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LBWF’s Goddarts sheltered housing block in Walthamstow: fire safety assessors find serious issues for five years running, but, astonishingly, they remain unaddressed, leaving vulnerable residents in danger

July 15, 2025 fire hazards, fire safety 0

Goddarts House, Walthamstow, is a purpose built two-storey block, owned and administered by LBWF, containing 27 flats providing sheltered living accommodation. Its residents include the elderly, and those who have hearing, sight, or mental health impairment.  Some are wheelchair users. In 2019-21, Goddarts came to the attention of this blog because one of its residents, Roy Sutton, discovered that though LBWF insisted the front entrance doors to the 27 flats provided 60 minutes protection from fire, in reality they only provided barely half that. In the end, this saga of the ‘fake fire doors’ led to a court case and an internal fraud investigation (see links, below). Subsequently, Mr. S... »

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LBWF promises always to ‘put people first’, but as yet another example demonstrates, this is a fiction

July 7, 2025 Ombudsman 0

Renowned Waltham Forest campaigner James O’Rourke spends a good deal of time looking out for his brother, who has a learning disability and resides in supported living accommodation. Like many people in similar situations, taking on this responsibility brings Mr. O’Rourke into regular contact with LBWF, and this has caused him and his brother serial problems. In a recent e-mail to a senior officer about an aspect of his brother’s legal situation, Mr. O’Rourke explains in detail the kind of obstacles they have been forced to contend with: ‘Thank you for your recent update. While I appreciate your correspondence, I must express my deep concern at the consistent communication breakdown from wit... »

STOP PRESS The police confirm their investigation of the Whitefield School child abuse scandal continues, which seemingly contradicts what Council Leader Grace Williams has told residents

June 27, 2025 child safeguarding, Whitefield 0

The Metropolitan Police Service [MPS] has just confirmed its investigation of the Whitefield School child abuse scandal is continuing. The facts are that in April 2024, the MPS was told that previously unknown offences of ‘perverting the course of justice and misconduct in public office’ were alleged to have occurred in relation to Whitefield; and as a consequence, in November of the same year, it launched a formal investigation into these matters, which continues today. So what’s the link with Cllr. Williams? Well, on 27 November 2024, one day after the BBC’s Noel Titheradge had produced another of his shocking reports about Whitefield, Cllr. Williams responded with a public statement which... »

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Whitefield child abuse scandal latest: details of the new independent expert review revealed, and the key issues that remain unresolved

June 20, 2025 child safeguarding, Whitefield 0

On 27 November 2024, the day after the BBC reported the full awful details of the scale and severity of the child abuse at Whitefield School between 2014 and 2017, LBWF Leader Grace Williams announced that ‘safeguarding partners will commission an independent expert to carry out a Local Children Safeguarding Practice Review (LCSPR) to ensure the lessons of this distressing case are learned’. As this blog has pointed out, the parameters for a LCSPR are set out in law, but it is obviously of some importance to know exactly who has been appointed as the ‘independent expert’, and who is assisting them.  Curiously, LBWF has made no comment about this in public, nor has it been di... »

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‘How others see us’, an occasional series, No.1: Stella Creasy

June 19, 2025 Stella Creasy MP 0

Brutal, from columnist, critic and feature writer Sarah Ditum at Unherd: ‘It’s possible that there are other egos in parliament as big as Labour MP Stella Creasy’s. It’s unlikely, though, that anyone can match her combination of relentless self-promotion and extraordinary political incompetence. Few have achieved such blanket publicity for themselves while accomplishing so little, and this week, Creasy’s chosen arena of legislative failure was abortion reform’. (from Sarah Ditum, ‘Stella Creasy’s fight for relevance. Does she represent Walthamstow or Cosmo?’, Unherd, 19 June 2025) »

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