Mizan Chaudhury is the ‘speaker’ of Tower Hamlets council, who takes on the ceremonial functions a directly elected Mayor is, frankly, too busy to do. Said Mayor, independent Lutfur Rahman, in a bid to cut excessive costs cancelled Mizan’s official car. Rahman was, perhaps not unreasonably, more concerned to retain public services that the public use than spend our money on perks and ceremonial functions.
The speaker (left) in happier times with fellow Labour Party members
Speaker Chaudhury saw things differently and began taking taxis instead, and has charged the tax payer a whopping £9,000 since May for the privilege – far in excess of the £600 a month saved by cancelling the car.
Despite the fact that the council had offered up a top of th range Prius as an alternative Mr Chaudhury thought that cancelling his car was an affront to his dignity saying “Every other borough has a civic car. I go to events and don’t get the same respect because I’m not using the borough crest because I don’t have an official car. It’s become the talk of every event I go to. People joke: ‘Did you not take the bus today?’”
Who are these people on the Mayoral junket circuit who bully their fellow chain wearers? Is it you Sir Steve Bullock? If so leave the poor lamb alone!
Judging by the expenses bill Chaudhury has never taken the bus to an official event, so some people may doubt that this is the “talk of every event”. More to the point is there something inherently wrong with taking buses? What person in their right mid takes a taxi to Birmingham – twice? Two bills of over £800 because the speaker doesn’t want to take a train suggests something is very wrong indeed.
When standing for election Labour claimed that Mizan “understands and can relate to the problems and challenges faced by people in our ward”. Yes, he feels their humiliation at being offered a top of the range Prius rather than having a chauffeur driven car. Most of us can relate to this kind of day to day hubris can’t we?
As Trial by Joery has pointed out some of these bills look extremely dodgy. £196 to go to Lords cricket ground for example. This is only conceivably possible if the meter was left running for hours. Why would anyone do this? A host of other examples of over charging indicate, at best, an arrogant disregard for public money and at worst… well, let’s not speculate.
6 Comments
Since Sir Steve Bullock is directly-elected like Lutfur Rahman, I doubt he’s behind it. Wouldn’t like to get on the wrong side of Sir Steve, though.
Ceremonial mayors are a funny old crowd, though – in Greenwich, it’s always a Labour councillor, as a reward for arse-licking or to shut them up. Camden and Lambeth have tried to break the mould a bit in recent years though.
Well, we have this mix and match system now where you have Mayors who actually wield power when they used to be primarily the ‘head of state’ for the borough doing the equivalent duties of the Queen – watching scouts get their badges, cutting ribbons, etc.
I do find the whole concept that he was being bullied by other Mayors incredibly funny though. It’s probably wrong of me though :(
I can’t help finding the idea of elected mayors in London boroughs daft – where, say, one patch of SE London (Lewisham) is run in a completely different fashion to its neighbours (Southwark, Greenwich, Bromley). All just feels like a big ego trip.
An FOI request would reveal all the facts:
1. Mizan was arguing the case of costs being incurred by taxi usage from day one of removal of the Civic Car by Lutfur
2. Mizan was constantly demanding officers and the elected mayor to reinstate a leased civic car as that was still the cheapest form of travel – £600-£700 a month, but his demands were ignored
3. A Toyota Prius was never offered and talk of reinstatement of a civic car was only discussed recently as November 2011, but by then thousands of pounds were already incurred by the council. Makes one wonder from where the ”council spokesperson” got this information from. However, up until this day there is still no sign of a leased civic car
4. All decisions to undermine the civic office were made by the elected mayor -funding his personal fight with Mizan with taxpayers money – how irresponsible of him!
5. Mizan is right in saying he has been sticthed up by Lutfur and knowing how Mizan operates, he should have all the evidence to prove that.
Other facts:
1. Out of 31 of 32 London Boroughs civic mayors have leased Civic Cars for obvious reasons and the one in Tower Hamlets was removed by Lutfur back in August, so he could order himself a Mercedes and plot against Mizan
2. The Mayor of London (an elected Mayor not a civic mayor) uses a bike, and other elected mayors use public transport, their own cars or occasionally a taxi – so there is no argument or justification for the elected mayor of Tower Hamlets to have a Mercedes or any type of car – yes, that is payed by tax payers of Tower Hamlets too. Maybe we should try and find out how much the Mercedes and his chauffeur actually costs Tower Hamlets tax payers?
3. Civic mayors are not allowed to use public transport, such as bus or trains, as the insurance policy would not allow this. Also they are invited to events to add prestige and give confidence and show importance to those organisations doing good work. They are also the First Citizens of their boroughs, thus representing the queen in carrying out the civic duties. These cannot be achieved by travelling on a train or bus, therefore all boroughs have a civic car, displaying their civic crests. Lutfur intentionally undermined his own borough and the civic office by excercising his executive powers
4. On average civic mayors attend between 300-500 events in a year
5. 4 out of 32 London Boroughs have elected mayors, as well as civic mayors (speaker/chair of council) – reason being the elected mayors are political and cannot be the First Citizen or civic representatives of their boroughs. Also 3 out of the 4 elected mayors do not interfere with the civic office like the one from Tower Hamlets.
6. Civic mayors attend each others charity fundraisers to support raising funds for each others charities – that is normal and a tradition.
7. We all know of the instruction that was given by Lutfur for Mizan to take cabs and he had no choice as it was forced on him. See link Evening Standard link as a reminder: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23985960-civic-mayor-told-to-catch-a-cab-when-hes-wearing-official-robes.do
8. We all know that Lutfur terminated the use of the civic leased car, whilst ordering himself a Mercedes.
9. Lufur is the only elected Mayor in the whole of London that has a Mercedes and a chauffeur being paid by the taxpayers.
10. The taxi bookings were done by the council with authorisation from Lutfur – nothing to do with Mizan
11. Most people commenting on this blog and especially this piece are Lutfur supporters and most likely being paid to defend the elected mayor of his wrong doings – just by having English or funny usernames does not hide these facts.
12. Under the current governance arrangements Lutfur would have to authorise the budget for Speaker’s taxis, and he also had the powers to put a stop it. Why did he let it continue?
13. We all also know that Lutfur’s reasoning to remove the civic car was to save costs, so where did all the extra money come from to fund Mizan’s taxi fares?- if there was no budget who has been paying for them and why? – it’s quite clear and an obvious plot that was done against Mizan by Lutfur and his paid advisers.
14. The truth will prevail in due course
excellent issues altogether, you simply gained a new reader.
What would you suggest about your poost that you made some dayss
ago? Any certain?
Alternatively, you can simply attach decorative wrought
iron pieces on top of the rack so it becomes more of an ornament as much as it is a coat rack.
If your old furniture is in good condition consider having it picked up by a local charity the day before your
new furniture arrives. Typically the bays are a standardized size as well.