Posts

LBWF’s new core strategy, ‘Mission Waltham Forest: our plan for a more equal borough’: laudable response to austerity, or cynical political opportunism?

March 8, 2024 LBWF spin

 At its February meeting, the Council approved ‘Mission Waltham Forest: our plan for a more equal borough’ (hereafter MWF), comprising a new ‘strategic ambition’ and ‘core purpose’, which is to make Waltham Forest a more equal borough by 2030, plus a new and ‘radical’ way of working, very much ‘a break from… business-as-usual’. In detail, MWF will focus council effort and resources on ten different priorities, six about ‘the issues that matter most to our residents’ (homes, health, access to services etc.), and four about ‘how we must transform how we work if we are to deliver on our vision for the borough’. Throughout, it is underlined, the emphasis will be on involving and listening t... »

LBWF is making 150 employees redundant, and imposing 105 separate spending cuts, but its long-term habit of appointing expensive senior staff apparently continues

February 23, 2024 Linzi Roberts-Egan, Redundancies, Senior staff pay

Some of the choices that LBWF makes about the expenditure of public money are perplexing, to say the least. Consider first some recent history. Over the years, and when speaking publicly, leading Labour councillors have repeatedly insisted that dwindling central government funding is threatening the council’s financial stability. Yet behind the scenes, as this blog has revealed, these same leading Labour councillors have rubber stamped an extraordinary, certainly unprecedented, expansion in the number of senior Town Hall staff, with the latter increasing from 101 to 370 between 2015 and 2022 (the last year when figures are available) at a cost of at least £19m.. Now, with inflation and highe... »

Private Eye reports LBWF’s mushrooming number of expensive senior staff, their failure to improve performance, and the redundancy programme that is the consequence

February 14, 2024 LBWF spin, Redundancies, Senior staff pay

From Private Eye, No. 1617, 16 Feb to 29 Feb. 2024 »

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Walthamstow community activist Charlie Edwards’ court case shows that, though LBWF has a legal duty to release to each resident the personal information it holds about them, it is still obstructive

February 9, 2024 Freedom of Information Act, LBWF spin, Mark Hynes

Some months ago, Walthamstow community activist Charlie Edwards lodged a claim for damages against LBWF because of the way it had handled a request for the personal information which it held about him, what’s known as a Subject Access Request (SAR), and earlier this week his case was heard at the Clerkenwell and Shoreditch County Court. The hearing started on a comical note.  LBWF was represented by barrister Douglas Scott of Six Pump Court (which describes itself as ‘Recognised nationally and internationally as one of the UK’s leading sets of Chambers’) and, while waiting to start, Mr. Scott warned Mr. Edwards that his primary aim was to have the case straightaway thrown out. Yet, desp... »

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Speed humps in Waltham Forest: new evidence shows that activists’ call for a review are perfectly reasonable

February 5, 2024 LBWF spin, Mini-Holland

It is pleasing to report that the campaign for a review of speed humps in Waltham Forest is progressing well, led by determined activists in partnership with the Chingford Residents Association, gaining support from local MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith, and currently attracting ministerial attention in the Department for Transport. However, barely a month passes without new questions arising about exactly what LBWF has been up to. Take the recent statement about speed humps that Deputy Leader and Cabinet Portfolio Member for Climate and Air Quality, Clyde Loakes, provided to the Sunday Telegraph: ‘“We know for sure that vehicles travelling at speed do cause significant damage to people. ... »

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