Posts

Waltham Forest’s Safer Neighbourhoods Board and MOPAC funding: a scandal in the making

September 13, 2017 Cllr. Liaquat Ali, Gang Prevention Programme, Policing/crime

Previous posts have dealt in depth with the travails of the Waltham Forest Safer Neighbourhoods Board (WFSNB) – its inability to hold regular meetings, the incompleteness of its minutes, and the fact that it publicly named constituent members without asking their permission, or (bizarrely) even informing them that they had been signed up to serve. Now it emerges that there are major concerns about the way that the WFSNB has handled funding from the Mayor’s Officer for Policing and Crime (MOPAC). The story is as follows. Over the FYs 2015-16 and 2016-17, the WFSNB has (by its own lights) devoted a lot of time and energy to commissioning eight projects from third parties, using £78,000 of fund... »

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LBWF CEO Martin Esom’s appointment to the Health and Safety Executive Board: a step far too far

August 16, 2017 Asbestos at St. Mary's School, Martin Esom, Town Hall asbestos

In July of this year, LBWF CEO Martin Esom joined the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as a part-time non-executive director – a post that entails approximately 30 days commitment per year for a remuneration of no less than £15,100 (that is £503 per day). The HSE obviously values Mr. Esom highly, with its press release citing, amongst other things, his background in environmental health, his succession of senior local authority positions, his MBA, and his chairing of the London Prevent Board. Yet locally, news of Mr. Esom’s appointment has been greeted with puzzlement, even derision. What fuels these reactions is the fact that in recent years LBWF has a distinctly poor health and safety rec... »

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Knife crime in Waltham Forest: a nasty little scandal (6)

August 9, 2017 Gang Prevention Programme, Policing/crime, Uncategorized

In mid-June, I contacted the Mayor’s Officer for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) to inquire about whether it or LBWF had prime responsibility for the Waltham Forest Safer Neighbourhoods Board (WFSNB). A day or two ago, I received the reply pasted below. It is gratifying to learn that MOPAC to some extent validates the concerns which I have laid out in previous posts, and promises that in future the WFSNB will be encouraged to operate ‘in a more clear and transparent fashion’. The hope is that such change will occur sooner rather than later. Meanwhile, as of today, the WFSNB’s pages on the LBWF website show that its membership has been drastically cut, reduced from 25 one m... »

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LBWF Leader Clare Coghill’s MIPIM muddle (1)

August 7, 2017 Cllr. Clare Coghill, Redevelopment

In 2012, the Waltham Forest Guardian reported that councillors were finding the requirement that they fill in and then update their register of interest forms to be challenging. Some had missed out crucial details, with, for example, the Leader, Chris Robbins, neglecting to mention his family home. Others – incredibly – overlooked their party membership. A few had simply failed to keep their forms up to date. In response, LBWF stated that it was introducing ‘a new website’ which would ‘be easier to use, with less duplicated information’. On the quiet, it also trimmed what councillors in future had to declare. I was reminded of this amusing episode when compiling the previous post on LB... »

London Borough of Waltham Forest:  ‘a property empire with a sideline in local government’?*

August 2, 2017 Cllr. Clare Coghill, Fred Wigg and John Walsh Towers, LBWF, Redevelopment, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

In March 2016, then portfolio holder for economic growth and high streets, now Group Leader, Clare Coghill travelled to Cannes in the company of LBWF CEO Martin Esom and ‘Assistant Director, Investment and Delivery’ Jonathan Martin, to attend Marché International des Professionnels de l’Immobilier (MIPIM), ‘the world’s leading real estate event for property professionals’. Their mission? To sell investment opportunities in Waltham Forest to the assembled movers and shakers. No record exists as to whether Cllr. Coghill et al. were successful, but it is surely significant that subsequently they have attended several similar events. The more jaundiced may see MIPIM as a rather unattractive joll... »

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