Goddarts House

LBWF fraud team’s investigation of the FEDs fire safety scandal dodges key questions, as officers focus on their ding dong battle with Osborne at the High Court

December 23, 2021 fire hazards, fire safety, Goddarts House, Northwood Tower

In response to a Freedom of Information request, LBWF has just released a redacted version of the June 2021 investigation report, authored by the internal Corporate Anti-Fraud Team (CAFT), concerning the flat entrance door (FED) scandal, much discussed previously on this blog. The ‘executive summary’ of the findings reads as follows: ‘Osborne Property Services Ltd (OPSL) were contracted by LBWF to provide 219 fire doors to the following blocks: Holmcroft House, Lime Court, Boothby Court, Northwood Tower and Goddarts House.  Originally LBWF requested…that these doors were FD30 rated (provi... »

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Has LBWF followed the relevant ‘technical advice’ when addressing the flat entrance door scandal? It’s a key question but one the Town Hall finds difficult to answer

June 24, 2021 fire hazards, fire safety, Goddarts House, Northwood Tower

In correspondence earlier this year, Darren Welsh, LBWF’s Deputy Strategic Director, Resident Services, stated that the strategy adopted for dealing with the 217 fake FD60 flat entrance doors (FEDs) at Northwood Tower and four sheltered housing blocks conformed with ‘the technical advice’ that the Town Hall had been supplied with. What follows describes my tortuous efforts to establish whether this claim stands up to scrutiny, and well illustrates the depressing fact that asking LBWF a straightforward question by no means guarantees a straightforward answer, largely because of the debased way ... »

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LBWF’s flat entrance door scandal: an update on developments

June 1, 2021 fire hazards, fire safety, Goddarts House, LBWF spin, Northwood Tower

In the past few weeks, fresh revelations have emerged about the scandal surrounding LBWF’s 2017-18 purchase and installation of the 217 flat entrance doors (FEDs) at Walthamstow’s 21 floor Northwood Tower, and four sheltered housing blocks (Boothby Court, Goddarts House, Holmcroft House, and Lime Court) – FEDs which all remain in place today. The following provides a summary. Certification When selling to customers, manufacturers of FEDs routinely provide certification for each item in the order, confirming details such as batch number, fire safety rating, fire and smoke test h... »

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Solidarity with the Sandwell Skidder!

December 21, 2020 Cllr. Anna Mbachu, Cllr.Sally Littlejohn, E11 BID Co., Fawaad Sheikh, Fred Wigg and John Walsh Towers, Goddarts House, John Cryer MP, North London Ltd., The BNI, Town Hall asbestos

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 pursue blogger Julian Saunders, 62. The former solicitor’s blog, Sandwell Skidder, that features claims about the council has been viewed 1.9million times. Mr Saunders, who also ran a coach tour o... »

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Goddarts House sheltered housing in Walthamstow: new facts, new controversy

June 4, 2020 Cllr.Louise Mitchell, fire hazards, fire safety, Goddarts House

Reproduced below is a letter that I yesterday sent to LBWF Chief Executive Martin Esom which focuses on some new material that has emerged about fire safety measures at Goddarts House sheltered housing in Walthamstow. The first issue raised with Mr. Esom is about the London Fire Brigade’s recently divulged claim that it was misrepresented in one or more of LBWF’s pre-2019 Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) reports on Goddarts,  specifically, ‘wrongly’ recorded as having endorsed the long-standing ‘stay put’ policy for residents in the case of fire. How could such a misrepresentation possibly hav... »

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The London Fire Brigade and fire safety at LBWF’s Goddarts House, Walthamstow, sheltered housing: the anatomy of a shambles

May 18, 2020 fire hazards, fire safety, Goddarts House

This post examines the role played by the London Fire Brigade (LFB) in the ongoing scandal about fire safety at LBWF’s Goddarts House sheltered accommodation in Hoe Street, Walthamstow – 27 flats, with the ‘occupancy types’ officially described as ‘Elderly, Hearing Impairment, Mental Health, Sight Impairment, [and] Wheelchair Users’.  First, some general background about the legislation which governs fire safety at Goddarts, and what role the LFB plays in relation to it. As regards the legislation, there are several statutes involved, but the most important, by far, is the Regulatory Ref... »

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The Goddarts House fire safety fiasco: an update

January 21, 2020 fire hazards, fire safety, Goddarts House

Previous posts have looked at the controversy over flat entrance doors (FEDs) at Goddarts House sheltered housing in Walthamstow, particularly the issue of whether or not they offer sufficient resistance in the event of a fire, and what follows is an update. Regular readers will remember that when LBWF, though its repairs and maintenance contractor, Osborne, replaced the FEDs at Goddarts in late 2017, it was purported to be an upgrade. FEDs are classified as either FD30 or FD60, the numerals denoting how many minutes of fire protection are guaranteed. The new doors at Goddarts, LBWF and Osborn... »

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Private Eye on fire safety at Goddarts House sheltered housing complex, Walthamstow

December 20, 2019 Cllr.Louise Mitchell, fire hazards, fire safety, Goddarts House

  (From Private Eye, No.1512 21/12/19-09/01/20) »

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Fireproofing flat entrance doors at Goddarts sheltered housing in Walthamstow: another LBWF fiasco, which has left vulnerable residents in danger, and will cost a great deal of public money to rectify

November 18, 2019 Cllr.Louise Mitchell, fire safety, Goddarts House

This post looks at what LBWF has done – in fact more accurately, has not done – over the past few years to make sure that flat entrance doors (FEDs) at Goddarts House sheltered housing in Walthamstow are fireproof. It’s a story of official bungling, which endangered life and limb, and probably will cost the public purse hundreds of thousands of pounds, but also – more positively – of one determined resident’s struggles to put things right. First some background. When serious fire occurs, FEDs are a matter of life and death. A suitably robust FED, properly fitted, and regularly inspected,... »

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Fire safety in Waltham Forest: Cabinet portfolio holder for housing, Cllr. Louise Mitchell, responds but fails to convince

August 16, 2019 Cllr.Louise Mitchell, fire hazards, fire safety, Goddarts House

Following on from this blog’s earlier post about fire risks at LBWF’s Goddarts House in Walthamstow, the East London & West Essex Guardian has published a related story, which includes a response from Cllr. Louise Mitchell, Cabinet portfolio member for housing: www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/17824818.man-handed-eviction-notice-raising-fire-safety-concerns-council/ Much of what Cllr. Mitchell tells the paper consists of predictable platitudes about putting residents first, etc., but she also makes more specific points which seemingly are aimed at disarming her and the council’s ... »

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