The climbdown by mayor Forhad Hussain comes after the opposition Newham Independents and Greens challenged plans to only let Labour councillors lead the new forums, reports Nick Clark, Local Democracy Reporter

Mayor Forhad Hussain (left) has made a concession to opposition leaders (right)

Opposition councillors will be allowed to lead new ‘community neighbourhoods’ thanks to a concession by Newham Council’s Labour mayor – following a backlash.

The announcement marks a climbdown by mayor Forhad Hussain in the dispute over democratic representation that has tied up his attempts to change how the council works.

Speaking at a council leaders’ meeting yesterday (Thursday 21st), Hussain said: “I want to show collaboration.”

He added that opposition councillors chosen to lead the neighbourhoods would be expected to “put politics aside and put residents first”.

Labour-led Newham Council wants to establish eight neighbourhood forums to feed into Hussain’s decision-making process.

Council leaders say these will bring together ward councillors and community representatives to draw up plans for each of their areas.

However, all eight were previously set to be led by Labour councillors – even in areas mostly represented by councillors from the Newham Independents or Greens. Opposition councillors objected to this, fearing they would be side-lined.

Speaking to Labour council leaders yesterday, Newham Independents councillor Sophia Naqvi said: “We’re concerned that this model does not properly represent the composition of the council.”

Cllr Naqvi pointed out that after the local election in May, no party has an overall majority of councillors – leaving the council in “no overall control”.

Rob Whiteman – an independent expert who the council appointed to oversee improvement at the town hall – also called on Hussain to change course.

In a report presented to leading councillors this week, he warned: “As the council is in no overall control you may wish to better ensure the new model lands with all political groups.”

He added that the row posed a risk to “the political relationships within the council” which “would ideally have been avoided if greater consultation and greater self challenge had taken place”.

Councillors on the overview and scrutiny committee – which examines the council’s work – ‘called in’ the mayor’s decision to set up the community neighbourhoods.

This meant the town hall couldn’t press ahead with Hussain’s plan until he had responded to the committee’s recommendation that councillors be allowed to elect neighbourhood lead members themselves.

At a hastily-arranged meeting of his leading Labour councillors yesterday, Hussain said he was “happy to partially accept that recommendation”.

He said he would appoint opposition councillors to lead some of the neighbourhoods himself, provided they agreed to co-operate with him.

Hussain said: “We’re expecting the lead members to work with the cabinet and the executive. Put politics aside and put residents first.”

The Newham mayor said he made the decision after “reflecting on this quite a bit” following the “huge debate”. However, he also said that six months after launching the community neighbourhoods he “was going to do that anyway”.

Yesterday’s meeting was the first time any of the council’s leaders had said publicly that opposition councillors could lead community neighbourhoods.

Cllr Naqvi told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) Hussain had informally told the Newham Independents group this might be a possibility after six months.

However, she added: “You need to have your foundations right in the first place.”

Green group leader Arshan Baskaran told the LDRS that Hussain had informally offered him a lead member role.

Cllr Baskaran said he rejected this, however, arguing that ward members should be allowed to elect their own lead members.

Hussain also accepted the committee’s other recommendations.

These included making arrangements for “meaningful resident participation”, which may include public meetings to discuss “neighbourhood priorities or significant local issues”.

However, these will only be held “where appropriate” and the majority of community neighbourhood meetings will take place behind closed doors.

Hussain declined to answer further questions from the LDRS after the meeting.

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