Question Time (QT)1 gives backbench councillors an opportunity to quiz the cabinet. So, does it work?2
Because of a technicality, Independent councillor John Tyler cannot attend as a full member of council committees.3 What does he do? He only has to attend eight council meetings a year. Yet he doesn’t participate in those meetings. He doesn’t ask any questions at QT, ever. And, amazingly, he doesn’t contribute to debates. Silence is golden but this is taking it too far.
David Taylor, asked three QT questions, followed by Jason Frost, Dilip Patel and Keith Prince with two each. David (37 minutes) was probing. He elicited the fact that Romford Market is in line to be privatised. Lurching into hard-core Tory David (1:00) showed he believes in the Class War. He demanded that the back gate of Royal Jubilee Court be kept locked. Why? Homeless people now live there and the back gate opens onto a *private* road. David implied homeless people are a ‘risk’ to those living on that *private* road. Keith Darvill didn’t challenge him saying the gate would be locked.
Dilip Patel (1:07) asked a dog whistle question about housing refugees. Paul McGeary said it was a time-limited solution from which Havering benefitted. The houses revert to Havering after three years and enhance the depleted housing stock.
Notes
1 Annotator Player (sonicfoundry.com) All times relate to this webcast
2 Absentee councillors Mandy Anderson, Stephanie Nunn, Tim Ryan, Damian White and Reg Whitney
3 See Havering Council Emasculates Independent Councillors – Politics in Havering There must be matters where he could make a contribution on behalf of his constituents. This assumes that he talks to them.
Politics in Havering 