When I first started reporting on Tower Hamlets council in 2005, two councillors in particular caught my eye, both of them impressive in their own ways. Back then, Simon Rouse, the lone Tory, was most talented debater in the chamber, while Oliur Rahman, the lone Respect member, was its most pugnacious.
Curiously at times, the pair fed off each other as they trumped the tired, declining Lib Dem opposition and gave the dominant Labour administration (remember those days?) a bit of a fight.
After the 2006 elections, Oli became a leading member of the 12-strong Respect group but within a couple of years he had fallen out with his former friend George Galloway and broke away to form a SWP-backed mini group of four councillors alongside Rania Khan, her mum Lutfa Begum and Ahmed Hussain. These four soon realised they were in political no-man’s land and while Ahmed completed his odyssey by defecting to the Tories, the other three joined Labour.
And then in 2010, they had the Lutfur dilemma and by backing him, they effectively expelled themselves from Labour.
Oli is currently the cabinet member for schools and families, a role for which he is paid about £13,000 on top of his £10,000 annual basic allowance. He has been one of the loudest critics of Government cuts and of the need to extract value from every penny.
In his day job, he works at a Job Centre Plus in Tramway Avenue, Stratford. It is 2.8 miles away from the Tower Hamlets town hall in Mulberry Place. Door to door by car, it takes about 10 minutes. By public transport, the journey takes around 25 minutes if the DLRs at Stratford High Street and Canning Town are being kind. A standard minicab quote for a late afternoon fare is about £13.
The Tories have broken Oli’s taxi bookings into two types: those that start or end at his workplace, and those to and from the fraudster-dominated Bengali television station, Channel S, in Walthamstow.
Between February 2011 and June 2012, Oli’s fares to and from Stratford cost taxpayers £851.
They’re here:
Date | Fare | From | To |
22.2.11 | £53.88 | Mulberry Place | Stratford |
22.2.11 | £17.70 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
4.3.11 | £25.69 | Stratford | St Paul’s Way School |
4.3.11 | £15.58 | St Paul’s Way School | Stratford |
4.3.11 | £36.34 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
8.3.11 | £18.64 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
5.4.11 | £18.64 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
3.5.11 | ? | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
16.5.11 | £20.77 | Stratford | Mowlem School |
17.5.11 | £17.94 | Jobcentre | Mulberry Place |
24.5.11 | £21.24 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
16.6.11 | £19.82 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
21.6.11 | £18.17 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
23.6.11 | £19.59 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
27.6.11 | £17.23 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
28.6.11 | £17.94 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
4.7.11 | £14.87 | Mulberry Place | Stratford |
28.7.11 | £27.75 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
1.8.11 | £23.84 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
11.8.11 | £23.13 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
12.8.11 | £32.66 | Stratford | Berner Centre |
18.8.11 | £28.46 | Stratford | Belgrave St, E1 |
9.12.11 | £17.23 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
22.12.11 | £21.71 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
12.1.12 | £32.10 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
16.1.12 | £15.81 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
26.1.12 | £15.34 | Stratford | Stifford Centre |
27.1.12 | £15.58 | Mulberry Place | Stratford |
6.3.12 | £16.52 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
19.3.12 | £24.78 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
22.3.12 | £22.66 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
27.3.12 | £17.94 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
3.4.12 | £28.32 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
25.5.12 | £27.14 | City Edge Training | Stratford |
28.5.12 | £17.70 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
11.6.12 | £22.42 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
11.6.12 | £23.98 | Mulberry Place | Stratford |
13.6.12 | £27.75 | Mulberry Place | Stratford |
13.6.12 | £14.87 | Stratford | Mulberry Place |
TOTAL | £851.73 |
When I first challenged Oli on this, he explained he had tight schedules and that making late afternoon cabinet or other management meetings at the town hall was not easy while holding down a job. He realises now his claims were wrong and his full statement and apology is below, but at least there was a semblance of a rationale argument there.
However, when it comes to his fares to Channel S, a TV station dominated by insurance fraudster Mahee Jalil Ferdhaus and the feature of an Evening Standard article today, he has no choice but to throw up his hands.
Channel S is based in Clifford Road, Walthamstow, and it isn’t the easiest to get to by public transport. But appearing on a dodgy TV channel is not council business; if he wished to big up his personal profile, then he had no right in billing taxpayers for it.
I now understand that these bookings–signed off by Murziline Parchment remember–were largely booked via ComputerCab, which is a black cab company. The 11-mile fare from Mellish Street on the Isle of Dogs to Channel S is about £45 one way (minicabs charge about £30). So you can see how five or six trips back and forth add up to the £541 uncovered by the Tories.
I don’t know about you, but when I’m in a black cab, watching the meter tick away is one of London’s most uncomfortable experiences. It seems incredible that a councillor could fail to see what fares were building up. It’s particularly hypocritical when that councillor is one of the loudest critics of Government cuts and of the need to extract value from every penny.
The fares are here:
Date | Fare | From | To |
14.4.11 | £103.00 | Mellish Street | Channel S, E17, return to Mellish St |
5.5.11 | £42.95 | Mellish Street | Channel S, E17 |
5.5.11 | £48.38 | Channel S, E17 | Mellish Street |
26.7.11 | £43.19 | St George’s Town Hall, E1 | Channel S, E17 |
26.7.11 | £52.86 | Channel S, E17 | Mellish Street |
1.3.12 | £47.44 | Mellish Street | Channel S, E17 |
1.3.12 | £55.46 | Channel S, E17 | Mellish Street |
26.3.12 | £36.82 | Mulberry Place | Channel S, E17 |
21.6.12 | £61.36 | Mellish Street | Channel S, E17 |
21.6.12 | £49.56 | Channel S, E17 | Mellish Street |
Total: | £541.02 |
I wasn’t at last week’s full council meeting, but I’m told that councillors Rabina Khan and Ohid Ahmed were most indignant that their cosy little travel arrangements, at our expense (here and here) were being questioned. Absolutely no humility and no apology, I’m told.
Well, at least Oli has had the grace, and political nous, to realise he was wrong.
Here’s his statement:
In recent days, I have been criticised in some quarters over my former use of taxis in connection with my public duties as an elected Councillor and Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Serving as a Councillor and Cabinet member is a substantial commitment on top of looking after my young family and a busy job outside of the borough, and I frequently have to attend and speak at back to back meetings.
In order to fulfill numerous appointments in various places, I used to take taxis. I should have been more aware the fares which are so outrageously high. The taxis were booked through the council and I will be investigating with the taxi firms why taxpayers were charged so much money. My understanding is that substantial charges were levied for any waiting time whether authorised or not, and I have since discovered that one of my Councillor colleagues lodged a complaint with the taxi company at the time. I will be asking the officers to review the contract of the current taxis company and to look into making savings which could be spent on the services provided to the residents.
I have since bought a car. I do not take taxis any more and I do not claim for petrol money or sundry travel expenses from the borough.
I sincerely apologise for my earlier use of taxis, which I am sure will upset many residents. In recognition of that concern I shall be making donation to CTC, the National Cycling Charity, and in furtherance of its campaign to make our roads safer for cyclists.
How far does this taxi scam run Ted? Well done for digging it out – good work.
As Maggie said, the trouble with socialism is that sooner or later, you run out of everyone else’s money … and the bare-faced hypocracy with this one is disgusting.
‘Making a donation’ to a cycling charity is just adding insult to injury; how does this recompense the local residents who were financially abused?
Truly shameful behaviour, in every respect.
Tim
Tories must take the credit.
I can see some logic in charity donation in that it avoids perception of favouring one local charity over another. I’d have given it to the Tower Hamlets food bank and maybe Oli could offer some there as well.
Forgive me for being simple, but why couldn’t (and didn’t) he simply give all the embezzled cash back to the council?
And let the council waste it again? Nah, give it to charity.
Remind me to cancel my council tax direct debit then and increase the giving to charity … For one who writes an excellent blog Ted, you make some odd comments sometimes.
(Apologies if I have just siffered a sense of humour failure.)
Tim.
Yes, but it’s not his money to give to charity? It’s our money, council tax payers’ money! Who can say if he really gives the money to charity, and which charity? One of the ones managed by his friends… wrong, wrong, wrong
Hi Ted, I believe the person mentioned as Ahmed Khan is actually Ahmed Hussain
Eek! Mortified by error. Apologies Ahmed!
Not to worry mate. Out of sight out of mind!
As you stated Ted, everyone including me who (once in a blue moon) gets into a black cab gulps as the meter rises. Oli, nor all the other council paid taxi using councillors would have run up these outrageous abuse of public funds had they had to cough up these fares from their own councillor allowances.
Oli and the others knew they were taking the piss at our expense. If you cannot manage your fulltime job, look after your young family due to deciding to become a councillor, then resign and let someone who can manage without taxi fares abuse do the job. When you choose this job, you are expected to make such commitments, not expect some weird kind of symphathetic tears from us who have to pay for your lavish taxi lifestyle. Disgusting.
Bunch of hypocritical, grasping, vainglorious crooks! He only apologises now because he has been caught.
Can we see Rania Khan’s expenses now.. I’d aso love to know more about the “family business”
Also – an apology is not enough. They must be forced to PAY US BACK or face criminal sanctions! Write to the Tower Hamlets District Auditor and make the case. His email address is:
andrew.sayers@kpmg.co.uk
Many politicians are crooks from the biggest to the smallest. Just give them as small gap and they will exploit you.
Everyone can come and question Mayor Lutfur Rahman at his public meeting tonight (Thursday) 7pm at the Crypt, Christ Church, Commercial Street E1.
Could be fun!
http://www.facebook.com/events/221590307980419/#!/events/221590307980419/
Sorry to let you down, Phil, but I think that was probably arranged before the emergency budget meeting was called last week – tonight at 7.30 pm.
I doubt he’s able to be in two places at once!
Is it this Andrew Sayers we are talking about?
http://www.standard.co.uk/business/kpmg-fined-16m-over-fraud-failure-6889819.html
With his experience of failures, shortcomings and substandard work he seems to be the perfect fit for LBTH.
Yes, the one and the same! What a co-incidence that he got the bum job at Tower Hamlets. But if sufficient people send him their complaints at least he can be kept busy and well away from insurance fraudsters.It woould be useful if people send copies of their complaints to Eric Pickles as well. Or Brandon Lewis MP.
Is Ted dead?
keep the pressure button on and get these scumbags!
Hey Ted,
What are your thoughts on the Lutfur Twitter death threats? Will you be doing a post on that? it’s going down a storm on other blogs
i’ve made my views clear on that on Twitter. Lutfur should be shot for wasting police time.
(I await the knock at my door now… .)