LOCAL POWER

A new local COUNCIL FOR THE AREA?

A new local Council with its own money, staff and legal powers, a new statutory body to sit one level below Tower Hamlets Council (not replace it)
10,000 such local Councils already exist outside of London where they are known as Town, Parish or Community Councils but were banned in London until 2007, one was set up in west London following a referendum of residents in 2012, should we do the same here?
They allow local people to have a greater say over purely local issues and are led by elected Councillors
Funded by a small increase in Council tax but give a greater local say over 25% of Community Infrastructure Levy money paid by developers to Tower Hamlets Council, they can bid to run Council services like street sweeping and can apply for money directly from central government

Tower Hamlets has been the fastest growing place in the UK for decades now with a steadily increasing population but how it has been managed has changed little since it was founded in 1965. Decisions are made in one place, currently Mulberry Place, from the top down. Often by Council officers who either do not live in Tower Hamlets or do not live in the part of the Borough their decisions affect. This might work OK if the issues and problems were the same across Tower Hamlets, but sometimes they are not. Sometimes local knowledge and expertise is required to make the best local decisions, but there is no mechanism today to do that. We have a Mayor of Tower Hamlets but no one person can decide every little detail across Tower Hamlets.

What if we try something different?, where we set up a new local Council for our local area. The National Association of Local Councils has advice on the process here:
www.nalc.gov.uk/our-work/create-a-council#getting-started

And when Newham Council organised a Democracy and Civic Participation Commission it recommended in Newham that "As part of this community governance review, the Commission recommends that the Council determines an area to pilot a new urban parish or ‘Community Council’." See page 34 of their report here. We should do the same here in Tower Hamlets.

Queens Parks in west London and Sutton Coldfield in Birmingham have already set up their own local Councils, read here for more information about what people in those two areas did to improve their areas.

It would make local decisions locally so that the decision makers know exactly where and what needed to be fixed but Tower Hamlets Council remains as the body to deal with issues common across Tower Hamlets. That way we mix the best of local power while retaining the main Council at a Tower Hamlets level to make the big decisions. The Mayor can stay focussed on the big issues that affect the whole of Tower Hamlets.

Across the country it is very common to have three layers of local government but this has not been possible in London from the 1960's to 2007. London has had two levels of government and sometimes only one. But since 2007 London has once again had the ability to have a third lower level of local government, these are often called Town or Community Councils or Parishes historically.

A new lower level of local government can deliver:

Local decisions made locally in the area by local people (but does not replace Tower Hamlets Council nor the Mayor of Tower Hamlets)
25% of Community Infrastructure Levy money paid directly to the local Council so that money can be spent locally (this is already happening under Tower Hamlets Council, the difference is who makes the final decision on where to spend that money, Council officers or locally elected Councillors?)
More money spent locally through money raised locally (it would increase the average Council tax bill by around £47 a year, see below for how much) and by seeking grants from central government and others
Can take over some Council services directly like street cleaning after it is set up
A greater say over the local area
Unique solutions for a unique area

The E14 area is undergoing enormous change and it is entirely possible that one day that the E14 has a population bigger then many UK cities or bigger then the whole of Tower Hamlets was in 2010. That requires new ways of thinking about how you govern such a dense area, and it maybe that a new way of governing is required.

This website is the start of a conversation about one of the options for doing that, a local Council for the area. For the sake of simplicity we wil call it a local Council (although it is often called a Town or Community or Parish Council, they are all the same thing)
This website will help decide several things;

Whether or not to launch a publicity campaign?;
Whether or not to collect signatures on a petition?;
The area that it should cover?;
What its name could be?

Please fill in this survey to help us decide on the next steps www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/localcouncil1

What is a local Council?

They are the first and lowest tier of local government and are statutory bodies.
That means they can raise money, employ staff, run services, write by-laws, issue fines, work with other bodies.
Across the UK most areas have three layers of local government, for example Essex County Council, Tendring District Council and then Brightlingsea Town Council. They work together but have different responsibilities and levels of power and resource.
It would not replace Tower Hamlets Council but would be junior to it, covering a smaller area, with fewer responsibilities, both would work together through a memorandum of understanding.
The terms Town or Community or Parish or City or Neighbourhood Council mean the same thing legally, they are called local Councils for convenience, they all have the same legal standing but Parish's are the traditional term and most local councils use that term especially in rural areas.
Parish Councils have nothing to do with churches anymore.
But for simplicity we will use the term local Council from now on, what to call it is a decision we are consulting on.
They are the lowest level of local government in England, so for example our structure of government could look like this:
1. Prime Minister of Great Britain and Parliament at the top;
2. Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority next down;
3. Mayor of Tower Hamlets and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets aka Tower Hamlets Council next down;
4. A new lower level local Council at the bottom.

What is it not?

- Does it completely replace Tower Hamlets Council?
   No, the Council would continue to do every thing it does today, this does not change its responsibitlies unless:
a. It decides with the new local Council to change how things are run
   b. The new local Council bids to run services prevously run by the Council, street cleaning is a typical example
- Is it associated with the Church?
   No, historically Parish Councils were similar to church Parishes but they are now completely separate
- It will take money from poor people
   No, because it raises its own new money and because Tower Hamlets Council has already committed to spending 25% of CIL in the local area, the area has a lot of people who need help,

what will it cost?

The main source of funding would be from a precept, an additional Council tax added to your normal Council bill.

As an example Queens Park Community Council Band A Council Tax precept is £31.54 a year, Band D is £47.31 a year, Band F £68.34 a year
In England the average local Council precept is £69.99 a year for a band D property (backup here), but the two local Councils we use as examples charge around £47 to 50 a year for a Band D. The Tower Hamlets Council band D Council tax charge in 2020/21 was £1,392.42. So £50 a year would be a 3.6% increase.
But we would consult later on what the responsibilities of the Council might be and try and work out what the precept might be under different options.
Would there be discounts? Probably yes, the current Tower Hamlets Council Tax Reduction scheme could continue to apply for those on low incomes.

How do decide whether to have a Town Council or not?

Through a referendum of people living in the area as happened at Queens Park & Sutton Coldfield, see here.
Residents registered to vote in local elections would be asked whether or not to set up a Town Council. If they vote yes, it happens, if they vote no, it does not.
But before that Tower Hamlets Council has to undertake a Community Governance Review on whether to set one up or not, legally the decison whether to do it or not lies with Tower Hamlets Councilllors in a Council meeting but other Councils have chosen to leave the final decision to residents at the ballot box. Tower Hamlets should trust its voters and give them that power.
The 1st stage is to request a Community Governance Review, this can be done one of two ways:

Through an approved Neighbourhood Planning Forum with an approved Neighbourhood Plan - we won't be pursuing this path
By collecting 7.5% of the signatures of registered voters - whether or not to collect those signatures depends on the feedback to this phase 1 consultation

Why can we do this?

There are two Acts of Parliament that give residents the power to do this:

Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 finally allowed for new local councils to be created in London
Localism Act 2011 gave new Town Councils more power

What area does it cover?

To be decided as part of the consultation but the initial conversation starting point is that it would cover the area south of Aspen Way - the three wards of Island Gardens, Canary Wharf and Blackwall & Cubitt Town. But it could be larger or smaller - we will do more survey work on this later.
Limehouse and Poplar have their own Neighbourhood Planning Forums and could decide to have their own Town Councils

But it would only be in Tower Hamlets.

Town Councils can be very small with a few hundred residents or very large, there is no ideal size.

See What area should it cover? for more detail

Who runs a Town Council?

You do by electing Town Councillors who would be elected locally
They would have to live or work in the Area to be able to stand for election.
Would they be paid? Usually no, although that is a decision to be made as there is a strong argument for paying them some expenses but not Councillor allowances.

Has this not been tried before?

Yes, on the 1st March 1970 residents of the Isle of Dogs led by Cllr Ted Johns declared a Unilateral Declaration of Independence
It was not an entirely serious proposal but was designed to raise awareness of issues, some of which remain issues fifty years later.
Queens Park in west London and Sutton Coldfield in Birmingham are the two most relevant and recent examples.
Spitalfields in Tower Hamlets also tried to do this but were rejected, this consultation is based on experiences learnt from what went wrong there.

What do we call it?

To be decided but it is one of the questions in the survey.
Its name will depend in part on the area it covers.
It can legally be a Town, Community or Parish Council but that does not stop you from having a branding name that is different for example the London Borugh of Tower Hamlets is usually called Tower Hamlets Council. So it could be called the Island Free State for example.

What are the steps to making this happen?

Tell your neighbours and friends about this idea and the website
Fill in this simple survey here www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/localcouncil1 so we start to get an idea of whether this idea has support or not
If you want to help or be kept up to date with progress supply your email address on the survey
If we do take this to the next level we will need to collect over 3,000 signatures on a petition to start the Community Governance Review, at this stage we need to conform you want to do this, what the area should be and its name.