Waltham Forest Council believes it is important that residents can see how council tax payer’s money is spent.
These pages provide you with the opportunity to view a wide range of information including all payments we make to external providers that is over £500, and details of chief officer pay. It also shows you how to get in contact with us if you have questions or simply want to know more.
Waltham Forest - Working to improve the daily lives of residents
Council structure, pay scales and senior officer pay
- The Council's organisation chart is available online
- The payscales for Waltham Forest Council staff are available online
These payscales and the terms of employment for local government workers are determined by the National Joint Council (NJC) for Local Government Services - Details of senior officer's pay
Council spending
- Council expenditure on items costing £500 or over
- Details of Council finance including its revenue and capital budgets, statement of accounts and its annual audit letter
- Annual public inspection of the Council's accounts
- How to do business with the Council
Council contracts and tenders
We are looking to adopt an e-tendering system that will enable us to publish tenders and contracts. The following information is available now:
- Details of current opportunities to tender for Council business
- Details of contracts held by Waltham Forest are available on the London Contracts Register
- Doing business with the Council and e-procurement
Engagement and consultation
By engaging with residents and stakeholders in an open and transparent way, we aim to ensure that the opinions and concerns of local residents are gathered in a timely manner to help inform decision making and improve local services.
Petitions
The Council welcomes petitions and recognises that signing a petition is one way in which people can let us know their concerns.
There are two ways to organise a petition:
- Collect signatures on a paper petition that you then give to the Council
- Post an e-petition on the Council's website for other residents to see and decide if they wish to add their support
» See our Petitions page for more details
External audits and assessments of the Council
Information about our external assessments and audits is available.
Better Neighbourhoods Initiative Review, November 2010
As part of its aim to be transparent and open, the Council is publishing the audit report into the Better Neighbourhoods Initiative Review on the Council's transparency webpage.
The report will be presented to the Audit and Governance Committee on 20 January and all members of the public are welcome to attend.
Some limited parts of the report have been redacted as they contain personal data and publication is likely to breach the individual subject's privacy.
» Download the report here. It is a 436KB PDF file
Food safety inspections
Details of the food hygiene inspections carried out by Waltham Forest Council's environmental health officers are published online on the Scores on the Doors website.
See our food safety web page for more details of food scores, Scores on the Doors and the Waltham Forest's Safety and Food Section.
Freedom of Information and complaining about Council services
Freedom of Information
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 provides a right of access to information. A request for information must be made in writing to the relevant department or section.
- The Council's FOI Publication Scheme can help you find information about the Council, its services and activities
- How to make an FOI request
Council complaints
The Council has a complaints procedure for people to use if they are unhappy with the service they have from the Council or ones of its providers
- How to make a complaint
- Annual complaints report
- The Local Government Ombudsman's annual review of how the Council performed when dealing with complaints made about it to the Ombudsman
Governance and decision making
How the Council makes major decisions
The Council has a Leader and Cabinet executive structure, in which the overall budget and policy framework is determined by Full Council (all 60 councillors) with the Leader and Cabinet responsible for most day-to-day decisions. Major decisions for the coming months can be found in the Forward Plan.
The Council has overview and scrutiny committees and panels that act as a check and balance on the Cabinet and review and help to develop Council policies to ensure that they have a positive impact on Waltham Forest
You can also find out about
Planning applications
- Information on the Planning process in Waltham Forest
- List of planning applications, decisions and appeals. You can also view planning applications on My Place
Members allowances, expenses and expressions of interest
To promote transparency in the use of public funds and decision-making, the Council agreed in October 2010 to publish details of Councillors’ allowances and the Register of Interest Forms (setting out their financial and other interests in the borough) on the Council’s website.
The Council’s policy is to publish as much information as it can subject to any legal restrictions.
Information will be updated on an annual basis and, in the case of Register of Interests forms when they are updated.
The published information includes:
- Individual Councillor’s allowances under the Council’s Members Allowance Scheme
- Individual Councillor’s Register of Financial and Other Interests Forms
In addition, details of Councillors’ declarations of interests in meetings can be found:
- In the minutes of individual meetings under “Declarations of Interests”
- In the Ethical Monitoring Reports submitted to the Council’s Standards Committee
Details of Councillors’ declarations of their receipt of gifts and hospitality are also reported in the Ethical Monitoring Report.
The Council also has an Ethical Framework and Standards.
