Results tagged “Council”

By Lutfur Rahman

London's East End will play host to two great national and international events this year: the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations and, of course, the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Games will bring all sorts of new and hopefully lasting opportunities in their wake.

Greenwich celebrated officially becoming a Royal Borough today as the Royal Charter was delivered to the Town Hall.

The status was bestowed by The Queen to mark her Diamond Jubilee and this weekend will see a range of celebrations across Greenwich to celebrate the event, culminating in a fireworks display at the Old Royal Naval College on Sunday evening.

Europe's biggest shopping centre promised a major boost to Stratford but, three months after it opened, businesses that have been part of the town centre landscape for decades say they are struggling.

Retailers outside the mall are finding themselves fighting a losing battle against Westfield Stratford City.

A volunteer group has been banned from carrying out future restoration work in a former Greenwich churchyard by councillors.

Greenwich Council's cabinet member for parks Cllr John Fahy slammed The Friends of St Alfege Park in September after a team of convicted criminals working its behalf destroyed historic headstones dating back hundreds of years.

Plans for a tethered balloon ride overlooking Greenwich Peninsula have been submitted to Greenwich Council.

The 100 metre high flight has been proposed by Future Leisure Aviation who are also responsible for a similar attraction in Hong Kong.

Last week a group of Island residents and I, as local councillor, were involved in an outstanding piece of cross borough working for the benefit of Islanders.

As reported in The Wharf, a business was seeking licensing to operate a section of the Greenwich foreshore as a place of entertainment.

A proposal to partially pedestrianise Greenwich town centre has been shelved indefinitely.

The call to stop work on the plan follows a decision by Transport for London to hold a public consultation on more wide ranging traffic proposals.

By Tim Archer

Like it or not, in May this year, the residents of Tower Hamlets voted to introduce a directly-elected Mayor.

Elections will be held on October 21 to decide who will be the first ever executive Mayor of Tower Hamlets, and given the £1billion cheque book that comes with the job.

Local government cuts threaten jobs and services across the country and Tower Hamlets is faced with making savings of £50million over three years.

Where to cut is a dilemma but Tower Hamlets chief executive Kevan Collins has taken a novel approach to the problem.

By Tim Archer

A budget has to balance sooner or later; black holes cannot be financed forever and they cannot be ignored. It's therefore interesting that the Labour-run council chose to overlook the fact that its books contain a £54million gap. Putting that into context, council tax in Tower Hamlets would have to rise by almost 30 per cent a year for the next three years just to plug that gap.