Posts

LBWF’s glaring failure to obey official – and mandatory – transparency rules: a new twist, as evidence emerges of a major data breach

September 18, 2024 LBWF spin, Local Government Transparency Code, Mark Hynes

Two previous posts on this blog (see links) have explored LBWF’s compliance with the mandatory Local Government Transparency Code, the document which specifies the 14 categories of information that all councils must publish, and at what intervals. The major finding that emerges is that in many cases, and for some years, LBWF has failed to act as it should. But it’s recently become evident that even where LBWF has regularly published the required information, this has not necessarily gone smoothly. Indeed, in the case of the requirement to publish a quarterly listing of... »

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Cllr. Johar Khan appointed chair of the LBWF Pension Committee: cue questions

August 28, 2024 Cllr. Johar Khan

A week or so ago, one of Cllr. Johar Khan’s oldest confidants e-mailed me with the news that the great man had been appointed chair of the LBWF Pension Committee (PC). At first, I thought he was pulling my leg, because Cllr. Khan has been out of the limelight for some time, but having checked, it’s true. Indeed, Cllr. Khan not only chaired the most recent meeting of the PC, but then issued a statement on ‘ethical investments’.  It’s certainly great to have him back in the public eye, because he’s clearly fun. In 2015, Private Eye reported on his antics as follows: Two years late... »

Air quality in Waltham Forest: Cllr. Loakes focuses on emissions, but new figures show particulate matter is a big killer, too, and LBWF seems slow to recognise that

August 20, 2024 LBWF spin, Mini-Holland

In the Summer 2024 issue of the council’s Waltham Forest News, Cllr. Clyde Loakes MBE, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Climate and Air Quality, reports: ‘“Waltham Forest has the lowest per capita emissions in London bar one and I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved so far alongside local communities and businesses”’. This is perplexing for a couple of different reasons.  First, the reality is that Waltham Forest’s status as a low emissions borough is nothing new. In 2023, for example, Energy Manager Magazine published this table: In fact, between 2005 and 2012, t... »

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LBWF in Private Eye, once again about asbestos

August 15, 2024 Mark Hynes, Town Hall asbestos

From Private Eye No. 1630, 16 to 29 August 2024 PS Its good to see Mr. Hynes fingered by PE, as, by his absurd antics (see links below), he wasted a good deal of public money, which costs us all.  Readers may be interested to know that when I recently asked LBWF CEO Linzi Roberts-Egan what she intended to do about the ICO’s demolition of Mr. Hynes, the fact that, though a solicitor, Mr. Hynes even got the law wrong, and so on, and so on, she replied as follows: ‘Dear Mr Tiratsoo, The issue you have raised form [sic] part of the complaint you have made to the ICO who have now concluded the... »

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LBWF’s glaring failure to obey official – and mandatory – transparency rules: an update

August 12, 2024 LBWF spin, Local Government Transparency Code, Mark Hynes

Slowly, and through persistent questioning, the full truth about LBWF’s disgraceful disregard for the mandatory Local Government Transparency Code (LGTC) is beginning to be revealed. My initial focus was on LBWF’s failure to publish, as the LGTC demands, information about tendering and contracting. But LBWF’s Monitoring Officer, Mark Hynes, was having none of it, telling me: ‘The London Borough of Waltham Forest publishes all requirements under the LGTC regarding its Procurement Information, as stated in Part 2.1, in real time and ahead of the quarterly requirement. This information is publicl... »

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LBWF Director of Governance and Law Mark Hynes gets knocked back by the Information Commissioner, and is caught out muddling evidence, while council resources drain away

August 6, 2024 Freedom of Information Act, Mark Hynes

This blog has periodically highlighted the slipshod way that LBWF administers its information services, and the waste of time and public money which often ensues. In the last couple of years, LBWF Director of Governance and Law, Mark Hynes, who is also Data Protection Officer, together with LBWF CEO, Linzi Roberts-Egan, have each promised reviews and improvements, but as a new case again shows, in reality little has changed. In February 2024, local commentator, Michelle Edwards, who authors the Anything BUT Countryside & Waltham Forest Council Twitter/X feed, sent LBWF a Freedom ... »

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Town Hall shambles: Chief Executive Linzi Roberts-Egan slams the scheme that her senior managers have been using to appraise staff performance, branding it ‘not fit for purpose’

July 23, 2024 LBWF finance, LBWF spin, Linzi Robers-Egan

Sometimes LBWF surprises even those who have followed its antics for many years. As a previous post indicated, the Town Hall is now stuffed with several hundred senior managers, their number having quadrupled since 2015. Many are well paid, too. Thus, 126 (about quarter) earn between £70,000 and £100,000 p.a.; while 37 earn £100,000 p.a. plus, topped off by the Chief Executive, Linzi Roberts-Egan, who is on £217,671 p.a., far more than the Prime Minister. Given such numbers, it is reasonable to assume that the Town Hall must be tolerably well run. Yet, an internal message that Ms Roberts-Egan ... »

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New investigation reveals that since 2015 LBWF has failed to comply with the official transparency rules, so limiting outside scrutiny and accountability

July 18, 2024 LBWF spin, Local Government Transparency Code

In 2015, the Conservative government introduced an updated version of the Local Government Transparency Code (hereafter LGTC) which set out the information councils must place in the public domain, and how often, with the aim of increasing ‘democratic accountability’. Subsequently, the LGTC has remained unchanged down to the present. But it now can be revealed that, although the LGTC is mandatory rather than discretionary, LBWF has blatantly failed to fully comply.  The LGTC covers 14 categories of information, three to be published quarterly, the other ten annually, thus: It also ex... »

Leytonstone cartoonist Woox on Lord Cryer and You Know Who…

July 10, 2024 Woox

(Reproduced by kind permission of Woox) »

The Whitefield School abuse scandal: who knew what, when, and why is there still a sense of unease?

July 8, 2024 child safeguarding, LBWF spin, Whitefield

Whitefield is a long-established academy school in Walthamstow with c. 300 pupils aged between three and 19, many of whom have severe or complex needs and are unable to communicate verbally. Over the years, Whitefield has received plenty of plaudits, and attracted support from a range of senior politicians and public figures. However, since 2017 it has been embroiled in a scandal about a historic safeguarding issue, a scandal that has periodically re-surfaced, and today is as raw as ever. The story starts in January 2017, with an Ofsted report.  For while this was in several respects high... »

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