Michael Polledri – Waltham Forest Matters

Documenting Past Failures: (9) the collapse of LBWF’s pet charity, O-Regen

Nick Tiratsoo March 18, 2015 Past failures: O-Regen

The registered charity O-Regen was set-up in 1997 as part of the redevelopment of Cathall estate, and charged with running community facilities in the south of the borough together with various programmes to benefit local residents. From the start, O-Regen appeared blessed. It was presented with a £4.5m endowment as well as a portfolio of 16 leasehold properties yielding an income of £120,000 p.a.; its board of trustees included many of the borough’s ‘great and good’ – at one time or another, the likes of Michael Polledri and Guy Davis (‘big players in the business and construction scene in Wa... »

Guy Davis, John Macklin, Khevyn Limbajee, LBWF, Matt Davis, Michael Polledri, O-Regen, past failures, Terry Wheeler, Waltham Forest Council, Worknet

Disposing of Council assets: the Waltham Forest Business Board and the Argall car parks

Nick Tiratsoo February 16, 2015 Argall Car Parks, Waltham Forest Business Board

Councils inevitably dispose of unwanted public assets from time to time, and it is always interesting to discover exactly how they do so, and who benefits. The following is a tale of what happens in Waltham Forest, and as might be predicted, it provokes more questions than it answers. On 14 June 2011, the LBWF Cabinet agreed to lease the Argall Avenue car parks to ‘BID’, a fair assumption being that the latter was the Argall Business Improvement District Co., which operated on the modest industrial estate of the same name (see the Cabinet paper of that date, Appendix B, p.1). The car parks b... »

Daniel Fenwick, Martin Esom, Michael Polledri, North London Business, North London Ltd., Waltham Forest Business Board

LBWF, the Local Authority Business Growth Initiative programmes, and the Waltham Forest Business Board, E11 Bid Co., and North London Ltd.

Nick Tiratsoo February 13, 2015 Argall Car Parks, E11 BID Co., North London Ltd., Waltham Forest Business Board

A couple of years ago, I started hearing some very surprising things about Leytonstone’s Business Improvement District (BID) company, the E11 Bid Co.. The allegation, in short, was that the directors of the company had failed to keep proper books and neglected to pay their taxes; run up substantial debts; and as a consequence jeopardised the company’s ‘going concern’ status. I had always been suspicious about the E11 BID Co. because there was a lack of transparency about its operations, and a lot of obvious flannel about its alleged successes. I knew that councillors (i... »

Afzal Akram, CCTV cameras, Chris Robbins, Clyde Loakes, contracts, E11 BID Co., LABGI, LBWF, Leytonstone Business Forum CIC, Martin Esom, Michael Polledri, North London Business, North London Ltd., One Stop Shop, past failures, Shifa Mustafa, Terry Wheeler, Waltham Forest Business Board, Waltham Forest Business CIC, Waltham Forest Council, Worknet

Some background: a short history of local scandals

Nick Tiratsoo February 2, 2015 Past failures: overview

Here’s an article that I contributed to the Dec14/Jan15 issue of Labour Briefing (which I reproduce with the kind permission of the editors). It looks at some recent Waltham Forest history, and gives more than a clue as to why this blog was set up. Waltham Forest’s missing millions ‘In 2009, spurred on by a spate of bad publicity about its flagship Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) programme, and premonitions that the Audit Commission was about to halve its star rating, London Borough of Waltham Forest (LBWF) appointed an Independent Panel, chaired by the LDA’s Sir Peter Roger... »

BNI, E11 BID Co., Independent Panel, LBWF, Michael Polledri, North London Ltd., NRF, O-Regen, past failures, Private Eye, Sir Peter Rogers, Waltham Forest Council, Waltham Forest Guardian