Author: Nick Tiratsoo

The mysterious case of the disappearing LBWF councillor…

April 13, 2018 Cllr. Alistair Strathern, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

Yesterday, various readers contacted this blog about a little local mystery. The story is as follows. A couple of days ago, our old friend, LBWF Director of Governance and Law Mark Hynes, circulated a list of councillors who are retiring at the forthcoming local election, and who should be tacked onto the end but Cllr. Alastair Strathern. This rightly caused consternation. Representing Higham Hill for Labour, Cllr. Strathern has been generally seen as something of a rising star, a junior Cabinet portfolio holder who in real life is a finance whizz-kid, holding down a high powered job at the Ba... »

,

Lutfur Rahman: an apology (of sorts)

April 5, 2018 Lutfur Rahman

Over the years, this blog has recorded the richly deserved political and professional downfall of ex-Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman. But it turns out we owe Mr. Rahman something of an apology, because compared to some he never quite scraped the bottom of the barrel. This week’s Private Eye (no. 1467, 6 April to 19 April 2018) explains all: »

Cllr. Limbajee, Cllr. Mbachu, their register of interests forms, and LBWF’s Director of Governance and Law Mark Hynes: the controversy continues

March 28, 2018 Cllr. Anna Mbachu, Cllr. Khevyn Limbajee, LBWF, Mark Hynes, register of interests, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

The controversy over the register of interests forms posted by Cllrs. Khevyn Limbajee and Anna Mbachu, covered by this blog recently, is mushrooming, with even the officer in charge of enforcing the rules, LBWF Director of Governance and Law Mark Hynes, apparently struggling. Let’s take Cllr. Mbachu first, because her case is fairly straightforward. It will be remembered that she has been a director of an ‘active’ company called Knice Industries Ltd. since February 2016, but has never disclosed this fact on her LBWF register of interests form; and that when challenged about t... »

, , , , ,

Islamist extremism in Waltham Forest: a disturbing new episode

March 12, 2018 ISIS, LBWF spin, Martin Esom, Prevent

In the past week or so, much of the press has covered the trial and conviction of Forest Gate Isis supporter Umar Ahmed Haque on a number of serious terrorist offences. During Mr. Haque’s trial, the court heard extensive evidence about his activities at two schools and a madrassa in East London, where (amongst other things) under the guise of teaching ‘Islamic Studies’ he ‘re-enacted attacks on police officers and showed…videos of beheadings’. It is estimated that 110 of his pupils were ‘radicalised’, a third so seriously that they are now receiving long-term safeguarding support, of course at... »

Cllr. Khevyn Limbajee’s register of interests form: another case of Waltham Forest-itis?

March 11, 2018 Cllr. Khevyn Limbajee, Mark Hynes, Redevelopment, register of interests, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

Over the years this blog has periodically revealed that LBWF councillors have surprising difficulty keeping their register of interests forms as accurate and up-to-date as the agreed standards require, a very obvious example of Waltham Forest-itis. Now another possible case of this unfortunate malady may be on the cards. Cllr. Khevyn Limbajee is the Cabinet portfolio holder for housing, who, with his estate agent chic and penchant for social media, syncs so perfectly with the ongoing middle-class takeover of the Labour Party. As of today, Cllr. Limbajee’s register of interests form, post... »

, , , ,

Waltham Forest’s Safer Neighbourhoods Board and MOPAC funding: the scandal continues

February 16, 2018 Gang Prevention Programme, LBWF spin, Policing/crime

A post of September past (see link below) reported that, though in FYs 2015-16 and 2016-17 the Waltham Forest Safer Neighbourhood Board (WFSNB) had been allotted £78,000 of Mayor’s Officer for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) funding, and promised to rigorously track how this was spent, it had so far failed to submit anywhere near the required number of monitoring reports. Now it has just emerged that nearly five months down the line, this regrettable situation persists, with MOPAC admitting that the WFSNB’s end of year monitoring forms for 2015-16, plus the mid-year and end of year monitoring... »

,

LBWF and public-private partnerships: (2) North London Ltd.

February 9, 2018 North London Ltd.

LBWF’s relationship with North London Ltd. (NLL) illuminates a second way of organising public-private partnerships. NLL is a private company, formed in 2005, whose business is ‘Other service activities not elsewhere classified’. LBWF has close links with NLL, not (as with NPS London Ltd.) because of share ownership, but rather because of, first, mutual involvement in a network of allied institutions, and second, the fact that for the bulk of its history NLL has been something of a factotum, the authority’s chosen vehicle for the local implementation of a variety of programmes, some orig... »

,

Ex-Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman: the final disgrace

January 29, 2018 the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

For reasons best known to themselves, and against a mass of evidence, sections of the local Labour Party have continued to champion the disgraced ex-Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman. Now, however, their empathy looks even more absurd. For Mr. Rahman has been struck off by his own professional body, the Solicitors Disciplinary Committee (SDC), and ordered to pay £86,000 in costs. The key part of the SDC’s judgement is as withering as it is possible to get: If Labour Party people can’t get these kind of very clear-cut issues right, it is reasonable to wonder whether their judgem... »

,

LBWF and public-private partnerships: (1) NPS London Ltd.

January 26, 2018 Asbestos at St. Mary's School, Town Hall asbestos

As this blog has previously noted, LBWF is now involved in extending its public-private partnerships, and so it is timely to look at some previous examples of similar initiatives, in order to discover what lessons can be learnt. A subsequent post will return to the vexed history of North London Ltd., while what follows focuses on NPS London Ltd. (NPSL), jointly owned by LBWF and NPS Property Consultants Ltd. (a subsidiary of Norse Group Ltd., itself the child of Norfolk County Council). NPSL was formed in 2007, taking over what was previously LBWF’s in-house building consultancy service, with ... »

,

The Waltham Forest Matters Annual Awards for 2017

December 29, 2017 Cllr. Alan Siggers, Cllr. Anna Mbachu, Cllr. Chris Robbins, Cllr. Clare Coghill, Cllr. Clyde Loakes, Cllr. Hather Ali, Cllr. Liaquat Ali, Mark Hynes, Martin Esom

It’s that time of year folks, and as this blog rapidly approaches the treasured 100,000 hits mark (OK, we admit it, 50,000 of them come from Cllrs Loakes and Robins) here are our awards: Picture of the year (From a couple of years back, true, but just too much of a cracker not to include) Sentence of the year ‘The company Knice Industries ltd is dormant and had never traded and that the councillor has applied to strike the company off the Companies House Register’ Mark Hynes, LBWF Director of Governance and Law, tells it like it is to a resident Social observation of this year (and every... »

, , , , , ,