From Private Eye's Rotten Boroughs column

Private Eye's Rotten Borough naturally has an item about scandal hit Tower Hamlets Council but it was a couple of other items that caught my attention. First of all that Shetland Council, run by Independents, has paid off their controversial Chief Executive Dave Clark to the tune of £250,000. He had only been in he job seven months. One councillor has askedfor an inquiry. There have also been angry protests which suggest Shetland really has potential for a branch of the Taxpayers Alliance.

Another item concerned Labour-run Waltham Forest. Four cabinet members decided to award a three year extension of a recycling contract to a firm called ECT. It was worth £2.5 million. They went ahead despite advice that it wold mean breaking the law by not following procurement rules. Cllrs Ali, Rayner, Robbins and Loakes (the latter standing for Labour in Northammpton South at the General Election) decided it "would not be in the public interest" to disclose what they had done. Private Eye reports:

An inquiry by the council's anti-fraud team observed that "a request for a bank loan of £20,000 would require more justification than this."  Investigators also noted that "it is difficult to understand how LBWF expects others to uphold the law when its own cabinet deliberately breaks it." Indeed.