The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has completed the Best Value Report for Tower Hamlets Council. Initiated whilst we had a Conservative government, the recently elected Labour government has completed the inspection process.

The resulting report stretches to over 200 pages. You can read the report here online. We have created a PDF copy.

We looked at section 7. first of all. It deals with

Partnership and Community engagement

Barely over 2 pages long, it is packed with strong criticism over a lack of directly community consultation and involvement. See high-lighted content on pages enclosed.

Community Safety related issues center around

• Tower Hamlets Police
• Tower Hamlets Council
• Tower Hamlets Safety Partnership
• Safer Neighbourhood Board (SNB, MOPAC funded)
  • includes Ward Panel chairs
• Neighbourhood Crime & ASB Board (Council run)
  • works with all Council departments and Police
• Neighbourhood Watch (National Neighbourhood Watch Network, Ourwatch)
• Tower Hamlets Crime Watch (Tower Hamlets local organisation)
• Tenants and Residents Associations

We have previously outlined the history of the development of Neighbourhood Watch and Crime Watch in the borough. We have also discussed interaction with Tower Hamlets Police. link (this includes a redacted report)

At one stage OWL was used and now been removed as platform. Ourwatch is a national organisation who want people from all over Britain to use their site. Yet, regions vary considerably all over Britain. One solution serves all is not working very well for us. see article

The issue with Palestinian flags has been highlighted in the report on page 17, Section 7. 1.60.

Particularly interesting in relation to Palestinian flags, that I was asked by the @n_watch to remove any social media posts, advising people that they are able to request removal of such flags. I was actually forcibly removed from Neighbourhood Watch over this. Yet the @GOVUK…

— Johanna Kaschke (@KaschkeJohanna) November 16, 2024

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Have not yet read the pages about funding. We do not receive any funding from the Council or MOPAC. Those organizations are not flexible enough to adapt to actual needs and demand. We do however work together with both Council and Police.

The fact is that the Tower Hamlets Neighbourhood Watch Association receives funding for Community Work. However, they don’t engage in any community work. They have a website, but it has no local content. It also has not changed in the last year. Whilst we constantly up-date our website with actual content, important to locals.