Last week’s Waltham Forest Guardian, as has been noted, featured E11 BID Co. board chairman Mr. Fawaad Sheikh pontificating on his dislike of ‘free riders’: http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/13587272._I_don_t_like_free_riders___E11_Bid_director_after_sending_bailiffs_to_collect_controversial_levy/ Appropriate modesty is obviously not Mr. Sheikh’s strongest suit. After all, it is a matter of re... »
On 17th July 2015, I used the Freedom of Information Act (FIA) to ask LBWF: ‘At a recent hearing in City Hall, Martin Esom (LBWF CEO) claimed re the Prevent programme: “We try to identify output measures to see how successful we are or otherwise….Our output measures are things like referrals through to Channel and all sorts of things like that. We have quite a broad range of indi... »
The second argument advanced by the refusniks at court can be summarised as follows. Argument Two: at the 2012 re-ballot, the E11 BID Co. failed to make full disclosure, calling into question the validity of the result 1. What follows is based upon two different pieces of evidence. 2. First, under the terms of the Baseline and Operating contracts that they signed in 2008, LBWF and the E11 BID Co. ... »
Over recent years, the E11 BID Co. has regularly been in the news, mainly for the wrong reasons. The latest, and most unsavoury episode, saw LBWF, operating on behalf of the E11 BID Co., take local Leytonstone businesses to court, gain a successful adjudication, and then call in the bailiffs, with the Waltham Forest Guardian reporting as follows: http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/13506732.Bail... »
Before, during, and after its recent court case over asbestos contamination in the Town Hall, LBWF gave the impression that, having been made aware of the problem in early 2012, it then spent a large sum of money making the building safe. Thus, to give one example, a LBWF briefing dated 16 July 2012 states: ‘From 24th February – 19th May, the contractor carried out the decontamination work r... »
In early June of this year, I asked LBWF under the Freedom of Information Act for a list of its current Prevent contracts, with for each its start and finish dates, the name of the contractor, the value of the contract, and a brief description of what the contract aims to achieve. A few days ago, my request was refused, with LBWF arguing as follows: ‘Waltham Forest Council recognises the public in... »
In several previous posts, I’ve looked in detail at some of the organisations that purport to represent business in the borough, particularly the Waltham Forest Business Board, and North London Ltd. It is fair to say that few of my observations have been very favourable. For example, I’ve never quite got my head around the fact that in the three years immediately after the directors of... »
I am currently collating further material on the Town Hall asbestos scandal, and much of it is very revealing. Here is a brief taste. As is by now widely known, LBWF first found out about asbestos in the Town Hall in 1984, though it was a subsequent survey of 2002 that filled in many of the details. In late 2011, LBWF decided to refurbish the Town Hall basement and reception areas, and in advance ... »
A correspondent writes: ‘People viewing properties in Leyton may have come across a flat in Lawton Road E10. In estate agent jargon, this well appointed property has two bedrooms, modern kitchen and bathroom; is located in a quiet residential street close to the cricket ground; and is well served by local buses. The estate agent may or may not relate that this nice but otherwise unremarkable... »