The Fight for the Farm Continues as Greens Side-lined by Labour.

Campaigners for the Newham City Farm attended the council meeting on Tuesday 17th October. They submitted questions, as permitted under the council’s standing orders, to which Cllr James Asser responded in writing. To what must be the chagrin of Cllr Asser, they don’t seem to be giving up. They are determined to continue to push for a unique offer to the children of the borough, children, largely, that it seems the councillors wish would go away.

The picture above is interesting in other ways. The man standing at the back has asked a question. Cllr Asser is answering. In order to answer he has his back to the questioner. It kinda gives an unspoken message to the public who turn up.

Some of them wished to ask their questions in person.

This is what the guidance says on the Newham Council website.

Quite clearly, the questioner may “come along and ask the question in person”. That is not the advice that was given to the Chair. Petitioners were told that they could not ask their question. They were, it seems, somewhat aggrieved. Their questions had been bumped from a previous council meeting because of time constraints. Then council meetings were cancelled. The campaigners attended the October meeting to get a response from Cllr Asser. Officers appear to have told Cllr Vaughan that they were not permitted to ask as they had not informed the council secretariat of their intention to attend. It seemed that rules were being made up on the spot, (see from 1.54 and specifically from 2.03 of the recording on YouTube.

To his credit, the Chair, Cllr Vaughan eventually over-ruled the advice from officers. That was the only thing that can be said to his credit as the meeting descended into fractious chaos. 

At 2.05 Cllr Terry Paul helpfully intervenes with a point of order aimed at moving next business. Clearly, the majority group were happy with the idea of cutting short the questions from the public and skipping over an embarrassing item where a member of the public pressed them on the consequences of their decisions.

We see that Cllr Vaughan even tries to have the vote on the motion before councillors know what it is about.

Those readers who are cynics may feel that Cllr Paul was doing Asser’s dirty work in preventing him from being further embarrassed in public. That may be the case, but probably wasn’t. Paul’s intentions were likely to have been around ensuring that his motion, aimed at currying favour with the GMB was near the end of the agenda. He wanted to make sure that it was given time.

Either way, the procedural motion was agreed and the members of the public were sent back to their seats. Because it seems Cllr Vaughan didn’t know what to say, the Council’s Head of Legal stepped in to explain the Chair’s ruling. (2.08) She then went on to call the count.

The inexperience of the Green councillors became evident. Neither demanded the right to speak against the procedural motion. Neither of them objected to an officer calling the count. 

It’s one thing to have an opposition on the council, but if they want to derail the juggernaut, they have to become wise to the ways of the council and have to be prepared to become ‘awkward’ when the need arises. Quite how it was that an officer called the count rather than the Chair is a mystery and should have been the subject of an intervention from the opposition councillors at the very least. Boring though it might be, a few hours consulting the constitution and standing orders of the council might be worthwhile.

Having decided to move on, Chief Whip Anamul Islam stepped up with another procedural motion. This time it was to rearrange the order paper to ensure that favoured motions got priority; 

Fiaz’s motion seeking another honour, sorry remembering the queen,

The menopause at work motion came next,

The GMB motion on residence based voting followed,

And at last, the second GMB motion proposed by Paul to put a plaque on the wrong building

The Silvertown Tunnel motion came after.

The others followed on, but surprise, because of time constraints were not discussed.

Again, the inexperience of the Greens is evident. Matters that were of major importance to them were left to wither; the MSG Sphere, the campaign for the City Farm, the motion on Trans-Rights. They rolled over and accepted it. Labour could talk about whatever motion they wanted (not debate, for there was no contrary view presented). The Green councillors sat on their hands.

This would have been an opportunity to pressure the majority group. They have the right to speak. It’s a shame that they don’t use them. Instead they allowed an endless line of GMB members to prattle on, for no apparent reason other than to hear the sound of their own voices.

Here’s a suggestion. Next time Labour seek to steam-roller a change in the agenda, object! Speak against. Add an amendment to the proposal. Suggest one of your motions is taken second, not sixth. It does not matter in the first instance whether you win the vote, you will be putting down a marker. Use up the time that would be used in presenting a motion to ensure that the majority group does not have a free run. If they want a smooth agenda, they will have to make sure that your motions are given the chance for a fair hearing. If they don’t, be awkward.

And a suggestion about Questions. If your question is merely about getting non-controversial information, do it informally. It will be quicker and won’t waste time at council meetings. If you have a point to make. USE THE OPPORTUNITY that a supplementary question gives you. If you want to expose or ridicule some lazy or incompetent office holder, USE the supplementary. Don’t just wander off with a “thank you” to someone who got an officer to write a reply. If you want answers, you have to dig. The supplementary is the place to do it. If the written answer fails to answer your question, push back. 

The meeting was notable for another reason, a group representing the refuse workers were escorted out of the chamber. More of that in another article.