Cllr. Keith Rayner

Some councillors seem to have been put on earth purely to entertain us. But are they having the last laugh?

July 3, 2023 Cllr. Ahsan Khan, Cllr. Alistair Strathern, Cllr. Anna Mbachu, Cllr. Johar Khan, Cllr. Keith Rayner

In a recent Waltham Forest Echo story, Local Democracy Reporter Josh Mellor reports that one of Waltham Forest’s finest, Cllr. Alistair Strathern, is standing for Labour in the eagerly awaited Mid Bedfordshire bye-election, and while a bit hazy about local issues, believes he is an upgrade on the Tory incumbent, Nadine Dorries, because she has been a ‘“part-time M.P”’, presumably a reference to her novels and TV work. A nice attack line, perhaps, but a somewhat strange one nevertheless. For since 2021, while Cllr. Strathern has been Cabinet portfolio holder for children and youn... »

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How Cann Hall councillors communicate with residents…

November 7, 2022 LBWF spin

A resident writes: ‘We opened a community café and foodbank near that notice board, and wanted to put one of our A4 posters on display in it. We found out that – inexplicably – a local shopkeeper held the key, went to see her, and gave her a poster. She promised to put it up straightaway. Nothing happened. So we went to see her again. This time, she said she’d been busy, but promised to act. Nothing happened again. So we went to see her a third time, and on this occasion, because she wasn’t there, we gave a new poster to one of her staff, who promised to jog the owner’s memory. Still not... »

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Cllr. Keith Rayner at it again UPDATED

February 28, 2020 Cllr. Keith Rayner

Cllr. Emma Best has posted on Twitter a piece of film recording an exchange with the puffed up Cllr. Keith Rayner at last night’s Council meeting. In it he refers to her as ‘dear’, to the amusement of his Labour colleagues: The full clip can be viewed here: https://twitter.com/emmabest22/status/1233142633947639808  Cllr. Rayner, it will be remembered, in recent years has had considerable difficulty settling his council tax bill, being issued with two notices for late payment in 2015-16; a further reminder for payment in 2016-17; and shortly afterwards, a summons (which subseq... »

Councillor Keith Rayner revealed to have had some difficulty with, ahem, his own council tax payments

October 28, 2019 Cllr. Keith Rayner, Independent Panel

A valuable investigation by Lewis Berrill, Chief Reporter of the East London and West Essex Guardian, has revealed that in the past few years four LBWF councillors – Rajar Anwar, Kastriot Berberi, Jemma Hemsted, and Keith Rayner – have been issued with notices for late payment of council tax, with Messrs Anwar and Rayner also then each receiving a court summons, see https://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/17993449.waltham-forest-councillor-summoned-court-council-tax/ Cllr. Rayner’s case is certainly the most serious, as he was issued with two notices for late payment in 2015-16; a further remin... »

LBWF and fire hazards in its housing stock: residents in Cann Hall’s John Walsh and Fred Wigg towers left in danger, as Labour averts its eyes

October 1, 2019 Cllr. Keith Rayner, Cllr.Patrick Edwards, Cllr.Sally Littlejohn, fire safety, Fred Wigg and John Walsh Towers

John Walsh and Fred Wigg tower blocks in Cann Hall are 15 storey identical twins, built in the 1960s, and each containing 117 flats. It would be nice to state definitively how many people have lived there at any one time over the past decade, but nobody really seems to know, with (surprisingly) official estimates ranging from 230-ish to 700. In 2011, Fred Wigg residents suffered a terrible fire, which saw two dozen people trapped as firefighters fought the flames. Subsequently the whole block was evacuated to temporary accomodation so that repairs could occur. Given such a dismal history, and ... »

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The £40,000 Cann Hall side-wall ‘artwork’ is cancelled, artists Mathew Raw and Abigail Holsborough depart the scene, and LBWF scrambles for excuses – its a big victory for local residents

February 6, 2019 Cllr. Keith Rayner, Cllr. Paul Douglas, Cllr.Patrick Edwards, Cllr.Sally Littlejohn, LBWF spin, Redevelopment, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

As the linked posts (below) describe in some detail, for the past few months, and as part of its Making Places programme, LBWF has been intent on putting an ‘artwork’ made of tiles and costing an extraordinary £40,000, on the dilapidated side-wall of a private property in Cann Hall Rd. – a private property that coincidentally happens to be owned by a prominent family of Labour supporters, the most eminent of whom is Dawn Butler, the Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary. Meanwhile, large numbers of residents have expressed their displeasure, citing everything from the ‘artwor... »

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‘Public realm and shop front improvements’ in South Leytonstone: dogs get their dinner, while the area’s real problems are forgotten

January 24, 2019 Cllr. Keith Rayner, Cllr.Patrick Edwards, Cllr.Sally Littlejohn, Redevelopment, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

Recent posts have looked at LBWF’s plan to spend £40,000 turning the wall of a private property on Cann Hall Rd. into an alleged ‘artwork’, and the subsequent massive backlash. But as documents released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal, this is by no means the only extraordinary waste of public money that LBWF is foisting on the same area, broadly South Leytonstone’s Cann Hall and Cathall wards. As has been previously pointed out (see links below), having studiously ignored the subject for the best part of a decade, Cann Hall councillors in particular have suddenly become infatuated... »

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LBWF’s Making Places programme and the Cann Hall side-wall fiasco: good news and bad

November 26, 2018 Cllr. Keith Rayner, Cllr.Patrick Edwards, Cllr.Sally Littlejohn, Redevelopment

As a previous post has described in detail, LBWF currently plans to spend a dizzying £40,000 on tiling the large side-wall of a private commercial property in Cann Hall ward, all in the name of producing a ‘joyous’ and ‘popular’ piece of public art, Matthew Raw and Abigail Holsborough’s Embedded Bread. The good news is that because of widespread local disquiet (and in particular a petition with well over 450 signatories) LBWF has just put the project ‘on hold’ (even if, to residents’ amusement, it is apparently incapable of explaining exactly what this means). However, ... »

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LBWF’s Making Places programme and the strange case of the Cann Hall side-wall: four residents speak and £40,000 of public money goes west UPDATED

October 22, 2018 Cllr. Keith Rayner, Cllr.Patrick Edwards, Cllr.Sally Littlejohn, Redevelopment

In the summer of 2017, LBWF put out an open call to architects, artists, designers, and landscape artists, inviting them to take part in a programme called Making Places, which it was funding from its own resources to the tune of no less than £1m.. The objective was to commission ‘community arts’ projects for ‘unloved spaces’ in each of the borough’s 20 wards, thus generate ‘places which are brighter, safer and where residents and visitors enjoy spending time’, and so ultimately make ‘a lasting impact on local communities’. Those bidding were encouraged to think imaginatively and promised a bu... »

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Redeveloping Waltham Forest: some experiences from the periphery

September 22, 2017 Cllr. Keith Rayner, Cllr.Patrick Edwards, Cllr.Sally Littlejohn, Redevelopment, the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

As a previous post indicates, LBWF is currently engaged in a major public-private programme to redevelop the borough. Much of the publicity about this programme centres on a few key hubs, principally Walthamstow. Far less is known about what’s happening elsewhere. So to rectify this situation, the following paragraphs focus on an unsung ward, Cann Hall, in the borough’s poorer south. First, some background. Cann Hall is not far from Stratford and the Olympic Park, and to some extent is beginning to share their glamour. Newcomers are flooding in, house prices are going up, and the old solidly w... »

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