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27 Nov, 6 tweets, 3 min read
"Overall, your Council’s complaint handling and responses to this office have fallen below the standards we expect. The concerns I have are indicative of corporate, systemic issues and I ask that you urgently consider your Council’s approach to all aspects of its complaint
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handling, prioritising good standards of administrative practice, and seeking to improve the process and outcomes for people who complain to you"
From the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman annual letter to Tower Hamlets Council
democracy.towerhamlets.gov.uk/documents/s195…
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Letter was sent 21st July but only sent to Audit C'tee this week
Full analysis including of individual cases is here
lgo.org.uk/your-councils-…
I know that the Council is under-performing & failing in a number of areas
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and that the scrutiny committees are not really working to stop this (in part the fault of Councillors on those Committees) but as an opposition Cllr of course I would say this but here is some evidence to back it up
Note in the pics how TH underperforms compare to our peers
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More from @Andrewwood17

Andrew Wood Profile picture
17 Nov
An attempt is being made some Tower Hamlets businesses to divide the wider community in order to protect their commercial interests
This leaflet was delivered via a paid Royal Mail delivery organised by communications company based in Romford
Sent by 1st class mail just before
1/
Neighbourhood Plan referendum last week presumably to an area defined by Royal Mail, as sent to households not named individuals
As Royal Mail areas are quite large 1,000s of homes may have got it
But they are not allowed (by regulation) to spend more than £2,604 on campaign
2/
Will the anti-campaign report how much they spent to @TowerHamletsNow ?
Plus imprint on leaflet is also not fully compliant with electoral law & has been reported to the Council & Police (& I will report to the SET elections team later)
This raises a number of national issues
3/
Read 25 tweets
Andrew Wood Profile picture
16 Nov
Rebuild St Georges pool in Shadwell or expand John Orwell center in Wapping
Crudely that seems to be the choice in the leisure services consultation that started yesterday even if the questions are less clear
Read the 2 docs in the document library not
talk.towerhamlets.gov.uk/leisure
1/
just the main consultation document which is less clear
The feasibility study options show what the Council is really thinking about
The consultation I suspect is really between that choice:
St Georges or John Orwell
Somehow I doubt the Council has the ambition to do both
2/
The leisure consultation is not really about leisure services at all
But what to do with the now closed St Georges pool
It has been allowed to deteriorate to the extent that the costs are now:
£9.9 million just to re-open it
20 years more life would cost c. £23.4m incl £9.9m
3/
Read 10 tweets
Andrew Wood Profile picture
9 Nov
Unfortunately for a 2nd weekend running the Labour Party have delivered these same leaflets containing Council email & phone numbers that they were expressly told not to use in October (& 2018 & 2019)
Evidence of this has been supplied to the Council CEO & Monitoring Officer
1/
after each weekend but has not had any impact yet
But I do not expect any changes to be made until after these leaflets have all been delivered (we have seen this behavior before in previous elections)
But lots of Labour Cllrs busy distributing them

2/
But this will be reported to the Special Enquiry Team at the Metropolitan Police as one of the first (but not the last) breach of standards before next Mays elections
Distribution across Tower Hamlets in marginal wards

3/
Read 7 tweets
Andrew Wood Profile picture
1 Nov
Where you delivered this leaflet by the Labour Party?
When & where?
And did they use this Council email on them
mayor@towerhamlets.gov.uk
& this phone number 0207 365 4000?
These are both answered by Council officers & politicians were clearly told on the 15th October by the
1/
Councils monitoring officer not to use Council emails and phone numbers on their party political leaflets
I think this leaflet was delivered at the weekend (tbc)
If you got one can you let me know where & when?
As a response, by private message, email cllrandrewwood@gmail.com
2/
This keeps happening at elections - the misuse of Council resources by the Labour Party
I have similar emails from the monitoring officer in previous elections so in reality Labour party already knew not to do this before October

3/
Read 4 tweets
Andrew Wood Profile picture
12 Oct
TH Council Internal Audit find limited assurance in the Councils "Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) Information and Record Management" service
Service paid for by MHCLG has problems
In part because trying to use MS Excel spreadsheet to track everything
democracy.towerhamlets.gov.uk/documents/s192…
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TH Council is too dependent on Excel
But also clear problems with work not being done, letters not sent in time, data missing, staff turnover issues
795 private blocks over 18 meters on spreadsheet = 293 buildings applied for BSF money = 37% of buildings with issues but 158
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owners have not provided full information to the Council
The report is not all bad but you get little sense that this an emergency that affects a 1/3 of buildings in TH
& striking that TH Council has not invested any of the huge amounts of £ it has earn't from these buildings
3/
Read 4 tweets
Andrew Wood Profile picture
30 Sep
"Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector has determined that a Written Statement of Action is required because of significant areas of weakness in the area’s practice"
Hugely disappointed that TH Council again does badly in an OFSTED inspection this time on SEND
And does not disclose
1/
they get letter 5th July, report published Monday!
I was not aware of this report, it was not mentioned by anybody in last nights full Council meeting
We should have had an emergency update about this rather than about price of milk in Tesco
This is about whether we are
2/
effectively looking after the most vulnerable children in TH
SEND = Special Educational Needs and Disability where OFSTED found we had "significant areas of weakness"
We should have had an update on this on the 2nd September almost 2 months after 1st draft of letter sent to TH
3/
Read 6 tweets

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