Liveable Street (LS) debate tonight at full Council @going4golds & I have introduced a motion to debate the next steps on LS, following the Mayors announcement of a pause, it starts with "we need to find ways of reducing this division"
A key point at democracy.towerhamlets.gov.uk/documents/s191… 1/
the bottom 1st & top of 2nd page are quotes from the Labour manifesto in 2018
I am not sure this matches what was delivered
It then details the difficulties emergency services have had (more evidence of this in these London Ambulance Service letters)
2021 residents survey findings are interesting
More residents concerned about congestion 17% than air quality 16% but both are well down the list of top concerns towerhamlets.gov.uk/lgnl/community…
Motion then starts to make recommendations
In Weavers ward electoral mandate for a restart 3/
of the whole program from scratch
Elsewhere for new consultations as done by Ealing
All future consultations should be done by Council staff (not external consultants also responsible for delivery)
Independent Equality Impact Assessments
Ask Emergency Services again what 4/
they think about existing closures & publicise what they say
Consider experimenting with Citizens Panels to look at some of the more thorny issues
Speed up roll out EV chargers
Scrappage scheme to get rid of old more polluting vehicle
Air quality mitigation in yellow/red area 5/
& a personal one for me - electric scooters - we should join TfL trial properly - it maybe escooters are a key component of future travel options
In theory, Labour will respond with a counter-motion later today
But at least we get 30 minutes to debate this properly
6/
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"Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector has determined that a Written Statement of Action is required because of significant areas of weakness in the area’s practice"
Hugely disappointed that TH Council again does badly in an OFSTED inspection this time on SEND
And does not disclose 1/
they get letter 5th July, report published Monday!
I was not aware of this report, it was not mentioned by anybody in last nights full Council meeting
We should have had an emergency update about this rather than about price of milk in Tesco
This is about whether we are 2/
effectively looking after the most vulnerable children in TH
SEND = Special Educational Needs and Disability where OFSTED found we had "significant areas of weakness"
We should have had an update on this on the 2nd September almost 2 months after 1st draft of letter sent to TH 3/
Tonight at Council is a rather strange Labour motion, it starts: 1. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) intends to close the JobCentre Plus branch based at Dod Street, Poplar. 2. That the reasons for the closure are due to the landlord not renewing the lease
Why odd?
1/
Clearly, we do not want the Job Centre closing & I would support asking the DWP to find another location so I am not sure what the 30 minute debate is about, we can all agree to that
What is odd is that since July 2019 TH Council has known of plans to re-develop the site 2/
for 84 homes in a new 8 storey building & to close the Job Centre
And in November 2020 TH Councillors voted unanimously to approve the development which included the transfer of the Job Centre to Mansell Street democracy.towerhamlets.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=1… 3/
Stop the sale of the Isle of Dogs Police Station - petition to sign democracy.towerhamlets.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDis…
Although some of you believe that it has been empty, a number of Police teams have been based at the Manchester Road Police station including the local E14 Safer Neighbourhood Teams
1/
(they are about to or have just moved out) and the Police Cadets, only the front desk was closed
In future, they will need to commute to & from Bethnal Green Police Station about 20 minutes each way if minimal traffic
2/
Given the continuing increase in population, the increase in stabbings locally, reduction in opening hours of St Andrews Wharf youth centre to then reduce the availability of the SNT & other teams makes little sense especially given how much £££ this area generates now
3/
1st results of Liveable Streets LS survey
Q2 What should the Mayor do next with Liveable Streets?
Green - extend & strengthen the programme
Dark Blue - stick to the existing proposals
Yellow - pause to reconsult residents
Light blue - scrap the whole thing
Orange - Not sure 1/
As you can see I segment the answers by source (same survey, same questions)
Full results here cllrandrewwood.com/news
As you can see the results are strikingly different depending on which social media tool you ask Q in
I have always known this but this provides some proof 2/
But total results are dominated by responses from my Twitter & my Facebook group mainly in E14
So in total responses clearly pro-LS
(note Collector pic done today rest of results as at 8pm Friday when I announced in public that I could segment answers by social media tool) 3/
ASDA Planning update - meeting tonight Thursday
You can watch the meeting live from 6.30pm, click on the link towerhamlets.public-i.tv/core/portal/we…
I sent the Councillors on the Committee below 8 planning reasons for a rejection yesterday (see pics) 1/
But my main concern is not a planning issue - I just do not think this area can cope with becoming the Manhattan of London as currently managed i.e. selling the only local Met Police station!
In 2017 the planning committee rejected a number of planning applications 2/
but all were lost at appeal, in part because of not enough planning reasons for a rejection which is the email is designed to help with if the C'tee want to reject it
If they want to approve it I added some recommended conditions
3/
The Council has published its 2019 housing action plan 12 months late & does not mention cladding as an issue!
I was sent it this month (although report says final April 2021)
Should have been published within 6 months of 13th Feb 2020
It's 2020 housing towerhamlets.gov.uk/lgnl/planning_… 1/
action plan should have been published within 6 months of 19th Jan 2021 but has not been yet
These are important documents because in both years we missed our housing targets
Also not consulted on as gov. suggests
This has consequences as means new higher housing targets 2/
We now have to deliver 4,167 homes a year not 3,473 homes!
57% of them in the Isle of Dogs & S Poplar area according to the Council's Local Plan!
This will be hard as depends on large-scale developments coming forward but Council is slow to make decisions i.e. ASDA! 3/