Havering Council Tax Meeting, 2nd March 2022

Setting a council tax is a statutory duty. It was dispiriting watching a debate dominated by trivia. The Mayor didn’t realise that he’s expected to terminate out-of-order speeches. Trivia degenerated into drivel.

The single highlight was Roger Ramsey (@ 2 hours 12 minutes in the webcast). Calm, measured and magisterial, he noted irrelevance with a weary acceptance. His focus was the demand-led Adult Social Care. That budget literally can’t be controlled. It’s a statutory obligation. Children’s services are also demand-led with huge expenditure for personalized transport during the pandemic. Massive shortfalls in government funding were highlighted. This was described as a Stealth Tax (Ray Morgon: (@ 50 minutes).

Damian White (@ 25 mins) is turning into a Socialist. He worried about the cost-of-living crisis, environmental funding, the stigma of Food Banks, and substandard KS3 achievements in schools. 400 job losses which will, amazingly, improve service delivery was used as an example of tough decisions. The government’s £150 reduction of Council Tax for bands A-D was welcomed. Belatedly he recognised that Special Responsibility Allowances (SRA) mattered in an election year and offered half-baked proposals.

Keith Darvill (@1 hour 35) talked of a perfect storm of increases in Rent, Council Tax, National Insurance and inflation, especially energy costs. Ray Morgon actually made a policy proposal. Savings from reducing SRAs would go to street cleaning. There was a lot of expectations on productivity gains from digital working. This was rubbished by David Durant (@ 3 hours 31) who discussed cyber-terrorism. Another policy proposal was by Jeff Tucker (@ 1 hour 53) who wanted fewer councillors (18) because officers made all the decisions anyway. He also proposed himself as Leader as he had ‘the most brains’.

Graham Williamson (@ 2:32) said savings on SRAs were irrelevant, being gesture politics. Gillian Ford (@2:41) did a tour d’horizon which included refugees, Green Flags in parks and Food Banks. I hoped for more.¹

Conclusion

Jeff Tucker is absolutely right that there are too many councillors. This meeting was a disgrace and should be used as a training programme for the incoming Mayor so they understand their role in chairing a meeting. Roger Ramsey is retiring and someone needs to step up and fill his shoes as ‘the only grown-up in the room’.

Webcast

Annotator Player (sonicfoundry.com)

Note

1 Other speakers: Martin Goode, Chris Wilkins, Ciaran White, John Tyler, Robert Benham, Darren Wise, Bob Perry, Joshua Chapman, Graham Williamson, Reg Whitney, Ron Ower, Viddy Persaud and Dilip Patel. There may have been others but my webcast failed at 3 hours 42 and so I missed the last hour.

Flooding and Rainham Councillors

In theory councillors represent their local communities. Councillors should resolve local problems by mediating with the council administration. Political considerations sometimes intercede, such as when the allocation of resources has to be prioritised. Less honourably, personality clashes between councillors also matter. Some councillors are more capable than others at negotiating. Rainham councillors are a case in point.

Rainham has been a Residents’ Association (RA) stronghold since 2002. Jeff Tucker, the leader of Rainham RAs, has been a councillor for nineteen years. The 2018 election result showed the gap narrowing between the RAs and the rest.¹Why?

Jeff’s two RA colleagues aren’t impressive. Neither of them live in Rainham and aren’t part of the community. Tony Durdin had a 29% Council attendance record,²which is abysmal. David Durant is a let-down in a different way. At a recent council meeting his vaccine scepticism about Covid-19 was discussed. He persuaded Jeff to endorse an amendment. Jeff proposed it but it was so ridiculous he voted against.³This made him look ludicrous. More importantly, he lost credibility with officers and Conservative administration councillors.

Jeff’s colleagues are poor but how good is he? Rainham is beset with flooding.⁴Jeff fully understands this major problem but he doesn’t know how to negotiate. The Conservative administration sits on their hands. Flood prevention isn’t rocket science. It just needs investment and Jeff doesn’t know how to unlock the purse strings. Rainham RAs are a clique who no longer serve their community.

1 Local elections | Election results | The London Borough Of Havering

2 Attendance record – Councillor Tony Durdin | The London Borough Of Havering

3 Havering Council Meeting, 20th January, 2021 – Politics in Havering

4 See for 2014 flooding Flooding causes major problems for drivers in Rainham | Romford Recorder

See for flooding in 2019Rainham residents ‘desperate’ after knee-level floods and sandbags unavailable | Romford Recorder

See drone video of 2021 flooding Rainham Dovers corner floods 31/01/21 – YouTube

Havering Councillor: Natasha Summers (South Hornchurch)

South Hornchurch is a Residents’ Association (RA) stronghold. In the old days RA councillors lived in the ward they represented. ‘We share the same experiences as you and we aren’t politicians’. No more. Michael Deon Burton became a Conservative two days after the 2018 election. Graham Williamson has never lived in South Hornchurch. Natasha is the last relic of RA politics-not-politics. (I don’t understand it either.)

Obviously her community work isn’t publicly available. She might be a tireless councillor but her paid public role is unimpressive. Between 19^th August, 2020 to 20th January, 2021 she had 62% attendance. ‘Attendance’ during the pandemic means walking across the living-room and turning on her council provided laptop.

The council’s principal committee is the Overview and Scrutiny board. There were five meetings in the period and Natasha attended two. The Overview and Scrutiny board is where all contentious and strategic items go for discussion. Members have a great deal of work to do to fully understand crucial long term policies.¹Only senior councillors are on the board and their decisions help shape the future of Havering for years to come. Non-attendance is a disgrace.

The RAs in South Hornchurch are trading on decades of hard work by local councillors who have left a wonderful legacy. This legacy is being trashed.

1 See the agenda for 24^th November 2020 as a sample (Public Pack)Agenda Document for Overview & Scrutiny Board, 24/11/2020 19:30 (havering.gov.uk)

Source

For Natasha’s attendance record see Attendance record – Councillor Natasha Summers | The London Borough Of Havering