Hackney Council Annual General Meeting 2010
Hackney Town Hall, Mare Street
This was Hackney Council’s first meeting since the elections on Thursday 6 May; in the chair for this momentous and good humoured occasion was Cllr Sally Mulready, the Council’s newly-elected speaker.
Hackney Council’s now 50-strong Labour councillors were understandably in euphoric mood; the Liberal Democrats gave a good-natured and spirited performance, whilst the depleted Conservatives stayed serious and sombre.
Mayor Jules Pipe thanked everyone for coming, including Diane Abbott MP, saying he had recently read in the Daily Mail that she might be his party’s next leader (to applause and hoots of laughter).
Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Ian Sharer said whilst he would be very pleased to see Diane Abbott MP as leader of the Labour party (laughter), he cautioned that “you can’t believe everything you read in the Daily Mail” (more laughter).
Mayor Pipe congratulated all 57 elected councillors, with particular congratulations going to the 50 Labour ones.
And not for the first time, the Mayor went on to claim credit for a number of achievements, including a recent fall in crime rates and improvements in the borough’s secondary school exam results, despite the fact that policing and education (run by the Learning Trust) are not under his or the Council’s direct control.
Commenting on the new coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats at national level, Councillor Sharer, joked about the unexpected political proximity in which his party now found itself to the Hackney Conservative group along the bench from him.
“I think there possibly could be a letter on its way from Cowley Street ( Liberal Democrat party national headquarters) with instructions for me saying ‘Join the [Conservative councillor] Maureen Middleton Fan Club,” he said. (Laughter and applause.)
On the local election results, he thanked the Mayor for “not rubbing our noses in it too much this evening”.
Curiously, Cllr Sharer also thanked the Council and its staff for “a well-run election”, when only two weeks ago the Hackney Liberal Democrats’ election agent had sent a stiffly-worded letter to the electoral returning officer (and the Electoral Commission) lambasting the Council for a long list of failings during election day and the count that followed.
The Mayor thanked both the opposition leaders for their warm words and congratulated Cllr Michael Levy on his elevation to leader of the Conservative group, and the atmosphere remained lighthearted and informal.
So much so that Mayor Pipe neglected in the first part to appoint his Deputy Mayor, Cllr Karen Alcock, and the other Cabinet members; fortunately he then remembered, and did so.
There was just one cloud that appeared to blight the happy proceedings.
Conservative councillor Maureen Middleton said she regretted to have to rise to speak, but the Mayor had disappointed her.
She complained that in this fest of gratitude and goodwill, The Mayor had failed to see fit to congratulate Eric Ollerenshaw, (a former Hackney Conservative councillor of 17 years standing) on his election to Parliament.
“He worked very hard with you in the early days when you were elected and you’ve forgotten it,” she chided.
Ten years ago, Jules Pipe and Eric Ollerenshaw, Labour and Tory leaders respectively, worked together to try to improve the borough. According to the Guardian, Mr Pipe said at the time, “The real message Eric and I want to drive home is that while we disagree politically, there are things that need sorting out – getting street cleaning, and refuse collection right, for instance – that need not be a political football.”
The Mayor offered his belated congratulations but also commiserations, given that Mr Ollerenshaw MP hadn’t managed to bag a peerage which, it was said, he would have preferred (Laughter and applause).
The meeting closed with little further ado; there will be plenty over the next four years.
Related stories: