Every March LBWF has a legal obligation under the Local Government Transparency Code (LGTC) 2015 and various other statutes to publish a Pay Policy Statement. Amongst other things, this must include: (a) a list of senior staff whose salary is £50,000 and upwards, with details of exactly what they earn; their job title; their responsibilities; and their bonuses and ‘benefits-in-kind’; and ... »
The Whitefield School scandal is without doubt the most shocking of any in Waltham Forest’s post-war history, involving as it does historic allegations that staff had subjected tens of children with learning difficulties and severe mental disorders to violent abuse (see links below). Thanks to three detailed reports by Noel Titheradge for the BBC, the first on 14 October 2021, the second two on 30... »
From Private Eye No.1646 4-17 April 2025 »
For the past fifteen years or so, LBWF has worked with a variety of private developers and infrastructure engineers to radically reshape the borough’s built environment. The formal relationships between these different parties of course are recorded in council minutes, contracts, press releases, and similar. But there has been plenty going on behind the scenes as well, and to shed some light on th... »
For the past two decades or so, LBWF has issued its senior managers with corporate credit cards. And, since 2015, following the introduction of the Local Government Transparency Code (LGTC), LBWF also has been legally required to publish data on how these cards are being used. But with the exception of one year, 2016, the latter is something which LBWF has, without explanation, completely failed t... »
From Private Eye No.1643 21 February-6 March 2025. It’s good that PE highlights the witless response of Cllr. Mitchell. In another, more honourable time, many would have expected her to resign. »
In the past couple of years, and without much public commentary, the senior management team in LBWF has been seeking to transform the prevailing culture in the Town Hall by introducing and then championing a major equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) programme. Specifically, the aim has been to ensure that: (a) ‘our workforce reflects the diversity of our community’, on the basis that thi... »
The tragic death of Tracey Turnell has been much covered in the media, and last week Senior East London Coroner Graeme Irving held an inquest to review the surrounding circumstances, which the Investigations Reporter of the East London and West Essex Guardian Series, Charles Thompson, diligently covered here https://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/24904405.tracey-turnell-death-coroner-suggests... »
In a recent ruling, the Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) finds in favour of long-term local council tenant Michelle Edwards over the way that LBWF has handled a series of complaints that she submitted in 2022 and 2023 (the most serious about Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB)) and concludes that that there have been four clear instances of LBWF ‘maladministration’. Some of the details are eye catching. Fo... »
As previous posts have noted (see links below), LBWF’s remediation programme (RP) to make its 42 low-rise and 21 high-rise housing blocks fully fire safe still has much work to do. The RP was launched in 2020, with £40m. earmarked as support, but at the beginning of 2025, there remain nearly 2,000 high and medium risk issues in the blocks which need addressing, and many of these concern fundamenta... »