EASTBURY WARD part 1

This ward is to be congratualated, it is the rebel base, North Street have made no inroads at all in this ward, not for the want of trying though.

As is usual with all of our postings these are a matter of rumour, observations, allegations, anecdote and historical memory, BUT we are told with this one there is documented evidence that has been accepted by Ken Clark in part.

As usual North Street mafia have tried their corrupt methods in an attempt to gain control of the ward before its AGM in March, this process started we understand in the latter part of last year, when one of the mafia a Mr Riaz claimed he was living in the ward, very stupid man this, didnt realise that the address he was claiming to live at was apart from a small road in between right next door to the ward secretary.

Still on they pushed, Mr Riaz, sometimes accompanied by Laila Butt and Mr Aziz then started visiting BME members in the ward, claiming quite wrongly that the white members in the ward would not allow BME members to stand as councillors.

Mr Riaz even went so far as to commit fraud on a number of genuine white members in the ward by getting them to sign, what he said was his petition to stand in the ward, but what actually turned out to be false letters of complaint stating that members had not been notified of the AGM.

The ward took the decision to make a formal complaint to the General Secretary, letters and evidence of Riaz and others corrupt practices were sent in. We understand that Mr Riaz was very quickly moved out of Eastbury ward membership list, and funny enough he cannot be found on any membership list in Barking now, but it did not end there.

Very stupidly Mr Riaz gave the game away himself in a phone call to one of the members, the transcript of which we have now seen. It appears that so boastful and proud of what he and the others had done Mr Riaz actually thought he was safe enough to thank this member for helping him get rid of Val Rush.

Eastbury ward members were inflamed when this was reported to their next meeting by the Chair, and as they had been instructed that they had to re run their AGM in Rob Chapmans presence, Chapman spent a very uncomfortable evening we are told, with members telling him just what they thought.

And they re elected the same officers as before. This will not have pleased North Street, the membership in Eastbury are standing shoulder and shoulder together and were prepared for the fight.

So we come to the Selection Interviews, because of the interference of the Local Government Committee these had to be held in Dagenham, Eastbury could only get 6 members there on a Saturday afternoon. So of course they were overwhelmed by the Executive of Barking CLP who had their list and outed the 3 candidates that the ward wanted and put in their own, but they have come unstuck this time.

Barking clp tried to put 2 people on the Exec who had no right to be there, Eastbury ward objected and now the selection has to be re run. A minor victory for the rebels yes, but a clear indication that corruption can and should be challenged, and can be beaten.

For forms sake in our next post we will give you a run through the 3 candidates that the North street mafia wanted to force on Eastbury ward.

As always these are subject of rumour, allegations, observations, anecdote historical memory, but in this case clear documented evidence.