To consider the proposals of the Mayor and Executive for the Council’s Budget and Council tax 2015/16.  The report of the Mayor in Cabinet on 4^th February 2015 and Annexes setting out the budget proposals are attached.

Mayor Lutfur Rahman introduced, and Councillor Alibor Choudhury moved, the budget proposals of the Mayor and Executive as set out in the agenda pack. Councillor Oliur Rahman seconded the proposals.

 

Two amendments were tabled and moved as follows:

 

(i)    Amendment proposed by Councillor Rachael Saunders and seconded by Councillor Ayas Miah.

 

(ii)  Amendment proposed by Councillor Andrew Wood and seconded by Councillor Craig Aston.

 

Following debate the amendment proposed by Rachael Saunders was put to the vote and was agreed.

 

Councillors recorded their votes on the amendment as follows:-

 

Councillor	For	Against	Abstain	Absent
Khales Uddin Ahmed	x
Ohid Ahmed		x
Rajib Ahmed	x
Suluk Ahmed		x
Mahbub Alam		x
Shah Alam		x
Amina Ali				Absent
Shahed Ali		x
Abdul Asad		x
Craig Aston			x
Asma Begum	x
Rachel Blake	x
Chris Chapman			x
Dave Chesterton	x
Alibor Choudhury		x
Gulam Kibria Choudhury		x
Andrew Cregan				Absent
Julia Dockerill			x
David Edgar	x
Marc Francis	x
Amy Whitelock Gibbs	x
Peter Golds			x
Shafiqul Haque		x
Clare Harrisson	x
Danny Hassell	x
Sirajul Islam	x
Denise Jones	x
Aminur Khan		x
Rabina Khan		x
Shiria Khatun	x
Abjol Miah				Absent
Ayas Miah	x
Harun Miah		x
Mohammed Maium Miah		x
Mohammed Mufti Miah		x
Mohammed Abdul Mukit	x
Muhammed Ansar Mustaquim		x
Joshua Peck	x
John Pierce	x
Oliur Rahman		x
Gulam Robbani		x
Candida Ronald	x
Rachael Saunders	x
Helal Uddin	x
Andrew Wood			x
Total Votes	20	17	5	3

 

Following debate the amendment proposed by Andrew Wood was put to the vote and was defeated.

 

Councillors recorded their votes on the amendment as follows:-

 

Councillor	For	Against	Abstain	Absent
Khales Uddin Ahmed		x
Ohid Ahmed		x
Rajib Ahmed		x
Suluk Ahmed		x
Mahbub Alam		x
Shah Alam		x
Amina Ali				Absent
Shahed Ali		x
Abdul Asad		x
Craig Aston	x
Asma Begum		x
Rachel Blake		x
Chris Chapman	x
Dave Chesterton		x
Alibor Choudhury		x
Gulam Kibria Choudhury		x
Andrew Cregan				Absent
Julia Dockerill	x
David Edgar		x
Marc Francis		x
Amy Whitelock Gibbs		x
Peter Golds	x
Shafiqul Haque		x
Clare Harrisson		x
Danny Hassell		x
Sirajul Islam		x
Denise Jones		x
Aminur Khan		x
Rabina Khan		x
Shiria Khatun		x
Abjol Miah				Absent
Ayas Miah		x
Harun Miah		x
Mohammed Maium Miah		x
Mohammed Mufti Miah		x
Mohammed Abdul Mukit		x
Muhammed Ansar Mustaquim		x
Joshua Peck		x
John Pierce		x
Oliur Rahman		x
Gulam Robbani		x
Candida Ronald		x
Rachael Saunders		x
Helal Uddin		x
Andrew Wood	x
Total Votes	5	37	0	3

 

The substantive budget proposals as amended were then put to the vote and were defeated.

 

Councillors recorded their votes on the amended budget as follows:-

 

Councillor	For	Against	Abstain	Absent
Khales Uddin Ahmed		x
Ohid Ahmed		x
Rajib Ahmed		x
Suluk Ahmed		x
Mahbub Alam		x
Shah Alam		x
Amina Ali				Absent
Shahed Ali		x
Abdul Asad		x
Craig Aston			x
Asma Begum		x
Rachel Blake		x
Chris Chapman			x
Dave Chesterton		x
Alibor Choudhury		x
Gulam Kibria Choudhury		x
Andrew Cregan				Absent
Julia Dockerill			x
David Edgar		x
Marc Francis		x
Amy Whitelock Gibbs		x
Peter Golds			x
Shafiqul Haque		x
Clare Harrisson		x
Danny Hassell		x
Sirajul Islam		x
Denise Jones		x
Aminur Khan		x
Rabina Khan		x
Shiria Khatun		x
Abjol Miah				Absent
Ayas Miah		x
Harun Miah		x
Mohammed Maium Miah		x
Mohammed Mufti Miah		x
Mohammed Abdul Mukit		x
Muhammed Ansar Mustaquim		x
Joshua Peck		x
John Pierce		x
Oliur Rahman		x
Gulam Robbani		x
Candida Ronald		x
Rachael Saunders		x
Helal Uddin		x
Andrew Wood			x
Total Votes	0	37	5	3

 

RESOLVED

 

(i)            That the budget proposals of the Mayor and Executive be not adopted;

 

(ii)          That the Mayor and Executive be informed of the Council’s objections to their budget proposals as set out in the amendment agreed by the Council as set out below; be requested to reconsider their proposals in the light of those objections; and in accordance with the Budget and Policy Framework Procedure Rules submit revised proposals for consideration at a further Budget Council Meeting to be held on 5^th March 2015.

 

This Council believes:

 

·         That Lutfur Rahman is failing the people of Tower Hamlets on the basics – he cannot keep the streets clean.  Bulk waste charges have increased fly-tipping and he has proposed to cut monitoring of clean streets this year.

 

·         Residents regularly complain that they are unable to report antisocial behaviour and noise nuisance out of hours, leaving their families suffering throughout the night.

 

·         That Lutfur Rahman claimed he would not cut front line services.  This budget contains multiple cuts to front line services to the most vulnerable. 

 

·         That these cuts include closing the council’s in house homecare service, which has been opposed by this Labour Group at repeated budget meetings, and which has already been implemented, with swingeing redundancies. 

 

·         Lutfur Rahman is failing on community safety, with a fall in the number of police officers being funded by the Council, adding insult to the injury of Tory cuts to the police.    Local people expect better, with concerns expressed to us about burglary and anti-social behaviour on the rise.  

 

·         That the Mayor must stop wasting public money on hopeless legal battles which are for his own personal benefit, with no thought for the needs of local people. 

 

·         That the Mayor’s attempt to close four public-run nurseries was shameful and typifies his failure to protect vital frontline services.

 

·         That we must tackle poverty.  Tower Hamlets has the highest child poverty in the UK.  It is the mission of the Labour Party that that must stop. 

 

·         That there is a great need in Tower Hamlets to bring people of different backgrounds together. That services to children are a great place to find common ground between parents and begin lifetime friendships for children. 

 

·         A Labour government elected in May 2015 would extend the hours of free childcare available for three and four year olds from 15 to 25 hours.

 

·         That Lutfur Rahman’s council has failed in delivering the current 15 hour 2 year old entitlement. 

 

·         That the Leaving Care Service is a vital frontline support to young people and should be protected from cuts.

 

·         That increased resources are needed to respond to the unprecedented number of planning applications in Tower Hamlets as the borough goes through huge change and a further review of planning charges needs to be carried out to increase planning capacity.

 

·         That the Labour Group recognises the vital importance of cultural provision in the borough and that the grants process is the appropriate route for provision at Kobi Nazrul.

 

This Council notes:

 

·         The proposed cut of £140,000: ‘Deliver more Streetcare monitoring through Champions and Volunteers’ (Ref: CLC010).

 

·         That there were 896 reported refuse and recycling missed collections in January 2015. This has risen from 456 in December 2014.

 

·         That the number of Council funded police officers in the Partnership Task Force will fall from 25 to 16 from January 2016:

 

o          Calendar year-end 2012: 25 officers

o          Calendar year-end 2013: 25 officers

o          Calendar year-end 2014: 25 officers

o          Calendar year-end 2015: 25 officers

o          Calendar year-end 2016: 16 officers

 

·         The proposed cut of £427,000: ‘Reduce Duplication in Leaving Care Service’ (Ref: ESCW057).

 

·         That two-thirds of two year olds in the borough are not receiving the 15 hours of free childcare that they are entitled to.

 

This Council resolves to adopt the following amendment to the Mayor’s budget for 2015/16:

 

·         Delete the funding for Mayoral advisers, saving the Council £350,000.

 

·         Scrap the Mayoral car, saving £15,000.

 

·         Implement a departmental top slice for communications spending (across CLC, D&R, ESWB), saving £200,000.

 

·         Save £100,000 from the legal services budget.

 

·         Delete the budget for Kobi Nazrul, saving £100,000.

 

·         Save an additional £150,000 from the smoking cessation budget.

 

·         Increase planning charges in order to increase in-house capacity and improve consultation.

 

·         Reverse the cut to ‘Deliver more Streetcare Monitoring through Champions & Volunteers’, costing £140,000.

 

·         Reverse the cut to ‘Reduce duplication in Leaving Care Service’, costing £427,000.

 

·         Impose a 50% cut to the recurrent budget for the Annual Residents Survey – from £45,000 to £22,500.

 

·         Invest £110,000 into a 24 hour noise service.

 

·         Invest £10k into safe cycle storage

o   £5,000 for officers to identify sites for safe-cycle storage

o   £5,500 for implementation

 

·         Provide £250,000 funding and support to incentivise schools to provide additional places for childcare provision for two year olds, so that more children receive the 15 hours of childcare they are currently entitled to.

 

 

#	Saving Proposal	Saving	Dir.
1	Delete funding for Mayoral advisers	£350,000	LPG
2	Scrap the Mayoral car	£15,000	LPG
3	Implement a top slice across departmental communications budgets	£200,000	LPG
4	Legal Services Budget	£100,000	LPG
5	Delete funding for Kobi Nazrul	£100,000	CLC
6	Additional savings from the smoking cessation budget	£150,000	ESW
7	Halve Annual Residents Survey Budget	£22,500	LPG
	Total	£937,500

 

 

#	Spending Proposal	Cost	Dir.
8	Protect funding for street care monitoring	£140,000	CLC
9	Protect funding for the Leaving Care Service	£427,000	ESW
10	Invest in a 24-hour noise service	£110,000	CLC
11	Safe cycle storage – site identification and implementation	£10,500	CLC
12	Invest in Childcare Budget	£250,000	ESW
	Total	£937,500