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Documenting Past Failures: (10) LBWF and Worknet: a tale of underperformance, failure, and the betrayal of local people

March 24, 2015 Worknet

Between 2008 and 2014, LBWF operated Worknet, a multi-million pound programme, funded from London and central government sources, delivered by outside ‘partners’, and aimed at helping local people find employment. At first, LBWF gave Worknet significant publicity, and presented it as a major initiative. For example, in November 2009, Council Leader Cllr. Chris Robbins told WFN: ‘“Waltham Forest have always said our 2012 Legacy…will be…jobs, education and opportunity…Huge strides have been taken towards achieving that…with our Worknet jobs programme”’. However, by late 2013, Worknet had all but faded from view. Indeed, when I attended a consultation with Council staff that year, a... »

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Town Hall asbestos: LBWF comments, at last

March 23, 2015 Town Hall asbestos

On 27 January 2015, Trevor Calver and I called for LBWF Chief Executive Martin Esom to resign over the Town Hall asbestos affair. Here is the correspondence that followed in date order, beginning at the bottom with our initial e-mail.   20 March 2015 ‘Dear Mr. Fenwick, Thank you for your e-mail. Most of it of course is entirely irrelevant to the points that we raised with Mr. Esom on 27 January 2015, points he has subsequently been so reticent about responding to. As to the parts that are relevant, our response is as follows. First, your contention that there was a ‘discovery’ of asbestos in the Town Hall in 2012 is entirely inaccurate. Winton reported that asbestos was present in... »

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Documenting Past Failures: (9) the collapse of LBWF’s pet charity, O-Regen

March 18, 2015 Past failures: O-Regen

The registered charity O-Regen was set-up in 1997 as part of the redevelopment of Cathall estate, and charged with running community facilities in the south of the borough together with various programmes to benefit local residents. From the start, O-Regen appeared blessed. It was presented with a £4.5m endowment as well as a portfolio of 16 leasehold properties yielding an income of £120,000 p.a.; its board of trustees included many of the borough’s ‘great and good’ – at one time or another, the likes of Michael Polledri and Guy Davis (‘big players in the business and construction scene in Waltham Forest’, as the Waltham Forest Guardian described them), plus a raft of councillors, including... »

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Documenting Past Failures: (8) the self-defeating silence of Councillor Marie Pye

March 13, 2015 Cllr. Marie Pye

Shortly after the Independent Panel report, I attended a Community Council meeting, and heard Cllr. Marie Pye vociferously denying any responsibility for the NRF/BNI fiasco. So I wrote her an open letter explaining why I thought she was wrong. Needless to say, in true Waltham Forest style, she never replied. However, to some extent the last laugh is on her, because if you Google ‘Cllr. Marie Pye’ today, amusingly, my letter comes up as entry four. Anyway, here is the letter in full, as I believe still that it makes a perfectly valid point.   22 January 2010 Dear Councillor Pye The NRF-BNI fiasco I was surprised to hear that, after the Community Council on Monday night, you t... »

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‘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... »

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