Clyde Loakes

‘Forget the homeless, what about the coffee drinkers?’ LBWF v. The Christian Kitchen (Part 2): the council gets a walloping in court

March 22, 2016 Christian Kitchen, Cllr. Clyde Loakes, Cllr. Marie Pye

We published Part 1 of this story some months ago (see the link below in Related Posts). Our correspondent now provides the sequel. ‘The Christian Kitchen has been feeding the homeless in Walthamstow for over 20 years. On the 17 April 2013, LBWF revoked its longstanding licence to operate from the Mission Grove car park (located just behind the High Street), citing the apparent incidence of associ... »

Cllr. Patrick Edwards speaks out

June 18, 2015 Cllr.Patrick Edwards, Fred Wigg and John Walsh Towers, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

According to the Waltham Forest Guardian, Labour Cllr. Patrick Edwards, of Cann Hall ward, has now publicly broken ranks with his party’s leadership, and come out strongly in favour of the tenants in Fred Wigg and John Walsh Towers being balloted about the Council’s plans for the redevelopment of their homes. He is quoted as saying: ‘”I support redeveloping Fred Wigg and Jo... »

Documenting Past Failures: (11) some conclusions, part one

June 10, 2015 Past failures: overview

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... »

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... »

‘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 ... »

Documenting Past Failures: (6) Cllr. Loakes, PwC, and the BNI Community Cohesion Projects

March 6, 2015 BNI Community Cohesion Projects, Cllr. Clyde Loakes

As I have described in the previous post in this series, the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report was a revelation. The figures already recounted tell much of the story. But to get a full picture of the chaos that PwC uncovered, it is necessary to look at some of its unpublished findings on individual BNI files, and there is no better place to start than with the batch concerning ‘community c... »

LBWF, the Local Authority Business Growth Initiative programmes, and the Waltham Forest Business Board, E11 Bid Co., and North London Ltd.

February 13, 2015 Argall Car Parks, E11 BID Co., North London Ltd., Waltham Forest Business Board

A couple of years ago, I started hearing some very surprising things about Leytonstone’s Business Improvement District (BID) company, the E11 Bid Co.. The allegation, in short, was that the directors of the company had failed to keep proper books and neglected to pay their taxes; run up substantial debts; and as a consequence jeopardised the company’s ‘going concern’ status... »

Documenting Past Failures: (2) NRF and Dr. Foster

February 10, 2015 Dr. Foster, NRF, The BNI

The Dr. Foster episode is one that always will be close to my heart, not only because it demonstrated everything that was wrong about the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF)/Better Neighbourhoods Initiative (BNI) programme, but also because it had a surprising kick in the tail, and one that was highly gratifying to me. The story is as follows – and I apologise for the minutiae, but as will become cle... »

Documenting Past Failures: (1) Introduction

February 4, 2015 Cllr. Clyde Loakes, NRF, Past failures: overview, The BNI

Over the coming months, and at irregular intervals, I’ll be posting Documenting Past Failures pieces, which will look at some of the episodes that I’ve been involved in since 2004, broadly in chronological sequence. To start with, I’ll be looking mostly at how LBWF used Neighbourhood Renewal Fund monies. The background is as follows. In 2001, the government launched a new Nationa... »