Tower Hamlets Council is not in the news at present.
Could it be that the Commissioners sent in by former Local Govt Minister (Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government) Eric Pickles have sorted out the “rotten borough”?
Could it be that the Commissioners sent in by former Local Govt Minister (Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government) Eric Pickles have sorted out the “rotten borough”?
And now that there is a “good” mayor in place after the election of 11 June 2015, the Commissioners job is done?
Not really.
Not if information leaking out is any guide.
The Commissioners are not enjoying their contacts with a large number of Tower Hamlets officials.
It may be that some of the Commisioners, the chairman Ken Knight and his regular colleague Max Caller may have told Pickles’ Department their feelings already.
Or may be not.
The thing about Tower Hamlets Council is that you never know.
It is not just an euphemism.
It is truly the culture in the Council.
The Tower Hamlets Council Culture “BC”.
Before the Commissioners.
It is not going away.
They do not let on much.
So even if the Commissioners were to be withdrawn – about which there has been no public indication yet – nobody can say that the Borough thereby became a functional one.
And despite the apparent cheers that Tory councillors showered on the ‘new mayor’ John Biggs at his first full Council meeting, he is not speaking much at all.
Not in public at least.
The reason the Tories, the smallest of the three “Groups” present at the meeting, which was the delayed AGM (delayed due to the holding of the mayor election, on 11 `June 2015) were cheerful was to do with a one-line by “Biggs” who spoke. He said he would be the ‘speaking variety’, a strange phrase that.
Strange because Biggs really missed the chance to deal with almost all the problems that Pickles had listed in the speech to the Commons on 4 November 2014.
And Commissioner Max Caller has been using words and phrases suggesting that he finds not much evidence that the officers were up to the tasks.
In a memorable phrase at the last meeting of the Commissioners, Max Caller
told Tower Hamlets Council officials that the Commissioners were not there to bring community groups to their knees.
That was after Caller and Ken Knight both had heard enough flimsy and incoherent words from a particular official.
So what’s up next about Tower Hamlets?
If this writer were a betting “variety” (to give “credit” t John Biggs for using the word “variety”), the bet would be that `Tower Hamlets Council is quite likely to hit the British News Headlines in a most spectacular fashion.
The heat that that will generate is likely to exceed everything the meteorological office has forecast about this week’s hottest summer weather!
Watch this space!
Stay well clear of the sun!
Of both varieties – the one that made Rupert a £Billionaire with its operations in the High Street in Wapping, Tower Hamlets, for decades and the one that is bringing the heat from above!
