Muhammad Haque questions Tower Hamlets Council on their role for Crossrail hole so far - 1

By ©Muhammad Haque

Question to Tower Hamlets Council, full meeting due to be held on Tuesday 11 September 2007

CONTEXT summary at 1515 Hrs Monday 10 September 2007

The Khoodeelaar! Campaign against the Crossrail hole Bill has been actively asking the Council to OPPOSE the Crossrail hole plan against the East End of London for nearly 44 months now. In that time we have put our questions covering all aspects of the Tower Hamlets Council’s relationships with the promoters and lobbies for the Crossrail hole scheme. We have not been given answers to those questions. We have searched the Council’s published documentary record. That does not contain the answers. In fact, we have spent more time and resources in putting the questions to Tower Hamlets Council about the history of the project and the Council’s relationship with its promotion than we have had to do in our dealings with the Secretary of State. As we have shown, the local community does not need the Crossrail hole station at Whietchapel. Nor does it demand it. Nor does the local community want such scheme. We have also shown that there is no evidence to support the claims that have been made via Tower Hamlets Council that the Crossrail scheme will bring benefits to the community to justify the loss and the disruption, the damage and the dislocations. So consistent has the local community’s support for and agreement with the Khoodeelaar! No to Crossrail hole attacks Bill campaign has been that when the work of the campaign was put on international and satellite media [starting on 17 January 2006], the overwhelming response of the community from across the Borough of Tower Hamlets and beyond and including from Europe and Asia, was to Say No to the Crossrail hole plot against the East End. This was in effect repeated for MONTHS when the subject of the Khoodeelaar! Campaign was made into a regular feature of the factual programmes by one satellite TV station. So keen were several councillors to come across to viewers as being opposed to Crossrail hole plans that there was a regular phenomenon of Tower Hamlets Councillors being given platforms on TV. NO other issues were given such prominence for so long ever! The only attention that is given is to issues that do not have such wide spontaneous community support. In fact our campaign enabled so many individual councillors to make TV appearances that people may be excused for thinking that this was a normal fixture on TV programmes specifically viewed by so many people from Tower Hamlets and with links with the community in this borough. This was only possible because the pressure of the Khoodeelaar! –led community demand against Crossrail hole attacks was irresistible. The same was witnessed when the Khoodeelaar! No to Crossrail hole agreed to sponsor in campaign terms a public meeting held at the Brady Centre in the Hanbury Street [off Brick Lane] London E1 on Sunday 22 January 2006. Everyone was keen to appear to be with Khoodeelaar! Campaign.

Including the occupant in the post of the leader of the Council at that time.

Every political grouping was there.

At that meeting I moved extempore the motion demanding that Tower Hamlets Council passed an unequivocal No to Crossrail hole Bill Motion at FULL Council.

This demand has been put to the Council regularly for the past 20 months.

So why has the Council not passed the Motion saying unequivocal No to Crossrail hole?