Councillor Jeremy Ambache

Agenda

The Grants Sub-Committee met to decide which organisations would receive grants from the Voluntary Sector Cost of Living Grant Fund and the Wandsworth Grant Fund. In total the committee recommended six applications from the Cost of Living Grant fund, for a total of £61,375, and eight from the Wandsworth Grant Fund, for a total of £76,856. During the discussion of the applications, there was some debate over whether the committee should take into account previous grants an organisation had received from the council when making their decisions, and there was also some debate over the criteria of the cost of living grant, with some councillors feeling that some otherwise good projects were not being funded because they did not meet the specific cost of living criteria.

Agenda

The Council meeting began with tributes to recently deceased former Councillors Neville Daniels, Shawn Creighton, Lois Lee, and tributes were also read out on behalf of Councillor Ravi Govindia who could not be present. Councillor Peter Graham proposed an adjournment to highlight the Alton Renewal Plan, which the Council voted for. The Conservative group proposed a motion of no confidence in the Labour administration, arguing that it was incompetent, secretive, and unresponsive to residents’ concerns, particularly regarding waste collection and alleged changes to the constitution to avoid scrutiny. This motion was defeated. Councillor Cassidy proposed a second adjournment, this time to highlight the impact of the closure of Hammersmith Bridge. This motion was defeated too. The Council voted to approve changes to the constitution, and to approve the Housing and Annual Resources report. Finally, a Labour group motion stating that the Council will work with the national government to deliver on shared policy objectives was passed.

Meeting

Agenda and decisions

At the meeting, the Finance Committee agreed to a request to delegate all decisions relating to the London Borough of Culture 2025 to the Executive Director of Children's Services, Anna Popovici, who will act as Senior Responsible Officer in delivering the bid. A total funding envelope of £5.7 million was also agreed for the project, with £2.8 million coming from secured grant funding, and the remainder to be raised through fundraising.

Agenda

The committee agreed to allow the council to use electronic signatures for contracts, and to change the way the council manages replies to motions during council meetings. The committee rejected two amendments put forward by the opposition Conservative group and approved the rest of the proposals put forward by the Labour Group.