Statement on EDL ban

The Home Secretary has approved the Metropolitan Police’s application to ban all marches in certain areas of London (including Tower Hamlets) for a period of 30 days starting from 2 September.

This means the proposed English Defence League march in Tower Hamlets on 3 September will not go ahead.

Mayor Lutfur Rahman, who campaigned for the EDL march to be banned, has welcomed this decision.

He said: “I thank the Home Secretary for making this decision, which means we can now move forward as a community free from the threat of the EDL marching through our borough with their messages of hate.

This has always been a borough where people of different faiths, cultures and backgrounds live in harmony, and we will not be divided by the EDL.

It is the correct decision, and I would like to reiterate my thanks to the thousands of people that supported our efforts to get this march banned. Their support has been fantastic, and I am delighted that our efforts have been successful. Once again we have shown we are One Tower Hamlets.

The police have pledged a significant presence on our streets to ensure that our borough remains peaceful and any disturbances will be dealt with swiftly. I am calling on all our residents and young people to work with the police and report any incidents to them”.

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Tower Hamlets achieves best ever GCSE results!

Teenagers across Tower Hamlets cheered with joy as they collected their GCSE results last week.

Provisional figures show that across the borough, local pupils achieved the best GCSE results the borough has ever seen, with 61 per cent of youngsters achieving at least five A* to C passes including English and Maths.

While national figures are not yet available, this tops the national average of 54 per cent last year and is nearly thirty per cent higher than where Tower Hamlets was just five years ago.

Provisional figures for A* to C grades in any subject have also hit an all-time high in Tower Hamlets, at a staggering 82 per cent. This is nearly double the percentage of pupils who achieved the equivalent in 2002.

I joined pupils at Bow School of Maths and Computing and Central Foundation School for Girls, as they opened their results envelopes.

As a former pupil, coming back to Bow Boys certainly brought back fond memories for me.

Once again, pupils across Tower Hamlets have really done us proud by achieving excellent results and showing the rest of the country that we’re catching up with, and potentially overtaking, national averages across the board.

I can’t wait to see the final results when they’re released by the Department for Education in the coming months. Tower Hamlets has come so far in terms of attainment in recent years and a big part of that is down to the hard work of our pupils – well done.

Over the coming years, secondary education in Tower Hamlets will continue to be transformed as the council continues its Building Schools for the Future programme.

An initiative of the former government, Building Schools for the Future is a £350 million programme that will see 21 of the borough’s secondary schools rebuilt or refurbished over the next few years.

As part of a £31.4 million rebuild, Bow Boys will be relocated to Bow Lock, creating space for an additional 950 pupils.

Central Foundation School will also be transformed from its current split-site layout through a £22 million refurbishment that will also provide a much-needed sixth form.

These are exciting times for education in Tower Hamlets.

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