Mayor of Harrow’s Charity Fund needs transparency

Many councils have, but Harrow council has no known formal guidelines for choosing the mayor’s charity or ensuring transparency of Harrow’s Charity Fund, a charity (number 219034). This has serious implications.
It is doubtful whether the council officers established the soundness of this mayor’s chosen charity as required.
Despite a requirement, Harrow mayor’s charity number on his webpage as well as on his charity’s newly formed London’s Community Kitchen website did not appear for seven months after the mayor was in office, and appeared only after our extensive intervention.
As far as we see, the accounts of Mayor of Harrow’s Charity Fund have never been made publicly available – a council failure to monitor that its charity trust is fulfilling all their legal responsibilities.
“Charities with an income of £25,000 or less are not required to file their annual report and accounts with us when they complete their annual returns. They must still make them publicly available, for example by putting them on their website” informs the charity commission.
Therefore, it is appropriate to ask the charity to provide the last five years accounts so that the public could see how the charity fund has been used.
On a wider note, perhaps the council could closely monitor the work of the Harrow mayor office, including transparency.

Fuss over children’s home comments

Harrow council planning committee on 15 January 2025 granted planning permission to convert a house in Cavendish Avenue to house up to four EBD children (emotional, behavioural, and development needs).
Children’s homes are important because they provide a safe and nurturing environment for children who can’t live with their families. Therefore, the provision of a new residential care home for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and young people with support needs, is encouraged under Policy H12 A (2) of the London Plan and Policy DM29 A of the DMP (Development Management Plan, a part of the Harrow’s core strategy).
However, the officer assessment of ‘Residential Amenity’, most significant in the seven points of the assessment, is generic and not specific to evaluate the possible impact due to the potential residents of the care home.
Some councillor comments regarding the planning application have been criticised as if these were to describe these children problematic.
The councillor’s concern at the meeting did not appear to be dismissing the importance of specific needs of the children but appeared to be about the suitability of the place and the local impact.
Perhaps their expression could have been better, but their concerns were no different from those nationally, particularly regarding the commercial aspect and the quality of management of the care homes.
“As Children’s Commissioner, I am deeply concerned about illegal children’s homes and extremely worried that profit making by private companies has been prioritised over the wellbeing of England’s most vulnerable children” Children’s Commissioner on 16 December 2024
Unlawful children’s homes are demanding up to £20,000 a week per child and failing to keep vulnerable young people safe, the Family Court has heard – ‘Unlawful care homes ‘profiteer’ from at-risk kids’ BBC 17 September 2024.
Ofsted that regulates the homes has reported: “30,200 incidents were reported to Ofsted from children’s residential homes over the past year, with 26% of these incidents involving police call-outs” Children’s social care in England 2023 – updated 8 September 2023.

Hall, a political loser!

Hatch End Conservative councillor Susan Hall, who has been struggling to come out of the political ditch since she pushed her way to the Harrow council in 2006, is a sad story.
Cllr Hall tried but was not selected a parliamentary or GLA candidate from Harrow.
The Conservative group was happily running the council since 2006 when unexpectedly lost the council in 2010 council elections under its designated group leader, Cllr Hall, as the previous leader retired. Her obsession with the CPZ (controlled parking zone), unpopular because of being heavy-handedly implemented in some parts of the borough, was a key factor in the defeat.
As the opposition leader of the council, Cllr Hall performance was mostly felt ineffective and the Conservative group repeatedly failed to win the public trust needed to regain the council. After some years, when the Conservative group recovered under the new leadership, the group won the council in 2022 elections.
Cllr Hall journey to the City Hall, as an unelected assembly member, has been equally unfruitful as she seems to be burning most of her energy in trying to derail Sadiq Khan, the London mayor – perhaps she has a needle for ‘disgraceful’ Sadiq Khan.
Her activism against the London Mayor initiative, Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), to clear up London’s air across all London boroughs, including Harrow, failed as out of 32 London boroughs, four Conservative councils went for a judicial review challenging the ULEZ expansion but lost (about £150,000 Harrow ratepayers money wasted).
On the back of the ULEZ play, Cllr Hall entered in the London mayor election race last year but was badly rejected by the Londoners despite her ‘nasty’ campaign, based on scaremongering and extreme personalised negativity, well-supported by the far-right.
After the Knighthood announcement of mayor Sadiq Khan, third time London mayor, last year, Hall’s loyal ward colleague launched a toxic petition to stop the Knighthood of Sadiq Khan. The petition, extensively supported by the far-right, made no difference and Sadiq Khan has been knighted.
Apparently inspired by the success of playing the ‘grooming gang’ card for quick attention-seeking and publicity, Hall asked Sir Sadiq Khan about (out of context) ‘how many grooming gangs are in London’ but failed to define ‘grooming gang’ when enquired. Her ‘grooming gang’ veiled attack, though heavily praised by the far-right social media activists, is widely ignored.
The latest is that Hall has written to the GLA’s monitoring officer that the mayor had appeared to “contravene” the gifts and hospitality procedure by not timely declaring six tickets to watch the American star from a box at Wembley Stadium on 15 August.
“The mayor’s office will continue to ensure all the right processes are followed, and looks forward to explaining the approach that was taken in this instance” the mayor’s office has said.
Interesting that Cllr Hall was in the headline, Harrow Council Conservative Group leader under police investigation, for allegedly failing to declare the pecuniary interest and follow the relevant procedures at a council meeting.

‘Child Sexual Abuse’ politics: divisive Jenrick in Harrow

UPDATE: Could those who invited the political opportunist, Robert Jenrick MP, to Stanmore, inform him the following about the UK men abusing their power sent to us by our readers?
The Catholic Church in England & Wales (1970–2015): 3,000 instances of child sexual abuse, 936 alleged paedophiles, 133 convictions 52 priests defrocked. Since 2016, there have been more than 100 reported sexual abuse allegations each year.
UK boarding schools (2012–2018): Thousands of alleged victims over decades; 425 accused paedophiles, 160 charged since 2012 alone. 171 of these allegations pertained to historical abuse of children, at least 125 involved recent incidents.
More than 1,400 suspects, including politicians and celebrities, have been investigated by police probing historical child sex abuse allegations, including 135 coming from TV, film or radio, and 76 suspects are politicians, BBC reported on 20 May 2015.
Police and politicians ‘turned blind eye’ to Westminster child abuse claims: reported Guardian on 25 Feb 2020
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Soon after Robert Jenrick MP enjoyed Harrow East Conservatives hospitality in Stanmore, Harrow West MP Gareth Thomas reflected on the politics of the ‘Child Sexual Abuse’, the proxy narrative to demonise certain community.
Jenrick, who has been rejected by the Conservative members in the recent leadership contest, now looks attracting far-right to resurface by playing ‘immigration’, ‘grooming gangs’ and ‘rape gangs’ etc petty political cards.
Knowing his Stanmore hosts, most probably they were misguided to have him, but are unlikely to support Jenrick’s divisive politics!
In his inflammatory and sweeping tweet on 4th January 2025, he recycled “For decades the most appalling crimes from predominantly British-Pakistani men were legalised ….. destroying the lives of thousands of vulnerable white working class girls in the process. The scandal started with the onset of mass migration. Importing hundreds of thousands of people from alien cultures, who possess medieval attitudes towards women, brought us here”.
His toxic approach resulted in reactions like:
Child abuse contradiction “The Conservative Party opposed the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. They did so, putting forward an amendment saying this was because it did not announce a new inquiry into child sexual exploitation. This is despite the fact that when in Government they themselves commissioned the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse” informs Mr Thomas.
In October 2022, child protection expert Prof Alexis Jay finished a seven-year inquiry, heard from more than 6,000 victims and cost £186.6 million. It made 20 important recommendations on addressing systematic failure and enhancing child protection. It also included a specific national inquiry into Child Exploitation by Organised Networks, which lasted two years alone.
“This government is acting fast to implement the key recommendations on enhancing child protection from Professor Alexis Jay’s 2022 national inquiry, which the previous government failed to implement in full” he said.
The government will make it mandatory to report abuse in the crime and policing bill, making it an offence to fail to report or cover up child sexual abuse.
They say they will also establish a victims and survivors panel to oversee reforms and make grooming an aggravating factor in child sexual offences.
“Labour are getting on with delivering the real reforms this country needs – not pretending to stand up for victims they’ve consistently let down over 14 years in government” Mr Thomas concluded.

More Ombudsman decisions against Harrow council

“Most Council services run well, and any issues are resolved locally without any further action. If the citizen remains unhappy then they can make a formal complaint” Harrow council legal director’s legalistic statement in Annual Complaints and Ombudsman report for the meeting on 26 November 2024.
But the national headlines regarding the Ombudsman decisions against the Harrow council tell a different story. A culture of saying ‘no’ with a smile, pleasant writing, respecting the residents and politely handling their complaints could have avoided many complaints to the Ombudsman, as well as could have helped in making the council claim ‘putting residents first’ more meaningful.
The council could do with well-trained public relations officers rather than a legalistic and authoritative approach to deal with the public enquiries and complaints most of the time.
The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) and Housing Ombudsman have recently made several decisions against Harrow Council, including:
Care home failings: the BBC has reported on 5 January 2025 that the LGO ordered Harrow Council to pay £300 to a woman with dementia and £250 to her daughter after the care home failed to provide the right support.
The investigation found that the woman’s lower denture wasn’t cleaned or removed for several months, and that staff used a knife to open her door.
The ombudsman found the care home, which is under the jurisdiction of Harrow Council, was at fault for causing “frustration and uncertainty” and “avoidable discomfort”.
Inaccurate information during the child protection inquiries: 22 016 751 of 8/12/2023, Mrs X complained that the council used false and inaccurate information during child protection inquiries to create a negative assessment of her and her family. She also said the council did not communicate properly and failed to consider her human rights.
“We found the Council was at fault in that it included inaccurate and irrelevant information in various documents, causing Mrs X distress. In recognition of the injustice caused, the Council has agreed to amend the documents, apologise to Mrs X and make a payment to her” the Ombudsman determined.
In a regulatory notice published on 20 April 2023, the Regulator of Social Housing concluded that: (a) the London Borough of Harrow has breached part 1.2 of the Home Standard; and (b) as a consequence of this breach, there was the potential for serious detriment to LB Harrow tenants.
The council had not completed electrical safety reports for 3,500 homes, and had not completed water risk assessments for every site requiring a re-inspection.
Residential care: (21 001 179) – The Ombudsman determined that there was fault by the care provider in its complaint handling when acting on behalf of the Council.
The complainant, Mr C lives in a care home. Some items of his clothing went missing. There was fault by the care provider in how it responded to the complaints.
There were also many complaints under the last elected Conservative administration (some below), which should have informed policy formation and practices that by dealing with resident concerns and needs with a smile and responding to them politely do not cost money but could give far less headache to the council administration:
In September 2009, Ombudsman ruling revealed West Lodge Schools merger failings by Harrow Council. Harrow council committed maladministration in the handling of the merger of two Pinner schools, and must pay compensation, the Local Government Ombudsman ruled.
In 2008, the High Court quashed a decision made by Harrow Council after the council’s committee report and decision record were deemed insufficient. The decision was passed to the Ombudsman due to the sensitivity of the case.
In 2007, re adult care services to those with “critical” needs, the High Court ruled the decision was unlawful because the council had not fully considered the need to eliminate discrimination against disabled people and promote equality of opportunity between disabled people and others.
Hope there would be less reliance on the Ombudsman to sort out the council shortcomings.

Harrow mayor’s choices?

CONTEXT
The mayor’s office should demonstrate grace and be mindful of upholding the Harrow council reputation and transparency.
Looks Harrow mayor Cllr Salim Chowdhury, a hotelier by trade and introduced as the ‘Harrow’s first British Bangladeshi Mayor’ by the Harrow council, has made some unusual choices.
Deputy mayor
The mayor notified the May 2024 council meeting that he had appointed the Conservative group elected Cllr Anjana Patel as deputy mayor for 2024-25, despite Cllr Patel’s divisive politics on the social media – some covered by the hard-hitting headlines(1). He could have distanced.
Later, deputy mayor incivility(2) showed up at the Harrow council meeting on 23rd October 2024 – heckling, banging the Mayor’s gavel on the bench, and harshly directing words as well as a finger towards a councillor. But “The Mayor is not offended by her actions”.
The Local Government Association Model Member Code of Conduct, published by the Local Government Association in May 2020, defines civility as the politeness and courtesy in behaviour, speech, and in the written word.
The page 40 of the Civic Ceremonial Handbook, History and Guidance for Mayors, Councillors and Officer(3) clearly says that “the deputy only has a civic, legal and Royal status in the absence of the Mayor”, and therefore the self-disciplined role of the deputy mayor sitting with the mayor at the council meeting, is to quietly observe.
Mayor’s charity
The mayor chose London’s Community Kitchen ‘L.C.K Reg Charity No. 1198839 (4)’ his charity which is a CIO not subject to company regulations whose accounts for the charity commission were overdue(5) at the time, and which has £45 reserves as per its financial accounts at the commission.
The convention is that the deputy mayor, being the potential mayor, informs the chosen charity months before, so that the soundness of the charity must be ascertained.
Furthermore, Harrow mayor’s webpage(6) on the Harrow council website has been less transparent in that it failed to provide the basic information about the charity, like its governance and charity number (now corrected 12/01/2025 after our intervention) [don’t see this information on the London’s Community Kitchen website(7) either].
Our probing worked and now (seven months after the mayor being in place) at least the  ‘L.C.K Reg Charity No. 1198839 (4)’ has appeared on the mayor’s page – the L.C.K is not an abbreviation for London Community Kitchen but stands for the London’s Community Kitchen, a CIO.
However, still no such information could be found on the London Community Kitchen/ London’s Community Kitchen website(7) as of today.
According to the Charities Act 2011 the charity law requires publicising the charitable status of a registered charity(8), making sure that the charity number and name is displayed on the charity’s documents and website, so that members of the public are clear that they are dealing with a charity, and could check the charity, like its governance, accounts etc.
Uncertainty about the Mayor of Harrow’s Charity Fund, makes some think whether their donation to this mayor’s fund are worth.
[the Mayor of Harrow’s Charity Fund charity number 219034 (9) not displayed on the mayor’s webpage page(6)]
Mayor’s Charity Ball
This year, the Mayor’s Charity Ball, a Harrow civic feature, cancelled.
Click a link (1) (1)  (2)  (3)  (4)  (5)  (6)  (7)  (8)  (9)

Harrow council marking Srebrenica genocide

Harrow will be marking the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica, Bosnia genocide at the Holocaust Memorial Day 2025 on 28 January at the Harrow Arts Centre – attendance In-Person and Streamed Live.
The event is likely to be publicised by Cllr Paul Osborn, leader of the Harrow council, in his email shot MyHarrow@news.harrow.gov.uk.
In 2018, remembering the Bosnian genocide, the Harrow council (then Labour) organised a flag-raising ceremony outside the civic centre, which was attended by several councillors and the council’s interim chief executive.
“Following this summer’s far-right anti-Muslim & anti-immigrant riots and rise in Islamophobia, we welcomed the opportunity to discuss the importance of strengthening community ties to tackle hatred & the importance of learning lessons from the Bosnian genocide – the worst atrocity on European soil since the Second World War” said Dr Waqar Azmi OBE, the Chair Remembering Srebrenica, in his New Year’s message.
Harrow had its share of far-right targetting last year (they marked Harrow though didn’t come, but Harrow seems to have some far-right sympathisers).  
More than 8,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) boys and men, were killed by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica, a town in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, in July 1995. In addition to the killings, more than 20,000 civilians were expelled from the area – a process known as ethnic cleansing.
Earlier in July 2024, Stephen Doughty MP, Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), on behalf of His Majesty’s Government hosted the UK National Srebrenica Memorial Day organised by Remembering Srebrenica.
Remembering Srebrenica is part-funded by the UK Government and is committed to using the lessons from Srebrenica to tackle hatred and intolerance to help to build a better, safer and more cohesive society for everyone.
Holocaust Memorial Day: For a Better Future | Harrow

Harrow deputy mayor’s ‘incivility’ brushed aside

The Local Government Association Model Member Code of Conduct published by the Local Government Association in May 2020, says that the code requires a councillor to “treating other councillors and members of the public with civility” – civility, the LGA defines as the politeness and courtesy in behaviour, speech, and in the written word.
Within the scope of the code, the Harrow deputy mayor’s incivility at the council meeting on 23rd October 2024 [heckling, banging the Mayor’s gavel on the bench, and harshly directing words as well as a finger towards a councillor] was reported to the council.
But the Conservative council monitoring officer did not find anything wrong with the Cllr Anjana Patel’s incivility and rather justified it in her letter to us: “Councillor Patel tells me that she was trying to assist the Mayor with the smooth running of the meeting. I understand that the Mayor is not offended by her actions”. The monitoring officer judgement based on these collaborative statements is insecure, because the research shows no such protocol for a deputy mayor!
On the other hand, the page 40 of the Civic Ceremonial Handbook, History and Guidance for Mayors, Councillors and Officer clearly says that “the deputy only has a civic, legal and Royal status in the absence of the Mayor”.
The role of the deputy mayor sitting with the mayor at the council meeting is to quietly observe, as previous council mayors would confirm.
Difficult to ignore that the Conservative Cllr Patel is known to be a good friend of the mayor, who chose her his deputy despite Cllr Patel being in the unfavourable headlines (links below). Cllr Patel is also a potential mayor of Harrow from the Conservative administration.
Commentary:
From 2.40.51 to 2.41.09 the timeline of the council meeting on 23rd October 2024 shows the deputy mayor’s ‘disrespect’ and an overreaching of her duties, undermining the mayor’s role.
“It is not uncommon for Councillors to be interrupted and heckled during speeches. During my own contribution to the meeting, I was interrupted at various times” reported Cllr David Perry, leader of the Labour group on the council, after the council meeting.
But “following the meeting, I received verbal complaints from three past Mayors of Harrow who raised the disrespectful and inappropriate behaviour of the Deputy Mayor during proceedings by heckling and banging the Mayor’s gavel on the bench” Cllr Perry said.
Councillor Anjana Patel, deputy mayor selected by the Conservative group for the year 2024-25 and formalised by the mayor, is likely to progress to become the Harrow mayor this May, which is concerning given the following:

Harrow council budget, opposition concerned

Untitled-3Harrow council cabinet has recently approved raising Council tax by 4.99% in the coming year.
The opposition Labour group is concerned that  “this will take the total increase in Council Tax until 2027 up to 20% since 2023”.
Furthermore, along with the stakeholders in the voluntary sector, the opposition group has opposed the proposed £1.3m cuts, stressing the “huge impact” on vulnerable groups.
“This cut has received overwhelming opposition from the local voluntary sector, including Citizens Advice Harrow and even Council frontline staff have argued that this budget could increase poverty, neglect, deprivation, and mental health issues” said Cllr David Perry, leader of the Labour group.
He has urged the council to reverse the cuts to most vulnerable families, who will be negatively impacted by this budget.
Regarding the impact of the financial decisions on vulnerable in the borough, Cllr David Ashton, lead executive member for the finances, said: 
“We are protecting those in the vulnerable category. We are also establishing a £250000 hardship fund to assist those in particular need”.
He informs that they are facing huge increases in the Adult social care area and Homelessness. Both are statutory requirements.
“Labour shout about council finances and the council tax support scheme and yet meanwhile the Government cuts winter fuel payments with no equalities impact review or consultation” he added.