Posts

The LBWF Gang Prevention Programme: yet another missed opportunity

October 22, 2015 Cllr. Chris Robbins, Gang Prevention Programme, LBWF, Martin Esom, Youth at Risk

I have been meaning to write about Waltham Forest’s Gang Prevention Programme (GPP) for some time, and now seems as good a time as any. The GPP is coming towards the end of its fourth year, has cost several million pounds, and garnered significant national attention. Yet this summer the local newspaper reported a series of seemingly awful stabbings, shootings, and murders, often featuring young people either as victims of perpetrators, and a couple of weeks ago alleged that there had been a ‘riot’ in Walthamstow – a story that then went national. So it is apposite to ask: has the GPP made a difference, and if so, of what importance? First, a personal note. I was involved in the predecessors ... »

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LBWF in Private Eye, again, this time over Fred Wigg and John Walsh Towers

October 14, 2015 Cllr. Keith Rayner, Cllr.Patrick Edwards, Fred Wigg and John Walsh Towers, LBWF, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest, Waltham Forest Labour Party

To no-one’s real surprise, the current edition of Private Eye once again features LBWF, with a fairly long piece tracing the Fred Wigg and John Walsh Towers’ fiasco (see below, from No.1403, 16 October to 29 October 2015), also covered in previous posts here.  This is further embarrassment for local councillor and Liberal turncoat Keith Rayner, who despite claiming to have lived in one of the Towers sometime in the hazy past, and being given to lachrymose descriptions of Tory-induced poverty, now parrots his new senior Labour colleagues’ line that the planned privatisation, and the resulting re-location of many existing tenants, whatever their wishes, must go ahead come hel... »

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A week in the reign of our Leader….or is it?

October 1, 2015 Cllr. Chris Robbins, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest, Waltham Forest Labour Party

A reader gets in touch to say that he has found a document in one of the Town Hall skips, and thinks it is a page of a diary feature that the Leader was preparing for WFN. Personally, I have my doubts, no least because of the Bon Jovi comment (its widely known that Cllr. Loakes is a big Northern Soul fan and so would have chosen Al Wilson’s ‘The Snake’ ). Maybe one of the many Robbins-ologists out there can give me an expert opinion? I don’t want to end up with egg on my face like that nice Mr. Trevor-Roper. ‘Monday Day off! Mondays off for the Leader of the Council has to be one of the best things I’ve introduced in my time as Leader of the Council! Every... »

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Cllr. Johar Khan and the E11 BID Co.

September 29, 2015 Cllr. Johar Khan, E11 BID Co., the Labour Party in Waltham Forest, Waltham Forest Labour Party

During his relatively short time in the public eye, Cllr. Johar Khan has attracted a fair amount of publicity, little of it flattering. The commentariat has had fun with his personalised number plates and ostentatious wedding. Peers have been less than impressed by his appetite for work, with one, the illustrious James O’Rourke, alleging: ‘When he and I were Councillors in High Street ward he did sod all’. And the fact that Cllr. Khan was not only much involved in the machinations that prefaced the implosion of the local Liberal Democrats, but also then jumped ship to Labour, has hardly burnished his reputation for either personal loyalty or political principle. However, one aspect of Cllr. ... »

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LBWF Chief Executive Martin Esom’s evidence at the Town Hall asbestos trial: the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

September 18, 2015 LBWF, LBWF spin, Martin Esom, Town Hall asbestos

The following speaks for itself. 18 September 2015 Dear Mr. Esom, We write to you about the letter dated 30 January 2014 that you submitted to the HSE and the courts prior to LBWF’s recent prosecution over Town Hall asbestos contamination. We remind you that this letter was produced in lieu of an interview under PACE; and that you explicitly recognised it might ‘be used in the event of any enforcement proceedings’. We further remind you that in the letter, you underline that you are intent upon ‘frankly’ dealing with the issues at hand. All this being the case, we are very surprised at some of the points that you make, and three are especially troubling. 1. The availability of the 2002 Town ... »

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