Council meeting - 17/07/13

I have just received the new council seating plan for this evening drawn up by the Council Clerk (click image to expand):

Interesting that from the Mayor's perspective UKIP will be to the right of the Conservatives, whereas traditionally opposition parties are...well, opposite.

Here is the new make-up of the council as of this evening:

Conservatives (29), Administration

 

Residents Association (12), Principle Opposition

 

Labour (5), Principle Minority Opposition

 

Independent Residents (4), Joint Minority Opposition

 

UKIP (4), Joint Minority Opposition

 

I am looking forward to the reactions of councillors from all sides regarding the Conservative-UKIP defections. Will there be any more? Only 2 more are needed for there to be a hung council where the Conservatives will have no overall control.

 

Questions and Answers

 

Having been speaking with residents in Harold Wood and Harold Hill, and seeing for myself the damage done by vehicles on grass verges, I am very pleased that Cllr Brian Eagling (Harold Wood, RA) will be asking Cllr Barry Tebbutt, Cabinet Member for the Environment how seriously the council is taking this issue and what further actions are being done to tackle this.

 

Other questions include Cllr Denis O'Flynn (Heaton, Labour) asking Cllr Steven Kelly, Deputy Leader of the Council about the Bosworth Field improvements in Harold Hill, Cllr Jeffrey Tucker (Rainham and Wennington, IRG) pressing Cllr Andrew Curtin, Cabinet Member for Culture, Towns and Communities about the new Leisure Centre in Romford, and Cllr John Wood (St Andrews, RA) asking Cllr Roger Ramsey, Cabinet Member for Value about the council's use of bailiffs to recover money owed by residents.

 

Cllr Keith Darvill (Heaton, Labour) will ask Cllr Lesley Kelly, Cabinet Member for Housing about the Administration's decision not to build new council houses in Havering, Cllr Ray Morgan (Hacton, RA) will also ask Cllr L Kelly what the council will be doing to stop the increase in rent arrears when the government's Universal Credit kicks in, and Cllr Pat Murray (Gooshays, Labour) will be demanding reassurance from Cllr Curtin that no wildlife will be affected by the creation of new football pitches at the Manor, Harold Hill.

 

Cllr Clarence Barrett (Cranham, RA) will also be pressing Cllr Ramsey on what savings the council didn't make last year, Cllr Paul McGeary (Heaton, Labour) will ask Cllr S Kelly when Harold Hill councillors will receive the implementation plan for the Ambitions programme (a motion to be discussed later, and Cllr David Durant (Rainham and Wennington, IRG) will ask Cllr Michael White, Leader of the Council for an update on the proposed super-sized prison the government is wanting to build but the Greater London Authority is opposing.

 

Cllr June Alexander (Cranham, RA) will be asking Cllr Ramsey about the New Homes Bonus expenditure, and finally Cllr Denis Breading (South Hornchurch, Labour) will be asking about the number of voids of council homes.

 

All responses can be heard live online, and will be published shortly after the meeting is over.

 

Motions

 

Romford Ice Rink (now closed)

Two motions today. The first entitled 'New Romford Leisure Centre' is being proposed by the Independent Residents Group who want the Administration to "publish and review all the advice that informed their decision to close Romford ice rink" so councillors and residents are assured the building of the new centre is "technically and financially viable".

 

However, the Conservative Administration is proposing an amendment to that which points out the new centre was part of it's manifesto commitment, and also that it won't publish anything that "conflict(s) with any financial confidentiality".

 

The second entitled "Harold Hill Ambitions Programme" is being proposed by the Labour Group who want the Administration to "disclose full details" of the Programme so that Harold Hill residents and councillors (non of whom are Conservatives) are kept informed.

 

However, an amendment by the Conservative Administration attacks "Labour inactivity" concerning Harold Hill and disputes that residents haven't been involved in the process.

 

Finally...

 

Join me at 7.30pm this evening where you can follow my live Twitter feed @HaveringMeh. You can also watch the meeting online.

Defections, elections & deselections

Earlier this year, this is what Havering Council looked like:

Then in a by-election in Gooshays (Harold Hill), Havering and London's first UKIP councillor was elected, introducing a new colour in the mix:

Since then, rows, deselections and general nuclear meltdown have engulfed Romford Conservative Party HQ, and just today 3 Tory councillors announced their defection to UKIP:

What does this mean?

The Conservatives still hold over half of the seats on Havering council, giving them enough of a majority to whip their members into voting the way they want.

If 2 more of their councillors defect to one of the other parties, they will lose their majority and the politics of coalition will kick in.

This means that Havering's Conservative administration will have to work with opposition councillors, and can no longer take their views for granted, as is the case now.

The Residents' Association is still the principle opposition, Labour is still the principle minority opposition, and the Independent Residents Group (IRG) is still the minority.

However, UKIP has now become the joint minority opposition with the IRG (both with 4 councillors), meaning they can now propose and amend motions as a group.

Havering's political tectonic plates are shifting. The local election results on 22nd May 2014 are still too early to predict, but one thing is clear: it is very much the beginning of the end of the Conservative's golden age on Havering council.

We're LOCAL and here for you

In this month's edition of The Bulletin, I have decided to outline some things the Residents' Association (RA) and local councillors are here to help you with (see below).

 

On Thursday 22nd May 2014, two elections are being held here in Havering:

 

1) Local election - where we elect councillors to represent us at Havering Town Hall, Romford:

 

2) European election - where we elect MEPs to represent us at the European Parliament, Strasbourg.

The RA is a non-political group. We only care about local issues on your doorstep, not European issues in Brussels or anywhere else.

 

If you would like to know more about the elections in May 2014, or would like to get involved in the RA, please leave a comment or tweet me @HaveringMeh

 

 

Dog poo: Bag it and bin it!

From this month's edition of The Bulletin published by the Residents' Association.