Posts

‘Forget the homeless, what about the coffee drinkers?’ LBWF v. The Christian Kitchen (Part 1): Councillor Terry Wheeler makes a stand

March 13, 2015 Christian Kitchen, Cllr. Clyde Loakes, Cllr. Terry Wheeler

A local correspondent writes as follows: ‘Waltham Forest Council is big on celebrating its own perceived achievements and spending our money to do so. You would think that having a local charity like the Christian Kitchen which feeds the homeless 365 days a year would be worth celebrating, but unfortunately, in 2013 our less than enlightened leaders decided otherwise by revoking its licence to operate from Mission Grove Car Park, Walthamstow, for an hour every evening from 7.30 to 8.30pm. In the battle that followed, which ended with the High Court declaring the Council’s decision unlawful, one councillor, Terry Wheeler of Cathall Ward, spoke out and defied the leadership, and in an em... »

, , ,

Waltham Forest Pool and Track, again

March 12, 2015 Waltham Forest Pool and Track

Reporting on Tuesday’s planning committee meeting, Amanda Connolly writes: ‘Last night we had a great turnout at the Pool and Track Application. We had 12 articulate, emotional and compelling speakers. The Chamber and seating areas were full. The general feeling from Committee and Councillors was that if we didn’t pass the plans, the whole project was at risk of failing (and as the Council has already let the place be demolished that would be a travesty). Long story short, the plans were passed with some minor conditions that they “continue” (!!) to consult with users over their concerns (including child safeguarding issues and disability access, amazing we had ... »

, , , , , ,

Documenting Past Failures: (7) The Independent Panel and a ‘scathing’ report on LBWF’s ‘deep-rooted culture of non-compliance with procedures to prevent fraud’.

March 9, 2015 Independent Panel

In mid-2009, the crisis around the BNI finally came to a head. The Council had spent c. £116,000 on a series of seven or eight disparate inquiries into the programme, (Waltham Forest Guardian, 17 June 2009)  culminating in the PwC report, but some were obviously flawed, few convinced, and almost all begged further questions. Negative press coverage continued, as when the Waltham Forest Guardian revealed that, contrary to previous assurances, BNI money was being used to subsidise Waltham Forest’s 2012 projects department, with the further revelation – that the documentation here was also in chaos – then adding insult to injury (Waltham Forest Guardian, 19 August 2008). LBWF had ju... »

, , , , , , , , , , ,

Documenting Past Failures: (6) Cllr. Loakes, PwC, and the BNI Community Cohesion Projects

March 6, 2015 BNI Community Cohesion Projects, Cllr. Clyde Loakes

As I have described in the previous post in this series, the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report was a revelation. The figures already recounted tell much of the story. But to get a full picture of the chaos that PwC uncovered, it is necessary to look at some of its unpublished findings on individual BNI files, and there is no better place to start than with the batch concerning ‘community cohesion’. Let me set the scene. At the beginning of 2007, I was becoming increasingly anxious about the BNI programme (not least because there appeared to be a looming underspend on the financial year of substantial proportions) and so contacted Cllr. Clyde Loakes, Leader of the Council and Ch... »

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Documenting Past Failures: (5) The BNI – ‘We’re awfully sorry, folks. Mistakes were made about how we spent millions of pounds of public money. But it’s all in the past. Let’s move forward and forget it’.

March 6, 2015 The BNI

By the spring of 2008, the situation with the Better Neighbourhoods Initiative (BNI) programme was becoming untenable. The Council’s Corporate Audit and Anti-Fraud Team had just reported on the Dr. Foster episode, had nearly completed its work on EduAction’s Youth at Risk project, and was chasing new leads.  A consultant’s examination of the BNI which was presented to Cabinet concluded there had been ‘systematic failures by officers to follow sound procedures’. Police investigations were said to be ongoing. Negative coverage in the local press continued. So LBWF reacted as it had always done, almost by reflex, and appointed yet another consultant, no less than PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) th... »

, , , , , , ,
Page 80 of 86«‹7879808182›»