Agenda item
TO CONSIDER MOTIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL
The motions submitted by Members of the Council for debate at this Council Meeting are set out in agenda item 11.
Decision:
Change to order of business
The meeting agreed under Procedure Rule 14.1.3 to vary the order of business within agenda item 11 as follows:-
(i) Motion 11.6 re: the London Living Wage to be taken first
(ii) Motion 11.3 re: ending child poverty to be taken second
(iii) The remaining motions to be taken in order as listed in the agenda including the additional motion 11.13 accepted onto the agenda earlier in the meeting.
11.6 Motion submitted by Councillor Lutfur Rahman regarding the London Living Wage
An amendment moved by Councillor Ahmed Hussain and seconded by Councillor Dr Emma Jones was defeated.
The motion as moved by Councillor Lutfur Rahman and seconded by Councillor Rachael Saunders was agreed as follows:-
DECISION
This Council:
· supports the establishment of the London Living Wage, set at a level calculated by the Living Wage Unit to avoid poverty wages being paid in the capital;
· abhors the fact that around 400,000 Londoners continue to fall into a ‘working poverty trap’ because their families are paid less than required to fund the basic costs of living in London;
· calls on the Leader to review Tower Hamlets Council’s procurement, contract and best value policies to ensure that, as far as possible within UK and EU law, the London Living Wage, at the level set by the GLA’s Living Wage Unit, is the minimum paid by Tower Hamlets Council and by its contractors and thatall temporary workers employed by the council are paid at least £7.45 an hour by their agency;
· calls on the Leader to seek commitments from Tower Hamlets’ partners in the Local Strategic Partnership to pay no less than the London Living Wage; and
· calls on the Leader to ensure that the Council’s commitment to the London Living Wage is clearly displayed on Council headed paper, the Council website and other appropriate locations.
11.3 Motion submitted by Councillor Clair Hawkins regarding ending child poverty in Tower Hamlets
An amendment moved by Councillor Peter Golds and seconded by Councillor Tim Archer was defeated.
The motion as moved by Councillor Clair Hawkins and seconded by Councillor Lutfur Rahman was agreed as follows:-
DECISION
This Council notes:
- That research by the End Child Poverty campaign shows that there are 42,000 children living in poverty in Tower Hamlets;
- That child poverty doubled during 18 years of Tory misrule from 1979 to 1997;
- The historic commitment by the Labour Government to halve Child Poverty by 2010 and the fact that the goal of ending child poverty by 2020 was enshrined in law in the Queen’s Speech this month;
- The raft of measures announced in November’s pre-budget report that will help to lessen the burden on the most vulnerable people in society as the recession takes hold;
- Regret at the failure of the Conservative Party to support many legislative measures that are necessary to end child poverty by 2020;
- That the End Child Poverty campaign has praised Tower Hamlets achievements in education;
- The Council’s commitment and actions to date to address child poverty have been recognised by being short-listed for a Beacon award for Preventing and Tackling Child Poverty;
- Reducing Child Poverty is a priority in the Tower Hamlets Local Area Agreement with suitably challenging and ambitious targets; and
- That the causes of child poverty are many and complex and that eradicating child poverty will require strong partnership working with central government, the Mayor of London, the third sector and other partners.
This Council believes:
- That preventing and tackling child poverty must continue to be a Council priority;
- That this Council continues to support the ongoing work to develop an integrated child poverty strategy;
- That eradicating child poverty will only be achieved through multi-agency partnership working;
- That the current Scrutiny review into child poverty will inform the work around our strategy; and
- That Child Poverty must be a theme that runs through the new three year Children and Young People’s Plan
This Council resolves:
- To sign up to and deliver on the London Child Poverty Pledge
- To accelerate the development of its Child Poverty Strategy to prevent and tackle child poverty with key partners working to address four priority areas:
(i) removing barriers to work which includes offering parents childcare options that allow them to go to work, and also supporting them in their search for employment;
(ii) developing pathways to work, through investment in long term training options in the basic skills that lead to employment;
(iii) breaking the cycle of poverty, which includes the council’s continued focus on improving education, improving careers advice and guidance and preventing young people from becoming NEETs (Not in Education, Employment or Training); and
(iv) mitigating the effects of poverty, including making sure local young people have access to cultural, leisure and sporting activities and developing extended services.
Extension of time for the meeting
The Council agreed under Procedure Rule 9.1 to extend the time period for the meeting to 11.00 p.m.
Change to order of business
The meeting agreed under Procedure Rule 14.1.3 to vary the order of the remaining business to take motion 11.2 re: community cohesion and ID cards as the next item.
11.2 Motion submitted by Councillor Stephanie Eaton regarding community cohesion and ID cards
The motion as moved by Councillor Stephanie Eaton and seconded by Councillor Carli Harper-Penman was agreed as follows:-
DECISION
This Council notes:
- That Parliament has created identity card legislation.
- This legislation will have an impact on all residents within Tower Hamlets.
This Council believes:
- That the proposed scheme will impose substantial and disproportionate costs on the Council.
- That the cost of ID cards would be better spent on employing crime prevention measures such as more police officers, and target hardening.
- ID cards have the potential to have a negative impact on social cohesion and notes the concerns of the Metropolitan Police Service to that effect:
‘The scheme could become compulsory prematurely for those disadvantaged members of society, because they would have to have an ID Card in order to access Social Security Benefits, etc. It should also be noted that many of the visible ethnic minorities are over-represented in this socio-economically deprived group. We have severe reservations that the scheme could add to tensions at a time when the police service is investing greatly in gaining confidence across all communities’.
This Council will:
- Make it a policy of the Council to ensure that national identity cards would not be required to access council services or benefits unless specifically required to do so by Act of Parliament.
- Take no part in any pilot scheme or feasibility work in relation to the introduction of the national identity cards.
- Only co-operate with the national identity card scheme where to do otherwise would be unlawful.
- Affiliate to the NO2ID campaign whose supporters already include MPs and Peers of all parties, Borough, County and District Councils, and unions (including UNISON, the largest union in the UK with 1.3 million members).
Motions 11.1, 11.4, 11.5 and 11.7 – 11.13 as listed below were not considered due to lack of time, the meeting having closed in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 9 (Duration of meeting).
11.1 Motion submitted by Councillor Abjol Miah regarding parking
11.4 Motion submitted by Councillor Ahmed Hussain regarding the future of homeowners and the local economy in Tower Hamlets
11.5 Motion submitted by Councillor Dulal Uddin regarding pensions
11.7 Motion submitted by Councillor Fozol Miah regarding the Olympics
11.8 Motion submitted by Councillor Alex Heslop regarding support for the co-operative and social enterprise sector
11.9 Motion submitted by Councillor Mohammed Abdul Munim regarding postal votes
11.10 Motion submitted by Councillor Salim Ullah regarding homophobia and prejudice
11.11 Motion submitted by Councillor Harun Miah regarding Council Tax and services
11.12 Motion submitted by Councillor Mamun Rashid regarding police representation
11.13 Motion submitted by Councillor Abjol Miah regarding Woolworths (urgent motion)
Minutes:
Change to order of business
Councillor Lutfur Rahman MOVED and Councillor Joshua Peck SECONDED
“That under Procedure Rule 14.1.3 the order of business within agenda item 11 be varied to allow (i) Motion 11.6 on the London Living Wage to be taken first (ii); Motion 11.3 on ending child poverty to be taken second; and (iii) the remaining motions then to be taken in order as listed in the agenda including the additional motion 11.13 accepted onto the agenda earlier in the meeting.”
The procedural motion was put to the vote and was agreed.
11.6 Motion submitted by Councillor Lutfur Rahman regarding the London Living Wage
Councillor Lutfur Rahman MOVED and Councillor Rachael Saunders SECONDED the motion 11.6 as set out in the agenda.
Extension of time for the meeting
Councillor Lutfur Rahman MOVED and Councillor Rachael Saunders SECONDED “That under Procedure Rule 9.1 the meeting be extended until 11.00pm.”
The procedural motion was put to the vote and was agreed.
After discussion of motion 11.6, an amendment was MOVED by Councillor Ahmed Hussain and SECONDED by Councillor Dr Emma Jones as follows:-
“That after bullet point 4, the following bullet points be added before the last bullet point:
- That the Council through its joint Director of Human Resources will ensure that the Tower Hamlets PCT will also take on board the GLA’s living wage unit and ensure that all its sub contractors and partners are taking this on through their procurement process;
- That the standards agency of the Council will enforce the living wage throughout the borough with all the existing and new establishments in the borough over a targeted time limit”
After further discussion the amendment MOVED by Councillor Ahmed Hussain and SECONDED by Councillor Dr. Emma Jones was put to the vote and was defeated.
The substantive motion was then put to the vote and was agreed. Accordingly it was
RESOLVED
That this Council:
· supports the establishment of the London Living Wage, set at a level calculated by the Living Wage Unit to avoid poverty wages being paid in the capital;
· abhors the fact that around 400,000 Londoners continue to fall into a ‘working poverty trap’ because their families are paid less than required to fund the basic costs of living in London;
· calls on the Leader to review Tower Hamlets Council’s procurement, contract and best value policies to ensure that, as far as possible within UK and EU law, the London Living Wage, at the level set by the GLA’s Living Wage Unit, is the minimum paid by Tower Hamlets Council and by its contractors and thatall temporary workers employed by the council are paid at least £7.45 an hour by their agency;
· calls on the Leader to seek commitments from Tower Hamlets’ partners in the Local Strategic Partnership to pay no less than the London Living Wage; and
· calls on the Leader to ensure that the Council’s commitment to the London Living Wage is clearly displayed on Council headed paper, the Council website and other appropriate locations.
11.3 Motion submitted by Councillor Clair Hawkins regarding ending child poverty in Tower Hamlets
Councillor Clair Hawkins MOVED and Councillor Lutfur Rahman SECONDED the motion 11.3 as set out in the agenda.
After discussion an amendment was MOVED by Councillor Peter Golds and SECONDED by Councillor Tim Archer as follows:-
“Delete points 2 and 5 and insert new point 2 ‘All parties represented on Tower Hamlets Council are committed to ending all forms of child poverty within the Borough.’”
Following discussion the amendment was put to the vote and was defeated.
The substantive motion was then put to the vote and was agreed. Accordingly it was
RESOLVED
That this Council notes:
- That research by the End Child Poverty campaign shows that there are 42,000 children living in poverty in Tower Hamlets;
- That child poverty doubled during 18 years of Tory misrule from 1979 to 1997;
- The historic commitment by the Labour Government to halve Child Poverty by 2010 and the fact that the goal of ending child poverty by 2020 was enshrined in law in the Queen’s Speech this month;
- The raft of measures announced in November’s pre-budget report that will help to lessen the burden on the most vulnerable people in society as the recession takes hold;
- Regret at the failure of the Conservative Party to support many legislative measures that are necessary to end child poverty by 2020;
- That the End Child Poverty campaign has praised Tower Hamlets achievements in education;
- The Council’s commitment and actions to date to address child poverty have been recognised by being short-listed for a Beacon award for Preventing and Tackling Child Poverty;
- Reducing Child Poverty is a priority in the Tower Hamlets Local Area Agreement with suitably challenging and ambitious targets; and
- That the causes of child poverty are many and complex and that eradicating child poverty will require strong partnership working with central government, the Mayor of London, the third sector and other partners.
This Council believes:
- That preventing and tackling child poverty must continue to be a Council priority;
- That this Council continues to support the ongoing work to develop an integrated child poverty strategy;
- That eradicating child poverty will only be achieved through multi-agency partnership working;
- That the current Scrutiny review into child poverty will inform the work around our strategy; and
- That Child Poverty must be a theme that runs through the new three year Children and Young People’s Plan
This Council resolves:
- To sign up to and deliver on the London Child Poverty Pledge
- To accelerate the development of its Child Poverty Strategy to prevent and tackle child poverty with key partners working to address four priority areas:
(i) removing barriers to work which includes offering parents childcare options that allow them to go to work, and also supporting them in their search for employment;
(ii) developing pathways to work, through investment in long term training options in the basic skills that lead to employment;
(iii) breaking the cycle of poverty, which includes the council’s continued focus on improving education, improving careers advice and guidance and preventing young people from becoming NEETs (Not in Education, Employment or Training); and
(iv) mitigating the effects of poverty, including making sure local young people have access to cultural, leisure and sporting activities and developing extended services.
Change to order of business
Councillor Stephanie Eaton MOVED and Councillor Lutfur Rahman SECONDED “That under Procedural Rule 14.1.3 the order of the remaining business be varied to take motion 11.2 on Community Cohesion and ID cards as the next item.”
The procedural motion was put to the vote and was agreed.
11.2 Motion submitted by Councillor Stephanie Eaton regarding community cohesion and ID cards
Councillor Stephanie Eaton MOVED and Councillor Carli Harper-Penman SECONDED the motion 11.2 as set out in the agenda.
The motion was put to the vote and was agreed. Accordingly it was
RESOLVED
That this Council notes:
- That Parliament has created identity card legislation.
- This legislation will have an impact on all residents within Tower Hamlets.
This Council believes:
- That the proposed scheme will impose substantial and disproportionate costs on the Council.
- That the cost of ID cards would be better spent on employing crime prevention measures such as more police officers, and target hardening.
- ID cards have the potential to have a negative impact on social cohesion and notes the concerns of the Metropolitan Police Service to that effect:
‘The scheme could become compulsory prematurely for those disadvantaged members of society, because they would have to have an ID Card in order to access Social Security Benefits, etc. It should also be noted that many of the visible ethnic minorities are over-represented in this socio-economically deprived group. We have severe reservations that the scheme could add to tensions at a time when the police service is investing greatly in gaining confidence across all communities’.
This Council will:
- Make it a policy of the Council to ensure that national identity cards would not be required to access council services or benefits unless specifically required to do so by Act of Parliament.
- Take no part in any pilot scheme or feasibility work in relation to the introduction of the national identity cards.
- Only co-operate with the national identity card scheme where to do otherwise would be unlawful.
- Affiliate to the NO2ID campaign whose supporters already include MPs and Peers of all parties, Borough, County and District Councils, and unions (including UNISON, the largest union in the UK with 1.3 million members).
Motions 11.1, 11.4, 11.5 and 11.7 – 11.13 as listed below were not considered due to lack of time, the meeting having closed in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 9 (Duration of meeting).
11.1 Motion submitted by Councillor Abjol Miah regarding parking
11.4 Motion submitted by Councillor Ahmed Hussain regarding the future of homeowners and the local economy in Tower Hamlets
11.5 Motion submitted by Councillor Dulal Uddin regarding pensions
11.7 Motion submitted by Councillor Fozol Miah regarding the Olympics
11.8 Motion submitted by Councillor Alex Heslop regarding support for the co-operative and social enterprise sector
11.9 Motion submitted by Councillor Mohammed Abdul Munim regarding postal votes
11.10 Motion submitted by Councillor Salim Ullah regarding homophobia and prejudice
11.11 Motion submitted by Councillor Harun Miah regarding Council Tax and services
11.12 Motion submitted by Councillor Mamun Rashid regarding police representation
11.13 Motion submitted by Councillor Abjol Miah regarding Woolworths (urgent motion)
Supporting documents: