Author Profile

Martin Ford

Martin Ford

Articles by Martin Ford

Scotland to ease cross-border placements

By Martin Ford | 12 January 2022

Holyrood has proposed removing legal hurdles for cross-border placements of children by English c...

Third commissioner to join Slough

By Martin Ford | 11 January 2022

Essex CC chief executive Gavin Jones has been appointed as assistant commissioner following a req...

Complaints procedures 'marginalised' by councils

By Martin Ford | 11 January 2022

Local government ombudsman Michael King has raised concerns about how councils handle complaints.

Wirral faces £27m budget gap

By Martin Ford | 10 January 2022

The council said it was time to ‘make the changes that have been put off for too many years’ foll...

Fund planners to solve housing crisis - Lords

By Martin Ford | 07 January 2022

Peers have said council planning departments must be better resourced to prevent an ‘emerging cri...

Council pays out damages over 'vendetta' claim

By Martin Ford | 07 January 2022

A settlement has been agreed following 20 years of legal disputes with now-defunct East Northampt...

Major incidents declared over COVID

By Martin Ford | 07 January 2022

Local resilience forums covering Northamptonshire, Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent made the anno...

Buckinghamshire signs £15m waste contract

By Martin Ford | 06 January 2022

Buckinghamshire Council’s deal with FCC Recycling includes an option to extend worth almost £30m.

Sandwell calls for action on test shortage

By Martin Ford | 06 January 2022

A council has written to ministers after it was forced to step in to alleviate a shortage of COVI...

Council-backed energy firm close to collapse

By Martin Ford | 05 January 2022

Together Energy, which is 50% owned by Warrington Council, is close to running out of funding, ac...