Watch: Route chosen for major new road stretching across Cork’s northside
No homes will need to be demolished – with tenders expected by 2031A graphic giving a preview of…
#NewsBeep #News #Headlines #CorkCity #cork-city-council #IE #Ireland #LocalDemocracyReporting #Transport
https://www.newsbeep.com/289805/
A disabled elderly tenant was left in a flat needing repairs “for years” by Westminster City Council. The local authority has agreed to pay more than £21,000 in compensation as a result of their “significant failures”.
It said it was “deeply sorry” for the distress it had caused the tenant and felt the large payout reflected the gravity of its failures. Councillors voted unanimously on Wednesday 5 June to approve the payment.
A council spokesperson said: “Providing safe and secure housing for our residents is a key priority for the council and we accept that we have not met our own high standards.
“We are working with the resident and their family to resolve as quickly as possible and have offered alternative housing. The council has taken on board the lessons from this case as part of our wider work to and will work to ensure residents are given the best possible service in the future.
“We are making changes as part of our Housing Improvement Strategy, which includes routine reviews and a more joined-up approach to address complex cases.”
The council will now ask residents to share their health and support needs when they report repairs in order to respond to individual needs and is reviewing its complaints process. It has also rolled out customer service and safeguarding training across its housing services.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service also understands the head of housing has offered to meet residents to discuss their concerns. It has also made two offers of suitable housing and will continue to support the residents.
An internal review found there had been significant failures on the council’s part to deal with requests for repairs by the tenant. As a result, it will hand back £16,000 in rent paid since May 2020 and pay out £5,000 for distress and delays, which is blamed on staff moving on and a failure to log requests, according to a council report for the General Purposes Committee.
Westminster City was made aware of repair issues at the flat in May 2020 when the tenant, who is a wheelchair user and has multiple illnesses, asked for adaptations to be made before they returned from hospital. The council installed a level access shower and new central heating.
In July 2022, the council was contacted by the tenant’s local MP who complained about many years of disrepair at the property and how it was affecting the elderly and ill tenants. The complaint was dismissed by the council which said it had not received a request for repairs in 12 months.
The local authority also said officers had made attempts to visit the flat but were unsuccessful because the tenants, who have not been identified, needed their daughter there to help them. The complaint was escalated in September 2022 but it took the council six months to log it and another six weeks to respond.
It then took the council a further seven months to deal with the resident’s refusal of a compensation offer and a further four-week delay in addressing their request for a review. A review of the case was only triggered after the resident wrote in requesting £110,000 in compensation for the distress the delays had caused.
The review found the council did not address issues raised in the original complaint nor recognise the vulnerability of the tenant. It also found the council’s response contained ‘inaccuracies’ about ad-hoc visits being arranged and a failure of repairmen to log issues and pass them on.
The report said: “This review has found significant service failures in both dealing with the repairs and responding to the complaint, as well as missed opportunities to discuss a move to more suitable housing with the tenant.”
The tenant has since been moved into care while the joint tenant is receiving help finding permanent housing.
The council sought the permission of the General Purposes Committee to pay the tenant £21,407 in compensation. According to the council, compensation payments over £2,000 need to come before the General Purposes committee to meet its own financial regulations.
Westminster City Council: General Purposes – Wednesday 5 June 2024.
The BBC has been given the go-ahead to run a club for employees in New Broadcasting House at Portland Place after mistakenly applying for a 24-hour alcohol licence.
Employees and their guests will be able to order drinks and listen to live music broadly within “core hours” under the revised application approved by Westminster City councillors on 5 June.
New Broadcasting House is on the edge of Marylebone, bordering Fitzrovia where there are large number of people living near the building along Great Portland Street and Langham Street.
In the decision, the sale of alcohol will be restricted to 10am to 11.30pm from Monday to Thursday, 10am to midnight on Friday and Saturday, and from 12 noon to 10.30pm on Sunday; with a number of conditions attached to the licence.
The council’s licensing committee heard how the venue, previously located in Wogan House, will sit above the BBC’s newsroom in New Broadcasting House and won’t be accessible to the general public.
Lawyers representing BBC Club Sports and Leisure Ltd — one of two BBC divisions operating at the Portland Place site — said an application for a 24-hour licence had mistakenly been filed by an employee who they said worked on it alone.
According to a council report, the wrong type of application had also been submitted. The Met Police and Westminster City Council officers had originally opposed the 24-hour licence but withdrew their concerns after the application was revised reducing operations to core hours, council documents show.
Objectors at Wednesday’s meeting welcomed the changes to the application but said they were still concerned about the level of noise the venue might create. They accused the BBC Club Sports and Leisure of being “far from an ideal neighbour” .
One objector said: “[It’s] a shame because it is a significant presence in the [area] and there are benefits, but not for residents. The BBC, as an institution, isn’t following the complaints that they get.”
BBC Club Sports and Leisure said it operated the old venue without serious complaint. It also said live music at the venue would be “extremely limited” and drowned out within the building.
The revised application also states no sale or consumption of alcohol will take place outside the venue. The new licence will take effect as soon as a previous licence for Wogan House is surrendered.
A Westminster City Council report shows BBC Club Sports and Leisure applied for a new premises licence to give local authorities “clarity” over who would be managing the employee-dedicated social club. BBC Club Sports and Leisure operates under different management to the BBC.
The BBC has had a licence in place for New Broadcasting House since 2005 which will now become a de facto shadow licence. BBC Club was founded in 1924 as a private members club but is now an employee membership club consisting of an event space, a gym, food and drink services which is open to employees and their partners, according to its website.
Westminster City Council: Licensing Sub-Committee (1) – Wednesday 5 June 2024.
Decision: Broadcasting House, 2-22 Portland Place, London W1B 1DJ – 24/01030/LIPN.
Additional reporting by Linus Rees.
#LanghamStreet #licensing #localDemocracyReporting #WestminsterCityCouncil
Self-defence classes are to be trialled in Camden’s schools in an attempt to deter violence against women and girls, and to increase the participation of girls in physical activity.
The pilot forms part of the council’s wider aim to improve the health of children and young people, as well as address violence against women and girls in both the “public and private realm”.
The Town Hall said the goal is to “boost general confidence that will enable young people to navigate spaces confidently”.
It hopes the project will “help deter perpetrators from attempting any form of violence or abuse”.
Self-defence classes will be taught to girls and boys in both single sex and mixed schools.
All schools are required to follow the national curriculum for physical education, but this does not currently include self-defence lessons.
Providing self-defence classes is at the discretion of individual schools.
The council said it is “keen to fill the gap where central government has decided self-defence should not be part of the national curriculum”.
At a cabinet meeting this week, councillors agreed to explore the feasibility of the initiative, as well as funding options.
The proposal was introduced by Cllr Nasrine Djemai, who was appointed as cabinet adviser on reducing violence and abuse for women and girls in the 2023/24 municipal year.
Her other suggestions, included in her report “Reducing violence and abuse for women and girls”, have included public education campaigns on the different forms of harassment and creating a council switchboard number for domestic abuse.
Councillors also agreed to explore these options further.
Camden Council: Cabinet – Wednesday, 5 June 2024.
#CamdenCouncil #education #localDemocracyReporting #physicalEducation #schools #violenceAgainstWomenAndGirls
A lack of suitable accommodation and follow-ups for discharged mental health patients has raised concern among councillors across the North Central London NHS area.
North Central London joint health overview and scrutiny committee chair Pippa Connor acknowledged there was a huge amount of “incredible positive and excellent” updates from Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust (BEH) and Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust (C&I), but due to the nature of scrutiny meetings had to focus on concerns.
During the meeting on Thursday 30 May she asked about any improvement in the provision of support for people with severe mental health issues after being discharged.
Cllr Connor referenced a previous target that the NHS leads had made long-term, to use a joined-up approach with local authorities, particularly around housing, to support patient discharges.
Chief medical officer for BEH and C&I Vincent Kirchner said the short answer was “no”.
He said: “We are in communication with our local authority colleagues, but no there’s been no real movement in a significant way.
“What I would say is the problem is escalating, we have more and more people on our wards who are clinically ready for a discharge, waiting for a discharge and don’t have somewhere to go to.
“As a system we do need to work on it, I’m not sure we would be able to divert NHS funding to housing, that would be a difficult conversation.”
Andrew Wright, chief of staff at BEH, said there was a significant amount of “energy of effort” from borough’s divisional management team, working closely with local authority colleagues, but the fundamental problem was there just wasn’t the “suitable accommodation available” and everybody was “competing for it”.
Committee member Cllr Larraine Revah asked about follow-ups for recently discharged patients, especially council tenants. She said her borough, Camden, had a “high level” of mental health issues and she found it “extremely difficult” to help people “quickly enough”.
She said it wasn’t always easy knowing who to contact due to “protocol” and asked whether the bosses worked with safer housing departments to ensure follow-ups happened and complaints from neighbours reduced.
Kirchner said creating neighbourhood teams that worked in an integrated way, with primary care, local authority, voluntary sector, and NHS professionals was the “vehicle” they wanted to create.
He acknowledged there was still a “way to go” and this reliance on community teams over GPs or crisis lines was “very much” still in development.
Some positive news the BEH leads announced was the confirmation of the name of the new partnership between BEH and C&I, The North London Mental Health Partnership, which Amanda Pithouse, chief nursing officer at BEH and C&I, confirmed was “on course” to be begin on 1 October.
She also confirmed the 78-bed mental health inpatient facility in Islington, Highgate East, opened in April.
A new mental health crisis assessment service, a 24/7 emergency service to “avoid people going to accident and emergency and presenting there” had also recently opened at Highgate West.
Along with this, a new state-of-the-art integrated community centre had opened at 1 Lowther Road in Islington.
#health #housing #localDemocracyReporting #LondonBoroughOfBarnet #LondonBoroughOfCamden #LondonBoroughOfHaringey #LondonBoroughOfIslington #mentalHealth #NorthCentralLondonNHS
Diane Abbott could still be Labour’s general election candidate in Hackney North, Sadiq Khan has suggested while praising her record as an MP and claiming that questions about her being barred from standing in the election are “hypothetical”.
It came as Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said “no decision has been taken” to ban her from standing, leaving open the possibility that she could still be their candidate on 4 July.
Asked about the matter on Wednesday, Khan said he could not be sure what to believe from the media’s reporting of the issue — and he had not spoken to Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) to get a definitive version of events.
Abbott had told the Evening Standard on Wednesday morning that reports of her being banned from re-standing were “true”.
In a statement to broadcasters — reported in the Guardian — she was even more categorical, saying: “Although the whip has been restored, I am banned for standing as a Labour candidate.”
Starmer told the BBC later on Wednesday that this was “not true”, saying: “The process that we were going through ended with the restoration of the whip the other day, so she’s a member of the PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party] and no decision has been taken barring her”.
Khan also suggested the matter may not yet have been settled, though he did not claim to have any special insight into the case.
“All I know about Diane’s case is what I’ve seen in the media,” he said. “In the media, it says that Diane’s been restored the whip, but also it says in the media that the NEC hasn’t decided yet what happens in relation to Diane.”
Labour withdrew the whip in April 2023 from the veteran MP after she wrote in the Observer newspaper that Jewish, Irish and Traveller people experienced prejudice, but not racism all their lives. She apologised and withdrew the remarks shortly afterwards.
BBC Newsnight reported that Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) had written to Abbott in December 2023 to say it had concluded an inquiry into her comments and given her a formal warning over them.
According to Newsnight, the MP was required to complete an “antisemitism awareness course”, which she did in February. It was then revealed that the whip was restored to her on Tuesday.
Asked whether it would be fair for her now to be banned from standing, given that she is said to have done what was asked of her by Labour, the mayor said: “We’re talking about hypotheticals. I’m not going to comment on hypotheticals.”
Asked about Abbott’s claim to journalists that she has been barred, Khan said: “I’ve not spoken to the NEC about the position. But the NEC, and the media, are saying no position has been taken.
“So you can cherrypick quotes from the media, but you’re reinforcing my point about [how] all I know is what I’ve seen in the media.”
He also told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “What I know, as someone who’s known Diane well since 2005, is she’s a trailblazer. I remember as a 16-year-old boy seeing her elected in 1987, with Bernie Grant, Paul Boateng and Keith Vaz. It made a huge impact on me.
“I must be one of millions of people on whom she made a huge impact — in a positive sense of the word.”
He added: “She’s been a mentor to many of us, but also she’s stood up on issues that aren’t very popular – the issues around racial justice, social justice, highlighting some of the discrimination when it comes to stop and search, when it comes to the exclusion of black boys from school, when it comes to the NHS.
“So I think she’s somebody who’s done a huge amount for Hackney, for London, for our country, and so I think it’s really important that she’s given the respect she deserves.”
Abbott told supporters outside Hackney Town Hall on Wednesday evening that the national party was insisting that she be banned from running from parliament again.
The MP said she intends to stay in the seat she has held for 37 years for “as long as possible”, reported the Hackney Citizen.
#DianeAbbott #generalElection2024 #KeirStarmer #LabourParty #localDemocracyReporting #politics #SadiqKhan
A busy Soho street that “smells like piss in the summer” because so many people urinate on the streets could lose another public toilet.
Lift Coffee has submitted a planning application to turn the underground loos on Broadwick Street in Soho, which have been shut since 2021 after becoming a popular hangout for public sex, into a café and events space.
The operator secured a 25-year lease two years’ ago and could pour as much as £2mn into replacing the basement toilets with a coffee-themed workspace and a takeaway kiosk at ground level, according to council documents. But businesses at nearby Berwick Street Market said Soho can’t afford to lose another public toilet.
A map provided by Westminster City Council shows there are public toilets available at ground level in Broadwick Street operating 24 hours a day and a number of facilities nearby. There are also temporarily toilets between Thursday and Monday.
But Mohammed Mtour, 36, said the stench of urine on Berwick Street haunts him most mornings that he opens his fast-food stand. He believes drunken late-night revellers are to blame and says they use an alley behind his stall to relieve themselves. He also claims people urinate “every 30 minutes” on nearby Peter Street.
He said: “It’s terrible and it’s clearly a problem. When I come here in the morning, it’s disgusting.” He’s worried the stench is starting to affect his business.
Mohammed said: “If you’re a customer and standing there and smell bad smells, you think it’s coming from the business. But we have to keep our space clean. Customers don’t think it’s coming from behind them.”
Mohamed, 24, from Jerusalem Falafel, said he finds urine and faeces in the same spot every day while Jim from Quality Fruits, a small fruit stand at the end of Berwick Markets, said the problem is worse on weekends. Westminster City Council said Berwick Street is washed down daily by its street cleaners.
James Hughes, 47, who lives with his family at Trenchard House on Broadwick Street, says it’s mostly drunk people doing the urinating. He said: “When people have to go, they just go anywhere.” His daughter Mia said she can hear people peeing from her first floor bedroom.
According to data from a Soho neighbourhood forum research project, to be published later this year, 64 percent of weekly visitors to the area have witnessed public urination or defecation. It’s no surprise then that London ranks 24th in the world for the number of public toilets per square kilometre, according to a global study.
Analysis shows the UK capital had 0.39 public toilets per square kilometre in 2023 — slightly fewer than Jerusalem. Paris, which topped the rank, had 6.72 per square kilometre.
It’s this lack of a vital public service which is turning Berwick Street into an “open sewer”, according to Robin Smith, 63, who runs Soho Dairy — a coffee and cheese market stall. He blames the night economy, which he said is bringing people into Soho at the wrong time.
Robin said these drunken revellers are choosing between paying to use the loo at a pub or restaurant or doing it al fresco — something he said is unlikely to occur in the morning because people aren’t drinking and have access to toilets in their workplace. But Robin and his co-founder Keith Bickel, 65, say people aren’t to blame.
They said public toilets have been disappearing from Soho for a while. Robin said: “We aren’t against [the night time economy]. People are having a good time but there should be toilets.”
He said the problem became unbearable when al-fresco dining was introduced, which he said turned Berwick Street, where the markets are based, into an open-air toilet. Robin said: “What you’ve got is people rushing out after a drink and that’s a problem. People have moved out because people were pissing through their letter boxes.”
The business owner is at the end of his tether. He said: “Cleaning someone’s piss and shit every morning is time-consuming and unpleasant.” Keith said the stench of urine has come to symbolise the area. He said: “Come walking into Soho with your eyes closed and you immediately know where you are because of the smell.”
He said the lack of public toilets was a disgrace and said people constantly ask him where the nearest public toilets are. Keith said: “For a global city like London, it’s shocking how few toilets there are.”
The men agree addressing London’s public toilet problem will take long-term planning. They acknowledged public toilets have become popular spots for drug taking and sex but feel shutting them down isn’t the right idea.
Instead, they want to see a number of store fronts turned into “community shops” offering local amenities, including public toilets. He said: “We need toilets, we don’t need more cafés. There are cafés up and down the street.”
Tim Lord, chair of the Soho Society, agrees more public toilets are needed in Soho. He said the partying hotspot has the highest concentration of licensed premises in London, a figure he said has grown every year since he moved to the area three decades ago. He said Soho has significantly fewer public toilets than it did in 1990.
He said: “The council accepts that public urination is a health hazard and spends £15,000 every weekend on ugly temporary toilets. In 2022 the council decided to close the underground public toilets in Broadwick Street and to make them unavailable for public use for the next 25 years by granting a lease to a coffee shop chain. No one at the council can explain why.”
He said Broadwick Street smells of urine in the summer. Westminster City’s Paul Dimoldenberg, cabinet manager for city management, said street urination was completely unacceptable and that residents and businesses should not have to put up with it.
He said: “Making sure Westminster’s streets are clean and safe at all times is the council’s top priority. Our City Inspectors and street cleaning teams run a 24/7 service to deal with problems like street urination and defecation as quickly as possible.
“The council is spending £6 million this year on upgrading our public toilets in the West End. Currently, we have 12 public toilet facilities across Soho, Mayfair, and Covent Garden, and we provide an additional 25 temporary toilets in the West End at weekends and during special events.”
Dimoldenberg said the temporary toilets cost £6,125 not £15,000 as claimed.
Lift Coffee has been contacted for comment. Broadwick toilets were closed after they became a public sex hotspot at the height of lockdown when social distancing was strictly enforced. In 2022, Westminster City Council put the underground toilets on the market.
The Soho Society has been calling for more public toilets in the area for the past 15 years and in 2022, Westminster City Council spent £950,000 cleaning up after peeing party-goers. Special anti-pee paint has now been put all around Soho which will splash back anyone who sprays on it. The “Don’t Pee Off Soho” campaign is set to clear up the streets of the famous area after residents complained.
https://fitzrovianews.com/2024/05/23/cafe-plan-could-mean-the-end-for-public-toilet-site-in-soho/
#localDemocracyReporting #planningApplications #toilets #WestminsterCityCouncil
A Tesco supermarket in Dean Street, Soho, will be demolished and replaced with an office block and a store almost half the size under plans approved by Westminster City Council, despite the store being registered as an asset of community value.
Councillors said developers HECF Soho Limited had made “dramatic improvements” to the Dean Street and Soho Square scheme after refusing a similar design last year and voted unanimously to approve it during a planning meeting on Tuesday 14 May.
Changes include carving out dedicated space for a supermarket to operate on ground level, lowering the height of the six-storey office block and keeping some of the original colour scheme.
Committee chair Ruth Bush said “on balance” the flow of jobs being offered by the developer and dedicated space for a low-cost supermarket would benefit the community. Cllr Paul Fisher went further suggesting it would be unreasonable to reject the application because it involved demolishing a 1930s art deco façade at 7 Soho Square.
He said: “I cannot conceivably say that the demolition of that façade is to be stopped and in doing so, stop the development of Grade A office space, stop the protection of this use of an asset as a community value as a supermarket, prevent all the other public benefits we’ve heard, the sustainability benefits, and I think if I do reject this application, it would succeed before a planning inspectorate. We are not the last stop for the applicant if they want to challenge this.”
Councillors also agreed with Hines UK’s development director, Robbie Pitman, who was supporting the applicant, that the current Tesco store on 2-4 Dean Street was “over-spaced” and said the new but downsized supermarket space would be enough to meet community needs. Cllrs also heard how Sainsbury’s and Tesco’s had already expressed an interest in the new space.
Pitman said: “Our proposal to condition the use of the unit to a food supermarket only will secure a supermarket at the site with greater long term certainty than the current [strategy]”.
The store was formally recognised as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) by Westminster Council following a nomination from the Soho Society in December. The designation of the supermarket as an ACV means if the property it occupies goes up for sale, the community will be offered the chance to purchase it first. The listing can also be considered a material consideration in the determination of a planning application affecting the property. It will remain an ACV for five years.
Cllr Patrick Lilley, lead member for Soho, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service on Wednesday he was “thrilled” with the result. He said: “Residents as well as visitors and workers in Soho will still be serviced by an affordable supermarket for years to come. This was central to my own objection and I’m pleased it was addressed by all those concerned.”
The Soho Society had objected to the application saying the development should include a supermarket of the same size as the existing one. It also objected to the demolition of the art deco building at 7 Soho Square.
In October, Westminster City councillors refused HECF Soho Limited’s proposals citing issues with the height and bulk of the development, which included a double-height bazaar and a terraced roof. The height of the current development has been reduced by half a metre and the terraced roof replaced with greenery. The bazaar has also been removed in favour of supermarket space following an outcry from residents. The revised scheme includes 413m2 of store space, down from the current 766m2, council document’s show.
#DeanStreet #localDemocracyReporting #Soho #Tesco #WestminsterCityCouncil
Westminster Council has given permission for a gaming bar on Oxford Street to stay open until 2am, despite being warned it could result in more crime, disorder and public nuisance on the busy shopping street.
BBB Thirteen Ltd applied in December 2023 to vary the premises licence for its Boom Battle Bar at 70-88 Oxford Street to stay open an extra two hours on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. It will continue to close at 11.30pm on other nights and 10.30pm on Sundays.
Representations were received from the Licensing Authority and the Environmental Health Service on the basis that the premises is located within the West End Cumulative Impact Zone, where there already a large number of licensed premises.
A council report submitted to a licensing sub-committee of 14 March stated: “In its current form the applicant has not provided any additional measures or conditions to demonstrate that the granting of this application will not add to cumulative impact and on that basis the Licensing Authority [makes a] formal representation [against the application].”
The council’s environmental health team also opposed the proposal, saying: “The granting of the variation as presented would have the likely effect of causing an increase in public nuisance in the cumulative impact zone.”
BBB Thirteen Ltd provided the council with a dispersal policy that would see patrons given a 30 minute notice before closing time.
The plan included having staff advising customers where to leave, hiring qualified security guards, enforcing a “drinking up time” policy 30 minutes before close and keeping windows and entrance doors shut to keep the noise down.
The owner wrote: “It is our legal obligation to ensure that we prevent crime and disorder and public nuisance on our premises, as people are leaving our premises and make their way along Oxford Street.
“As a business we value our reputation, want to have good relationships with our neighbours, care for our clients, want to work in partnership with the statutory authorities and are committed to trading within the law while maintaining the highest possible ethical standards in all our business activities.”
According to its website, Boom Battle Bar offers shuffleboard, pool and augmented reality darts and axe-throwing as well as karaoke booths. They have bars across Britain and one in the United Arab Emirates.
A Westminster Council licensing sub-committee of Councillor Aziz Toki (Chair), Councillor Iman Less and Councillor Caroline Sargent considered the application during the licensing meeting.
After hearing representations from the applicant, the sub-committee agree to extend the hours for licensable activities, including the sale of alcohol for consumption on and off the premises from 10am to 2am the following morning on Thursday to Saturday
A number of conditions were added to the licence or modified to make the application acceptable.
These included:
“The provision of licensable activities shall be ancillary to the main function of the premises as a Competitive Socialising Venue”;
“Within three months of starting work at the premises, all front of house staff at the premises shall receive Welfare and Vulnerability Engagement (WAVE) training or similar by a qualified trainer, and once every 12 months thereafter. The date the training was provided and signed confirmation from the member of staff shall be recorded and made available for inspection by the Responsible Authorities upon request”;
“After 18:00 on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, the premises shall deploy a minimum of 3 SIA door supervisors regardless of customer attendance numbers”;
And, “There shall be no new entry to the premises by customers after 11.30pm on Thursdays and after midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.”
Westminster City Council: Licensing Sub-Committee (1) – Thursday 14 March 2024.
Additional reporting by Linus Rees.
#licensing #localDemocracyReporting #OxfordStreet #WestminsterCityCouncil
Westminster City Council has pushed through plans to increase council tax by the maximum allowed over the next 12 months, as it battles pressures including rocketing temporary accommodation costs.
The Conservative opposition described the budget as “disappointing” and “disrespectful”, with its own amendment proposing freezing the core tax voted down.
Opening the debate on the 2024/25 budget, council leader Adam Hug said since taking power in 2022, the administration has shown it is able “to take both tough decisions today while investing for the longer term gains of our communities”.
“This is a budget for a Fairer Westminster,” he said.
Cllr Paul Swaddle, leader of the opposition, said following the meeting the Conservative group has “real concerns” about the costs of Labour’s “pet projects”, and initiatives such as increased car parking charges.
“The Westminster Conservative Group would have frozen council tax by pulling back unnecessary spending,” he said.
“This year will see Wandsworth supersede Westminster as having the lowest Council tax in the UK, which is a worrying sign of things to come.”
Including the Greater London Authority (GLA) precept, set by the Mayor of London and due to rise by 8.6 percent this year, the average Westminster resident will be paying £973.16 for 2024/25 after the 2.99 percent increase to council tax and two percent adult social care precept. While more than the £961 set by Wandsworth, this remains far below London authorities such as Croydon and Bexley, which are among those in which the rate is above £2,000.
Westminster was able to put a balanced budget before Full Council on 6 March, though is warning of a projected £48mn gap over the next two years.
To balance the books for the year ahead, the council says it has found £20.2mn in savings, which are a combination of cuts and additional income. Among these are a hike to fees and charges, estimated to bring in £1.8mn, and increased parking costs, to the tune of an additional £2.9mn.
The council has accused the Government’s funding for local authorities of being insufficient, given the £350mn in savings it has had to make since 2010 and growing pressures on areas such as adult social care and housing.
Westminster has a particularly acute challenge regarding temporary accommodation. Increases in the numbers of people requesting support has resulted in an additional £38mn needing to be found for 2024/25, with the council recently investing £85mn more to enable it to purchase new properties at pace.
At the Full Council meeting, Cllr David Boothroyd, cabinet member for finance and council reform, said: “We have been hit by a wholly unprecedented demand for temporary accommodation. The council has a legal duty to provide it, and that is now forecast at an additional £38mn in 2024/25. In 22 years on this council, I have never known a sudden demand of extra spending of that scale.
“To put it in terms that will be understood across the chamber — it’s six whole mounds every year.”
Cllr Swaddle, who was voted in as the local Tory leader in January, began his speech noting he had seen an “excellent budget” that day, before clarifying: “It’s not the budget of this council tonight, it was the one delivered by the Chancellor. That was a budget that understands what this country needs.”
Cllr Swaddle continued to describe the administration and its proposals as “disrespectful”, having published plans such as new CCTV cameras without taking them to the chamber first, and announcing consultations on Facebook without details provided to councillors.
As well as the administration’s plans to increase council tax by 2.99 percent, Cllr Swaddle queried items such as the £450,000 earmarked to tackle the ecological emergency, saying it is “not the right time to be committing such large sums to this project”.
The administration’s record of keeping the city’s streets clean was raised by several opposition members throughout the evening, especially in light of its plans to cut the number of cleaners over summer and winter, projected to save £280,000.
Cllr Tim Mitchell in particular pushed back on the saving, telling the chamber: “These proposals are putting Westminster’s street cleaning gold standard at risk.”
Labour deputy leader and cabinet member for adult social care, public health and voluntary sector, Nafsika Butler-Thalassis, drew the loudest response from the Tory benches when she commented not on the budget, but the proposed increase to members allowances of 3.88 percent. She accused the previous administration of intentionally keeping the rates low “to discourage people from modest backgrounds”, drawing vocal protests from opposition members.
Alongside the savings, the council has planned a host of additional investments over the financial year. These include £1mn for a new mobile CCTV network, a further £1mn to the Cost of Living Support Fund, and £1.2mn to increase the hourly rate for workers in the social care sector, up £1.50 an hour. The Four Year Capital Programme also includes longer-term funding for schemes such as the Church Street Masterplan and the Oxford Street Programme.
Following the meeting, Cllr Hug said: “Over the last eighteen months we have focused on creating a city which is fair for everyone. Westminster remains a city of two halves, as the home of the nation’s most affluent areas, and some of the most deprived.
“This year, we will narrow in on addressing the climate emergency and providing direct support to residents facing hardship. Now more than ever as we continue to face high costs, we are determined to reduce inequalities in Westminster.”
The Conservative amendment was voted down along party lines, before proposals on items including the Labour-proposed budget, Housing Revenue Account and members allowances were agreed.
Westminster City Council: Full Council, Wednesday 6 March 2024.
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