Posts

The forthcoming William Morris by-election: ex-Labour Titan Afzal Akram bounces back as a Tory (and with a bang) UPDATED

June 15, 2017 Cllr. Afzal Akram, Cllr. Liaquat Ali

Politicians in Waltham Forest are often good for a laugh, and the forthcoming William Morris ward by-election is not short of crackers. Labour is standing Umar Ali, brother of the recently deceased Nadeem (a thoroughly decent man, by all accounts), and son of Liaquat, the third in command of the party’s Town Hall contingent of councillors. Umar seems to have kept a low profile in the past, and so many are wondering what he has to offer. Questions are also being asked about how he arrived at the candidature, since no one seems to be sure when the selection process occurred, and who was involved – though it is fair to add that the Labour Party nowadays often does things in rather ad hoc ... »

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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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