Overview & Scrutiny Committee - Monday 26 January 2026, 6:30pm

Overview & Scrutiny Committee
Monday, 26th January 2026 at 6:30pm

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7 a) Be Well Progress Update January to December 2025

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I am Councillor Abdul -Wahid and I will be chairing the meeting.

Just to get some of the formalities out of the way, just to remind everyone, this meeting

is going to be webcast on the Council's online streaming channel.

Also to remind everyone, please, when you are speaking, speak directly into the mic.

Can you speak directly into the mic so that everyone can hear clearly what we are saying?

Okay.

On to Item 1, which is apologies for absence.

Ms Siboes, do we have any apologies?

Yes, chair, we have apologies from Sabina Khan and Councillor Haroun Mia is substituting.

Sorry, apologies.

Jai Hadislan has also sent his apologies.

Thank you very much.

Moving on to item number two, which is any declarations of interest for many members.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Moving on to item number three, which is the minutes.

I have sent out a table of some amendments on the minutes.

Can I just ask everyone if they agree with those and can move on?

Thank you very much.

Next item which is action log which have been updated on the website.

Thank you very much.

Can you hear me now?

On to the next item which is the call in amendments to neighbourhood community infrastructure

levy.

Firstly, this is our first item which is the report item 6 .5 amended to neighbourhood community

infrastructure levy approach.

There is an alternative that's been put on, which is the calling.

Just to remind everyone in terms of the conduct of the meeting, if we can just bear in mind

before we go into any details, can I remind members about the conduct of this session?

can we please all act professionally and not be party political.

Keep an open -minded, keep open -minded throughout the discussion,

not to discuss matters which are not part of the calling,

not to discuss anything confidential or commercially sensitive,

and not discuss matters that are not factually incorrect.

Please do not make any speeches in the session that are not devoted to any questions.

We've got legal here as well if we step out of line.

So if you can just keep an eye on that as well, please.

The calling process, we will first hear the members who made the calling and then we'll

have members, sorry, they will present for five minutes and then we'll ask members to

ask committee members to ask questions.

Then we will, after we finish that process, we will ask the lead member,

Councillor Kabir Ahmed, to make a five minute presentation

and then we will move on to the questioning from members for that as well.

Okay, I hope that's all clear.

We will now move on to the first item on the agenda, which is the call -in.

We have Councillor Mark Francis, who is on the line. Welcome, Councillor.

If you can start your presentation, you have five minutes.

the floor to you. Thank you.

Thank you. So the government's definition of community infrastructure levy is that it's

a charge which can be levied by local authorities on new development in their area. It's an

important tool for councils to help them to deliver the infrastructure needed to support

additional housing and other development. This levy was designed in part to replace

the financial contributions to health, education, culture and the public realm that have previously

been negotiated inconsistently between different councils and sometimes between different schemes

within the same council. In a borough with as much development as Tower Hamlets, the stream of

SEAL income has been significant. There are twice as many people now living in Tower Hamlets as there

was when I first moved here 30 years ago. It's an essential that public services amenities keep

pace with that growth. Over the last decade, SEAL has overtaken section 106 as the main way of

and securing funding needed to expand schools, NHS facilities. To take some recent examples,

it's contributed towards the cost of Mulberry Dock Secondary School and a big expansion

of NHS general practise. And on the public realm side, it's funded improvements to the

public realm in Ford Square and Cavell Street Gardens, Millwall Park and Victoria Park,

Roman Road West shopping parade, Whitehorse Adventure playground and playgrounds in John

McDougall Gardens and St James Gardens, to sports pitches in Bethel Green Gardens, to

Spitalfield City Farm to Stepney City Farm and Mudchute Park and Farm 2. The Mayor's

decision back in June 23 to scrap 61 similar projects and syphon £17 million of ENSIL

money to prop up revenue services was wrong. That represented a 60 % cut in funding for

future projects up until March 26. Few if any of those 61 projects have had alternative

funding. They've simply been stopped. Here are just a few of the projects that the Mayor

stopped. Improvements to Barkentine shopfronts on the Isle of Dogs, improvements to Jollies

Green in Poplar, to Bartlett Park in Limehouse, to Museum Gardens in Bethnagreen, to Ford Square

in Stepney, Frank Dobson Square in Camberchief Road, improvements to Mile End, to Bethnagreen

High Street and Whitechapel High Street, to Castellia Square in Blackwater, Millwall Park

and many many more besides. This latest decision kicks any prospects of funding for those projects

into the long grass, but it also denies any chance of new projects coming through as well.

Committee members, decisions around the use of seal are supposed to be made only after proper

consultation with local residents, especially those living in the vicinity of new developments

and who have therefore borne the impact most heavily. Instead of doing that, however, the

Mayor is again relying on the annual resident survey to determine the use of seal. This is a

circumstances and needs. Worse still, there has not been any meaningful engagement with

the neighbourhood forums in the Isle of Dogs and North Bow about this radon and seal funding,

despite the fact that both are statutory consultees. This illustrates the disregard the Mayor and

his administration have for these bodies. Committee, I want to draw particular attention

to the seal monies that have come in from developments in Fish Island in my own ward.

Until the 1st of January last year, these were controlled by the London Legacy Development

Corporation.

Its record on the use of these monies wasn't perfect, I would say, but the LLDC did at

least use it for the purposes it was intended.

In January last year, 15 million of unspent seal was transferred from LLDC to Tower Hamlets

Council.

We know from the minutes of the meetings of Capital Strategy Board that the Mayor took

a close interest in this 15 million.

Unfortunately for him, 12 .5 of it was already committed to projects that were either in contract for delivery or formed part of a package involving other funders.

Despite us asking, we still don't know what the remaining £2 .5 million has been spent on, or what all the sale that has come in from all the new development in Fish Island over the last 12 months is being lined up for.

Meanwhile, residents in Fish Island are repeatedly told there's no money for the traffic calming

the many traffic publishers needed on Wick Lane, Monier Road and Wonsbeck Road.

Committee members, these flaws are so fundamental that the five of us who signed this calling

now think it's essential to stop this inappropriate raid on ENSIL funding.

To be clear, we support the Community Grants Programme, but it should be funded from revenue

sources, not from ENSIL.

We are not saying that every one of these projects needs to be reinstated and we would

agree that action should be taken to drive down costs to secure better value for money

for some of those that do.

New projects might also be considered a greater priority for funding, but the raid on ENSIL

must stop.

And so I hope the committee will agree tonight to the alternative course of action outlined

in this calling.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councillor.

Ten seconds to spare.

Good time.

Now we will move on to questions.

Just to remind members again, please, we'll have time to have a discussion.

This is solely just questions.

So I'm going to go straight over to questions.

Councillor Gullabakirabai, then Councillor Nattoli.

Councillor.

Thank you, Chair.

And good evening, everyone.

Thank you, Mark Francis, for your presentation.

My question is to you.

Your proposal requires every NCL allocation to be checked against adopted neighbourhood

plans before any spending.

Can you specify which neighbourhoods in Tower Hamlets currently have adopted neighbourhood

plans and how your proposal would operate in areas with none?

Thank you, Councillor.

Hey there, Wanda.

So the Isle of Dogs and Bo have moved forward with neighbourhood forums, with neighbourhood

plans, and they are obliged to be given the opportunity to contribute to decisions around

25 % of N -CIL raised in their area, which as you can, committee members will know, involves

a significant sum of money on from fish development in Fish Island and Fairfield Road in my own

ward and Bromley by boat, formerly covered by LLDC and by income from schemes that are

coming through on the Isle of Dogs as well. So I spent this afternoon looking through

some of those projects and can see the amount of money it's made available on the council's

website although it's not easily accessible, how much money is constantly coming into the

council for use in these projects.

So that money needs to be, or the forums that have been involved in deciding those need

to be involved in the decisions around the use of that money and they have not been properly

engaged in this process at all.

Thank you, Councillor.

Councillor Natalie.

Thanks, chair.

Thanks, Councillor Francis for your presentation.

I'm really sympathetic and I agree with a lot of the points that you've made.

I do I want to kind of maybe look at just the change that is being made in this policy

and whether we will be able to whether whether the change in this policy would

be able to or not having this policy would actually solve some of the

problems that you've identified in this particular call in so the issues around

how and still is spent on certain so there's a bit of distraction in the

meeting. So I think some of the decisions that the

mayor has makes wouldn't necessarily be solved by I don't know what do you think?

I mean, we're calling this in, Councillor, so we disagree with the approach that the

mayor's taken. The five of us that have signed this call in disagree. We disagree because

we think that that money should have gone into public realm improvements and environmental

improvements and, you know, you're the lead scrutiny member for Environment and Clean

green and you know I'm sure like you as a ward Councillor you want to see like that investment

that was supposed to go into improving the public realm following the development you want to see

that go there and it's clearly it's not significant sums are being drawn away from what they were

originally from what they were originally intended to be spent on and you know we can all argue

whether there are particular schemes that should be in or out of the list of those.

I think as I said in the presentation we can also argue about ways of driving down the costs to get

better value for money but you know ultimately as a package this, this or not as a package,

as an income stream this should be used for the purposes that it was generated in the first place

and not to prop up revenue services.

Just to emphasise the point, this is not about saying that the money should that some public

money shouldn't be used for the grants that it might be used for in future after the end

of the previous three years' decision.

Thank you, Councillor.

Natalie, you have a follow up.

Just have a follow up, Mark.

I completely agree with you that this money should be spent on infrastructure improvements

for the neighbourhoods that are seeing increased housing.

What I'm asking you is, the mayor's already using this money to basically, in my view

as well, he's using it to spend on other things, inappropriate things, but is this change actually

going to make any difference to that?

Sorry, is the change that we're proposing going to make a difference?

In this policy that is being called in, is it actually going to make any difference to how the mayor spends the money that he's already deciding to spend in that way?

I would say the answer is yes. I mean we're clearly asking him to reverse the decision that's been taken that would enable him to continue to move money from one place or from one purpose, let's say to another purpose.

And yes, we, we, I mean, you know, I don't have the benefit of the Tower Handlers Council corporate

behind me and my colleagues on this. So I couldn't say that we've chosen the exact

route for sure to make that happen. But clearly the intention is that, that we are asking the

mayor to reconsider his view. And I should say that we, you know, we would continue to pursue

If he's not minded to change his approach we would continue to pursue this

Further Thank You counsel. I think

Move on to cancel out in Bandhan then cancel out up day

Thank you, thanks mark for your presentation

Can you clarify how preventive revenue project?

It would allow the council to respond to neighbourhood level demand that might be better addressed

through service rather than the physical asset.

Sorry, I didn't really understand the question.

Is the question about that there are revenue services that need to be supported by the

council?

Is that right?

Can you clarify how preventing revenue projects entirely would allow the council to respond

to neighbourhood level demand that might be better addressed through service rather than

the physical asset?

Okay, okay, alright, so I think I understand.

So look, we're not saying don't spend money on revenue.

like we're this isn't about contradicting the use of all decisions

that are made in a revenue budget you know that's set every year although

there's obviously all sorts of changes that are then made subsequently I mean

my observation is Councillor is that the government has been very generous in its

grant settlement to townhandles council setting aside spending power and council

tax potential council tax increases that you might make but you know that there

is a significant additional grant been made available and I'm pretty certain I heard the

lead member talking about making a contribution to reserves previously as well. So you know one of

the things that we're always told when we have briefings and in fact in committee when I was a

member of the committee is that capital shouldn't be used for revenue and yet this seems to be a

very clear example in fact you couldn't get a clearer example of revenue being used sorry

capital being used to prop up revenue.

We want to see continued investment in extending revenue services, but we don't think that

end sale money should be used for those purposes.

Thank you, Councillor.

Moving on to Councillor Abdu.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councillor Francis, for your presentation.

I want to focus in on the points you're making around the moving from LLDC, so London Legacy

Development Corporation, to Telhamm's council.

I think it's 12 .5 million had already been committed and that's 15 million, so there's

still a few million left to play around with.

In particular, the Chief Financial Officer talks about the statutory duties that the

has in terms of making sure it's engaging and talking to local people, spending it locally.

And obviously it's 15 % but then it goes, increases 25 % is a neighbourhood plan. You've mentioned

some of the kind of experience but I wonder if you could speak a bit more about any concerns

you're hearing from residents. So with the Bow neighbourhood form for example I think

it's an established area but also anything you're hearing from the Hackwick and Fish

island area which is encompassed within the LODC and in particular scrutiny for community

safety. I'm really keen to understand what everything else has been said to you.

Thank you. Okay I think I've got that. Thank you, thank you councillor, thank you chair.

So yes I think it is fair to say that so we understand that the developments I guess kind

of areas that are experiencing significant or above average levels of redevelopment let's say

that they make a contribution to the central pop,

but they also need to deliver stuff within those areas too.

And so it isn't just about 15 % is that 25 % of the money

should go through.

But you know, that's just a purely legalistic bottom line,

isn't it?

I mean, it's not something that says,

oh, only a quarter of the money from a new development

in the Isle of Dogs should go towards the Isle of Dogs. It's something that says, like we identify

that this is the bare minimum that should be spent in that area. And I think your board

councillor with me representing Fish Island and you'll get as many complaints as I do

about from residents there about the lack of genuine investment in the public realm there.

we had to fight incredibly hard just to get a little bit of public realm in like

Copenhagen crossings and things like that as I said in my opening remarks I

think residents are repeatedly told there is no money for traffic calming on

in Fish Island, Monier Road, Wansbeck Road, Wick Lane, all of these places

residents have been demanding public realm infrastructure to slow down traffic

including in big lorries and to improve cycling pedestrian safety and that is

That like money which will be coming through from the development there was end seal could be used for that

But it isn't under these under the terms of what the most decided to wrap it up, please

Thank you very much. Unfortunately we have to move on. We have got a packed agenda. Sorry

I know we have had a few other councillors wanting to ask questions. We are going to

move on to the next part of this which is cabinet member, I want to welcome cabinet

and if you can introduce...

Sarah Wills. Welcome, I think this is your first ONS, also welcome to ONS.

Councillor Ahmed, you've got five minutes. Thank you chair. So I'll give

a first a brief overview and then I'll go into the details of the call in

itself. So the amendments agreed by cabinet were minor, lawful and operational, designed

to increase flexibility, reduce delays, accelerate delivery of neighbourhood improvements and

ensure ENSIL continues to meet local people's priorities. What's important to remember is

that it aligns itself back to pre -2023, back to the pre -2023 review, which means that prior

Prior to the previous review in 2023, previous council administrations used what was known

as LEAF funding, which is the precursor to ENSIL, for revenue spend.

So that's just setting the context to it.

It does not allocate funding, restructure neighbourhood ring fencing, replace consultation

processes or override statutory protections.

All future spends will remain subject to legal review, governance and the requirement that it must support the development of the area.

For these reasons, I believe the original cabinet decision remains proportionate, lawful and in the best interest of our communities and I respectfully ask ONS to uphold the decision.

In relation to the specifics of proportionality and best value,

the claim is NCL is being used to plug general fund gaps.

The cabinet decision does not allocate NCL to any revenue activity.

It merely adds revenue as a possible category alongside capital and grants.

All actual allocations must go through budget setting

and legal must confirm that they meet Regulation 59F,

supporting development of the area or addressing demands created by development.

NCL spend continues to be checked for legality on case -by -case basis

and the MTFS review funding sustainability annually.

Secondly, there was a claim that amendments contradict

the cancelation of leaf projects. Over 12 million pound from former leaf

budget has already been allocated to the community grants

programme putting funds directly into local organisations hands. Though part of

the decision reverses or conflicts with the 2023 approach. Number two, around

consultation. The annual resident survey is inadequate and not direct engagement. That's

the claim. Government seal guidance states that no specific consultation method is required

and the council should use their existing engagement processes. The annual resident

survey is independent, statistically representative, provides ward level data and captures hard

to reach populations, making it appropriate

for neighbourhood level prioritisation.

The grants process itself is a major community participation

mechanism, widely used by other local councils,

including Lambeth, Westminster, and Redbridge.

In Newham, in the tax year 24 -25, 7 .6 million out

of the 13 .5 million was spent on revenue, maintenance and operations.

That's just an example of how other councils also do it.

The amendment does not introduce any new reliance on the annual residence survey.

The legal issue and clarity.

There is a claim that changes risk ultra virus use of NCL.

The decision does not approve of any specific spend. It simply adds flexibility.

Any actual revenue proposal would only proceed with legal confirmation that it meets Regulation 59F.

There is a further claim that underspend is being swept away for communities.

The report explicitly states, ENSIL collected in the area must be spent in the area.

Underspends remain within the neighbourhood's ring fence, but can be used flexibly across grants, capital or revenue, but bound by legal ENSIL tests.

I've got a point by point response, but what I will round off with in summary is that previous projects from the previous Labour administration spent money on community safety or youth service.

We continue to spend money on these areas.

Pause this, make a point of order.

Councillor Kenyanya, it's finished in 30 seconds, yeah?

So, what I will say is that the money that's spent in a lot of councils at this stage is cutting back because of financial constraints on libraries, on youth centres, on community organisations.

So sustaining these key functions of the community using N -SIL money is delivering for communities.

And lastly, under regulation, under the seal regulation of 2010, this is very important,

Chair, so please, the 106 mitigates against the impact of development.

However, this paper has come on stating that NCL mitigates against the development.

NCL must be used to support local areas and that's exactly what we're doing with this

policy.

Thank you, thank you, Councillor.

We'll move on to questions.

I've got a question for you, that's alright, as a point of order.

At the beginning you asked all contributors to not make it this part of political, but

the cabinet member referred to previous parties.

Councillor, can I stop you please?

If you have anything to say, you have to indicate and then please speak on that.

Can you turn your mic off, please?

We're going to move on to questions.

If you have any questions, if you can raise your hands.

We're going to go to Councillor Islam.

Can you move on to Councillor Islam, then we'll move to Councillor Ahmadul Khan.

Can I please remind all members, this is important, it's an important matter, we all have points

that we're going to get through.

If we are going to do that, we need to do it in the process that's in place and please

respect those.

Councillor Islam.

I will take the question.

Please.

should not make this party political and focus on the fact the cabinet member spoke in reference to a previous Labour administration

I just asked why you didn't pull him up on that when he was making that point. I

I I made that clear. Yes. Thank you for pointing it out. I've made that made that clear and

If that's a question that you want me to ask and if it's a question that you're asking me to ask the lead member

Can you just clarify this fast, please?

I will withdraw stating the previous Labour administration and just say previous Council

administrations.

Thank you very much.

Councillor Islam.

Thank you.

I have two questions.

I was hearing the last call in as well when you came to answer it, Councillor Ahmad.

My question is around the political choice of wanting to do this.

Firstly, on the idea of looking at the points raised by Councillor Francis and the other

four councillors around compounded equalities, this administration, the Council's administration,

has in other things of infrastructure, like the waste service, talked about aligning financial

growth with the borough's actual growth.

So when something like this happens and the neighbourhood community infrastructure levy is used for infrastructure

When you when that isn't spent and not in the proportion that that it needs to be the growth the impact can be absolutely

Tremendously horrible for this power because it means at some point someone else has to fill that gap and it's this council and it's

The public money has there been any sort of work done to?

to look at, explore how much infrastructure is needed

and it can be as small as a bike shed,

right up to drop curbs, greening of the borough,

all of those things.

The other thing I was gonna say is linking it

to the development growth.

I know it's stalled in the last few years

into our homeless, however, we're still catching up

with some of the air quality and the climate emergency

issues that needs to be done.

So I just want to know what work was done or what kind of conversations you've had or

information and data you've been provided that gave you the reassurance that you're

in line when it comes to infrastructure on all those levels as far as growth is concerned

for the borough.

And the other question I had was I know there's a lot of questions about legality.

This is a question, two questions only.

So the second question is...

Can I just ask you to ask one question?

We're very limited.

I didn't ask a question in the other one.

compared to other councillors, because it sticks to one councillor, Ahmed Kabir Ahmed.

So I'll give you a short answer and I'll give you a long answer. In short, the new local

plan is supported by the local infrastructure plan, so those assessments have been done

in order to support the local plan which is now being submitted, which is in the process

of being submitted to the Secretary of State and the Planning Inspector. So in short, the

The answer is yes.

In terms of other areas, in terms of specifics that was voiced earlier on,

and how the money is spent, again, this particular calling,

in relation to the cabinet paper, doesn't identify any particular spends.

It states that this is an option to create flexibility around that.

But at the moment, no spend has been allocated against it,

and any future spends will have to go through the regulatory processes.

Is it a follow -up? Can you make it brief, please?

I'll try to make it as brief as I can.

If you take up time, unfortunately I can't give other members time.

Okay, so on your answer, I think you say the work has been done

infrastructure data is concerned.

I understand how the new local plan is

going to work, but I'm talking about

the right now and the money that is

already in the pot for developments

that have already been approved, that

money was supposed to be spent within

those communities, especially when

this is the second

linking call -in, and there have been so

many projects that have been cancelled.

We've never seen the light of day.

You're saying that this is just barely

asking for permission.

Last time you had

permission, you didn't, we've seen

and how that spend was,

do we have any reassurance now

that the spend is going to be any different

and that there is going to be an absolute focus

on infrastructure and not anything else?

Can you provide that assurance?

Thank you.

Yes.

Thank you.

Councillor Ahmad El -Kham.

Thank you, Chair.

And thank you to remember for your presentations my question will be brief so I will expect a brief

Response as well. Can the lead member explain?

Why this amendment were necessary and what?

practical benefit being

for the resident

Thank you, Chair.

As explained in the paper and as I presented earlier on, it's needed because as I have

create more flexibility for the council in how it operates.

It aligns it back to how it operated pre -2023,

and a number of other councils also apply that same ruling.

So it gives the council the ability to be flexible

around how it manages the finances.

Thank you.

My question was - Is it related?

Yeah, yeah, yes.

My question was what practical benefit that brings to the resident, for the resident.

That amendment.

So as I said earlier on, in relation to the specifics, the cabinet paper doesn't allocate any specific thing.

But, going on to practical things, there is a number of areas.

So if we consider at the current time and leading up to this,

A number of local authorities have closed libraries, and you'll know in your ward you've

got Cubittown Library, a number of councils have closed leisure centres, a number of councils

have closed a number of community organisations because of the lack of money and grants.

So in one aspect you can look at how sustaining those community organisations, libraries and

leisure centres will support the local community.

and in another aspect you can look at how new programmes will come in.

At the moment we haven't got any new programmes set up per se in relation to this paper.

But what I can assure you is that the money that will be spent will be there for local communities to benefit from.

And I've just given you free examples of areas where spend has previously taken place in order to support communities.

Thank you, Councillor.

Councillor Apti.

I have a question for Matthew Pullen.

In terms of the point that

Councillor

France was making around

the hackney

and moving from LDC to the council,

there are a number of schemes

that have been declined.

A number of different bits.

On one's back road,

Monier Road,

there was 15 million transferred over

from LDC. So I wonder if you could talk a bit more about the 2 .5 million that's been left

as unrestricted coming over and the appropriateness of spending it elsewhere when it come from authority

based on planning applications saying it's going to be committed in that area. So I'd very much

lack an officer opinion on this. Sorry can I just ask a point of order. Scrutiny is about challenging

both the political administration and the lead members who come in. Is that the discretion if

I'm correct in terms of the standing orders of this committee for the lead member to allocate

officers to respond.

This is not a Q &A with officers.

Would I be correct in saying that?

Because this seems to be a similar occurrence.

It's happened to me last time as well.

If members want to question officers, is this the appropriate forum to question officers?

Because this is supposed to be political representation for political decisions that are made in cabinet

as part of the call -in.

I'm not making any political point.

This is about a cross -party political thing.

We are not here in our party hats.

I'm here as an overview of a scrutiny member

asking a senior officer,

which is entirely appropriate

and within the rules.

So if it was a junior officer,

I won't find it appropriate.

But we have a director of housing strategy,

a head of service,

and I've always believed that going to a minimum

head of service has this conversation.

So I think it is entirely appropriate.

entirely appropriate and I'd ask that you encourage the office to answer.

Council, the lead member is here. If you want to direct the questions to the lead member

and then if there's any point that any other corporate directors...

That's setting a really bad precedent. Even when the mayor's here and there's other corporate directors or heads of service,

the mayor allows other people to answer. Or we direct our question to an officer, not via the mayor.

I think it's a really bad precedent.

I'm happy to be corrected, but as I understand, Officer Member Protocol goes up to Director level and not Heads of Service within this council under the constitution.

Matthew, if you could just clarify that please.

Thank you. Yeah, in terms of that point, yes, it would go down to Director level. Normally, there's a few of us Heads of Service who get caught by it, but generally speaking it's Director and above.

If you can direct your question to the member.

I'll ask the question to Kevin Swift then.

Councillor, I can just remind you again, we've got a very tight schedule.

It wasn't my choice to pack this into a full agenda quite frankly.

I'm asking Kevin Swift as a director who I think is now given his precedence.

Your question please.

Karen I'm happy to repeat it if you need me to but the question's now with you.

Thank you.

So I'm advised by Matthew, who's the head of infrastructure, that the unallocated amount

that's come over from NCL, from the development organisation, is £222 ,572 of unallocated

There's some unallocated 106 which is £1 ,560 ,000 and £98 that I've come over which is Section

106 unallocated.

I'd really appreciate that in writing, so thank you.

That's a really interesting answer and I'd like that in writing please.

Thank you.

Councillor Goulham, Kivria please.

I have a point of order, I used to love taking it.

Thank you chair.

Thank you, lead member, for your presentation.

My question is to you.

There has been concern about NSEAL money leaving neighbourhood area.

Can you confirm that funding raised in each NSEAL area will always stay within this area?

So the allocation of ENSIL money is proportionate to either having a neighbourhood forum where

it can go up to 25 % being spent in the area and also 15 % if there isn't a neighbourhood

forum in the area.

However, what I can say is sometimes there is strategic spend within the ENSIL money.

So an example of this is prior to this administration coming in, what was known as leave funding

paid for a community safety team which operated borough wide.

So some programmes are run borough wide as well as money being allocated to youth centres.

So we've used those same principles on certain programmes which are located to the geographical

area of the NCL designated areas.

So it's not street by street.

Tower Hamlets is split up into three NCL areas and those spends will take place within those

geographical NCL areas. There will be other money which will be used strategically across the borough because of the need of the borough.

So that's how the split happens.

However any spend that is proposed to take place will be tested

legally and the section 151 officer will also test that in order to make sure

that it is spent legally.

Thank you very much this brings us to the end of this part of the agenda item.

I want to thank lead member and officers for your contribution. We will now move

on to members discussion here.

So officers and maybe you can leave.

We'll move on to discussion now amongst the members.

If members have any comments to make, they can make.

So the floor is open.

So we need to just to point out, we need to determine as a committee whether we wish to

affirm the cabinet decision or whether we wish to refer this matter for consideration.

So this would be the point of discussion amongst the members.

So moving on to Councillor Bionfe.

Thanks, Chair, and thanks to the officers and lead member for the presentation.

I think for me, I can understand why they would want to have greater flexibility in

the where they can spend NSL, but I think I didn't, I haven't really heard anything

particularly convincing as to why this change is needed.

I think there's already quite a lot of flexibility

in ENSIL and I would like to see it spent

predominantly on capital spend rather than

also supplementing the revenue of the revenue fund.

So for me I think I'm minded to want to refer

this back to cabinet to review the decision and remake it.

Thank you.

So there is something that stood out to me.

So the point in the call in that Councillor Francis made, obviously he is specifically

talking about some issues within his own ward, but I think it does speak to a wider issue

that I have noticed in my own ward

and in other parts of the borough, which is,

I think this is essentially creating a system

whereby the spending of public money

is becoming less and less transparent.

If we don't know where that money is being spent,

how it's being spent, if those decisions are being,

I'm concerned this is getting to a point

where we can't pull it back, to be honest.

I haven't heard anything to convince me otherwise.

I also note that the cabinet member,

he didn't address, so the other main point of this to me,

a point of the call -in is under reason one,

so proportionality and best value,

so the point around sustainability risk.

I do note that Councillor Amott didn't address

that point directly at all about the idea

that doing this essentially creates a significant risk

to the Council's long -term financial stability.

That's what councillors who've signed this call -in

of suggesting and I don't think that was addressed and to me that raises a question mark.

Thank you, Chancellor.

Chancellor Aspa?

Yep, so as there's a few other councillors in this committee that have seen through the

last NCL and I think firstly I think having the call in tonight and not have it set on

It is a bit unfair.

There are several things that have gone untested.

I wanted to explore more about the infrastructure

and what that meant for equality, disability,

accessibility, all of that, that you did not give me a chance to do that.

And it's really important.

To be fair...

You can defend it afterwards.

There will be fewer things.

The second thing is the finance.

We didn't even touch on the financial side

like there was a member in this committee that asked a question that was in the report

and that was allowed, but we didn't ask a financial question of why now. This council

has seen severe cuts from government over the years, yet this restructure of NCL, like

public money to be spent on infrastructure in neighbourhoods, have been decided to be

taken now. We didn't get a chance to ask why now, why the financial decision to have this.

For me, this is loosening it up on how you can spend it.

And the other thing is, we did not even get to the point of touching on answering the question about

the changes are not just the money in the pot right now, but it's for future funding that's coming in.

And I do not think, sorry chair, but I don't think you've done justice for this call -in, for the hearing,

regardless of how people vote, we didn't even get to dig in deep, especially because this was secondary call -in,

like five councillors felt the need to bring this in again after two years.

So yeah, and I think when you chaired the committee today,

I felt quite sorry for you because you weren't in control,

the cabinet member was.

He controlled what officers said and if officers could speak,

and he controlled how you chaired this meeting.

So those are two things that make me say that this calling,

I'm going for this calling because this was...

Because you are making allegations and you are pointing fingers at me, so I'll let you carry on afterwards.

I'll have to clarify. Firstly, as you were one of the members who wanted this calling to be a separate meeting,

I was on the same ball and same page as you, we wanted that.

It was put out to members.

Unfortunately, members, majority of members wanted it to be on this.

So we went, so you know, you can't just point fingers at myself.

In terms of, it's your opinion, if you think a cabinet member was in charge of the meeting,

that's totally your opinion and you can have that opinion.

I'm here to make this meeting as fruitful, as productive as possible and this can only be done,

this meeting has been arranged, you know, we can't go back, you know, it would be lovely to go back and redo it,

but it's happened now, we have to make the most of it and I've also underlined before the meeting

that we've got a packed agenda, we want to get as much questioning as we can in regards to the meeting.

I've made that clear, if members wanted to ask questions, you had the opportunity.

Unfortunately, time doesn't allow us to give every member, and every meeting is the same.

Some meetings we'll have time, others we don't have time to ask the questions that we want to ask.

So, you know, with due respect, we had this opportunity, you've asked your questions, members have asked your questions,

each member has had the opportunity to ask those questions, so we want to move on.

We've got this, you know, thank you for bringing those points, you know, we will take that forward as a learning

Going forward to improve and I just want to finish off by saying

This is the whole purpose of having this the screen it this this was a call in we've had it

You know not every meeting we can have every you know, if you want to say something we won't have that opportunity

but we'll have to make do with the time allocated to us to make the most of it.

So that's what I wanted to say.

And if you're happy, if you've made your points, if you're happy,

again, we've got limited time, we're going to move on to other members.

Thank you, Chair.

I stand by my comment that I felt, in my experience, in my opinion,

This committee was controlled by the cabinet member the executive

Intervention and we saw a clear example of that as far as my opinion. I would like to

Move on to the next item

Sorry, so if any members have any more comments

Yes

Can I just reveal on the agenda item please what we were discussing and can you stick to the point yeah

well, I was not satisfied that the

move the mic

I was not satisfied that the section 151 officer and indeed the relevant senior officers had

advised and indeed I wanted to ask the cabinet member what advice had been given because

it's got legal implications.

Not least I wanted to know whether the cabinet had sought the advice or at least told the

government envoys about this decision, because it does have a legal implication and indeed

a financial implication as well.

But of course half an hour is usually allocated for questions on call -ins.

We weren't afforded that.

I couldn't ask it.

I wasn't satisfied.

Therefore I'll be putting forward that this decision is called in.

Thank you.

Councillor Ahutihan.

Thank you, Chair.

It is true there wasn't enough time for us to call in.

Councillor, can you move the mic next?

Yes, it wasn't enough time to ask a question to the person who called in and also the cabinet

member.

It is true there wasn't enough time.

If there is enough time we would get more questions answered and we would be more sure

that the decision is absolutely needed.

Anyway I think all money is public money, it's not the only seal money is the public

money.

All money is the public money and if it is used according to the law and if it is allowed

them to spend on other issues that the part from the Board of Seals is dedicated to.

I don't see any issues on that.

So I support that kind of issues.

Thank you, Councillor.

Councillor Lapton.

Thank you, Chair.

So I'm not satisfied and I wish there was more time but I won't harp on about that.

But the key thing is I've still got several questions.

It's a shame officers weren't allowed to answer them.

But what I'm concerned about is making these changes and there's real concerns about how

residents are being cited. I think I can completely echo what Councillor Lee said in the sense

of these decisions are, it feels at times being made in smoky back rooms and it just

doesn't feel like, I think we're regressing in making sure residents feel like they're

being genuinely engaged and genuinely cited. I think that there are times where I get answers

from the cabinet member officers about, well, it's illegal.

Sometimes it's not necessarily about what's entirely legal,

it's about the spirit of it,

and how we make sure residents feel the most engaged

and make sure they're part of this civic engagement,

whatever part it might be.

So I think I'm not satisfied

and I will be accepting the call.

Thank you, Councillor Domenon.

Thank you, Chair.

I think the time is constant on this.

My question has been asked by my colleagues and it is to say the money will be spent within

the area.

So I think that working within the framework.

Thank you chair, thank you.

I just wanted to, legal side, is there any laws that have been broken here tonight?

So I think everyone spoke.

We will move on to a vote.

If I can read out, for members in favour of sending the decision back to cabinet for reconsideration,

please can I have a show of hands?

Thank you.

For members in favour of confirming the original cabinet decision, please raise your hands.

Thank you, Chair.

So on the count there, there was five in favour of referring back to cabinet and five in favour

of confirming the original decision.

So therefore we have a tie and therefore it is up to the chair.

They can have a second casting vote.

Thank you.

Again, I would just like to echo before I do that, I just want to confirm and also echo

that yes, it's very important that this money is directed to where it's needed and where

it's supposed to be going to impact and where it can impact the most.

And I think the processes that are in place, from what I've heard and in the report that

There are processes in place within the Council and it's going and it's making an impact.

I think we're assured by cabinet members what I've heard and I'm happy for us to go with

the decision that was voted for.

And we've made the decision.

So on that basis I will be asking Democratic Services to note the outcome of this and inform

cabinet on the decision that's been made.

And to confirm, you're saying your second vote was to confirm the original decision

and okay so we will inform the executive of that.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

We will move on to the next item on the agenda.

7 a) Be Well Progress Update January to December 2025

Which is 7 .1.

Thank you for the Council of Mark Francis for your contribution.

We move on to the next item on the agenda, 7 .1, exclusionary spotlight on Be Well update

January to December 2025.

I have just gone out to get the officers.

vote in regards to the last item.

You said that

councillors

had decided and voted, majority had voted

to have the calling

at the same time

as other businesses

rather than having a separate

call -in.

Am I confused?

Sorry,

we have moved on

from this.

It has been

clarified.

We have moved on

from this.

We have moved on

to the next agenda

item.

So we are going to

proceed.

Thank you very much.

I want to

welcome the

Councillor Camus, cabinet member for recreation, Johali, director for culture, Simon Jones,

head of leisure operations and Vincent Taylor's...

Okay.

Councillor Francis, I thank you.

You are free to go.

Okay.

Can I remind officers that we are going to take the report as read.

If you want to highlight any specific points, you may do so.

and then we will proceed.

So over to yourself.

Thank you.

I'll be brief.

Good evening, Chair and members.

Thank you for the opportunity to present this report.

Today's paper provides an update on the progress made in transitioning our leisure services

to the B -World model following insourcing in May 2024.

This has been a significant change after two decades of outsourced provision and has involved

addressing complex operational, cultural and financial challenges.

While the transition has been broadly successful, the work to embed the service and achieve

a stable business as usual position continues.

We have a clear vision and a robust plan in place, including the implementation of the

target operating model, improvements to customer experience and a commercial strategy to ensure

financial sustainability.

This period of change is not only about structural transformation, but also about creating opportunities

to deliver service differently, improve health outcomes and strengthen community engagement.

We are looking at technology and AI to help deliver the best service.

I have had over 40 meetings with the leisure team.

I have been meeting frontline staff, speaking to customers, visiting centres and holding

offices to account, using monthly data insight and key performance indicators.

This has been helped ensure things get resolved and if we see any negative

threats we can react quickly and fix problems. There has been a lot of

progress and the journey continues. I'm happy to take questions and discuss the

next steps outlined in this report. Thank you.

Okay thank you very much. I'm gonna start off with myself then I'm gonna

Thank you very much, Councillor.

On the covering report, it lists seven wars as affected.

Surely our Be Well centres are for the whole borough, isn't it, firstly?

And the other thing is on page 4, paragraph 2, there is a reference to a ten -year financial

model produced by FMG. We always ask officers when they come and present if

there's any acronyms if they can be please if you can just clarify the

acronym FMG for us as well. Thank you. Thank you for the question chair. It is

for the borough, the whole borough. I think because of our seven centres in

seven different wards that's why officer mentioned is only seven wards. But in the

future will stay as the full

borough.

Also, FMG is a financial

management company.

It's called

Ferguson, Merthyn, Gordon.

Thank you.

Councillor Amy Lee.

Thank you.

I'm wondering if you can

give us an update on

industrial relations,

because there were a

couple of articles in the

local press before

Christmas, suggesting that

United States

may ballot their members who work in leisure centres for industrial action.

There are a number of claims made about unreasonable working, crisis

I've got it in front of my question staffing, people being asked to

swim teachers, being told if you want to get paid you're going to have to clean

the floors. What's happening with this? What situation are we in now? And these

sound like more than just teething problems if I can say that. It doesn't

I wonder if you can give us an update.

Thank you, Councillor.

Yes, we have had some challenges with the unions,

and I believe it's been mitigated now,

apart from only one of the groups

that have not been convinced.

I'm happy for you to answer this.

And if you have any questions,

elaborate more on that. Thank you, Councillor. So obviously after

two pings with GLL there was over 300 people who came across on GLL terms and

conditions. We've been working hard to bring all of those people into the

council's terms and conditions so that everyone has equal status. That's been a

big long piece of work. We've worked closely with all three unions. There was

Initial disagreement with Unite.

Unite then withdrew their objections because they wanted the frontline staff to get contracts.

All of the frontline staff haven't got contracts now.

So that's been resolved.

Unite still has a failure to agree with the Council on other cohorts of staff, which we're

working through with them.

We've got a meeting coming up on Wednesday.

The other two unions do not have a failure to agree with us.

So obviously we've got to understand that members have,

there is membership with all three unions.

So we are working as closely as we can.

We have monthly meetings with the unions,

specifically for leisure to address the issues.

In terms of staff, all the staff now have,

as they've signed contracts with us, they have JDs.

They know what they're doing.

When they two -pit across under GLL,

there was a lot of loose arrangements.

Everyone who might have been a lifeguard

was expected to do basic cleaning, which is normal in the industry.

What we're trying to make sure is that people have proper terms and conditions

and they understand their roles and they do those roles.

We are working with Unite to continue to resolve those issues.

Staffing -wise, we had a lot of agency workers,

and as the Council tries to recruit people directly to the Council,

we stopped employing agency workers at the end of October.

On the 2nd of November, the agency decided to withdraw all of their staff, giving us two days notice.

So within two days, about 60 staff pulled out.

What we decided to do is do a recruitment campaign.

We put an advert out, and coincidentally, all of those agency staff who were lifeguards,

a majority of them applied.

and the majority of the people who have been successful and are being on -boarded are the

same agency workers, but now on Tower Hamlets terms and conditions with contracts, and some

of them are working a lot more hours.

So we're moving into a transition phase.

There was a phase between the 3rd of November up until the start of January where there

was a gap in the number of staff, but the recruitment started immediately on the 12th

of November.

It's just taken us time to recruit the 18 lifeguards of the 18. I think nine are already on board and the remaining

They're just waiting for some DBS's and clearance cheques and they will be on boarded very soon. So this is a moving journey

Yes, there has been challenges we are trying to change the culture it's like turning a tanker people have been working for

25 years in a certain way managers at the centre

will not give people shifts if they've done something wrong, if they've not turned up.

Now by having contracts with the council on a set rotor and a pattern,

those managers cannot take people's hours away, because now they've got set hours.

So we are changing things. It's going to take more time.

We're not going to say that the issues are resolved.

As part of the reorganisation, we've got a training and development plan,

We hope to resolve our issues with Unite.

We hope there won't be a ballot for action.

I go to all the centres regularly.

I go to each centre every month.

The staff who are now on a council contract,

instead of earning £13 .85, they're earning £16 .58.

They're earning more money by coming onto the contract.

So we've done the big piece with the front line.

We hope we can resolve the issues with Unite on the management level.

What is that outstanding issue?

So a lot of the staff, when we first transitioned,

a lot of the staff were acting up into different positions.

So we had some acting up general managers,

some acting up assistant managers.

Now that we've gone through the reorganisation process,

we need to go through an open competitive process

to apply for those roles.

So by doing that, at the moment, the assistant managers,

we've got to be able to do that.

We've got four vacancies, eight people acting up previously, so we can only take four,

but when we open up the process, we have to open up to all the staff,

so 20 people have applied, including some people on the front line

who have never done management, but we can't exclude them,

because that's part of the process.

Should we have excluded them and only left the eight for those four posts?

That is one of the arguments, but the Council process dictates

that it should be a free and fair process.

So we haven't interviewed for those processes because of this failure to do we hope to resolve that and then move on to the next

Thank you

Can't consider that native thanks chair

I just wanted to say I really appreciate how open and honest this report was it sounds like a really challenging

Process and I appreciate the openness about how challenging it was

So in the vein of discussing that it's been a challenge,

I assume from this report that the insourcing

is coming to an end at some point soon

and that we're now looking ahead

to a more kind of stable future management.

How is the continuity in the team

and the knowledge of the insourcing challenges

and how you've been resolving them,

how is that continuity being ensured

to make sure that we're not then gonna slip back

into not learning from the past as we go forward?

Yeah, it's a good question.

Thank you.

I think we learned some of the lessons.

If we had some of that data in early stage,

it could have been a better way of transforming this situation.

But some of the technicality I would ask the officers

to go through.

But I can say it's been a very good journey.

We have introduced so many good programmes for our residents.

An example like free swimming.

We had only budgeted for 37 ,000 sessions, 37 ,000 spaces.

But 42 ,000 people have benefited from this free swimming.

We had only budgeted from the mayors and the council for 37 ,000.

But the service has absorbed these costs.

Okay.

I appreciate it, but it's not really answering my question.

I'm just giving an example of some of the good things we have been through.

There is some struggle, we are learning things, we have other things to prioritise.

Last week we have opened, just started the work in women -only gym in Poplar Bath Leisure Centre.

some other things they're doing.

And do you want to add?

If I can address the question that Councillor asked directly.

Obviously the insourcing was to bring it in house, which has happened.

We are moving to business as usual.

All of the people who insourced transferred, nobody has been made redundant.

We have all of the staff from GLO.

One of the swim school teachers, Jackie, she used to work for the council,

obviously JLL had it for 25 years, so Jackie used to work for the council

and worked for 25 years with JLL and she's back with us.

We have some people who've got all of that knowledge as well

to help us to make sure we move to a successful business as usual position.

So the core staff are there, so we've got that knowledge.

Moving to business as usual and making them understand the reason why we insource

and the health and wellbeing benefits,

that's the key piece of work,

because the last 25 years, the focus has been

how much money can we make?

Because GLL, as a not -for -profit organisation,

they do wanna move into turnover.

I suppose what we're saying is,

we're trying to make sure it operates as a business,

but also deliver health and wellbeing benefits.

And that's the balance we're trying to get right.

If you want some more details,

obviously Simon's leading the team.

Simon was here before the insourcing, so the council recruited Simon around eight to ten

months before insourcing as well as Sean and Chris who are the three senior management

team, they're still in place so they've been taking that through the insourcing process

and they're with us now.

And so my question is, is that senior management team going to stay in place actually is my

question.

Yeah, I'll add to that.

Yeah, really, really good question and absolutely for continuity it's really important because

of that local knowledge, those relationships that they've got with some of the key stakeholders

is really important. But what also is really important is that transformational leadership

and that shifting culture and the shifting mindset is huge. And that's my role in terms

of creating that vision and actually taking those GMs on that journey with us. And it's

not only locally, but it's the leisure industry as a whole. There's a pivot to health and

So it's about taking them on that journey and we've got a long way to go, but they do understand that.

It's about the difference, there's difference that they can make and their teams can make for people who walk through the door on the way in and how they feel on the way out.

And as opposed to the pressure which was on them previously, which was about the number of direct debit memberships could be sold for members, this is different.

This is about those general managers and their teams developing those relationships with the community and being able to make a difference.

So we want to enable them through this new head office function.

So this is the creation of people who can support them in terms of health and well -being.

So we have a health and well -being manager in that service.

We have specialists in terms of being able to take customers on that journey

and listen to customers and understand how we can break down barriers.

So there's a long way to go but they understand that.

So part of the training and development and there will also be a training and development

officer within the new structure will be about taking those general manages and then throughout

the team as well embedding that all the way through the team.

So it's a combination of taking the knowledge they've already got and then applying a different

way of thinking.

Thank you.

Councillor Ahmet Al Khan.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you for your presentation.

In the paragraph 3 .5, report cover the regenerations.

Are you now on track to complete the regenerations

of by February 2026 that we want?

Another small question with it,

as I was a health and adults, couldn't solve, chair,

I visited a lot of, before is coming to in -house,

all leisure centres, I visit a lot of leisure centre.

I saw that inadequate wheelchair access in all few of them.

is welcome to all of our leisure centres.

Thank you.

Wheelchair access.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor.

So in terms of the investment programme,

the investment programme is being delivered on two fronts.

One by FM colleagues who look after all the corporate properties.

So a lot of the big work in terms of replacement of boilers

that you'll call boilers at John Orwell,

the roof replacement, the air sources pump up my land.

A lot of those works are on track.

There is more to be done.

We do have a budget to do the works as we go along.

Some of the smaller developments,

they are being done at the moment.

So our lead member mentioned in Poplar,

because of the design of the building and it's quite old,

We are creating a new women's gym on the ground floor, so it's accessible.

We are looking at disability access across various sites, so some of those works are taking place now.

At my land, we will be refurbishing the full changing village and making sure it's more accessible.

That project hasn't started, we're still doing a lot of technical work for the buildings that are old,

but there is a budget to get that work commissioned in the next month or so.

So that will be a six month project.

So there's a lot of work that has been done on disability access

and there's been a specific subgroup looking into some of those which Simon can share.

Yeah, within that subgroup there's an action plan which was created in terms of disability access.

So we're aware of that. It's quite a comprehensive one which people have been working through.

So there's a lot of changes which have been made.

And the ones which haven't yet we're aware of and they will be implemented

because it's particularly important when we talk about health and wellbeing

and people who would not normally access facilities.

One of the barriers is very much, it's even and around lighting,

it's around the obvious things like steps,

but there's quite a detailed plan, so we're working with FM

in terms of those pieces of work as well, so it's really important for us to get that right.

We are glad, me and Pinggyi, we did visit together,

We are glad to hear you are working on it.

It takes time, I absolutely agree with you, it takes time because you just came in and a lot of work to do.

A lot of arrangements to make so I'm glad to hear that it's on track to complete all of them. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Councillor Abdu.

I'm really glad to hear the point you made about disability and you've taken in a wider sense of disability.

So the last example is a really great one.

Sometimes I think we can forget about neurodiversity and the different types.

And is there, you know, times, you've spoken about, as a women -only gym,

is there a time where the gym is quiet for an hour or two,

which encourages other people, so people with autism and other disabilities,

to use the gym.

So I think branding out would be really amazing.

I think it would be really pioneering for us as a council.

My question is based on this too, and just to clarify,

so as we've moved into council contracts,

So we have now moved away from zero hour contracts,

is my first one.

And the second one, just in the presentation,

I think some of the data is really great.

It is fantastic.

I would encourage us to move away from the word BAME.

So what you've done there, you've

bunched a whole bunch of people's experiences,

which I don't think quite does it justice to.

And if you're going to be serious about inclusivity,

then I would like to see us.

So I wonder if you have a breakdown

of what you consider pain and what some of those groups are.

Thank you, Councillor Abdi.

So contracts were offered to all the staff members.

We had to do a piece of work to explain to most of the people who were casual workers

why a casual contract isn't secure.

Because a lot of the workers we have are students

and some of them like that flexibility of them also not just turning up whenever they want.

So we had to explain that if you work a set pattern,

you've got contractual obligations with us, so you have to take a contract, even if it's on five hours.

If you do one shift and you do it every Tuesday, you need to have a contract with us instead of a zero hour contract.

To my knowledge, there's still one person who's not agreed to sign and wants to stay zero hours,

but almost everybody else, in terms of the casual cohort, over 63 people have agreed to move over to council contracts.

So we do try and convince people, it is their choice at the end of the day, but I think

a lot of the people who didn't sign initially, when they understood what it meant, initially

we had about 14 people who wanted to stay zero hours because they saw that the council

has now voluntarily increased their hourly rate, because we had the job evaluated.

So although they were in GLO terms and conditions, we could have just left them at 13 .85 and

paid everyone who moves over to us in 16 .58, but what we said, we'll pay all of you the

same rate and that meant they were better off because they thought they had the power

to work when they want and if they want to go on holiday for four weeks they just don't

turn up and they come again.

So that's been a really important piece of work.

We've had several sessions and I think the fact we've only got one person at the moment

we're still trying to convince and if they agree and want to move across we'd welcome

them.

But there is one person who's at the moment to my knowledge who hasn't signed a contract.

In terms of BME, when we do the statistics Gladstone, it's a really good sophisticated piece of software.

So it actually breaks down specifically by different ethnicities and postcodes.

So for example, of the BME group, 37 .68 are Bangladeshi.

I could tell you Somali cohort is 2 .53, Indian is 4 .51, Chinese is 4 .93.

So it's actually giving it an individual breakdown.

But when we're reporting it, the numbers are quite small on the pie chart.

So we can give the statistics if anyone wants at any time with further breakdown.

We welcome your suggestion in terms of breaking it down.

And we will try to make sure in future we give those statistics in the report as well,

so you've got that detailed information.

So that's really great. I'm really glad to hear that's available and we can use that.

I think that then paints a different picture in that there's a lot of work for the council to do in engaging those numbers that are really quite low.

I think we should 2 .7 % for Somalia. I think it's really fantastic but what we do is we paint everybody into the same religious bubble.

And actually we need to move away from that because I think these are fantastic stats but it now shows the next step is actually there's a whole group of women or a whole group of people of colour that aren't being engaged.

There's work to be done there so I really can't just do that.

Thank you.

Just on the, I just want to pick up something in regards to data.

Obviously when we took over from GLL, data was one of the biggest issues in terms of,

as you know, especially in this line of work, data is essential in order to improve the

services, the accessibility and how we impact it.

And one of the things was that the reasoning behind bringing it back in -house was to have

tailor -made services for locals.

And with that data, this is not, you know, sometimes impossible or very difficult to

do.

And it's good to see that the data, you know, from what I've just heard, that is improving.

and how are we going to make sure that we keep on top of that in terms of data, how

we keep the data in terms of improving the services.

Also just a follow up with that in terms of increase of income.

You've said on the report that you've introduced different services, et cetera.

If those different services that you're providing in order to boost the income, if we don't meet that,

how detrimental will that be in terms of going forward with the numbers?

If I do the finance bit and then in terms of the different groups and targeting and how it links to health and wellbeing, Simon can come in.

So, when FMG, the consultants, did the financial modelling before the insourcing, so FMG are

probably the leading financial modelling within the leisure sector in the UK.

They used the data from GLL from 2018, before COVID, when GLL were in a strong position,

and they thought that when we insource, we should be hitting the financial targets of

that period.

So, they set a 10 -year model on that basis.

Obviously, we had COVID and the whole sector is recovering.

So, when we started to operate the service, the very first month, May and June, when we took over,

the numbers they predicted of income we should get from direct debit, we were already down.

Because we know we're not at 2018 levels.

So, the service has not hit the financial income target, which was a challenge.

What we had to do, because obviously as a service we need to come in in a net financial position,

we reduced the expenditure, we looked at other ways of creating efficiencies and we've kind of been moving along.

With the investment of the council and doing all these new initiatives, that's helped us to grow our income.

So having some of the investment in some of the SPA, your call SPA, that's really helped us grow the income in that area.

We've got over 680 ,000 projected income for this year.

So those capital investments has helped.

Specifically to your question, we have 740 ,000 as a pressure this year,

which we can mitigate with some of the efficiencies that we've made.

But we've got a commercial plan to make up this year's money,

and next year we have to grow the business by another 1 .3 million.

So whatever our target was this year,

next year we have to generate 1 .3 million pounds more.

So we move from 11 .7 million this year to 13 million next year.

So as a service, although we're doing all of these other free activities, we have to

generate 13 million pounds.

To do that we have a commercial plan.

And the commercial plan, one of the core factors is increasing the direct debits.

The more people who come and use our services all the time, that helps.

So if we can have 2 ,000 more people joining, we get about a million pounds more income.

So what we're trying to do is increase the membership year by year.

And at the moment, the trajectory of us since we took over from 11 ,000 members, we're up

to over 13 ,000 now.

So we are moving in that right direction.

We've also got other aspects in terms of renting out facilities for events that will generate

income.

We are bringing in some inflatables, so on the water you could do birthday parties and

all of these things.

So these are all additional capital investment that the council has made as part of this

insourcing service that helps us grow the business to hit the income targets.

At the moment, although we are not hitting our income targets, our commercial plan is

very sound, is very conservative and if we hit those targets we will break even or be

a surplus position by year four as predicted by FMG.

So although we disagree with the FMG modelling, we take that challenge on ourselves to make

sure by year four we're in that breakeven position.

Thank you.

Just to add to those comments, in my management team is Sean O 'Reilly who's a commercial manager

for the service, so he's new to come in, myself as well.

we both worked in the private sector so we, part of our challenge is to drive a

commercial business which generates income, customers have a good experience,

we look at retention, we already know by looking at the sites and the facilities

that there's areas for growth particularly in and around memberships so

that is the biggest number one income stream for the services is income

through direct debit fees. The second one is, one of the big ones is through swim

school so we again we know there's latent demand there to grow the swimming.

All this is in parallel with the target operating model, so it's having the right staffing structure in place,

having the correct number of level of colleagues working, particularly around swimming teachers and fitness instructors and all these types of roles.

Also within the head office function, people who can protect members as well in terms of protecting membership,

making sure they're having a good experience, monitoring feedback, looking at the number of reasons why people would leave

and then putting measures in place to stop that.

Also, it's about driving new memberships, so it's working with our marketing PR team within the council.

So that's now embedded with regular meetings happening, looking at marketing campaigns which support that commercial strategy.

So this is about peaks and troughs. Every product that we sell will have a period within the year, such as January, where membership fees are going to be high.

We know that swimming and the spa will drop off during the summer. So it's making sure that's reflected within the marketing strategy we have.

So the challenge for me and the team is that's the kind of the commercial element, but there's

also the focus on health and wellbeing and doing the difference and making a difference

to communities and people wouldn't normally access facilities.

So it's getting that balance and that relationship right.

One of the ways we do that is through data.

Data's huge.

So we also have a data analyst.

So there's lots of really good work the data analyst and Sean have been doing behind the

scenes, which look at not only the data and to be able to kind of look at in terms of

commercially but also looking at the stats with regards to populations and post codes

and areas that we really want to target because within doing that we can build the relationship

and confidence with key stakeholders in terms of health and wellbeing. Because what we want

to be able to do is drive a service which makes a difference, give confidence to commissioners

who can then, if we've got staff equipment in place that can make changes to people,

then part of the commercial plan is to look at different ways to bring funding in.

And that takes time and builds confidence, so it is a challenge to get everything right,

but what's important is we have a comprehensive plan, we have the right people in the right roles to be able to drive this.

So just to give some more context. Thanks.

Thank you. Councillor Gillan, go back to you.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you, lead member, for your nice presentation.

Basically my question was in relation to the funding gap, but already you have answered.

My second question is now.

On page 6 of the Coburn report, the capital investment programme 2025 to 2026 this year

is set out.

How many of these projects have been completed?

Thank you, Councillor.

We have a few of them have been completed so far.

We have completed the stadium pitch upgrade to a step for standard.

So no refurbishment in Wai -Chopau and the gym in Poplar Bath.

Work has been started, it's going to be soon completed and the rest of the things are completed

within this year.

I can elaborate more on that.

OK, so refurbished swimming changing rooms expand,

so now the stream room at Myland is delayed due to technical issues,

so hopefully the work will start very soon and is going to be completed within time frame.

We are looking to create a women -only gym in space in York Hall as well.

It's been delayed due to the age of the building and some of the measures we have to take,

so hopefully that will be delivered within this year as well.

We are looking to develop a pop of crash facilities across our multiple sites,

So this is going to be completed within the first quarter of this year.

And also we are looking to roll out water play and sports hall inflatables within the

quarter one as well.

Quarter one of by 2026 to 27.

Junaid, anything else?

No, just to say some of the projects, as the lead members explained, the buildings are

really old.

So when we started the SPAR project in York Hall, as soon as we started to take covers off,

because before we took over GLL and we did a survey looking outside,

as soon as you take a panel off, beams are starting to crack.

So we had to strengthen those buildings.

The York Hall building is 98 years old.

It's going to be 100 years in two years time.

So that's what's delayed some of the projects in some of the older buildings.

Some of the buildings like Poplar, it looked like a straightforward building, but to do

the project and to get heating and ventilation out, you need planning consent because it's

an old listed building.

So these are some of the reasons for the delay, but a lot of the projects that have been completed

like the Wachapusoana, it's already packed.

It was only launched two weeks ago.

So we know the difference that these improvements make and we're working hard with FM colleagues

and contractors to get those done.

The biggest impact will be the My Lend changing room, sauna, women's centre and the steam room.

Because My Lend is our biggest site. We have 236 ,000 people using My Lend every year.

That project we want to start now but that will take 6 to 8 months.

It's a huge project to change all the piping. The My Lend stadium is almost 25 years old so we're looking at major changes.

The budget is there, the work will be commissioned, but that's the only project that will go beyond

this financial year in terms of length.

Okay.

We will conclude on this item.

Oh, sorry.

Go ahead.

I'll...

Thank you, chair.

Thank you, Councillor, for coming in.

Just a few...

Just a little information.

In terms of St George's swimming pool,

you know it's derelict, it's been there for,

it's not been used for a number of years.

Do you have any plan, how soon can you open it?

Have you got an update?

And just before I finish, in terms of parking,

the leisure centre, I go, I'm a very frequent visitor

of my land, but my opinion is the changing room is fine,

you don't have to do anything, I don't know,

because that's up to you.

In terms of parking, if you know John Orwell, that's free.

So, users are very happy.

Can you roll that over to Mylan, please?

Thank you.

Very briefly.

So, obviously, we have to generate income and the charges are only £1 .50 for three

hours.

So, it's a very reasonable price at the legislature centre.

St George's planning was granted in October.

We are in a phase where the procurement second stage is taking place.

We hope to have final bids by end of March.

If that yields any positive result, we can move forward.

The completion date is autumn 2028.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much, Councillor Kamu Hussain, Simon and Jara

for your contribution also to the members.

Your progress report has been noted and once again thank you for your contribution.

Thank you.

We'll now move on to our next item, which is on the agenda, which is our communication strategy.

We have Andreas, Director of Communication and Marketing Online.

Welcome, Andreas.

We will take this as read.

And if you want to, Andrés, if you have any pointers before we start, over to you.

Thank you, chair, thank you for having me, committee.

I'm sorry I can't be there in person today.

You have the communication strategy, which I understand obviously is part of the topic,

or the topic, but I also put together a presentation which you should have as well.

I'll be very happy to take five minutes to talk through the presentation if that's helpful

Yep, I'm dressed

Okay, I'm just gonna show myself if you can just just if you can just point out the keep key points because we want

To take this as read

So if it doesn't need specific

Points that you want to give

Well, I mean, I think it's up to yourselves, the presentation pulls out the key points

from the communication strategy.

So I'm happy to go through the presentation and you'll get the key points or indeed you

could take it as read.

We're going to go straight into questions.

So Councillor Abdullam.

Thank you, Chair.

I'm sorry, the microphone is not working.

Our recycle rate is very low and we had a number of homes campaign to improve it.

This main slogan of the first campaign was 300 let's rethink it and our recycle rate

did not improve.

What do you think of the slogan and what is your view of improving please?

Yes, Andres.

Thank you for the question.

It's interesting, we ran that campaign and it was very well researched actually that campaign.

But it didn't have an effect.

I mean, there are a number of factors, obviously.

I think one of the reasons in the,

we always look and do an analysis afterwards.

I think one of the reasons were,

when you do a behaviour change campaign,

people need to have the ability

to change that behaviour easily.

And I think Tower Hamlets has the biggest challenge

of any local authority,

you know with you know 87 % or so of our properties being flats and being on

estates and I think that's one of the barriers really. One of the things we

learned from that campaign was to try and do more targeted campaigns where

people do easily have the ability in the facilities to recycle. So we've done a

targeted areas and estates where they do have easy access to recycling and we

went to schools in those areas as well as religious institutions, mosques

particularly, and we went in and ran workshops and we've been monitoring the

effects of those campaign on those estates in those areas.

And you know, what we've seen is the recycling rate

has increased, but as I say,

you can never put it all down to just communications

campaigns, but I think we're near 20 % now.

So I think that targeted approach is a lesson rather than a

blanket campaign, such as the rethink it one.

It's sometimes better to have a more targeted campaign with

research and as I say in this case the research told us that it's better to

focus on the places where people have the easier ability to recycle.

Just related in terms of evaluating communication what criteria do we use

and so that we can evaluate that that strategy is effective.

So like I said in terms of the...

I know we got a big issue when it comes to recycling and we've done campaign.

I know there's been various campaigns.

So I just want to understand in terms of that communication that we have,

how do we evaluate that?

What is the criteria that we're using for that?

So we follow the government's OASIS model on campaigns and most of the comms work we

try and do, but stick to campaigns.

It's never 100 % easy to measure the impact, but OASIS stands for Objectives, Audience,

Strategy, Implementation, and Scoring.

So from the outset, you know, you do your research in terms of your audience and we'll

try and set parameters to measure as part of the scoring.

You know, the way I look at this, if you like,

you know, there are lower level indicators such as,

you know, the comms and the engagement

you had on your comms, for example.

So what I would say is in the past year,

we've had an awful lot of comms on recycling and waste,

and we had very, very good engagement on it.

So that's one factor.

but if you can start to elevate it and measure as we did in this campaign

although I think we're still measuring going through the data with the service

you know what you want to actually get is data within the service so what are

the recycling rates before and after in those specific areas that we've targeted

and you know that's why it's always best if you have the time and unfortunately

in communications and the ways that all councils works and I've worked for many

councils, time is not something that you often have.

But if you can, you want to be able to have a good three

months to prepare a campaign with a service

in order to embed the measurement baseline

at the start and embed measurement

as part of the services duties.

And therefore, you're actually seeing

the effect of the coalface with the service itself.

Thank you.

Council Abdu.

I wanted to focus my question on the robustness of the corporate centre in terms of communication.

So given everything that's going on with the Best Value report and the potential interventions

from the government, one of the most concerning areas from the LGA and from the auditor's

report has been the ongoing reluctance to fully acknowledge the scale of the challenge

it faces and the tendency towards optimism bias.

And I think one of the places we see most is the press releases and the things coming out of the council

and the things that residents stopped me from is what they've seen on the standard or what they've seen other places or what they've

gone to read the Secretary of State's letter

compared to what the council was saying. It's just wildly different.

So I'm trying to understand from a corporate centre around comms and the process in which you decide how to part your communication

I really appreciate any hindsight you have given what I perceive to be quite defensiveness

originally but now I think doesn't acknowledge the scale and I think LJ has said it and all

it is have said it as well.

So your analysis and what more can be done to strengthen and ensure that residents who

look at the council website have an appreciation and can respect what's being said and not

worry about it being spin.

No, thank you, Councillor, for the question.

Well, you know, on a purely communications basis, you know, obviously, corporately, we

work with, I mean, in every case, either the relevant corporate director, the chief executive,

obviously, the cabinet and the mayor to give the view of the Council of the day, based

from a corporate point of view.

It's difficult for me to answer that question in terms of just

press releases because I'm not sure that the envoys were

referring to just press releases.

I think it's also interpretation.

It's obviously committees that the council's at as well

and other things that are said.

And I'm not responsible for all of those things,

presentations of data and reports

and other bits and pieces.

But, you know, we will give the view of the council on different issues and to do that,

that's always done depending on the topic.

Either with the director or corporate director of the service.

And above that, obviously, with regards to these matters, the chief executive and the

mayor.

So, you know, that's all I can say.

Thank you

Here thank you

And thank you for your presentation

My question is that you have tried you have campaign

Different way a result kind of same about our recycle is very low still. So what is your next campaign?

You think door to door to door?

and

make the people aware of the importance of recycling.

Thank you.

Excuse me a second, I just had to plug my laptop back in.

I think the first thing is to see the effectiveness of the current campaign.

To see whether it is true that we can, in the areas where it is easy to recycle

and is available that whether that's made a difference and it looks like the

initial data it has done as I say there are other factors of course you know the

service has put a lot of effort into it more money's been put into it but I

think if that is successful and it looks like on the face of it it has been in

terms of shifting the dial then we need more of the same but it also tells us

something that communications is not enough.

It has to be about the service being available, um,

and easy for people to do.

And then the communications can encourage people to do it. If we,

as we learned in the first one,

if we just put out blanket communications across the borough,

you cannot expect there to be behaviour change unless the infrastructure is in

place. Uh, and I think what we've seen and what we're seeing,

There's other elements, for example, we're supporting the campaigns with the rollout of food waste and other things as well.

As those happen, comms need to be there in tandem, embedded and working with the service to have the greatest effect.

For me, that's the best way to do things.

Thank you. Councillor Amy.

Thank you. So I used to work in comms and my biggest frustration was always about sign -off

processes, which I'm sure you can appreciate because usually you have to get something out

and there's always somebody in an office somewhere saying well no I want this exact specific thing

in there for this exact specific reason that you can never seem to understand. But that's kind of

my question is about the Comms Department, the relationship with

elected members essentially with the mayor and with cabinet members

who will have a say in what goes out in their name and with their faces on it.

We see quite a lot of their faces. It's about that relationship that you

and your team have with them, the input and how you balance that because I know

from experience it's not always the easiest thing to balance.

Yeah thank you Amy it's a it's exactly spot -on in terms of some of the

difficulties that we face. Yeah I mean how does it work? You know we will take

everything that we do and that strategy you have is based on on the corporate

plan. So you know you have the corporate plan for four years obviously that's

broken down per year and it starts to be delivered by services.

Um, we don't necessarily do comms for everything in the corporate plan,

but as you can see in the comms strategy,

we will do gold and silver comms work that we prioritise and we'll try and do

as much bronze as we can, which is essentially everything else. Uh, you know,

in those scenarios,

we will be sitting down with the project manager to start off with, uh,

maybe the head of service. Uh, and we will be, you know,

drafting our messaging, talking to them, you know, advising in terms of the best

way to be able to present something in plain English and in a way that the

public will understand number one and hopefully if it's behaviour change

respond to as well. And as a comm service we will work with the director, we will

essentially draught the quote with the director and the director will sign off

their quote if there was a director quote and the same thing goes in terms of the lead member.

By then we'll have we'll know what the storey is we'll have read the papers

and we'll have drafted a narrative you know we try and have a core narrative for everything

and you know we will draught a quote for the lead member but the lead member will look over that

quote and make a make may make amendments to it. What I would say is in my nine and a half years

at the council found the lead members to be very respectful and to listen to the

advice of the communication service changes are made and we must make sure

that those changes are in line with the publicity code and when also that they

they make sense you know and they're in keeping they're correct and if there is

any issues with that, then we will raise them.

And you know, in my time here,

we've always worked together for a solution

that's in line with the code

and in line with the strategic plan.

And it's my job to ensure that that's the case.

Thank you, Andres.

Councillor Nattoli and then Councillor Blanco.

Thank you.

I want to look at, so there's a lot of priorities which are in the plan which logically correspond

to the Council's priorities, but this is sort of in a kind of ideal universe in which all

of those teams provide content to the comms team on a regular basis.

I came across a situation in one of the servers, so I'm scrutiny lead for environment and climate

emergency and I've recently come across a situation where actually one of the

teams in the highways team they maybe could do with a bit more a bit of

prompting I guess to like think about the work that they're doing in a

more commsy way and think about the opportunities that are available to talk

about good news storeys and like successes and I wonder what kind of work

you're planning to do within this strategy in the next period to be, I don't know, I don't want to add more work,

how can we prompt those teams to be more proactive?

Thank you, that's another great question.

You know the thing about running a communication service, let alone running a communication service

for what is one of the most high profile and busiest councils in the country is that if

you take out the digital team from my team, which is the team that oversees websites and

forms and you focus more on traditional comms, we make up less than 0 .5 of the workforce.

So you can imagine the demand on the communication service from officers for what the council

that is doing and we can't do everything.

So what we try and do is help our officers

to become better communicators.

And essentially that's exactly what you're saying.

You know, how people can think with more of a comms hat on

to be more creative themselves.

Because actually, you know, officers in those services

know their services best.

and and also it means that it's we can do much more together if officers are

thinking with a comms hats on now that doesn't mean to say they can go and do

the comms themselves because that's not the structure we have at this council

you know all comms must come through the comms service but we want to work with

officers to do that now what's some methods to do that I mean number one

comms is constant promotion you know I am at the leadership conference

presenting, I'm at the staff conference presenting, I'm at the inductions presenting, I do pod

sessions on communications, when I do the comms strategy I'll do communications to staff,

I will, I have a senior comms officer for every directorate, so they are going to the

DMTs for each directorate and they have you know one or two comms officers underneath

them. So you know they should be able to see what's coming through and the

services are available to talk to staff but yes you can imagine there's only one

two or three of them. But you know I think the best thing to do and now I've

heard this as well is by all means take this offline with me and raise the issue

with me and also that the director responsible and we know would be happy

to go and talk to the officers there and try and help them to be more creative and generate

ideas and a lot of the time it is show and tell. One of the things that's frustrating

in a comms service is that staff come and go and obviously members come and go as well

and at comms you just have to constantly keep selling and keep talking about the comms strategy,

keep talking about processes, trying to encourage creativity, encourage people to be involved

in campaigns and you know it's a constant effort and one I'll be happy to pick up with

that service, Councillor.

Thank you, Andreas.

Last question.

Councillor Goulon.

Thank you, Andreas.

In page 128, where we are now as a Council, if we look into the percentages, it's good.

65%, 59%, 66%, 61%, 61%.

But 49 % feel involved in making decisions.

Do you have any measure in place to increase this number?

Who wants to involve in decision making?

Yes, Councillor, let me just get to that.

My page is a little different.

Let me just get to the area you're talking about.

Well, we're talking about the annual residence survey.

Let's see.

Yeah, I mean, again, it's a multi -levelled answer, and it's certainly one that we should

always ask ourselves because, you know, the role of local government is so important in

people's lives.

And as you know, as members, you know, a lot of the public, I really think the council

is just council tax bins and parking and of course we know how important it is to everyday

lives of people. I think first and foremostly it's being open and it's publicising the work

of the council and helping people understand the different roles and hundreds of services that we

do and the fact that there is the ability to influence them and shape them and be welcome.

everything from having a town hall is open to the public as we as we have now

and entire ground floor but also our engagement is very important you know we

have consultations as you as you know some of those consultations with

services services will go out and talk to people but that is time -consuming so

you know they have to do that within their resources we have an online

consultation hub but again you know it's it may be certain people there online

that do that ultimately what you're looking for and I think it's there is

our second or third objective and I should say the comms strategy is not

just for the comms service it's for the whole council to do one of the things

that we try and do as a council are we getting better at but we've got a way to

go is to move from just broadcast communication to two -way engagement. And, you know, I think

actually at the Cabinet tomorrow, sorry, tomorrow, on Wednesday, we have young people coming and

talking about a piece of work that the youth service has done to hear the voice of children

and young people to make sure that when we do consultations or even co -creation that we start

by listening to those voices and they have the opportunity.

And indeed there is an event you may know next week,

which is a soft launch of the Tower Hamlets vision,

which actually was something that came out,

I think of the best value review.

You know, and again, that's a vision that's been created

with quite extensive engagement and consultation

with our partners and stakeholders.

And, you know, it's that kind of work

that we are doing more of.

I'm certainly seeing more of it as in my role

across the council, but I think we've got further to go

and we're going in the right direction.

And I think that's how you get that percentage up,

but there'll always be, and perhaps the majority,

people that just want to get on with their lives

and perhaps maybe you'll never reach 60 % or 70%,

let alone 100%.

I think in those figures, I'm not sure if there is for that one, Councillor, but there

are LGA benchmarks.

We did pretty well in the annual resident survey of beating most of those benchmarks.

So while we can do more and we are doing more, there is a reality in terms of just how many

people can feel engaged.

Thank you.

Thank you very much to all the members for your contribution.

Also Andreas, thank you very much.

I just want to say you have in some aspects you have an easy job as well as a hard job

because you've highlighted Tohamtus Council, Tohamtus Bara is a very busy bara, so many

things happening and sometimes it's difficult to keep up with you and we have to highlight

the best of what we do in terms of the work that the Council does and it's about balancing

that.

So thank you very much for your progress report.

It's been noted.

And again, I want to thank the members for their contribution on this item.

Thank you, Andres.

We will now move on to our next item on the agenda, which is the scrutiny challenge session report on reducing road danger and deaths.

This will be introduced by Councillor Natalie Bianfe, who is the lead for environment and climate emergency.

You have five minutes. It's been generous here. Five minutes if you can just present it and then we'll go on to any comments from members.

So over to you.

Great thanks chair. So this is, so as scrutiny lead for Environment and Climate Emergency, we don't have a subcommittee for the service for this area.

But I've undertaken a special project this year so that there is you know, we've got some

Special focus on issues in this area as alongside of the myth the work of the main committee

So just a word of sort of introduction about why I wanted to

Put some work into this topic

The project was initiated mainly because the highways team have prepared a new action plan

about road safety as part of the transport strategy refresh.

So it felt like a good opportunity to look at

what the council's doing in the area

and see if there are any areas for improvement.

It was also something that came to my attention

because in my own ward in Bow West,

we had a death on the road, on Roman Road,

very sadly in the autumn.

and we also had a petition also referencing Roman Road as particularly speeding that came

to full council also in the autumn so it's clearly something that residents really care

about I have probably an email every couple of weeks from residents raising issues of

road safety so it's it was definitely a priority for the community and so I wanted to kind

express that and explore explore it I

Want to thank the highways team and the support from the lead member as well who was here earlier, but I think he's had to leave

They've been really open

Really provided a huge amount of information and I just want to draw members attention to the addendum which was on the agenda pack

which has given some additional information about what kind of

Recent projects they've been doing

as I mentioned earlier in the previous item about comms, they have I think

recognised that maybe there's some more work that they could do around you know

bigging up their work, the good work that they're already doing, they're already

doing a lot of really great stuff in this area so like I think communicating

and sort of you know highlighting that a bit more is definitely something that

they're going to take away from this project. I also want to really thank the

residents who came into the council to give evidence and

We had a really great session couple of really great sessions where residents were able to speak directly to the officers and to scrutiny

Members about their experiences of road safety

There was really an exciting session

I really was so so pleased that so many people wanted to come and talk to us about it. We also had

organisations representatives from organisations

and we had a really good range of organisations.

Some of them are really focused on kind of road safety issues.

So we had Wheelers and we had an organisation.

Yeah, so Wheelers came and we also had an organisation possible who works.

It's a sort of more general climate charity,

but they've done a really great project with delivery, food delivery riders,

who make up significant and growing proportions of cycle trips in London and in Tower Hamlets.

And they generally feel very unsafe when they're cycling and that's their workplace.

And so that was really great to hear from possible.

And we also heard from Ruki from Apperson.

and they obviously work with some of the most vulnerable people in society who

find it challenging to get out and about and it's really highlighted the need for

not just improving road danger and deaths but also how like

people's perception of danger changes their behaviour and whether they

feel able to go out and make those journeys and whether they're curtailing

their lives as a result. So that was really some really great evidence. I also want to

thank the scrutiny members who attended the sessions. Leo is here, he's one of the co -optees

who attended the sessions and to Halima Islam who's no longer a co -optee but she co -chaired

the project as well. So I'll talk a little bit about the recommendations that are made

in the report. The main thing is to increase the ambition and clarity of the plan. So the

action plan, it was lacking in detail in certain topics

and lacking in clarifying explanation about where certain

maps came from, where certain information came from,

and how that would link to how the team's work would be,

how the team would actually plan their work going forward

from this action plan.

The second main priority that I wanted, that came through

from the project is rebalancing road space to prioritise vulnerable road users' safety.

We're very densely populated, the most densely populated borough in the country, and decisions

about how much road space goes to which type of transport, so pedestrians, cyclists, cars,

lorries, et cetera, busses, those are all very constrained and the team has to make some

very difficult decisions. And we had a good discussion about how to, one of the recommendations

is to think more clearly about or communicate better about how the team is prioritising

the most vulnerable road users.

So those are pedestrians, older people and children.

So moving, have I got one minute, one minute, okay.

I'll just highlight some of them.

I think the thing that I really want,

that I really care about are the two points.

So point number three, invest in infrastructure

rather than relying on an education and enforcement.

And the other one is prioritising road safety interventions

near schools.

Now this is really important because the report highlights

that more than 50 % of child KSI,

so killed and seriously injured,

injuries happen near schools.

and I think that can be really, it's a really, you know, it's really, really awful, you know,

the idea that a child would be killed or seriously injured on their way to school is just unacceptable

for me and I think we need to really prioritise interventions and especially infrastructure

interventions such as school streets near schools. So, and that was also reflected very

much in the evidence that came from residents who felt that those interventions were proportionate

and made a real difference to people's experiences.

So I'll leave it there but I'll really welcome questions.

Thank you, Councillor.

Firstly, I want to say, you know, it's really, really, you know, great to see the work that

you're doing on a really important matter.

And I see your passion.

And I know you've arranged some workshops.

And unfortunately, I was on well,

and I couldn't arrange one of them, attend one of them.

What I just want to say is Transport for London

runs a scheme that's called Sustainable Travel,

Active Responsibility Safe.

school stars, which promotes safe travelling to and from school.

The council actually promotes this scheme within the schools.

Maybe perhaps we can, at the end of this section, where we do the recommendation, it looks at

prioritising road safety intervention near schools.

Maybe we can add this on our road safety and this should acknowledge the work which is

done by our, the council in terms of promoting this STARS scheme in schools.

so that we can you know liaise and run these more.

So that's something that we can do.

Open up to floor.

Yeah I think that's a really great suggestion.

Yeah I'd happily include that.

Thank you.

Councillor Amy then Councillor Abdul -Mannan.

Well done.

It's really good.

I'm just getting through it.

but I just wanted to specifically talk about recommendation three that you've made

because I'm really grateful that you've made this because it's one of the things

that frustrates me at most about this.

I mean you've heard me in this room go off about it because we go on all the time

about oh let's teach people how to do XYZ without ever giving them the tools to do it.

It's like the recycling thing.

It's like people should recycle but we're not going to give them recycling bags.

It's the same thing and it drives me absolutely insane so I'm glad that you put this

in there because I think it's really important and I know that you've gone

through some sort of specifics about the infrastructure you'd actually like to

see but what do you what do you think needs to happen to make these things

happen if that makes sense? Do you think it needs political will or is it is it

money is it both is it a mix of everything? So I wasn't able to

include this in my main presentation so it gives me an opportunity to say it so

So I think the team, the action plan,

and one of the issues that I've identified

in the action plan is that the team are not

communicating about the road safety aspects

of all of the work they do.

So this is a highways team, it's a statutory team

and they have statutory responsibilities.

They implement like regular upgrades on junctions.

They pay a lot of attention to statistics

on previous incidents and they have the there are several maps in the report in

the action plan which highlight how their prioritisation yeah how they're

prioritising certain areas over other areas and and why that is and so I think

they are doing infrastructure improvements it's expensive and the

the money that the team has really relies on money from TFL.

But the strategy and the direction is set by this action plan

and I think they have really kind of taken on board

the fact that this action plan actually doesn't encompass

all of the road safety impacts that the work

that they already do have, that they have.

So I think the action plan itself doesn't communicate well enough and that's one of the

Yeah, that's that's one of the recommendations that's like that's actually why they added the addendum

Because they hadn't really communicated about that. Yeah. Thank you

Thank You Natalie it was wonderful report

You have made a lot of effort into that.

I know you are very passionate about this.

You will always invite me to go to your seminar

and site visit.

Unfortunately, I couldn't make it.

My sincere apology to you, but I should say that

it is wonderful job you have done.

The council has put in Ojibwe cross,

in Cross Harbour and Marshwell,

and made the improvement to the junction in Marshwell

and Isfari Road in my ward.

This has helped pedestrian safety

and made crossing this road much easier.

I would be pleased to see improvement

like this in other ward.

Yeah, I mean Marsh Wall is terrifying

if you're a pedestrian,

so I think that those kind of improvements

were really necessary.

And I think there are other areas in the borough

where pedestrians do feel scared and nobody should feel scared and certainly no journey

should end in tragedy.

So I would love to see more zebra crossings and more junction improvements for sure.

Thank you, Councillor, this is a really great start.

I've got just two questions and I think two bits of feedback for the review.

I'd really love your thoughts in terms of the ambition of the review.

I appreciate as a school lead, very similar to myself, you have limited support.

Just in particular the council, the addendum, the examples they give of better practise or engagement.

They're pictures from last year before this review even started and one that's been going on for quite a while.

So I really want your thoughts around the infrastructure

and the ambition that the council has in terms of this,

because I think it could be so much more ambitious.

And how this review seeks to keep them honest about it,

I think is really important.

And just on the data point, I'd really

work on your thoughts on, so I get

a lot of residents contacting me about this.

And particular streets in Barista, more generally,

like Costa Barra, there's pinch points,

in particular areas that are really bad.

and we see that on some of the data from the council,

but then we also see the council say something else

about what an average, the average mileage is this.

So actually there's a disparity,

it's the disparity between what they're saying

and kind of the average mile,

which can be spent any which way.

So I suppose how we get past the spin

of what the average is this to this is an issue

in this street and we will deal with it in this street.

So a lot of my residents have contacted me

and the ones who've given positions before

has spoken about certain streets where it's well over 20 and I think you have to acknowledge that and it's not necessarily being dealt with because there's just no ambition or willingness to deal with it.

Yes, so certainly one of my recommendations is increasing the ambition of the plan because all of us can see that there is an issue with road safety in this borough

and the action plan doesn't go anywhere near far enough in my opinion and certainly in

the opinion of the organisations that presented at the sessions, there is a huge level of

there are lots and lots and lots of projects that need to happen.

I think, you know, this is something for the team really, but I think the main sticking point is team capacity and financing.

This isn't something that's receiving a huge amount of funding from the council's general fund, it's relying on money from TFL.

and infrastructure like pavements cost a lot of money because they're serious, they need to be sourced from good,

they need to be high quality products and engineers also very highly qualified people need to be paid properly.

So I agree that there is definitely an ambition element missing for me.

I would really like to see the team use this action plan as an opportunity to

Lay out a kind of stretch goal for where they want to be by 2041 because this is going to be valid until 2041

They have welcomed that suggestion. I don't know whether they're gonna make I don't know how they're gonna incorporate my

recommendations into the action plan that goes to cabinet in March but

they also are aware of wanting to kind of leave the field open so that they're not going to say,

we are going to do this in this project, in these locations.

So they need to be responsive to what the situation is.

Just to respond to the second part of your question,

There was another issue to do with how the data is prioritised, how interventions are

prioritised and how they are using data.

There were definitely things that needed to be improved in the action plan and that is

also part of my recommendations.

I think there's also a part of that the team needs to be more proactive in how they get

feedback from residents because there are lots of different ways that residents contact

the team and tell them about issues but they need to ensure that they're also reaching

out to people who might not necessarily get in touch. I prefer to call them underserved

communities rather than hard to reach.

For me there are still question marks around how they are prioritising the interventions

based on the evidence available.

Thank you.

Councillor Abdomen.

Thank you, Mr Chair.

That's a very comprehensive report, Natalie.

I really welcome the report.

One of the things I have seen on the report, as I mentioned, you know that I lead the chair

for children's education.

One of the things I would say, a good recommendation to put, which I said, digital board near the

school when the car approaches, say the school is ahead.

So it would be nice to have some concrete recommendation, because I've seen other borrowers

on the report that doesn't specifically say anything like that.

So when the car approaches, or even if the issues come up, say school ahead, and you

That would be the impact when anybody who drives the car

they know this is going to hurt.

You just give them an instant reaction

or children will be hurt.

So that would be my point of view.

It would be good ideas.

I don't know whether you're going to take it up or not.

But you know our leaders are looking through a lot of children's stuff

and that would be one of the big things.

It would be really impact.

The small thing but have a big impact.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor. Do you want to just quickly...

Yeah, yeah, that sounds great. I'd like to include that.

Thank you. I want to thank all members for your contribution.

Also, Councillor and Natalie, once again, thank you for your contribution

and your hard work in regards to this.

Yeah. Can we agree on this report?

Absolutely.

Brilliant. OK, thank you. Thank you very much.

We will move on to the next item which is scrutiny leader updates.

Any updates?

Mr Labde.

Just a very quick one, 30 seconds.

I had a really, really interesting meeting with one Glasgow who were the pioneers around tackling reoffending rates in Glasgow.

I think Glasgow is the unsung hero around this space in terms of turning a city around for violent crime and bringing the rates right down.

So really great. I think what we should do as a council and other councils should do is

I've always recreating the will learning the best things from other councils and other places to the best space to make sure we can

Bring it into the fold

So it's a phenomenal meeting to be able to take some of that into the report which I'll bring

Next month is around tackling the reoffending race in Tawa Hamlets

Thank You councillor

Councillor Ahu Dokhan

Yes, I visited, thanks to Fuluqui, arranged me a visit to the council call centre where

the customers called and where the people received their call.

I visited with the co -optees, Mahbub and Sous and it was really a different experience than

what we hear from the people.

and there is a lot of improvement can be done in this Centre.

So that's what our visit update is on.

In future we will publish what sort of improvement can be made in those centres

so that customers can get their service more quickly than usual.

Thank you.

My forthcoming meeting for the children and education is inviting young males to come

and give their vision, what they were expecting, what we want to hear from them, basically

their future, their vision, everything else.

So I give them open platform coming on next week.

So it will be more intensive to hear from them what from young people what we expect

from them.

And that will be my main agenda on that.

Thank you.

Councillor Biafas, you.

Sorry, Councillor Mannan, when was that session next week?

Tuesday 3rd of February, is that during the day?

Yes, on a scrutiny meeting.

Unfortunately I've got a meeting in the ward, I'm not going to be able to attend.

So my, the final thing that I'll,

so I've been obviously making sure

that my report gets published for this meeting.

And I've also had a site visit with the highways officers.

Unfortunately that site visit happened

after the report was published and written.

So the details didn't make it into the report,

but we went and visited some areas.

We went cycling around, and yeah,

that was really great to see some of the issues

and things that the team are having to contend with.

Thank you very much.

We will now move on to our next item which is the pre -decision questions for scrutiny.

Any any members have any questions?

Okay, all right, so we'll move on to the next item which is

Any other business to discuss?

Just to update everyone, the budget report has been submitted to the mayor.

We are anticipating a reply response by 16th of February.

So once we get that we will then share with members.

If there's not anything else, our next meeting is on the 16th of February.

We've got a spotlight with the Borough Commander, approach to integrated enforcement, community safety

and Councillor Abdu's continuing report on tackling reoffending rates 18 to 25 year old koha in Tarahamis.

And this concludes this evening's meeting. Thank you very much for everyone's contribution.

Have a great evening. Thank you Steve for joining us. Have a great evening. Thank you.

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Overview & Scrutiny Committee - Monday 26 January 2026, 6:30pm - Tower Hamlets Council webcasts

Overview & Scrutiny CommitteeMonday, 26th January 2026 at 6:30pm

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7 a) Be Well Progress Update January to December 2025

Overview & Scrutiny Committee
Monday, 26th January 2026 at 6:30pm