The questions which have been received from members of the public for this Council meeting are set out in the attached report.

 

A maximum period of 20 minutes is allocated to this agenda item.

 

6.1 Question from Mr Akther Zaman about the Leader of the Labour Group’s timesheets.

 

Procedural Motion

 

Councillor Helal Abbas moved, and Councillor Bill Turner seconded, a procedural motion – “That under Procedure Rule 14.1.14, Rule 13.1 be suspended to allow an urgent motion regarding Payments to Gulam Robbani to be debated.”

 

The procedural motion was put to the vote and was agreed.

 

Councillor Helal Abbas moved, and Councillor Bill Turner seconded, the urgent motion [the text of the motion was as set out in the resolution below].

 

Following debate, the urgent motion as tabled was put to the vote and was agreed.

 

DECISION

 

This Council notes:

 

• The recently released FOI response from the Council which details payments made to and invoices submitted by Gulam Roggani during his time as a Mayoral advisor.

 

• The multitude of discrepancies between the timesheet invoices submitted by Mr Robbani and those of the councillors who he was claiming to meet, including:

 

 

 

 

• That the above examples of discrepancies are only 3 of 24 serious individual incidences over 4 months.

 

• That contractors working for the Council are monitored to ensure all of their claims are accurate and that in this case this monitoring and sign off was conducted by the Mayor’s office.

 

This Council Believes:

 

• That there are serious questions to answer regarding the scale and number of discrepancies between the timesheets submitted by Mr Robbani and those of the people he was claiming to meet.

 

This Council Resolves:

 

• To require that the Head of Paid Service request that the Corporate Fraud Manager investigates to ensure that all invoices have been properly claimed and paid and report back.

 

(Action by: Stephen Halsey, Acting Head of Paid Service)

 

6.2 Question from Mr Salah Uddin Salam about the Special Responsibility Allowance of the Chair of the Pensions Committee. (No supplementary question was put)

 

6.3 Question from Mr Scott Stuart about the Olympic legacy in Tower Hamlets.

 

6.4 Question from Mr Afzalur Rahman about the lack of trade in Brick Lane during the Olympics.

 

6.5 Question from Ms Shumi Shabiha on the armed forces parade.

 

6.6 Question from Junyied Ahmed Sundor on the proposed reduction in Councillors at Tower Hamlets Council.

 

The above questions and in each case (except where indicated) a supplementary question, were put and were responded to by the relevant Executive Member.

 

(Action by: John S. Williams, Service Head, Democratic Services – to arrange written responses).

 

6.1 Question from Mr Akther Zaman about the Leader of the Labour Group’s timesheets.

 

I read in this week’s Private Eye that the Labour group leader had claimed on his time sheet for a party-political stunt, cleaning the streets. Is this true?

 

Response by Councillor Shahed Ali, Cabinet Member for Environment

 

It looked like a good gesture of Councillor Joshua Peck to go out with a bin bag out of the goodness of his heart. However having had a look it appears he did record this on his time sheet for that month.

 

Summary of Supplementary Question from Mr Akther Zaman

 

Looking at the work he listed on his time sheet that gives an hourly rate of £41/hr.  Is that a competitive rate for a street cleaner?

 

Summary of Councillor Shahed Ali’s response to the Supplementary Question

 

There are hard working people cleaning our streets every day of the year. They would find it disheartening that a Councillor is trying to give some peculiar statement that they are not doing their job correctly. Our workers get just under ten pounds an hour and do a brilliant job as shown by third party monitoring which showed that 97.7% of residents recently thought our streets were the cleanest they have been for a long time. I hope that Councillor Peck regrets his actions and he should pay that money back.

 

 

[Note: Following the above question and response, Councillor Joshua Peck rose to give a point of personal explanation.  Councillor Peck stated that he was not going to apologise for cleaning up an area that had not been cleaned for many months. He pointed out that he would not receive any additional allowance for this work and that many Councillors, and the Mayor, do not even publish timesheets.]

 

 

Procedural Motion

 

Councillor Helal Abbas MOVED, and Councillor Bill Turner SECONDED, a procedural motion – “That under Procedure Rule 14.1.14, Rule 13.1 be suspended to allow an urgent motion regarding Payments to Gulam Robbani to be debated.”

 

The procedural motion was put to the vote and was agreed.

 

 

Urgent Motion re: Gulam Robbani’s Timesheets

 

Councillor Helal Abbas MOVED, and Councillor Bill Turner SECONDED, a tabled urgent motion as set out below.

 

Following debate, the urgent motion as tabled was put to the vote and was agreed.

 

RESOLVED

 

This Council notes:

 

• The recently released FOI response from the Council which details payments made to and invoices submitted by Gulam Robbani during his time as a Mayoral advisor.

 

• The multitude of discrepancies between the timesheet invoices submitted by Mr Robbani and those of the councillors who he was claiming to meet, including:

 

 

 

 

• That the above examples of discrepancies are only 3 of 24 serious individual incidences over 4 months.

 

• That contractors working for the Council are monitored to ensure all of their claims are accurate and that in this case this monitoring and sign off was conducted by the Mayor’s office.

 

This Council Believes:

 

• That there are serious questions to answer regarding the scale and number of discrepancies between the timesheets submitted by Mr Robbani and those of the people he was claiming to meet.

 

This Council Resolves:

 

• To require that the Head of Paid Service request that the Corporate Fraud Manager investigates to ensure that all invoices have been properly claimed and paid and report back.

 

 

6.2 Question from Mr Salah Uddin Salam about the Special Responsibility Allowance of the Chair of the Pensions Committee

 

Is it true that last year, the council's chair of the pensions committee was paid nearly £6,000 for two meetings that lasted less than two hours?

 

Response by Councillor Alibor Choudhury, Cabinet Member for Resources:

 

Unfortunately it is true. There were only two meetings held in 2011/12. £6,000 allowance for not much work.

 

These are dodgy expenses and at a time when ratepayers are struggling to cope with crippling austerity measures he should really consider whether it is right for him to have accepted the money.

 

No supplementary question was put.

 

[Note: Following the above question and response, Councillor Anwar Khan rose to give a point of personal explanation.  He explained that although he had been available, two meetings had been inquorate and so could not take place. There was also a large amount of background work required on technical issues and the Member’s Allowance was reasonable for the work undertaken.]

 

 

6.3 Question from Mr Scott Stuart about the Olympic legacy in Tower Hamlets

 

The Olympics were a once in a lifetime opportunity to showcase Tower Hamlets to the world, bringing their celebration and economic benefits to residents.  Instead we were stripped of the marathon and there has been little other than the underperforming Live Sites in the borough. Why has the Mayor failed to stand up for residents and let this Olympic opportunity pass us by?

 

Response by Councillor Rania Khan, Cabinet Member for Culture

 

The People of Tower Hamlets have played a full and active part in celebrating and participating in the Games experience whilst the Borough has secured significant levels of external investment and infrastructure improvements as a result of the Games that provide real long term benefits to the local economy. 

 

For example over 1700 local residents secured jobs as a result of the Mayors agreement with LOCOG and over £10m of external investment was been secured to improve Whitechapel High Street.

 

Almost five thousand residents of all ages have been able to go to the Olympics, Paralympics, Olympic Park and Olympic test events free. As an example 1000 tickets were delivered to us at 5pm one day. Officers worked hard to ensure residents could pick these tickets up by 9am the next day. Neighbouring boroughs gave the tickets to their staff instead.

 

The Borough hosted the American Olympic Track and Field Team who upgraded the Mile End Track Surface to Olympic Standards free of charge and donated weights, cardio vascular training equipment and athletics equipment to the Borough.

 

I accept that more could have been done and we have learnt a lot.

 

Summary of Supplementary Question from Mr Scott Stuart

 

The Mayor said that we would show the world what Tower Hamlets had to offer but Tower Hamlets unemployment claimants went up during the Games but fell significantly in the other host boroughs. Why?

 

Summary of Councillor Rania Khan’s Response to the Supplementary Question

 

There is a national employment crisis which affects everyone however Tower Hamlets residents did manage to secure jobs at the Games.

 

 

6.4 Question from Mr Afzalur Rahman about the lack of trade in Brick Lane during the Olympics

 

Earlier this year the Mayor declared Brick Lane to be the Country's Curry Capital and promised that businesses would reap great rewards from the Olympics. It was reported that £120,000 had been allocated to promote Brick Lane as part of London 2012, yet many restaurants saw massive drops in trade despite being urged to take on extra staff for the Olympics. What happened to the publicity budget and why did the Mayor not deliver for Brick lane businesses?

 

Response by Councillor Alibor Choudhury, Cabinet Member for Resources

 

Tower Hamlets was not unique in suffering a lower turnout and one of the main reasons was the hysteria of the Mayor of London in urging the public to avoid public transport.

 

There was no external funding given to the council to promote Curry Capital 2012.  Tower Hamlets Council had to identify resources from existing funds.  This was done following consideration by the Mayor of the need to promote Brick Lane and Banglatown Brick Lane as a key visitor destination.  Brick Lane was featured in media as diverse as the New York Times to China Daily.

 

Summary of Supplementary Question from Mr Afzalur Rahman

 

£120,000 was promised by the Mayor and he failed to deliver. It was our worst experience for years. How will the Mayor learn from this?

 

Summary of Councillor Alibor Choudhury’s Response to the Supplementary Question

 

We are suffering from a national downturn caused by the policies of the national government.

 

 

6.5 Question from Ms Shumi Shabiha on the armed forces parade

 

Why did the Labour and Tory group leaders not turn up to the armed forces parade in Wapping garden?

 

Response by Councillor Rania Khan, Cabinet Member for Culture

 

The Mayor does not know why the Labour and Group Leaders did not turn up to the armed forces parade in Wapping Garden.

 

They missed one of the best events this Borough has hosted and of which all residents can be proud.

 

It is a pity that the Labour and Tory Group leader could not join the Mayor and residents including some of our more famous residents such as Dame Helen Mirren, to thank our troops and volunteers for their wonderful contribution to the Olympics and Paralympics and enjoy the fine curry lunch and music from the Royal Marines band.

 

It was a wonderful occasion that like the Olympics and Paralympics unified the whole community - it is a pity they could not join us.

 

Summary of Supplementary Question from Ms Shumi Shabiha

 

Did the leaders of the Labour and Tory groups apologise in advance?

 

Summary of Councillor Rania Khan’s Response to the Supplementary Question

 

As far as I know they did not send their apologies in advance.

 

 

[Note:  Following the above question and response, Councillors Joshua Peck, Peter Golds and Rachael Saunders rose in turn to give points of personal explananation.  They each stated that very short notice had been given of the event in question.  The Councillors understood that preparatory work for the event had been underway for at least a week before the invitations were issued and that despite final approval for the event being given on 8^th August and others being invited shortly afterwards, invitations to Councillors were not issued by the Communications Team until 6.15 p.m. on Friday 10^th August.]   

 

 

6.6 Question from Junyied Ahmed Sundor on the proposed reduction in Councillors at Tower Hamlets Council

 

Can the Mayor explain why he put a submission to the Boundary Commission to reduce the number of councillors from 51 to 45? Why does he think Tower Hamlets needs less Councillors?

 

Response by Councillor Ohid Ahmed, Deputy Mayor

 

It is for the Boundary Commission to determine the number of Councillors that are appropriate for Tower Hamlets, not the Mayor.

 

Summary of Supplementary Question from Junyied Ahmed Sundor

 

There are over a quarter of a million residents in Tower Hamlets, what procedure was undertaken for a thorough consultation?

 

Summary of Councillor Ohid Ahmed’s Response to the Supplementary Question

 

It was for the Boundary Commission to organise the consultation exercise but I understand they spoke to all political groups on the Council as well as considering responses from the community.