Cllr Phil Briscoe

After years of living in denial, Tower Hamlets Council has withdrawn
258 talking "hate books" from local libraries, as revealed by Ted
Jeory in the Sunday Express -http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/150772/Library-ban-on-sermons-of-hate

A welcome move but just the beginning.

An exciting analysis produced this week by http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com lists the top 100 political blogging tweeters in the country. Surprised to see that I am in at number 11 and I think the highest councillor in the list.

1) Alastair Campbell (12,270 followers) 2) John Prescott (10,717 followers) 3) Iain Dale (6,993 followers) 4) Tom Watson MP (6,977 followers) 5) Guido Fawkes (6,300 followers) 6) The Wardman Wire (5,698 followers) 7) Kerry McCarthy (4,451 followers) 8) UK Progressive (4,399 followers) 9) James Cleverly (3,600 followers) 10) Enemies of Reason (3,412 followers) 11) Cllr Phil Briscoe (3,342 followers) 12) Green Girls Global (3,101 followers) 13) Labour List (2,991 followers) 14) Paul Waugh (2,972 followers) 15) Tim Montgomerie (2,968 followers) 16) Tom Harris MP (2,637 followers) 17) Stuart Bruce (2,628 followers) 18) Gideon Rachman (2,240 followers) 19) Obnoxio the Clown (2,147 followers) 20) Lynne Featherstone MP (2,058 followers) 21) A View From the Public Gallery (1,955 followers) 22) Tory Bear (1,884 followers) 23) The Stilettoed Socialist (1,810 followers) 24) Pickled Politics (1,795 followers) 25) Think Politics (1,758 followers) 26) Benedict Brogan (1,655 followers) 27) Jess McCabe (1,540 followers) 28) Cllr Tim Blog (1,497 followers) 29) Bloggerheads (1,478 followers) 30) Mark Pack (1,467 followers) 31) LibDem Voice (1,449 followers) 32) Jon Worth's Euroblog (1,429 followers) 33) Next Left (1,368 followers) 34) Nadine Dorries MP (1,354 followers) 35) Plenty to Say (1,321 followers) 36) Daniel Hannan MEP (1,319 followers) 37) Cllr Lisa Northover (1,265 followers) 38) Kirklees Unity (1,193 followers) 39) Andy Reed MP (1,183 followers) 40) Shane Greer (1,180 followers) 41) Adam Smith Institute Blog (1,173 followers) 42) Liberal Conspiracy (1,172 followers) 43) FT Westminster Blog (1,169 followers) 44) Ed Vaizy MP (1,164 followers) 45) House of Twits (1,162 followers) 46) Douglas Carswell MP (1,137 followers) 47) Greener Leith (1,111 followers) 48) Oberon Houston (1,100 followers) 49) Byrne Baby Byrne (1,092 followers) 50) The Baillieu Blog (1,081 followers) 51) Dizzy Thinks (1,078 followers) 52) The Tory Troll (1,067 followers) 53) No Geek Is An Island (1,054 followers) 54) Bray's Duckhouse (1,018 followers) 55) Tory Politico (1,008 followers) 56) Politics Cymru (988 followers) 57) spEak You're bRanes (971 followers) 58) Andy Reeves' Running Blog (966 followers) 59) Political Scrapbook (957 followers) 60) Will Straw (947 followers) 61) A Very Public Sociologist (936 followers) 62) Boris Watch (936 followers) 63) Left Foot Forward (932 followers) 64) Labour Matters (927 followers) 65) Frank Field MP (909 followers) 66) James O'Malley (904 followers) 67) Mark Reckons (890 followers) 68) Dan Wilson (873 followers) 69) Philippa Latimer for St Ives (873 followers) 70) The Daily Quail (871 followers) 71) Grace Fletcher-Hackwood (867 followers) 72) Martin Bright (867 followers) 73) Stephen Allison (863 followers) 74) Local Democracy Blog (861 followers) 75) Stephen's Linlithgow Journal (848 followers) 76) Byrne Tofferings (837 followers) 77) Martin Tod (798 followers) 78) Labour of Love (788 followers) 79) Liberal Burblings (785 followers) 80) Bethan Jenkins AC/AM (770 followers) 81) Chicken Yoghurt (769 followers) 82) Rob Fenwick (764 followers) 83) Caron's Musings (761 followers) 84) Tory Teenager (744 followers) 85) Cardiff Blogger (740 followers) 86) Angry Mob (737 followers) 87) Penny Red (735 followers) 88) Quaequam Blog! (735 followers) 89) Nick Pickles (733 followers) 90) Mayor Watch (713 followers) 91) Charlotte Gore (696 followers) 92) Luke Bozier (689 followers) 93) David Ottewell (685 followers) 94) Devil's Kitchen (673 followers) 95) Boris Watchers (671 followers) 96) Shot Across the Bow (662 followers) 97) Cynical Dragon (641 followers) 98) Anthony Painter (633 followers) 99) Bridget's Blog (603 followers) 100) Arbitrary Consent (595 followers)

At the full Tower Hamlets Council meeting last night, agreement was reached on taking a harder line on the expansion of London City Airport.

Following a question from me about representation on the consultative committee, and then a motion proposed by myself and colleagues, the Labour councillors caved in and offered their own amended version of the motion.

All sides accepted the amended wording (text below) and agreement was reached. Tonight was a good night for the residents of Tower Hamlets who have campaigned long and hard to make their voices heard by the council. 

FULL TEXT OF AMENDED & APPROVED MOTION


This Council notes that:


• In 2006, London City Airport had a total of 79,436 aircraft movements


• Since then the airport has continued to expand and residents in some parts of the Borough, especially Poplar, Bow and the Isle of Dogs, are now suffering from a significant increase in the noise disturbance caused by planes to and from London City Airport flying overhead


• In July 2009 the London Borough of Newham granted planning permission to increase London City Airport’s total number of aircraft movements to 120,000 a year, a 50% increase on 2006 levels


• This Council raised serious concerns on behalf of residents in its submission to the July 2009 planning application but this wasn’t counted as a formal objection to the application


This Council further notes that:


• London City Airport is now consulting on its Noise Action Plan 2009-2014 but that this plan proposes only limited measures to avoid, prevent or reduce noise


• In response to complaints from other East London boroughs, the Civil Aviation Authority is reviewing a new flight path and that, should this flight path be removed, flights over Tower Hamlets council increase further


This Council resolves to:


• Oppose any further expansion of London City Airport


• To engage in discussions about flight paths with London City Airport, the Civil Aviation Authority and other partners to ensure that changes to flight paths don’t materially disadvantage Tower Hamlets residents


• To publicise in East End Life the current consultation on the London City Airport Noise Action Plan 2009-2014 and to encourage residents to make their views known to the airport


• To actively seek the views of residents about this issue to inform the Council’s response to the consultation


• To respond to this consultation, highlighting the disturbance and nuisance being caused by noise from the airport and to seek further noise reduction and mitigation measures as part of the plan

An amusing story in PR Week magazine last week:
"The CIPR Local Public Services Conference in Edinburgh was enjoyed by
all, especially Chris Payne, head of commercial operations at Tower
Hamlets Council. Fun-loving Chris whooped it up at the traditional
Ceilidh dance on Thursday night. But we couldn't help noticing that he
missed the 10am presentation he was giving on local newspapers the
next day. Oops...."

Perhaps his absence was a deliberate example of the non-delivery of
East End Life!

Controversial radical group Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain held an emergency meeting in Tower Hamlets this week,  to discuss the fact that activities by their group have recently been banned in Bangladesh. The country joins a long list of nations who have outlawed the organisation, but unfortunately that list does not yet include the UK.

The group, which promotes non-participation in western democracy and an international Islamic state, has been banned in many countries including Pakistan, Turkey, Denmark, Russia and in Germany for spreading anti-Semitic propoganda. Tony Blair made unfinished moves to ban them in 2005, and David Cameron has urged the government to see that ban through saying, "People simply won't understand why an organisation urging people to kill all Jews hasn't been banned."

In 2007, I sought and received assurances from Tower Hamlets Council, that Hizb ut-Tahrir would be banned from using any council rooms or venues.


Speaking at the event this week,  Mujibul Islam of the Bangladesh Committee of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain, urged friends and family to lobby to have the ban overturned so that they could set about and "..establish a progressive Islamic Khilafah State in Bangladesh."

I for one, have heard the call, which is why I am publishing this post and publicising the local activities of this unacceptable group again. They need to be banned in this country too, and Tower Hamlets should be at the forefront of driving them out, rather than fostering their growth.

News published yesterday revealed that 1 in 10 of the calls attended by London firefighters in the last year were to rescue people trapped in lifts.

In the league table of London boroughs, Tower Hamlets topped the poll again, with 1,688 call-outs to rescue people from lifts between October 2008 and September 2009. This compares to those at the bottom of the league table, such as Harrow, Kingston and Havering, who each had less than 100 call-outs.

Aside from my personal cause for concern (campaigning and casework visits means lots of lifts which equals a higher risk of getting trapped), this says a lot about the local maintenance of the buildings we expect people to live in.

And once again, Tower Hamlets proves it has the "John and Edward" X-Factor - always at the top of the league, but not for the right reasons!

I have just received the answer to a question I submitted for the council meeting last week. The question sought to understand exactly how the residents of Tower Hamlets can make their views heard at London City Airport. Those views have repeatedly been ignored by this council and there are lots of very frustrated local residents.


The written answer from Labour Council Leader Lutfur Rahman states :
“Tower Hamlets Council works to ensure that the concerns of local residents are suitably expressed to London City Airport (LCA) through Councillor Ann Jackson on the LCA Consultative Committee.”

WRONG!

While Tower Hamlets Council is able to appoint one representative to the LCA Consultative Committee, Cllr Ann Jackson recently resigned from this role, meaning there is currently no representative from Tower Hamlets on the committee. Even when she was on the committee, she did not make a habit of attending meetings, but to have no representation and for the council leader to not know about it is a disgrace.

The written answer continues:
“Additionally, where there has been a LCA consultation exercise Tower Hamlets Council has ensured this was publicised in Eastend Life. This Council has also made a series of observations to Newham Council, as the local planning authority for the LCA, on the LCA’s proposals, including on their recent expansion plans.”

WRONG AGAIN!

Our council offered no objection to the recent LCA expansion plans and made no serious attempt to consult the thousands of Tower Hamlets residents who live directly in the flight path of the airport. Claiming that an advert in East End Life is consultation is as insulting as it is ridiculous.

So, the facts of the matter remain that local people have been routinely ignored in the consultation processes surrounding changes at London City Airport and that Tower Hamlets currently has no representation on the LCA Consultative Committee. Worst of all, the Leader of our Council sees the airport as such a local priority, that he hasn’t got a clue about any of this.

My challenge to the council leader now is to fill the gap on the LCA Consultative Committee – not at the next General Purposes Committee in December, but now! We need proper representation on that body and we need it without further delay. Secondly, instead of appointing another councillor who has a half-hearted interest, why not appoint a directly-affected local resident to this body? Give someone with a real interest a real say in this issue that affects their life on a daily basis.

News from the Fight the Flights Campaign that they yesterday cleared their first legal hurdle with costs protection awarded by the High Court in their legal challende to Newham’s decision allowing increased flights from London City Airport”.

Anne-Marie Griffin of Fight the Flights said: “Without costs protection, Fight the Flights would have been at risk of unlimited costs liability and could not have proceeded with the case. Costs protection is only normally given where the Court recognises the public importance of the case. This is a very important case and we now look forward to pursuing the case to the next stage.”

At the full Tower Hamlets Council meeting last night, the mood was
dominated by the approaching election.

Labour realised that motions were something worth discussing and
voting on and we got through more in one night than on the last 3
years combined. Sensible discussion ensued on some topics and we even
had cross chamber agreement on three issues including the future of
the GP practice in Limehouse and the dangerous crossing on Mile End
Road.

It is unfortunate that Labour did not realise the importance of
motions sooner, rather than spending their time trying to stop them
and attacking members of the public up until last night.

Labour electioneering also picked up pace as they asked themselves
questions about freezing council tax next year, congratulated
themselves on a plan to build 17 (yes, just 17) new council houses,
and there were even some wannabe Labour council candidates in the
public gallery - I assume they had been given maps to find the town
hall on their first visit.

However, a heated debate on the future of ESOL classes at Tower
Hamlets College failed to win Labour over as they focused on blaming
everyone but themselves for the cuts and job losses.

Also at the meeting, Kevan Collins was confirmed as the new Chief
Executive.

All in all, the meeting gave us a preview of how Labour would behave
If they were in office 2010-2014. Three and a half years of cuts,
arguments, divisions and contempt toward the electorate, followed by 6
months of false promises and cynical ploys to win votes again.

At lunchtime today, thousands of people lined the streets of the Canary Wharf estate. The snake of people stretching along Bank Street and round corners was not there for a free lunchtime giveaway or to grab tickets for a hot gig - it was full of people queuing to get into a jobs fair organised by Tower Hamlets Council.

The Wharf newspaper reports that about 10,000 people were in the queue when the fair opened, far surpassing expectations of 1,500 visitors during the entire day.

The long queue was reminiscent of the "Labour Isn't Working" election poster from the 1970s, which showed a long snake of people queuing at the unemployment office - the only different being that the queue today was a lot longer.

I hope lots of visitors today were successful in their job search, but the scale of interest underlines the state of our economy - yes, the same one the government would have us believe is on track for recovery!

Thames 21, supported by the Environment Agency, will be holding a fishing day at Limehouse Cut Canal at Limehouse Basin on Tuesday 27th October between 10am and 2pm.

There will be free angling lessons with equipment, bait and qualified instruction provided.



The ‘Riverside Safari’ will have lots of free activities for all the family including…


Bird watching walks!


Underwater camera: take a look at aquatic life!


Canal Dipping!


For further information please contact Vicky D’souza on 07827 852599 / Vicky.dsouza@thames21.org.uk