Former councillor Daniel Lee-Phakoe
There’s going to be a by-election in Plaistow North. Not that you’d know it from the council website.
Cllr Daniel Lee-Phakoe resigned a week ago, on 16 October, for personal reasons. This created a ‘casual vacancy’ in his ward and assuming more than one candidate is nominated it will be filled following an election.
In order for people to stand they have to know an election is happening. So the returning officer (in this case the council Chief Executive) publishes a notice. These days that means an announcement on the council website.
But if you look on the homepage, there’s no notice. No mention of an upcoming election. Nor in Latest News. Or even on the council’s Twitter page.
Okay, so maybe it’s under Your Council. So click the hamburger menu, top right and scroll down to the bottom. Nothing obvious there, but a menu of other sub-sections and a link to results from May 6th (that’s May 6th 2022, more than a year ago). There’s also results from recent by-elections in Boleyn and Wall End and an archive of previous results. But nothing for upcoming elections.
Let’s try Voting in Newham.
If you look at that on a laptop or tablet there’s nothing obvious, but if you scroll down you might spot a link for Statutory Election Notices.
And there you have it – notice of a casual vacancy, dated 17 October, and Notice of Election Plaistow North, dated 19 October.
It takes five clicks to find the notice of election, and that’s assuming you knew to start looking.
There’s also a Timetable of Proceedings for the by-election, but that’s on a different page.
Long story short, the by-election is being held on Thursday 23 November and if you want to stand you need to get your papers in by 4 pm this Friday (27 October 2023).
forestgatedotnet 
Hope this is not an example of the vision for “an exciting opportunity to lead the Council in delivering excellence for our residents and the borough as a whole”.
It’s sloppy, sad, and they should want to engage in democracy, encourage local residents to come out & stand for election, or vote.
It looks as if Newham is even more corrupt than Tower Hamlets.
Absolutely extraordinary and quite possibly the shape of things to come.