Agenda

To be introduced by Councillor Rathbone

We are concerned at the proposed closure of Brooke Road E5 Sorting Office by Royal Mail and find the alternative collection office 1n Leyton green, more than an hour's journey away, completely unacceptable. The closure will have a huge negative impact on the vulnerable in our community, and cause considerable problems for those not at home during the day. The Sorting Office is an essential part of the local infrastructure and services. It should never have been privatised which has led to a situation where money is determining its offer rather than service. We call on the Council to make representations to Royal Mail to halt the closure, and to call for a meeting between residents, councillors and Royal Mail to discuss the situation.

Question from Ms Jeanne-Marie Richards to the Cabinet Member for Energy, Waste, Transport and Public Realm

Why can’t Hackney roads be available for all Hackney residents to use, similar to the proposal for Church Street and will the council please reconsider removing wheel damaging bollards currently used for narrowing roads where cameras are already in place, since these cause unnecessary damage the wheels of ordinary family vehicles?

Question from Ms Sussan Rassoulie to Councillor Chapman, Chair of the Pensions Committee

Hackney Pension fund invests in companies on UN database of those operating in illegally occupied Palestinian territories, including:

·   Elbit that manufactures UAVs used for deadly  attacks on Gaza 

·   Caterpilar that manufactures D9 bulldozers used to demolish Palestinian  villages enabling illegal settlements

How is this compatible with your ethical policies?

Question from Mr Christopher Sills to Mayor Glanville

As a result of the covid-19 pandemic would you agree with me that it is regent for the pension fund to review its policies in particular the consequences of a likely increase in interest rates over the next few years 

Question from Councillor Gordon to the Mayoral Advisor for Older People

Can the Mayoral Advisor for Older People give an update on how the Council's new Ageing Well Strategy intends to support older people moving forward, particularly in light of the coronavirus pandemic, and promote connections and understanding between Hackney’s older people and other generations? 

Question from Councillor Patrick to Deputy Mayor Bramble  (Education, Young People and Children's Social Care) 

The pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated issues surrounding digital inclusion and the digital divide, especially amongst school children during lockdown who had to access school work online. Can the Cabinet Member outline how the Council supported children and young people during lockdown to bridge that digital divide, and outline the further work the Council is doing to work with schools and help reduce inequalities in this area to ensure access to learning is not diminished?

Question from Councillor Garasia to the Cabinet Member for Health, Adult Social Care and Leisure

The failure of the government to effectively establish a test and trace system for Covid19 has left many people in Hackney anxious about their own health. Local people have been turned away from test centres and told to travel hundreds of miles to get a test. Can the Cabinet Member for Health update us on what efforts the administration has made to improve the situation and demonstrate the case for local delivery of test and trace? 

Question from Councillor Potter to the Cabinet Member for Employment, Skills and Human Resources

Many Hackney residents are worried about job security, with the end of the furlough scheme, the impact of coronavirus and Brexit fast approaching. Can the Cabinet Member explain the approach the council is taking to support residents facing economic uncertainty following Tory mismanagement? [Comments from the Cabinet member for Planning, Culture and Inclusive Economy on the potential impacts of Brexit on businesses would be welcome too.]

 
Question from Councillor Rathbone to Mayor Glanville

Thank you Mayor for writing to Royal Mail objecting to the proposed closure of Brooke Road Sorting Office which will impact on a wide area of North Hackney and force people to collect parcels from the sorting office at Leyton Green, a 90 minute journey away from Hackney. Could you give an update on the matter?

Question from Councillor Billington to the Cabinet Member for Famillies. Early Years and Play

The COVID crisis has resulted in a massive increase in economic insecurity for many families that has resulted in many finding them short of money for food. Can the Cabinet Member for Families tell us what is being done by the council and the wider community to tackle this? 

Question from Councillor Etti to the Cabinet Member for Employment, Skills and Human Resources

Can the Cabinet Member with responsibility for equalities give an update on what action has been taken on the BLM motion passed at the July full council meeting?

Question from Councillor Peters to the Cabinet Member for Energy, Waste, Transport and Public  ...  view the full agenda text for item 7.

Chaos caused by Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in Hackney. A call to reverse the failed Low Traffic Neighbourhoods scheme and consult residents properly

All councillors are committed to having more people walk and cycle. However, Hackney Labour Executive has panicked and used the Covid-19 pandemic as an excuse for their war on cars.

The Low Traffic Neighbourhoods imposed by this Labour Executive are a complete disaster, along with the road restrictions imposed by the chauffeur-driven London Mayor Sadiq Khan, which are also choking off the economy of central London. These measures achieve the opposite of the Council’s stated aim of having lower vehicle use with less pollution.

These schemes have created more vehicle use overall as a result of longer journeys, with vehicles gridlocked in traffic jams, cars accelerating into tight spots, both of which create more pollution for longer periods, and break up the cohesiveness of neighbourhoods with angry motorists, cyclists and residents shouting at and threatening one another. In addition to delaying buses and consequently causing TfL to turn buses before their stated destination.

Emergency vehicles cannot get through to save lives. Disabled people and elderly people are particularly disadvantaged, stuck in their homes, unable to have carers come to them, unable to drive at the times they need to shop for food or meet hospital appointments. People who need their cars for work, for example nurses working in the NHS, people with large families that need to transport children or small businesses that need to transport goods for their shops, people that have made the UK their home who tend to travel further out of their own area to get to churches or mosques or faith schools specific to their community, have all been particularly disadvantaged. The scheme is a complete shambles.

The most sinister aspect of this Labour scheme has been that the young and fit that can ride bikes are favoured over the old and infirm; the rich are favoured over the poor; the more mobile over the less able. A sensible Conservative Government policy has been twisted by Hackney Labour Executive into something autocratic, favouring the young and fit that can look after themselves and use bikes, at the expense of everyone else. Communities are made up of people of different ages and different abilities. We should not penalise people who need cars and in the light of the current Covid-19 pandemic where all the sensible medical advice is that the safest way to travel is in a private car these schemes are endangering lives.

When Labour councillors are told that hybrids and electric cars are replacing petrol vehicles, and that pollution will decrease as a result, they have no answer. Hackney Labour Executive has sat around making decisions in the Town Hall and Service Centre by pointing at a map. A related issue is that Hackney’s Labour Executive and the do-nothing Mayor of London Sadiq Khan have no interest in creating sufficient parking spaces for electric vehicles in any new housing developments being built.  ...  view the full agenda text for item 16a

Hackney Council notes that even before the coronavirus crisis, 4.2 million children (one in three) in the UK lived in poverty after taking into account housing costs.

In Hackney 36% of residents, and half of all children, currently live in poverty after housing costs have been taken into account, the 3rd highest rate in London.

At the same time, according to the Money Advice Service, Hackney is one of ten areas in England and Wales where more than 1 in 5 people have problem debt.

After years of frozen benefit levels, unemployment benefit is at its lowest since 1990, and, with many families subject to the benefit cap, the average benefit income of a family with children is £2,900 a year less than in 2011. After successive cuts, freezes and caps over the past decade, Local Housing Allowance, the benefit, designed to make renting in the private sector affordable for households on a low income, has left barely a handful of homes in Hackney affordable.

The human cost of this is all too real, with over 3,000 Hackney households, many with children, now living in temporary accommodation. This is compounded by the same inadequate benefit expected to cover temporary accommodation costs and to help families find a permanent home - leaving many with the hear tbreaking decision of whether to leave the borough that is their home, or face a potential stay of years in temporary accommodation.

As well as causing misery for thousands of families, welfare cuts have also failed in the Government’s goal of reducing welfare spend. Instead, the costs have been passed on to local authorities, through temporary accommodation costs, discretionary housing payments, or the wider support families pushed to breaking point need. Poverty and social insecurity costs the UK state £69 billion every year, with further identifiable knock on costs.

While the Government during this crisis has introduced limited measures to increase support through the benefits system, many of these are only temporary changes such as:

• the £20-a-week uplift to Universal Credit (UC) and Working Tax Credit;
• The £150 annual discount to Council Tax bills for those receiving Council Tax Support;
• Increase of LHA to 30% percentile (30 percent of properties in an area affordable under LHA);
• suspension of the minimum income floor;
• extending the entitlement of means-tested benefits such as UC;
• work-related requirement suspension for UC;
• payments of £500 to support individuals with low-income that need to self-isolate and cannot work from home.

The Government’s rhetoric on the generosity of support put in place during Covid-19, with furlough and other initiatives, sits in stark contrast to the grim reality of the day-to-day level of critical benefits; a reality the Government has acknowledged with the temporary initiatives put in place above. 

When the £20-a-week uplift ends, 700,000 people, including 300,000 children, will be left worse-off during a period of economic instability. A Child Poverty Action Group survey of low-income families found that 8 in 10 respondents reported a significant deterioration in their living standards due to  ...  view the full agenda text for item 16b