Posts

Has LBWF followed the relevant ‘technical advice’ when addressing the flat entrance door scandal? It’s a key question but one the Town Hall finds difficult to answer

June 24, 2021 fire hazards, fire safety, Goddarts House, Northwood Tower

In correspondence earlier this year, Darren Welsh, LBWF’s Deputy Strategic Director, Resident Services, stated that the strategy adopted for dealing with the 217 fake FD60 flat entrance doors (FEDs) at Northwood Tower and four sheltered housing blocks conformed with ‘the technical advice’ that the Town Hall had been supplied with. What follows describes my tortuous efforts to establish whether this claim stands up to scrutiny, and well illustrates the depressing fact that asking LBWF a straightforward question by no means guarantees a straightforward answer, largely because of the debased way that it operates the Freedom of Information Act (FIA). The story starts on 14 January 2021, when Mr.... »

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Cllr. Clare Coghill steps down as Leader

June 18, 2021 Cllr. Clare Coghill

Cllr. Clare Coghill has announced she is stepping down as Leader of LBWF, and not standing as a councillor at next year’s election. In the past few months, sources have told this blog that she was being seen in the borough less and less, and her departure may be related to a previous post here, ‘Love amongst the Leaders: Councillors Clare Coghill and Simon Blackburn’. How history will judge Cllr. Coghill’s four years in office remains to be seen. Unsurprisingly, she appears to believe she has been a success. But as this blog has documented at length, she has presided over a number of controversies, not least the fire safety scandal at Northwood Tower and four sheltere... »

Private Eye reports the Cann Hall mural fiasco

June 14, 2021 Cllr.Sally Littlejohn, LBWF spin, Redevelopment

From Issue 1549, 11-24 June 2021 »

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LBWF’s flat entrance door scandal: an update on developments

June 1, 2021 fire hazards, fire safety, Goddarts House, LBWF spin, Northwood Tower

In the past few weeks, fresh revelations have emerged about the scandal surrounding LBWF’s 2017-18 purchase and installation of the 217 flat entrance doors (FEDs) at Walthamstow’s 21 floor Northwood Tower, and four sheltered housing blocks (Boothby Court, Goddarts House, Holmcroft House, and Lime Court) – FEDs which all remain in place today. The following provides a summary. Certification When selling to customers, manufacturers of FEDs routinely provide certification for each item in the order, confirming details such as batch number, fire safety rating, fire and smoke test history, and installation requirements, as this example illustrates: Such information is obviously vi... »

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LBWF’s Cann Hall murals, Cllr. Sally Littlejohn, and £14,500 of public money that has disappeared down the drain, lost forever

May 27, 2021 Cllr.Sally Littlejohn, LBWF spin, Redevelopment

As previously reported here, in the past few years, and encouraged by a £40,000 Town Hall grant, Cann Hall councillors have been intent on installing an artistic mural in the ward, but on two separate occasions, their plans have fallen through and been abandoned. That’s the bones of the story, but it can now be revealed that these failures have come at a cost.  For in both cases significant sums of money were paid out in design fees prior to the decision to abort, while in one case there also were unexplained ‘closure costs’. And when these various sums are totted up, they come to no less than £14,500, or one third of the original budget. That’s £14,500 which has disappeared down the dr... »

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