Councillor Begum – Unfit for office
Nobody who has seen the recent excerpt from the BBC programme, ‘The Planners’, which I posted about recently, could not fail to have noticed how Rochdale Councillor Shefali Begum, pushed through, against planning officer advice to refuse, a planning application for a Mosque extension, by cutting short the time for planning committee debate. By doing this she managed to deny those opposed to the mosque extension a chance to air their views. The only person who was seen to speak, in the clip, on the project from the floor was the man proposing the mosque extension. Only the planning officers objections were heard, The film left the distinct impression that a combination of Islamic and Labour party politics has rendered Rochdale council institutionally ‘bent’.
See the clip here:
http://www.mrctv.org/videos/bbc-mosque-approval-granted-quick-and-dirty
Going against the learned decisions of the planning committee and distorting the planning committee process for such naked political and communal reasons, as was grotesquely apparent in the film, is a flagrant misuse of power.
Not surprisingly Ms Begum is a Labour party councillor and this is yet another case where Labour councillors and activists have sided with Islamic causes, for example in the case of Chipping Norton, where Labour members of the District Council set aside the decision of the Town council to refuse permission for a mosque.
It doesn’t look as if this Rochdale case is going to go away, or the anger about it die down. There appears to be a growing number of people who have been angered by this naked abuse of power for sectarian reasons. It does make a person wonder, if Rochdale, and other Labour councils of a similar type, and with a similar demographic, behave like this when the cameras are there, how much more are they appeasing and favouring Islamic causes when the cameras are NOT there?
As well as things like signing petitions, a link to one of which is pasted below, people should write and tell Councillor Begum (contact details below) hopefully politely, what you think of her performance on that programme and let her know that there is a growing displeasure at such naked appeasement of the ideology of Islam. I’m going to ask her, who is she representing? Is she representing the generality of those who elected her (assuming she was elected honestly that is, you can never tell in Labour/Islamic areas) or is she representing only Islam? I think that is a fair question to ask because on the film she certainly didn’t look as if she was respecting the process of local democracy very well at all.
Links
Petition to Rochdale Council regarding the behaviour of Councillor Begum
Interesting discussion on the subject from a local Rochdale bulletin board
http://rochdaletalk.forumotion.co.uk/t408-the-planners-bbc2
Previous article on this subject on here about Labour Party and Islamic corruption
Chipping Norton article from here
https://www.fahrenheit211.net/2013/02/21/chipping-norton-mosque-story-latest-news/
Here is Councillor Begum’s Candidate pitch from 2012
She says she is all for women’s rights, in that case why is she giving a free pass to the Islamic ideology that imprisons and oppresses women throughout the world? Some double standard there it seems. Or just plain old Labour party lies.
http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/elections/election-pitch/825/shefali-begum
Councillor Begum’s contact details. Please make all communications with her polite and truthful.
Ward: Spotland & Falinge
Party: Labour
Address:
PO Box 15
Town Hall
Rochdale
OL16 1AB
Tel: 07956 334 071
Email: shefali.begum@rochdale.gov.uk
If you have no joy in complaining to Rochdale Council who will probably try to fob you off with some old rubbish then if you have taken your complaint as far as you can with Rochdale council themselves, then try the Local Government Obudsman
