HSE

LBWF Chief Executive Martin Esom and asbestos: the silence continues

February 27, 2015 Town Hall asbestos

Exactly one month ago, Trevor Calver and I wrote LBWF Chief Executive Martin Esom the following e-mail:   Dear Mr. Esom, In November 2012, we wrote to you about the potential conflict of interest inherent in concurrently you being chief executive of LBWF and board member of NPS London Ltd.. You told us that you understood the risks, and had taken steps to mitigate them, explaining: ‘I fully recognise my role as board director, and also Chief Executive of the authority and ensure that the two roles are not blurred. My deputy, Shifa Mustafa, acts as the lead client and she has a free reign ... »

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Asbestos matters: John Cryer MP keeps stum, too

February 20, 2015 John Cryer MP, Town Hall asbestos

John Cryer is a trade union sponsored MP who likes to present himself as a staunch defender of the downtrodden. In April 2014, Mr. Cryer addressed a memorial service in the Town Hall complex to commemorate ‘men killed whilst at work’, in particular those  ‘as young as 16 who have died in and around the borough’. The local press published a picture of him standing outside the Town Hall itself, alongside trade unionists and bereaved family members. Nine months elapse, and LBWF is found guilty of exposing staff and visitors to dangerous asbestos dust in the very same building that Mr. Cryer had e... »

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Asbestos matters: Waltham Forest Council, PR, and keeping stum

February 11, 2015 LBWF spin, Town Hall asbestos

So you are an employer who has just been found guilty of breaking the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 – of running your affairs, in other words, in such a way as to endanger your employees and those who visit your premises. What do you do? Publicly apologise? Offer everyone involved some advice and support? Perhaps even take action against those who directly presided over the negligence? Most of us would expect (and do) all of these things. Yet after the recent court case, which has left LBWF in exactly the position I’m talking about, the o... »

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Asbestos matters again: St. Mary’s School, Walthamstow

February 2, 2015 Asbestos at St. Mary's School

A quick visit to the Health and Safety Executive’s website reveals that LBWF has form on asbestos – see here: http://www.hse.gov.uk/notices/breach/breach_list.asp?PN=1&ST=B&SN=F&EO=%3D&SF=RID&SV=1257558&SO=ANBID Some of the episodes have attracted significant comment, too, for example here: http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/wfnews/8331074.WALTHAM_FOREST__Union_slams_council_over_safety_rap/ More recently, NPS London Ltd (NPSL) and LBWF have commissioned their own investigations into events at St. Mary’s School, Walthamstow, and these merit some scrutiny. What has em... »

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Asbestos matters: the Waltham Forest Town Hall fiasco

February 2, 2015 Town Hall asbestos

The Council’s recent conviction over the asbestos dust that it allowed to pollute the Town Hall has been well covered in the local press, see for example: http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/11734109.Council_admits_failing_to_protect_staff_from_deadly_asbestos/  http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/11746274.Confusion_over_town_hall_asbestos_scandal_as_contractor_denies_involvement/  http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/11737085.Council_employee_exposed_to_asbestos_dust__will_worry_his_entire_life_/ http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/11734195.Campaigners_call_for_individuals_to_be_held_t... »

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