Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meeting held on 20 November 2019 were confirmed as correct.

The Leader will present his statement.

The Leader of the Council presented a verbal statement updating the Assembly on a range of matters since the last meeting as follows:

Reflection on the outcome of the General Election- Congratulated both Margaret Hodge and Jon Cruddas on their re-election as constituency MP’s for Barking and Dagenham and Rainham respectively.

Fair Funding Formula- what it could mean for us – Criticism of the Government’s plans to rebalance regional funding through its review of local government finances in what is known as the Fair Funding Review. An analysis by the LGA has shown that £320m a year could be diverted from some of the most deprived areas including Barking and Dagenham to Tory-controlled shire councils mainly in the South-East in 2021/22, which flies in the face of the Prime Minister’s post election promise to level up poor areas. Reference was made to recent research about the amount of funding which would be lost to the regions as a consequence of leaving the EU and the significant financial gap this would leave for this Council to make up.

Despite this, the Council was doing everything the public sector considered best practice as reflected in the many awards in recent years, including Council of the Year.

Budget 2020/21 - Update on the public consultation exercise led by the Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance & Core Services.

Work of backbench Members – Paid compliment to the work of backbench Members over the past year including the Chair of Overview & Scrutiny, the two appointed Member Champions for Quality in Care and Mental Health, as well as the members on the Policy Task Group.

Redevelopment of the Gascoigne Estate and Affordable Housing start-ups – Update on (i) the next phase of housing development at the western end of the estate where it is planned to build over the next two years more than 200 homes including 60% affordable rented properties, and (ii) confirmation from the GLA that working with the Council and Be First they were committed to providing grant funding to deliver a significant number of affordable homes in the Borough under the Mayor’s ‘Building Council Homes for Londoners’ Programme. 

Local Plan – The launch this month of a public consultation exercise for the Council’s new Local Plan, the biggest and most ambitious ever Local Plan which will set out the future of planning in the Borough and will include targets for the number of homes and jobs to be delivered over the next 15 years. 

Serious Crime Summit – The fourth and final Serious Violence Summit led by the Cabinet Member for Enforcement and Community Safety was being held at London East on 12 February 2020. Keynote speakers include the Deputy Mayor of London for Crime and Policing and the BCU Police Commander. 

City of London Public Consultation – Three public consultation events taking place in the borough between 29 January and 1 February in connection with the proposals to re-locate the three iconic markets of Billingsgate, New Spitalfields and Smithfield to Dagenham Dock.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

The Labour Group Secretary will announce any nominations to fill vacant positions on Council committees or other bodies.

There were none.

The Assembly received the Barking and Dagenham (BAD) Youth Forum and Young Mayor’s Annual report, introduced by the Head of Engagement, Opportunity and Wellbeing, who was accompanied by representatives of the Youth Forum.

This report detailed the achievements of the BAD Youth Forum during the past 12 months outlining the work of each of the sub-groups, their aims and the impact of the work completed.

The BAD Youth Forum was in its 18^th year. Its purpose was to provide young people with a formal platform to express their views and be ambassadors for young people locally. The Forum elected 70 young people in 2019 through a democratic election process in those participating schools, coordinated by the Youth Service with support from Democratic Services. These elections included Goresbrook and Greatfields schools for the first time. Trinity Special School elected new representatives, via an internal election process suitable to the needs of students.

The Forum split into three sub-groups focussing on different campaigns, the representatives on each of which highlighted the key areas and achievements of their work during the year, including:

Community Action Sub-Group: Young people focussed on drugs and alcohol, teen parents, Personal, Social, Health and Economic education including the Adverse Childhood Experiences Programme,  Domestic abuse Commission Ambassadors, a community event at Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club and volunteering at Barking Food Bank.

Young Mayor Sub-Group: Worked closely with Joshua Singh-Hill, Young Mayor to support his efforts to raise funds for SANE Mental Health Charity through a range of different events which raised £4017.53 as well as raising awareness of both the Charity and mental health in young people in general.

Young Inspectors Sub-Group: Young Inspectors continued to quality assure the Come Correct Condom Distribution scheme (C- card scheme) in Barking and Dagenham. They also inspected the School Nurse service and the Outpatients East Sexual Health Service.

Other areas in which Forum Members took an active role included:

·  Youth Independent Advisory Group

·  Eight separate consultation exercises covering a range of topics

·  London Youth Assembly

·  Stubbers Activity Centre

·  Youth Parade

·  Visit of Prince Harry for the official opening of the Youth Zone

·  Visit to Houses of Parliament

·  Attendance at meetings of the Council’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee

Finally, reference was made to the outcome of the recent elections of the 2020 Forum.

Following the presentation, a number of Members paid tribute to the excellent work and projects of the Forum and the impact it had on shaping the future of the Borough and how inspirational they were both to this Council and young people in general. The Leader of the Council remarked that as leaders themselves the Forum represented the ‘voice’ of young people in this Borough and as such he wanted to see them interacting more with the Council Cabinet meetings.

In summing up, the Chair said that every one of the Forum was a credit to both themselves, their families and the Borough and she thanked the representatives for their excellent presentation which the Assembly noted.

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Core Services presented a report on the proposal to retain the existing Council Tax Support Scheme and a £50,000 discretionary hardship fund, in order to continue to support local residents who found themselves in exceptional hardship.

Following comments, the Cabinet Member explained that the fund would be monitored and reviewed quarterly and that given that it was fully expended in the current financial year, it could be increased in the future on the basis it represented an invest to save proposal as it potentially supported people not to fall into arrears. 

The Assembly resolved that the Council Tax Support Scheme implemented for 2019/20 be retained for 2020/21.

The Cabinet at its meeting on 16 July 2019 receivede a report on an updated Care Leavers’ Local Offer which included a recommendation to the Assembly seeking an exemption for LBBd Care Leavers resident in the Borough up t5o the age of 25 from paying council tax.

The Cabinet Member for Social Care and Health Integration presented a report outlining the background to this proposal which was in keeping with the Council’s vision of leaving no one behind and embedding the principle of asking as Corporate Parents, ‘would this be good enough for my child’?. She stressed that members had a collective duty to provide the best possible support for the Borough’s looked after young people.

Members welcomed and expressed their support for the proposal, and

Agreed that LBBD Care Leavers resident in the Borough be exempted from council tax up to the age of 25, effective from April 2020.

Motion 1 – Adopt the All Parliamentary Party Group on British Muslims working definition of Islamophobia

Moved by Councillor Ashraf and seconded by Councillor Paddle.

“This Council expresses alarm at the rise of Islamophobia in recent years across the UK, and around the world. In Barking and Dagenham alone, we have seen an increase of 15% in reports of Islamophobic hate crime since July 2018.

This Council is committed to fighting Islamophobia in all its forms. We welcome the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims’ definition of Islamophobia, which has been backed by 750 Muslim organisations and institutions.  

The APPG on British Muslims working definition of Islamophobiaincludes the following examples in its’ definition of Islamaphobia:

“Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.”

Contemporary examples of Islamophobia in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in encounters between religions and non-religions in the public sphere could, taking into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to:

·  Calling for, aiding, instigating or justifying the killing or harming of Muslims in the name of a racist/fascist ideology, or an extremist view of religion;

·  Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Muslims as such, or of Muslims as a collective group, such as, especially but not exclusively, conspiracies about Muslim entryism in politics, government or other societal institutions; the myth of Muslim identity having a unique propensity for terrorism, and claims of a demographic ‘threat’ posed by Muslims or of a ‘Muslim takeover’;

·  Accusing Muslims as a group of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Muslim person or group of Muslim individuals, or even for acts committed by non-Muslims;

·  Accusing Muslims as a group, or Muslim majority states, of inventing or exaggerating Islamophobia, ethnic cleansing or genocide perpetrated against Muslims;

·  Accusing Muslim citizens of being more loyal to the ‘Ummah’ transnational Muslim community) or to their countries of origin, or to the

  alleged priorities of Muslims worldwide, than of the interests of their

  own nations;

·  Denying Muslim populations the right to self-determination e.g., by claiming that the existence of an independent Palestine or Kashmir is a terrorist endeavour;

·  Applying double standards by requiring of Muslims behaviours that are not expected or demanded of any other groups in society, e.g. loyalty tests; and

·  Using the symbols and images associated with classic Islamophobia (e.g. Muhammed being a paedophile, claims of Muslims spreading Islam by the sword or subjugating minority groups under their rule) to characterize Muslims as being ‘sex groomers’, inherently violent or incapable of living harmoniously in plural societies.

This Council hereby adopts the above definition of Islamophobia as set out by the APPG on British Muslims and will continue to engage with local Muslim community groups and organisations to combat this hatred. This Council calls on the government to follow suit and adopt the APPG definition, sending a clear message that any and all forms of Islamophobia will not be tolerated  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47.

There were none.