More from the AGM

It seems that the anti-Fiaz factions came out the winners at this year’s council AGM.

Amongst the uncontested places, Cllr Hudson took the Chair of the OSC. Members have voted and the three scrutiny chairs are as follows: Joshua Garfield, Susan Masters and Lakmini Shah.

Scrutiny is now firmly set to focus on the plans that Fiaz has with all places going to individuals critical of the mayor.

Interestingly, having just scraped in previously against the veteran councillor, John Whitworth, Garfield topped the poll this time.

Rohima Rahman lost in her bid to retain the Chair of Council position. Instead, it went to Rohit Dasgupta. 

Some councillors have noted that two of the three Labour councillors who sat on the ad hoc group to agree the mayor’s legal costs have lost their positions, (Rahman and McAlmont). The third, Cllr Ruiz has her position on the cabinet at the gift of the mayor, not the will of the members, though we understand that not everything is quite as cordial between the two as once it was.

Cllr Rohit Dasgupta and Cllr Rohima Rahman

We further understand that Cllr Dasgupta will be stepping down from his deputy cabinet position as will the new chief whip, Cllr Brayshaw. 

This will leave mayor Fiaz with another problem, who will she get to fill the vacant positions? Of course, she might decide that neither of the posts adds any value to the work of the council and she might choose not to appoint new deputies. That would make a small saving but would show that politicians are taking a share of the cuts. On the downside, it would reduce her payroll vote by two but as she will be gone in a year that is probably of no consequence.

So, who are the winners and losers?

Undoubtedly Fiaz is the one who is smarting. The Improvement Board report simply brought together in one document detailing troubles that have been growing over the years. She is now facing a team of councillors who, being emboldened by the line being taken by the Labour Party and by their success amongst the Group membership, are likely to be significantly more resolute. They have a year to put some distance between Labour and Fiaz if they want a convincing narrative to put to the electorate at the elections in May 2026.

Fiaz might take some comfort in Dasgupta taking the Chair of Council role, but this, whilst important, is not a political role. With Cllr John Gray taking the Chair of Group, this could well see the mayor facing scrutiny at Group as well as at the formal council scrutiny commissions.

We continue to hear of first-term councillors who will be leaving the council at the end of this session. This could be a loss. Irrespective of sympathies with all of their views, the first term in office is when you learn the workings of the council, make contacts, make mistakes  and learn what the role means. We understand that disillusion has set in. But that is the time to generate a new vision, not to bail out. And the vision needs to be for the next ten years not the next 12 months. 

When Weber wrote of the “slow boring of hard boards”, that was what he meant. There is a real job for politicians if they are willing to put in the effort. 

Of course, ideally, this would be done with a mayoral candidate and we don’t know who that will be yet.

But maybe too many councillors simply see their role as a sinecure, or as Tony Banks infamously noted of MPs, as political social workers. If so, we would not hold our breath.

As to the winners, the black caucus seems to have rebounded with several members taking prominent positions and what is left of the Wales faction have secured influential roles.

We cannot claim to know for sure, but it seems likely that councillors Hudson and Gray are happy to have prominent roles (endorsed as it were by the Regional Party), and sitting scrutiny chairs, Garfield, Masters and Shah should be more than satisfied with their clean sweep at Scrutiny.

Cllr Joshua Garfield (left), Cllr Susan Masters (centre) and Cllr Lakmini Shah (right)