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WALTHAM FOREST: Library appointment ‘broke council’s own rules'

10:27am Wednesday 28th November 2007

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A SENIOR council job was given to an existing employee without the post being advertised or anybody else being considered.

The appointment, and pay rise of around £15,000, is in direct contradiction to the council's own recruitment policy.

Now procedures in human resources will be examined by councillors on the scrutiny committee and the member of the public who demanded to know what was going on will give evidence.

Community stalwart Peter Spiro of Somers Road, Walthamstow, said: "There's been a clear breach in a recent appointment. I really feel that someone has to be accountable for the fault that's been made."

Lorna Lee, now the head of libraries, museum and gallery, was promoted from the post of gallery and museum manager during a restructuring of the service, after the council cut £56,000 from its budget this financial year.

Her promotion put her up four council grades, from a salary range of £40,782 to £45,048 to one of £53,154 to £60,957 - an equivalent of four grades.

William Morris Gallery curator, Peter Cormack, who had been at the gallery for 30 years, and Vestry House Museum's local studies librarian David Pracy were made redundant as part of the same process.

The appointment came to light after Mr Spiro asked a series of questions over a period of months at his local community council meeting.

The council claimed that under its Managing Change procedure, certain staff "could be "directly assimilated into roles at the same grade or interviewed for posts where grades increased".

But Managing Change also says managers should not assimilate staff if their new jobs would be substantially different or the grade differential between the old and new job is more than one above or below.

The borough had originally refused to answer the question when it was put to the Walthamstow West Community Council in August.

Clive Morton, head of cultural services and Mrs Lee's boss, provoked outrage at last month's community council by refusing to reveal details of the job.

He would not say where the post had been advertised, who had been considered or interviewed, adding that he would have to consult lawyers first.

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Rich, E17 says...
11:45am Wed 28 Nov 07

The council has clearly put Ms Lee in a position where she is out of her depth. By appointing her to a job she is not qualified for, or experienced in, is probably highly stressful for her and truly unfair of them.

Since her appointment she's been responsible for the cut in staff, opening hours at the museums, the closure of a library and the loss of thousands of books.

The council should've had a fair interview process to appoint someone with more experience.

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Kal, Walthamstow says...
12:27pm Wed 28 Nov 07

It's outrageous that qualified and experienced staff have lost their jobs while someone already in the "inner circle" has been promoted without other candidates being given a chance. Ms Lee is always very quiet at council and other meetings, perhaps because she doesn't know what to say.

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Walthamster, E17 says...
1:36pm Wed 28 Nov 07

Our councillors ignore both council and government policies -- as with the closure of St James Street council, with no consultation and in breach of disability and equality regulations). This is just another example of their contempt for the electorate.

Lorna Lee had already had three years in charge of William Morris gallery and Vestry House museum, reducing them to part-time opening before she started to wield her axe over our libraries.

It looks as if her role is just to implement cuts -- which would not be needed if the councillors hadn't voted themselves a huge pay rise.

Clyde Loakes asnd your fellow councillors, when are you gong to resign?

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Lana, London says...
1:45pm Wed 28 Nov 07

This is indeed a scandal within our borough and one of many that residents are finding out.

Has Lorna Lee been properly trained to bye up 4 grades to take on the last post? Her performance so far is at the detriment of the community.

Making a highly qualified gallery staff redundant, reducing the opening hours at the gallery and Vestry House, closing a much needed local library in St James area and deployment and cutting down of experienced librarians show how much damage has been done thro' Lorna Lee's appointment. The council should rectify the damage done by a member of staff who has been promoted 4 grades for whatever reasons. They should be accountable to the people who put them in position in the first place! Otherwise how can we trust them in the future. Enough damage has been done through her inexperience and the council is held responsible!

Before it is too late - reinstate Peter Cormack whose knowledge is irreplaceable. The new staff should not step into his shoes at the gallery and introduce some ignorant, half baked ideas. Our culture is at stake so best we all show the council that we will not tolerate the way they are running down our cultural heritage and library services.

What is Mrs Lee's past experience where culture, leisure and library are concerned? The result of all she had done since she came into "power" has gone to "pot". It is a right mess and the council is burying its head in the sand. We will not tolerate this anymore!

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Walthamstow Lass, Walthamstow says...
2:08pm Wed 28 Nov 07

It was just plain and simple wrong of the council to close St James Street Library with NO warning or consultation.

St James Street area NEEDS it's library.

The council NEEDS to listen to the people who live here.

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mdj, e10 says...
4:45pm Wed 28 Nov 07

Mrs Lee's grace-and-favour status was initially baffling: now it's outrageous.In a written answer to Leytonstone Community Council she effectively admits that the old book stock has been disposed of, and that new stock was bought 'on the advice of our partner librarian in Haringey'.In other words, we have to buy in librarianship expertise because the very highly-paid manager lacks it. How much did this outside 'expert' cost? Why are we paying for someone who cannot do the job?

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Caroline, walthamstow says...
5:28pm Wed 28 Nov 07

good point, MDJ. The outside 'expert' cost £70,000 for a year - which was the same amount it would have cost to keep St James St Library open.

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Noahsarse, Walthamstow says...
11:41pm Wed 28 Nov 07

We are led to believe that nationally we are 15th in the gobal child literacy league tables - so where is Walthamstow? Beneath the Bog People of Noakes Island I should think. Is it possible to read with no books?

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L, London says...
12:05am Thu 29 Nov 07

The council should be encouraging reading among young children. Why are newly redesigned libraries have less books than before the redesign? Can the council answer that? What happen to our books?

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Book Lovers, says...
12:14am Thu 29 Nov 07

With the expansion of Central library, one would expect more staff as well as qualified ones. My recent experience is being serviced by inexperienced staff wanting to charge me for book request by a minor. There is seldom any staff in the children and video section. Are children safe in central library?

I noticed that staff did not take any notice when the buzz goes off. It happened to me and I asked security why it happened. The answer was "it is ok as it happened so often" What kind of system if it is faulty? How many books can go missing in this way?

Spending £3.5m in Central, the whole library system is a right shamble; from the structure, staffing, security and
book control.

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Mythpuncturer, London says...
7:54am Thu 29 Nov 07

I warmly congratulate all those whose hard work brought this story to light.

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Steve, Walthamstow says...
11:52am Thu 29 Nov 07

This story should come as no surprise to people living in Waltham Forest. It is somewhat ironic that the council (which claims to be an equal opportunities employer) is probably one of the most unequal opportunities employers about. In other words new jobs are often given to people already working within the organisation. There's nothing inherantly wrong with this as it is in the interests of any organisation to offer opportunities for career progression to its employees. What's not acceptable is the waste of time and tax payers money in advertising and going through the motions of recruiting for a post only to give it to the person they had earmarked for it in the first place. There must be hundreds of disappointed people in Waltham Forest who have applied for jobs with the council in the past, spent hours preparing their application forms, raising their hopes when being shortlisted for an interview, only to be let down at the final stage when the job was given to someone internally. Hopefully private companies are more honest about their recruitment policies and don't waste their own time and money on this pointless charade.
So maybe the Council was actually doing us all a favour by not wasting money on recruiting for this post as they had already decided to give it to Lorna Lee.
Perhaps thats why they also recently promoted the Assistant Head of Service of Community Learning & Skills Service (CLaSS) to the post of Head of Service following the retirement of the previous Head of Service earlier this year. As far as I know the post was never advertised and there was therefore only one applicant who naturally got the job. Maybe the Guardian should investigate this story on behalf of its readers - we have a right to be told!

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Turpin, Epping Forest says...
12:51pm Thu 29 Nov 07

We may be enjoying a mild Winter outside in the forest but there's a chill wind blowing through the Concil corridores - and it seems that it's about to get very much colder.

Lorna Lee seems to have become the Harriet Harman of Waltham Forest. No doubt she's hoping for more support than Ms. Harman's getting from her boss.

But they seem to be a slippery bunch so don't hold your breath.

Turpin

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Mythpuncturer, London says...
2:53pm Thu 29 Nov 07

Turpin is right.There have been a number of alarming developments in the past few months which all point in the same direction - the decision to hold LSP meetings in secret, the William Morris business, the library books fiasco, the revelations about the BNI Dr Foster Intelligence contract (and more general issues with profligate NRF programme spending and lack of monitoring), the damning comments of the peer review group
("Although there are examples of specific initiatives that have benefited local people in terms of regeneration and redevelopment, these are not on a scale that would impact significantly on their localities"),and now this controversy about Ms Lee's job.
Of course, nobody wants to take the rap, but as the old Turkish proverb has it, 'the fish goes rotten from the head'.

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Tom, leyton says...
5:06pm Thu 29 Nov 07

Come on Lorna Lee deserves the money - executioners were always well paid for having no conscience

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:-), E17 says...
5:09pm Fri 30 Nov 07

I am completely uninvolved in the internal politics of LBWF but I am a library user. Recently I have been nothing but impressed and satisfied with the service I have received from Walthamstow libraries. Every time I've searched for a book I've found it, it has got to the library I want to pick it up from and I've received a text message to my mobile phone telling me that it is ready to collect. I can search the catalogue from my home computer, reserve and request items, renew books that I have out on loan etc, etc. Due to an inter library loan scheme I can get books from other libraries in London and not have to wait for my local library to order a new copy and then wait until the budget allows for it to be purchased, a fantastic system.
Well done to all people involved in making this system so easy and convenient to use. Many thanks.

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Walthamster, E17 says...
8:22pm Sun 2 Dec 07

I'm glad you appreciate the efforts of our beleaguered library staff, :-). They're doing an excellent job under increasingly difficult circumstances.

You're lucky in not being an average library user, who wants to browse rather than ordering specific books, or a parent trying to interest your children in reading. Unlike many library users, you have a home computer and a mobile phone, which help you use the system.

The way you use libraries works for you, and that's great. You are as entitled to public libraries as everyone else in the borough.

Sadly, the people who are most disadvantaged by the cuts, the closure of St James Street library and the reduction in numbers of books on the shelves are those who were most disadvanted to start with.

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Anna Morell, says...
1:56pm Thu 3 Jan 08

I fear the only exposure Ms Lee and the council has to culture is to the kind found in yoghurt. This borough's attitude to culture and the arts and things which can enrich the lives of its inhabitants is a disgrace.

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