Tower Hamlets Liberal Democrats

TELCO Mayoral Commitments - John Griffiths responds

A Working Relationship with the Mayor

The Mayor to have a working relationship with TELCO committing to meeting us to discuss our agenda twice a year, and the first meeting within 90 days of being elected.

YES! - it is absolutely imperative that the Mayor is accountable to local people, and the many diverse communities of Tower Hamlets. There is a real and present danger that we elect an autocratic Mayor who is representative of only one section of the community. I commit to meeting on a bi-annual basis with TELCO's diverse membership, but also to hold quarterly Mayor's Question Times - open public meetings in the different communities and neighbourhoods which make up our great Borough. I will also report back to you each year on my progress in delivering my manifesto commitments.

The Living Wage

Leading on being a Living Wage Borough by working with us to encourage key employers in the Borough to pay a Living Wage particularly securing a meeting with TESCO who have just been approved planning permission in Bromley By Bow.

YES! - I have known TELCO since I first moved to Tower Hamlets, and began working on employment and training issues in East London, in 1995. As a local Councillor and deputy leader of the Lib Dem Group from 2002-6, I supported Catherine Howarth, then a Community Organiser at TELCO, in the campaign to get a reluctant Council to adopt the Living Wage. As Mayor, I would lead by example - promoting Tower Hamlets as a Living Wage Borough, using the leverage of the Council (through the planning system and its buying power) to require other employers to pay the Living Wage. It is a tribute to your hard work that big-name employers at Canary Wharf, and large organisations like QMW, have already signed up to this commitment; I will work with you to sign up others, including the likes of TESCO.

Safer Streets

Supporting our safer streets initiative by paying for 25 CRB checks for local businesses who want to be City Safe havens this year and publicising the scheme to young people

YES! - it is essential that all members of the community, young and old, can go about their daily lives without fear, and that there are no "No-go Areas" in this Borough. Part of the solution is this Safer Streets Initiative. I will commit the Council to paying for 25 CRB checks for participating businesses, and also lobby to make the process of being checked less lengthy and bureaucratic.

Better Opportunities for Young People

Making Tower Hamlets the leading borough in investment in young people's opportunities by delivering 1,000 annual work experience placements at the Council, strategic partners and other organisations in the Borough

YES! - employment opportunities, along with affordable housing, will be my two over-riding priorities for Tower Hamlets. With competition for jobs intensifying, and more and more of our young people in possession of college degrees, work experience is increasingly essential on someone's CV. As Chair of the Borough's Local Strategic Partnership, the Mayor has the opportunity to obtain commitments from employers large and small across the public, private and voluntary sectors which, I believe, would deliver 1000 work placements for our young people each year.

Community Land Trusts as a solution for affordable Housing

A firm commitment to support the development of affordable housing in the Borough by stipulating that the affordable housing component of the Council's Section 106 agreements should include Community Land Trusts.

YES! - Tower Hamlets has a proud history of pioneering community-based schemes for providing affordable housing. Drawing on my 8 years' experience as a Board member of a locally based Housing Association, I will support Community Land Trusts as one such initiative that would benefit both individuals waiting for an affordable home, and provide the means to invest in wider community development.

Why Vote for John Griffiths as Mayor?

To deliver these and other commitments, Tower Hamlets needs a Mayor with the right skills [in community leadership] and experience [in business; of local government, and of working with the voluntary sector]; someone who has the ear of central Government, and someone who will work with all sections of our community, not least by devolving power from the Town Hall to the different neighbourhoods of the Borough. I am the only one of the candidates offering the people of Tower Hamlets all these things. Please give me your 1st preference vote on 21st October.