Helga Gladbaum pays tribute to Tayo Oladapo

Helga Gladbaum has asked me to publish this Guest Blog

 

Tribute to the late Cllr. Tayo Oladapo

I am dismayed that the late Councillor Tayo Oladapo, representing the Labour Party in Kilburn ward for six years and who died at an early age at the end of January of this year has still not been given a decent burial nor a mention in any local publication.

I therefore would like to give my own tribute to Tayo. He was elected to be a Labour councillor in 2010 and he was one of much younger councillors at the time.

Tayo was a member of the Education Scrutiny committee which I chaired for a number of years. He always attended the meetings of that committee and would walk over to me at the end of the meetings to talk about education and other matters. He was very respectful and I had great hopes that he would eventually make an important contribution to the work of the Council.

I remember a number of Brent councillors passing away over the years, notably Cllr. Paul Daisley, leader of Brent Council and MP for Brent Central, Cllr. Reg Freeson, MP for Brent Central for many years and Cllr. Tom Taylor, chair of education for a number of years and leader of the Conservative group. They and others were always honoured for their contribution to the political life of Brent.

I fail to understand why these long-standing traditions have been broken in the case of the late Cllr. Tayo Oladapo. I will remember you, Tayo.

Helga Gladbaum

Councillor for Harlesden ward 2010 to 2014