Nick Tiratsoo's Posts

As a programme to retrain the Town Hall’s frontline managers is revealed to have been deeply flawed, doubts again surface about how LBWF spends public money

September 26, 2025 EDI 0

In the past few years LBWF has vigorously pursued an equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) agenda aimed at transforming its internal culture, an agenda that has involved all employees, from top to bottom; cost thousands of pounds; and, because delivered via various kinds of training, eaten up significant amounts of staff time. Little has been said about this agenda in public, but Freedom of Info... »

Cathall Labour Councillor Jonathan O’Dea dropped as a candidate at next year’s local elections: is it because he has spoken publicly about the Whitefield child abuse scandal?

September 19, 2025 Whitefield 0

In the past few weeks, the Waltham Forest Echo has reported extensively on the deselection of longstanding Cathall Councillor Jonathan O’Dea. Earlier this year, the paper reveals, Cllr. O’Dea applied to stand again for Labour in next year’s local elections, but on the advice of the party’s Chief Whip, Cllr. Steve Terry, was turned down. Cllr. O’Dea was told that what counted against him ... »

Ofsted, LBWF, and the Whitefield School CCTV cameras

August 27, 2025 child safeguarding, Whitefield 0

This post examines how Ofsted and LBWF investigated allegations of child abuse at Whitefield School, and in particular what use they made of evidence provided by CCTV cameras. At first sight, it might be assumed that such a matter would be straightforward, but in fact, as the following paragraphs show, it turns out to be rather convoluted, and puzzling. Here’s the story. As previously reported by ... »

The Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman reprimands LBWF over its complaints handling, citing ‘unacceptable’ delays, ‘poor quality, incomplete responses’, and waste of staff time

August 8, 2025 Ombudsman 0

Every year, the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman sends each council a review letter which contains some tailored observations about their complaints handling. The review letter for 2024-25 just sent to LBWF, specifically CEO Linzi Roberts-Egan, includes the following: ‘During the year, there were several occasions when our investigations were delayed by your Council’s failure to respon... »

Update: the latest official figures show that 63 of LBWF’s 64 low-rise and high-rise housing blocks are still not fire safe, mainly because of ‘Resources’, and ‘available budgets’

August 6, 2025 fire hazards, fire safety 0

In 2020, triggered by the fallout from the Grenfell tragedy, LBWF finally addressed the fact that very few, if any, of its large and small housing blocks were fire safe, and began a large-scale remediation programme to put matters right. It might be assumed that, by now, this programme would have delivered substantial results, leaving LBWF tenants free from worry. But data recently released by the... »

LBWF’s Goddarts sheltered housing block in Walthamstow: fire safety assessors find serious issues for five years running, but, astonishingly, they remain unaddressed, leaving vulnerable residents in danger

July 15, 2025 fire hazards, fire safety 0

Goddarts House, Walthamstow, is a purpose built two-storey block, owned and administered by LBWF, containing 27 flats providing sheltered living accommodation. Its residents include the elderly, and those who have hearing, sight, or mental health impairment.  Some are wheelchair users. In 2019-21, Goddarts came to the attention of this blog because one of its residents, Roy Sutton, discovered... »

LBWF promises always to ‘put people first’, but as yet another example demonstrates, this is a fiction

July 7, 2025 Ombudsman 0

Renowned Waltham Forest campaigner James O’Rourke spends a good deal of time looking out for his brother, who has a learning disability and resides in supported living accommodation. Like many people in similar situations, taking on this responsibility brings Mr. O’Rourke into regular contact with LBWF, and this has caused him and his brother serial problems. In a recent e-mail to a senior officer... »

STOP PRESS The police confirm their investigation of the Whitefield School child abuse scandal continues, which seemingly contradicts what Council Leader Grace Williams has told residents

June 27, 2025 child safeguarding, Whitefield 0

The Metropolitan Police Service [MPS] has just confirmed its investigation of the Whitefield School child abuse scandal is continuing. The facts are that in April 2024, the MPS was told that previously unknown offences of ‘perverting the course of justice and misconduct in public office’ were alleged to have occurred in relation to Whitefield; and as a consequence, in November of the same year, it... »

Whitefield child abuse scandal latest: details of the new independent expert review revealed, and the key issues that remain unresolved

June 20, 2025 child safeguarding, Whitefield 0

On 27 November 2024, the day after the BBC reported the full awful details of the scale and severity of the child abuse at Whitefield School between 2014 and 2017, LBWF Leader Grace Williams announced that ‘safeguarding partners will commission an independent expert to carry out a Local Children Safeguarding Practice Review (LCSPR) to ensure the lessons of this distressing case are learned’. As th... »

‘How others see us’, an occasional series, No.1: Stella Creasy

June 19, 2025 Stella Creasy MP 0

Brutal, from columnist, critic and feature writer Sarah Ditum at Unherd: ‘It’s possible that there are other egos in parliament as big as Labour MP Stella Creasy’s. It’s unlikely, though, that anyone can match her combination of relentless self-promotion and extraordinary political incompetence. Few have achieved such blanket publicity for themselves while accomplishing so little, and this w... »

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