Posts

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 later, a profile of him for this blog (see links) started thus: ‘Cllr. Johar Khan, the Labour member for... »

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, that is the seven-year span immediately before LBWF began work on Mini-Holland and associated schemes... »

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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 matter. The Council has both acknowledged its shortcomings as part of that process and has complied... »

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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 publicly available without registration via the web pages of our e-tendering platform, the London Tenders P... »

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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 of Information Act (FIA) inquiry. In response, LBWF repeatedly advised that, because her inquiry rel... »

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