After the break, opposition councillors came into the chamber like lions. They were transformed from being supine and acquiescent into decision-makers. It was all rather wonderful. It’s taken four years for them to fulfil their principal role of critically scrutinising the Administration. Better late than never.
What happened? HRA put an emergency motion on the Order Paper on the morning of the meeting,
This Council recommends a revision of the Mercury Land Holding business plan, to focus the company on delivering much needed affordable housing and driving down temporary accommodation costs, once it has reached its breakeven number of properties.1 (my emphasis)
Mercury Land Holdings is a multi-million pound company owned and controlled by Havering council. The motion calls for ‘revision’ of the business plan. There were no papers and councillors were asked to blindly trust the Administration.
But was it an emergency?
On the 3rd September, 2025 this Conservative motion was passed,
This Council recommends a revision of the Mercury Land Holdings business plan, to focus the company on delivering much needed social homes and driving down temporary accommodation costs. (my emphasis).2
HRA’s emergency motion was nonsense. They’ve had five months to create a new business plan for Mercury Land Holdings which pivots towards social housing.
The charge was led by Keith Prince (59 minutes)3 who described the emergency motion as an ‘abuse of Council’. I thought that was restrained. Ray Morgon said that social housing wasn’t viable. He’s very trusting. That is the patter used by building companies to avoid social housing.
The legal officer dived in and firmly said the motion was an emergency because a budget has to be written shortly. He didn’t remark it was a self-inflicted wound.
This so-called emergency motion was a disgrace. Ray Morgon has been badly let down by Graham Williamson who should have had urgent meetings during September 2025 to discuss the consequences of the motion.4 He always seems flaky and now this is proof that he is disengaged from his responsibilities.
The meeting ended at 11:15 with a shambolic ‘singing’ of the National Anthem.
Notes
1 (Public Pack)SUPPLEMENTARY AGENDA Agenda Supplement for Council, 21/01/2026 19:30
2 “….the motion by the Conservative Group was AGREED as the substantive motion by 25 votes to 22 (see division 4)”. (Public Pack)Minutes Document for Council, 03/09/2025 19:30
3 Annotator Player times relate to this webcast. Keith had support from Michael White, John Tyler, Martin Goode, and David Taylor. David made the initial passionate speech, in September 2025, which triggered the overwhelming Opposition vote. Interestingly the only councillor lawyer, Keith Darvill, was silent. Why?
4 The meeting ended in stalemate with the motion being progressed to the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee where there will be papers available. This by-passes the desire that the motion be passed on ‘trust’. There maybe an emergency Council meeting to make a substantive decision.
Politics in Havering 
Is there an online ‘Hansard’ for council meetings containing minutes and speeches or questions by councillors? I don’t think my councillors say anything in the chamber.
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Thank you for your comment
No there isn’t a version off Hansard. There are minutes and the webcasts are archived so you can refer back to the meetings. This is what I did for the September 2025 meeting. The questions are only asked by opposition councillors so it depends what party your councillor is in whether there is any chance of a question.
Mostly councillors don’t contribute to debates. Worse: there is a high absenteeism ratio.
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