Author: Nick Tiratsoo

Local journalist Michelle Edwards reveals pressing fire safety issues at a newly built LBWF housing block, but from the Town Hall there is only silence

January 19, 2023 fire hazards, fire safety

The respected Waltham Forest journalist Michelle Edwards has recently moved to a flat in a low-rise block at Pinder Road, Wood Street, completed by Countryside Partnerships in early 2022 and now owned and run by LBWF. It is true to say that this has not been a happy experience, and she tweets about the issues she has encountered at https://twitter.com/NewBuildHell.  Some of these issues are particularly worrying. At home one day in November 2022, Ms. Edwards heard a commotion at the front of her block, and went to investigate. She found that the lock on the main entry door had failed, resident... »

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Has LBWF Director of Governance and Law Mark Hynes’ Town Hall asbestos inquiry gone seriously awry?

January 10, 2023 Town Hall asbestos

As previously reported, following my request that LBWF examines whether it may have recently contravened the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, Director of Governance and Law Mark Hynes is embarked upon an internal investigation, involving ‘a number of officers, former employees of the Council and other third parties’, ‘covering a significant period of time since 2013’, and taking ‘a number of months to complete’, with Clyde & Co. LLP contracted to ‘support’ him. At first sight, this seems to be positive news, proof that, as Mr. Hynes initially told me, ‘the Council takes the ... »

Waltham Forest council is the sixth most complained about in all of England

December 27, 2022 Freedom of Information Act, LBWF spin

Over recent years, LBWF has incessantly boasted about its achievements, all the while stressing that it prioritises ‘listening’, and is on the side of residents, or as one past Leader was fond of saying, ‘our people’. But now the truth is out. For a survey by claims.co.uk, which uses official data for 2016-22, reveals that LBWF is the sixth most complained about council, not just in London, but in the whole of England. The details are appended. In normal organisations, such humiliation would be seen as mortifying, and provoke some prolonged soul-searching. Here, in the borough, the precedent i... »

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LBWF in Private Eye yet again, this time over dodging key questions about whether it consulted the emergency services prior to implementing Low Traffic Neighbourhoods

December 15, 2022 LBWF spin

A further story highlighting what happens when a resident questions LBWF about an unarguably important local issue, receives an absurd response, but persists. And, making matters a whole lot worse, Mr. Edwards tells this blog that though on 5 November he wrote to LBWF asking it to explain his treatment, no answer has been forthcoming. Isn’t there anybody in the Town Hall who realises that all of this makes LBWF look, not strong and forthright, but shifty and foolish? From Private Eye 1588 16/12/22 -05/01/23 »

How Leytonstone councillors communicate with residents…

December 13, 2022 LBWF spin

(image supplied by Woox, and used with thanks) A resident writes: ‘Of course, Leytonstone councillors are always on Twitter and so on….. But what about people who haven’t got mobile phones or computers? I checked the 2021 State of the Borough Report and it’s got these interesting figures: That noticeboard is on a corner right in the centre of Leytonstone. Hundreds pass it every hour. It seems like those without the internet are always forgotten’. »

The Charity Commission issues regulatory ‘guidance’ to Walthamstow charities Miftahul Jannah Academy and Masjid-E-Umer Trust after complaints about the content of their youth programmes

December 6, 2022 anti-semitism, faith groups

In the autumn of 2021, complaints were made to the Charity Commission about two Waltham Forest Muslim charities, the Miftahul Jannah Academy and the Masjid-E-Umer Trust (which runs Walthamstow Central Mosque). At the centre of the complaints was ‘Islamic scholar’ Muhammad Patel, who had taught young people at both charities from 2008 onwards, with live recordings of his weekly lectures then being posted on the web for posterity.  Mr. Patel’s comments about the Taliban, armed jihad, and Jewish perfidy appeared to fall foul of Charity Commission guidance. Moreover, he also had instruct... »

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Private Eye reports the new LBWF asbestos scandal (2)

November 16, 2022 Town Hall asbestos

From issue 1586, 18/11/22-01/12/22. »

LBWF’s Town Hall asbestos scandal: an update and comment

November 11, 2022 Asbestos at St. Mary's School, Town Hall asbestos

Local Democracy Reporter Josh Mellor yesterday posted a story on the asbestos scandal under the amusing headline ‘Council investigating itself over former town hall asbestos’, here: https://walthamforestecho.co.uk/council-investigating-itself-over-former-town-hall-asbestos#article What follows is a complementary commentary, looking initially at how my own concerns have developed, before turning to scrutinize the context and substance of the council’s response. The key moment when I realised that something was not quite right about the way LBWF was dealing with asbestos in the Town Hall occurre... »

How Cann Hall councillors communicate with residents…

November 7, 2022 LBWF spin

A resident writes: ‘We opened a community café and foodbank near that notice board, and wanted to put one of our A4 posters on display in it. We found out that – inexplicably – a local shopkeeper held the key, went to see her, and gave her a poster. She promised to put it up straightaway. Nothing happened. So we went to see her again. This time, she said she’d been busy, but promised to act. Nothing happened again. So we went to see her a third time, and on this occasion, because she wasn’t there, we gave a new poster to one of her staff, who promised to jog the owner’s memory. Still not... »

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Private Eye reports the new LBWF asbestos scandal (1)

October 24, 2022 Town Hall asbestos

From issue 1583, 7-20/10/22. »