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How the Labour Party funds local elections in Waltham Forest: further embarrassing revelations

December 3, 2018 the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

Two previous posts have looked at how Labour in Waltham Forest manages its finances, and suggested that all is not as it should be, particularly with respect to transparency. What follows examines some new data that appreciably amplifies this earlier conclusion. After local elections, political parties are required to account for their expenditure to the Electoral Commission (EC) by submitting returns for all candidates listing how they financed their campaigns and what exactly they spent their money on. Focusing on Labour at the 2018 contest, these returns reveal, in aggregate terms, the following about funding: As can be seen, Labour spent £21,392 in all, and two-thirds of the total was pr... »

LBWF’s Making Places programme and the Cann Hall side-wall fiasco: good news and bad

November 26, 2018 Cllr. Keith Rayner, Cllr.Patrick Edwards, Cllr.Sally Littlejohn, Redevelopment

As a previous post has described in detail, LBWF currently plans to spend a dizzying £40,000 on tiling the large side-wall of a private commercial property in Cann Hall ward, all in the name of producing a ‘joyous’ and ‘popular’ piece of public art, Matthew Raw and Abigail Holsborough’s Embedded Bread. The good news is that because of widespread local disquiet (and in particular a petition with well over 450 signatories) LBWF has just put the project ‘on hold’ (even if, to residents’ amusement, it is apparently incapable of explaining exactly what this means). However, there is plenty of bad news too. First, a new Freedom of Information Act deposition reveals that, th... »

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Register of interests wrap: five councillors did not update their forms as required, but others, including Cllr. Terry, are cleared

November 14, 2018 Cllr. Anna Mbachu, Cllr. Johar Khan, Cllr. Khevyn Limbajee, Cllr. Simon Miller, Cllr. Steve Terry, Mark Hynes, register of interests

This post briefly sums up the past few months’ revelations about LBWF councillors and their register of interests forms (grouping the findings under three broad headings) and then discuses some of the issues that arise. Failure to update (a) Cllrs. Limbajee, Miller, and Mbachu As earlier posts have noted, LBWF Director of Governance and Law, Mark Hynes, has determined that Cllrs. Limbajee, Miller, and Mbachu did not updated their registers of interests as required (see links below). (b) Cllr. Johar Khan In a recent judgment, Mr. Hynes also finds against Cllr. Johar Khan on similar grounds, writing to a complainant: ‘You were quite in your assertion that Cllr. Khan’s register had not been upd... »

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LBWF’s Making Places programme and the strange case of the Cann Hall side-wall: four residents speak and £40,000 of public money goes west UPDATED

October 22, 2018 Cllr. Keith Rayner, Cllr.Patrick Edwards, Cllr.Sally Littlejohn, Redevelopment

In the summer of 2017, LBWF put out an open call to architects, artists, designers, and landscape artists, inviting them to take part in a programme called Making Places, which it was funding from its own resources to the tune of no less than £1m.. The objective was to commission ‘community arts’ projects for ‘unloved spaces’ in each of the borough’s 20 wards, thus generate ‘places which are brighter, safer and where residents and visitors enjoy spending time’, and so ultimately make ‘a lasting impact on local communities’. Those bidding were encouraged to think imaginatively and promised a budget of up to £40,000 per ward, but it was also emphasised that residents’ views must be valued. Ind... »

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Labour Chief Whip Cllr. Steve Terry: rule book king, but does he really know his apples from his oranges? UPDATED

September 21, 2018 Cllr. Steve Terry, Mark Hynes, register of interests

Cllr. Steve Terry is Waltham Forest Labour Group’s Chief Whip, and works as a regional organiser for Unison. It is reasonable to conclude that, occupying such weighty offices, he must be an expert on the minutiae of procedure, and a stickler for respecting the rule-book. The fact that he is a regular confidant of LBWF Director of Governance and Law, and Monitoring Officer, Mark Hynes about all things Labour also speaks volumes. Nevertheless, examining Cllr. Terry’s register of interests as of this morning prompts some interesting questions. First, though the register of interest form consists of nine subsections, in Cllr. Terry’s case, the ninth, which documents non-pecuniary interests... »

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