Great to see Cllr. Liaquat Ali make Private Eye again (see below, from No.1399, 21 August to 3 September 2015). Who will ever forget the outpouring of rejoicing when he received his MBE, for which see the comments box here: http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/9429878.WALTHAM_FOREST__Councillor_made_MBE/ »
On 17th July 2015, I used the Freedom of Information Act (FIA) to ask LBWF: ‘At a recent hearing in City Hall, Martin Esom (LBWF CEO) claimed re the Prevent programme: “We try to identify output measures to see how successful we are or otherwise….Our output measures are things like referrals through to Channel and all sorts of things like that. We have quite a broad range of indi... »
Over recent years, the E11 BID Co. has regularly been in the news, mainly for the wrong reasons. The latest, and most unsavoury episode, saw LBWF, operating on behalf of the E11 BID Co., take local Leytonstone businesses to court, gain a successful adjudication, and then call in the bailiffs, with the Waltham Forest Guardian reporting as follows: http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/13506732.Bail... »
Before, during, and after its recent court case over asbestos contamination in the Town Hall, LBWF gave the impression that, having been made aware of the problem in early 2012, it then spent a large sum of money making the building safe. Thus, to give one example, a LBWF briefing dated 16 July 2012 states: ‘From 24th February – 19th May, the contractor carried out the decontamination work r... »
I am currently collating further material on the Town Hall asbestos scandal, and much of it is very revealing. Here is a brief taste. As is by now widely known, LBWF first found out about asbestos in the Town Hall in 1984, though it was a subsequent survey of 2002 that filled in many of the details. In late 2011, LBWF decided to refurbish the Town Hall basement and reception areas, and in advance ... »
A little bit out of sequence, but for those who didn’t see it, this story (see ‘Lost in the Forest’, centre column, bottom) is interesting on LBWF and the E11 BID Co., the subject of previous posts. Its from Private Eye no.1388, 20 March-2 April 2015. »
See ‘Dust to Dust’, centre column, bottom of page. From Private Eye no. 1394, 12-25 June 2015. »
I was interested to hear Stella Creasy MP tell Andrew Neil on last week’s Sunday Politics show: ‘Do you think local government matters, Andrew, because I do. Local government is often the first place where people come into politics’. She is quite right, of course, and similar sentiments are exactly why I write this blog. But has she really lived up to her own words? There are plenty of things abou... »
Courtesy of the LBWF Growth Scrutiny Committee, I now have some up-to-date figures on how many people – and in particular how many local people – have attended The National Construction College’s Cathall Rd. facility. As I pointed out in a previous post on this subject, LBWF initially promised that the College would have a dramatic impact on the locality. In December 2010, Council Leader Cllr Chri... »
The previous ten posts in this series have looked at LBWF’s record of extensive failure over the past decade or so, and it is now apposite to offer some general conclusions. First, it is notable that, by and large, the cases examined share some common characteristics, which may be summarised as follows: (a) rule breaches On paper, LBWF has always possessed clear rules to govern programme inception... »