As a little bank holiday break from the Panorama fall out, I’m publishing two less controversial pieces today. The first is by Chris Wilford, the Conservatives’ candidate for Tower Hamlets Mayor, Chris Wilford (I asked him to write about who is and why he’s standing).
The second will be by Cllr Stephanie Eaton, the lone Lib Dem and for the most part the lone voice of reason. She’s standing down as a councillor in May, having been first elected in 2006 when the Lib Dems were initially routed. I’ve asked her to look back at the last eight years (although disappointingly she doesn’t want to dwell much on the Lutfur/Labour fray; interestingly, she’s been more sympathetic towards Lutfur than most but even she never took a seat in his all-Bengali cabinet).
Anyway, here’s Chris Wilford (he’s the chap in the chinos):
Time for a fresh start for Tower Hamlets
It has certainly been a frenetic few weeks in what some in the national media term the brutal politics of our borough. On the doorstep, many have asked me why I want to become the youngest directly elected Mayor in Europe and what I have to offer as the Conservative candidate.
Well, despite not being a former Labour leader of the council nor having a famous cousin, I put myself forward quite simply because I passionately believe it is time for a fresh start for Tower Hamlets and I want to work with residents to build a better borough.
I’m 28 years old and first moved to the borough five years ago. After living in a bedsit near Brick Lane with people from all over the world for three years, I now live in Bow.
Like many others I moved to the borough for study and work. I have made it my home and its energy quickly took a hold of me. I have known times of unemployment and uncertainty here but the variety and dynamism of Tower Hamlets has always got me through.
Born in Merseyside, I moved to Kent when I was 10 and was educated at state grammar schools before coming to London for University. I now work in communications after a time as a recruitment consultant and working for the government’s British Council on educational projects.
I believe the individual is the central force for change in modern Britain. I believe aspiration and innovation should be the central drivers of British society. I believe in the freedom of responsibility.
I joined the Conservative Party because of these values and got my first proper taste of Tower Hamlets politics as a Conservative candidate for the then St Dunstan’s and Stepney Green ward. Memories of the vicious tussle betweenLabour and Respect for control will stay with me for a long time to come.
Tower Hamlets is famous for its history, its diversity, and its politics. After decades of neglect, residents feel shut out of local decision-making, and are fed up by the squabbling of the local political class as we face up to some of the most serious challenges in the country in areas such as child poverty and unemployment.
I want to reopen the channels of communication between the people and those in power, I want to implement a long term plan to tackle issues such as unsustainable development, and I want to clean up the borough ….. literally.
My detractors have had a go at my willingness to discuss issues that matter to local people such as potholes and rubbish. The fact is Tower Hamlets is dirty and its roads need sorting out. Time and time again residents have described to me in vivid detail the potholes that disrupt their daily life.
Whilst some candidates wish to talk about the availability of Class A drugs on the NHS, I want to sort out the problems that have a direct impact on our quality of life. I want to give our Estates a fresh lick of paint, I want to fix up our roads and I want to get rubbish under control once and for all.
My long term plan for Tower Hamlets is based on sustainable housing, strong schools, safer streets and stable finances. I want to rewrite the local development framework following consultation with residents, I want to cut Town Hall waste, I want to launch an enterprise fund for local pubs (including real ale apprenticeships for those who want to go into the pub trade), I want to work with employers in the borough to deliver jobs for residents of all ages, and I want to deliver a 5.7% council tax cut for residents (worth £50 to each household).
Like many people from around the world I have made Tower Hamlets my home. The record of our Councillors in delivering for residents is testament to what the Conservatives can achieve in our borough. This election people are waking up. The vote is split and every vote will count – make sure you vote for a fresh start.
Trial by Jeory 
Nice to see a new face in TH politics and I agree we need a fresh start but you won’t get many votes if you hang around with Peter Golds, the most disliked and vile politician ever to be part of Tower Hamlets. My advice will be to target the young voters and try stay away from the dirty politics that the current lot are engaged in.
You also make a few good points but I am not sure about the pub investment programme. Anyway good luck with your campaigning.
Even die hard Labour voters I have spoken to on the Island have a great deal of respect for Peter Golds. He has been a very effective leader of the opposition to Rahman, much more so than Labour. He has, of course, no chance of ever becoming leaders of a Tory administration which is why he has been able to so be so outspoken and effective.
I am afraid this piece is anodyne to the point of saying nothing. What exactly is sustainable housing as opposed to unsustainable? It’s sociobabble that any party could trot out including the Trots.
I am waiting for a candidate to say that some of the problems are caused by a massive birth rate and immigration particularly those in housing.
=> Mr Mullah
Excellent point – precisely what is sustainable housing ?
Land is finite but not public cash it seems or lorry loads of confusing political waffle
Curious Cat
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P.S. Nice picture Ted. The EXIF data was removed. What camera was used ?
Not my work!
Peter Golds effectiveness is precisely why he is loathed by Rahman and his cronies. Having only been gummed by the toothless golden labradors of the Liberal Party, socialist politicians in Tower Hamlets were totally unprepared to deal with real politicians like Golds, Archer and Snowdon.
Some examples of what sustainable housing might mean could include;
1. Every child should be within 15 minutes walking distance of at least one primary school, if there are no schools with spare capacity either you build a new school or you do not allow any major residential developments in the area that would force the council into paying to bus children around Tower Hamlets as currently happens. TH school population is forecast to increase by 40% in the next 10 years or 14,000 pupils = approximately 28 new schools
2. Not building large residential buildings if the nearest DLR station / line is at full capacity. The council have admitted that the DLR line through the Isle of Dogs is currently full (as per Newfoundland Tower planning application) as is the Jubilee station at CW. That might suggest you do not build any new residential capacity unless walking to the new CW Crossrail station is a valid alternative or you can increase DLR capacity (which was done only a few years ago but the line is already full).
3. Barkantine surgery on Westferry road currently has 18,500 patients on its list, lets say the building only has enough consultation rooms for 22,500 patients and other GP surgeries on the island have 3,000 patient spare capacity that would suggest that you can only add residential buildings with another 7,000 occupants before you have to build another GP surgery in the area. Otherwise you force ill people to travel long distances which is not sustainable.
4. The council has a target of 1.2 hectares of green space per 1,000 people, I have no idea what it is now but it is a guide to what is sustainable
I could add many other examples and we can argue over what exactly sustainable means as a single professional living at Pan Peninsula will have a different interpretation to that of a young family with three kids living in the Barkantine but it is possible to establish some rules on what we mean by sustainable.
=> Andrew Wood
Thank you. Extremely good examples. If you are not aligned to any of the national political parties perhaps you could help us plan next year’s local election campaign ? Serious suggestion.
Curious Cat
@Curious Cat
I am the Conservative Party candidate for Canary Wharf ward, with about 10,000 new properties planned in my ward sustainable development is probably the most important local issue. Whether elected or not it is an issue I will pursue, I grew up in places like Singapore and Germany, countries that know how to plan and find the lack of sustainable planning in TH odd.
Mr Wood,
I too have lived and worked in other countries that make this, my birth country, appear crap, corrupt and careless.
I wish you much good luck in pursing your sustainable development objectives.
“lack of sustainable planning” is common in English local government especially in areas that are Labour controlled. “Pack ’em in” seems to be the slogan and who cares about the consequences ? Not the local authority.
I’ll contact you after the local elections, if I may, for a chat.
Curious Cat.
@ themadmullahofbricklane
Which Island or planet are you talking about that has respect for Peter Golds? The man is a lunatic and spends almost all of his time at the Town Hall smearing and spreading hate. Please list a few examples of any good work he has done for his ward residents. I live in his ward and I would be very keen to know.
Ash. You are so obviously a Rahman stooge it’s not worth going into detail. Just watch the Monty Python “What The Romans Ever Done For Us”? sketch. I think it sums you up.
Sorry to contradict the hate-speak Ash but Cllr. Golds is well known for his conscientious approach to Case Work, not only in his own ward but all over the Borough. I had reason to be grateful to him for this approach. As a potential Conservative candidate in my home ward I found that with so many Party members away over Easter I was running out of time to get nominations. Simply by driving around the ward with Peter we were able to approach residents whose problems he had taken up. Not only were they happy to sign my forms but I noted they all remembered Peter Golds and were pleased to see him. So much for your perverse view of an isolated monomaniac.
Maybe Ash needs to get out more, move out of ‘his’ comfort zone and ask those residents why they like Peter. Funny, the ones who seem to accuse him of house sitting Mulberry Place happen to be town hall junkies themselves.
Paul Ingham wrote, inter alia
With respect to you Mr Ingham, are you really genuine councillor material if you lack the courage to bang on a stranger’s door and ask for a signature for your nomination form ?
I’ve done it for other candidates in other wards without the slightest problem. One simply checks that the voter is on the register, tell them you need 10 signatures so you can become a candidate. It really is that simple.
Just done it for myself and my two running mates, all within 80m of my front door. Didn’t need a car to drive around the ward. Good councillors talk to people even people they don’t know. Getting the votes is more difficult than getting 10 signatures.
Curious Cat
Nothing much of substance here but then after only 5 years in the borough that’s to be expected.
It’s good to have new people getting involved. I’d say that about any party.
However, it appears that Chris still fails to grasp that although potholes might be important, in the order of priorities it’s simply not the most important thing in Tower Hamlets to highlight. There are any number of much bigger issues.
The trick is getting across that you understand and prioritise the big important LOCAL issues as well as those smaller ones which often get missed by the major parties. (Plus, for the record, the reason that Conservatives right across the country are mentioning potholes is that these seem to be much bigger and of more importance on country roads where the Conservatives have most of their support – as in they haven’t been filling them in of late!).
Speaking personally I’m not aware driving around London that pot holes are much worse in LBTH compared to elsewhere so I’m really surprised this gets such a high profile mention.
However I guess if you’re after the cycling vote it pays to focus on and fix those in the cycling lanes!
Cyclists are used to being treated in this country as second-class citizens.
P.S. Conservative local authority potholes are usually worse than Labour ones, in my experience.
Actually the second class citizens are pedestrians when cyclists ride on the pavement and barge into and abuse anyone who objects.
I’ve never ever abused pedestrians since I am often one too. I prefer riding on roads or on purpose-built cycle tracks like they have in Holland.
Go and live in Holland.
Can’t. I am a carer for some relatives in England.
Nederland is prima voor fietsen. Engeland is zeker slecht – come to London and get killed on the unsafe highly polluted roads – Nein Danke. Nee dankjewel Non merci.
Curious Cat
Has anyone read the document referred to elsewhere on this blog Section 4A of the Local Government Act 1986? The interesting thing is that it didn’t it seems become law until the 31st of March 2011. I think that it was ratified to deal with local authority Pravdas and in particular Lutfur’s one. I’ll put up some of the best bits of the act later.
I will be voting for the first time in TH and although in theory i have no ideological affinity with the conservatives, I will have a pragmatic approach in choosing the candidate to vote for. The promise to literally clean TH hits a nerve because I cannot believe how dirty TH is and how filthy are the many residents of all age credo and race who cause this problem with their barbaric behaviour. I find the situation so unacceptable that often I feel the urge to start collecting all the rubbish discarded by the gangs of yobs that afflict the borough. The people littering in the borough should be punished, prosecuted and In a sense persecuted and expelled if necessary, until some form of order is re-established and people start behaving decently towards other people and their surroundings. The current mayor doesn’t seem to be interested in this issue and doesn’t seem to inspire any feeling of duty and respect in the residents. I hope Chris Wilford, if elected, will keep is word. I support him on this issue and I believe that it is of the utmost importance because when people live in their own filth, as many do in TH, that indicates that society is broken and the pact of coexistence and mutual respect has been betrayed.
I with Chris best of luck and I hope he will do as promised.
Just cleaning the streets isn’t the answer. People need the change their behaviour and stop blaming the Council for the rubbish in the streets. The same for housing; ‘sustainable’ and ‘affordable’ housing isn’t the answer. The borough is overcrowded and just building new homes puts a strain on necessary services such as doctors, hospitals, schools, utilities.
Paragraphs?
Ted would you be able to post an article from the Green and Liberal please? We’ve not seen much of them and I think their contribution to this debate is very important.
Sure, waiting for them to contact me!
Wot, no extra funds for Poop-a-Scoop patrols or Chewing Gum Elimination Operatives?
I have just read the list of people who have had plaques erected to them for their sterling services to Tower Hamlets. I personally have never heard of most, and the rest were, to say the least, minor figures. What happened to Blair Peach?
The plaque to him is now obscured by the new extension to the Phoenix School, where he taught for all of his life in the UK, which has refused to move it to the front on the Bow Road. It probably doesn’t agree with the architectural concept!
The current mayor has also refused to rename a school in Poplar after him. I think I will get a petition going on change.uk. Watch this space.
I am currently designing Nick’s mayoral address – the one that goes into the booklet that is distributed to all electors in the borough. I begged him to make a statement about potholes, speed bumps, or dog poop, so that we could keep pace with the Tory campaign, but he declined. We don’t even have anything to say about chewing gum,
Oh Golly sounds like you are not Labour and have somehow “found” the real issues in TH – bet that was hard work 🙂
Very nice to see a fresh face. I would appeal to you Mr. Wood to work with all sections of the community and keep the virus that is Goulds locked away if you’re on the campaign trail. Good luck to you, but I suspect that you not being a local man will be a detriment. Nonetheless, my kufi goes off to you for giving it a go.
I hear there’s an independent running. Ask him to write a piece too Mr. Jeory? Although I’d run it by Mr. Curious Cat first as his his writing style may be too South Asian.
My “rules” on successful leaflet composition include:
1. 1.1/2 times line spacing.
2. 15 or 16 pt font size
3. clearly readable printing, no pastel colours on white for example.
4. Short direct messages, absolutely no waffle or bad grammar
5. Don’t lie, be honest
6. Show your opponents lack of response to the issues
7. Say what you want to do, directly, concisely and devoid of wasteful waffle.
8. Make a joke out of your opponents
Curious Cat
On sustainable housing I agree with Andrew Wood’s points, would add energy efficiency & water efficiency – I’d plug Donnachadh McCarthy’s ‘How to save the planet without costing the Earth’, but its probably long out of print.
With regards to sustainable housing I agree with Andrew Woods analysis. However I’d like to add some more basic provisions that relate to Stewart’s comments:
1). Homes that do not cost a King’s ransom to heat.
2). Homes that do not drip with condensation.
3). Homes that don’t require bulldozing after twenty years.
Yes, very sensible. I’m living in a LCC house built in 1956.
To all on sustainable housing. Where do you build the stuff? At the moment all we have is pie in the sky Greenpeace neo hippyism.
In the attached Flickr link are photos I took at some recent developers exhibitions this year. On the 4th & 5th photos I have overlaid the photo with developments (in red) being constructed, in the planning process or being considered by developers, the numbers next to each marker show the number of housing units in each development. I will let you judge how sustainable it all is! If you know what the Landmark & Pan Peninsula developments look like, see if you can spot them in the photo’s.
Developers love local authorities, especially those with councillors used to taking large planning bungs.
I see the latest policy means kicking-out all the locals and turning TH in to a high-rise zone full of wealthy people and property speculators who indulge in tax avoidance and tax evasion.
Curious Cat.
@Paul Ingham
“Simply by driving around the ward with Peter we were able to approach residents whose problems he had taken up. Not only were they happy to sign my forms […]”
Awww, do Tories have to drive around their wards to seek out supporters to sign their nomination forms? We did it by cold-calling. Start at the first house and move down the street. I got my ten signatures fairly quickly. At the first house I knocked on, a bloke came out in a dressing gown, told me he was just about to get in the shower, then saw my rosette and said “I’m voting for you!”. I had a similarly good response when canvassing last weekend. People coming up to me in the street. They love UKIP on the council estates. And my Wharfers/professionals/bankers love Nigel and know that the EU is doomed.
Be very afraid Tories. You have seven councillors now. I am estimating that number will fall to three next month, behind UKIP. We are standing a single candidate in all your wards along the river.
Europa and the EU is certainly not doomed. Mental delusions are hardly a beneficial attribute for any political party.
UKIP’s often racist comments (our local UKIP nut/chairman for example) then there is the case of UKIP filling its pockets with EU cash for non-existent office rents (some call it fraud, but not UKIP).
If UKIP hate the EU so much, why do UKIP – the extremist wing of the Tory Party – always seem so desperate to get well-paid EU jobs like MEPs ?
Curious Cat
definitely Pro-EU.
Clearly neither you or @mwebberukip are aware that I’ve actually done exactly what you suggest a number of times. Specifically in the 1986; 1990; 1994; 1998 and 2002 TH local elections in multiple wards. If you don’t have Party members or have absolutely no track record (please note Mr mwbberukip) in a particular area you have absolutely no alternative. In 2006 and 2010 I used a mix of local Conservative members, personal associates (mainly people I’ve met from being active in my local TRA and HARCA estate board) topped up with a couple of “cold calls” on previously canvassed supporters. This year Easter effected my deadline and to finish off the nomination papers. Cllr. Golds offered his assistance. I’d already done the circuit of members in the east of the ward on Bank Holiday Monday on foot, but a vehicle sped up the process. Why go to strangers when you can go to friends?
Mr Ingham you wrote
Which is the wrong attitude for any councillor. If elected you are SUPPOSED to represent all of them, even those you don’t like, that don’t vote for you, that never vote and are not on the register.
How on earth will you ever discover the local issues adversely affecting residents lives if you only go to Tory households. That is bollocks.
More bollocks in your statement “This year Easter effected my deadline and to finish off the nomination papers.”. 10 signatures needed and the form submitted before 16:00 hours today Thursday 24 April 2014 = what has Easter to do with it ?
No wonder England needs a drastic overhaul of everything to do with councillors and local elections.
As a Tory you should be deeply ashamed at the nasty Tory Law: The Housing Act 1988 section 21 that allows landlords to kick-out tenants for no reason after 6 months rental. I went to court with an affected family this month and the judge told all of us the law was wrong. The law was unfair.
Don’t gloat Labour, you could have changed it but you lazy w….. didn’t bother.
Only yesterday I had a mother in tears about her landlord planning to kick her and her family out in September.
Tories, Labour …. No thanks. They aren’t fit for anything.
Curious Cat.
Delusions of adequacy clearly come with the UKIP territory. All 7 Conservative Councillors have worked incredibly hard over the last 8 years. All Conservative wards have been regularly leafleted at least every other month. Regular contact has been kept with all types of electors. How precisely can a bunch of chancers like THUKIP compete with that?
Incidentally UKIP need to be very careful when working on the Island. I speak as someone who was present at the infamous 1993 Millwall by-election (and even watched with horror the riot that took place outside Jack Dash House). There remains a thuggish element that once backed the BNP and would be only too happy to “help” your campaign. You cannot possibly win any seats, your effect on the overall Conservative majorities might be significant however.
I’m reminded that back in the 2002 Millwall by-election a fringe candidate Dennis Delderfield of the “New Britain Party” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Britain_Party got a total of 19 votes. However the Conservative candidate Tim Archer lost by only 10 votes! Thus delaying the election of a Conservative to Tower Hamlets Council by over two years.
The UKIP vote share last May and in the last few parliamentary by-elections, and our current level in the national polls and the polls for the EU elections (held on the same day as the locals), plus the excellent response I am getting on the doorstep and on the streets, are all reason to believe that we will do well next month, getting a slate of councillors elected across London including here in TH, some of whom will be elected at the expense of Conservatives candidates in the riverside wards. No delusions necessary to see this as a potential scenario.
If UKIP are so popular why are they only standing single candidates in wards where they could have up to three council positions? I count only 13 candidates on their website running for 46 positions (45 council + 1 mayor).
I already answered this a while ago. I only formed the TH branch in December. We only really got started with campaigning in February. We have built it all up from nothing in a few months, having never done anything like this before. So we have done well to get 14 candidates in, plus the high-profile mayoral candidate, although I would have liked to have had the time to find one for each ward. Even if I did have more candidates I would only stand one each in the target wards in this election since we have no prior history that people can vote on. In 2018 it will be very different.
Good candidates are easy to find – if your party or group has attractive policies but getting-out of the European Project is not very appealing to local government voters. England’s future is as a leader of the EU.
Neither is the UKIP figure head; a non-stop smoker and beer addict who needs several pints a day, daily, to survive. He reminds me of also known as Adolf. In some areas UKIP attracts nutters, racists and those having literacy problems.
Andrew Wood makes a good point. If the public love UKIP so much, why is there not a vast flood of willing and anxious-to-be candidates besieging the local UKIP office ? Oh, is the excuse UKIP have run out of rosettes ?
Have a nice day everyone.
Curious Cat.
Mr Webber wrote
Are you suggesting UKIP won’t be around then ? If it is, it certainly will not be as popular.
CC.
Most people do not know that UKIP exists in TH, so it is not surprising that we are starting off small. The lack of a full slate of candidates is not a valid criticism given that there was no Party structure here five months ago.
You socialists need to be worried about what I have got planned for the Poplar & Limehouse seat next year. Who is replacing Fitzpatrick? He will have to work very hard.
Mr Webber me me laugh a lot with his comment
“You socialists ……………”
I’m not and never have been BUT I do believe local authorities must genuinely serve the public, not the interests of political parties and the nuts in local government AND the obscene Local Government Gravy Train must end.
No one in local government should be paid MORE than the UK’s prime minister.
In my area, UKIP are working with Labour to ensure the re-election of the Labour Leader. (UKIP regional boss is the Labour Leader’s buddy) Meanwhile Tories are trying to attack everyone using extremely weak novice candidates some having difficulty speaking English.
Reform of the sick English local government system – full of abuses and corruption – is overdue. Wonder why all the TH candidates seem unaware of the problem ?
Curious Cat.
@Curious Cat
‘All’ of the candidates seem unaware of the problem? Au contraire Mr Cat. The very reason we are standing is to cure the malaise.
OMG, check out today’s Wharf.
There is a “comedian” attacking UKIP on behalf of Biggs (go to page 4). What is Labour afraid of?
They have unleashed the attack dogs on us! A man with red lipstick tells voters they are extremists if they don’t want to be part of European political union or have control over our borders.
Thanks Wharf!
More UKIP rubbish.
The UK has ALWAYS had control over its own borders.
In the early 1980’s the UK government, UKIP’s mate the Tories, seemed to have abolish border and customs controls at Dover – the job was done by staff of the ferry company and the Port Authority.
Mr Webber does not seem to understand that when a government enters into an International Treaty, it is obliged to honour that treaty.
I know of NO EU anything that stops the UK or any other EU member state from enforcing its own borders – do you Mr Webber ?
Curious Cat.
Actually yes, (1) a Labour Government who oversaw the fastest and largest wave of immigration in this country’s history, and (2) an incompetent Coalition Home Secretary in Theresa May – http://bit.ly/1rCTzxZ
Before the Tories gained power in 2010, Theresa May and Dominic Grieve represented the two leadership contenders at a Tory meeting. Although I’m not a Tory, I attended and ended-up asking more questions than any of the Tory Party members present.
TM never impressed me then and certainly not since. I remember her stupid comment that someone didn’t get deported because he has a cat. Absolute bo11ocks. That was not the reason. When a country’s Internal Affairs Minister is detached from reality, common sense and the Borders Agency (what name is it this week?). Cameron should have sacked her.
Curious Cat
Agree. As the Ukip candidate for St Katharine’s and Wapping I don’t believe it will be an abuse of privilege if I were to arrange suitable accommodation for the seamstress in the Tower.
*UPDATE*: Just been informed that all three Conservatives (including myself) in my home ward of Lansbury have been successfully nominated and that TH Conservatives have a full slate of Mayoral & Council candidates.
@mwebberukip Hope your nominations went as well 😐
Congratulations to you Mr. Ingham for getting your candidates in for Lansbury and good luck. Yes all our noms are in, notwithstanding a few last-minute heart attacks.
I wonder how well you can do though in Lansbury. Has a Conservative ever been elected there? A three-way split Tory vote vs. our single UKIP candidate there, Paul Shea, a local lad and very well known in the area. No doubt you will see him at Chrisp Street Market where I was with Mr McQueen a few weeks ago, getting a fantastic response with people coming up to me saying they knew Paul and asking for some of our yellow I’m Voting UKIP posters for their neighbours windows.
P.S will you have someone at the drawing of lots for the mayoral address this afternoon – that will be first confirmation of who the mayoral candidates are.
Pity the young Conservative prefaced his aims with an unnecessary and possibly hurtful comment re: not ‘having a famous cousin’ – If he really imagines Nick McQueen who was born here is running because his
cousin was/is a genius couturier …… think on –