A FORMER Waltham Forest councillor and youth worker has been charged with gross indecency in a public toilet in the borough.

Philip Arnold was arrested last week and will appear at Waltham Forest Magistrates Court on September 6.

Mr Arnold, from Forest Gate, was an Alliance councillor for Wood Street until earlier this year. His father is long-standing Tory councillor and former Waltham Forest Mayor Derek Arnold.

Philip Arnold, who now works for Tower Hamlets Council, is a former youth worker with ILEA and founder of the Liberal Democrats' Wood Street Focus newsletter.

Last year he was the agent for the Democrat councillor in the Vauxhall by-election.

A Waltham Forest councillor has launched a scathing attack on the Government's plans to abolish the Inner London Education Authority.

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Philip Arnold said: "it's bad enough having Labour in control of our education in Waltham Forest, with political meetings taking place in school time, masive cuts in adult education, closures of school libraries, and cuts in books and equipment.

"It is unthinkable to give power over to loony boroughs like Hackney and Southwark. The Secretary of State for Education, Kenneth Baker, should think very carefully before giving this power to local political hoodlums."

I READ Councillor Philip Arnold's unnecessary attack in the Waltham Forest Guardian on Labour councillors from Hackney and Southwark with considerable concern.

Councillor Arnold accuses them of being hoodlums. I don't know why he says that or if he has ever met any of them, but I know several of them and can testify that not one fits the description. -- They are all decent, caring and civilised human beings. In fact there are very few councillors I know, including members of his party, who would qualify for the description hoodlum.

There is, however, one councillor who one might call a hoodlum, perhaps. He is the councillor who, during a rate demonstration outside Waltham Forest Town Hall, was trying to stir up the crowd by attacking the Labour council.

This councillor, when he saw a Labour councillor passing by, pointed him out and said: "There is one of them". Fortunately, the demonstrators were far too adult and sensible to take any notice and allowed the Labour member to pass peacefully by.

But who was this rabble rouser? Why, it was Councillor Philip Arnold.

JO BRIND (Cllr).

YES, Tower Hamlets Council was racist, the CRE report said so, and we can agree (Commentary, March 31). The report was written before 1986 and Tower Hamlets was a Labour Authority at the time and its housing allocations policy continued unamended into the new Liberal Democrat Council. But for Melanie Phillips to suggest that things have not moved on since 1986 is a falsehood.

Tower Hamlets Council now has an agreed Equal Opportunities Policy for staffing. The Council now has Black and ethnic minority social workers and interviewing staff. These are new developments following years upon years of Labour rule in the borough.

I don't think that anyone is pretending that the "sons and daughters" policy of allocation of Council homes is not statistically racist. But Tower Hamlets along with other Inner City areas are finding that the only way their young people can obtain somewhere to live is by moving away from the Borough that they have lived in. That is unfair and unjust on those people and needs to be addressed. Of course, what must be pointed out is that the 8,000 Bangladeshi community tenants and their families will also benefit from this policy.

Let us look at some examples of Labour's London racism.

Camden's council's policy of Irish repatriation and the closure of their Homeless Families Unit for over a year hurt Black and ethnic minority clients.

Hackney Council's provision for Black and ethnic minority tenants and their allocations policy still does not stand up to scrutiny.

Hammersmith and Fulham, and Haringey's mismanagement of finances, which in Haringey's case amounts to £52 million that has to be found, have told many Black and ethnic organisations and communities that they will be the first to feel the effects of Council cutbacks.

Islington who look to be ready to abandon its equal opportunities policy because they admit that it doesn't work.And finally my own borough of Waltham Forest who disproportionately house Black and ethnic minority tenants above the fifth floor of tower blocks, ring fence secondary teacher vacancies to existing staff without first addressing their equal opportunities staffing policies and deny significant grant aid to the Pakistani community which is the largest Black and ethnic minority community in the borough.

(Coun) Philip Arnold. Deputy Leader, Waltham Forest SLD.

WALTHAM Forest councillor Philip Arnold is being sued for libel by the Labour Party.

As agent for the Democrat candidate in yesterday's (Thursday) Vauxhall by-election, Mr Arnold was responsible for a campaign leaflet which, it is alleged, libelled the Labour candidate, Kate Hoey.

Mr Arnold is being sued along with the Democrat candidate Mike Tuffrey.

The Democrats are being sued for publishing an article in the leaflet in connection with a case of a baby who died in 1987. Ms Hoey was a Southwark councillor at the time and was involved in the vote for a public inquiry or internal inquiry.

Mr Dobson said Ms Hoey followed council policy-- which followed Department of Social Security guidelines-- when she voted for an internal inquiry.

Mr Arnold was unavailable for comment as the Guardian went to press.