Newham’s newest councillor has set out his stall.

In an open letter to Deputy Mayor, Cllr James Asser, Cllr Mirza takes aim at the way in which arguments around road safety and air quality are used as the basis for income generation buy the council.

There was worrying news at the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting, 20th July 2023, (from approx. 40 minutes in).

The members of the OSC were presented with a report that stated,

Arguably, the election of Mehmood Mirza has been one of the most interesting things to happen on Newham Council for some time. We have known Mr Mirza for some years and have rarely agreed with him on anything political. However, such is the nature of life and politics, that those things we see as bad, others see as virtues.

Having worked her way around several London councils, with a brief sojourn in Bristol where she cost the local council tax payers some £56,000 for three-months’ work, Abi Gbago is set to join Newham in the Autumn.

There isn’t much to add to what they have said. Increasing the council tax by the maximum allowed will be followed by increases in residential parking charges. Remember those free 30 parking permits a year, for visitors? They’ve gone too. Apparently, they contributed to traffic congestion, (see penultimate para).

We’ve decided to do a little number crunching in the wake of the momentous election result in Boleyn, (July 2023). We began in the first year of the mayoral system.

We’ve rounded the numbers, so they might not add up to exactly 100%.

The fellow above is probably not someone you recognise. This is Lard Parry, an entrepreneur, a businessman, a Labour peer and for five years was the chair of the Coexistence Trust. This is an organisation that seems to have gone out of business at about the same times as its former director, one Rokhsana Fiaz left.

Readers will be aware that Newham, and the mayor in particular have been the subject of concerns with regard to her financial management.

We suggested that Wall End was a shoe-in for Labour, but that they might face some competition in Boleyn.

Green Councillors Keeling and Higgins, have come up with an interesting wheeze.

Readers will recall that at the last Labour Group meeting, Labour councillors discussed the mayor’s decision to renege on the promises that she had made in her manifesto, only 12 months before. In a motion that was critical of the mayor, Councillors Das Gupta and Beckles urged the Labour Group to support a return to the policy upon which they had been elected.

We all remember the “Focus E15 Mothers’” Campaign during the 2014-2018 Council, particularly the occupation by the Campaign of a void on the Carpenters Estate.

Is it that councillors have so little to do that they are treating the council like a student union debating chamber? Debate is clearly important, but we are left with the impression that our current crop of councillors are more concerned with promoting their own virtuous credentials, or hearing their own voices, than they are with solving problems.

The July 2023 Labour Group meeting saw another motion that caused the mayor some concern.

Group members were invited to discuss a motion on bullying. It might be that this was intended as a wholly abstract discussion item. Or, it might have been that it was intended to highlight the impending report from the Standards Advisory Committee (SAC).

It seems that the criticism of Newham Labour councillors spurred a couple of them into action this week. Councillors Sasha Das Gupta and James Beckles tabled a motion at the monthly Group meeting.

It was entitled - “Motion 10: Draft Local Plan 50% Social and Affordable Housing”

It has been an open secret that the person behind this website is erstwhile councillor, Clive Furness. Over the past 24 months, he has been collaborating with the former mayor, Robin Wales on a separate project.

The fruits of their labours is the book, Left, Right, Wrong.

Talk is Cheap.

We must give a hat-tip towards Newham65 for this item.

They have discovered that the mayor’s commitment towards building new council homes is a bit fragile.

Labour now knows what opposition it faces in the two byelections, (full details below).

Boleyn clearly looks to be the more interesting race. Alongside Labour, the Conservatives, Lib-Dems and Greens are putting up candidates.

Readers will recall that Mayor Fiaz and her former Cabinet Member for Finance, Cllr Terry Paul have both lodged complaints with the Standards Advisory Committee.

Readers will be familiar with Mehmood Mirza. This former member of the Labour Party, and former constituency officer and former supporter of Mayor Fiaz, has been conducting a virtually single-handed campaign to clean up the borough.

We learn from the Newham website, that Mayor Fiaz is none too keen on housing asylum seekers in the Royal Docks. She echoes the statement from London Mayor, Sadiq Khan.