Posts

Hate crime in Waltham Forest update: LBWF and the police still treat it as a key priority, but the facts don’t support them

October 15, 2025 Policing/crime

In February 2023, a post on this blog examined hate crime in Waltham Forest, and queried why LBWF and the local police force was treating it as a key priority, worthy of enhanced financial and administrative support (see links, below). What follows looks at what has happened subsequently. Hate crime has continued to be prioritised. But are the doubts of earlier years also still present? First, a summary of the basic evidence. The only comprehensive series about hate crime is data collected by the police, and for the period February 2023 to September 2025 for Waltham Forest this reveals the fol... »

As a programme to retrain the Town Hall’s frontline managers is revealed to have been deeply flawed, doubts again surface about how LBWF spends public money

September 26, 2025 EDI

In the past few years LBWF has vigorously pursued an equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) agenda aimed at transforming its internal culture, an agenda that has involved all employees, from top to bottom; cost thousands of pounds; and, because delivered via various kinds of training, eaten up significant amounts of staff time. Little has been said about this agenda in public, but Freedom of Information requests have begun to uncover some of the details (see link, below). One very pertinent issue is whether the agenda has benefited either those working in the Town Hall or, more importantly, t... »

Cathall Labour Councillor Jonathan O’Dea dropped as a candidate at next year’s local elections: is it because he has spoken publicly about the Whitefield child abuse scandal?

September 19, 2025 Whitefield

In the past few weeks, the Waltham Forest Echo has reported extensively on the deselection of longstanding Cathall Councillor Jonathan O’Dea. Earlier this year, the paper reveals, Cllr. O’Dea applied to stand again for Labour in next year’s local elections, but on the advice of the party’s Chief Whip, Cllr. Steve Terry, was turned down. Cllr. O’Dea was told that what counted against him was his poor campaigning record, and the fact that he had submitted a motion to the local Labour Party calling for a ceasefire in Gaza at a time when this was frowned upon. Cllr. O’Dea believed that t... »

Ofsted, LBWF, and the Whitefield School CCTV cameras

August 27, 2025 child safeguarding, Whitefield

This post examines how Ofsted and LBWF investigated allegations of child abuse at Whitefield School, and in particular what use they made of evidence provided by CCTV cameras. At first sight, it might be assumed that such a matter would be straightforward, but in fact, as the following paragraphs show, it turns out to be rather convoluted, and puzzling. Here’s the story. As previously reported by this blog (see links, below), the Whitefield scandal first became public in January 2017, when, following a complaint by a parent, Ofsted inspectors visited the school and found that a ‘small number o... »

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The Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman reprimands LBWF over its complaints handling, citing ‘unacceptable’ delays, ‘poor quality, incomplete responses’, and waste of staff time

August 8, 2025 Ombudsman

Every year, the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman sends each council a review letter which contains some tailored observations about their complaints handling. The review letter for 2024-25 just sent to LBWF, specifically CEO Linzi Roberts-Egan, includes the following: ‘During the year, there were several occasions when our investigations were delayed by your Council’s failure to respond in a timely way to our requests for information. In one case the delays were such that we took the unusual step of threatening to issue a witness summons before we received the information we needed... »

Update: the latest official figures show that 63 of LBWF’s 64 low-rise and high-rise housing blocks are still not fire safe, mainly because of ‘Resources’, and ‘available budgets’

August 6, 2025 fire hazards, fire safety

In 2020, triggered by the fallout from the Grenfell tragedy, LBWF finally addressed the fact that very few, if any, of its large and small housing blocks were fire safe, and began a large-scale remediation programme to put matters right. It might be assumed that, by now, this programme would have delivered substantial results, leaving LBWF tenants free from worry. But data recently released by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) under the Freedom of Information Act again shows that any such assumption would be hugely misplaced. For the astonishing truth is that, as of March this year, all bu... »

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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

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 do... »

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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

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 yo... »

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

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 anot... »

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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, LCSPR, Whitefield

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 i... »

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