Author: Nick Tiratsoo

Waltham Forest Town Hall fat cats block information about… Waltham Forest Town Hall fat cats

April 22, 2025 Senior Staff Pay

Every March LBWF has a legal obligation under the Local Government Transparency Code (LGTC) 2015 and various other statutes to publish a Pay Policy Statement. Amongst other things, this must include: (a) a list of senior staff whose salary is £50,000 and upwards, with details of exactly what they earn; their job title; their responsibilities; and their bonuses and ‘benefits-in-kind’; and  (b) for senior staff whose salaries are £150,000 or more, their names. In past years, LBWF has by and large complied, appending the required information in a comprehensive appendix to the main docum... »

More on the Whitefield School child abuse scandal: two inquiries raise plenty of questions, but provide far fewer answers

April 15, 2025 child safeguarding, Whitefield

The Whitefield School scandal is without doubt the most shocking of any in Waltham Forest’s post-war history, involving as it does historic allegations that staff had subjected tens of children with learning difficulties and severe mental disorders to violent abuse (see links below). Thanks to three detailed reports by Noel Titheradge for the BBC, the first on 14 October 2021, the second two on 30 April and then 26 November 2024, much has become known about the sequence and character of the story. But, regrettably, there also are still gaps, instances where the truth is unclear, and this post ... »

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Private Eye reports LBWF’s failure to properly monitor the corporate credit cards issued to its senior managers

April 3, 2025 LBWF spin, Local Government Transparency Code, Mark Hynes

From Private Eye No.1646 4-17 April 2025 »

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LBWF, lobbyists, and ‘partner’ companies: greasing the wheels of commerce or corporate capture?

March 17, 2025 Mini Holland, Redevelopment

For the past fifteen years or so, LBWF has worked with a variety of private developers and infrastructure engineers to radically reshape the borough’s built environment. The formal relationships between these different parties of course are recorded in council minutes, contracts, press releases, and similar. But there has been plenty going on behind the scenes as well, and to shed some light on these less overt interactions, the following looks at two brief case-studies. The first is about lobbying, and its starting point is a short Linkedin comment that was posted by one Peter Bingle: Why is ... »

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LBWF has issued corporate credit cards to its senior managers, but broken the law for many years by failing to publish data tracking their use

February 27, 2025 LBWF spin, Local Government Transparency Code, Mark Hynes

For the past two decades or so, LBWF has issued its senior managers with corporate credit cards. And, since 2015, following the introduction of the Local Government Transparency Code (LGTC), LBWF also has been legally required to publish data on how these cards are being used. But with the exception of one year, 2016, the latter is something which LBWF has, without explanation, completely failed to do.  Challenged about this in January 2025, LBWF’s Corporate Director – Internal Audit, Anti-Fraud, Revenues and Benefits, Gemma Young, states that ‘The corporate credit card data is bein... »

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Private Eye covers the latest LBWF safeguarding scandal

February 19, 2025 Safeguarding

From Private Eye No.1643 21 February-6 March 2025. It’s good that PE highlights the witless response of Cllr. Mitchell. In another, more honourable time, many would have expected her to resign. »

LBWF’s equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) programme: necessary corrective or self-serving extravagance?

February 18, 2025 EDI

In the past couple of years, and without much public commentary, the senior management team in LBWF has been seeking to transform the prevailing culture in the Town Hall by introducing and then championing a major equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) programme.  Specifically, the aim has been to ensure that: (a) ‘our workforce reflects the diversity of our community’, on the basis that this will ‘lead to stronger connections with our communities and better design of services’;  (b) there is maximum ‘inclusivity’ so that ‘people feel safe to bring their authentic selves to work’;&n... »

The local Senior Coroner points the finger at LBWF as details emerge about yet another safeguarding scandal

February 7, 2025 Safeguarding

The tragic death of Tracey Turnell has been much covered in the media, and last week Senior East London Coroner Graeme Irving held an inquest to review the surrounding circumstances, which the Investigations Reporter of the East London and West Essex Guardian Series, Charles Thompson, diligently covered here https://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/24904405.tracey-turnell-death-coroner-suggests-waltham-forest-discipline-staff/ and this is the source for much of the following. At the outset, Mr. Irvine called Ms. Turnell’s death ‘“horrifying”, and added ‘“It is a truly, truly appalling case”... »

The Housing Ombudsman Service upholds local council tenant Michelle Edwards’ complaints about her lamentable treatment by LBWF, again undermining LBWF’s claim to be resident focused

January 24, 2025 Housing, Ombudsman

In a recent ruling, the Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) finds in favour of long-term local council tenant Michelle Edwards over the way that LBWF has handled a series of complaints that she submitted in 2022 and 2023 (the most serious about Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB)) and concludes that that there have been four clear instances of LBWF ‘maladministration’. Some of the details are eye catching. For example, the HOS reports that when Ms. Edwards submitted one of her ASB complaints, LBWF not only failed to log it properly, but then broke the deadlines stipulated by its own complaints procedure a... »

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LBWF’s fire safety remediation programme lags as asbestos found in some of the high-rise housing blocks being upgraded

January 15, 2025 asbestos, fire safety

As previous posts have noted (see links below), LBWF’s remediation programme (RP) to make its 42 low-rise and 21 high-rise housing blocks fully fire safe still has much work to do. The RP was launched in 2020, with £40m. earmarked as support, but at the beginning of 2025, there remain nearly 2,000 high and medium risk issues in the blocks which need addressing, and many of these concern fundamentals, ‘Door Repairs/Renewal’, ‘Fire Alarm System’, ‘Smoke/Fire Detection’, ‘Fire Signage’, and so on. Now it can be revealed that part of the explanation for the RP’s lack of progress stems from the fac... »

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