The Conservatives in Waltham Forest

Senior Cabinet portfolio holder Cllr. Simon Miller steps down, as local election tensions split Waltham Forest’s Labour and Conservative parties

February 10, 2022 anti-semitism, John Cryer MP, The Conservatives in Waltham Forest, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

In recent days, Cllr. Simon Miller has announced he will not be standing at the forthcoming local elections, and this is provoking some comment, because as Cabinet portfolio holder for Economic Prosperity he has guided many of the development schemes that are transforming parts of Waltham Forest. In a parting message, as reported by Victoria Munro in the February 2022 Waltham Forest Echo, Cllr. Miller explains that he is stepping down because juggling his full-time job with his council responsibilities is ‘“in the long term unsustainable”, and he now wants to ‘“spend more time with the pe... »

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LBWF and Community Ward Forums: a further blow to local democracy

March 13, 2017 Cllr. Chris Robbins, The Conservatives in Waltham Forest, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

I have written previously about LBWF’s gradual strangulation of Community Ward Forums, and it would appear that this unfortunate trend is now reaching its logical end point, with, perhaps unexpectedly,  Conservative hands on the wind pipe. A motion presented by Conservative Councillors Siggers and James to the Council meeting in December 2016 sounded the death knell. It argued that though Community Ward Forums had been ‘very successful’ in providing support to ‘many community groups’, they had been ‘far less successful’ in reaching and engaging with ‘hard to reach groups’, whose needs well mig... »

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The Conservative Party in Waltham Forest: a twitching corpse, maybe, but one that affects us all

November 2, 2016 The Conservatives in Waltham Forest

One notable fact about Waltham Forest politics is that the Conservatives have very little public presence. The party’s 16 councillors huddle in Chingford and its immediate environs. At elections, little effort is expended anywhere else. Between times, while public controversies come and go, it is difficult to recall a singe example of a significant Conservative or Conservative-led response. Symptomatically, as regards the serious matters covered by this blog – mismanagement of public funds, asbestos, religious extremism, and so on – the Conservative silence has been deafening. Indeed, as a gro... »