Posts

Cllr. Khevyn Limbajee’s register of interests form: another case of Waltham Forest-itis?

March 11, 2018 Cllr. Khevyn Limbajee, Mark Hynes, Redevelopment, register of interests, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

Over the years this blog has periodically revealed that LBWF councillors have surprising difficulty keeping their register of interests forms as accurate and up-to-date as the agreed standards require, a very obvious example of Waltham Forest-itis. Now another possible case of this unfortunate malady may be on the cards. Cllr. Khevyn Limbajee is the Cabinet portfolio holder for housing, who, with his estate agent chic and penchant for social media, syncs so perfectly with the ongoing middle-class takeover of the Labour Party. As of today, Cllr. Limbajee’s register of interests form, posted on the LBWF website, includes this about his current job: No room for doubt there, then: Cllr. Li... »

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Waltham Forest’s Safer Neighbourhoods Board and MOPAC funding: the scandal continues

February 16, 2018 Gang Prevention Programme, LBWF spin, Policing/crime

A post of September past (see link below) reported that, though in FYs 2015-16 and 2016-17 the Waltham Forest Safer Neighbourhood Board (WFSNB) had been allotted £78,000 of Mayor’s Officer for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) funding, and promised to rigorously track how this was spent, it had so far failed to submit anywhere near the required number of monitoring reports. Now it has just emerged that nearly five months down the line, this regrettable situation persists, with MOPAC admitting that the WFSNB’s end of year monitoring forms for 2015-16, plus the mid-year and end of year monitoring forms for 2016-17, are all still outstanding. To put it bluntly, this is quite disgraceful. It is u... »

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LBWF and public-private partnerships: (2) North London Ltd.

February 9, 2018 North London Ltd.

LBWF’s relationship with North London Ltd. (NLL) illuminates a second way of organising public-private partnerships. NLL is a private company, formed in 2005, whose business is ‘Other service activities not elsewhere classified’. LBWF has close links with NLL, not (as with NPS London Ltd.) because of share ownership, but rather because of, first, mutual involvement in a network of allied institutions, and second, the fact that for the bulk of its history NLL has been something of a factotum, the authority’s chosen vehicle for the local implementation of a variety of programmes, some originating in Waltham Forest, others elsewhere. Thus, in the years to 2012, when LBWF paid NLL in all £... »

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Ex-Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman: the final disgrace

January 29, 2018 the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

For reasons best known to themselves, and against a mass of evidence, sections of the local Labour Party have continued to champion the disgraced ex-Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman. Now, however, their empathy looks even more absurd. For Mr. Rahman has been struck off by his own professional body, the Solicitors Disciplinary Committee (SDC), and ordered to pay £86,000 in costs. The key part of the SDC’s judgement is as withering as it is possible to get: If Labour Party people can’t get these kind of very clear-cut issues right, it is reasonable to wonder whether their judgement should be trusted on anything else. »

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LBWF and public-private partnerships: (1) NPS London Ltd.

January 26, 2018 Asbestos at St. Mary's School, Town Hall asbestos

As this blog has previously noted, LBWF is now involved in extending its public-private partnerships, and so it is timely to look at some previous examples of similar initiatives, in order to discover what lessons can be learnt. A subsequent post will return to the vexed history of North London Ltd., while what follows focuses on NPS London Ltd. (NPSL), jointly owned by LBWF and NPS Property Consultants Ltd. (a subsidiary of Norse Group Ltd., itself the child of Norfolk County Council). NPSL was formed in 2007, taking over what was previously LBWF’s in-house building consultancy service, with the staff TUPE-ed over. Subsequently, NPSL has been involved in a number of big LBWF projects, in pa... »

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