A kind reader has sent me this link to an FoI request that’s just been disclosed by Tower Hamlets council. Actually, there was no need to FoI it as it is a public document, but all the same, I think it will make interesting reading for most people.
It’s a list of the Special Responsibility Allowances paid to Mayor Lutfur Rahman and 24 councillors. That means almost half our 52 elected representatives are being paid over and above the £10,065 they get as basic councillor pay. And that’s before Lutfur, if he finally manages it, fills another few members of his cabinet at £13,325 a go.
Some of these positions, such as the chairs of the Development Committee (Cllr Carli Harper-Penman) and Overview and Scrutiny (Cllr Ann Jackson), do involve a fair amount of work, but whether an extra £10,710 is the right amount, I don’t know.
Other positions attracting serious pocket money defy belief. Take the General Purposes Committee, for example. Its chair, Cllr Helal Uddin of Bromley-by-Bow, trousers almost an extra annual £8,000 for presiding over a few hours extra work a year, if that. Check out this link and you’ll see there has only been three meetings this financial year. In total, there have been four agenda items, all of which were simple rubber stamp reports such as agreeing the terribly crucial appointments to the Billingsgate Market Consultative Advisory Committee. I once sat in one of these meetings to see exactly what went on and the answer was pretty much nothing. The councillors usually arrive late, the officers (who claim the evening sessions as lieu time) sip tea and nibble biscuits, and then the meeting is usually over within a matter of minutes.
Then there is Mizanur Chaudhury who get £5,800 for being an “Olympics Ambassador”. What?? Why?? Shouldn’t he be doing whatever he does for free, just for the pure privilege?
That there are so many paid positions is a corruption of our system. They are the paid vote. Some 500 council staff will soon lose their jobs. Many of these payments should also go. Given that most of the recipients are Labour members, Mayor Rahman, who while council leader was the worst offender for paying his mates, might well propose such a move.
Councillors wouldn’t dare squeal if that happened. Not even Tower Hamlets councillors…or would they?
Trial by Jeory 
Ted how comes you were never interested in how much Christeen Gilbert awarded herself and the Michael Kieth and of course Maureen Mcelenney and her team they were on saleries with a few extra zeros
So £10.000 really does not make such a good story jet some juicy news out there not silly little FOI that others have passed on to you
Perhaps a bigger story should be WHY is it that Oona King can now recieve more than £6.000 upwards per month just to sign her name
When the people of Bethnal Green and Bow regected her and even the Labour party did not want her perhaps that would be a far better story for you to cover
And so much more interesting
Oh come now, Carole, was my previous writing and hard work so wasted on you? I remember clearly the days when you used to sing my praises for doing exactly what you said I didn’t. I frequently criticised the fat cat salaries of Christine and Maureen and council leaders.
What I also clearly remember is you criticising councillors for being paid for doing virtually nothing…so why the change of heart?
And if you read the post properly, you’ll see that my argument is more than a point about finance…
It’s appropriate to look hard at cllrs allowances on the current climate and with the brutal cuts the Lib-Con govt are making to east London councils. That said, it’s an easy pop to have a go at cllrs allowances – it’s an emotionally draining job which f&@ks up your life and job prospects.
I’m sure like many jobs there is an element of emotional drain but ffs they DO have a choice about going into the role of councillor.
So we are paying over a £1million pounds (once the mayors recruited the rest of his cabinet, advisors, iphones, ect) of our hard earned money for a bunch of monkeys to hurl insults at each other and fight to climb the political food chain….hmmm….not sure what happened to the notion of ‘pay peanuts, u get monkeys’, cos it seems we are paying their weight in gold and still getting monkeys.
Wonder how many teachers, school support assistants, social workers, pensioners luncheon clubs, refurbished properties that money can buy each year.
Shocking that Abbas, who spoke only once, maybe twice for a minute or 2 each time at the last 2 council meeting and has no real responsibility of services/departments/portfolios gets an extra £13,325. SHOCKING!!!!
Spot on Ted. However, as with much of your work where you sometime incoherently mix things to spice up a story, please state at the top…”Mayor LR and 24 councillors ‘of which 20 are Labour’…”, otherwise many would assume that he is responsible for this unless they can differentiate by reading the bottom part of your article. The solution to the SRA problem is simple: half the payments. Cllr Carli Harpa Penman (who apparently got nearly £10,000 basic plus over£8,000 for attending just 6 licensing 1-2 hour meetings as its chair according to the council’s records for last year) should get a maximum of £5,000 and as chair of Development Committee that money could come from the Section 106 pot. It’s reasonable to say O&S reps also get, say, a maximum of £5,000 in addition to the £10,000. That’s still £600-700 per meeting just for asking questions, which they should be doing anyway. General Purposes and Olympics Ambassador should be abolished by the mayor immediately which could pay for and save a council job, say admin, at £14,000). Cabinet members (and deputy mayor for going on jollies) should only get £10,000 on top of their basic £10,000, which still gives them an earning of a £1,000 per cabinet meeting they attend (plus the £1k more for talking nonsense at meetings with below ESOL level English). Perks like free boroughwide parking permits which isn’t stated above should also be abolished. These cuts could save quite a few jobs. Labour councillors must welcome any such motion by the otherwise manipulative and ultra-cunning Mayor Rahman.
Dont think they get perks.
Additionally, opposition leaders’ allowances should be capped at £5000 too because that’s what they’re in politics for anyway if they are unable to attain power and as they aren’t responsible or accountable for delivery. The deputy chair’s £4,000 for nearly doing nothing should be abolished too. That money could be used to upgrade the council’s uninteractive website or on hi-tech webcams as someone mentioned in your earlier blog!
I wonder how many of the current councillors we would still have if the Council abolished ALL councillor allowances – including that of the Mayor.
Now there’s a thought – and a possible vote winner at that!
Tell me Ted – just how much does the Council spend each year on payments to Councillors for allowances, jollies, iphones, free parking permits and the like?
Let’s start translating that into real frontline services when we start hearing what’s going to get cut!
I hope Mayor Rahman’s negative association with iPhones makes cllrs feel guilty about ordering them! There should be a TH CSR on iPhones, laptops, SRAs, allowance and perks like £2000 per cllr 4 year boroughwide parking permits!
I know all too well of councillors absenteeism and lateness at meetings. I also know of the councillors who are repeat offenders in this regard. I have raised it outside of meetings but no one wants to take any action. I don’t think they can. At Tower Hamlets Homes Board we publish quarterly attendance graphs and the councillors regularly have the worst attendance.
You should try checking their timesheets sometime to see how they spend their time and just how many hours each month they actually spend on cases relating to constituents they deal with each month.
Or maybe I should say how few hours?
The timesheets are available on the page for every councillor – just click the link on this page to find the ones for your councillor
http://sps2ksrv.towerhamlets.gov.uk/meetYourCouncillor/
Since most cllrs are Labour, the party shouldn’t have chosen (imposed!) candidates that had attendance issues. But I doubt that was the criteria as I suspect it might have been nepotism and factionalism that determined their candidature by the London Labour Party’s stupid egotistical monkey-mafia boss, Kenneth Clarke, who some say is apparently regarded by Bengali Labour councillors in a ‘master and slaves’ relationship. And the reason he didn’t want Lutfur Rahman as mayoral candidate is because Mr Clark would lose control over the ‘slavish’ councillors. Perhaps someone can enlighten us on the real power structure in Tower Hamlets, I mean who exactly do Labour members need to appease in order to become a ‘profession slave’?!
Obviously, he’s following the example of Wales in Newham.
I take that back. At least there’s no councillors on an extra £30k a year as there are in Newham; but then, Lutfur doesn’t have any personal friends on the council as far as I’m aware.
Funny how the Spitalfields by-election tomorrow isn’t gaining any coverage on this blog. Is it because Labour will lose? Surely, bloggers would love to have talked about it here!
Like I said earlier – you’re obviously badly in need of a blog of your own so you can talk about the things YOU want to talk about.
Speaking personally I’m not in the least interested in the outcome of the Spitalfields by-election. Politics in that part of the borough seems to be a complete farce from beginning to end – and that’s not a farce which makes me laugh.
Is the by-election getting any coverage anywhere?
[went to have look] Not a lot! Having said that, Maggie Crosbie the Green candidate looks like an interesting alternative – see http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/greens_name_spitalfields_and_banglatown_by_election_candidate_1_746567
Now – just for a change – why don’t we focus on a political party which is not mired in a mess in Tower Hamlets?
And what exactly are you doing then talking about the Greens on a thread like this? Isn’t Spitalfields part of Tower Hamlets no more? I am loyal to Ted’s blog and do not have competitive thinking over virtual domination. I’m still waiting for your response on why you think it is OK for a male, elected politician in the UK to change their surname without a valid reason, just give me an example of just one other Labour politician! Don’t get off Google til you have news. I don’t care if you’re interested in SBT or not, ur choice, just don’t try to be patronising.
Well you were completely off topic (you didn’t notice?) so I thought I would go off topic too! <i?(funny how you noticed that!)
I just thought it would be really nice to extend the horizons of those reading this blog to the fact that there are in fact real alternatives in the by-election – ones who are NOT tainted by those who have made such a mess of things so far
We don’t often get a choice of a Green Candidate for Councillor in Tower Hamlets so I thought it was worth highlighting.
Cool TMG! Please ask Greens to campaign for retention of green lands in TH, as they’ve done little to prevent construction, eg Furze Green E3.
Dearie me – got your accountabilities in a twist haven’t you!
It’s the Councillors who run the Council who have done little to prevent construction on the green space in Tower Hamlets.
Why don’t you ask the Councillors of the Strategic Development Committee in the last administration and this one about their voting credentials on over development / developments on green space?
Look around Tower Hamlets and you’ll find local community groups everywhere who are campaigning to save their green spaces and protect their communities.
But Councillors in Tower Hamlets don’t have a great track record at getting out and listening to the community groups do they? Some of them are also pretty partial as to just who they listen to – witness how all the people living around Victoria Park were ignored last summer.
In fact quite a few of the Councillors don’t do much of anything.
Returning to topic(!) – maybe we should start looking at how little some of the current Councillors actually do?
Think the councillors did do something about the Victoria Park festival overload. They highlighted a 7 year standing problem with events in the park. See the ELA article, July 15 2010:
“ANGRY residents living beside Victoria Park say the summer’s music festivals are making their lives a misery…
They have been complaining to Tower Hamlets council’s environmental health officers for the past seven years but fear the problems could get even worse as the park gets ready to host three weekends of live music in a row….
This month Victoria Park will be hosting the three-night Lovebox weekender, followed by the two-night High Voltage festival and then another three-night event for the Field Day Concert.
In August there is the dance LED festival and then the Underage Festival.
Bow East ward councillor Marc Francis said: “It is evident that the major events team views Victoria Park as little more than a cash cow that can be milked mercilessly to deliver an outcome for the council.
“The grotesque exploitation of Victoria Park is an absolute scandal.”
But council bosses insist that the money raised by staging the festivals pays for “popular free community events”, including Paradise Gardens and the November firework display, and that the influx of party-goers into the borough boosts businesses.
A spokeswoman said: “We understand that for some residents, large-scale events in Victoria Park can be disruptive and we do everything we can to minimise this.
“This includes having additional officers working to make sure the festivals are running well, licensing conditions are met and noise levels are monitored throughout.”
So you can see that councillors did try to represent communities affected by this growing problem.
Seems that the LBTH Arts & Events Team (in Hanbury Street but under the Communities, Localities and Culture Directorate) control the contracts dished out to the commercial sector. These are very lucrative and the LBTH team justify ‘intensifying’ the use of the park for commercial events by saying these underwrite the grant funded community events (peanuts as compared Lovebox, Field Day etc) like Paradise Gardens etc.
It does seem odd though that Licensing do not get involved which is where Councillors might have got to have a say/represent the community. Were the LBTH Arts and Events Team allowed to increase Lovebox to three days without having to put this (increased) application before any Committee (Licensing? Planning?)
Can it be true that it is officers on the LBTH Arts and Events Team in total control of the decisions made to hire out the park for these commercial events and no councillor has a say/or any involvement? If anyone knows (around the park): are LBTH Licensing Committees or Planning Committees, ie, Councillors involved? This year – or for the past 7 years?
I’m aware of going off topic but we do get Licence Notices for events in Victoria Park.
However there is the issue of LBTH being co-promotor (LBTH’s name on posters as sponsor), licensing authority, landlord and in charge of the heath & safety / noise nuisance issues, it just feels we are powerless.
I think next year more of us may object but it feels pointless. I was informed Judicial Review is one way forward but of the groups it may be possible for none have the funds to make it happen, that I am aware of.
Joe, this isn’t off-topic as we are trying to fathom out our Councillors’ roles in this. They sit on these Committees and get paid for it (as Ted shows above), so we residents are not going off-topic, if Councillors were involved in the decisions re park events.
So, when you objected, were your objections put before the Licensing Committee? If so, which one, (date etc.) so we can see which Councillors ignored the objections?
Agree, it feels useless objecting in this borough, particularly when LBTH are the authority in all depts…and making the mega-bucks from the park contracts. Back on topic though, if Councillors on a Licensing(?) Committee did ignore you earlier this year (and the previous 7 years?), then that is actually worse than “Councillor Waste” as they take the Allowances to then ignore residents.
Now then, coming back to the topic of Councillor Waste tomorrow’s by-election in Spitalfields and so called BengaliTown will have cost taxpayers nearly £20,000 excluding potential policing. But the real cost will be borne by Tower Hamlets Labour because it will not only lose a symbolic seat but also face in the borough. Having said that people lacking any sense of shame (or its cognitive faculty!) wouldn’t find losing face as an issue. December 16 is apparently Bangladesh’s national independence day. THLP should have given Bangladeshi (and non Bangladeshi) ward party members the independence to select their own candidate instead of imposing Abul Aleem against the wishes of people like Mussabeer Ali, chair of the Spitalfields Labour Party, who has been quoted in Peter Kenyon’s blog as asking “Who is this unknown candidate?”! Labour’s arrogant self appointed bosses in Tower Hamlets should get ready for a sleepless electoral post mortem weekend and bang their heads for recreating a Respect victory. Respect’s popular ex-councillor Fazlol Miah will be the clear winner tomorrow for giving voters independence from Labour’s shackles of self-delusion. We should all ask ourselves why white residents in Spitalfields are NOT campaigning for Labour at all. Insomnia for THLP…
@ Anon: I haven’t objected but I’m told people have and they have been allowed to speak at the meeting then ignored.
Do you remember the date of this Committee Meeting? Was it a Licensing Committee meeting? Planning Committee meeting? (Councillors and officers would have been in attendance – and all paid allowances – so still on topic!)
Sorry I don’t know the details, I was told at a meeting last year about the park.
All senior management of the council, plus all the councillors should take a 15% pay cut for the next two years to offset some of the cuts that the council need to make.
Will they though. No. The greedy bastards.
Not looking particularly good in Spitalfields today. I wonder why? Preparations for a post mortem could be under way as some people will be expected to give answers. Or get fired!
Dan McCurry|Fighting4EdMiliband: “strawman sockpuppet”.
Ted has suddenly vanished following the publishing of this thread on Councillor’s allowances. It is not yet know whether he will return with the S&BT by election result or a bunch of pear-shaped bananas…
The atmosphere at the count is tense…
Insomnia for top brass Labour idiots for failing to snatch a golden seat. 2 Fast 2 Furious.
I’m shahanara, not Bill, what’s your comment supposed to mean???
Cllrs have gone to THH staff to moan about my previous post regarding cllr absenteeism and punctuality. Poor babies it transpires I have hurt their feelings. Well at least they were nice and warm in their homes when I trudged in deep snow for the board inspection and pre inspection, just one cllr agreed to come.
I joined THH Board because I wanted to bring positive change to the most fundamental of peoples needs: housing. I don’t get paid a bean for volunteering my time for the board unlike the cllrs. I do it because I care.
I have many responsibilities yet strive to attend all meetings and events organised. It is not fair on the rest of the team if some do not pull their weight, particularly if your paid for the privelege.
We had one very effective cllr who was not selected this time round for the THH Board. Far be it from me to accuse TH politicians of nepotism and favouritism but the decision to not re appoint a competent cllr was very odd.
Shahanara, which councillors have been absent from THH board meetings and from LAP 1? Thanks, Ted
Also at the last LAP 1 meeting 4 out of 9 cllrs turned up. this is not unusual.
We also need to keep a record of councillor attendence of their surgeries.
I know of one serving councillor that had not done a single surgery after more than 3 months of being elected.
What do his/her timesheets on the website for the last three months say about holding surgeries?
i will not comment on THH at this sensitive time. At the last LAP 1 meeting in attendance were cllrs bill, rofique, kabir and stephanie. it was unusual for Cllr amy not to attend, she almost always does.