Cllr. Clare Coghill

The Whitefield School child abuse scandal: the BBC publishes more awful revelations

November 27, 2024 child safeguarding, Cllr. Clare Coghill, Cllr. Grace Williams, Whitefield

The BBC has just published more awful revelations about the Whitefield School child abuse scandal, which can be read here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjw0e3zjx2lo.amp For the background to the scandal, and a timeline of events, see links, below. It should not be forgotten that (a) LBWF was involved at every stage of the scandal, but kept its deliberations and interventions for the most part away from public scrutiny. Thus, to give a flavour, in the crucial period 2017 to 2021, the relevant scrutiny committee minutes make no mention of Whitefield School at all, and nor is the scandal r... »

LBWF’s flagship Blackhorse Yard ‘affordable’ housing scheme teeters, as developer Swan Housing steps away

July 19, 2022 Cllr. Clare Coghill, Housing, Redevelopment

The future of LBWF’s flagship ‘affordable’ housing scheme at Blackhorse Yard has been thrown into disarray, following the withdrawal of one of its two developers, Swan Housing. Swan Housing and its partner, Catalyst Homes, originally had gained planning permission for Blackhorse Yard in February 2019, and intended to deliver ‘359 affordable homes for shared ownership’, together with ‘a creative hub for artisans, artists’ studios, new retail space and an exciting and vibrant public realm’, using a site that had been purchased expressly for their purpose by the Mayor of London. LB... »

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Ex-Leader Cllr. Clare Coghill’s breach of the LBWF Code of Conduct: Director of Governance and Law Mark Hynes adds further fuel to the fire

February 2, 2022 Cllr. Clare Coghill, Mark Hynes, register of interests

Leading on from previous posts about Cllr. Coghill and her breach of the LBWF Code of Conduct by not declaring in 2017 that she was on the staff of Barry Sheerman MP, Director of Governance and Law Mark Hynes has just provided some new details, small in themselves but nevertheless significant. First, he underlines that Cllr. Coghill’s error ‘was down to her and no one else’ (in other words, ruling out that she had been undone by mis-communication with an officer); and, second, he clarifies that when Cllr. Coghill updated her LBWF register of interests [hereafter LBWF register] in 2017, for som... »

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LBWF Leaders rattle the begging bowl, but splash £100,000 on ‘a conversation’ between seven floodlit buildings

January 25, 2022 Cllr. Clare Coghill, Cllr. Grace Williams, LBWF finance

Since the start of the pandemic, the respective Labour Leaders, first Cllr. Clare Coghill and later her successor, Cllr. Grace Williams, have returned to versions of the long-standing Labour complaint that LBWF is not getting a fair funding deal from the Tory government. Cllr. Coghill early on set the tone, stating in a press release of April 2020 that “‘If lockdown measures continue for 12 weeks the full impact on our finances could be up to £40 million, roughly 10 per cent of our planned budget for this year’, and then telling the Waltham Forest Echo that while ministers had init... »

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Cllr. Clare Coghill confirmed to have broken LBWF’s Code of Conduct by not declaring her work for Barry Sheerman MP, but Director of Governance and Law Mark Hynes declines disciplinary action

January 11, 2022 Cllr. Clare Coghill, Mark Hynes, register of interests

A recent post (see first link below) looked at ex-Leader Cllr. Clare Coghill’s LBWF register of interests in the period 2014 to 2018, and noted some discrepancies.  In 2014, Cllr. Coghill declared that she was office manager for the Labour MP Barry Sheerman, but in her next register three years later, she included no such entry: The clear implication was that her job with Mr. Sheerman had ended, and, as councillors were required to record any changes to their gainful outside employment within 28 days, her update was precisely designed to record that fact. However, there was a fly in ... »

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STOP PRESS Cllr. Coghill revealed to have issues with her register of interests forms, and LBWF Director of Governance and Law Mark Hynes now investigating

December 1, 2021 Cllr. Clare Coghill

As this blog has noted before, despite the fact that she long has been a senior figure in the Town Hall, Cllr. Clare Coghill’s record over her LBWF register of interests forms is not outstanding. In 2017, Cllr. Coghill was involved in a muddle about her two visits to the annual Marché International des Professionnels de l’Immobilier (MIPIM), ‘real estate’s Glastonbury Festival’, in Cannes (see link). Earlier in 2021, research by Walthamstow resident Charlie Edwards revealed that a complaint about Cllr. Coghill’s register of interests form was upheld (see link), and she subsequently a... »

Cllr. Clare Coghill and Square Roots Registered Provider Ltd.: the controversy continues

November 29, 2021 Cllr. Clare Coghill

Reaction to Cllr. Coghill’s appointment to the Board of Square Roots Registered Provider Ltd. continues to provoke discussion, and, in some quarters, condemnation. One issue is whether her change of circumstance will impact on how LBWF does business with developers. Normally, there is a good deal of arm-wrestling in such negotiations, with the two sides haggling over, for example, the balance between social and private housing, the amount of green space and ancillary facilities to be included, and so on. Cllr. Coghill, needless to say, has intimate knowledge of LBWF’s current plans and bargain... »

Ex-Leader of LBWF Cllr. Clare Coghill joins the board of private sector housing provider Square Roots: cue furore

October 29, 2021 Cllr. Clare Coghill, Redevelopment, register of interests

A couple of weeks ago, Cllr. Clare Coghill, the ex-Leader of LBWF, amended her Town Hall register of interests form to acknowledge that she has joined ‘Square Roots One York Road Uxbridge UB81RN’ as board vice chair. To seasoned Waltham Forest watchers, this development is perhaps not unexpected. Square Roots (or Square Roots Registered Provider Ltd., its full name) is a recently incorporated ‘affordable housing provider’; has what Housing Today describes as ‘a raft of senior public sector housing figures’ as directors; and aims to build ‘“much-needed new homes across all tenure... »

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Cllr. Clare Coghill steps down as Leader

June 18, 2021 Cllr. Clare Coghill

Cllr. Clare Coghill has announced she is stepping down as Leader of LBWF, and not standing as a councillor at next year’s election. In the past few months, sources have told this blog that she was being seen in the borough less and less, and her departure may be related to a previous post here, ‘Love amongst the Leaders: Councillors Clare Coghill and Simon Blackburn’. How history will judge Cllr. Coghill’s four years in office remains to be seen. Unsurprisingly, she appears to believe she has been a success. But as this blog has documented at length, she has presided ov... »

Has LBWF got a child safeguarding problem? Judge in recent case condemns council’s ‘overwhelming failure’, while three other cases give cause for concern

April 27, 2021 child safeguarding, Cllr. Clare Coghill, Cllr. Grace Williams

In recent weeks, Waltham Forest and London news outlets have reported the trial of a local mother and father, who stood accused of keeping their two children isolated at home for more than 14 years, thereby depriving them of schooling, access to medical care, recreation, and any kind of social life.  The outcome was that the father admitted child cruelty and neglect, and was given a community order, while charges against the mother were dropped for reasons that have not been made public. The evidence presented in court showed that several statutory agencies had performed less than satisfa... »