Councillor Mrs. Angela Graham

Agenda

The meeting began with a recitation of the Quran by the Mayor's Faith Leader, Ali Jafri. The Council then approved an update to the council's capital spending plans, despite some abstentions from Conservative councillors. Two motions were then considered. The first, proposed by the Labour administration, was a general statement in support of children's safety and wellbeing and was passed despite opposition from the Conservative group. The second, proposed by the Conservatives, expressed concern at the loss of winter fuel payments for many pensioners and called on the Council to take steps to provide for those affected. This motion was defeated, with the Conservatives voting in favour and Labour against. The meeting concluded with the reception of reports from several committees.

Agenda

The committee noted three reports: the Borough Residence Forum report, the Housing Services Activity update, and the HRA business plan update. It also decided to award the Grounds Maintenance contract to an unnamed bidder, subject to consultation with leaseholders.

Agenda and draft minutes

The Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE) discussed a number of reports about the state of Religious Education (RE) in Wandsworth schools and the wider UK. The meeting concluded with a decision to write to the Department for Education (DfE) to express concerns about the quality of RE in the borough’s schools. The attendees also discussed plans for Wandsworth’s year as London Borough of Culture in 2025.

Agenda

The Grants Sub-Committee met to decide which organisations would receive grants from the Voluntary Sector Cost of Living Grant Fund and the Wandsworth Grant Fund. In total the committee recommended six applications from the Cost of Living Grant fund, for a total of £61,375, and eight from the Wandsworth Grant Fund, for a total of £76,856. During the discussion of the applications, there was some debate over whether the committee should take into account previous grants an organisation had received from the council when making their decisions, and there was also some debate over the criteria of the cost of living grant, with some councillors feeling that some otherwise good projects were not being funded because they did not meet the specific cost of living criteria.

Agenda

The meeting of Wandsworth Council's Borough Residents’ Forum was scheduled to receive updates on the roll-out of food waste collection on housing estates, as well as consider a new contract for grounds maintenance services and an update to the Housing Revenue Account Business Plan.