Author: Nick Tiratsoo

LBWF’s in-house ‘Eastern Legal Partnership’ initiative: another Waltham Forest mystery

November 20, 2020 Freedom of Information Act, Mark Hynes

Back in 2018, LBWF launched Eastern Legal Partnership (ELP), which its supremo, Director of Governance and Law Mark Hynes, introduced thus: ‘Eastern Legal Partnership (ELP) is a team of lawyers that primarily provide legal services to the London Borough of Waltham Forest. Our successes and expertise in the council’s legal matters means that we are ideally placed to help other public sector organisations such as other borough councils, housing associations, NHS, schools and academies and others. We can also provide legal services to third sector organisations. ELP is the enterprise we hav... »

,

Learning the lessons of Grenfell…or maybe not: LBWF’s 2017-18 flat entrance door update programme at Northwood Tower, Goddarts House, and other sheltered housing blocks

November 12, 2020 fire hazards, fire safety

From November 2017 to April 2018, LBWF, via its repair and maintenance agent Osborne, employed a company called Exterior Plas Ltd. to upgrade 217 flat entrance doors (FEDs) at what it called five ‘key sites’ – Walthamstow’s 21 floor Northwood Tower, and four sheltered housing blocks, Boothby Court, Goddarts House, Holmcroft House, and Lime Court. The promise to residents was that in future they would be more secure from the danger of fire than ever before, since while the Building Regulations stipulated that FEDs be at least FD30 (i.e. providing 30 minutes protection), those being instal... »

,

LBWF councillors right to withhold ‘sensitive’ information about themselves on the Register of Interests: use and possible abuse

October 23, 2020 Mark Hynes, register of interests

Though relatively rarely discussed, a clause in the current local government legislation allows councillors to withhold information on their register of interests forms so long as the monitoring officer agrees the information in question is ‘sensitive’, meaning, if made public, would lead to ‘violence or intimidation’ either directly or against ‘a person connected’. The reasoning here is fairly obvious. Councillors are a vital part of local democracy, and must be allowed to carry out their public duties free from fear. Moreover, if abusive behaviour is allowed to flourish, it may well deter me... »

,

LBWF’s Internal Audit and Anti-Fraud Team investigates Town Hall procurement of goods and services, and finds disturbing ‘non-compliance with existing Rules’

October 12, 2020 LBWF finance, LBWF spin

In late 2019, LBWF’s Internal Audit and Anti-Fraud Team (hereafter IAAFT) completed a report on Town Hall procurement, and surprisingly, given the fact that each year this involves many millions of pounds’ worth of goods and services, concluded that it was only deserving of ‘limited assurance’, with two of the five component findings about risk rated ‘high’ (‘Key targets missed, some services compromised…Service budgets exceeded…Significant breach in laws and regulations resulting in significant…consequences’). The IAAFT investigation was based upon a forensic examination of five procure... »

,

Cllr. Clyde Loakes makes Private Eye

October 7, 2020 Cllr. Clyde Loakes

From Private Eye No.1532, 9-22 October 2020. Cllr. Loakes, of course, is no stranger to these kind of controversies, see, for example, the story retold in the links. It is also arresting that someone who bangs on about the importance of curtailing motor traffic in Waltham Forest in order to promote clean air is, at one at the same time, keen on building a large incinerator in Edmonton, with the borough’s western flank a short distance downwind. »

London Borough of Waltham Forest: the local authority that can’t even finalise its annual accounts (3)

October 1, 2020 LBWF finance

The saga of LBWF’s failure to complete its 2018-19 accounts – originally due, as for all other local authorities, on the last day of July 2019 – continues, and indeed seems to have no very clear end in sight. What’s gone wrong? Recent papers to the LBWF Audit and Governance Committee provide some elucidation. Initially, it appears, LBWF could legitimately claim that it was being thwarted by external circumstances, and long before those caused by COVID-19. First, following statutory guidance, LBWF recently had changed auditors, with the incumbent, EY (Ernst & Young), adopting a somewhat dif... »

The Labour Left in Waltham Forest: neither use nor ornament (1)

September 9, 2020 Momentum, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest, Waltham Forest Labour Party

As anyone close to the action readily will tell you (if only off the record), Labour in Waltham Forest is split down the middle. Labour Party One consists of Walthamstow MP, Dr. Stella Creasy, the LBWF Cabinet, the great majority of rank and file councillors, and their respective retinues amongst the membership. In contrast, Labour Party Two is all about self-styled ‘activists’, and comprises a ragbag of Momentum and other Corbynistas, Palestine Solidarity Campaign veterans, identarians of various hues, the inevitable gaggle of entryists from the far-left fringe, and similar camp followers. Wh... »

, ,

LBWF and fire safety at Northwood Tower: yet more jiggery-pokery?

September 2, 2020 fire hazards, fire safety, Northwood Tower

The antics of LBWF never cease to amaze and (for those who appreciate dark humour) amuse. A fresh example has just emerged. In the last few years, fire safety at the 21 floor, 99 flat, Northwood Tower in Walthamstow has been a cause for concern.  Thus, when LBWF’s agent, Ridge, carried out a Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) for 2018-19, it identified the need for 65 remedial measures, and assessed the building to be at ‘substantial risk’, meaning ‘Improvements should be undertaken urgently’. A year later, Ridge had gone, to be replaced by the controversial S3 Environmental (see previous posts), and ... »

, ,

Fire safety at LBWF’s Northwood Tower in Walthamstow: a further chapter in a long-running and dismal story

August 4, 2020 fire hazards, fire safety, Northwood Tower

From August 2017 onwards, the Waltham Forest Echo journalist Michelle Edwards has repeatedly warned about the perilous state of fire safety measures at Walthamstow’s 21 floor Northwood Tower. Shocked by these revelations, this blog, too, has looked at Northwood, in particular scrutinising the Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) reports between 2014 and 2018, and supported Ms. Edwards’ judgement that (a) the overall fire risk at the block has remained unacceptably high, and (b) exactly the same failings have been noted, again and again, casting doubt on LBWF’s appetite for effective remedial work (see r... »

, ,

LBWF and COVID-19 (3)

July 22, 2020 COVID-19

With the passage of time, there is growing clarity about how LBWF has been affected by COVID-19, and to what extent the impact is being mitigated by special support received from the government. The first discussion of these important issues occurred in late April, when a report on them was debated by Cabinet. LBWF officers had produced 15 initial estimates of the possible gross damage (i.e. the damage disregarding any extra government assistance) which played with various assumptions about the pandemic’s likely length and the size of the extra demand for social care, and concluded that the ra... »