Cllr. Liaquat Ali hits the Andy Burnham campaign trail
Good to see Cllr. Liaquat Ali out supporting Andy Burnham on his recent visit to Waltham Forest (see http://kashmirlinklondon.co.uk/?p=6862) I hear from well placed sources that should our Andy win the...
View ArticleCllr. Liaquat Ali and the Queen: so near, yet so far
Mention of Clli. Liaquat Ali as always brings a weighty postbag, with those who have met the great man eager to share their memories. So by way of a thank you, I reprint some photos of when our local...
View ArticleThe Barnett v. Dhedi fallout: things are getting nasty
If a recent exchange of correspondence is anything to go by, the Barnett-Dhedi affair (covered in two previous posts) has turned decidedly nasty. Writing on behalf of the Waltham Forest Council of...
View ArticleLBWF Chief Executive Martin Esom’s evidence at the Town Hall asbestos trial:...
The following speaks for itself. 18 September 2015 Dear Mr. Esom, We write to you about the letter dated 30 January 2014 that you submitted to the HSE and the courts prior to LBWF’s recent prosecution...
View ArticleCllr. Johar Khan and the E11 BID Co.
During his relatively short time in the public eye, Cllr. Johar Khan has attracted a fair amount of publicity, little of it flattering. The commentariat has had fun with his personalised number plates...
View ArticleA week in the reign of our Leader….or is it?
A reader gets in touch to say that he has found a document in one of the Town Hall skips, and thinks it is a page of a diary feature that the Leader was preparing for WFN. Personally, I have my doubts,...
View ArticleLBWF in Private Eye, yet again, this time over Fred Wigg and John Walsh Towers
To no-one’s real surprise, the current edition of Private Eye once again features LBWF, with a fairly long piece tracing the Fred Wigg and John Walsh Towers’ fiasco (see below, from No.1403, 16 October...
View ArticleThe LBWF Gang Prevention Programme: yet another missed opportunity
I have been meaning to write about Waltham Forest’s Gang Prevention Programme (GPP) for some time, and now seems as good a time as any. The GPP is coming towards the end of its fourth year, has cost...
View ArticleReforming local government: (1) an agenda from Newham
In a recent post on his blog about the downsides of one-party administrations in local government, John Gray, councillor for West Ham ward in Newham, writes as follows: ‘Finally, I think just as...
View ArticleReforming local government (2) an agenda from Tower Hamlets
On the subject of local government reform, it is notable that another of our neighbours, Tower Hamlets, also has begun examining the status quo, in this case through the medium of a Transparency...
View ArticleLBWF’s relationship with the local business sector: new revelations about the...
I have written before about LBWF’s relationships with the local business sector, and pointed out that our council appears to treat certain businesses and business organisations rather more favourably...
View ArticleWaltham Forest Labour in turmoil
Word reaches me from a number of sources that Waltham Forest Labour’s woes continue. The longstanding subterranean infighting between factions continues, as does the jockeying for position to succeed...
View ArticleNorth London Ltd., Michael Polledri, and a shortfall of £101,822
Some significant new evidence has just emerged about North London Ltd. (NLL), the company which featured local property developer Michael Polledri as a director, and operated for most of its life from...
View ArticleLBWF and the fight against ISIS
As a previous post has indicated, there are serious questions to be asked about Waltham Forest’s attempts to confront local Islamist extremists. The record over the past decade has been at best mixed,...
View ArticleCllr. Johar Khan ‘suspended pending the result of an investigation’
I have written before about Cllr. Johar Khan, noting in particular his puzzling relationship with the by now notorious E11 BID Co.. This afternoon, the Waltham Forest Guardian reports ‘A Labour Party...
View ArticleThe National College for Leadership and Teaching report on Waltham Forest...
‘I would like to take this opportunity to thank the headteacher, Ludiya Besisira and her staff for all their hard work in improving the school and attaining an excellent Ofsted report’ (Cllr. Chris...
View ArticleLBWF in Private Eye again, this time regarding ISIS and Prevent
From Private Eye, no.1407, 11 -18 December 2015:
View ArticleCllr. Johar Khan makes Private Eye
From Private Eye, no. 1408, 19 December 2015 – 7 January 2016:
View ArticleLBWF’s Preventing Extremism Strategic Summary for 2015-16
Despite LBWF insisting that its Prevent programme should in general remain secret, it has recently divulged to me a nine-page ‘Preventing Extremism Strategic Summary’ for 2015-16, and this makes for...
View ArticlePrivate Eye’s 2015 Rotten Borough’s Awards: LBWF triumphs again
Private Eye‘s annual Rotten Borough Awards are always a highpoint for local council watchers, and this year LBWF triumphs again, with no less than two citations, which read as follows: ‘COMBATING...
View Article