From today’s Daily Mail: ‘”Labour council with £2.8m hole in its finances ‘found £300,000 to silence blogger” Published: 02:15, 21 December 2020 | A penniless Labour council with a £2.8million hole in its budget set aside £300,000 to silence a blogger who was highly critical of its work. Sandwell council…had admitted to setting taxpayers’ money aside to pu... »
As this blog has demonstrated at length, Leytonstone’s E11 BID Co. Ltd. has become a byword for bad management, and a ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude to the norms of polite society. Slipshod book-keeping, failure to pay taxes, accrual of large debts, late filing of accounts, adverse County Court Judgements, insouciance about explaining how it has spent its money – the E... »
According to a document made public at Companies House, reproduced below, the E11 BID Co. is now threatened with being compulsorily struck off and dissolved. This blog has covered the troubled and troubling E11 BID Co. before (see links below). The issue now seems to be that the company missed the deadline for filing its 2014-15 accounts, which was 31 March 2016. It really does seem extraordinary ... »
I have written before about LBWF’s relationships with the local business sector, and pointed out that our council appears to treat certain businesses and business organisations rather more favourably than might be expected. Money is handed out, and assets handed over, but there seems to be no great urgency about due process. It is all very relaxed, even informal, and contrasts strikingly with the ... »
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... »
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... »
A little bit out of sequence, but for those who didn’t see it, this story (see ‘Lost in the Forest’, centre column, bottom) is interesting on LBWF and the E11 BID Co., the subject of previous posts. Its from Private Eye no.1388, 20 March-2 April 2015. »