Agenda item
TO RECEIVE WRITTEN QUESTIONS FROM MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL
The questions which have been received from Councillors to be put at this Council meeting are set out in the attached report. A maximum period of 30 minutes is allocated to this agenda item.
Minutes:
The following questions and in each case a supplementary question were put (except where indicated) and were responded to by the Mayor, relevant Executive Member, or Councillor.
8.1 Question from Councillor Clare Harrisson
(For transparency, I would like to declare that I am an employee of UNISON, although I do not work in ethical care.)
Can the Cabinet Member for Health & Adult Services inform members how many people, including home care staff and service users, will benefit from the Council’s adoption of UNISON’s Ethical Care Charter?
Response by Councillor Amy Whitelock Gibbs (Cabinet Member for Health & Adult Services)
I am really proud that we are fulfilling one of the Mayor’s flagship manifesto commitments with this policy. The great thing about this charter is it’s about ethics and dignity both for staff and service users. In terms of residents, it will benefit all 2,000 of the vulnerable residents who currently receive homecare services. Their care workers will have proper time, will be paid properly and treated better, so they can provide care based on dignity, safety and wellbeing.
In terms of care workers, we estimate that there will be around 1,300 care workers who will benefit from the adoption of the Charter in a number of ways. One which I know many care workers have spoken to me and the Mayor about is about guaranteeing a fixed hours contract, moving away from zero hour contracts, which will be at least 12 hours per week and moving up to 16 hours per week by end 2018 and a number of other benefits.
Supplementary question from Councillor Clare Harrisson
One of the things that informed our conversation on this was a report that was published by, I believe, Islington Council a couple of years into their implementation that looked at the increase in qualifications of people working in the service and increased service user satisfaction. Will you guarantee to produce a similar report in, say 18 months’ time to see how it has done?
Councillor Amy Whitelock Gibbs response to the supplementary question
We will be robustly monitoring the Ethical Care Charter through the contracts and it will be a compulsory part of those contracts, so if the home care providers fail to deliver they will be held to account by us. I will be requiring regular updates from officers and I am sure we can produce an annual report of the nature you describe. I am really proud of this, not least because it shows how a Labour council working together with staff (many care workers spoke to me and the Mayor about this) and with the unions can really improve quality of services despite the government cuts that we face.
8.2 Question from Councillor Oliur Rahman
Has John Biggs had a word with Cllr Whitelock Gibbs, who is reviewing the Tower Hamlets Health & Wellbeing Board (TH H&WBB) and consulting on how to cut £5m from the Public Health Budget? Will he clarify whether he has asked her to ensure there is a balanced ethnic minority (BAME) representation in TH H&WBB so that BAME health and wellbeing concerns can be met and the population is not disproportionately affected or disenfranchised by these new and potentially devastating choice of budget cuts?
Response by Councillor Amy Whitelock Gibbs (Cabinet Member for Health & Adult Services)
I will not take lessons from your side of the room on diversity; I’m really proud to be part of a gender and ethnically balanced Cabinet and group on this side of the Chamber. In relation to your specific question on the Health and Wellbeing Board, I am honoured that the Mayor has asked me to chair the Health and Wellbeing Board. It allows us to co-chair the Board with the Clinical Commissioning Group who are a really critical health partner. This is in response to an external review that recommended we make a number of changes to the Board, which is on the agenda later this evening. Part of the changes that I am keen to make are about being a much more open and outwardly facing Board and that will include engaging with black and minority ethnic communities as well as a number of other groups.
On the public health cuts, it is the Tory government that has chosen to cut the public health grant by millions of pounds. I and other lead members in London strongly oppose these cuts, both publicly and privately and officers have responded to the consultation opposing them as well. You were part of the debate at Overview and Scrutiny Committee about the details of these cuts and I am happy to discuss further with you.
Supplementary question from Councillor Oliur Rahman
Does the Mayor or the Lead Member think it is acceptable that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee of the Council has official representation from the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church and no official representative from the Muslim faith?
Councillor Amy Whitelock Gibbs response to the supplementary question
I do not chair the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. The Health and Wellbeing Board, which I chair, has members as required by statute, though we have supplemented them in other ways. We will be happy to provide a separate response to your question about the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
8.3 Question from Councillor Andrew Cregan
What assessment has been made of the economic impacts of the ‘Brexit’ vote?
Response by Mayor John Biggs
I am disappointed with the referendum vote, particularly as 68 percent of Tower Hamlets residents voted to remain in the European Union and I was clear during the campaign that the East End would be better off staying in the European Union. But we now need to work with the decision and we need to rely on our leadership in Parliament to take us through that.
In terms of an assessment of the impact on our economy, it is too early to say. There is obviously going to be an impact on the property market and there may well be an impact on the financial services industry, which some people may consider to be an alien part of our Borough, but for many people it is not. More importantly is the impact on London’s wider economy and the service economy, which is the engine of London’s economy, is potentially very severe and we need to work with others and watch that very carefully and champion the role of London in the UK, which can only survive and prosper if it has strong trading links with other places, in particular Europe.
Supplementary question from Councillor Andrew Cregan
I would like to add, as Chair of the Pensions Committee, I too am very concerned about the adverse consequences of the vote on investment returns and interest rates impacting savers approaching retirement in the Borough.
As most of the tools to deal with Brexit and the negotiations over the settlement itself with the rest of the EU are out of the hands of this chamber, I would like to see Tower Hamlets working in tandem with the Mayor of London taking a bullish approach in lobbying the government for an outcome that secures our continued access to the single market (which is critical for London’s economy) and that means promoting the continuation of freedom of movement of people as well – ‘a Norwegian Model’. Not just because the freedom of movement of people is necessary to ensure the freedom of movement of goods, services and capital, but because EU citizens that live and work in Tower Hamlets and across the UK make a vital and extremely positive contribution to our economy and our society. So will the Mayor stand with Sadiq Khan in pushing for such a resolution?
Response to the supplementary question
Of course I will stand with Sadiq and other local authority leaders in London, the majority, 28, of which supported staying in the European Union. I think another issue we need to work very clearly on is the equalities aspect, because many Londoners depend on our service economy and the opportunities our City has. The new Prime Minister has stated very clearly she is committed to something, something she almost certainly can’t achieve I think, which is to secure extraordinarily low levels of migration to our country, which is quite an open country, and I think that’s very worrying in terms of the community relations impact for a Borough like Tower Hamlets and for a city like London.
8.4 Question from Councillor Andrew Wood
Will the Mayor inform the council as to what percentage of the 43,589 vehicle owners in Tower Hamlets responded to the Councils recent consultation on the 20 mph speed limit which ended on the 20thJune and what is the response of residents to the efficacy to the borough wide limit fixed at 20mph?
Response by Councillor Ayas Miah (Cabinet Member for Environment)
The report on the consultation is not yet finalised, but I will ensure that you have the full result when it is ready. This is a good opportunity to share some initial findings on the introduction of the 20 miles per hour limit in our borough. I am pleased to say that the early indicators are quite positive and quite good. Analysis of the data from the nine months following the introduction of the limit has shown that the overall number of collisions has reduced by 53 percent. This includes the number of fatal and serious collisions reducing by 55 and 56 percent respectively whilst the number of slight collision has fallen by 30 percent. Overall average vehicle speed across the south west sites has also fallen by 1.4 miles per hour to 18.5 miles per hour. This is just a snapshot, however I will keep this under review, but the initial picture is positive and I am sure Councillor Wood will welcome it.
Supplementary question from Councillor Andrew Wood
Actually I almost didn't make the meeting tonight. I was driving through my ward and, as seems to happen a very frequently nowadays, the vehicle ahead coming towards me was overtaking slower vehicles and came into my lane. I had to break sharply to avoid hitting them and it does seem to be fairly common nowadays that people are more aggressive and overtaking more. As part of this is 20 miles per hour review, are you looking at driver behaviour more generally and whether that has changed or will be changed as a result?
Councillor Ayas Miah response to the supplementary question
When we have the full result of the survey and feedback of course we will work together to respond and fulfil that requirement. Our officers and we are working together in order to achieve it. I think we should wait for the full results.
8.6 Question from Councillor Mahbub Alam
Can the current Mayor confirm which, if any, nurseries, children centres, council’s satellite or primary buildings, and critically youth centres, have been closed since June 2015 or will be closed by 2018?
Response by Councillor Rachael Saunders (Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Education & Children's Services)
We control three childcare sites and have no plans to close them. We have 12 children’s centres and no plans to close them. Everything else in that sector is either run by schools or private businesses. No nursery classes or schools have been closed since 2015. As the Councillor will know, the Council does not control this provision. We are not aware of any plans by governing bodies to close such provision in the future. One school is considering opening such a provision. No maintained nursery schools have been closed since 2015. No designated children's centres have been closed since 2015. There are no plans to close children's centres
The majority of childcare in the borough, over 99 percent, is run by private childcare business or schools and we don't make decisions about whether to open or close them. Two children's centres have local authority childcare on site, John Smith and Overland. We own one building, Mary Sambrook, from which childcare is offered. Places at these day nurseries are funded by DfE Place Funding. The landlord that owns Queen Mary Day Nursery has expressed a desire to take back their building and we have re-provided that service locally so there are no jobs that have been lost in that process and the services have been re-provided in collaboration with St Paul's Way Primary School.
Supplementary question from Councillor Mahbub Alam
Is your memory working? Two years ago when you were the leader of Tower Hamlets Labour Group, you came with some mothers of children from Tower Hamlets nursery to the Cabinet and you urged them to come to the Council to protest against any idea of closing those nurseries. You must have forgot that you told those mothers that you didn't want to close any of the nurseries yourself. Just two years later at the budget scrutiny committee meeting, you gave a commitment that no nursery schools would be to shut down, but you have forgotten about this too because you have closed Queen Mary Nursery, or are you denying that? Secondly can you tell us which youth centres you want to close down? There is no lie about it, tell us which ones you really want to close down.
Councillor Rachael Saunders response to the supplementary question
I object to you using words like your lies, especially when you are reading from a supplementary question you had written before you had heard my answer. You used the word ‘lie’ about an answer that I gave, which was a question you had written before you'd heard my answer. I didn't tell a lie and I have not told you a lie. In relation to Queen Mary Day Nursery, we are in a situation where, firstly, asbestos and legionnaires disease was found in the building, so it is not safe to run from that building and now we are in a situation where the landlord wishes to sell the building. What we are doing in response to that is to provide childcare as usual on a nearby site, St Paul's Way Foundation Primary School. No jobs have been lost. No places have been lost. Unlike other local authority day nurseries, Queen Mary's operates in a rented building and the landlord can take that building back and we understand a decision has been taken to develop or market the property. No staff have lost their jobs and no parents have lost a free childcare place in response to the move. In response to the question on youth service, what I think you are trying to imply is that the changes are temporary and you want an answer as to what will be part of the permanent model. I am grateful you recognise the current model is interim. We haven’t made decisions yet about the permanent model and if young persons wish to talk to us about what the permanent model looks like, I would be really grateful to speak to them.
8.7 Question from Councillor Rajib Ahmed
What investment is the Council making in local healthcare provision?
Response by Councillor Amy Whitelock Gibbs (Cabinet Member for Health & Adult Services)
Through our public health services we invest millions in prevention, health promotion and tackling health inequalities. This includes GP services, pharmacy work, health visiting, breastfeeding support, sexual health services and drug and alcohol services. More specifically, we know from residents and GPsthere is a lot of concern at the moment about pressure on GP surgeries and not being able to get appointments, not being able to be seen quickly, particularly when new housing is coming on stream. That is why we are investing £15.8 million of Section 106 money (money we have got from developers) to modernise GP practices and create some more green spaces that will benefit residents’ health. There are four GP practices particularly that I want to highlight: Aberfeldy, Sutton’s Wharf, Goodmans Fields and William Cotton Place. I know that all of those areas’ residents and GPs have been clamouring for much needed improvements to the building and expansions so they can seem more patients and I'm really pleased that the Mayor has agreed to those proposals.
No supplementary question from Councillor Rajib Ahmed
8.9 Question from Councillor Candida Ronald
Could the Mayor or Cabinet Member please provide an update on the investigation into the THH data protection incident, after the blog ‘Love Wapping’ alleged an unauthorised use of Council's tenants' data as part of the 2014 and 2015 Tower Hamlets Mayoral campaigns?
Response by Mayor John Biggs
I'm extremely grateful for this question because there is an update and the update is contained in a report produced by Tower Hamlets Homes, which I imagine you have received. What that tells you is that the investigation into what the address list was that was used ascertains, without any credible doubt, that the list was obtained from a list provided in response to a Members enquiry by Tower Hamlets Homes by the then Mayor's Office and the Mayor's Office appears to have passed on confidential address details to both the previous mayor in his election campaigning and the Independent Group’s mayoral candidate for campaigning in last year’s campaign. This is clearly a breach of data security and I think it shows a breach of trust. It's a matter that we hopefully can blot out in this Borough, but it does require people to recognise that they have to behave and act within the law when they are trusted with public information.
Supplementary question from Councillor Candida Ronald
Does it worry you that that information has not yet been accounted for and still could be illegally used for political campaigning in the future?
Mayor John Biggs response to the supplementary question
I think the foundation of that is that we all have, as elected members, access to confidential information, such as the address details of people. When someone comes to you with case work, that doesn't give you the right to transfer that information to your political party, for example, and use it to send propaganda. If people have a list of addresses like this was then to use that in a direct mail campaign or to target voters is a fundamental breach of trust. It is a misuse of data and it should be stamped upon. Now that Tower Hamlets Homes has ascertained that was the source of this data, we need both a safeguard to prevent it happening again and we need to look at the behavioural issues that lay behind it because, clearly, there are people in this chamber, I think, who have a problem in discerning between what they should do and what is not proper.
8.10 Question from Councillor Rabina Khan
How many homeless families have been helped from Bed & Breakfast into Temporary Accommodation since July 2015?
Response by Councillor Sirajul Islam (Cabinet Member for Housing Management & Performance)
I'm not surprised Councillor Khan is concerned with families in bed and breakfast, because at the time she left office there were 232 families in this sad situation. However, I am pleased to say that 12 months later, after a year of concerted political effort from the Mayor and myself and hard work from officers, that number has reduced by 68 percent to just seventy five families. In the period, 794 new bed and breakfast bookings were made, though this includes single household accommodation on a discretionary basis and assuming that 75 per cent of all B&B placements are families, this would indicate in the region of 520 families have been moved from B&B in the 13 months to June 2016. I hope that Councillor Khan welcomes this progress and joins me in congratulating officers in reducing the embarrassingly high numbers she left with us.
Supplementary question from Councillor Rabina Khan
The mayor has been busy, hasn't he? He’s been busy exporting homeless families out of the Borough. He exported 1,000 families out of Tower Hamlets into places alongside Kent, all the way into Gillingham, all the way into Dartford. Why do you feel that it was an investment to invest in temporary accommodation outside of this Borough? I will give you an example: in Chatham, there is a block of flats there that were newly refurbished with new kitchens, all ready and waiting for bed and breakfast families to be exported out of this Borough into Kent.
Councillor Sirajul Islamresponse to the supplementary question
Last June, when Mayor Biggs took office, we inherited almost 200 homeless families living in B&B for months and months and months. This Council was breaking the law. By law you can only keep families in B&B for a maximum of six months. This Council, under the old administration and Councillor Khan’s leadership placed people in B&B for months and months and months. If those people went to the ombudsman then we would have been in serious problems. We took a leadership decision to move hundreds of families into accommodation in order to meet that obligation. I understand Councillor Khan was passionately advocating people moving to Kent at an O&S sub-committee meeting on Monday night, so I don't know why you've changed your mind now. We as an administration are very, very passionate about homeless people. We have reduced B&B six-week stay to 19 at this stage from 219, so that is progress and that is a commitment from us.
8.11 Question from Councillor Helal Uddin
Can the Mayor update Full Council on some of the key results of the recent Annual Residents’ Survey?
Response by Mayor John Biggs
The residents’ survey was a survey of 1,000 local residents, carried out by a reputable firm and done scientifically. It reports that 71 percent of residents surveyed were satisfied with the way the Council runs things. It was up six percent on last year. Half of the eighteen services monitored have seen an improvement in services ratings whilst none saw a decline. We saw a big increase in the percentage of people who thought the Council was doing a better job than one year ago, up by 17 percent to 61 percent. That is still too low a percentage. Almost three quarters, 72 percent, of those surveyed said they trusted the Council. The majority of people remain positive in their views of the area: 83 percent of residents are satisfied with the area as a place to live and most feel that their local area is a place where people from different backgrounds get along. There are still many, many areas where we need work to improve things. The reality is that, yes, we have made improvements and we should be proud of those, but we have many further challenges and that increase of 17 percent moves us, really, only to around the London average or what you should expect for your average authority. We need to aspire to a lot better than that. We have made progress, we are digging ourselves out of a hole, but we need to do a lot more to demonstrate we are meeting the whole range of needs of local people.
Supplementary question from Helal Uddin
It is very helpful to know that there is that 17 percent an increase in resident confidence compared to a year ago and we highly appreciate it. Could you also touch a little bit on whether engagement with the public would help us to build more connection, give people more confidence and empower them to engage more in future?
Mayor John Biggs response to the supplementary question
As you know, you have been appointed as the mayoral advisor for this very area, for working better on community liaison and consultation so we do engage local people. People do not necessarily want to spend every night of the week in meetings at a church hall or a community centre about technical issues, but people do want to be listened to and we need to show that we listen to them and are accountable to them. I am proud of what we've done so far and we need to do more to be a responsive council and I am pleased that you are part of our Team, Councillor Uddin.
8.12 Question from Councillor Julia Dockerill
Further to our meeting on 31 May and his site visit on 1 July, what plans has the Mayor devised to improve Tower Hill's functioning, appearance and relationship with surrounding areas to ensure our borough makes best use of this incredible tourist asset?
Response by Councillor Denise Jones
As you know, the Tower of London is a World Heritage Site and it is in this Borough. It is the finest historic asset that we have and for many people that come here it is their first introduction to the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. A lot of people don't even realise it is in Tower Hamlets. It is therefore important that the Borough project its best face and not only that it looks good, but also functions effectively. For that reason the Mayor has requested that the Council's new Local Plan provides a clear steer on the future of this area and sets out the Council's ambitions for the area in terms of standard of design and layout. This will be done in consultation with the local community and stakeholders, including Historic Royal Palaces, TFL and neighbouring boroughs. There have been a number of complaints recently from the Tower of London, Trinity House and other stakeholders around that area about street cleansing in the area and other issues including ice cream vans, so we will continue to work with advice from the City of London to make sure that the area is cleaned up properly.
Supplementary question from Councillor Julia Dockerill
I wanted to ask about the street cleansing issues and whether there are any plans that have been devised specifically to deal with the bin problems that we have been having?
Councillor Denise Jones response to the supplementary question
We are actually waiting at the moment for a meeting with the City of London, who have offered to suggest some new ways of doing that. Also the Tower of London have said that they clean up the area around the Tower of London and they are quite happy to move up a little bit, next to the Trinity Gardens, that we own, and deal with the rubbish near the station which is causing a problem. There will be more information shortly.
Question 8.5 was withdrawn by the questioner due to the similarities in content with question 8.4. Question 8.8 was not put due to the absence of the questioner. Questions 8.13 - 27 were not put due to lack of time. Written responses would be provided to the questions. (Note: The written responses are included in Appendix ‘A’ to these minutes.)
Extension of time limit for the meeting
Mayor John Biggs moved, and Councillor Sirajul Islam seconded, a procedural motion, that “under Procedure Rule 15.11.7 the meeting be extended for 15 minutes, to consider and vote on the reports for consideration (Items 9.1,9.2, 11.1,11.2). The procedural motion was put to the vote and was agreed.
Supporting documents:
- Item 8 - Report Member Questions Council 200716, item 8. PDF 93 KB
- Appendix A - Responses to questions not put at the meeting, item 8. PDF 3 MB