Gault and Councillor Islam but today we will formalize the members of the audit committee I personally don't believe it's going to be a rather less committee those councillors are responsible councillors who are going to agree to get on the committee I think if there's a need then the committee amongst themselves can elect a leader an elect interim chair but why do we need to elect a chair today for such a short period and the chair has to vacate that position if we're going to go along with electing agreeing with an independent chair today so if the need arises the community can ask one of their peers to stand up and serve as the interim chair that's my suggestion thank you yeah yeah okay thank you thank you mr. speaker congratulations on your appointment obviously i'm quite happy to see you in this chair but i'm sure that you will be like councillor sifu think i'll let be fair minded and somebody who i know for a very long time i'm sure you will do a great job coming back to the audit committee i think it's like it's a fair point audit is something very very important accountability and scrutiny is very very important in this council and when somebody from outside recommend to have an independent audit chair that tells us the problems we have in this council i don't need to repeat this again so i think it's very important that we don't have a break we have a chair and i should let her to continue as a point of order thank you yeah the recommendations for the independent audit committee chair is something that demonstrates good governance and a number of councils are doing this it does not reflect this council having issues or concerns around the governance structures of the council or the audit committee i think there was a suggestion that it's reflective of the position this council is in and to have an audit committee so just clarification on that please thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you Mr. Speaker I would like to further add that this is a recommendation from the SIPFA that we have an independent panel this has nothing to do with how the council is running the audit committees it's a recommendation that we welcome it's also a discussion that took place between the chief exec and the invoice who work on this as well we want to work with the invoice we want to work in regulation and in the guidance of SIPFA to make sure it works and as best practice picked up by other councils we want to follow the best practice at the same time so this is purely to work the work as a committee the audit committee in the best form that you can so thank you speaker just for the transparency I understand the recommendation was also on the audit committee not to have a cabinet member serving but I can see this recommendation for councillor Ahmed on the audit committee could we have some clarity from the monitoring officer on that as well thank you thank you yeah I mean it's it's very clearly in there that the cabinet members shouldn't serve on that committee and that's why they didn't under the previous administration but they they do so you know there are clearly some recommendations of the best value inspection that are taken on board by the mayor and his team and some that are not but my concern isn't about that politics my concern is as councillor gold said who has responsibility for even calling a meeting in the first place so the best value inspection or at least my reading of it doesn't say remove your chair and leave the post vacant until the next meeting it says that you should appoint somebody independent and clearly the intention would have been that there should be somebody in the position of chair up until the point that an independent person comes into place and just to give you an example and the gallery and our residents an example about why this is so important only today councillor Bustin as the chair of the committee finally received a response to a query that she had raised with officers about a particular issue around procurement now she is the person as chair who is empowered to take this issue forward for us as a committee we asked her to do that in the committee meeting she did that she's engaged in correspondence for her or nobody else to then have responsibility and authority to continue that dialogue and communication about trying to resolve this issue seems to me really remiss if the officers or the members opposite said you know what we've already gone out we've got somebody lined up and they're going to start in this position in a week's time it wouldn't really be a problem but I haven't heard any of that there's just a period of absence and that seems to me to be not the intention of the best value inspection team and certainly not something that's in the interest of our residents thank you speaker just to respond to councillor sirajulis lans question with regards to cabinet member being nominated for the audit committee just to clarify the terms of reference for the audit committee allow one cabinet member to be a part of the committee as long as it's not the member for resources cabinet member for resources so yeah we're just voting amendments only seconder councillor we take that councillor francis has proposed the amendment yeah I formally propose an amendment that we retain a chair of the audit committee elected from this full council meeting until the appointment of an independent external independent person to chair the committee formally propose that okay we're going to now move to the vote all those in favour of the amendments all those against any abstentions the amendment falls thank you thank you does the council agree to the recommendation yes to agree the recommendation within the report as set out on page 68 of the full agenda pack in regards to licensing and audit matters and establishment of committee all those in favour all those against any abstentions so it's carried thank you okay we move to now agenda number nine item nine is report setting out nominations to the committee of the council the list of group and other nominations has been published as a supplement on the council's website and through the mod gov app can councillor Mayim Talukdar deputy mayor introduce the report and also move your amendments please thank you thank you mr. speaker i would like to propose the report as tabled and also we have also emailed the list to Matthew Manon thank you i would like to propose that list as well thank you um kobir ahmed to second the report and the nomination should be nomination thank you mr. speaker i formally second it thank you does any member wish to speak on this item anyone thank you no okay chair sorry i've lost track which one are we on okay i'll ask matthew to can can matthew sorry the speaker is now passing over to the head of democratic services for the rest of the proceedings thank you thank you mr speaker i'll stay seated if it's okay so i've just got bits of paper i need to refer to so there's a couple little bits just the clarity on the script we meant to say the nominations not the amendment so there hasn't been a change to it it was just the nominations have been submitted thank you to the groups for submitting them pretty much everything is members on licensing so if anyone wants that either say now or let the monitoring officer know later we can add you to that the labour group also just made a couple of changes to the lists in the papers on human resources on licensing would you like me to read them out or are you happy to shall I read them out just to make sure okay all right so the changes that I've got from the list originally presented is on human resources committee instead of Mohammed Chowdhury we've got Abdi Mohammed and instead of Abdel Ullah we've got Amina Ali and we've got Abdel Ullah instead of Shubha Hussein as a substitute and then on the licensing committee instead of Mohammed Chowdhury we've got Abdi Mohammed so those are the changes that I've got is that correct could we take Asma Islam out of HR and put Abdel Ullah back in so take Asma Islam off there yeah okay great so we note those changes from from for the committee memberships so we then and I think the rest of the set is okay so thank you everyone forget for doing that well so we'll now move on to the committee nomination the nominations for chairs we have a set that were published in the papers from the Aspire group and we've had a few others as well that have come in more recently which I will read out this means that there are there's more than one nomination for each of the committees so we have to have some votes so if the speaker is okay I will run through the votes for each of these so we will start with I should say that we always take the votes first for the first nomination received which today was from the Aspire group we received theirs first so we have two nominations I have a nomination for councillor Abdul Wahid and I have a nomination for councillor Asma Islam can I make a point of order before we move to voting please it's just a very brief point so we have heard from executive members today about how it's a recommendation of the best value inspection that we move to an independent chair of the audit committee but I'm just looking at the best value inspection and 1.38 says we consider the council benefit from an independent chair of overview and scrutiny and audit committees so I just ask if maybe the chief executive or somebody appropriate could explain to us why we're moving forward with an independent chair of audit and not an independent chair of overview and scrutiny thank you sorry is that a point of order yeah this is not a point of order councillor but chief executive is happy to answer your question yeah I'm more than happy to comment on that thank you Mr Speaker and congratulations on your appointment the recommendation to follow best practice in relation to independent chair of the audit committee was as a result of detailed guidance that's provided by SIPFER ongoing discussions and agreement from our independent auditors EY discussions with the best value intervention envoys and discussion and an approach that was promoted by the transformation of Sorens board lead members for governance and culture we had similar conversations albeit briefly about overview and scrutiny where there is not a best practice recommendation generally accepted by local authorities haven't discussed that with London councils as well so it isn't something that was recommended or pursued and as we all know there are many local authorities across the UK where there's a mix actually but in a number of local authorities there is no decision or delineation between political groups as to who should chair or lead the overview and scrutiny committee that's why there's no recommendation to that effect thank you thank you thank you thank you okay to continue just before we go back to the election of chairs I've just had one more change of membership on committees corporate parenting board to take off council Bodral Chowdhury and to add council Natsi Bienfei if that is okay from council Bienfei okay just like a check okay brilliant so we're back to the elections of chairs we're back on the overview and screening committee and so we start with the first nomination received so that was for councillor Abdul Wahid so can I see those in favour of that nomination please all those against and any abstentions okay so that's yes okay so that's that nomination is carried for councillor Abdul Wahid so we we don't take any more nominations for that one as we've got a successful nomination so we now move on to the development committee and I have nominations for councillor Iqbal Hussain and councillor Mark Francis so again starting with councillor Iqbal Hussain all those in favour all those against any abstentions okay so that's carried as well we then move to the strategic development committee and I've got nominations for councillor Amin Rahman and Jahed Chowdhury so starting with Amin Rahman okay carry all those against any abstentions and that's carried as well thank you next for general purposes committee councillor Amadol Kabir and councillor Rebecca Sultana so starting with councillor Amadol Kabir all those in favour all those against abstentions okay and that's carried right so we've discussed audit committee already so moving on to pensions committee councillor Anna Mia and councillor Myasha Begum are the two nominations so starting with councillor Anna Mia okay all those against any abstentions and that's carried licensing committee I have nomination and this is for the new licensing committee and the new licensing regulatory committee so it's the same person doing both councillor Peter Golds and councillor Abdi Mohammed so all those in favour of councillor Peter Golds all those against and that's any abstentions and that's carried as well the last one then is for human resources committee and I've got councillor Haran Mia and councillor Abdel Ullah as my two nominations for that one so councillor Haran Mia in favour I take that against yeah any abstentions okay that's so that's carried as well okay so that's all the committee chairs a reminder that the standards committee will appoint its scrutiny leads scrutiny committee will appoint its scrutiny leads and the standards committee appoints its own chair thank you very much passing back to the speaker to deal with the main recommendations thank you can you please be quiet please thank you does the council agree appoint members appoint members and substitute members to the committees and sub committees of the council and other bodies including outside bodies for the municipal year 2025 and 26 as set out in the table papers subject to the above votes the arrangements in respect of any unfilled places agree to the creation of a new junior cabinet positions and ambassador roles yeah is I take I take everyone is a great yeah thank you that makes life easier thank you can please where's my gavel I lost it somebody hide it somebody hide it should have it should have it handy okay thank you okay agenda item 10 the report setting out the updated calendar of council and committee committee meeting for 2025 the report asks member to note the revised calendar including the changes set out in the report members please note cabinet has moved moved from the 21st May to the 4th June 2025 due to the availability of key personnel can councillor Mayim Talukdar the deputy mayor introduce the report thank you thank you mr. speaker i would like to propose as table thank you i call on councillor kabu to second the report you have three minutes if you wish mr. speaker i formally second that was a nice smiling way thank you does any member wish to speak on the item thank you thank you mr. speaker and congratulations on your appointment it's lovely to see you up there could i ask i noticed that there's been some changes and note the change of the of the council meeting because it was in the school holidays so now it's been moved earlier there are some committee meetings that are still in the holidays including one that's very dear to my heart which is the audit committee and i note that all the members on the audit committee are parents and have children so if there's a way that we could look to move it outside of that school holidays i think that would be greatly appreciated by all members of the committee i'm sure thank you thank you thank you thank you for we'll take it back to the democratic services thank you thank you thank you can we agree the recommendation in the report to approve the calendar thank you thank you any objection i don't see any objections so and so we will take this as agreed unanimously thank you moving to agenda number 11 item 11 is a report setting out the council's constitution can my interlude deputy mayor introduce the report thank you thank you mr speaker once again i would like to propose the report as table thank you thank you councillor kabilahmed to second the report you have three minutes you may wish to mr speaker once again i won't take up the three minutes i'll formally second thank you that's good thank you does any member wish to speak okay thank you can we agree the recommendation in the report to note the work of general purpose committee to confirm the re-adoption of council's constitution as set out at appendices 1 to 4 of the report furthermore i don't see any objection and so we will take this as agreed unanimously thank you okay we move to agenda number 12 the report on the use of special urgency provisions of council's constitution 2024 25 can council my telegram again the deputy mayor introduce the report thank you thank you mr speaker i would like to introduce the report again cabirahmed to second the report i believe you want to second it mr speaker thank you does any member wish to speak thank you does the council note the report on the use of special urgency provisions thank you i don't see any objections so we'll take this as a university ladies and gentlemen this that concludes the business of the annual council meeting and i thank you all for attending and your contributions all members and my guests are very welcome to join me for my speakers reception over the grossest wing which is outside please remain in your seats until after i have left the meeting thank you very much thank you a thank week i that was next time to You