Posts

LBWF dodges the Local Government Association’s acclaimed peer review scheme, and it’s reasonable to ask: why?

Since 2011, the Local Government Association (LGA) has run and financed a scheme called Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC), which it sees as ‘a core element of our sector-led improvement offer to local authorities’. As the name suggests CPC involves small teams of experienced officers and councillors visiting participating councils in order to understand how they work, challenge assumptions, and share learning, with a final written report offering both an accurate summary of current practice, and suggestions for improvement. To date, the LGA has delivered more than 700 peer challenges, covering two-thirds of local authorities, and so it might be imagined that LBWF has participated at some point ... »

LBWF Leader Cllr. Clare Coghill and knife crime: some issues that need to be addressed, and urgently

According to the Waltham Forest Guardian, there were serious stabbings in Walthamstow on the 14, 16, and 19 November just past, leading the police to impose a section 60 order, which allows them augmented powers of stop and search. On 17 November, the Leader of LBWF, Clare Coghill, issued a press release: ‘”I fully understand that the community is concerned following the two violent incidents that took place in Walthamstow this week. I would like to reassure you we are working closely with and supporting the police in tackling such incidents and making sure the people involved are caught. This type of crime has no place in our borough. I have spoken to Det Chief Superintendent Ri... »

Fred Wigg and John Walsh Towers update

This blog has previously covered the disgraceful situation that is ongoing regarding the ‘redevelopment John Walsh and Fred Wigg Towers in Cann Hall. Pasted below are two updates prepared by the residents. They eloquently speak for themselves. »

Cllr. Anna Mbachu’s register of interests form prompts new controversy

A recent post looked at Cllr. Anna Mbachu’s unfortunate performance at an employment tribunal. Now news emerges that her register of interests form is also generating controversy. It is a matter of public record that, alongside two others, Cllr. Mbachu is a director of Knice Industries Ltd (company no.10018580), a business formed in February 2016 to pursue the ‘letting and operating of own or leased real estate’. It is also a matter of public record that, though she is chair of the LBWF Housing Scrutiny Committee, as of today, she has not updated her register of interests form to acknowledge this directorship: When questioned about the omission a few weeks ago, LBWF Director of Governa... »

John Cryer MP’s Election Agent, Ian McKenzie, and the local Labour membership: the rift widens

Reports emanating from Labour insiders reveal that John Cryer’s Election Agent, Ian McKenzie, has spectacularly alienated much of the local party membership, to the extent that some now see relations as irreparable. Mr McKenzie has served as Agent in all three elections since 2010, after Mr Cryer was parachuted into Leyton and Wanstead by his trade union Unite in a contentious selection process that saw no local candidates shortlisted. However, the one-time assistant to former Labour deputy leader John Prescott has courted controversy almost from the start. Thus, shortly after the 2010 contest, for example, the local party treasurer struggled to extract from him the expenses return necessary... »

Page 45 of 82«4344454647»