A High Court judge today rejected Tower Hamlets council’s long running legal challenge to Eric Pickles’ decision to send in inspectors to the town hall.
Mr Justice Goss refused the council permission to proceed to a full judicial review of the legal basis for the inspection, which culminated in PricewaterhouseCooper’s highly critical report of the town hall last week.
Today was the second rejection of the council’s legal bid by a senior judge and its costs are in the region of £50,000.
In August, Mr Justice Kenneth Parker in a written ruling (here and here) had described the application as “hopeless” and “unmeritorious”.
Undeterred, the council, led by Mayor Lutfur Rahman and advised by Interim Monitoring Officer Meic Sullivan-Gould, then requested today’s oral at the Royal Courts of Justice.
However, the council’s barrister, Jonathan Swift QC, lost his argument.
The council’s legal costs on this case alone are at least £40,000.
Today’s judge also ordered the town hall to pay DCLG’s legal costs of £8,500.
When Eric Pickles announced the inspection in April, the council issued a statement “welcoming” the chance to prove it spent taxpayers’ money in a “best value” way.
The council was then criticised by the Government for dragging its heels during the inspection and while it contested its legal basis.
Local Government Minister Kris Hopkins said after today’s hearing: “We are pleased that the courts have thrown out Tower Hamlets’ legal challenge for a second time.
“However, it is disappointing that local taxpayers are having to foot the bill for the Mayor’s legal costs.
“This reflects a culture of denial in the local authority about the dysfunctional governance of the mayor’s administration.”
Mayor Rahman said: “Our case challenged the £1m cost of the audit and raises fundamental questions about the legal relationship between local and central government.
“We are disappointed that the judge refused permission for us to proceed to a full Judicial Review hearing. We are now fully engaged with responding to the Secretary of State’s proposals and will continue to do all we can to ensure that our residents interests come first.”
…………
This was Mr Justice Kenneth Parker’s written ruling from August:
Today, Mr Justice Goss said he could not do any better than his colleague. He read out ground three again in its entirety.
The first ground (on timing) was not considered again today as it was regarded as “hopeless” first time round, and Tower Hamlets decided not to put it forward.
……and two days ago, Ken Livingstone at the Water Lily rally urged Lutfur to hire the best lawyers and challenge Eric Pickles’ proposal to send in Commissioners.
Ken did not say that he would personally fund such a challenge. Funny that.
It’s always easier with other people’s money.
Trial by Jeory 
So, The Despicable Rahman protests against a ‘waste’ of £1m on a PWC report by doing what? By pissing another £50k up the wall in some misguided challenge. What is wrong with the guy, and (more to the point), when is he going to have to start writing his own cheques for nonsense that panders only to his ego?
Abysmally pathetic behaviour. Kris Hopkins had it right: “We are pleased that the courts have thrown out Tower Hamlets’ legal challenge for a second time.
“However, it is disappointing that local taxpayers are having to foot the bill for the Mayor’s legal costs.
“This reflects a culture of denial in the local authority about the dysfunctional governance of the mayor’s administration.”
Tim.
Did I dream it, but isn’t Ken on LBTH payroll? Something to do with Whitechapel.
Well, Ken is indeed providing the advisory services to LBTH.
I would doubt he does it for free 🙂
http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/news__events/news/march_2014/former_london_mayor,_ken_livin.aspx?lang=en-gb
I did a FOI on this and Ken has/is not being paid for this
Click to access FOI%2010356%20Expenses%20for%20Ken%20Livingston.pdf
Livingstone is, or was, Luftur’s ‘advisor’ on the regeneration of Whitechapel. See here:
http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/news__events/news/march_2014/former_london_mayor,_ken_livin.aspx?lang=en-gb
One wonders how long this roll-call of pathetic excuses will become;
http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/news__events/news/november_2014/councils_response_to_pwc.aspx
Tim.
Every time the Council website is used to communicate the Council’s perspective but fails completely to report what was said to the Council by formal official bodies isn’t that political propaganda?
Maybe the Commissioners could look at how the LBTH website is used as an arm of Rahman’s political propaganda machine?
Whoops – I meant to say the Mayor’s perspective NOT the Council’s perspective! (in the first para above)
Justice prevails! Now hold these crooks to account and throw them in the slammer for good!
We also want our hard earned taxes that they feel they can waste back!
Oh Dear. Surely not a second High Court rebuff for His Worship and the unimpressive part-time interim Monitoring Officer ?
To ignore a first High Court judge’s ruling is silly. Now a second High Court judge has confirmed His Worship has not got an arguable case.
Obviously His Worship will appeal to the Appeal Court, the UK Supreme Court, the (EU) European Court of Justice, the (CoE) Human Rights & Fundamental Freedoms Court and finally to the UN’s general assembly – all funded by the mugs who are forced to pay Council Tax.
TH’s Council Tax payers should seek a restraining order against His Worship prohibiting him wasting more of the public’s money on hopeless time-wasting High Court frivolities ?
Curious Cat.
I am well aware you are not a residnet of LBTH so kindly stop insulting those of us who are by calling us ‘mugs.’
From where I’m sitting Interim Monitoring Officer Meic Sullivan-Gould is looking increasingly like a very expensive mistake for LBTH taxpayers.
Who is he accountable to?
Oh Dear……
We need to stop this before it all gets to ECJ!
They somehow always manage to find some human rights article in the legislation to refer to, which makes the criminal a victim 😦 ……..
I hear Rayman has paid for a probe from LBTH reserves to be sent to a comet to search for a higher court to appeal to
Oh, no doubt it’s time for another rally at the Water Lilly, where Ken Livingstone and Galloway and Lindsay German and Christine Yawncroft all shriek and scream that Mr Justice Goss is a racist and an Islamophobe and a witchfinder-general in the great big Lutfur witch hunt and yadda yadda yadda.
Time for these people to find out Tower Hamlets is not just a vacuum where, if you can dragoon 500 bearded men out of the local mosques to shout and yell and intimidate anyone near, you can operate local politics in a vacuum where you can do what you want.
Mr Pickles, the fat controller, or whatever other smug weight-based epithets these people want to employ for him, does not live in the Tower Hamlets bubble. So he can view it dispassionately and treat the borough as it needs to be treated, no matter how many Livingstones, Galloways, Shawcrofts, Quislings, et al you can rustle up to address your Nurem…ahemahem ‘rallies’.
(And before any smart-arse LBTH denizen gets an idea and thinks “Yes! WHS is right! And the lesson is – bearded men with nothing better to do, protesting outside DCLG all the time! Then Pickles will call off the Commissioners!” – no, Pickles is made of rather sterner stuff than that.)
(But, by the way, Quisling Trots, please do get the bearded men to protest outside DCLG anyway. The GLA has water cannon now and this would be just the right test for them)
Did any of these speakers at His Worships rally actually bother reading the PWC report? I can only assume the answer is a resounding NO because any idiot can see just how corrupt practices have been applied in both building disposals and grants allocations.
Another waste of our hard-earned council tax money. Instead of wasting it on trying to keep himself untouchable, I wish he had taken Boris and Seb Coe to court for denying us the Olympic Marathon running through our streets when they broke their agreement and changed it to Central London. Atleast he would have had a strong chance of winning – Plonker. Instead he cuts a deal which gave us nothing worthy in return. Wonder how many of his cronies were treated to tickets to the Opening ceremony? Did anyone send in a FOI request to find out? How can we find out Ted? Could you find out for us please, who attended the ceremony along with LR on the council ticket allocation?
In what possible way is the Mayor continuing, or even begun, to ‘do all we can to ensure that our residents interests come first.’
…………
Let’s start with the question of which residents he’s referring to when he says “our residents”……
I was wondering what exactly was behind Livingstone’s support of Rahman and a few enquiries have produced this. It seems that when he was Mayor he appointed a number of personal advisors. One was the well known Lee Jasper of missing money fame and another was a Kumar Murshid.
Murshid was involved in a court case about ten years ago over missing grants money but was subsequently acquitted at the trial although three others went to prison.
The council leader at the time was Helal Abbas Uddin who brought in forensic auditors to look at grant allocations and they called in the fraud squad. Murshid disappeared from public view after this but it seems Livingstone has never forgiven Uddin and has pursued a public campaign against him ever since to the extent of openly defying the party and campaigning for Rahman.
It is indicative of the pettiness of the man to take the matter this far and there ,now have to be questions asked about is mental state, putting personal vindictiveness against ahead of the interests of the party and country.
Livingstone has to go and as it seems Miliband is too weak a leader to seize the bull by the horns we are going to have to give him a helping hand. Can someone start an online petition to expel Livingstone and Shawcroft from Labour and the NEC? I don’t know how to do it but I understand the process is simple.
If both are still there next May Labour are sunk and we are facing another five years in opposition.
Sorry Dave but Ed Miliband would never part ways with Ken in a million years. (Apart from anything else they’re family friends of about forty years standing). Not sure your petition is going to make much of a difference.
Is this the Facebook definition of ‘friends’?
Bearing in mind Ed was a child/adolescent for a significant percentage of the 40 years and Ken himself says “I met Ralph Miliband a few times”
No, it’s the ‘often being at his house for dinners with his parents and giving his brother his first job’ definition of friends.
How does this explain the relationship between Ken and Rahman? I understand the fraud case you are referring to which involved Dame Colet House. At least one of the Directors now works for the Council. The reason Livingstone was livid was that Murshid was his ‘Asian Affairs Advisor’ and thought it would look bad for him to have Murshid involved in the fraud case. Murshid quit the labour party using all the same tired old excuses that Rahman does such as being ‘victimised.’ Galloway then supported Mursid as a possible Respect candidate so it’s even more odd that Galloway and Livingstone are now supporting Rahman. Politically, Galloway, Livingstone and Rahman have no-where to go and judging by their performance at the Waterlily recently Rahman doesn’t seem to realise the damage the other 2 are doing to him. Straws and clutching come to mind.
And your evidence for them being family friends is? You have made some stupid comments here over a long periodof time but this is the most crass without a doubt.
Don’t get your knickers in a twist, Dave
“Livingstone has a long relationship with the Miliband family. Ed’s elder brother, David, worked in his office as a teenager, and he used to visit the family home.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ken-livingtone-speaks-out-after-ed-milibands-press-issues-the-lies-they-spewed-out-were-amazing-8864934.html
Jay Kay. Who was the director?
Checkout http://www.counterfire.org for a highly Trot version of East End history. Didn’ t Ovenden take the Galloway shilling? It’s all confusing but I think it is has beens thinking they can be born again wannabees.
More evidence of Respect preparing their tanks for BG&B.
“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”
Margaret Thatcher
This legal case it just the tip of the iceberg. Lutfur and his gang of crooks are renowned for using our money as s legal stick to try to silence us with. Suing councillors who blow the whistle on his cabinet members’ outrageous taxi fares, attempting to silence the BBC, refusing to keep to transfer contracts as RSLs refuse to use his smug smiling face on their housing developments and having to pay thousands in compensation when challenged in the high court.
Maybe I, Ted or the ELA should submit an FOI to see how much LBTH has spent on legal challenges, either defending or as the aggressors since this pathetic dictator conned his way into power? This should be given to one of Pickles commissioners, who can stop this waste, or force him to fund future cases himself. Though he’ll probably just approach some of the bent organisations he’s funnelled funds to fit a rebate, or put collection boxes in the mosques.
Ken was always good at spending money on hopeless things. He wasted millions o9n planning inquiries where the GLC had no possible chance of success, advised by the Popular Planning Unit which was neither popular nor knowledgeable about planning law. Nor surprised he is at it again.
He also wasted a collosal amount of time and money with Hugo Chavez. Ken was even too much for the labour party at times.
Far more on black only groups, millions disappeared.
Lots of bluster – but Rahman meets the deadline only AFTER spending yet more money on legal advice!
LGC “Tower Hamlets to accept ‘disproportionate’ intervention”
http://www.lgcplus.com/news/tower-hamlets-to-accept-disproportionate-intervention/5076871.article
Rahman has apparently decided that:
1) there is absolutely no need for the Commissioners to undertake any review of the contracts function – despite Poplar Town Hall being sold for less than the cost of a house in the north of the borough
2) the direction that the Council should prepare a fully-costed plan for its publicity functions is described by Rahman as “unreasonable and disproportionate” – despite spending on publicity and communications being both inappropriate (ie political) and way in excess of what is spent in other boroughs.
3) the the imposition of a commissioner-appointed electoral registration officer and a returning officer for elections was “not relevant to the council’s best value duty”. He seems unaware that taking five+ days to run an election count does NOT demonstrate good governance and has already forgotten that the Electoral Commission made serious criticisms of the planning for and management of the Count in the first part of its report on the 2013 Election in Tower Hamlets!
“Obfuscation and denial” continues to run rampant in the higher reaches of Tower Hamlets.
Apparently DCLG are letting it be known that one of the Commissioners will have extensive experience of election law – just in case Rahman is in any doubt about election law……
Plus there’s now a call for the London Mayor to conduct an audit of grants to Tower Hamlets by the GLA. That should be interesting……
Now Boris slaps audit on Tower Hamlets budget after Eric Pickles’ probe
http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/politics/now_boris_slaps_audit_on_tower_hamlets_budget_after_eric_pickles_probe_1_3854618
“Boris Johnson has ordered an audit of GLA funds handed over to Tower Hamlets—following on from Secretary of State Eric Pickles’ controversial audit which uncovered “lack of transparency” in Town Hall accounts.”
So is this a wish on Cllr. Andrew Boff’s part – or has another audit actually been ordered?
Should have kept reading! Just found the answer in http://www.24dash.com/news/local_government/2014-11-19-Opinion-Mayor-is-right-to-audit-100-million-in-decent-homes-funds-handed-to-Tower-Hamlets
“The mayor confirmed that he will be carrying out an audit of the monies provided to Tower Hamlets and specifically singled out concerns related to decent homes funding.”
and
“In the last full financial year of 2013/14, Tower Hamlets received a whopping £105million for its decent homes contract, a significant sum of public funds, that sit alongside £6m given to regenerate high streets and £5m for local transport projects. ”
To my mind this news underlines speculation as to possible reasons why Mayor Rahman might be concerned about the Commissioner’s activities spilling over into other areas?