Nothing really happened while I was away last week did it?
Oh, just the small matter of Lutfur Rahman being formally appointed mayor, then complaining his former Labour colleagues were playing politics by cutting his pay packet from £75,000 a year to a mere £65,000. Playing politics? Shurely shome mishtake. Lutfur himself would never ever do any such thing, would he…
But what’s this? In June, a month after he was ousted as council leader by Helal Abbas and well before the shambles of the Labour selection process, he proposed a formal motion to his fellow councillors at the town hall. For ease of reading, I’m copying his letter and motion again here:
Dear colleague
As you will have seen from the agenda for Monday’s Labour Group meeting, I am bringing a motion introducing term limits on any Labour directly-elected Mayor and reducing the Special Responsibility Allowance for that post and other Cabinet positions.
This motion is itself fairly self-explanatory, but i will explain my reasoning in a little more detail on Monday. I would obviously welcome your support for this motion, so please don’t hesitate to let me know if you any queries before then.
Yours
Lutfur
Motion – Directly-Elected Mayor
Proposed: Cllr Lutfur Rahman
Seconded: Cllr Marc Francis
This Labour Group notes:
- The referendum result in support of a Directly-Elected Mayor and the election for this position will be held on 21st October;
- That in other local authorities the introduction of an Executive Mayor in place of the Council Leader has resulted in an increase in the Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) for that position;
- That, as well as an Executive Mayor, Newham has 16 Cabinet Members and Mayoral Advisers, each in receipt of an SRA;
- That some directly-elected Mayors are now beginning their third consecutive Term of Office;
- The new Conservative / Lib Dem Coalition Government is expected to require around £10 million in “in-year” cuts from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, as well as significant additional savings thereafter.
This Labour Group believes:
- That it is important for the Labour Party and its elected representatives to take on the burden of any necessary savings before considering imposing cuts in frontline services;
- A Mayor, Deputy Mayor and eight Cabinet members is a sufficient Executive body for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets;
- George Washington and Thomas Jefferson had it right in establishing the convention of a two-term limit for the President of the United States, now enshrined in law by the 22nd Amendment.
This Labour Group therefore resolves:
- To peg the SRA of the Directly-Elected Mayor for 2010/11 and 2011/12 at the current level of the SRA to the Council Leader less 5 per cent;
- To peg the SRA for the Deputy Mayor for 2010/11 and 2011/12 at the current level of the SRA to the Deputy Leader less 5 per cent;
- To peg the SRA for Cabinet Members for 2010/11 and 2011/12 at the current level of the SRA to Cabinet Members less 5 per cent;
- To require that the Mayor appoint no more than one Deputy Mayor and eight Cabinet Members to serve on the Executive;
- That no Labour Mayor should seek a 3rd Term of Office.
Yes, that’s right, he was telling his colleagues that the newly elected Mayor should be paid 5 per cent less than the allowance for the then leader of the council, Helal Abbas, ie about £30,000. This was, of course, all in the interests of setting an example and saving taxpayers a bit of money – and nothing to do with playing politics to make himself look good – of course. I suspect that the rest of his colleagues who voted to reject the motion now regret they did so.
But cost-cutting is indeed now the name of the game. Following the Government’s comprehensive spending review, Tower Hamlets council is having to find tens of millions of pounds of savings. Lutfur himself recognises this. His mantra during the election campaign was that he would fight those cuts with all his heart.
Er, so what do you think his first edict was as newly elected Mayor? To order a brand new iPhone 4. Apparently his existing tax-funded Blackberry wasn’t good enough. According to a town hall mole, when Lutfur was told he would have to wait a week for his new Apple gadget, he threw his toys out of the pram and told council chief executive Kevan Collins to secure him one within 24 hours. Council officials were then ordered to leg it over to the Apple store in Covent Garden and shell out more than £500 of our money.
Not to be outdone, Deputy Mayor Ohid Ahmed also cried out for one. So that’s £1,000 (one council tax bill) of dodgy spending they’ve already racked up. Wonder if there’ll be any more….
PS…I’d typed up this post yesterday morning and was waiting for the council’s press office to confirm the iPhone orders before publishing. Almost 24 hours later, I’ve just received the response. “We aren’t going to be issuing any information about phones for members,” a spokeswoman said. Now, this is interesting. A few years ago, the council sent me a list of councillors who had been issued laptops and Blackberrys. So I wonder who’s ordered the change of policy? Silly people: as of January 1, the council will have to comply with Eric Pickles’s transparency edict and publish online all items of expenditure of more than £500. Seems like the iPhone 4 issue is the first sign of mild panic by Lutfur & co in the face of media scrutiny.
Trial by Jeory 
And so it starts.
Well he does need an iPhone 4. How else will he keep abreast of blogs such as this on the go?!?
This is quite funny, but what transparency is there for housing allocation, cos that’s what his tribe have voted him in for.
I have to say that I do feel so very sorry for the ‘grunts’ in the TH communications team (as well as the ‘grunts’ in all the services that the council provides). I even include senior management in that.
All of them have to keep carrying on trying to deliver good service day-to-day while living in fear of the cuts and, on top of that, having no strategic direction above them on where TH is going, how it’s going to make the budget cuts and what the long-term vision for the Council and the borough is.
And the Comms team have the sorry job of trying to justify the current goings-on to the outside world and attempting to present an image of ‘business as usual’. And knowing that nobody will believe them.
Best of luck to everyone at the Council.
Reading this an expression comes to mind, “hoist by his own petard”. Lutfur Rahman has been portrayed in a number of ways over the last few weeks. “Populist Man of the People”, “Self-righteous Martyr and victim”, “Willing Puppet of Islamist extremists”. But this article reveals the truth, “Self Interested Hypocrite and Poseur”. Only one thing could convince me otherwise. If he were to voluntarily accept the old Council Leader allowance (let’s forget the 5% reduction) and insist his Cabinet team accept the same pro-rata reductions in allowance. Any takers?
Blackberry is a VERY difficult phone to use
@ Jeory. “…..as of January 1, the council will have to comply with Eric Pickles’s transparency edict and publish online all items of expenditure of more than £500. Seems like the iPhone 4 issue is the first sign of mild panic by Lutfur & co in the face of media scrutiny.”
Can I remind everyone that at the last Council meeting before the Mayoral catastrophe, the Conservative Group proposed that the date of the transparency provision be brought forward to October. This was rejected out of hand by the Labour Party. I’m sure they wish they had been more far-sighted. In the mean-time, expect to see the Mayor and his groupies filling their boots at the Council Tax payers expense for the end of the year.
PWE Ingham, before making silly comments, do you actually know how the council operates? Are you saying the Mayor is corrupt for getting a iphone, did you know almost all the council head of services are given mobile phones to use, they range from Blackberry to Nokia to others. The Mayor ordering a iphone for work is hardly a big deal, stop being petty and don’t judge people by your own standards.
If having an iphone allows the mayor to better communicate, then that is positive. Why should the Mayor not have a good phone?
Surely the point is that the Mayor had a perfectly good phone, the afore mentioned Blackberry. Why should he get a new, top of the range, state of the art piece of kit (at a reputed cost of £600) and why should he try and sneak it through before the transparency provisions take effect. If I thought that an Iphone would really increase his efficiency or make him a better Mayor I would be all in favour. But its a phone!
At a time when everyone is tightening his or her belt. When vast numbers of Council workers will undoubtedly face the risk of redundancy. Services will be under pressure and resources are at a premium. Lutfur Rahman doesn’t get it, its not about the trappings!
How could you make the assumption that he has a perfectly working phone?
The Blackberry is also an expensive phone and is only slightly less in price then the iphone. The iphone is a better smartphone hence the price! It also does not cost £600. The Mayor deserves to have the best tools to work with and there is nothing wrong with that!
Please lets stop making personal attack on people’s integrity, also lets stop the scare mongering about cost cutting and redundancy. It’s about time the council had a review of the huge sums it pays its staff and reduce excess staffing levels.
Try not to jump to conclusion, not everybody is negative as you are.
Actually, since the Mayor ordered a 32GB iPhone, the taxpayers are already down six hundred pounds per phone. And don’t worry, he’s also ordered a new BlackBerry to go with it.
Oh – how exciting – seems like we now have moles in the town hall!
I don’t think the Mayor and all the members of his cabinet should be under any illusion that EVERY payment over £500 is going to be scrutinised under the new administration – particularly all those relating to payments to or on behalf of members of the cabinet.
Guys – in all seriousness.
Rahman, when Leader of the Council, juggled the position with his partnership in a leading firm of solicitors, and earned a six-figure salary on top of the £30k allowance.
He has quit the day job. He is now a full-time mayor. Of course he should not be on £30k, how insulting would that be when Robin Whales next door gets £80k plus? He’s taken a massive salary cut, roughly 50%, in taking this job. For Abbas on the other hand, it would have been the most money he had ever had.
But Dominic, it was Lutfur himself who proposed that £30k pay for the position! It was his motion.
Maybe Lutfur’s trying to remain qualified for Child Benefit?
So, the wages should be promised on what riches they’re used to? “£65,000? I’ve got three kids and a hot tub to support!“
Gonna be a whole lot of FOI under the new administration.
This article is a joke. He’s got himself an iPhone? Who gives a shit?
There are two points. First is: what does it say about the priorities of the mayor when his first action is to get glitzy new toys rather than (say) fulfil some of his manifesto promises or maybe appoint a cabinet. Second is: there’s no reason for a politician to have an iPhone. For functionality and looking at emails which I think most people will say is fair enough you want a blackberry. BB for work, iPhone for fun. Its a luxury in an age of austerity. Oh, and a third point. This level of scrutiny is perfectly fair.
There are two points. First is: the Mayor’s first action was not to get himself an iPhone. This is a lie. Point 2: it’s your opinion what kind of phone Lutfur needs. Lutfur has a different view. Trying to make something out of what his opinion is on it is incredibly petty. It makes Lutfur’s critics look like irrelevant loons. If you’re OK with that, by all means carry on in this vein.
How ignorant is he! It was not in the time of George Washington that presidential term limits were introduced.
It was a constitutional amendment that happened after the death of President Roosevelt while in office during his third term and in the middle of World War 2.
On the other note… the date of this document is interesting. It would suggest he was not expecting to get the job when he proposed this motion otherwise he would not be proposing a limit on his own pay.
The political machinations that occurred between the day Respect decided to organise a petition to change the system to one with an Executive Mayor to that dark night Lutfur Rahman was elected Mayor on an independent ticket needs close examination.
Thank you Ted for the link to the East End Advertiser’s article on the Council meeting. However, this is obviously a brief account. We appreciate that you were away, but you are commenting on the meeting now, so we residents would like to hear more from you – particularly on the larger sums – millions of pounds – discussed at the Council meeting.
A contributor posted on here afterwards:
“…Apparently the Rich Mix money will now be given to the Bancroft Library.”
The Rich Mix actually received a “total contribution” of £2,093,978 million back in August, of which the original “portion” was £350,000 for Bancroft Library. This is from Aman Dalvi, in response to a Member’s Enquiry (in August):
“…Two sources of S106 funding were initially identified as possible sources for the planned refurbishment of Bancroft Library:
• A £350,000 portion of the total contribution (£2,093,0978) from PA/07/02193, 32-42 Bethnal Green Road, for ‘cultural, social and community products and for the provision of affordable workspace offsite’…
At the Strategic Development Committee (SDC) on 2 August 2010 the members resolved that the contribution from 32-42 Bethnal Green Road would be committed to the Rich Mix Centre, subject to various conditions. As a result, this will not be available for the Bancroft Library refurbishment.”
The Council meeting last week has no Minutes available online (yet) so we would all be interested in what actually happened re the Rich Mix. As you can see Ted, Bancroft Library is only due the restituted £350,000 leaving over £1.7 million of (twice-diverted) S106 money that the Rich Mix was given by Cllr Abbas and the others in August.
No doubt Cllr Abbas attended last week? Also other Councillors who have an even deeper involvement, ie Councillor Denise Jones and Councillor Rachael Saunders, who are both on the Rich Mix Management Board. Will they get the millions they want to prop up their failed Rich Mix Centre?
Will Oona King therefore get to keep Rich Mix afloat with money that should have gone to other Tower Hamlets projects, actually wanted by residents – or else will Rich Mix fold and so cause her a personal financial problem, thus inhibiting her prospects if as ‘You couldn’t make it up!’ says (under the previous post of yours): “She’ll be the Labour Candidate for the Mayor of London if Livingstone gets kicked out of the Labour Party because of his behaviour during the Mayoral election.”
Ted, you really need to check your information. Cllr Ohid Ahmed did not ask for a iphone, he has always used his phone. Number of councillors get a phone from the council but all have to pay the phone bill. Please try not to give misleading information to the public.
Oli, perhaps you should have a word with Takki Sulaiman, the council’s head of communications. I understand that it was he who decided not to comment on my press query about Ohid asking for a phone (or, indeed, someone else asking on his behalf).
Disgusting if true. I used to have a Nokia 6800 which allowed me to access my emails, web and emails. I loved the look of the new iphone4 so decided to go along to Covent Garden, wait in the queue for 4 hours, and get the 32GB version for £599.00 – the 16GB version costs £499.00.
I know many councillors that have invested their own money into buying themselves an iphone. Mayor Lutfur should be no different because free phones provide the same features as iphones. If this was not true, then the council would have confirmed this to be the case. Very sad day for council taxpayers who have to pay for Mayor Lutfur’s gadgets. As with the new transparency rules, if he and his cabinet and advisors such as Oli all decide to get the 16GB iphone4, they will not have to declare online because they will cost less then £500.00 at £499.00.
oli you shoudl know better than to mislead readers here as you are an elected councillor. As you know, councillors and council officers who decided to get a council phone do pay their own PAYG bills but the council does not pay for the phone itself because the contract allows them to get free of charge handsets. Perhaps Mayor Lutfur will now get a better deal with his friend and business backer, Amirul Chowdhury of ChyTel Communications of Mile End Road?
yeah its only a couple of Iphones which cost £1200 of the tax payers money, and Im sure if you dig deeper there will be other expensive gadgets as well.
Also Ted I suggest you do a little digging whether whether the product of respect, our Mayor has really resigned from his apparant position as a partner in Mccormacs.
Oli – is Ohid using an i phone or not. Can’t Lutfur pay for this own i phone?
■Disgusting if true. I used to have a Nokia 6800 which allowed me to access my emails, web and emails. I loved the look of the new iphone4 so decided to go along to Covent Garden, wait in the queue for 4 hours, and get the 32GB version for £599.00 – the 16GB version costs £499.00.
I know many councillors that have invested their own money into buying themselves an iphone. Mayor Lutfur should be no different because free phones provide the same features as iphones. If this was not true, then the council would have confirmed this to be the case. Very sad day for council taxpayers who have to pay for Mayor Lutfur’s gadgets. As with the new transparency rules, if he and his cabinet and advisors such as Oli all decide to get the 16GB iphone4, they will not have to declare online because they will cost less then £500.00 at £499.00.
Oli you should know better than to mislead readers here as you are an elected councillor. As you know, councillors and council officers who decided to get a council phone do pay their own PAYG bills but the council does not pay for the phone itself because the contract allows them to get free of charge handsets. Perhaps Mayor Lutfur will now get a better deal with his friend and business backer, Amirul Chowdhury of ChyTel Communications of Mile End Road?
Ted,
Have you managed to call Cllr Ohid about him getting an Iphone from the council? No, you did not so to then write that he has also got an Iphone is a total lie. I hope Cllr Ohid is reading this and he legally challenges you on this!
It is disgusting that you are putting out misleading information in the public domain, this could be libelious.
Well, I have tried to warn you… this is just beginning.
Sorry to return to the money matters of the Council meeting last week but on salaries – if it was decided to tank the Rich Mix Centre last week – we will stop the haemorrhaging of tens of thousands in salaries to the staff there.
So is the Rich Mix now tanked, Ted?
27 staff members are listed on the same page as the Board members, so the Rich Mix payroll could be over a million a year? Ted, as a former accountant, you could maybe tot up that bill up for us?
We must pay some/most/all of that massive bill as a resident reported (at a later LBTH meeting) that one of the Rich Mix staff was present – as he was – at the SDC meeting on 2 August 2010, that decided to give the Centre £2,093,0987 million of S106 funds; after the decision, he asked her how she could in all conscience have taken this money for the failed Rich Mix Centre.
She replied ‘Well it’s our jobs, isn’t it?’
I am shocked that Cllr Ahmed didn’t peruse a legal case when Ted gave false information about his Camden job. Ted never wrote against him when served under Keith or Denise now he will be after him so anyone can imagine what sort of person he is. What about previous leaders who I heard had blackberry (at that time this was the latest and expensive), did he ask any question about this? No, why this should be an issue now, at the end of the day Lutfur is an elected mayor and we want our mayor should be equipped with latest technology. Remember, people of Tower Hamlets love Lutfur, more you write this inconsequential issue he will be more popular.
Some people love Lutfur. Some people hate him. Most, don’t care…
‘perhaps he doesn’t any decent lawyers?
Its laugable how Ted and some people on here are seeing Ants go past when all those years failed to see the elephants go past. Millions of public money handed over the Rich Mix Centre by Abbas and his team of dodgy councillors, and organisations which serves a personal interest to Abbas, Keith and Co and nobody were saying a word….now eveyones dropping their pants of an elected mayor ordering a Iphone. I find it digusting that Ted and Andrew keeping on talking about the business backers of Lutfur Rahman…..do you know how many business backers were behind Abbas, I can name each one of them along with the names of their businesses…and most have been pictured with Abbas or pictured as part of his campaign team. There are others that Im sure Ted would not want named because they are convicted fraudsters stealing from British Tax payers…heard of Tax Evasion anyone…?
” I can name each one of them along with the names of their businesses…”
Care to share?
Ted,
Have you tried a Freedom of Information request re the info regarding the purchase of iPhones for elected members?
An article on the Rich Mix millions of “support” that robbed Bancroft Library of the £350,000 for its leaking roofs – discussed at last week’s Council meeting – has now appeared in today’s East End Advertiser.
Unfortunately for Councillor Denise Jones she is quoted in it as saying in the meeting:
“I would totally dispute that I asked for £350,000 of funding to go in favour of Rich Mix.”
This has now gone on record. What a mistake for Councillor Jones. Good catch for Alistair Kleebauer of the ELA who perhaps saw the Aman Dalvi letter before he put up his story last night. As readers here could see yesterday in the excerpt (above) from the Aman Dalvi letter – the £350, 000 was taken from Bancroft Library for the Rich Mix Centre.
Here’s some more from the same August 12th letter from Aman Dalvi who is LBTH’s Corporate Director Development and Renewal – and as the ELA mentions it, included are details on the other S106 source (£500,000) for Bancroft Library:
“Thank you for your enquiry, dated 7 August 2010, concerning the Section 106 funding for Bancroft Library.
Two sources of S106 funding were initially identified as possible sources for the planned refurbishment of Bancroft Library:
A £350,000 portion of the total contribution (£2,093,978) from PA/O7/02193, 32-42 Bethnal Green Road, for ‘cultural, social and community products and for the provision of affordable workspace offsite’; and
£500,000 from PA/09/01916, 438-490 Mile End Road, for ‘improvements to the Bancroft Library or for other improvements to library or cultural facilities within the vicinity of the development’.
At the Strategic Development Committee (SDC) on 2 August 2010 the members resolved that the contribution from 32-42 Bethnal Green Road would be committed to the Rich Mix Centre, subject to various conditions. As a result, this will not be available for the Bancroft Library refurbishment.”
ELA’s Alistair – who may just fill Ted’s sizeable shoes at this rate – has written more on the Rich Mix/S106 funds/ Bancroft Library debate at the meeting. It may have been too much to expect that he didn’t report on the cry from the public gallery to Councillor Jones that she should stop speaking on this motion to deny/supply the Rich Mix, given her “pecuniary interest”. Can Denise Jones have a pecuniary interest in Rich Mix, Ted?
On Bancroft, we residents now know the truth of what actually happened to the Library while under the care of Councillor Jones, both in 2007 when she was Leader and in the summer of 2010, when she was Lead Member for Culture for Councillor Abbas. Also the ‘Heritage Champion’ for Tower Hamlets – a title from English Heritage that she may still hold?
Lastly, while we are looking at those ‘cultural, social and community products’ that have denied Bancroft Library their funds to fix the leaking roofs, we residents should be wondering how the new Idea Store Local at Watney Market is going to be built. Readers of Ted’s blog will have seen that although Councillor Abbas did not admit it to Ted, he first diverted the S106 funds for Bancroft to this proposed new Idea Store Local at his Cabinet Meeting on 7 July 2010. (The “total contribution” of S106 funds being £1,101,000 million.) As it said in the 7 July Agenda for the Cabinet Meeting:
“*S106 already triggered. Ref. PA/07/02193. Available to deliver cultural products.”
Councillor Jones was at this Cabinet meeting, of course. Rachael Saunders too. Joshua Peck etc. Marc Francis at least asked Stephen Halsey where the £1,101,000 million S106 funds were coming from – but Mr Halsey couldn’t find his papers on that and said he would write to Councillor Francis at a future date.
It is alarming to now find that plans have gone ahead for this Idea Store Local. The public consultation started BEFORE the Mayoral elections. This Idea Store is then is on Councillor Abbas’ slate.
In a planning document for the proposal, two sentences jump out:
“The Idea Store Local is the first of a new generation of Tower Hamlets’ successful Idea Stores which combine library services with adult learning services, local history and cafés under one roof.”…..LOCAL HISTORY? It was mooted by the council coterie (thanks for that word Ted) in 2008 that part of our local history collection might go into an Idea Store.
On finance:
“The Idea Store Service has secured a financial contribution of £2 million from the Big Lottery Fund towards the overall capital cost of the scheme. The rest of the funding will be met by the Council.” MET BY THE COUNCIL? How many millions – and most importantly is it the S106 money Denise Jones and Abbas and the rest of the Cabinet diverted from PA/07/02193 that first time on July 7 2010?
If you are a resident of Tower Hamlets who wants to look at this Idea Store proposal, and comment on it, here is a link to the Council’s online planning register. You only have 4 days left to comment.
Mike Law…..
“Freedom of information act on the numbers of Cllrs with Iphone”
How about you do the request clearly seeing you have TOO MUCH time to waste in your hands, and whilst your at it, also do a freedom of information act on how many stupid comments you have posted…..
Remember, comment is free…
However, I would be interested in which of my comments you think are stupid.
I’m guessing you’re a Newham resident, possibly a current councillor?
Keep up the good work Mike, you are obviously hitting the target 😉
Well the iPhone 4 actually costs £499 so does that mean it will escape Pickles rule of anything over £500 being published online???
In relation to the flawed selection process ie imposition for choosing the Labour candidate for the Spitalfields and Banglatown by-election on 16 December, the question people should be really asking is will Ed Miliband ever intervene in Tower Hamlets to give back party members their democratic rights or is he prepared to lose Labour seats here due to ill decisions made by the London Labour Party Director, Ken Clark and Tower Hamlets Party Treasurer Chris Weavers and by the likes of losers like the current Labour group leader Cllr Helal Abbas, who has taken the Party into Opposition after nearly 20 years in Power??? If Ken Livingstone loses London mayoral election because of problems caused by Cllr Abbas and Ken Clark in Tower Hamlets, Ed Miliband wouldn’t have a hope in hell of becoming Prime Minister…There is evidence Region didn’t do anything to involve local party members. There is evidence that the candidate even knew he is getting ‘imposed’ as he apparently told a few people he got a call from a senior party boss who asked for his CV. If there is sufficient evidence of such nature that it was a ‘fix’ by Region, there will be a lot more coming in the next few weeks…the wise thing to do is allow members to choose candidate from the approved panel/list of experienced candidates rather than lose in humiliation because local ward party members veto support. Ken Clark and THLP chair, Graham Taylor, must re-run the selection process of resign from their positions if Labour loses this by-election in Spitalfields and Banglatown. And Cllr Abbas must resign anyway for taking Party into Opposition, undoing Biggs’ work to take the Labour party into Power 16 years ago!
What a strange last comment. I’m not sure what you mean. However, having been briefed at a high level about that motion, I am very clear what was its intention.