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After 64 working days, LBWF Director of Governance and Law, Mark Hynes, is still to complete his asbestos inquiry, ratcheting up public unease

January 31, 2023 Town Hall asbestos

In an e-mail of 30 January 2023, LBWF Director of Governance and Law Mark Hynes writes: ‘Although I was hoping to have concluded my review into the concerns you raised about asbestos management compliance, the matter is still ongoing. I hope to have concluded matters in the near future and will write to you again at that time’. I first contacted Mr. Hynes about whether LBWF had respected the asbestos legislation on 1 September 2022. He made no substantive response for eight weeks, and then on 27 October 2022 suddenly announced an inquiry. Now, some 64 working days later, and despite the no doubt costly assistance of ‘global law firm’ Clyde & Co. LLP, there’s still no outcome.... »

Local journalist Michelle Edwards reveals pressing fire safety issues at a newly built LBWF housing block, but from the Town Hall there is only silence

January 19, 2023 fire hazards, fire safety

The respected Waltham Forest journalist Michelle Edwards has recently moved to a flat in a low-rise block at Pinder Road, Wood Street, completed by Countryside Partnerships in early 2022 and now owned and run by LBWF. It is true to say that this has not been a happy experience, and she tweets about the issues she has encountered at https://twitter.com/NewBuildHell.  Some of these issues are particularly worrying. At home one day in November 2022, Ms. Edwards heard a commotion at the front of her block, and went to investigate. She found that the lock on the main entry door had failed, residents were unable to get in or out, and the Fire Brigade was at work rectifying matters. This got her th... »

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Has LBWF Director of Governance and Law Mark Hynes’ Town Hall asbestos inquiry gone seriously awry?

January 10, 2023 Town Hall asbestos

As previously reported, following my request that LBWF examines whether it may have recently contravened the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, Director of Governance and Law Mark Hynes is embarked upon an internal investigation, involving ‘a number of officers, former employees of the Council and other third parties’, ‘covering a significant period of time since 2013’, and taking ‘a number of months to complete’, with Clyde & Co. LLP contracted to ‘support’ him. At first sight, this seems to be positive news, proof that, as Mr. Hynes initially told me, ‘the Council takes the matters you have raised…very seriously’. Yet as time has passed, doubts about what is going on have ... »

Waltham Forest council is the sixth most complained about in all of England

December 27, 2022 Freedom of Information Act, LBWF spin

Over recent years, LBWF has incessantly boasted about its achievements, all the while stressing that it prioritises ‘listening’, and is on the side of residents, or as one past Leader was fond of saying, ‘our people’. But now the truth is out. For a survey by claims.co.uk, which uses official data for 2016-22, reveals that LBWF is the sixth most complained about council, not just in London, but in the whole of England. The details are appended. In normal organisations, such humiliation would be seen as mortifying, and provoke some prolonged soul-searching. Here, in the borough, the precedent is unpromising, with the Independent Panel investigation of 2009, for example, concluding ‘Good organ... »

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LBWF in Private Eye yet again, this time over dodging key questions about whether it consulted the emergency services prior to implementing Low Traffic Neighbourhoods

December 15, 2022 LBWF spin

A further story highlighting what happens when a resident questions LBWF about an unarguably important local issue, receives an absurd response, but persists. And, making matters a whole lot worse, Mr. Edwards tells this blog that though on 5 November he wrote to LBWF asking it to explain his treatment, no answer has been forthcoming. Isn’t there anybody in the Town Hall who realises that all of this makes LBWF look, not strong and forthright, but shifty and foolish? From Private Eye 1588 16/12/22 -05/01/23 »

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