The Newham Recorder has finally got round to reporting on the Newham Collegiate 6th Form and East Ham Town Hall debacle.
And entirely predictably it has regurgitated the mayor’s line that this is all the fault of officers.
It even has a quote from Lester ‘3 jobs’ Hudson:
“There has been a complete and utter failure by senior officers in the governance process in this project.”
That’s some brass neck you’ve got there, Lester!
Are we really expected to believe that governance has nothing to do with elected members? That the executive mayor, his cabinet lead for finance and chair of the audit board have no responsibility for ensuring that major spending projects are running to budget, or that the authority pays heed to leading counsel’s advice on the legal status of a new school?
The supine and pointless Recorder obviously does.
If our deputy mayor were being honest he’d have said “There has been a complete and utter failure by elected members to do the jobs residents elected them to do and for which they receive extremely generous allowances.”
That would be swiftly followed by the words “I am very sorry and I resign.”
forestgatedotnet 
You’re being a bit unfair: Hudson – like every other mayoral advisor – doesn’t have any responsibilities, hence Newham Council’s inability to provide evidence of portfolios that do not exist (see my FOI request on the What Do They Know website).
He takes the titles & the cash, he should also take the responsibility they imply. I have an FoI in and one question is about which advisor’s portfolio covered the EHTC project, so we’ll see what that turns up.