Letter for Ilford Recorder

 Dear Sir or Madam

 

The community group “Investigate Jas Athwal” went to 10 Downing Street last year to deliver a letter to the Prime Minister requesting he order an investigation into Jas Athwal and his rental properties. The Prime Minister did not write back. Since then Andy Walker and Andrew Boff AM (who is not part of the community group) have put in freedom of information requests to Redbridge Council which have been ignored or refused. Andy sought information about correspondence between “Cllr Athwal's managing agents and Redbridge Council from the 1st January 2024 to the 10th October 2024” Redbridge Council are refusing to supply any information about Jas Athwal's agent, not even the name of the agent, despite the Council publishing landlords' agents' names on the public website on the internet. Jas Athwal relied on having an agent to shield him from from criticism when news of his substandard flats broke. His refusal to name an agent suggests he did not have have one. Jas Athwal also refuses to say whether he allowed Council inspectors access to his flats to write reports on his flats.
If they had done so then this could have led to a fine and the end of Jas's political career.
If Jas Athwal and officers have conspired to block inspections then that could be misconduct in public office which is a criminal offence. The MP expenses scandal led to convictions, but the freedom of information request it was based upon took five years for the expenses to be published. We returned to 10 Downing Street on 16th May to ask Keir Starmer again to order an investigation into what has happened. It would be wrong to wait five years for the answers to our questions.

 

Regards

 

Councillor Noor Jahan Begum

Andy Walker 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jas Athwal MP and the Rogue Landlord Allegations: A Year On, Still No Transparency

It’s now been almost a year since Jas Athwal MP was accused of being a rogue landlord following a BBC investigation in August 2024. The investigation revealed serious issues in several properties linked to Athwal, including unlicensed rentals, ant infestations, and dangerous black mold. Since the report, Athwal has publicly shifted blame onto his property agent—an individual he still refuses to name. As concerned residents and members of the public, we have every right to ask: Has Jas Athwal been fined? Was he investigated at all? Why the continued silence? A Trail of Freedom of Information Requests Since the initial report, several Freedom of Information (FOI) requests have been submitted to Redbridge Council in an effort to determine whether Athwal has been held accountable. Unfortunately, these requests have revealed more about the opacity of the system than about the case itself. The first FOI response claimed that the council held no paper or electronic records indicating whether ...
Read more

David Lammy MP, Angela Rayner MP, Rachel Reeves MP and Cllr Michael Situ were all investigated: Why not Jas Athwal MP?

 I sent this to   Claire Hamilton and Councillor Rai yesterday. I will write more after the 27th November. Dear Claire Hamilton and Councillor Rai   Recent developments suggest Redbridge should carry out and publish the outcome of any investigation into whether Jas Athwal MP should have been fined for not having a landlord licence and his sub-standard flats. I rely on breaches of the Nolan code which led to investigations into the conduct of David Lammy MP, Angela Rayner MP, Rachel Reeves MP and Cllr Michael Situ.     Cllr Situ's lack of a licence has led to a report in the Evening Standard which stated - “ The matter has also been referred to the council’s Monitoring Officer for investigation.” So far Redbridge is refusing to say if an investigation into Mr Athwal has taken place following the Joe Pike BBC story last year.  This is unacceptable; there should have two investigations, one by the monitoring officer and another by your landlord enforcemen...
Read more

Report from 10 Downing trip

Image
 Photos from yesterday Letter delivered Video of Cllr Noor outside number 10 This is Andy Walker below: The text is below The tests set out by Judge Martin Rodger QC  in a case dated 29 th July 2021 involving Redbridge Council suggest Jas Athwal should have been fined by now for not having a landlord licence and the sub-standard condition of his flats. However, Mr Athwal does not appear to have been fined. Residents are pursuing Redbridge Council for key documents via freedom of information as to what has gone on. However, the Council is either ignoring requests or taking a very long time to reply. This is unacceptable as it could take years to find out the truth. So Sir Keir, I ask you to investigate this matter because if there has a been a cover up it could be mean the criminal offence of misconduct in public office has taken place and it must be right that this issue is resolved as soon as possible.
Read more