Posts

LBWF and COVID-19 (3)

July 22, 2020 COVID-19

With the passage of time, there is growing clarity about how LBWF has been affected by COVID-19, and to what extent the impact is being mitigated by special support received from the government. The first discussion of these important issues occurred in late April, when a report on them was debated by Cabinet. LBWF officers had produced 15 initial estimates of the possible gross damage (i.e. the damage disregarding any extra government assistance) which played with various assumptions about the pandemic’s likely length and the size of the extra demand for social care, and concluded that the ra... »

LBWF and its Freedom of Information Act failings: now the Information Commissioner’s Office directly intervenes UPDATED

July 20, 2020 Freedom of Information Act, LBWF spin, Mark Hynes

Past posts have covered LBWF’s increasingly unsatisfactory record in handling Freedom of Information (FOI) inquiries – its delays, illegitimate evasions, ignorance of the legal framework, and so on. However, at last there is some good news, because the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is to meet with LBWF Chief Executive, Martin Esom, shortly to discuss ‘the numerous [ICO] decision notices that have been highly critical of…[LBWF]FOI practices over the last 12-18 months and what the council need to do to improve their information rights practices and procedures moving forward’. This of c... »

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LBWF ‘communication’ with local residents: the yawning gap between rhetoric and reality

July 13, 2020 Cllr. Clare Coghill, Cllr. Liaquat Ali, LBWF spin

As this blog has previously reported, though LBWF stridently declares that it wants to ‘communicate’ with residents, even help them become ‘active citizens’, able to drive policy, what transpires on the ground is often very different. Communication turns out to be a one-way street, while those who raise issues that are at odds with LBWF’s rosy self-image find themselves studiously ignored. To further underline the prevailing malaise, a correspondent supplies the following vivid account of dealing with the Town Hall, which is particularly shocking because it involves several senior councillors:... »

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Cllrs Anna Mbachu and Victoria te Velde: register of Interests controversy re-surfaces UPDATED

June 23, 2020 Cllr. Anna Mbachu, Cllr. Victoria te Velde, Mark Hynes, register of interests

Given the frequency over the years with which they have been discussed by this blog, it might be thought that councillors’ register of interests (RoI) forms now must be a non-issue – all present, up-to-date, and correct as to fact. Yet, regretfully, this seems not to be the case. Take that Town Hall veteran, Cllr. Anna Mbachu. As readers of this blog will remember, her RoI has attracted reproval before. Has she changed her approach? Well, as of this morning, section 4 of her form reads as follows: So far so good. But a quick check via the Companies House website reveals that Anna Mbachu Educat... »

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LBWF and COVID-19 (2)

June 19, 2020 COVID-19

In the latest edition of the ‘independent community newspaper’, the Waltham Forest Echo, LBWF Leader, Cllr. Clare Coghill, is particularly exercised by what she sees as government perfidy. Ministers had initially told local authorities ‘“spend what you need to spend and you will get that money back”’, she claims, but then ‘“back-tracked”’, with the current position being ‘“it is only directly coronavirus-related spend that will be reimbursed”’. The consequences, she adds, are grave. LBWF already has started ‘to dip into its reserves’, and if no further assistance is forthcoming, services will ... »

The East End Enquirer and Tower Hamlets council’s lack of transparency: a valuable investigation that unsurprisingly resonates in Waltham Forest

June 10, 2020 Mark Hynes, register of interests, Tower Hamlets

In the autumn of 2019, the website Love Wapping begat East End Enquirer, and from that point on, this new site for ‘investigative community journalism’ has broken many excellent stories, most of great interest to WFM readers. One piece that particularly catches the eye is entitled ‘Poplar Papers 9 – How Tower Hamlets Council avoids public scrutiny’: https://www.eastendenquirer.org/2020/05/poplar-papers-9-how-tower-hamlets-council-avoids-public-scrutiny/ This examines a number of techniques used to thwart prying eyes, including ‘Formal Complaints Delayed’, explained thus: ‘As many Tower Hamlets... »

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Goddarts House sheltered housing in Walthamstow: new facts, new controversy

June 4, 2020 Cllr.Louise Mitchell, fire hazards, fire safety, Goddarts House

Reproduced below is a letter that I yesterday sent to LBWF Chief Executive Martin Esom which focuses on some new material that has emerged about fire safety measures at Goddarts House sheltered housing in Walthamstow. The first issue raised with Mr. Esom is about the London Fire Brigade’s recently divulged claim that it was misrepresented in one or more of LBWF’s pre-2019 Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) reports on Goddarts,  specifically, ‘wrongly’ recorded as having endorsed the long-standing ‘stay put’ policy for residents in the case of fire. How could such a misrepresentation possibly hav... »

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LBWF and settlement agreements: a bellwether in the post COVID-19 years

May 29, 2020 Post COVID-19

In the post COVID-19 years, it will be imperative that LBWF spends money wisely, and turns its back on past profligacy. The fact that LBWF’s Chief Executive currently earns substantially more than the Prime Minister is palpably absurd, and urgently needs rectifying, but there are also several other possible ways of making enduring savings. In February this year, the Taxpayers’ Alliance (TA) investigated local authority use of settlement agreements, with the latter defined as follows: ‘Settlement agreements are legally binding agreements between an employer and an employee that set out the term... »

The London Fire Brigade and fire safety at LBWF’s Goddarts House, Walthamstow, sheltered housing: the anatomy of a shambles

May 18, 2020 fire hazards, fire safety, Goddarts House

This post examines the role played by the London Fire Brigade (LFB) in the ongoing scandal about fire safety at LBWF’s Goddarts House sheltered accommodation in Hoe Street, Walthamstow – 27 flats, with the ‘occupancy types’ officially described as ‘Elderly, Hearing Impairment, Mental Health, Sight Impairment, [and] Wheelchair Users’.  First, some general background about the legislation which governs fire safety at Goddarts, and what role the LFB plays in relation to it. As regards the legislation, there are several statutes involved, but the most important, by far, is the Regulatory Ref... »

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LBWF and COVID-19 (1)

April 24, 2020 COVID-19

A few days ago, the Cabinet considered a paper which looked at the impact of COVID-19 on LBWF’s finances. The headline figures that were presented are alarming. Assuming the crisis lasts 12 weeks, LBWF will have an ‘exposure’ (increased costs plus lost income) of between £34.857m. and £39.487m. while at the time of writing, promised central government emergency assistance amounts to only £7.540m. The detail is in the following table: Understandably, many of these figures are rough estimates. Moreover, further support from Westminster is likely to be forthcoming in the next few weeks. On the ot... »