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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Introduction
Posts
LBWF gets peer reviewed…but are the results credible?
In 2024, LBWF volunteered itself for a Local Government Association (LGA) Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC), that is an audit by a team of ‘senior local government councillors and officers’ from outside ... »
LBWF’s new back office Oracle Fusion networking platform: management miracle or cash drain?
In December 2021 LBWF decided to modernise its back office by installing a cloud based networking platform made by the leading American company Oracle (‘Big Red’). Subsequently, this innovation has be... »
The Iranian government’s brutal repression, and the tremors being felt (or not) in Waltham Forest
In October 2024, I posted on the close relationship between Waltham Forest’s Great and Good and the local Faizan e Islam Educational and Cultural Trust (see link below). I noted that only a brief... »
Auditors KPMG slam LBWF’s failure to achieve value for money and realise ‘targeted savings’
KPMG is currently working on LBWF’s accounts for the year to 31 March 2025, and in that connection recently issued an interim report. Much of this is uncontroversial, but there is one set of findings ... »
LBWF claims penury, but compared to 2020-21 it now employs 9 per cent more staff, and pays out 36 per cent more in wages
Both the current LBWF Leader, Cllr. Grace Williams, and her predecessor, Cllr. Clare Coghill, repeatedly have warned that LBWF is under financial pressure, and argued that this necessitates ‘savings’ ... »
LBWF repeatedly claims it is taking residents’ complaints seriously…but just as repeatedly fails to do so
In the last few years, LBWF has repeatedly claimed that it is taking residents’ complaints seriously, and learning from them, explaining: ‘Complaints are an important way for an organisation to be acc... »
LBWF, the Whitefield School abuse victims, and their special needs care plans: a discreditable failure, and one that reflects wider truths about local child safeguarding
As previously noted, the January 2017 Ofsted report on Whitefield was the first to reveal the abuse that children had suffered in the school’s ‘calming rooms’ (see links), and it is no surprise to fin... »
Hate crime in Waltham Forest update: LBWF and the police still treat it as a key priority, but the facts don’t support them
In February 2023, a post on this blog examined hate crime in Waltham Forest, and queried why LBWF and the local police force was treating it as a key priority, worthy of enhanced financial and adminis... »
As a programme to retrain the Town Hall’s frontline managers is revealed to have been deeply flawed, doubts again surface about how LBWF spends public money
In the past few years LBWF has vigorously pursued an equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) agenda aimed at transforming its internal culture, an agenda that has involved all employees, from top to b... »
Cathall Labour Councillor Jonathan O’Dea dropped as a candidate at next year’s local elections: is it because he has spoken publicly about the Whitefield child abuse scandal?
In the past few weeks, the Waltham Forest Echo has reported extensively on the deselection of longstanding Cathall Councillor Jonathan O’Dea. Earlier this year, the paper reveals, Cllr. O’De... »