A note for readers…
This is a personal blog, which aims to scrutinise the powers that be in Waltham Forest, from the Council (hereafter London Borough of Waltham Forest or LBWF), both elected members and staff; to our MP... »
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Private Eye covers the latest LBWF safeguarding scandal
From Private Eye No.1643 21 February-6 March 2025. It’s good that PE highlights the witless response of Cllr. Mitchell. In another, more honourable time, many would have expected her to resign. »
LBWF’s equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) programme: necessary corrective or self-serving extravagance?
In the past couple of years, and without much public commentary, the senior management team in LBWF has been seeking to transform the prevailing culture in the Town Hall by introducing and then champi... »
The local Senior Coroner points the finger at LBWF as details emerge about yet another safeguarding scandal
The tragic death of Tracey Turnell has been much covered in the media, and last week Senior East London Coroner Graeme Irving held an inquest to review the surrounding circumstances, which the Investi... »
The Housing Ombudsman Service upholds local council tenant Michelle Edwards’ complaints about her lamentable treatment by LBWF, again undermining LBWF’s claim to be resident focused
In a recent ruling, the Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) finds in favour of long-term local council tenant Michelle Edwards over the way that LBWF has handled a series of complaints that she submitted ... »
LBWF’s fire safety remediation programme lags as asbestos found in some of the high-rise housing blocks being upgraded
As previous posts have noted (see links below), LBWF’s remediation programme (RP) to make its 42 low-rise and 21 high-rise housing blocks fully fire safe still has much work to do. The RP was launched... »
The Whitefield School child abuse scandal: an update
On 27 November 2024, the LBWF Leader Cllr. Grace Williams released a statement on Whitefield School which included the following: ‘We have worked closely with the academy trust, Ofsted, Department for... »
LBWF’s Violence Reduction Partnership aims to reduce knife crime, but after 5 years, £6.6m. of funding, and only disappointing results, it urgently needs a re-think
In the middle years of the 2010s, there was escalating public disquiet in Waltham Forest about violent crime, particularly knife crime involving local youth, with newspaper reports focusing on both th... »
The Whitefield School child abuse scandal: the BBC publishes more awful revelations
The BBC has just published more awful revelations about the Whitefield School child abuse scandal, which can be read here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjw0e3zjx2lo.amp For the background to th... »
More on LBWF’s failure to keep tenants in its low-rise and high-rise housing blocks safe from fire
A few weeks ago, and in response to a Freedom of Information Act question, LBWF released further data about the remediation programme it is running to address the fire safety defects which exist in al... »