Latest news with #LambethCouncil
BBC News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Crystal Palace International Film Festival at risk, says founder
The founder of a south London film festival says it "will never happen again" if the local councils insist on rating the films Palace International Film Festival (CPIFF) launched in 2009 and attracts filmmakers to venues including the West Norwood Roy, who set up the festival he says attendees call the "world's coolest", says Lambeth and Bromley Councils want to charge more than £6,500 to rate all 132 films - a cost he claims no film festival has the budget said "there is no change in how the council has treated the film festival in over a decade" while Lambeth said "fees are charged to all organisations that ask us to classify their films". 'Draconian' A petition to save CPIFF, which also shows films at the Everyman Cinema in Crystal Palace, has already attracted more than 1,500 of the previous attendees worked on the Netflix hit Adolescence while another has just graduated from the National Television and Film School, according to the festival has previously attracted big-name comedians including Andy Zaltzman, Kerry Godliman and Mark Steel."It's extremely frustrating," Mr Roy said. "You've got a much-loved film festival which is very popular and a launchpad for young creatives into the industry."It's such a lovely thing to have in the local area – the community in Crystal Palace loves it and the councils won't listen."Hopefully they see common sense so we can start inspiring kids into the film industry." Mr Roy said he had offered to allow the councils to independently rate a selection of films to verify his judgment as well as proposing to make all of the films 18-rated to enable the festival to go ahead."They're draconian in applying their rules - no child has come to harm in 16 years," he added. "They won't even have time to watch all of the films.""Our proudest legacy of inspiring children into the film industry - it will end. This would be devastating - it's my passion, my love and I'm so proud of it."It sells out – we're doing amazing things for independent film. They should be supporting it." A Lambeth Council spokesperson said: "We have worked closely with CPIFF over many years to help ensure that the event could take place with all its films properly classified."But the council, like other local authorities, has a responsibility to classify films which have no age rating certificate from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) before they can be shown to the public."Licensing in Lambeth reviewed the CPIFF films for 2025 to be shown at West Norwood cinema, which included themed films aimed at specific groups on to be shown on separate dates. "The council issued ratings for each group of film showings, provided individual classifications, and undertook cross-checking as to what films had already received a BBFC classification, as part of our role in ensuring consumers are protected with a focus on the young." A Bromley Council spokesperson said: "There is no change in how the council has treated the film festival in over a decade, with the only change being that the film festival now want to include children in the audience, where legislation therefore needs to be complied with. "Under the Licensing Act 2003, any premises licensed for the exhibition of films must ensure that all films shown carry a classification certificate from either the BBFC or the local authority. "The council currently has serious financial challenges of its own but we have, in previous years, revised application fees to support the festival and remain open to discussion about the way forward but we need to ensure the law is complied with, part of the aim of which is to protect children."
Time Out
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
It's official: outdoor street dining is coming back to London this summer
If you're loving London's current bout of warm, sunny weather but feel a bit restricted by the capital's current offering of alfresco dining options, we bring excellent news. Today (June 19) the Mayor of London has announced that a bunch of areas in the capital will be turned into outdoor eating and drinking spots this summer. Dubbed 'Summer Streets', the scheme will see some of London's most popular neighbourhood spots go car-free for longer during the summer months. The areas are spread across the city (well, south, east and central), and the project is being funded by £300,000 from the Mayor's Summer Streets Fund. So, where exactly in London is getting alfresco dining this summer? The lucky places are Brixton, Leyton, Shoreditch and the West End. Today's announcement follows a hint back in April that Soho could be bringing back its pandemic-era pedestrianised street dining zones. In the West End, Westminster Council will receive £100,000 to make St Martin's Lane car-free from 11am to 11pm every day. Up to 34 businesses on the street will get alfresco licences. In Shoreditch, Lambeth Council is getting £100,000 so that bars and restaurants on Rivington Street and Redchurch Street can offer outdoor eating and drinking until midnight. Both streets will go car-free on Fridays and Saturdays. Down in Brixton, the Mayor says businesses on Atlantic Road and Brixton Station Road will benefit from 400 square metres more outdoor space. In this area the scheme will only be in place on select weekends, with cars banned until 10pm. And finally, over in Leyton – which was named Time Out's coolest neighbourhood in London last year – community hub Francis Road will extend its car-free hours, and there'll also be more outdoor seating at Leyton Midland Road. Both the Leyton and Brixton schemes will get £50,000 in funding. The Summer Streets project follows the mayor being given extra powers to boost London's nightlife by the national government, and it's hoped that they'll expand in future years. Commenting on the scheme, London mayor Sadiq Khan said: 'I'm delighted to announce the first of many new al fresco hotspots across the capital to help Londoners and visitors make the most of our summer this year. 'The schemes announced today are just the beginning and we're looking to build on their success across London in the years ahead.' The Night Time Industries Association CEO Michael Kill said: 'The launch of al fresco dining in key areas like Brixton, Shoreditch, Leyton and the West End marks the beginning of an important initiative that supports the recovery and long-term growth of London's nightlife and hospitality sector. 'Creating vibrant, accessible outdoor spaces for food, drink and culture is a powerful way to bring communities together and boost local economies. We see this as a strong foundation — and hope it will grow into a city-wide movement that helps reshape and revitalise London's nightlife for years to come.'
BBC News
19-06-2025
- BBC News
Dementia patient's fees deemed 'unfair' and must be repaid by council
A council in south London has been found to have unfairly charged a man with dementia nearly £6,500 in interest and legal fees when he failed to reply to requests for payment of his Council has been told by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman that it must improve its working practices after failing to consider the man had dementia, before he passed council has also been ordered to apologise to the man's daughter and pay back the fees as well as an additional £300 for the distress caused.A spokesperson for the council said they fully accept the findings and had acted on the ombudsman's recommendations. The ombudsman said the council had failed to communicate with the man, called Mr Y in its report, about the charges for his care until late 2022, by which time there was a "significant" debt worth £32,813.32. The council said it did not have a policy on charging interest and legal fees on overdue charges for adult social care, and that it referred debts to solicitors to progress debt recovery on its ombudsman's investigation concluded the actions of both the council and the solicitors were at fault and recommended introducing policies and procedures on charging these costs when it comes to unpaid care charges.A spokesperson for Lambeth Council said it was committed to providing the "best service possible for all of its residents" and that it worked hard to resolve problems quickly and fairly whenever they arose."We are determined to learn from this and improve how we communicate with residents about care charges. "We regret that our service fell short in this case and remain committed to working with residents and the ombudsman to improve our services going forward."
The Sun
17-06-2025
- The Sun
Bludgeoned to death & set alight… why I'm sure secret paedo ring STILL on UK streets was behind sick murder of dad-to-be
'I know what's going on. I'm going to spill the beans soon,' council worker Bulic Forsythe told a colleague on a cold February day in 1993. Just days later, the 42-year-old was found dead - in horrific, mysterious circumstances that have baffled investigators for decades. 15 15 15 Called to a fire raging in his small flat in Brixton, firemen found Bulic lying in his bed with a pillow over his head. The father-to-be, described by colleagues as decent and hard-working, had been killed by repeated blows against his skull. It was a chilling cold case, and to this day no one has been charged. Police at the time looked into his personal life, suspecting he had lived a double life within the gay community, or that the motive was robbery. What wasn't investigated was his professional life at Lambeth Council. And if they had, they might have found a much darker motive behind his brutal murder. During the 80s and 90s, the council was mired in corruption, with allegations of financial malpractice and abuse of power. But the most serious crimes did not become clear until decades later, when an unearthed internal investigation shed light on the horrific abuses of a paedophile ring operating primarily in the housing department where Bulic worked. Often in the basement of council buildings themselves, the sickening network assaulted and even filmed the abuse of hundreds of children in care. Horrific child abuse videos were thought to have been made and distributed by council staff, while other workers were reportedly intimidated, coerced, or even drugged before being assaulted themselves. In all, it is now alleged that at least 700 children were sexually abused while under the council's care, though the true number is believed to be even higher. And shockingly, only a handful of the abusers - who included senior council workers - have ever been prosecuted, with investigators warning that many still walk UK streets to this day. More than 700 children suffered sex abuse as paedos ran wild for 50 years at homes run by Lambeth Council, report says Now, a Channel 4 documentary from criminologist Professor David Wilson and Emilia Fox has unearthed new witness evidence that suggests they were prepared to go to any length - even murder - to silence potential whistleblowers like Bulic. 'I've got no doubt that if the police were to continue to look at the information which we have provided to them, there is every possibility that there could be arrests in relation to what happened to Bulic,' David told The Sun. 'In my career, I've seen cold cases reopened, reinvestigated, and successfully prosecuted on the basis of less evidence than what emerged during the investigation that took place for his documentary.' Murder mystery Born in Jamaica before moving to Britain, Bulic worked for the council's housing department and lived alone, with his wife based in America. But then, out of the blue, he didn't show up for work. His neighbour reported a commotion - the sound of heavy footsteps - then at 2am on February 26, they were awoken by the smell of burning before the fire brigade recovered his body. Tragically, he died just three months before the birth of his daughter, Kiddist, who has since joined the campaign to find justice for her father. The fire had destroyed any forensic evidence. Instead, police noted the fact Bulic had friends in the gay scene, wondering he had been secretly bisexual - a line of inquiry that led nowhere. 15 15 15 Later, a man was found in possession of some jewellery taken from his flat, but they were unable to place the suspect at the time of the murder - and no one was ever charged. But what was ignored by police at the time was Bulic's workplace, Lambeth Council. 'It was a very difficult time. Lambeth had been in the news as a disaster for many years by then - every year services were getting worse,' Stephen Whaley, council leader at the time, told the documentary. 'There was an endless barrage of accusations of corruption. You had a process of corrupt people corrupting others, to make sure it never came out.' Lambeth became a byword for corruption and fraud - but a culture of fear made blowing the whistle difficult. Nearly unearthed files even reveal that at one point, Bulic resigned from his position, with his manager noting he was 'aware of the effort Bulic made because of the culture of the organisation.' 'It was an incredibly hard place to work. It would have been an even harder place to speak out,' said Clive Driscoll, a former Detective Chief Inspector for the Metropolitan Police. 'There was a councillor who told me that there was a man that would go round and give a knock on your door, basically saying that if you didn't shut up, things could happen to you.' Victims silenced Yet as it emerged, the corruption went far deeper than just financial manipulation, with both children under the care of the council and staff members themselves subjected to horrific sexual assaults behind closed doors. And whoever was carrying out this abuse had an extensive network able to threaten and intimidate people at will. One person, Louise*, who worked at the council around the time of Bulic's death, claims she was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a senior official in the council, often where there were children. The former staffer, who appears in the documentary speaking anonymously, says many of the assaults were captured on camera - she believes for money. But even this was not as terrifying as what happened when she tried to speak publicly. 15 'An investigation was set up. I was told a lot of people came forward - but they didn't take any signed statements because people were terrified,' she said. 'Initially it was phone calls, telling me to back off, then I had a chemical thrown in my face. 'And then lastly, somebody broke into my house, and poured petrol on to my bed. 'The coldness of the petrol woke me up and made me jump out of bed just as they were lighting it.' Louise's attack has terrifying parallels with that against Bulic - and she has now moved away from London out of fear for what could happen to her. Working in the housing department, Bulic himself was only a few degrees of separation from the abuse that was going on. People who knew him have recalled conversations in which he suggested that he was about to expose everything. Bulic was determined to reveal the truth and told pals he was compiling a report that detailed names, locations and dates concerning the sexual abuse. The document has never been found following the murder and arson attack at his property. 'He came to me briefly when I was in the council chamber. He just said, 'I'm on to something',' recalled Anna Tapsell, a councillor at the time who was also looking into the allegations of child abuse. 'My immediate assumption was that it was something to do with financial wrongdoing. 'I now know that he was probably looking at the same thing that I was.' Industrial-scale abuse Like Louise, when Anna started to speak out, she found her home burgled a number of times - but only the post would be stolen. In the end, such were her fears that she arranged for her children to stay with different people until the threat blew over. 15 15 'Everybody knew that [Bulic] was very fearful before he was killed,' Anna added. 'People told me that Bulic had actually found something about people making films with children. 'After all these years, I'm even more convinced that he discovered the bad things that were going on.' It turned out that Bulic was right, with an unpublished internal investigation carried out by officers within Lambeth Council in the 1990s - which was uncovered a decade ago - laying bare the shocking extent of the abuse that went on. Even the basement of Lambeth's housing headquarters was thought to have been used to carry out assaults, and one anonymous woman described being raped alongside children and animals by important figures within the council. The abuse was so widespread that council leaders found themselves forced to shut down the children's homes. Some people were let go from their roles - but the internal report recommended a full criminal investigation, which never happened. No justice One of the locations in which Louise was subjected to abuse was the South Vale Children's home, run by the council. It's one of five homes which, according to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, was infiltrated by abusers - both as staff and as 'volunteers'. One man, Leslie Paul, who was eventually convicted in 2016 for a string of child sex offences that took place at South Vale, was also a special constable within the Metropolitan Police at the time. It is not outside the scope of possibility that corrupt police officers played a role in covering up the abuse and throwing investigators off the scent of Bulic's murder. 'For his professional life not to have been pursued by police at the time seemed to me at best simply an oversight,' added David Wilson. 'At worst, it was a dereliction of duty.' 15 15 Another council worker corroborated that Bulic's report was going to reveal who was behind the widespread abuse. Like Louise, she chose to remain anonymous out of fears for her safety. But before Bulic was able to release his findings, he was dead - and the report was never found. 'Because of Bulic, people were really, really frightened,' Louise added. A Crimewatch report on the murder even noted that a group of men in suits were spotted leaving his house the day he went missing, carrying out briefcases of files. To date, only six people have been prosecuted in relation to the abuse that happened under the watch of Lambeth Council. Leslie Paul himself was convicted on three separate occasions for abusing for boys in his care during the 1980s. Another, John Michael Carroll, was a children's home manager for 10 years, from 1981 to 1991. Shockingly, the council didn't dismiss him when he disclosed that he'd previously received a conviction for child abuse. In 1999, he was convicted of 35 offences including buggery of young boys and served five years in jail. But the true number of perpetrators is likely to be even higher. 'At the time, there was a reluctance to actually say that children were being sexually abused on an industrial scale,' said David, who also noted that when making the documentary, people willing to speak on record about the abuse and corruption at the time were hard to come by. 'I have no doubt that there are people out there who were involved in the sexual abuse and in covering it up.' In the Footsteps of Killers: The Murder of Bulic Forsythe airs tonight at 10pm on Channel 4 *Name has been changed
Scottish Sun
17-06-2025
- Scottish Sun
Who was Bulic Forsythe and how was the Lambeth Council employee murdered?
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A COUNCIL worker was murdered suspiciously back in 1993 after he reportedly spoke to colleagues about a suspected paedophile ring. Here's everything you need to know about the horrific killing of Bulic Forsythe, which is featured in an episode of C4's In the Footsteps of Killers. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 2 The murder of Bulic Forsythe was featured in an episode of Crimewatch Credit: BBC 2 The Lambeth Council employee reportedly uncovered evidence of a child abuse ring Credit: Mirrorpix Who was Bulic Forsythe? Bulic Forsythe was a senior manager in the housing department of Lambeth Council in south London, respected for his professionalism and commitment to his work. At the time of his death in February 1993, he was responsible for building management within the council. In the days leading up to his death, Bulic reportedly confided in a colleague that he had discovered evidence of a paedophile ring operating within Lambeth Council properties and was considering going public with the information. A report published in July 2021 by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) found that Lambeth Council staff failed children in care and foster homes repeatedly from the 1960s. Over a 40-year period, more than 700 children in the borough suffered sadistic sexual abuse. Per Wandsworth Guardian, a police report into Bulic's death states: "The murder of Mr Forsythe remains unsolved. "It was the subject of a recent review by the Metropolitan Police Service (Operation Redsnow), as a result of concerns that there was a connection between Mr Forsythe's employment at Lambeth Council and his murder, but no evidence of such a connection was found. "At the very least, the murder of Mr Forsythe is likely to have caused concern and fear on the part of staff and councillors." In 2015, Sky News reported how Bulic might have discovered that council property was being used to carry out this abhorrent abuse. How was Bulic Forsythe murdered? Bulic was killed in a suspicious manner — on February 26, 1993, his flat was set alight. His body was subsequently discovered inside, with a post-mortem revealing his skull was fractured before the fire was started — indicating he was beaten to death prior to the arson attack. Witnesses reported seeing three men leaving Bulic's flat carrying bags of documents and files shortly before the fire. A witness who lived nearby and appeared on the BBC's Crimewatch said: "I was going over to the paper shop to buy a paper and I saw three men coming out of Foster Court around the front. "They were carrying briefcases and some folders in their hands. Why I noticed them was because they looked official and I've never saw them here before." Internal Lambeth Council reports and later investigations suggest that his murder may have been linked to his knowledge of, and intention to expose, a paedophile ring involving senior council staff. These reports detailed shocking allegations of sexual abuse, including the use of council premises for the rape of women and children by senior officials. Bulic was said to have told a colleague he was going to "spill the beans" about what he had discovered Despite these serious allegations, the findings were not formally investigated by police at the time, with the case remaining unsolved. The murder caused widespread fear among council staff, as it was seen as a warning to anyone who might ask too many questions or attempt to expose wrongdoing within the council. In the Footsteps of Killers A new investigation into the murder of Bulic Forsythe is featured in an episode of Channel 4's In the Footsteps of Killers. Presented by Emilia Fox and leading criminologist Professor David Wilson, the show examines the circumstances around his death and the allegations of abuse within Lambeth Council. Aiming to shed new light on one of London's most disturbing unsolved murders, the doc explores whether Bulic was killed because he was about to expose a network of abuse and corruption within Lambeth Council. You can catch the episode of In the Footsteps of Killers featuring the murder of Bulic Forsythe at 10pm on Channel 4 on Tuesday, June 17, 2025.
