We also have to wonder whether the decision on paying Fiaz’s legal costs was lawful or ultra vires. If so, the spectre of personal surcharges, unknown since the 1980s, suddenly rears its head again. Five into £100,000 works out at a nice round £20k each.

That sounds eerily familiar to news we heard from Newham recently. We reported on the

attempts to cover a shortfall in the Newham budget of some £79,259,000. And fears that

Newham was heading for bankruptcy have hit the headlines of the mainstream press.

Newham and Croydon seem to be chasing each other to the bottom. Out of 220 places nationally, Newham came in at 213^th

Residents are seeking to quash the new LTNs by way of judicial review, (which is probably less risky than engaging in criminal damage). This is normally a horrendously expensive exercise, but they are being represented pro bono by a barrister. In short according to the Telegraph, their case is that the council ““unlawfully” used low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) as a taxation on motorists to “balance the books” by raising millions of pounds from fines”.

Their popularity amongst the general public is somewhat more mixed. Well established travel routes are disrupted requiring longer, roundabout journeys for both residents and deliveries. On top of this, breaching the rules of the LTN provides another nice little earner for local councils. It is clear that some residents think that the primary purpose for their introduction is not public health but to raise funds for cash strapped councils. And few councils are as cash-strapped as Newham.

We don’t think that it is entirely cynical to suggest that parking costs are being increased to make up for the failure to collect the current exorbitant charges.

One by-product of this policy is that the honest residents are being forced to subsidise the dishonest ones. But that doesn’t matter to Mayor Fiaz.

We have seen how Newham intends to maximise its income by levying, what are effectively new taxes on diesel owners. Now we see the “socialist” council trying to eke as much money as it can out of the elderly and disabled.

The corridors of Newham's political scene are abuzz with talk of a dramatic fallout between Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz and Assembly Member Unmesh Desai. The cause? A blistering email reportedly fired off by Fiaz to Desai, cc’ing councillors and council officers, in a move that some are calling both bold and reckless.

On Thursday 28^th November, the Monitoring Officer of the council wrote to all council members to inform them that: “Newham Council has received a claim issued by the directly elected Mayor, Rohksana Fiaz OBE.”

It seems that Newham is intent on spreading LTNs across the borough. Touted as a means of improving road safety and cleaner air, they have also incurred the wrath of residents because they cause disruption to journeys and confusion for delivery drivers.

A Freedom of Information request by the Covert Councillor can reveal that since April 2020, the authority has spent more than £1m on 34 non-disclosure agreements. It follows reports of significant infighting and indeed alleged bullying between the Mayor and her political colleagues.

It therefore came as something of a surprise to learn that the Labour Party is contemplating the imminent suspension of the Newham Labour Group by way of putting the group into special measures.

The Housing Ombudsman has reported on the way in which councils handle housing complaints. This is the first report since a new Complaint Handling Code was strengthened by making it a statutory obligation.

Feedback from councils suggest that 92% of them find the code helpful in providing a consistent approach to complaint handling.

The report highlighted examples of good practice by some councils.

It also noted some failures.

It does seem that the mayor’s specially chosen councillors are hell-bent on embarrassing their leader. We understand that another councillor, this time Cllr Miraj Patel (Deputy Cabinet Member for the Environment) is the subject of a formal complaint.

Various news sources have reported that the on-off mayor of Tower Hamlets is in trouble again. Not content with a ban for five years for “corrupt practices”, (what The Guardian summarises as “vote-rigging, buying votes and religious intimidation”), Lutfer Rahman has found himself in trouble again. In February 2024, government inspectors were despatched to Tower Hamlets because of problems.

The question of Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz taking her own council to court has caused some amusement. We understand that it is being whispered within the council buildings that there is no tribunal case, (which suggests to us, that Fiaz intends to drop the matter), but we are confident in our original assertion.

We continue to dig into the story about Cllr Lewis Godfrey’s suspension from the Labour Party. We are confident in this assertion, although, he still appears on the council website (Nov 8^th 2024) as a Labour Party and Co-operative Party member.

There was an old adage which went to the effect that Labour knew how to spend money, but not how to use it.

There was some surprise when Cllr Pushpa was reported to have migrated from Newham to Havering, less than one month after being elected to represent the residents of Plashet ward in East Ham.

It didn’t take long.

The need to make massive savings did seem to have concentrated the minds of some of those on Newham Council. Amongst the savings they proposed was the reduction or abolition of facility time for trade union reps.