Posts

Crime and policing latest: the Waltham Forest Safer Neighbourhood Board hits the skids again, and now LBWF – controversially – wants to disband it

October 5, 2021 Gang Prevention Programme, LBWF spin, Policing/crime

The Waltham Forest Safer Neighbourhood Board (WFSNB) brings together councillors and residents, and is a potentially very important component of the local fight against crime, supported, as it is, by LBWF, the Metropolitan Police Service,  and the Mayor’s Office for Policing And Crime (MOPAC), and charged with ‘bringing police and communities together to decide local policing and crime priorities, solve problems collaboratively and make sure that the public are involved in a wide range of other community safety decisions’. However, five years ago, when this blog last looked at the WFSNB, what emerged was shocking (see links below).  WFSNB meetings were few and ... »

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LBWF launches a £40m. programme to upgrade the fire safety of its social housing provision, but questions remain as to why this wasn’t done years ago

September 15, 2021 fire hazards, fire safety, Northwood Tower

It has long been suspected, by this blog not least, that LBWF is facing a major problem about fire safety in its social housing provision, and now some new evidence shows that not only is this true, but something is finally being done about it.  The pandemic has slowed down council reporting across the board, and so for the latest developments it is necessary to go back to a report presented by Divisional Director Housing Assets, Sumitra Gomer, at the Audit and Governance Committee meeting in January of the present year. This makes sobering reading. Ms. Gomer estimated that to bring all of LBWF’s housing units up to the standard required would take an astonishing 14,525 separate ‘action... »

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Looking back at the past, an occasional series. Part one: LBWF CEO Roger Kilburn is sacked and walks away with £356,000

September 8, 2021 Cllr. Chris Robbins, Independent Panel, NRF, Youth at Risk

The story reproduced below is from the Oldham Evening Chronicle of 11 June 2010, and deals with the dismissal of current LBWF CEO Martin Esom’s immediate predecessor, Andrew Kilburn. Briefly, Mr. Kilburn had come to Waltham Forest with a big reputation, gained during a long career in local government, and burnished by his recent leadership of Oldham Council through a period of heightened racial tension. Yet after just 21 months in his new post, Mr. Kilburn found himself surplus to requirements, and in circumstances that the Local Government Chronicle described as ‘mysterious’. What had gone wrong? Some posited a personality clash, with the newly appointed and autocratic C... »

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Another LBWF fire safety cock up: now its housing management agent, Morgan Sindall, replaces flat entrance doors ‘in error’

August 23, 2021 fire hazards, fire safety

Over the years, LBWF has gained a reputation for blunders, whether big, like recklessly exposing its own employees in the Town Hall to dangerous asbestos dust, or relatively small, like planning to spend £40,000’s worth of public money on an inappropriate and unwanted ‘artistic’ mural in Cann Hall. What follows is a further example of this disreputable tradition. As this blog has extensively reported, in 2017-18 LBWF installed 217 flat entrance doors (FEDs) at Walthamstow’s 21 floor Northwood Tower and four sheltered housing blocks, Boothby Court, Goddarts House, Holmcroft House, and Lime Court. At the time, LBWF claimed that the new FEDs were rated FD60 (i.e., they gave 60 minutes... »

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Cllr. Clyde Loakes and food standards: Waltham Forest revealed to be London’s least hygienic borough when it comes to visiting eateries, pubs, and supermarkets

August 19, 2021 Cllr. Clyde Loakes, food hygiene, LBWF spin

Every now and again, Cllr. Clyde Loakes, the relevant Cabinet portfolio holder, pops up in local media, and assures residents that LBWF is taking food hygiene very seriously. Thus, earlier this year, when LBWF closed three restaurants down, he opined ‘“This sends a very clear signal to that small minority of food businesses which think they can flout the law…We want residents in Waltham Forest to be able to order their food with confidence that it has been prepared in a safe and clean environment. There is no excuse for standards to drop and I hope that restaurant owners and their suppliers pay attention to these orders and costs. I’m pleased to say that most of our takeaways and restaurants... »

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