Author: Nick Tiratsoo

‘Knife crime in Waltham Forest: a nasty little scandal’ UPDATED

August 9, 2018 Cllr. Clare Coghill, Gang Prevention Programme, LBWF spin, Policing/crime

In May 2017, this blog published a post entitled ‘Knife crime in Waltham Forest: a nasty little scandal (1)’, which, somewhat unexpectedly, attracted a big readership. What follows provides an update, focusing both on knife crime specifically, and the broader (though intimately related) issue of gangs and gang violence. First off, and very regrettably, it is worth underlining that the knife crime problem in the borough is actually worse now than it was at the time of the original post. Indeed, in FY 2017-18, the number of offences was 27.34 per cent up on the previous year, a rise that was sig... »

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How local government works: (1) LBWF and Mears

July 27, 2018 Waltham Forest Labour Party

1. In February 2018, the LBWF Cabinet agrees to set up ‘a joint venture with Mears Limited to acquire 400 properties to let to those living in temporary accommodation or on the Council’s housing register’. 2. In June 2018, Mears sponsors a ‘think tank’ session at Housing 2018, ‘Europe’s largest and most inclusive housing festival’, which includes a heavyweight Waltham Forest presence: NB There is no suggestion that either Mr. Welsh or Cllr. Mitchell gained financially from this appearance, with for example the latter’s ‘gifts and hospitalit... »

Cllr. Johar Khan: the prince of pranksters hits the skids?

July 25, 2018 Cllr. Johar Khan, register of interests, Waltham Forest Labour Party

Cllr. Johar Khan, the Labour member for Markhouse, has always been a bit of a card. Spats with colleagues and adversaries, political implosions, party defections, suspensions, investigations, big posh cars, personalised number plates, flash weddings, and an impish way with facts – his back pages feature the lot. Who, for instance, could forget the time when, as finance director, he reassured his colleagues at a January 2011 E11 BID Co. board meeting that ‘All VAT, PAYE and tax matters had now been brought up to date’, only for the company’s spoilsport accountant to conclude some months later t... »

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Leytonstone’s E11 BID Co: still more controversy

July 23, 2018 Cllr. Clyde Loakes, E11 BID Co., Waltham Forest Business Board

Over the years, this blog has regularly reported on the travails of the E11 BID Co. Ltd. (hereafter BID ONE), a private company that was specially set up in 2007 to run Leytonstone’s Business Improvement District (BID). In some ways, that this has been merited is quite surprising. The financial and operating model that BID ONE initially set out to follow was hardly complicated. As part of the legislation that set up the BID area, LBWF was charged with collecting an annual levy (calculated as a percentage of rateable value) from local traders, and then passing it over to BID ONE. All BID ... »

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Waltham Forest Labour : boosting the local economy…er sorry, a local economy

July 11, 2018 Waltham Forest Labour Party

Here’s something funny. Councillor Clare Coghill is a great one for saying how important it is to boost the local economy, and often reassures us that, in its never ending search to make our lives better, her council is doing just that. For example, here she is writing in the preface to LBWF’s 2016-18 Growth Strategy: ‘Over the next four years we will continue to work closely with local businesses and give them the support they need to prosper, and promote and invest in our town centres to keep wealth in the borough and give residents the quality and mix of services they expe... »

The Labour Party in Waltham Forest and the financing of local elections: a scandal in the making? (2)

July 4, 2018 the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

A recent post, based on the evidence of a whistleblower, casts doubt on the way that the Labour Party in Waltham Forest has been financing its local government election expenditure (see link below). The key point is that in the last two local election campaigns, the bill appears to have been picked up solely by the Labour Group (LG), in other words the councillors in the Town Hall,  and this raises eyebrows for two interrelated reasons. First, there is the question of the LG’s status.The Electoral Commission (EC) oversees party political spending, and does this in part by monitoring what... »

‘London Borough of Waltham Forest: “a property empire with a sideline in local government”’ – the movie

June 18, 2018 Redevelopment

The trailer from Limitedscope. Other Limitedscope productions can be found at vimeo.com/limitedscope   »

LBWF’s refresh of its Gang Prevention Programme: spin, spin, and more spin?

June 6, 2018 Gang Prevention Programme, Policing/crime

It is abundantly evident that many people in the borough, from many different backgrounds, are worried about the seemingly unchecked level of local gang-related crime, and the grave impact that this is having on young people’s lives. It is therefore astonishing that those who turned to LBWF’s website yesterday in order to find out what the Cabinet is intending to do about gangs found themselves greeted by the following: Certain aspects of anti-gang work – for example, active police operations – of course must be kept largely confidential. But yesterday’s discussion was about the directio... »

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The Labour Party in Waltham Forest and the financing of local elections: a scandal in the making? (1)

June 4, 2018 the Labour Party in Waltham Forest, Waltham Forest Labour Party

Over the years, a number of correspondents have approached this blog to express anxieties about how the local Labour Party (LP) is being run and financed. Some of their claims are plausible, others less so. But in general, it is often difficult for the bystander, given the prevalence of internecine strife, to separate out truth from factional point scoring. However, a whistleblower with impeccable credentials now has stepped forward to put meat on the bone, and what emerges is alarming, to say the least. LP rules require that the costs of local government elections – which are often substantia... »

Silver Birch Academy Trust: Lost in the Forest?

May 18, 2018 Academies

As this blog has periodically observed, to mere mortals the world of primary and secondary school academies, and in particular their governance, is sometimes rather puzzling. Last Sunday, the Observer featured a local case that well illustrates the point. Silver Birch Academy Trust (SBAT) runs four primary schools with nearly 2,000 pupils, three of which (Chingford Hall Primary Academy, Longshaw Primary Academy, and Whittingham Primary Academy) are in Waltham Forest. Like its peers, SBAT is regulated by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), and subject to periodic inspection. Where t... »