Posts

Barnett v. Dhedi: councillors scrap

February 23, 2015 Cllr. Peter Barnett, Cllr. Shabana Dhedi/Qadir, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

Spats amongst councillors are often good value for money – a window into the Town Hall world of petty rivalries, vanities, jealousies, self-importance and general buffoonery, where molehills soon become mountains. Whether the latest altercation, between the deeply unimpressive Cllrs Peter Barnett and Shabana Dhedi, conforms to this mould remains to be seen. The Waltham Forest Guardian has covered the story in surprising depth, and attracted a fair bit of public interest. There is some suggestion of an organised campaign.  Regarless, the synthetic rage of the supposedly affronted adds an albeit unintended comedic quality to much of the comment. The by now fashionable charges of ‘racism&... »

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Asbestos matters: John Cryer MP keeps stum, too

February 20, 2015 John Cryer MP, Town Hall asbestos

John Cryer is a trade union sponsored MP who likes to present himself as a staunch defender of the downtrodden. In April 2014, Mr. Cryer addressed a memorial service in the Town Hall complex to commemorate ‘men killed whilst at work’, in particular those  ‘as young as 16 who have died in and around the borough’. The local press published a picture of him standing outside the Town Hall itself, alongside trade unionists and bereaved family members. Nine months elapse, and LBWF is found guilty of exposing staff and visitors to dangerous asbestos dust in the very same building that Mr. Cryer had earlier posed before. And what has Mr. Cryer had to say about this? Absolutely nothing. His silence b... »

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Flying the flag in the face of austerity

February 16, 2015 Cllr. Chris Robbins

A local resident writes: ‘Have you noticed all the Union Jacks now flying in the borough? You might expect a Union Jack at the Town Hall, but do we need them at Leyton Cricket Ground and other such facilities? Alongside running the Council, with all the difficult decisions to be made over cuts to essential services, it would appear that money has been found to put a flagpole and union jack at all our sports grounds and council buildings, even to the extent of getting planning permission where required for listed buildings. Emails from the Council Leader’s office asking “Please can I have an update for the Leader asap” followed up with the detailed request “Leade... »

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Disposing of Council assets: the Waltham Forest Business Board and the Argall car parks

February 16, 2015 Argall Car Parks, Waltham Forest Business Board

Councils inevitably dispose of unwanted public assets from time to time, and it is always interesting to discover exactly how they do so, and who benefits. The following is a tale of what happens in Waltham Forest, and as might be predicted, it  provokes more questions than it answers.  On 14 June 2011, the LBWF Cabinet agreed to lease the Argall Avenue car parks to ‘BID’, a fair assumption being that the latter was the Argall Business Improvement District Co., which operated on the modest industrial estate of the same name (see the Cabinet paper of that date, Appendix B, p.1). The car parks between them encompassed 13,585 square meters and space for 110 vehicles; and though only ‘approximat... »

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LBWF, the Local Authority Business Growth Initiative programmes, and the Waltham Forest Business Board, E11 Bid Co., and North London Ltd.

February 13, 2015 Argall Car Parks, E11 BID Co., North London Ltd., Waltham Forest Business Board

A couple of years ago, I started hearing some very surprising things about Leytonstone’s Business Improvement District (BID) company, the E11 Bid Co.. The allegation, in short, was that the directors of the company had failed to keep proper books and neglected to pay their taxes; run up substantial debts; and as a consequence jeopardised the company’s ‘going concern’ status. I had always been suspicious about the E11 BID Co. because there was a lack of transparency about its operations, and a lot of obvious flannel about its alleged successes. I knew that councillors (including the ex-Leader, Clyde Loakes) had been or remained on the E11 BID Co. board, and that the co... »

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