Agenda and minutes
Venue: Room M78, 7th Floor, Town Hall, Mulberry Place, 5 Clove Crescent, London, E14 2BG
Contact: Antonella Burgio, Democratic Services Tel: 020 7364 4881, E-mail: antonella.burgio@towerhamlets.gov.uk
Note: Meeting moved from Monday 21st November 2011
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APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE To receive any apologies for absence. Minutes: Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Stephanie Eaton, Fozol Miah, and Sirajul Islam. Councillor Judith Gardiner deputised for Councillor Islam.
Apologies were also received from Co-opted Members Ms Memory Kampiyawo, Mr Jake Kemp and Canon Michael Ainsworth and Mr Mushfique Uddin.
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Coucillor Ohid Ahmed attended the meeting but did not participate in the discussion.
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DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST To note any declarations of interest made by Members, including those restricting Members from voting on the questions detailed in Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act, 1992. See attached note from the Chief Executive.
Minutes: Councillors Ann Jackson and Judith Gardiner declared personal interests in respect of agenda item 3.1.
Councillor Ann Jackson declared a personal interest in respect of agenda item 3.1 in that she was Ward Member for Bow West and part of Victoria Park fell within her Ward.
Councillor Judith Gardiner also declared a personal interest in respect of agenda item 3.1 in that her home was adjacent to Victoria Park and she was a Member of the Olympic Planning Committee.
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SECTION ONE REPORTS 'CALLED IN' One Decision was ‘called in’ taken under the Mayor’s executive decisions process. |
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Call-In: Contract for 2012 Olympic Festival Live Site (Mayor's Decision Log No 009) Report attached
[Note: In view of the potential for disclosure of commercially sensitive information, it likely that some or all of the discussion will need to take place in the exempt part of the agenda. Officers will advise the Committee on this point.]
Additional documents: Minutes: Councillor Peck presented the Call-in on behalf of Councillors Anwar Khan, Carli Harper-Penman, Carlo Gibbs and Bill Turner.
Councillor Peck then responded to questions from the Committee. The concerns highlighted together with Councillor Peck’s answers, are summarised in the following categories:
· Decision making: · consultation was due to start on 23 November 2011, effectively after the decision had been made (the decision was published on 31 October 2011). · the decision was made in private therefore Ward Councillors and parties that would be affected had no opportunity to hear of the decision or raise concerns. · the Mayor did not attend the Overview and Scrutiny to answer the issues raised. · Councillor Peck queried the projected income for the Council against the expected contribution. · Councillor Peck queried the liability accepted by the Council set at £20 million. · the intended recipients and sum of the charitable contribution by the event organiser had not been specified. · evidence of event dates advertised through Ticketmaster website contradicted the Mayor's previous undertaking not to hold additional Olympic events as well as the regular events in Victoria Park.
· Capacity issues:
· Environmental issues: · the suggested programme of eight commercial events in addition to the established programme of events would have a very damaging impact on Victoria Park. · there was no evidence of consultation on the impacts of the events with the Police, Transport for London or the Council’s environmental or waste services. There was concern that the transport and security infrastructure would not be able to cope. · the post-event clean up that would be necessary would in itself cause disruption to the local community. · the environmental after-effects of the events persisted long after the events were over. · the projected 850,000 to 1,000,000 visitors to the park raised safety, noise nuisance and overcrowding issues · impacts of the events extended far beyond the location of Victoria Park to the surrounding neighbourhoods.
· Residents’ inconvenience
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EXCLUSION OF PRESS AND PUBLIC In view of the contents of the following item on the agenda, the Committee is recommended to adopt the following motion:
“That, under the provisions of Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985, the press and public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting for the consideration of the Section Two business on the grounds that it contains information defined as Exempt in Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972.”
EXEMPT/CONFIDENTIAL SECTION (Pink Papers)
The exempt committee papers in the agenda will contain information, which is commercially, legally or personally sensitive and should not be divulged to third parties. If you do not wish to retain these papers after the meeting, please hand them to the Committee Officer present.
Minutes: Under the provisions of Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985, the Chair moved that press and public be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the Section Two business on the grounds that it contained information defined as exempt in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.
RESOLVED
That press and public be excluded for the discussion of contractual matters.
Exempt information is defined in section 100I and, by reference, Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (“the 1972 Act”). The information was assessed as falling fall within one of the exemption categories listed in paragraphs 1 to 7 of Schedule 12A. The public interest in maintaining the exemption was assessed to outweigh the public interest in disclosing the information.
The discussion concerned information falling within paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972. The category being defined as: “3 Information relating to the financial or business of any particular person (including the authority handling the information) and The public interest favouring public access to local authority meetings reflected in the provisions of Part V A of the 1972 Act was noted. In this case, however, the discussion concerned information relating to the financial affairs of a company with whom the Council wished to enter into a contract. The Committee was advised that, in order to discharge its duty, information pertaining to the terms of the contract should only be considered in private.
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EXEMPT ITEMS |
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Call-In: Contract for 2012 Olympic Festival Live Site (Mayor's Decision Log No 009) To consider and discuss the call –in request |