Posts

LBWF Chief Executive Martin Esom’s evidence at the Town Hall asbestos trial: the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

September 18, 2015 LBWF, LBWF spin, Martin Esom, Town Hall asbestos

The following speaks for itself. 18 September 2015 Dear Mr. Esom, We write to you about the letter dated 30 January 2014 that you submitted to the HSE and the courts prior to LBWF’s recent prosecution over Town Hall asbestos contamination. We remind you that this letter was produced in lieu of an interview under PACE; and that you explicitly recognised it might ‘be used in the event of any enforcement proceedings’. We further remind you that in the letter, you underline that you are intent upon ‘frankly’ dealing with the issues at hand. All this being the case, we are very surprised at some of... »

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The Barnett v. Dhedi fallout: things are getting nasty

September 15, 2015 Cllr. Chris Robbins, Cllr. Peter Barnett, Cllr. Shabana Dhedi/Qadir, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

If a recent exchange of correspondence is anything to go by, the Barnett-Dhedi affair (covered in two previous posts) has turned decidedly nasty. Writing on behalf of the Waltham Forest Council of Mosques to Cllr. Robbins, Media Officer Irfan Akhta’s stance is predictably shrill. Cllr. Barnett’s infelicitous language is ‘Islamaphobic’ and ‘grossly offensive’. Religious viewpoints  must be ‘respected’ and ‘understood’. The fact that an internal Labour Party investigation found Cllr. Barnett had no case to answer only adds insult to inj... »

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Cllr. Liaquat Ali and the Queen: so near, yet so far

August 27, 2015 Cllr. Liaquat Ali, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

Mention of Clli. Liaquat Ali as always brings a weighty postbag, with those who have met the great man eager to share their memories. So by way of a thank you, I reprint some photos of when our local benefactor to the otherwise homeless met the Queen. It’s a slightly odd sequence, because the warm handshake that seems about to happen in fact never does. I’ve always wondered why. But no doubt our monarch had her reasons…. »

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Cllr. Liaquat Ali hits the Andy Burnham campaign trail

August 27, 2015 Cllr. Chris Robbins, Cllr. Liaquat Ali, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

Good to see Cllr. Liaquat Ali out supporting Andy Burnham on his recent visit to Waltham Forest (see http://kashmirlinklondon.co.uk/?p=6862) I hear from well placed sources that should our Andy win the Labour leadership, he will make Cllr. Ali one of his key advisers on solving London’s housing problems. PS Of course every picture tells a story, and here it is interesting to see the aged Leader of LBWF, Cllr. Chris Robbins, relegated to the back row, right – he certainly does not appear to have appreciated the joke. PPS There is surely, too, an unintended irony re Cllr. Liaquat Ali... »

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Cllr. Liaquat Ali in Private Eye, again

August 19, 2015 Cllr. Liaquat Ali, LBWF, Private Eye, Waltham Forest Labour Party

Great to see Cllr. Liaquat Ali make Private Eye again (see below, from No.1399, 21 August to 3 September 2015). Who will ever forget the outpouring of rejoicing when he received his MBE, for which see the comments box here: http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/9429878.WALTHAM_FOREST__Councillor_made_MBE/ »

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Mr. Fawaad Sheikh of the E11 BID Co.: the life and times of a local business leader

August 19, 2015 E11 BID Co., Fawaad Sheikh

Last week’s Waltham Forest Guardian, as has been noted, featured E11 BID Co. board chairman Mr. Fawaad Sheikh pontificating on his dislike of ‘free riders’: http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/13587272._I_don_t_like_free_riders___E11_Bid_director_after_sending_bailiffs_to_collect_controversial_levy/ Appropriate modesty is obviously not Mr. Sheikh’s strongest suit. After all, it is a matter of record that under his stewardship the E11 BID Co. was chaotically run, failed to pay its taxes, and accrued various fines and County Court Judgments. And then of course there is the little matter of all... »

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LBWF, Prevent, and the Freedom of Information Act: censorship in action?

August 16, 2015 Freedom of Information Act, LBWF spin, Martin Esom, Prevent

On 17th July 2015, I used the Freedom of Information Act (FIA) to ask LBWF: ‘At a recent hearing in City Hall, Martin Esom (LBWF CEO) claimed re the Prevent programme: “We try to identify output measures to see how successful we are or otherwise….Our output measures are things like referrals through to Channel and all sorts of things like that. We have quite a broad range of indicators in terms of whether or not we are making any inroads”. Please can you forward me these output measures/broad range of indicators for 2013 and 2014′. On 14 August 2015, I received th... »

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The E11 BID Co. and the re-ballot of 2012: was there full disclosure?

August 14, 2015 E11 BID Co., Fawaad Sheikh, LBWF, Waltham Forest Business Board

The second argument advanced by the refusniks at court can be summarised as follows. Argument Two: at the 2012 re-ballot, the E11 BID Co. failed to make full disclosure, calling into question the validity of the result 1. What follows is based upon two different pieces of evidence. 2. First, under the terms of the Baseline and Operating contracts that they signed in 2008, LBWF and the E11 BID Co. had various obligations, and in particular agreed to: (a) set up a Standard Services Review Panel, which was to meet at least two times ‘in each calendar year…throughout the duration of the BID Term’;... »

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The E11 BID Co. and its debts: the evidence

August 14, 2015 E11 BID Co., Fawaad Sheikh, LBWF, Waltham Forest Business Board

Over recent years, the E11 BID Co. has regularly been in the news, mainly for the wrong reasons. The latest, and most unsavoury episode, saw LBWF, operating on behalf of the E11 BID Co., take local Leytonstone businesses to court, gain a successful adjudication, and then call in the bailiffs, with the Waltham Forest Guardian reporting as follows: http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/13506732.Bailiffs_try_to_remove_chairs_and_tables_from_popular_restaurant_in_battle_over_E11_Bid_fees/ This post and its successor look at some of the background. Briefly, for those who don’t follow these th... »

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Barnett v. Dhedi: the denouement UPDATED

August 11, 2015 Cllr. Peter Barnett, Cllr. Shabana Dhedi/Qadir, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest, Waltham Forest Labour Party

Regular readers of this blog will remember my earlier post describing a spat between Cllr. Peter Barnett and Cllr. Shabana Dhedi (sometimes Shabana Qadir), the essence of which apparently revolved around a late night Facebook exchange, the possible excuses that could be made for the Charlie Hebdo murderers, and some intemperate Anglo-Saxon. What was an obvious molehill soon became a mountain, with the on-cue involvement of sundry third parties, the parading of bruised feelings, and impassioned accusations of racism and ‘Islamophobia’. The upshot? Cllr. Barnett found himself suspended from the ... »

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