When Waltham Forest council decided to get tough on a derelict and defaced house in Walthamstow, they issued a notice ordering the building's detritus, cluttered in front of the graffiti-ridden, boarded-up eyesore, be removed on pain of a £2,500 fine. Problem was, the house is owned by the council itself. Doubly bad news for Waltham Forest, as they're launching an anti-littering initiative with fines of up to £50,000 and five-year prison sentences. Proactive councillors could......

25: the number of pounds it takes to buy an opinion: Waltham Forest are paying residents to discuss how to improve the NHS. 28: the number of fire service jobs under threat. The GMB are less than impressed and threatening action. 85: the percentage of schools now using CCTV: this one in Redbridge has gone a bit further and has it in the classroom. 20: the number of Durga Puja celebrations which are expected......

Whaddya know – you spend years teaching kids how to cross the road, and then the little buggers grow up, get into gardening, and try to drown you. Apparently that is the fate that awaits Tufty if he strays on to certain allotments in Waltham Forest, where one of the allotted ones has been advising his fellow hoe bearers on how to get rid of furry visitors. Now admittedly Mr. Nutkin can be a bit......

…is the government really and truly trying to squeeze every last penny out of us at the moment? Never in this Londonista’s long history of being fined for breathing out of turn have Jobsworths seemed so perniciously jobsworthy. Put one foot wrong, and the powers that think they are are trying to penalise you for it. Londonist isn’t having a bad day, in case you are wondering what has triggered this tirade; hey the sun......

Ding dong! Big Ben is 150 years old this year, and is hosting an educational kiddie fest to celebrate. There seems to be a 30’ cigarette butt in Trafalgar Square. To highlight our littered streets apparently. Londonist reckons gum is worse. Crime is costing Londoners £400.00 per head every year. Best ban it then. Tube workers are to strike. Again. Um, does anyone else have trouble keeping track of all this at the mo?......

Our Amy dedicates her Grammies to London. Respect. Bozza on the buses. Well, his thoughts on kiddie crime therein at any rate. It’s London fashion week. We don’t rock to that beat, but we thought we’d better mention it. Any fashionistas out there who'd care to comment on it? Brits do OK-ish at Baftas: could do better. B-. Waltham Forest can’t afford to keep its library or art gallery open, but it can afford......

The Londonist flag is flying at a respectful half mast today: London’s oldest columnist has gone to the great printing press in the sky at the age of 101. Croydon gets less des res by the day: there’s been another stabbing at a school there. Laid-back London listens to a listless 90 bpm*: it’s northerners who top the toe-tapping leagues of Britain with the Scots on 160bpm. It’s probably just to keep warm. The......

Big belchers should stay at home as Ken’s low emission zone comes into force. Wonder what the road tax on camels is… Big spenders are on their way to London, with imminent and potentially record breaking art sales at Christies and Sothebys. Big boost for Waltham Forest residents following the relocation of their library - the launch of, er, a new supportive blogsite. Big deal - £5 for pre-war IRA bomb hero. Great stuff,......

Book-lovers will be checking out a unique new venue on Saturday [2 Feb]: St James Street Open-Air Library in Walthamstow. No payment, no tickets – just bring as many books as you like, and swap them. Fab, but Brrrrrr. Its hours are brief; from 1-3pm the first Saturday of the month. And its book stock is the few hundred its organisers have rounded up from supporters – plus whatever anyone brings. But it’s handily......

What do you do if you’ve got a gallery full of works by William Morris, one of Britain’s most famous artists, and you’re a cash-strapped borough council? (a) Publicise the gallery and get loads of tourists spending their money there. (b) Hitch a ride on green awareness — Morris was an early environmentalist and the collection is housed in his former home, in magnificent grounds, all of which the borough owns. (c) Suggest giving......

The yoof of today. They’re just too brainy for their own good. Take Peter and Paula Imafidon, a pair of twins from Waltham Forest. They both just passed a GCSE in statistics. Age six. Jesus. When we were six, the closest we got to statistical expertise was assessing the likelihood of getting caught taking a leak in the park. Actually, that’s still about the extent of it. Meanwhile, at the other end of town,......

Yahoo News: The body of a man believed to be linked to a US probe into a financial scandal involving NatWest has been found close to his home. Neil Coulbeck had gone missing from his home in Woodford Green, east London, on Thursday. Sky News crime correspondent Martin Brunt said: "The man had been interviewed by the FBI. We don't know how important to the investigtion he was but FBI sources suggest he was......

A policeman has been shot in the shoulder during a surveillance operation n the Waltham Forest area. The officer, who is in his 40s, was with a colleague from the Violent Crime Directorate when he was shot... The injured officer, who police say was unarmed, is described as being in a stable condition in hospital. Two men were arrested, but police are looking for more people in connection with the shooting. A spokesman said......

Armed police swooped on another suspected terrorist type just off the M25 yesterday: Specialist Metropolitan Police firearms officers challenged the man when he got out of a parked car near the South Mimms service station, off the M25. The man, from east London, was taken to a central London police station. Addresses in the Waltham Forest and Newham areas of east London are being searched as part of the investigation. There doesn't seem to......

Did you know that Newham is a hive of cannabis production? No, we didn't either, until we read this article in the Waltham Forest Guardian. It's those pesky 'Vietnamese gangsters' who are responsible for the 82 (yep, 82!) cannabis factories that have been discovered in the borough since April this year, "each one capable of producing £500,000 worth a year of the powerful Skunk strain." Why Newham? Well you see it's popular with gangsters......

Something sinister is lurking beneath the waters of the River Lea and nobody knows exactly what it is, or what it's up to. The Waltham Forest Guardian reports the sighting of a Canada goose being dragged to a watery death by unseen forces, while strange burrows have been found in the banks of the River Lea. Forging the first link in what becomes a most bizarre chain of illogic, the WF Guardian explains that:......

You don't have to live in London long before you get offered a pair of bargain "high spec" speakers out of the back of a white van. It's like a coming-of-age ritual...once you've been offered some dodgy stereo equipment you can truly call yourself A Londoner. But now there's a new scam on the block, something, which if you fall for it, is potentially far more embarrassing than buying two empty black boxes for......