Posts

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 »

How Leytonstone councillors communicate with residents…

December 13, 2022 LBWF spin

(image supplied by Woox, and used with thanks) A resident writes: ‘Of course, Leytonstone councillors are always on Twitter and so on….. But what about people who haven’t got mobile phones or computers? I checked the 2021 State of the Borough Report and it’s got these interesting figures: That noticeboard is on a corner right in the centre of Leytonstone. Hundreds pass it every hour. It seems like those without the internet are always forgotten’. »

The Charity Commission issues regulatory ‘guidance’ to Walthamstow charities Miftahul Jannah Academy and Masjid-E-Umer Trust after complaints about the content of their youth programmes

December 6, 2022 anti-semitism, faith groups

In the autumn of 2021, complaints were made to the Charity Commission about two Waltham Forest Muslim charities, the Miftahul Jannah Academy and the Masjid-E-Umer Trust (which runs Walthamstow Central Mosque). At the centre of the complaints was ‘Islamic scholar’ Muhammad Patel, who had taught young people at both charities from 2008 onwards, with live recordings of his weekly lectures then being posted on the web for posterity.  Mr. Patel’s comments about the Taliban, armed jihad, and Jewish perfidy appeared to fall foul of Charity Commission guidance. Moreover, he also had instructed his class in ways which seemed to be deeply corrosive of social cohesion, for example mockin... »

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