Thread by @Andrewwood17

🧵about an attack on democracy in Tower Hamlets, the future of Brick Lane & whether Councillors will support residents or business tonight
Last October residents in a referendum voted Yes to approve Spitalfields Neighbourhood Plan
But business voted No
Cllrs tonight will have
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to decide whether to support:
business No vote
or the
resident Yes vote
See Item 10.1 the report for Councillors
democracy.towerhamlets.gov.uk/ieListDocument…
BUT this report misses out several key facts (once again demonstrating that Council officers do not like this subject)
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The @TowerHamletsNow report does not mention that there is an active Police investigation into the business No vote, nor that 49.5% of the business vote came from a single building, nor that the anti-Neighourhood Plan campaign broke several electoral rules in the referendum
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In the business referendum
1 person voted 5 times for different companies
2 people voted 4 times " "
3 people voted twice " "
In the vote registration forms sent to businesses they were told 1 vote only per person regardless of the number of properties
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But The Neighbourhood Planning (Referendums) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 allow one person to vote a maximum of 2 times for 2 separate companies
Therefore 7 business votes are illegal
Police are investigating these votes (which they confirmed by email on the 21st Sept 2022)
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In addition 49.5% (48 out of the 97 business votes submitted) came from a single building in the area with a single mail room
This building rents out individual small offices to a range of businesses (because those businesses pay business rates separately they each get a vote)
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This business model is not reflective of the wider business community in area
But it does mean small offices have the same weight of vote as a whole restaurant or shop etc
I would argue that is unfair even if legal
But Councillors need to make a judgment as to whom to support
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So of the 97 business votes submitted
9 rejected by Council officers (a large number) - why is unclear
47 were extra votes from a single building
4 votes were from people voting more then once
So it is entirely possible that if you adjust out these numbers from the results
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that actually the business vote was much closer to a 50/50 split
(I can only assume from where the No votes came from as I can only see the business voter register not the actual votes)
Again Councillors tonight can make a judgment on whether to support the business vote or
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not
As backup some of this is in the public domain via @PrivateEyeNews

https://twitter.com/nijjormanush/status/1563486166141509634?s=21&t=SiZXj5OOd3edNZM5j-IUFQ

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Why do I talk about an attack on democracy?
Because at the weekend an unknown organisation on YouTube released a video attacking people involved in the Neighbourhood Plan
It was 8 minutes long, clearly professionally produced
This must have cost somebody ££
Who paid for it?
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It was full of irrelevant & misleading content
But it also attempts to convert an argument over planning policy (the 7 policies in the Neighbourhood Plan) into a personal one by attacking 2 individuals
It said nothing about the planning issues at stake here
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Last year I reported in this tweet thread about the very expensive letter campaign organised by a business in Romford against the Neighbourhood Plan
Who paid for it?
That campaign ignored electoral laws related to electoral imprints & campaign spending

https://twitter.com/andrewwood17/status/1460950749999939584?s=21&t=SiZXj5OOd3edNZM5j-IUFQ

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So we have somebody paying a lot of £ to attack the Spitalfields Neighbourhood Plan
Why & whom?
Maybe they do not like this Neighbourhood Plan policy which offers more Affordable Workspace in future commercial developments?
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To those Councillors thinking of voting No to the Neighbourhood Plan (@TH_Labour ?)
Which of the 7 Neighbourhood Plan policies do you object to & why?
Here are the policies that your vote tonight will decide whether or not should be added to the Councils development plan
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to help decide future planning applications
As you should know the Neighbourhood Plan can only do 2 two things:
a. Add these 7 extra land use policies to those that Councillors voted for (the Local Plan) & Mayor Sadiq Khan wrote (the London Plan)
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b. Make recommendations on where up to 25% of CIL can be spent (but the Mayor of Tower Hamlets ultimately decides where to spend CIL & Council officers have in the past under John Biggs ignored recommendations made by Neighbourhood Plans (the Isle of Dogs Neighbourhood Plan)
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Those are the only powers that Neighbourhood Plans have
They cannot change electoral boundaries, they cannot change ward names etc
Council officers & Councillors in planning committees make the decision on whether to use Neighbourhood Plan land use policies or not
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And the evidence of the Isle of Dogs Neighbourhood Plan is that Council planning officers do not like nor respect Neighbourhood Plans (see also the 12th July 2022 development committee for evidence also within Spitalfields of officers not respecting Neighbourhood Plans)
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The vote tonight will determine the future of Neighbourhood Planning in Tower Hamlets
Do we support or not resident engagement in planning?
Do we support the Spitalfields residents Yes vote or the flawed & partially illegal Business No vote?
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And fittingly next week Roman Road votes on their Neighbourhood Plan
Is it worth residents voting?
What do Bow Cllrs have to say on this?

https://twitter.com/towerhamletsnow/status/1574428888750604290?s=21&t=SiZXj5OOd3edNZM5j-IUFQ

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It is clear from the Truman Brewery proposed development that many people are unhappy about some of the development
Councillors last year said their hands were tied by current planning policies
The Neighbourhood Plan gives Councillors more options
standard.co.uk/news/london/ol…
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& planning policies on which to judge future Brick Lane planning applications
But they retain the decision-making power on how or whether to use them
Rejecting the Spitalfields Neighbourhood Plan means returning to the status quo of planning policy in the area
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A couple of points answering some of the potential objections to Neighbourhood Plan
a. The name of the Plan does not include Banglatown - this is easily fixed but was done because the Plan area is not the same as the Ward area & to use the same name may have caused confusion
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b. Neighbourhood Plan has nothing to do with the Spitalfields Town Council campaign even if a couple of the people are the same
c. It does not include the whole of the ward especially areas to the east of Brick Lane - this could be fixed by creating a new Neighbourhood Forum
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