Posts

Council Leader Clare Coghill, trader Asghar Jilow, and the controversy over Walthamstow Street Market

June 12, 2017 Cllr. Clare Coghill, Mini Holland

In recent months, there has been a good deal of controversy about the future of Walthamstow’s famous street market and the shops that surround it. LBWF is involved in a strategic review, but many traders remain unimpressed, arguing that this is pointless because it fails to address two debilitating problems, which they believe are Mini-Holland and the authorities’ failure to clamp down on crime and ant-social behaviour. One trader, Asghar Jilow, has been especially vocal, and I reproduce below (with permission) some of his correspondence with the new LBWF Leader, Cllr. Clare Coghill. What is particularly interesting about this, perhaps, is less the issues themselves, and more the way that Mr... »

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Knife crime in Waltham Forest: a nasty little scandal (4)

June 9, 2017 Gang Prevention Programme, Policing/crime

Responding to my follow up e-mail to members of the Community Safety Scrutiny Committee, its chair, Cllr. Masood Ahmad states as follows: ‘Just to confirm, the Scrutiny Committee for Communities has not received any data relating to Sanction Detection Rates during the year. However, I would like to reassure you that we looked at a range of performance indicators relating to community safety, which include data on the total number of recorded crimes, the number of “MOPAC 7” offences, and the number of re-offences by the gang cohort being targeted by the Gangs Programme. We also looked at other data relating to violent crime as part of our inquiry into the gang prevention programme, whic... »

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Extremism in Waltham Forest: an update (3)

June 8, 2017 Prevent

The BBC is currently reporting as follows: ‘Three terror suspects arrested in east London armed raids Three men have been arrested on suspicion of terror offences following a series of raids involving armed police, in east London. Two men, aged 34 and 37, were detained in Newham, while a third man aged 33 was arrested at an address in Waltham Forest. All three have been taken to a south London police station. The arrests are not connected to the attacks on London Bridge and in Borough Market, Scotland Yard said. In a separate investigation, counter-terror police made a series of arrests in Ilford, east London, on Wednesday night in connection with the London Bridge atrocity. They came ... »

The E11 BID Co. apparently set to close, but big questions remain

June 2, 2017 E11 BID Co., Uncategorized, Waltham Forest Business Board

Word reaches me that the E11 BID Co. directors have decided to throw in the towel, and shut their company at Christmas. If true, this is good news, for although the E11 BID Co. claims to have put its disaterous past behind it, there are still enough flaws in its functioning to give grave cause for concern. Well-run companies, for example, submit their accounts on time. But the visitor who looks up the E11 BID Co. at Companies House today is greeted by the following: Meanwhile the E11 BID2 Ltd. remains as big a mystery as ever. We know that LBWF now feeds this recently created entity the BID levy, true, but that is about all. Why exactly the company was set up, what its aims are, and how it i... »

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Knife crime in Waltham Forest: a nasty little scandal (3)

May 30, 2017 Cllr. Liaquat Ali, Policing/crime

Cllr. Liaquat Ali MBE JP is the long-standing LBWF Cabinet portfolio lead for community safety and cohesion, a position which involves, amongst other things, responsibility for the local ‘crime and disorder’ and ‘anti-gangs’ strategies. In recognition of his Cabinet role, and in addition to his councillor’s allowance, Cllr. Ali receives the sum of no less than c. £21,000 p.a. Most people will assume that, as a well-paid portfolio lead, Cllr. Ali rigorously attends the Waltham Forest Safer Neighbourhoods Board (WFSNB), since (a) he is listed as a member of that body (he even includes this information on his LBWF web page, see here http://democracy.walthamforest.gov.uk/mgUserInfo.a... »

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