WEMBLEY MATTERS

Public frustration at lack of answers at Brent Executive

2012-02-13T23:29:00.001Z

Cllr Ann John lost her cool at tonight's Executive Meeting after residents who had made representations on Treetops Nursery and the proposed Willesden Library Centre had left the committee rooms at Brent Town Hall.

Cllr Ruth Moher had been reading, inaudibly, a report on Adult Social Care and procurement of a framework for short break for carers. Chairing the meeting Cllr John had told her that she did not need to read out the recommendations as councillors could read them for themselves then broke off to say: "But that's not to say that this isn't important. This, safeguarding and the budget are important things but I don't see people coming to talk about them. We weren't political at all tonight. Maybe we should have been. People come for the small things, trying to hang on to what they've got, but they don't care about these things which will affect more people. The poor people of Brent will be a lot poorer because of this government.".

The meeting began with a representation about Treetops Nursery where the council will consider it being taken over by a private provider. This was followed by a series of presentations about the Willesden Green Cultural Centre project, the fate of the Willesden by library campaigners to provide study space during the closure period at Preston library at little cost to the council.

Residents criticised the poor consultation over the Willesden Regeneration which only saw 12 people and the ward councillors involved in the first round.One speaker accused the council of being in hock to the developers and failing to represent the interests of local people as the client in the partnership. Suggesting it was a 'done deal' another said that there were a lot of angry people who wanted their voices hard and warned that at the next election these people could make a difference when voting turn-out was so low. A local GP described the information on the council website as 'platitudes and fluffy aspirations and called for detailed and substantive plans to be published. It appeared that the future of the community was being decided by developers and not the elected local council. Another resident criticised the haste involved and called for the signing of the developer agreement to be delayed so that local people could mull over the proposals and have a calm consideration of the issues.

Cllr Paul Lorber speaking on the motion from Scrutiny echoed previous contributions, particularly those dealing with consultation and said that he had failed to get answers from officers on the cost of refurbishment of the present building. He drew attention to the fact that the interim arrangements for the 18 month period of closure had a budget of £2.1m and opening the closed libraries for that period would be cheaper.

Ann John from the chair had commented on several of the speeches from residents and prompted Cllr Crane, lead member for Regeneration and Major Projects about questions he needed to address. Unfortunately Cllr Crane began to read sections of the Officers' Report rather than answer the questions raised by the public and heckling began as the audience became more frustrated. Ann John in turn got irate with the public and even cited me as a model of decorum!

Cllr Crane repeated previous statements bout the unfitmess of the current building, the impossibility of finding tenants for the cinema and the bar, the unaffordable cost of refurbishment. He said that the Willesden Bookshop was valued but 'at the end of the day it is a commercial entity' . He said that the word 'consultation' was sometimes misused ("By you!" - public cry)and that the initial small group discussions a limited consultation' was only to get ideas to put to potential developers. He said that thorough consultation would start now and there would be a 3-4 month discussion with Galliford Try the developer partner. Andy Donald, the lead officer for the project, confirmed that the developer agreement had not yet been signed, and that there would be further consultation before the project went to planning committee in July. Neither mentioned the apparent fact that the exclusion of the bookshop from the Cultural Centre and demolition of the 1894 Victorian Willesden Library would not form part of these 'consultations'.

When Councillor Powney opined that the Bookshop would not want to be relocated twice, during rebuilding and then moving into the Cultural Centre, the public shouted "Have you asked them?" In fact supporters of the Bookshop said the owner said he would be happy with two moves if it meant getting located in the new Centre. Cllr Powney then said that it would be such a high quality development that retail space within it would be too expensive for the bookshop. Responding to my claim that there were no meeting rooms in the list of 'key components' the council wanted in the Cultural Centre, something essential for local democracy, he said that there were. It turned out that Andy Donald's developer language had run away with him and that the 'Three Creative Cluster Spaces which will be fitted out to facilitate an array of artist and cultural programming" were in fact meeting rooms. I don't really think Cllr Powney can really blame me for not being able to translate that into plain English!

The Executive then voted to approve all the officers recommendations and Cllr John said that the council would now go ahead and sigh the developer agreement.

The budget and its 28 recommendations involving major cuts across services was approved following a three minute introduction by Muhammed Butt and councillors declining Ann John's invitation to ask questions. The budget including the damaging cuts itemised elsewhere on this blog will now go to Full Council on February 27th.. Other items including the closure of Harmony Nursery and increases in council rents were also approved.

Sign for disability benefits cuts 'stop and review'

2012-02-13T17:26:00.000Z

As both Coalition and Brent Council cuts hit people with disabilities I urge to to sing this on-line petition:

Stop and review the cuts to benefits and services which are falling disproportionately on disabled people, their carers and families (Responsible department: Department for Work and Pensions)

The government were embarking on wholesale reform of the benefit system when the economic crisis struck. These welfare reforms had not been piloted and the plan was to monitor and assess the impact of the new untried approach as it was introduced in a buoyant economy. Unfortunately since then the economy has gone in to crisis and the government has simultaneously embarked on a massive programme of cuts. This has created a perfect storm and left disabled people/those with ill health, and their carers reeling, confused and afraid.

We ask the government to stop this massive programme of piecemeal change until they can review the impact of all these changes, taken together, on disabled people and their carers. We ask the government to stand by its duty of care to disabled people and their carers. At the moment the covenant seems to be broken and they do not feel safe. Illness or disability could affect any one of us at any time, while many more of us are potential carers.

Signing the petition is comparatively simple. Go to LINK

Brent Labour isolated on library closures as Ken backs campaign

2012-02-13T17:18:00.000Z

The number of senior Labour Party figures opposed to Brent Labour Council's library closures was joined by Ken Livingstone when his Head of Research and Policy wrote to Brent library campaigners.

Ken regards libraries as a valuable resource for the whole community and is opposed to their wholesale closure.

Ken supports the campaign to keep libraries open in Brent and wishes the campaign every success.

If he is elected Mayor in May he will add his voice and use his office to help prevent library closures.

Michael Burke
Head of Research & Policy Development

Barry Gardiner, Labour MP for Brent North has already opposed the Brent closures and Ed Miliband, Labour leader, has opposed library closures in general.

Weighty evidence on library closures

2012-02-13T14:41:00.000Z

The evidence supplied to the Parliamentary Selection Committee (Culture, Media and Sports) by Brent SOS Libraries is now available at www.publications.parliament.uk LINK

A PDF of evidence submitted by Brent campaigns and many other bodies is available HERE

Jeremy Hunt is expected to make a statement soon on whether he will order a public inquiry into the Brent closures.

Stimulating and provocative Green Party speaker at Willesden Green Library

2012-02-13T12:57:00.000Z

Derek Wall

Economics lecturer, writer and Green party activist, Derek Wall will be at the Willesden Green Library Centre on Monday 20^th February at 7.30pm to talk about his book, the “No-Nonsense Guide to Green Politics” and a book he is currently completing on the history of the commons.

This event is the fourth in a series of “Environmental Writers” meetings at the Willesden Green Library Centre, where authors read from their books with environmental themes and discuss them with the audience. The series is organised by the Brent Campaign against Climate Change in liaison with the Brent Library Service.

Derek Wall is an economics lecturer and writer. He has been a member of the Green Party since 1980 and was Green Party Principal Speaker from 2006 to 2007. Derek is a founder of the Ecosocialist International and Green Left. He has written a number of books on green politics including the No Nonsense Guide to Green Politics and has a blog at http://another-green-world.blogspot.com/. He works closely with Hugo Blanco - the Peruvian green activist who publishes Luca Indigena (Indigenous fight). Derek is currently researching a book on the environmental history of the commons and is a parish councillor in North Ascot. He lives in Berkshire and has three sons.

Ken Montague, Secretary of the Brent Campaign against Climate Change says, “Derek is a stimulating and provocative speaker who is bound to stir up a debate about politics and the future of our planet. I am especially looking forward to hearing more about his new book, which I’m sure will make us look at British history in a new light.”

The discussion will take place at 7.30pm on Monday 20^thFebruary in the Willesden Green Library, 95 High Road, Willesden, NW10 2SF. This is a free event and all are welcome.

This meeting is in the tradition of stimulating public meetings at Willesden Green Library which will be demolished under regeneration plans. The rather sketchy proposals for the replacement Willesden Cultural Centre do not appear to include plans for public meeting rooms.

Protect social work from privatisation

2012-02-13T12:29:00.000Z

I recently spoke at a meeting of SWAN (Social Work Action Network) about the link between privatisation in education and that of other council services. In some areas social work is being out-sourced with a number of 'Social Work Practice Pilots'. Particularly worrying is proposals for Child Protection to be out-sourced.

Privatisation of care for the elderly has led to carers having less time to spend with their clients and rushing in and out with barely time to converse. In contrast with local authority carers they are not paid for travel time (hence the rush) and are paid lower rates so the contractor can make their profit, have fewer employment rights and are not unionised. Often training is less thorough and turnover high so the old people do not get the continuity of care and contact that they need.

Extend this to social work and particularly children's social work and you can see the dangers quite clearly. Brent Council has said that faced with the immense cuts that they have to make that EVERYTHING is under consideration. We need to keep careful watch as things are fairly stable in Brent at present with fewer agency and temporary social workers. Stability is vital and we have to defend it.

Council seeks views on equality as it proposes cuts that hit the vulnerable

2012-02-13T11:10:00.000Z

When Brent Council is considering cuts that will affect children with disabilities, special needs and mental health problems as well as adult social care, it is more than ironical that it is launching a public consultation on equality. The Council has also faced strong criticism over the Equality Impact Assessments it made regarding the closure of libraries last year.

The press release from the council says:

Brent Council is inviting local people to have their say on the development of its equality objectives for the next few years.

Open to all residents, service users and other stakeholders, the council wants to hear their views to help ensure the best possible services are provided for all communities.

Over the past six months the council has been looking at everything it does to make sure that it is complying with the Equalities Act 2010 and published its equalities information on the Brent Council website at the end of January.

The consultation will run until 12 March 2012 and can be accessed at www.brent.gov.uk/consultation

For more information contact the Corporate Diversity Team on 020 937 1069 or visit www.brent.gov.uk/equality

Benefit cap row: Curtains for Teather?

2012-02-11T11:24:00.000Z

The Independent carried a story on Thursday about Sarah Teather which I reproduce below for any constituents who may have missed it:

A Coalition dispute erupted yesterday over a Liberal Democrat minister missing a Commons votes on welfare cuts.

Sarah Teather, the Children's minister, has previously criticised the move to impose a £26,000 cap on the annual amount of benefits that families can claim. She was absent in Sheffield on "ministerial business" when MPs voted on the policy last week.

Conservative MPs have called for her to be sacked and David Cameron's spokeswoman said her absence had been cleared in advance. He told MPs: "She supports Government policy, as all Government ministers do."

Later a Downing Street source said: "If she speaks out again, it will be curtains for her."

A Liberal Democrat source countered: "That is just nonsense. She is a very highly valued member of the Government. This is being whipped up by the Tories."

Ms Teather, who is regarded as on the left of the Liberal Democrats, insisted she backed the Government's agenda, but did not explicitly say she supported the benefits cap.

Brent Council consults on carers' services

2012-02-11T10:04:00.001Z

The following notice has been published on the Brent Council website:

Carers are invited to have their say on Brent Council and NHS Brent's proposals for the services provided to carers.

The consultation meetings will be an opportunity to discuss the:

background to existing services
priorities for services for carers
proposals and choices
future for carers

The sessions will take place on:

Monday 27 February 2012 from 4.30pm to 8.00pm at Brent Town Hall, Committee Rooms 1,2 and 3, Wembley, Middlesex, HA9 9HD
Thursday 8 March 2012 from 12noon to 3pm at Patidar House, 22 London Road, Wembley, Middlesex, HA9 7EX

LINK TO BRENT COUNCIL CONSULTATION PAGE

To reserve your place email dipti.naker@brent.gov.uk or call 020 937 2394 by 22 February. Please advise if you have any special requirements

Pilgrims Way ward 'walkabout' tomorrow

2012-02-10T16:59:00.000Z

Saltcroft Close this morning

Barnhill councillors will meet up with residents of Pilgrims Way, Summers Close and Saltcroft Close tomorrow for a Ward Working 'walkabout' to hear views on how the area can be made better. They will be joined by representatives of Brent Housing Partnership, Brent Parks Department and the Safer Neighbourhoods Team.

The meeting place is the Robert Hartley Centre which is between Saltcroft Close and Kings Drive with a 2pm start. If the weather continues to be snowy and cold most of the discussion will take place in the Centre. Tea and coffee with be available.

"We can't continue to deliver these services"-Brent police chief on closure of Willesden Green Police Station

2012-02-10T15:47:00.000Z

The Brent and Kilburn Times LINK is reporting that Brent's police chief is considering closing Willesden Green Police Station. At a meeting at Brent Town Hall last night Chief Superintendent Matthew Gardner, in what appeared to be a political comment, said:

There are currently three officers behind the front counter at Willesden police station which I am looking at closing.

Do I have officers behind a desk and not doing anything?

As soon as you start taking away libraries and closing up police counters people get angry but we can’t continue to deliver these services.

We need them to listen and to understand. It is going to be difficult.

Willesden Green campaigners get organised

2012-02-10T13:38:00.003Z

KEEP WILLESDEN GREEN

Please join us to discuss the development of the

WILLESDEN GREEN LIBRARY

and the impact the proposals may have on Willesden Green

FEBRUARY 16TH 2012 7pm

KINGS HALL, 155 Harlesden Road, Willesden Green, NW10 2BS

Residents have organised a meeting to discuss the Willesden Green Library development proposals and the impact on the Willesden Green area for Thursday of next week (details above)

Details of some of the issues involved can be found on the Keep Willesden Green website LINK but among the issues are:

Lack of consultation over the original proposals and the 'offer' to be made in the proposed Cultural Centre
The handing over to developers of council land to finance the development with all profits from housing going to the developer
The Council-Private Partnership which leaves a lot of decision making to the developer
The developer's apparent decision that retail in the Centre would not be viable (despite provision for a cafe when there are many available in the vicinity)
The subsequent loss of premises to the much valued Willesden Bookshop
The developer's advice that the historic old locally listed 1894 Willesden Library could not be accommodated in the new plans
The subsequent loss of a base for the Brent Irish Advisory Service
The apparent lack of public meeting rooms in the new Centre when the current rooms have been well-used and are essential to local democracy
The adequacy of the council's alternative arrangements during the 18month-2 year building period and proposals to reopen some of the closed libraries instead
Loss of the open space in front of the library
Lack of parking spaces for disabled visitors

Meanwhile ePetitions are gathering support on the council website and paper versions are also gaining support.

The ePetition calling on the council to allocate space for the Willesden Bookshop currently has 417 signatures and can be accessed HERE

The ePetition calling for the retention of the Old Willesden Librray building currently has 474 signatories and can be accessed HERE

Wembley Park cut off again this weekend

2012-02-09T16:28:00.000Z

Despite all the promises from TfL, Boris etc we have no trains AGAIN from Wembley Park station this weekend. There is no Metropolitan Line service Rickmansworth/Watford to Aldgate and no Jubilee between Stanmore and Willesden Green.

Brent 'transforms' Town Hall Library into a rubbish dump

2012-02-09T16:11:00.002Z

In January I posted an article, 'Town Hall Library invaded from the south' LINK about the books stock and shelves from the closed down Neasden Library being off-loaded into the Town Hall Library and the subsequent over-crowding and mess. The library is still in chaos as the pictures above, from the Preston Library Campaign website LINK, show.

Local people have begun to complain bitterly about the state of the library and it is clear there aren't enough staff available to clear it, and more importantly, make the stock available to the public as promised. Instead it is in boxes on the floor, sometimes stacked at a dangerous height; on trolleys and in the staff work room. In addition there are empty shelving units, and some books from the usual stock, such as those in Hindi, are no longer accessible. Windows and blinds are inaccessible because of the additional material and parts of the library are cordoned off.

Is this a comprehensive and efficient library service?

As well as the state of the library itself, local people are having misgivings about the move to the Civic Centre next year. The library, despite being based at the Town Hall, also serves a community function as the local library for the families of the Chalkhill Estate (and its primary school), Pilgrims Way Estate, and the flats on Kings Drive. They use the homework club, half-term activities and the Summer Reading Scheme. All will be far less accessible to them when the library moves all the way to the new Civic Centre. Older chidlren wil no longer be able to go there independently and it will be further for school trips from Chalkhill Primary and Ark Academy's primary phase.

A further question being asked is, 'Will the Civic Centre Library be closed on event days?' . Having seen the crowds of fans in the triangle formed by the Civic Centre, Stadium and Arena my answer would be that even it is open, it will hardly be the place for families to battle against the mass of boisterous fans to go and change their library books. This will mean that the new library won't really be open the promised 7 days a week. If you take the current period until May the stadium will be in use for sports activities on 8 weekend days and one evening. There may be other events in addition to these as well as those on at the Arena.

Dollis Hill By-election likely on March 22nd

2012-02-09T15:23:00.000Z

It appears that the Dollis Hill by-election will be held on Thursday Match 22nd but this is subject to confirmation over the next few days. A by-election in Barnhill will be on Thursday May 3rd if Cllr Judith goes ahead with her resignation in March and yet another 'hill', this time Dudden, will come up if the Rev David Clues reisgns after moving to Brighton.

Major disruption on Forty Lane

2012-02-09T11:42:00.001Z

Following a road accident outside Brent Town Hall Forty Lane has been closed off and traffic is being diverted via Kings Drive and The Paddocks.

Brent and Kilburn Times coverage LINK

Rage against these cuts

2012-02-08T19:33:00.000Z

The Budget document going to Brent Executive is a massive and dense tome with pages of technical information and is unlikely to be read in its entirety by any of the councillors or commentators, let alone understood by them. The most you can do is try and glean some kind of overview on the financial plight of the council and some detail (from Appendix D) of where the axe is going to fall but there are major headings with no elaboration. I have covered the latter in previous postings.

Cllr Krupesh Hirani in a letter to the Brent and Kilburn Times this week asked 'Is it fair that Brent has to make cuts in the region of 27 and 28% of our controllable budget whilst other councils are not being hurt as badly as Brent? Brent is losing out on £73 per resident whereas Guildford faces a cut of £10 a person and Richmond £5.39 a person'.

The answer is of course it's not fair but the next question is, 'What is the Labour council doing about that if they recognise a cut of this magnitude is going to seriously damage local people and threaten the Council's ability to provide effective and efficient services?'

That is where the answers so far have been unsatisfactory and often contradictory. Despite Ann John telling people at Area Consultation Forums that the situation is dire, her consultation, to the frustration of the audiences, did not contain any details of the cuts her administration are going to make - only the global figures. They were available on the council website in time for the Kingsbury and Kenton ACF but I doubt that many had accessed them. At the same time the cuts are dressed up in the misleading guise of 'transformation', 'savings', 'One Council' and 'efficiencies' and do not contain any details of their actual impact on real people. We need to be honest - a cut is a cut and cuts hurt.

If the cuts are as horrendous and as unfair as some Labour people claim then surely we should not 'be going gentle into that good night'. We should be standing up for the people of Brent, combining with other councils in a similar position, and taking on the Coalition. Instead Labour nationally, under the leadership of the two Eds. seems only to be concerned about what happens in 2015 and not the damage that will rip the heart out of many families and ruin the lives of the young, disabled, the mentally ill, the homeless and the elderly before that election takes place. Labour councils are left to find their own way through the maelstrom with no national leadership.

As Dylan Thomas went on 'rage, rage against the dying of the light'. Is Brent Labour so frightened of the shadow of the old 'loony left Brent' stereotype that they cannot see that they must rise up, enraged, at the injustice that is being perpetrated against its citizens?

Okay, after the rage some bare statistics from the Budget Report beyond 2012-13

Savings required 2013-14 £9.3m   (Cumulative £9.3m)
     2014-15 £11.6m (Cumulative£20.9m)
                         2015-16 £5.3m   (Cumulative£26.2m)

This includes no allowance for price inflation but assumes a Council Tax rise of 3.5% in 2013-14 and 2.5% each in the following two years. If council tax is frozen then further savings will be required.

How did we get there and what is being cut?

Service area Budgets (reductions in red increases in black)

Service Area	2011-12 £’000	2012-13 £’000
Children and Families	57,831	51,402
Environment and Neighbourhood	42,567	34,073
Adult Social Services	92,165	89,552
Regeneration and Major Projects	21,974	33,277
Central Services	12,543	10,074
Finance and Corporate	13,864	22,256

Brent Labour to close two day care nurseries

2012-02-08T00:11:00.000Z

Continuing its unique method of caring for young children and supporting working women, Brent Executive will be voting to close two of its nurseries on Monday February 13th if it follows the recommendations of its officers' report:

Recommendations
That members agree
2.1 That Willow nursery be restructured to enable further provision for children with a wide range of disabilities, while retaining its character as a mainstream nursery
2.2 That Council- run day care services at Harmony Children’s Centre be closed from 30 March 2012
2.3 That Council-run day care services at Treetops Children’s Centre be closed from 20 July 2012
2.4 That the building used for nursery services at Harmony Children’s Centre be used to facilitate expansion of Mitchell Brook School in the event that a decision is made to expand the school.
2.5 That officers invite proposals from private, voluntary and independent providers for use of the space at Treetops Children’s Centre as a nursery, expected to be independent of and at no cost to the council, any such proposals to be considered on their merit.
2.6 That the decision on whether to proceed with any such proposal in 2.5 above to use the space at Treetops Children’s Centre, be delegated to the Directors of Children & Families and Regeneration & Major Projects, in consultation with the Lead Member for Children & Families
That members note
2.7 That if the space at Harmony Children’s Centre is not used for the purpose identified in 2.4 above that it will be used or disposed of in accordance with the relevant funding requirements and council policies, and
2.8 That, if a decision is taken not to proceed with proposals received under paragraph 2.5 above, the space inside Treetops Children’s Centre no longer used for nursery services, be used to expand the core functions of the Centre.

It should also be noted that the Budget Report, also to be considered on Monday, contains a proposal to review Children's Centres.

Officers report rejects library reopening during Willesden Green closure

2012-02-07T22:35:00.003Z

The Officers' Report on the Motion passed at Call in and Scrutiny Committee has been put on the Agenda for the February 13th Executive Meeting. The Report rejects the request to re-open closed libraries during the closure of Willesden Green Library Centre for rebuilding.

REPORT HERE

National Libraries Day at Preston Park

2012-02-07T09:18:00.000Z

Thanks to Yours News UK Community TV for this video:

National Libraries Day at the Barham Park Lounge

2012-02-07T09:06:00.000Z

Thanks to Brent News Company TV for this report from National Libraries Day at the Barham Park Lounge.

Overview of savings, cuts, increased charges in 2012-13 budget

2012-02-06T18:36:00.001Z

Having summarised the savings (a mixture of cuts, 'efficiencies' and increased charging) in Children and Families Services which amounted to £3,216,000 I now turn to other service areas. Note some relatively minor items are not included but totals are for ALL savings within a department.

ADULT SOCIAL CARE
Brent Council's favourite word 'Transformation' comes up here in changes to commissioning and procurement through redesign of services giving a saving of £1,223k, by far the largest amount. Changes in transport eligibility 'encouraging independent travel to day care provision' will save £43k, stooping paying Inner London weighting £108k. Closure of day services for learning disabilities and consolidation into John Billam Resource Centre and redesign of the service model will save £433k and commissioning via Phase 1 of the One Council programme a further £402k. Alongside other savings these amount to £2,613,000 with a further £2,200,000 expected in 2013-14 through integration with NHS services although the report notes 'any 'costs resulting are currently not known).

These headings are not very specific and we can expect the details of what they mean on the ground to only emerge on implementation. A key issue will be consultation and whether it will have any effect if the budget has already been agreed.

Total Savings 2012-13: £2,613,000

ENVIRONMENT AND NEIGHBOURHOOD SERVICES
The largest item here is £1,357k for Waste and Recycling through a number of factors including renegotiation with Veolia, increased use of the Seneca (Careys) Materials Recycling Facility and reduction in waste disposal costs with increased diversion from landfill. In addition further savings are anticipated in 2014-15 following retendering of the waste management and street cleansing contract currently held by Veolia.
Reductions in highways maintenance will save £100k, maintenance of Vale Farm £25k (but the Council may have to pay money to bring it up to standard for a new contractor).

'The full effects of 2011/12 saving' on libraries is put at £408k.

The possibility of parks service privatisation appears under the heading of Grounds Maintenance with a reduction in the level of grounds maintenance in parks and open spaces and a promise to 'review options fort delivering grounds maintenance int he future'. This gives a saving of £200k in 2012-13 and £100k in 2013-14. A re-organisation of Transport Services will net £100m and not filling school crossing patrol vacancies £30k this year and £40k for the next two years. Retendering process produced a saving of £75k on street trees with 'no loss of service' and cost saving on the parking contract is put at £200k this year and £300k next. Reductions in management and staff restructuring produces savings of £183k and even the dead don't escape with increased fees for cemeteries alongside sports facilities and parks £40k. (Listed in Appendix D(vi) )

Total Savings 2012-13: £3,259,000

REGENERATION AND MAJOR PROJECTS
'Transformation' rears its head again under 'One Council Housing Needs Transformation Project. There is no detail but it gives savings of £1,670k in 2012-13 and another £1,310k in 2013-14. Similarly changes in 'Supporting People' budget produces savings of £900k 2012-13 and another £900k in 2013-14. There is a claim that prices for contracts can be reduced with 'significant impact on users' and that tjhis will be achieved through 'closing under utilised and unpopular shared houses or reducing the number supported through floating support'. Savings of £530m are suggested for a property review: 'getting out of buildings early' which I presume is linked to the Civic Centre.

There are many other items under this heading but the main ones are included above:

Total Savings 2012-13: £1,781,000 (2013-14 £2,440,000)

FINANCE AND CORPORATE/CENTRAL SERVICES
Full year effect of 2011-12 savings through staffing and structure review £269k
Full year effect of ending Inner London Weighting £54k
Savings in human resources through London project Athena £100k 2013-14 £260k
Reorganisation of Customer Services (Finance and Corporate) £300k
Reorganisation of Customer Services (Community and Customer Engagement) £66k
Reduced running costs of Chief Executive's Office £25k

Total Savings 2012-12: £855,000

In addition savings of £1,000k are indicated in 2013-14 and 2014-15 for review of business costs in moving to the Civic Centre

CENTRAL ITEMS
ONE COUNCIL PROGRAMME
Employee Benefits Project (savings allocated to service areas) £255k
Future Customer Services £150k 2013-14 £149k
Rents and Services Charges (savings allocated to service areas) £229k
Fundamental Review of Youth Service £100

Total Savings 2012-13: £734,000

In addition savings are indicated for future years:
Civic Centre 2013-14 £2,000k, 2014-15 £1,000K, 2014-15 £500k
Reduced contract prices 2013-14 £750k, 2014-15 £750k, 2015-16 £500k
Increased contract compliance - ditto-

If any readers can shed light on the impact of any of the above I would be happy to publish your comments.

Kingsbury and Kenton ACF now tomorrow - budget on the agenda

2012-02-06T17:12:00.000Z

Some of Brent's Area Consultative Forums have been poorly attended recently as the Council has stopped sending out postal reminders. Things will not be helped by a late change to the Kingsbury and Kenton ACF announced today by the Brent and Kilburn Times LINK

The Forum was due to be held on Wednesday but will now be held tomorrow, Tuesday February 7th, 7pm Kingsbury High School, Princes Avenue, NW9

Ann John and Muhammed Butt will be speaking about the budget. Now that the Budget report has been published there is more for the public to get their teeth into. LINK Pay special attention to Appendix Dii.

Brent SOS Libraries-not giving up!

2012-02-06T16:49:00.000Z

New round of cuts will impact on children amidst funding tussle

2012-02-06T16:32:00.001Z

Brent Schools Forum and Brent Council are in a tussle over funding ahead of the Executive's discussion of the budget on February 13th.

The Schools Forum had made a recommendation of a 15% cut in central services. This is in the context of many schools considering Cooperative Trust or Academy Status and an ongoing debate about the value of the services the Council provides. At the same time the Council eyes school surpluses.

LINK TO EXECUTIVE BUDGET REPORT

The Schools Forum adopted the following recommendation:

The Schools Forum recommends that the 2012/13 Schools Budget should be set with a reduction in central items within the Schools Budget of 15% with the resulting saving being passed onto schools.

The Budget Document states:

The Forum has no decision making powers in regard to this recommendation and can only make recommendations which the Executive can consider and then decide to accept or not accept. Officers would not recommend that the Forum’s recommendation is approved for the following reasons:

• The Schools Budget is already £7.2m in deficit and subject to special recovery measures.
• A rolling programme of budget reviews over 2012/13 has been agreed with the Forum that will allow the Forum to gain greater insight into the complexities of the main central item areas and make more informed recommendations rather than a blunt flat rate reduction.
• By far the largest central item spending areas consist of support for pupils with Statements of Special Educational Needs (SEN), for which the Council has a statutory responsibility. It would not be viable to make blanket reductions without impacting on the Councils ability to meet its statutory responsibilities.
• A long-term strategic plan to reduce expenditure on SEN is already in place as a One Council Project. This will deliver significant ongoing savings in central items beginning in 2012/13, so effectively savings in line with The Forum’s wishes are already being made.
• The latest DfE analysis regarding the level of Schools Surpluses shows Brent Schools as holding the sixth highest level of surpluses out of all London Boroughs. Care has to be exercised in reaching conclusions regarding this as in many cases surpluses are held by schools for long term capital schemes. Nevertheless this does not support views that more funding should be passed directly to schools at the expense of being able to adequately fund statutory responsibilities.

Appendix Dii of the document lists a series of 'Savings' (cuts and increased charges) in the Children and Families Budget for 2012-13. These include:

Children with disabilities and SEN: Reduction of £21k in SEN and early years support and increased charging of non statutory services of £57k
Increased charges for Brent Music Service £40k
Closure of Crawford Avenue Respite Centre £137k
Management restructuring £134k
Ending of Inner London Weighting for officers and manual grades £68k
Charge Target Mental Health in Schools to schools (previously LA contribution) £150k
Increased buy back/charging of Traded Services £150k
Cessation of information, advice and guidance (Connexions) to schools(responsibility passed to schools) £550k
Reduction in SEN Transport expenditure through revised criteria and application process and expansion of in-borough provision £200k (plus another £100k annually in 2013-14, 14-15)
Savings in Social Care Placements (West London Alliance project) £150k (£200k, £234k)
Savings on administration of Social Care management and Business Support across Children and Families £50k
Reduced staffing for Duke of Edinburgh Award and charging for Summer University £100k
Amalgamate Youth Offending Service and Youth Service - cutting one head of service £100k
Reduce Children with Disabilities Teams from 3 to 2 and 'tighter monitoring of direct payments' ££60k
Reduction in Core Services to Schools which will be offered on buy-back terms with increased charges £700k (£150, £150)
Early Years and Localities - explanation is fairly impenetrable but involves 'end-to-end service review' and 'managing demand for children's social care', and 'reviewing scope and coverage of existing children's centres to move towards delivering of targeted offer'. £500k (£500k, £500k)
One Council initiative to review employee benefits £70k

Total: 2012-13 £3,216,000 2013-4 £1,000,000 2014-15 £834,000

While we are told time and time again that the Schools Budget is 'protected' it is clear that these changes, through shifting responsibilities and increased charges will eat into school budgets. The Council has said it is confident that more schools will buy into services this year and is meanwhile considering a social enterprise model for non-statutory services next year.

The proposals for SEN, Mental Health, Children with Disabilities, Children's Social Care and Children's Centres will concern many parents and schools.

No space for community to meet at Willesden Cultural Centre hub

2012-02-05T12:06:00.001Z

No space for meetings like this

For decades community activists have been able to hire rooms at Willesden Green Library Centre for public meetings. They have been used by campaigns to hold hustings at election times, rallied local people opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, examined issues such as Climate Change and Palestine and discussed the cuts the Coalition and Council have been making. Our local MPs Sarah Teather and Barry Gardiner have both spoken at public meetings at the Library Centre.

Sarah Teather MP at a Willesden Green library Centre public meeting

The meeting rooms have been part of the lifeblood of local democracy. However the plans for the new Cultural Centre appear to exclude any such provision. The 'community hub' has no community meeting rooms.Not so much a plot as the Council seeming unaware that their actions continue to undermine respect for local democracy: skewed consultations, poor information and now no place to meet to give local people a voice.

It looks as if we shall have to make the 'Rising Sun' public house our community hub!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Extract:

What will the new cultural centre include?
The new cultural centre, designed by the award winning architects AMHH Architects will incorporate:
General Library, Children’s Library, Customer Contact Centre, Museum,Special Exhibition Gallery, Education Room, Community Gallery Archive, Climate Controlled Archive Store, Foyer/Reception, Café, Three Creative Cluster Spaces which will be fitted out to facilitate an array of artist and cultural programming,
Data Centre, Confidential Conference Room Public, Toilets, Office Space

Council rents set top rise by 7.14%

2012-02-04T08:35:00.000Z

Brent Council rents will increase by an average of 7.14% (an average of £6.81 a week) in April if the Brent Executive approves recommendations by officers at its February 13th meeting:

No of Bedrooms Average % increase
0 6.25%
1 7.01%
2 7.41%
3 7.22%
4 7.13%
5 6.99%
6 6.75%

It is also proposed that the rent on Brent Stonebridge Dwellings be increased by £7.03% an increase of 6.3%

FULL REPORT

Executive recommended to close Treetops and Harmony nurseries

2012-02-04T08:06:00.001Z

The Brent Executive will consider the following officer recommendations at its meeting on February 13th:

That members agree

2.1 That Willow nursery be restructured to enable further provision for

children with a wide range of disabilities, while retaining its character as a

mainstream nursery

2.2 That Council- run day care services at Harmony Children’s Centre be closed

from 30 March 2012

2.3 That Council-run day care services at Treetops Children’s Centre be closed

from 20 July 2012

2.4 That the building used for nursery services at Harmony Children’s Centre

be used to facilitate expansion of Mitchell Brook School in the event that a

decision is made to expand the school.

2.5 That officers invite proposals from private, voluntary and independent

providers for use of the space at Treetops Children’s Centre as a

nursery, expected to be independent of and at no cost to the council, any

such proposals to be considered on their merit.

2.6 That the decision on whether to proceed with any such proposal in 2.5

above to use the space at Treetops Children’s Centre, be delegated to the

Directors of Children & Families and Regeneration & Major Projects, in

consultation with the Lead Member for Children & Families

Supreme Court refuses to allow appeal by library campaigners

2012-02-03T18:17:00.000Z

The Supreme Court today refused library campaigners permission to appeal against the recent High Court decision on their case. The Supreme Court said there was 'no arguable point of law' for an appeal.

LINK to BBC story

National Libraries Day at Preston Park School on Saturday

2012-02-02T14:31:00.001Z

Barry Gardiner MP drops into crowded Preston Library meeting

2012-02-02T09:02:00.000Z

I was unable to attend the recent public meeting organised by Save Preston Library Campaign. There is an account of the meeting on the Harrow Observer website HERE

Confused councillors cause chaos at Call In

2012-02-02T00:03:00.003Z

Tonight's Call In Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the Willesden Regeneration Project descended into chaos tonight when inattentive Labour members apparently missed a vote and enabled a motion supported by two Lib Dems on the committee to be passed. Labour councillors tried to get the vote taken again when they realised that it put in jeopardy plans to sign the Development Agreement with Galliford Try tomorrow. They tried to argue that the chair, Cllr Ashraf had been unclear when he called for votes for and against, but legal officers ruled that Ashraf had been clear.

As the councillors floundered noisily, asking each other what was happening, the public at first made fun of them and then called for the whole lot to resign.

The motion called on the Executive to reconsider their interim service plan for the period of the Willesden Green redevelopment to include the possibility of using existing closed library buildings in order to provide a comprehensive and financially viable library service.

Legal officers present appeared to say that the effect of this was to postpone any signing of an agreement until the Executive had considered the motion from Scrutiny. This will put back the timetable for the regeneration which is already running behind schedule.The anticipated signing date was only revealed after the vote.

The next Executive is on February 13th and will already have a full agenda which includes the budget. Although the Executive routinely votes down referrals from Scrutiny Committee there will be a further chance for the public to make representations.

Eleven members of the public spoke tonight and any neutral observer would be likely to agree that they spoke better, were more attentive, and made more sense than many of the councillors.

Much of what they had to say was concerned with the poor consultation over the plans. It emerged that the 'stakeholder consultation' consisted of two evening focus group meetings attended by 5 and 7 people respectively who were unrepresentative of Brent's population. Several complained that there had been no mention of the Willesden Green closure when the Library Transformation plans were discussed and users of the closed libraries had been told that Willesden Green was their nearest alternative,

There were pleas from several different library campaigners for the closed down libraries to be reopened to provide an interim service. If Willesden Green had been near enough to be an alternative for their closed library then the reverse must also be true. A Kensal Rise campaigner argued that there was no justification for paying rent on temporary buildings when that purpose built library was available rent free and had enough space for the Brent Archives.

Nicolette McKenzie from Mapesbury Residents made an impassioned plea for the Willesden Bookshop. She said that most cultural centres have a bookshop. Although the bookshop was not part of the council's core service it was part of the bigger moral contract between the council and local residents. She said that the council needed to make some compromise and show goodwill towards residents.

Alison Hopkins for Dollis Hill and Neasden residents reminded the council that they had spent £300,000 on refurbishment of Neasden and were paying rent of £55,000 plus security costs on a building that could be put to use. The area was one of high deprivation and badly need the library..

Jacky Baines said that there had been no consultation over the of the old Willesden Library building and called on the council to listen to residents. She said that an epetition had been launched on the council website. (Available HERE)

Simon Hawkins, speaking for Brondesbury residents said that the first they had heard of the proposals was on January 16th. On the focus groups he said it was wrong that so much was decided by so few. Consultation was now available only when detailed plans existed and decisions were being made by small groups behind closed doors. He said interim arrangements were incoherent and residents needed reassurance that the project was not a housing scheme with a small ill-thought out library space. He asked what justification there was for removing the cinema. Contrasting the success of the Tricycle he said that the Willesden Green Library Centre had been badly managed and needed a manager of real calibre.

Responses from Cllr Crane (leader member for regeneration and major projects) and Andy Donald, the officer concerned, reiterated that the present building was not fit for purpose and would cost too much to refurbish and anyway the council did not have the money. A developer partnership meant that the project was cost neutral with the council gaining the freehold of the new building by handing council land (the library car park and a section of Chambers Lane) over to the developer for housing.

However it emerged during exchanges that it was the developers who had said there should be no retail in the new building and that the locally listed Old Willesden Library could not be incorporated into the design. This brought calls of 'But you are the client!' from the public seats.

Cllr Lorber asked then what was the point of people wanting to make representations on the old building and the bookshop when it was a 'done deed'. Residents had had no say in matters that clearly concerned them.

Towards the end, Cllr Ann Hunter, who had been getting more and more agitated during Cllr Lorber's contributions, jiggling around on her seat and clapping her hand to her forehead in apparent exasperation, intervened from the public seats. She berated Cllr Lorber for his caricature of a museum outreach service and praised that of the British Museum. As a Willesden Green councillor she had been to a briefing about the building and had some input. She had seen the indicative design and thought it was wonderful but was not allowed to tell people about it.

In response to challenges over interim arrangements Jenny Isaac said that the facilities were needed in the Willesden Green area because of the 10,000 users there and because of its high levels of deprivation. In addition to Grange Road negotiations ere in progress for another building. She could not give any details until negotiations had been completed but the council would be providing a book stock, study spaces and IT and other activities normally carried out at Willesden Green would continue to take place. She said that the council hoped to match the number of study places during the revision and exam season but there might be a shortfall at other times. She gave very high costs for the reopening of the closed libraries that were challenged by Cllr Lorber.

Andy Donald said Galliford Try had a detailed public participation strategy and there would be a chance to make representations at the pre-planning stage, when the project went to planning committee and during implementation of the plans. He said that council officers were having detailed discussions with Brent Irish Advisory service and the Willesden Bookshop over relocation. They were in contact with landlords and there were a number of premises available from the council perspective. The head of property had begun these discussions. Cllr Crane said that it was hoped the plans would go to Planning Committee in July 2012 with work to start in October 2012 (possibly later after tonight's vote). As a result of this the Willesden Bookshop would be offered an extension on its premises until the council needed vacant possession.

Brent schools spend more than £8m annually on agency staff

2012-02-01T17:23:00.011Z

More than £8m annually is being spent on agency staff in Brent schools a Freedom of Information request has revealed. The agency staff are employed as teachers, special needs assistants, teaching assistants, administrative staff and other posts.

Unlike staff employed by the school who are Brent Council employees, agency staff can be dispensed with quickly with the school not responsible for redundancy costs or redeployment and the workers concerned having far less protection. In addition they are often not unionised. Schools have been switching to agency staff and short-term contracts ahead of expected education cuts that will take place over the next few years.

Because hours and pay rates vary it is not possible to say how many individual jobs are involved.

The privatisation of education through academies and free schools is the subject of fierce debate in Brent and wider afield. These figures show that even in community schools private companies, operating as agencies, are profiting from the state sector.

Although the figures represent only a fraction of the school budget they are considerable. Preston Manor spent £485,347 on agency staff in the financial year 2010-11, Copland High School £289,694, Newman College (formerly Cardinal Hinsley) £289,024 and Furness Primary £246,647. The Village School, with a large number of special needs assistants spent £342,063.

LINK to FOI Response and Excel Spreadsheet

One Brent Primary to double in size and two others will expand

2012-01-31T18:18:00.000Z

Brent Council is currently consulting on further changes in the size of primary schools as well as changes to the character of others.

Three primary schools are due to expand with Fryent Primary, in Church Lane, Kingsbury doubling in size. New children would be taken in year by year from January 2013 with the maximum size reached by September 2018:

School	Nursery	Current 4-11 (R-Year 6)	Additional 4-11	Total 4-11 by Sept 2018
Barham	90 PT	630	210	840
Fryent	54 PT	420	420	840
Mitchellbrook	30 FT	420	210	630

The name of each school above is linked to the appropriate consultation document. Consultation closes on February 15th 2012

I have argued here and in the local press that we should think very carefully before making such large primary schools. On the plus side there are economies of scale and the ability to employ a wide range of specialists and run a comprehensive extended schools programme. However the negatives include the family atmosphere of a small school, the headteacher knowing families well, and children feeling safe and comfortable in a smaller unit. There are particular concerns about very young children and those with special education, emotional or behavioural needs. Additional numbers can also lead to the loss of playground and playing field space, school libraries and IT suites. School halls can no longer accommodate all the children in one inclusive assembly or school performance.

Building new one or two form entry primary schools is not proposed although this is an option favoured by many parents and teachers. Mention has been made of a possible new primary in Fulton Way, Wembley but no firm proposals have been put forward.

Brent Council is also consulting on a change of character for Alperton High School. The document can be accessed HERE Consultation closes on February 24th, 2012. It is proposed that Additional Resource Provision (ARP) for up to 20 school students with statements for Moderate Learning Difficulties should be opened at the lower school site in Ealing Road. The building would serve as their base but they would spend some time in the mainstream school. The provision would be for pupils with low incidence and complex needs some needs which are currently met in special school provision.

Brent Council is proposing to change the character of Vernon House Special School, Drury Way, London, NW10 0NQ, from a 30 place special school for pupils with Behaviour, Emotional, Social Difficulties (BESD) to a 35 place special school for pupils with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD for those pupils capable of accessing the mainstream curriculum with specialist support) and Children with Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities (CLDD) from September 2012. They claim that the change to a broader designation will increase the flexibility of the school to admit pupils with a broader range of associated needs.

The school in January 2012 had only 14 pupils on roll and in 2010-11 had an occupancy rate of 45-60%. At the same time there has been an increase in the demand for special school places for children on the autistic spectrum. There is likely to be a debate about whether such children might better benefit being in a mainstream setting with support. The consultation closed on February 24th 2012 LINK

Death of courageous Brent councillor

2012-01-31T08:50:00.000Z

Cllr Alec Castle (Lib Dem, Dollis Hill) has died after a long illness. Alec Castle was a long-serving local activist and will be a great loss to the community. He continued his work as a councillor and continued to chair committee meetings when others would have long given up.

He was a great fighter for the people of Brent. I would like to express my sympathy to Alec's friends and family.

'The Mouse that Roared' 3 - Can Gove be beaten?

2012-01-30T17:28:00.000Z

'The Mouse that Roared': Downhills Primary School takes on Michael Gove

2012-01-28T18:13:00.002Z

Michael Gove is trying to force Downhills Primary School and others in Haringey to become academies. Little did he realise how the local community would rise up against his plans. This afternoon parents, grandparents, teachers, anti-cuts activists, youth and children marched from Downhills to Haringey Civic Centre to defend democratically accountable community schools.

They were joined by Haringey Anti-Cuts Campaign, Haringey Anti Academies Alliance, Haringey Trades Council and NUT Teacher Associations from across the capital. They received warm support from the locals out shopping and those waving from windows above the shops and the balconies of flats.

It was a spirited demonstration led by the sheer energy of the many children took part. This is the sort of determined broad-based, community demonstration, that we need to see to protect our local schools.

Congratulations Haringey!

Here are some extracts from the song lyrics (Downhills Campaign with James Redwood and Hazel Gould)

Save Our School

Save our school! Save our school!

This is an S.O.S. to common sense,

Get us out of this mess,

And help us save our school!

Academy or communiyy?

Big business or diversity?

I know which I'd rather see,

So listen to our voice!

Save our school! Save our school!

This is an S.O.S. to common sense,

Get us out of this mess,

And help us save our school!

Our school is a family -

It's not for sale:

Not a commodity.

Hear us sing now in harmony,

And listen to our voice!

Save our school! Save our school!

This is an S.O.S. to common sense,

Get us out of this mess,

And help us save our school!

You say you want more parent choice,

"Let local people have a voice",

This is your Big Society:

Listen to our community,

And help us save our school!

This is an S.O.S. to common sense,

Get us out of this mess,

And help us save our school!

Please help save Downhills School.

Charity battles to stop family being split by Brent Council

2012-01-28T10:00:00.000Z

This account of the travails of a Brent family on the edge of homelessness has been posted on the website of Zacchaeus 2001, a London-based charity that seeks justice for debtors. LINK

Although Z2K is neither an immigration or refugee charity, we do often meet migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in desperate need of our help. Below is our Caseworker Yiannis’ account of how he gave Z2K’s trade mark intensive assistance to a family on the verge of homelessness. Unfortunately Brent’s behaviour is all too common among Local Authorities who will try anything to get out of providing assistance to those in need.

Mr and Mrs F was referred to us the day before his eviction, by his MP Glenda Jackson. The family were failed asylum seekers, with two young children. With nowhere to move to, we accompanied them to Brent social services. They said they could only help the children, and the parents would need to live somewhere separately. The parents were very upset when they heard this, and understandably said that that would not be an option.

Brent then told us the Fs would need to apply for assistance under the National Assistance Act 1948, through the Refugee Council. We went to Brixton, only to be told after a long wait that they need to make a fresh asylum claim before NAS assistance can be offered. With both tenants in tears, we then went back to Brent Council and asked them to house the children and parents together. However they had not changed their positions, they would only house the children, without Mr and Mrs F.

We asked them to reconsider, as they have a legal duty to do what is in the children’s best interest ( which involves keeping the family together whenever possible). The case was referred to ‘senior management’, only for us to wait until 5pm to be told once again that separating the parents from the children was an option being seriously considered by Brent. The mother of the children, who was already crying, had a minor panic attack, finding it very difficult to breathe or drink water.

A few minutes later, the social worker from Brent returned and said that Brent had decided to house the whole family in a nearby BnB for one night only, to give them a chance to make a successful application for NAS assistance. No apology or explanation was offered as to why this offer had not been made until so late in the day, and after so much anguish on the part of the parents.

The next day, as it was clear that NAS assistance would take a week to be sorted out (at least), Brent decided to house them for a further 15 days. We referred them to another organisation which could help with their immigration and NAS applications.

Barnhill by-election on May 3rd

2012-01-27T15:00:00.000Z

The Brent and Kilburn Times is reporting LINK that there will be a by-election in Barnhill Ward after Cllr Judith Beckman said that she would resign in March, The by-election will be held on May 3rd, the same day as the GLA elections. The ward went Labour at the last local election after being held by Conservatives.

Pressure is now on Cllr Rev David Clues (Lib Dem-Dudden Hill) to resign. Both councillors came under pressure after it was revealed that they had moved out of Brent.

Budget pressures: homelessness and school places shortage

2012-01-26T23:57:00.001Z

The pressure on Brent Council's budget and particularly those regarding the shortage of schools places and the impact of the local housing allowance cap were revealed at the Budget Overview and Scrutiny Committee of January 11th, the Minutes of which have just been published:

Andy Donald (Director of Regeneration and Major Projects) circulated a Powerpoint presentation outlining the context in which the department's budget was set, the budget pressures and other issues facing the department and the major capital projects underway. Andy Donald explained that because the department had only been formed in October 2010 the current year was one of transition. The year ahead was the first chance to view the department's budget as a whole and plan for the future. The biggest pressure on the current year's budget was the level of spend on temporary accommodation which was forecast to overspend by £928,000.

Andy Donald explained that the main reason for the overspend was due to the Local Housing Allowance cap introduced in April 2011. The service had in the past been managed largely as a demand led service but with a rise since 2010/11 of 38% in the number of homeless applications received and an 86% increase in the placing of families into hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation, a different approach was needed.

Actions being taken to mitigate the overspend included the provision of advice, strategies to prevent homelessness and encouragement to take housing out of the borough. However, Andy Donald stated that the situation was only likely to get worse as Housing Benefit and wider welfare reforms were implemented. The committee noted that a contingency budget of £1M was being held centrally to fund any final overspend in this area for the current year. The department's agreed savings of £3.8M remained on track with £1.2M coming from the supporting people budget, £440,000 from the staffing structure review and a collection of smaller changes to the housing service.

Andy Donald drew attention to the budget issues for the future. By 2014/15 the borough would need the equivalent of 70 additional classrooms to cater for the increased demand for school places. A sum of £25M had been secured from the Government to help address this but a figure in the region of £60-65M was needed. Therefore work was underway on reviewing the Council's entire portfolio of school buildings to assess how best to use the funding secured and meet the demand. The New Homes Bonus would appear in the Council's budget for the first time in 2012/13 in the sum of £1.068M. It had been decided that this money would be used to support the Council's capital programme. Andy Donald reported that it was anticipated that new rules would be passed to allow Councils to recover the total cost of their planning service which would lead to an increase in income during 2012/13. He further explained that presently planning fees were set nationally, but if the Council was allowed to recover its total cost it would generate an additional £800,000 approximately.

More savings were to be taken from the supporting people service and from the housing needs transformation project. There would also be revenue savings taken from capital projects. A big change to the Housing Revenue Account would take place on 1 April 2012 following the Government making a one-off settlement to the Council of £197M to pay off a proportion of the HRA debt and no longer provide subsidy of £8.5M in return for the Council taking responsibility for the remaining debt and retaining the rental income.

A business plan for how the Council would in future manage, maintain and improve the housing stock was being developed but one risk already identified were the proposed changes to Housing Benefit which would result in benefit being paid direct to the tenant rather than to the Council with consequences for rent collection levels. It was pointed out that the national rent convergence scheme would continue and so rent levels would still be determined by the Government.

Andy Donald outlined the major capital projects included in the Council's programme, including South Kilburn, the new Civic Centre, the Willesden Green redevelopment and the schools programme.

In answer to questions asked by members of the committee concerning housing and homelessness, Andy Donald explained that when someone first presented themselves as in need of housing the first action was to see if they could be prevented from becoming statutorily homeless but if this was not possible the Council then had a duty to house them. If there was no permanent accommodation available then temporary accommodation was used. The Council provided advice to people in an effort to support their housing needs before they were determined statutorily homeless. Reference was made to the rent deposit scheme and Andy Donald stated that further details on this could be provided to members. In answer to a question about enforcing standards, it was explained that the Council could only use housing legislation to take action against sub-standard housing if it was at least three storeys high and was only resourced to carry out its statutory role, although action could be taken using planning laws. A review of the Council's private housing service was to be carried out.

Addressing questions around the provision of school places, Andy Donald stated that, whilst there were a number of variables that would need to be considered including land availability and building types, at best the £25M would only meet between one third and half the anticipated increased demand for primary school places.

Regarding the New Homes Bonus, Andy Donald explained that this money was provided by the government effectively matching the Council Tax for each new property built for a period of 6 years following completion and so was based on the number of new homes provided within the borough and distributed according to a formula. Therefore the £1.68M would continue to be received over the next five years with additional funding arising from new homes subsequently built within the borough. He stated that more detail on this could be provided if necessary.

Andy Donald explained more fully the new arrangements for managing the HRA but pointed out that financial rules relating to the HRA remained so it would continue to be ringfenced. Clive Heaphy (Director of Finance and Corporate Services) added that as a result of the rent convergence scheme the average rent increase in Brent for 2012/13 would be 7.2%.

The committee had previously been informed of the new arrangements proposed for retaining business rates. A question was therefore asked as to how competing land use would be managed with the pressure to attract new businesses into the borough to increase the level of business rates and to build new houses to benefit under the New Homes Bonus. Andy Donald acknowledged that both would generate income but would have to be managed according to planning policy and complex modelling arrangements for different parts of the borough.

A question was asked on whether the Council was working with any neighbouring boroughs on joint projects. Andy Donald replied that there were some discussions taking place but that Brent was generally making the running on these. They included the potential to share some facilities management functions, housing management services and some other service provision.

Andy Donald was asked to explain more fully the demand on temporary accommodation. He stated that for the year November to November just gone the number of households in hotels and bed and breakfast had increased from 139 to 250. It was expected that by the end of the year 1635 new homeless applications would have been received of which 580 would have been accepted. There was a need to understand what was driving this increase but it was already known that a significant number came from landlords evicting tenants. With regard to the supporting people budget, it stood at £10.8M but £1.2M savings had been made during the current financial year with an additional £600,000 being made next year and £900,000 the year after taking the budget to £9.3M by 2013/14. The service worked with the most vulnerable people through a raft of support mechanisms all of which were now commissioned out. This expenditure was no longer ring-fenced. A review of the housing needs service would result in an additional 20-25 posts being deleted but Andy Donald was confident that an effective, efficient service would continue to be delivered. He offered to forward members more detail on the restructuring if they wished to receive it.

Brent in secret talks to out-source libraries, parks and leisure services?

2012-01-26T14:02:00.002Z

The Ealing Gazette is reporting this week that Ealing, Brent and Harrow Councils are in talks to out-source libraries, sports and leisure facilities throughout the three boroughs. The boroughs are alleged to have met with seven potential providers last November:

EALING Council is in talks with Brent and Harrow to establish a shared, privately-managed leisure service to save the libraries. Plans could see the council hiring independent providers to manage both libraries and sports and leisure facilities across the neighbouring boroughs.

It must reduce its overall budget by £85 million by 2014 but pledged to save the vital community hubs from closure last summer.

A shared service could reduce expenditure through a smaller management team and shared IT and human resources costs.

The authorities met with seven potential providers last November to discuss taking over just libraries or sports facilities, or both. A formal decision is expected later this year.

LINK to full story

However Cllr Paul Lorber says that this relates to leisure centres only - libraries were specifically excluded.

Green Budget amendment tackles real issues facing Londoners

2012-01-25T17:13:00.000Z

The amendment to the London Mayor's budget proposed by Darren Johnson Green Party Assembly Member & seconded by Jenny Jones AM would help Londoners facing high unemployment, falling real incomes, soaring rents and fares, as well as environmental problems such as dangerous air pollution and cold homes. The Green alternative budget would tackle these problems head on.

It would help low income Londoners, and reduces inequality

It would protect and improve key services, including safer neighbourhood policing, public transport and cycling infrastructure

It would deliver warm energy efficient homes and cleaner air

It would keep the council tax the same, reduces the fare rise, and raises extra money from motorists.

Darren Johnson said:

"We will bring down the fare rise below inflation, saving a typical household about £40 a year. Instead we will raise more from motorists and introduce a congestion charge zone around the heavily congested and polluted Heathrow area. Our budget provides funds for a feasibility study of a fairer "pay-as-you-go" road pricing scheme, which would charge a rate per mile driven, with higher charges for more congested roads and times of day. This could provide a significant new income stream of around £1b a year, with cuts to fares ensuring it will be financially neutral for a typical household, and substantially less congested roads with cleaner air through out London."

Our police budget does not change the total amount of money but it does change priorities. We provide more resources for safer neighbourhood policing, road safety, and preventative work with young people and gangs. We are able to achieve this partly through employing (usually cheaper) civilian staff wherever they can do the work as well or better than a warranted officer. Success should be measured by results not by uniformed officer numbers.

London's serious air pollution problem needs radical measures and proper investment. This is provided by the Green budget, which will fund the introduction of a Very Low Emission Zone in central London where only clean vehicles are allowed, replace an additional 100 standard buses with cleaner hybrid models, and help taxi owners replace polluting vehicles.

Without increasing the council tax, the alternative Green budget radically recasts priorities to make real progress in tackling some of London's most long-standing problems."

Town Hall Library invaded from the south

2012-01-25T16:25:00.000Z

Brent Town Hall Library is looking a mess at the moment, with books, boxes and bookcases all over the place. The reason? Books and bookcases from Neasden Library have been shipped up Blackbird Hill to the Town Hall following the closure of the library. The ill-matched furniture will take some sorting out and the books will take even longer. The Town Hall Library, which was carefully redesigned a while ago with excellent access and circulation space is looking rather a shambles. Staff have been cut as part of the Transformation programme so it may take a little time to get it organised.

In 2013 the whole lot will be packed up again to be transferred to the new Civic Centre Library. Local people from Chalkhill are just waking up to the fact that they will soon lose their local library and will instead have to travel some distance to the Civic Centre. This particularly affects children who were able to go to the Town Hall Library independently. There is additional concern that the Civic Centre Library will be unavailable on event days and event evenings when large crowds are attending the adjacent stadium The Stadium is staging an increasing number of events to make money to pay back the building loan. There is speculation about on just how many Saturdays the Civic Centre Library Hub will be closed or inaccessible.

It's not just the Town Hall Library which is a mess!

Willesden Regeneration Plans Called In

2012-01-25T08:19:00.000Z

The Willesden Library Regeneration Project is to be examined by the Call-in and Overview Scrutiny Committee of Brent Council at its meeting on Wednesday February 1st (7.30pm Committee Room 1, Brent Town Hall).

The call-in queries the delegation of decision making to the developer, the lack of detail in the proposals, interim arrangements while the development takes place and the consultation process:

Willesden Green Redevelopment Project

The reasons for the call in are:-

1.     Delegation of authorisation of detailed design (recommendation 2.4 in the report): it is appropriate that a decision of this significance is signed off by members, especially if the consultation process or other pressures result in a need to reconsider elements of the scheme or choose between options.

2.     Interim service delivery strategy (recommendation 2.5)

(a)    Lack of clarity over important aspects of the alternative provision including the size of the premises at Grange Road and details of other premises in the Willesden Green area being explored.

(b)    Lack of serious consideration of the use of available closed libraries to aid the delivery of services as evidenced by the perfunctory nature of paragraph 6.29 in the report.

(c)    It is incorrect to state that the provision of transport services to aid access to alternative study space is outside the council’s powers (para. 9.23). The council has a number of potentially relevant powers including the power of well-being.

3.     Lack of clarity in the papers provided to members at the Executive meeting about the design and functions of the proposed new building including:

(a)    No information (even in broad terms) about how the available floorspace will be split between the different uses and the projected income from the proposed commercial uses.

(b)    No information about the architectural and design approach to the development or the planning considerations and risks (other the risk of local objections set out on page 54) that the design has to take into account.

(c)    Lack of clear explanation about how the zero net capital cost will be achieved.

(d)    Inadequate consideration of the risk of construction costs being greater than anticipated and the extent to which the additional costs might fall on the council if they are not the responsibility of the contractor; and inadequate assurance about financial control of the project subsequent to detailed design development and prior to practical completion.

4.     Defects in the decision making process including lack of information provided to members about the revenue consequences of the recommended decision (section 7 asserts that all future revenue costs will be contained with existing budget allocations for the management of the WGLC but there are no figures to support this. Additionally there is no mention of the revenue implications of the non-cultural centre functions such as office space and contact centre).

5.     Lack of access to Background Papers despite requests in good time

6.     Consultation strategy (recommendation 2.7)

(a)    The agreed consultation strategy does not include any objectives nor does it specify what scope there is for the current design to be altered in response to the consultation. It is therefore unclear to what extent this is a genuine consultation strategy and to what extent it is simply a public engagement strategy designed to provide reassurance and promote the project to stakeholders.

(b)    There is no mention in the report, recommendation or consultation strategy of reporting back the outcome of the consultation to members (Executive or Scrutiny) to enable consideration of the views expressed.

Suggested action for the Call In Overview and Scrutiny Committee to take:-

·         Consider the revenue implications of the decision to assure value for money and the other issues raised above.

Recommend that:-

·         The decision about the detailed design and costs be taken by the Executive and not delegated;

·         The interim service delivery strategy be revised to provide more library floorspace and more accessibility to the museum collection than the present proposals deliver, possibly including use of currently closed library premises to avoid the need to pay rent;

·         Objectives be set for the consultation strategy; the process for considering and responding to consultation feedback be clarified and publicised to stakeholders in due course; a resident / stakeholder liaison group be created as part of the consultation strategy.

FULL AGENDA

First details of proposed Willesden Green Cultural Centre

2012-01-24T19:27:00.000Z

...but will this shoe box be dwarfed by bloks of flats?

Galliford Try have delegated the designing of the new Willesden Cultural Centre to a Leeds based architects firm, removing the project even further from local people and designers who know the local area well. They have released the first images of the building which will replace the current library and bookshop. No space is allocated for the bookshop.

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris and Architecture 519 are pleased to announce they have been selected for the Willesden Green Cultural Centre Redevelopment in Brent with Galliford Try Regeneration.

AHMM are leading the masterplan, which incorporates a new 4,000+ sq. m. library and cultural centre, with approximately 90 residential units by Architecture 519. A compact, atrium-centred scheme with a dramatic presence on the High Road will replace the existing 1980’s library, creating a community landmark in Brent. Activating the ground floor will be a café, children’s library and ‘creative cluster’ of large spaces tied into the masterplan through a significant new public space by Gillespies Landscape.

The team, supported by URS Scott Wilson for structure and services, expect to submit a planning application in the spring, with completion in 2014 for the entire site."

Observers at last night's Council Meeting said that the council appeared confident that the project would go ahead with planning approveal by June/July 2012 with construction beginning in September 2012.

However a strong campaign is developing of those who are opposed the the redevelopment. They are joined by others with a particular interest in preserving the old Willesden Library. Meanwhile Cllr James Powney, lead member for libraries, has intervened on the bookshop issue before the e-petition has closed and before it has been presented to the council. As usual he appears to have made up his mind before hearing the arguments. This is what he posted on his BLOG:

Martin Francis of Brent Green Party has started a petition about the Willesden Bookshop. Brent Council has given the bookshop notice to quit so that it can redevelop the Willesden Library Centre. The petition appears to be arguing that the bookshop should be included as part of the new Willesden Library centre. Presumably, Martin wants the Council to help the bookshop to temporary premises, and then to move back 18 months later. Would any retailer really find it attractive to have two disruptive and expensive moves in a period of less than two years? Given that any retail space in the new library centre will be much higher quality than the current provision, the rent is likely to be much higher. Would it not be more sensible to move to premises somewhere in the immediate area?

I have lodged the petition as a local resident rather than on behalf of the Green Party. As I write it has 278 signatures. Please encourage more people to sign so that Cllr Powney is forced to listen to us.

Here is another message from a concerned local resident:

I am also very unhappy about the proposed redevelopment of Willesden Library. Proper consultation has been distinctly lacking.

We will be losing one of the more attractive corners of Willesden - currently providing much needed light and space in what is already a narrow and crowded high street; a much loved and well used book shop; a historic Willesden landmark in the old library building and a Library Centre which already houses an art gallery, museum, lots of space which has been allowed to deteriorate rather than be fully utilised as well as a decent sized library which the the south of the borough will now need following the closure of other local libraries.

The new plans seem to be far more about housing and council office space rather than a 'cultural hub'.

"Brent school system works. Don't mess with it." say teacher unions

2012-01-23T12:09:00.001Z

Brent Pupils ate Carbon Reduction project

Against the background of some Brent schools considering opting out of the local authority system, the local teacher unions have issued a strong defence of that system as one which has put Brent schools in the top 10% nationally:

A report by Think Tank 'The Centre Forum' has published a list of performance of schools in all local authorities across England. Of the 152 local authorities looked at in the report Brent came in at 13th, putting it firmly in the top 10% in the country.

To quote from the Report, “Indeed, pupils of all types – including the poorest pupils and those from typically under-performing ethnic groups – perform better in London than in all other regions of the UK.”

The Brent joint teacher unions believes that this vindicates their belief in the state system. Shane Johnschwager, NASUWT secretary said, “This report proves that for Brent's schools, and their pupils, co-operation is better than competition. Brent schools have the evidence now to show the successes of a decade of school improvement. For the academies programme to break apart the family of schools and jeopardise this process would be lunacy. If it ain’t broke don't fix it.”

Hank Roberts, ATL Secretary said, “Contrary to what Michael Gove proclaims private is not always best. Local authorities can work as Brent's case amongst others proves. Brent
Authority can be justly proud of its achievements and the Brent population should stand by its retention as opposed to it being dismantled through the government's academy and free school privatisation scheme.”

Jean Roberts, NUT Joint Secretary said, “Teachers in Brent schools work very hard to provide the best education for the wide range of children they teach. The overwhelming majority of them want to remain as local authority schools not to become Gove academies.”

The report should give ammunition for a concerted campaign locally of councillors, teachers, parents and pupils, for a defence of democratically accountable, comprehensive, local schools.

Willesden Green Library Regeneration: the case against

2012-01-23T11:33:00.000Z

Guest posting from Sophia MacGibbon, a Willesden resident who spoke at the recent Willesden Area Consultation Forum. There will be an Executive report on the Willesden Green Library Regeneration at tonight's Council Meeting, 7pm, Brent Town Hall

I have a number of concerns about the Willesden Green Regeneration proposal as outlined by the Council

I find it hard to see what exactly is being proposed. The document is full of good sounding phrases, but short on what they actually mean. Because of that I cannot see whether the proposed development is going to give the people of Brent more than they are getting now. In fact all the vague proposals could be delivered in the existing structure with better management and some investment in improved technology.

I am worried about the proposal for a number of specific reasons:-

1 The proposal will, I believe result in the demolition and loss of the original library building, currently housing an Irish Advice centre. This building is an historical and architectural gem and these are in short supply in Brent. It would be an act of vandalism to destroy it

2. The loss of car parking space. I know it is environmentally fashionable to knock car use and proposals that appear to make bringing cars into the town centre more difficult should be the current good thing to do. However I believe the councillors should study the finding of the survey undertaken for the Government by Mary Portas. She argues strongly that for local high roads to stand a chance against shopping centres etc, there has to be parking provided at minimal cost. While it is possible to park at Sainsbury’s, the space is limited and I fear that many of the shops further along the High Road will lose custom if the car park at the library were to go. Many people park, use the Library centre and then nip out to the local shops. What rate benefit the council might accrue from residential development of the parking space may well be offset by the loss of business rates if yet more shops close down. And the negative impact on the High Road could be devastating.

The closure of 6 of the borough’s libraries has meant that may people have to travel considerable distances to get access to a library. The loss of the car parking facility will hit the elderly and people bringing young children to the library to enjoy the under5s sessions, etc. These sessions are an important way of developing a love of books and a confidence in using libraries. The closure of the car park could be argued as discrimination as it will impact on some sections of the population more than others

3. The loss of the open space at the front of the library centre will be a shame, especially as there is beginning to be a real effort to use the space more frequently and imaginatively. There is an ongoing attempt to establish a regular market there that has the potential to become successful, there things take time, and the current sculptural art work is a delight. The High Road is mainly narrow and quite dark, the open space around the library is a welcome break of light and air.

4. What is wrong with the current building? I read in the proposal document that it is expensive and not fit for purpose. In what way is it not fit for purpose? Everything that seems to be being proposed could go on in the existing centre if it was properly managed. Currently many of the features of the current building are idle. Why? How come people have been able to establish a successful cinema in most unlikely premises in Kensal Rise, (The Lexi) while the purpose built cinema with a car park is unused? Good management should have dealt with that in a way that could have been profitable to the council. Likewise the bar/cafe area. Cafe culture is rapidly growing all round the borough and that cafe should have been a successful and profitable business, bringing rent revenue in for years. A recent successful art/craft project showed the real potential of the space. The underused upstairs spaces could have been utilised in ways envisaged in the proposals for redevelopment. The current centre is expensive because it is underused and little imagination has been shown both to exploit the space and make money out of it. If a new centre is built what guarantee is there that it won’t be poorly, expensively and unimaginatively managed.

5. The loss of the bookshop. Bookshops are struggling across the country and having one still surviving on the High Road is to be applauded. The High Road is increasingly reducing to pound shops, all hours’ grocers and fast food outlets. Any shops that provide variety and in the case of the bookshop, culture should be encouraged and supported. While attempts to get current unused shops available at reduced rents, there are only to be for a limited period and this proposal is not a permanent solution for a shop such as the bookshop. The shop provides an invaluable service to many local schools as it deals with their book orders. The schools will struggle if the shop goes.

6. I fear for the future of the library aspect of the proposed centre when I see the current provision described as “warehousing books”. What is being proposed, a library without books? Already much of the library space is taken up with the provision of a free internet cafe. While I think the provision for study space, including internet provision is invaluable, much of the current space is not used for that, but by people sending emails. Moreover student study space is not the only use of the library and despite the increasing use of eBooks; hard copy books are still the central purpose for libraries and will be for many years to come. If in the future technology proves me wrong, it will require a small investment to upgrade the provision.

7. I worry about the council’s belief in the value of public/ private partnerships. Is there a real guarantee that the Brent citizens and ratepayers will get as much out of this proposed development as the developers will or will they at the end not quite be able to deliver the state of the Art space that was envisaged in the original proposal? The disruption and poor provision that will last for months if not years may at the end mean that we land up with something not much better than we have now, while losing valuable local assets.

Note: More than 250 people have now signed the epetition asking the Council to allocate space in the new Cultural Centre (if it goes ahead) for the Willesden Bookshop. Please encourage friends and contacts to sign. LINK

A campaign is also emerging to preserve the old Willesden Library building which is locally listed.

This is what a real community school looks like! Support Downhills' fight against Gove

2012-01-22T17:37:00.000Z

I don't mind telling you that this video moved me. It sums up all of what is best about primary schools and how they can bring a community together. Michael Gove doesn't know what he has taken on!

There's a demonstration supporting the school's fight against being forced to become an academy next Saturday January 28th

Labour the 'Third Tory Party' on cuts - Lucas

2012-01-22T16:19:00.000Z

Is a council tax rise to protect services an option?

2012-01-22T15:19:00.002Z

Local government is faced with real dilemmas regarding funding cuts imposed by the Coalition which they then have to pass on by cutting public services. Implementing cuts but 'protecting vital services' or 'protecting the most vulnerable' became the policy of many councils . When it was pointed out that the scale of the cuts made that impossible and they should refuse to make the cuts, they said that if they did that the cuts would then be made by people less sensitive to local needs. Early on Brent Council seemed to be arguing that they were making the cuts so cleverly that people would not notice the difference. However recently they have painted a much bleaker picture and admitted that the cuts threatened the very existence of viable local government.

No council, including the Green led Brighton and Hove City Council, have yet refused to make the cuts or set an 'illegal budget'. Clearly such a policy has to start somewhere and will only really be effective if it is a start of a movement by many councils. Someone has to take the lead and perhaps Brighton should have done. I have argued that Brent Labour should initiate such a campaign amongst London councils. Whilst not advocating refusing to set a budget Cllr Ann John, leader of Brent Council, recently conceded that if there was a groundswell of opinion there could be a joint approach to the Coalition government. There is little time now for such a campaign ahead of the 2012-13 budget setting.

However, some councils, starting with Brighton and Hove, have taken a different step to protect services, albeit still implementing some cuts. The have decided to spurn the government's grant for freezing council tax, and gone ahead and tabled increases. The Budget Report that went before Brent Council, warned that a council tax freeze over several years would seriously erode the Council's revenue base. Cllr Muhammed Butt, lead member for resources, said that the government grant was a 'trap' and would result eventually in a loss in revenue but Ann John said that Brent Labour had made a manifesto commitment to keep the council tax low. She noted however that some Tory councils were now in revolt and things might change.

According to Brent's figures the impact of raising the Council Tax by 2.5% would be significant (figures in bold in brackets below):

Budget Gap	2012-13 £m	2013-14 £m	2014-15 £m	2015-16 £m
Annual	4.4 (4.4)	6.4 (1.1)	22.5 (19.7)	16.1 (13.1)
Cumulative	4.4 (4.4)	10.8 (5.5)	33.3 (25.2)	49.4 (38.3)

Brighton and Hove has led the field with a council tax rise of 3.5% but have been followed by Darlington Borough Council. Leicester City Council. Middlesbrough Council. Nottingham City Council, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, Stockton-on Tees Borough Council and Stoke-on -Trent City Council who are all Labour authorities. They have been joined with lower increases by Tory authorities, Chelmsford (2.46%), Peterborough City (2.95%) and Surrey County Council (2.99%). Whilst losing the government grant the rise enables them to have a net increase in revenue and this safeguard some services.

Eric Pickles, Communities and Local Government Secretary, has lost no time in denouncing these councils. He said that 'a vote against the council tax freeze is a vote for punishing tax rises.....councillors have a moral duty to sign up to keep down the cost of living'. Councils also have a moral duty to maintain services for their residents. A council tax rise can be seen as a different way of shifting the cost of the economic crisis on to ordinary people and it is not a particularly progressive tax, but at the same time it shares the cost of preserving services for the most vulnerable amongst all residents.

It is certainly a strategy that deserves debate and Greens in Brighton and Hove have had an extended consultation with local residents about its budget which was opposed by the 'Purple Opposition Coalition' of Labour and Conservatives.

Breaking ranks with Labour,the GMB in Brighton which represents many council workers, has given its approval to the Greens' council tax proposals.

Branch secretary Mark Turner said:

The GMB agrees that the plans to increase council tax by 3.5% this year are in the best long term interests of the city.

The Coalition government offer of a freeze in council tax is a bribe that would quickly leave the city much worse off, and less able to provide the services that residents expect and need.

It seems that Brighton Labour and Conservative parties have not grasped the financial realities of the long term damage taking the council tax freeze would create.

The city already faces extreme challenges because of the Coalition's huge reduction in the grant to the council - taking the freeze offer would make the situation even worse.

While the increase may seem unfair to residents, the truth is that we will all be much worse off without it, not just the council staff who will lose their jobs, but the whole city would suffer as services deteriorate needlessly.

Because Brent Council made a decision to freeze council tax before putting forward a budget we have not been able to have a debate about this in Brent. A decision to raise council tax can be seen as still making ordinary people pay for the economic crisis caused by the bankers and hitting them when incomes are frozen and inflation rising. It can also be seen as the only way to preserve vital council services and spreading the load across the population.

Next year I believe Brent Council should have a full and open debate about the options available as the Brighton Greens managed recently. Formulating a 'needs led' budget with local people, trades unionists and voluntary organisations would give a firm basis for going out and campaigning against Coalition cuts and would be a way of preserving local democracy.

An independent comment on the Brighton budget process can be seen HERE

Brent Council Meeting on Monday January 23rd

2012-01-22T11:23:00.001Z

There is a full Council meeting tomorrow at 7pm at the Town Hall (Link to Agenda on side panel).
The Council Executive will be reporting on:

1. Willesden Green Redevelopment Project
2. Cross borough working on sports and leisure facilities
3. Waste and recycling
4. School places
5. Update on Customer Contact Project
6. New Civic Centre

Brent Labour takes on fight for community schools as secondaries consider academy options

2012-01-19T15:55:00.004Z

The academies battle field

It was a busy day on the academies front in Brent yesterday.

At lunchtime a joint meeting of unions at Alperton High School voted unanimously for strike action if the school's governing body decided to apply for academy status. They called for the governing body to support the unions' opposition to academy or trust status. If the decision was to consider academy status they demanded a fair public debate and a secret ballot of staff and parents.

In the evening the Alperton governing body decided not to go ahead with academy conversion at this stage but instead agreed to invite the Cooperative Trust to handle a consultation process with five options:

1. Seek other partners to become a Cooperative Education Partnership which would require no change in the school's status.
2. Become a single school Cooperative Trust School which means that the school would remain maintained but change from a Foundation to a Trust school.
3. Become a Cooperative Trust in partnership with other schools (eg neighbouring primary schools). The schools would remained in the maintained sector with one Trust Board bur separate governing bodies.
4. Become a Cooperative Trust as a lone school or in partnership with others with a view to moving on to Cooperative Academy conversion. This would gain the 'benefits' of academy status but embed Cooperative values and ethos.
5. Maintain the status quo, maintained Foundation school.

In the South of Brent, Queen's Park Community School governing body, is concerned that it will be the only secondary school not looking at academy status, but has made it clear that it would like to stay as it is - a community school in the Local Authority. Though they are keeping abreast of the Coop moves in the borough they will have been heartened to hear that Alperton has not decided yet whether to go down that route.

While the Alperton Governing Body was meeting, down in Stonebridge, Labour Councillors and Labour nominated governors were meeting with some local teachers to discuss the current issues in school organisation with particular reference to academies. I attended at the invitation of Cllr Mary Arnold, lead member for children and families.

Melissa Benn, who is the parent of a child at a local community secondary school, gave an over-view of the current situation and some of the contradictions of Coalition policy. Academies had been able to boost their results by using vocational qualifications but Michael Gove had criticised such qualifications. By changing the rules to convert 'good' and 'outstanding' schools to academy status, the government had made academy results look better. Michael Wilshaw had been appointed as an independent chief of Ofsted but was also linked with academy provider ARK. She suggested the long-term aim was destruction of local authorities with a substitute unelected 'middle tier'. Academy chains were likely to move in to fill that space with 'for profit' schools not far behind. Labour had been stuck for 18 months, failing to react. She quoted an overheard conversation between Labour MPs 'we don't have an education narrative any more'.

Mary Arnold said that they had to recognise the pressure for academy status for short-term gain. It was important to recognise the impact on the whole Brent community of schools of fragmentation and the financial loss to the authority through top-slicing of the budget. The latter would affect the LA's ability to provide viable services. She said that present academies cooperated in the Brent 'family of schools', one less so than the others. She said that the role of the LA was essential and needed to be publicised by governors. These included:

strategic planning of school places
tackling underperformance of schools and particular groups of pupils
meeting the needs of vulnerable children including looked after children, those with special education needs and those who had been excluded from school

In a key passage in her briefing paper she said:

The local authority believes that there will be overall adverse effects on children and young people if strong collaboration and collective responsibility is not maintained and if the LA education function reduces to the extent that statutory responsibilities cannot effectively be fulfilled.

Cllr Arnold said that she expected a good take-up of the council's traded services for schools in 2011-12 . (Schools 'buy-in' these services but can also go to other providers). I pointed out that it was hard to back-up calls to remain with the local authority when they were cutting their services and staff reductions were making them less efficient. The campaign against academies and campaign against cuts were part of the same struggle.

Hank Roberts said that the issue was one of democracy and the right of staff and parents to have a secret ballot on academy proposals, with the unions taking strike action if the demand was not met. I added that schools did not belong to individual headteachers or even governing bodies, but to the whole community. In a sense academy conversion meant that our schools were being stolen from us. The need to involve parents and inform them of the negative issues association with academies was stressed by a number of contributors with calls for joint meetings of parents and governors. I asked if the database of parents held by Brent Council could be used to initiate ballots of parents if schools refused to hold one.

Among the suggestions to make Labour more proactive on the issue were:

1. Support for the right to hear a balanced debate pro and anti-academy and a right to an indepenent ballot, for and against, or parents and staff. Governing bodies would be expected to take the result into consideration. There was also a sugegstion that student actionm such as that at Kingsbiry High, hould also be supported.
2. A leaflet about the issue for distribution to parents.
3. Lobbying by councillors of schools where there was no nominated Labour governor if they were considering conversion.
4. Promotion of the services offered by the education authority.
5. A Brent Governors' One Day Conference on the academies and free schools issue with a 'for and against' debate and information available.
6. The relaunch of an Association of Brent School Governors
7. The formation of a broad-based campaign to defend community schools in Brent.

Caroline Lucas on Question Time tonight

2012-01-19T12:12:00.000Z

Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP, will appear on BBC Question Time at 10.35pm this evening, alongside Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, co-chairman of the Conservative Party, Stephen Twigg MP, Labour's shadow education secretary, Germaine Greer, feminist writer and academic, and Charles Moore, columnist and former editor at the Telegraph and the Spectator.

The programme will be available to watch again here once it has been broadcast: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01b3cdw

Preston Library Campaigners Fight On

2012-01-19T12:02:00.000Z

A great message on a gloomy day:

Pay London Living Wage, supermarkets told

2012-01-19T11:51:00.000Z

Darren Johnson, Green Party London Assembly Member, has called on supermarkets, the Mayor and Government to make work pay for all workers in London, following an investigation by the Fair Pay Network into low pay in the four largest supermarket chains.

Last year the National Minimum Wage fell further behind the cost of living in the capital, rising 2.5% while the London Living Wage – calculated to cover basic living costs in the capital – rose by 5.7%. The higher rise in the London rate was attributed to benefit and tax credit cuts, and rises in food costs, average rents and public transport fares.

Darren Johnson commented:

The minimum wage isn’t keeping up with the rising cost of living in London, forcing more parents to work two jobs to make ends meet. The Government needs to ramp the minimum wage up to be a genuine living wage, but instead they are letting the gap grow wider.

The Mayor of London needs to get on his bully pulpit and call for all employers in London to prioritise pay rises for the lowest paid above bonuses for chief executives. In this age of obscene inequality we cannot leave it to employers to make sure they pay their staff enough for a basic standard of living.

Jenny Jones calls for St Paul's Camp to Stay

2012-01-19T10:16:00.000Z

Responding to news reports that the City of London Corporation has won its High Court bid to evict protesters from outside St Paul’s Cathedral, Jenny Jones, London Assembly Member and Green Party candidate for London Mayor, has made the following statement:

The Occupy camp outside St Paul’s has for the last three months given a voice to the frustrations felt by many over the current economic situation. The protest has forced issues up the agenda and into the news, such as high executive pay. It’s a pity a completely peaceful protest drawing attention to the inequality in our society is not allowed to continue.

The Occupy Camp may have lost their court case but they have succeeded in changing the debate – they have drawn attention to ideas such as the introduction of Tobin Tax, abolishing the City of London and sensible banking regulation. When I joined the camp I met articulate young people concerned about the current economic situation with ideas for a different way of doing things. The Mayor has made some harsh and unfair criticisms of the Occupy protesters, and I believe that we should allow this camp to remain rather than stifle protest because it’s inconvenient.

Spread the word on Willesden Bookshop - Area Forum tonight

2012-01-18T16:18:00.000Z

I am unable to attend the Willesden Area Consultative Forum this evening as I am attending another meeting. The Forum is at 7pm, College of North West London, Denzil Road. I hope others will get there early to book a Soapbox to speak on Willesden Bookshop, the regeneration of Willesden Library Centre, and the loss of the locally listed Victorian Willesden Library, a much appreciated local landmark. Cllr Crane told the Brent Executive on Monday that none of the developers who submitted bids could find a way to incorporate the listed building into the new development,.

As I write there are 186 signatories on the Willesden Bookshop e-petition. Please encourage people to sign and circulate the link. E-PETITION LINK

Many thanks.

'Scrap the whole Brent Cross Regeneration Plan'- Brent Cross Coalition

2012-01-18T15:58:00.002Z

The Brent Cross Coalition has welcomed the collapse of what they call 'the grotesque, car-based Brent Cross scheme'. However. they say it is totally unacceptable to still go ahead with the 'easy-profit shopping centre expansion', which they have been told told is a 'possibility'. Neighbouring Brent Council fought this successfully in the late 1990s, and is likely to again.

The Coalition for a Sustainable Brent Cross-Cricklewood Plan say:

We demand the whole plan is scrapped, and the arrogant local developers, and their ineffective PR company, are removed from the project.

Measures in the new Localism Act mean that over-bearing property companies, in alliance with the conceited Barnet Council, cannot get away with “business as usual”. This is a great day for people-power – not Hammerson plc and not Mike Freer (former Barnet leader, now MP).

We want development based on people’s aspirations for a sustainable, low-carbon, exciting regeneration of the area. This means starting from scratch, and will also obviously have to wait for improvements in the economy.

The developers have wasted many years – not ONE home has been built, not ONE transport improvement. Barnet Council has also wasted many hours of work in promoting something nobody wanted - their web site still estimates 29,000 extra cars every day in the Brent Cross area, which would cause traffic misery.

The developers have just received planning permission for a small building at Brent Cross – but have resorted to making the application from a tax haven in the Channel Islands. They have no shame, and are behaving no better than bankers.

Lia Colacicco, Co-ordinator of the Brent Cross Coalition, said:

“The regeneration was always a mirage; despite the PR spin, the developers were only ever committed to building a few hundred new housing units anyway. In return for cheaply purchasing large swathes of public land, their main return to the local population would have been gridlocked traffic. I hope the next deal is more transparent, and involves a stretch of light rail to link to local tube lines.”

Alison Hopkins, Dollis Hill resident, said:

“What we are being offered now is little different from the rejected shopping centre planning application of 13 years ago. We will still get lots of extra traffic, but no transport improvements. The developers want to 'pick the low-hanging fruit' of what pays out quick profits. The Brent Cross Waste Incinerator seems to be a dead project now, but we will continue to campaign, to make absolutely sure.”

David Howard, Chair of the Federation of Residents Associations of Barnet, said:

“The Brent Cross Cricklewood development would have had a negative impact on the infrastructure and the environment of much of North London and for generations to come. Brian Coleman cannot quote my phrase of “hobbit homes”, since he has done nothing to stop the scheme, and we have. We need the public land at Brent Cross to be kept out of the hands of the developers, and corridors across it reserved for future light railway to Brent Cross Northern Line station, and to other local areas.”

Councillor Shafique Choudhary, London Borough of Brent, said:

"Unfortunately, this probably means that the developers and Barnet council are trying to get what they wanted all along, which is the expansion of their Brent Cross 'out-of-town' shopping centre, with no other benefits. This is something that my borough, the neighbouring London Borough of Brent, fought long and hard, but successfully against, in the late 1990s. That included making a convincing case at an appeal inquiry to a Planning Inspector, who found in our favour. The Brent Cross Coalition and Brent Council may have another fight on their hands!

Willesden Observer on Willesden Green Library and Bookshop

2012-01-18T08:39:00.002Z

Follow this LINK

Burying Brent Council at the Wembley Consultative Forum

2012-01-18T08:30:00.000Z

In what at times seemed to be a valediction for Brent Council, Cllr Ann John told the Wembley Area Consultative Forum, that by 2014 the Council would be much smaller. It would have withdrawn from the provision of many services, schools would be out of local authority control and school services would be greatly reduced or have gone completely. In what she said was a 'bleak picture' she said the Housing Benefit Cap would move many families out of the area.

In reviewing the cooperative arrangements with other West London boroughs through the West London Alliance, she said that this opened the way for some to press for much bigger local authorities, a London Borough of West London, which would put local democracy as we know it at risk in the future.

There will be a further £14m cuts in the next financial year following the £42m this year. 540 council jobs have gone in the last 18 months. Ann John said that although the Budget Report had said that the freeze in Council Tax was undermining the long-term council finances but Labour had a manifesto commitment to keep it low and no London borough planned an increase. There were signs that attitudes may be changing with some Tory councils in revolt.

Challenged from the floor that given the Coalition cuts the Council was not able to deliver the services required by Brent residents and that the Council needed to campaign against the Coalition, she gave the example of cuts in the popular park warden services. She said that this contributed to children's and women's safety and had led to an increased use of parks but it was an optional rather than core service and so had been cut. She said that we needed a groundswell of opinion to approach the government.

Asked about whether the new Civic Centre was now too large for the much diminished Brent workforce she said that it was much more than office space for council bureaucrats and would provide library, arts and retail space.

What's the point of Nick Clegg - Captain SKA

2012-01-17T15:46:00.002Z

I thought we better have some political balance!

Thinking of leaving Labour? Go Green

2012-01-17T15:34:00.001Z

A timely article by Peter Cranie who has moved from the Greens to Labour and is now back with the Green Party LINK to his blog:

So the disappointment has begun. Ed Balls and Ed Miliband, both in this together. We've been here before, or more specifically I have.

I was a member of the Greens from 1989 to 1991, but didn't renew my membership. Back then there was a lack of organisation or actual politics in what appeared to be a friendly, but slightly disorganised social club. It was my natural political home in terms of the global issues that faced us, but in the 1992 election, I reverted to the party I had been brought up to support, Labour.

In Scotland, supporting Celtic and Labour was seen as a constant. They were your team. Celtic represented your heritage, Irish Catholic. Labour represented you, as a member of the working class. Ignoring the fact that my mother was in fact, English and Protestant, I was pretty much expected to follow this tradition, and my membership of the Greens was a "youthful error".

Like most people, I went to bed on the 9th April 1992 expecting to wake up with a Labour government, the party I'd voted for. Like many others, I was stunned by the result. When John Smith became leader, I joined Labour. While my uncle disagreed profoundly with John Smith's politics, he essentially said he was a decent man. After the death of someone I believe would have made a good Labour leader, I didn't vote for Blair, but I stayed in the party.

As a young activist, working in a marginal constituency in London in the run up to the 1997 election, I met Blair and Brown. I listened as they explained how it would be different this time. While they pledged that they would match Tory spending plans in opposition, I convinced myself that when Labour did win the 1997 election they would look at the needs of everyday folk around the country and realise that we needed to transform our society. Once elected, with an overwhelming mandate, the timidity and the fear of change quickly left me disillusioned. I didn't renew my membership and I'm glad that I was not still in the Labour Party when a Labour leader decided to side with the most right wing American president in history to invade Iraq.

2010 was the closest election since 1992 and for me there are similarities. Many people who had left Labour in the previous 13 years, for a variety of reasons, were angry and frustrated by the return of a Conservative to 10 Downing Street. Some rejoined Labour, quickly forgeting the mistakes and the anguish of seeing what was once the party for working people. Just like in 1997, those good people are trying hard to ignore that the Labour Party increasingly takes for granted the very many good Labour activists, supporters and voters who still try to hold true to Labour's roots.

I rejoined the Greens in 1999 after returning from a year of travelling and seeing Greens elected in Scotland and to the European Parliament. It is the best decision I ever made. I became an activist after George Bush became US President. Since then I've put whatever I could into the party, in terms of my personal efforts in Liverpool, the North West and our national party, and I am proud of the progress we've made across the country.

While I recognise my party is far from perfect (nor am I), there is not a week that passes by that I don't look at the work done by our local Green councillors in Liverpool, the North West Green Party, our leader and first MP Caroline Lucas and by the very many Greens doing great things around the country.

The Greens are a party that is making progress. We stand for something different. We are the last party standing against the cuts and the last party that advocates radical redistribution of wealth in a country that grew increasingly unequal during 13 years of Labour government.

A few ex-Labour people are joining us. For now it is just a trickle, but there will be many more to come in the next decade. Leaving Labour is not an easy thing to do for people. There are feelings that you betraying your side or your corner, but for many people in Labour, it the party leadership that has left them as a residue from a previous era, taken for granted but no longer respected.

Leaving Labour is also hard because people who you have worked alongside and socialised with stop being your friends. If your whole life and your whole social network is tied to a political party, that makes it very hard. But it can be done and in fact, life after Labour can be even better. The Greens are the redistributionist social democratic party Labour used to be. We still have a way to go in finance and campaigning capability, but each additional activist makes our work easier.

Thinking of Leaving Labour? Then think about Going Green.

Greens tell Unite, 'We are the alternative to Labour'

2012-01-17T15:15:00.000Z

The Guardian article by Len McCluskey, General Secretary of the trade union Unite, has reaffirmed Labour's failure to stand up for ordinary people. Labour's biggest financial supporter has publicly acknowledged their party's abject failure to oppose neoliberal austerity.

All three main parties now seek to protect the vested interests of deregulated financial capitalism - and in doing so they endorse an economic model that squeezes the poorest in society to sustain their broken system.
The public sector pay freeze will strip £2,600 off the wages of a teaching assistant. Pension reforms will see the average pension for a female public sector worker slashed to just £4,000. And cuts to education force students to pay £9000 a year, placing an entire generation in systemic debt.

Opposition to unfair and economically illiterate austerity must now unite around a Green New Deal for Britain. Green Quantitative Easing is needed to act as a direct stimulus to fund the jobs that create long term assets in the real economy. The UK needs a plan to reverse the unemployment that is driving up the welfare bill, and which instead gets people back into work and paying taxes.

The Green Party calls on Trade Unions to back the Green alternative that is now the only voice standing up against an economic system designed to place the tab for 2008 on the UK's public services.

Budget discussion at Area Forums tonight and tomorrow

2012-01-17T08:16:00.001Z

Ann John, leader of Brent Council and Muhammed Butt, deputy leader and lead member for resources, will be speaking on the 2012-13 budget at Area Consultative Forums this evening and tomorrow. Their appearance takes place against the background of Labour's U-turn on cuts, the council's determination to 'consider all options' including privatisation, the Audit Commission's strictures on council reserves and the likely shrinking of the council to offer only the minimum of statutory public services.

The Wembley Forum is this evening at Patidar House, 22 London Road (off Wembley High Road) at 7pm and the Willesden Forum tomorrow at the College of North West London, Denzil Road, NW10

You can speak at the Forums on budgets, Willesden Green Library Redevelopment, Willesden Bookshop, street litter or any other relevant topic. Get there early and fill in a Soapbox Form or book on-line LINK You will get 3/5 minutes to speak early on the agenda.

Democracy Village removal won't stop the movement for democracy

2012-01-17T08:04:00.000Z

The late Brian Haw at his Anti-War protest

Police last night removed the tents of the 'Democracy Village' from Parliament Square LINK. It is a symbolic move in this 'Decade of Democracy' which has seen the Arab Spring and the Occupy Movement.

However pristine the Square will now be it cannot conceal the cockroaches that inhabit the area.

The February 2011 Willesden Green Library consultatation that you missed!

2012-01-16T23:10:00.001Z

The furore over the Willesden Green Library Regeneration had led many people to ask me about the earlier consultation on the proposals. The Council discussed the proposals on February 15th 2011 and then consulted two focus groups on February 21st and February 28th. Blink and you missed it!

We were all busy with the library closures, budget meeting and academies at the time but I did put a short post about the plans on Wembley Matters HERE

Details of the February 2011 consultation process can be found here HERE

Executive approve Willesden Green Regeneration Report but plenty to fight for

2012-01-16T22:26:00.001Z

Brent Executive unanimously passed the Willesden Library Regeneration Report this evening. Representations had been made on the lack of consultation, particularly over the Brent Archive; a suggestion that the Cricklewood and Kensal Rise libraries should be reopened during the rebuilding; a plea for more study spaces to be opened up during rebuilding; and my request that the Willesden Bookshop be allocated space in the new Cultural Centre that will replace the Willesden Green Library Centre.

The first two representations were not responded to by Cllr Crane who leads on regeneration. Cllr Powney said that council officers were actively looking for more interim study space for students in the area. Cllr Ann John, sidestepping the demand for allocation of retail space in the new development, tried to prompt Cllr Crane into making a response, 'I am right in saying aren't I that the bookshop is being helped to find new premises?' She was assured there were a large number of empty properties in the High Road and the officers would be helping the bookshop. She pressed further, 'The bookshop isn't under any long-term threat then is it?' Apparently satisfied by the grunted response she said, 'We do want the bookshop to continue.'

The issue is of course that we want the bookshop allocated space in the Cultural Centre if it goes ahead and that the high rents in the High Road and not very suitable premises, may mean the Willesden Bookshop will have to close if this is not done.

I print below the speech I prepared for this evening which sets out the case for the Bookshop. The sections in italics were not delivered in order that I meet the 3 minute speaking limit. I retain them because they strengthen the argument with other voices.

I am speaking to you as a Brent resident and as someone who, working in Brent schools, has been a literacy coordinator, children’s librarian, class teacher, reading recovery teacher and a headteacher and is now a school governor who volunteers to help children gain pleasure from their reading.

In all these roles I have found the Willesden Bookshop’s wide range of books tailored to Brent’s diverse population, and their amazingly knowledgeable staff, hugely useful.

I am not the only one. There has been consternation in Brent’s educational community at the potential loss of the bookshop. Last year they dealt with 1,000 orders (invoices not individual books) from Brent schools that get a 10% discount and free delivery.

A review in PaperTigers (Children’s International Book Review) said:

I have been a frequent visitor to the Willesden Bookshop over the years. It's a veritable honey-pot for anyone looking for "Children's Books from Around the World": they stock many books it is difficult to find elsewhere in the UK.

Local author of children's books, Odette Elliot says:

Willesden Bookshop 'celebrates the rich cultures and languages of its community'

The Bookshop has been invited to provide bookstalls for three Spring events at the Centre for Staff Development which unfortunately coincide with when they have to pack up and quit their premises. So that will be another loss to education. The Runnymede Trust and National Literacy Campaign recommend the Willesden Bookshop and the Guardian said:

A wonderful bookshop, great selection including large stock of children's books, and really friendly and helpful staff.

The Report before you on the Willesden Green Library Centre redevelopment states categorically that space will not be provided in the new Willesden Cultural Centre but gives absolutely no reason for this. At the same time space is allocated to a café when there are lots available on the High Road.

A well-established local bookshop would add to the ‘offer’ at the Cultural Centre, in the same way as bookshops add to the attractiveness of the much larger offer at the South Bank.

As well as contributing to the education of our children, the bookshop with its wide stock, reflecting the many cultures of Brent, helps with community cohesion and its support and promotion of local authors raises local aspirations.

The mother of a now internationally famous local author sent me this message:

If they close the bookshop and the library, they will effectively rip the heart out of Willesden. Both serve people right across our communities. We need a hell of lot of signatures. What about standing in the street, outside supermarket etc and getting people's signature I am happy to stand there for entire Saturdays or Sundays if that is what it takes.

Yvonne Bailey Smith (Zadie Smith’s mother)

Nicolette McKenzie wrote to me:

I am most concerned about the proposed redevelopment of the Willesden library. When six libraries were closed last year it was not made clear at all that the main library would be closed for two years. This is unacceptable.

Also, the lack of provision for the bookshop, a real local asset, is scandalous.

The lack of publicity about this, and the 'unfortunate' lack of access to the e-petition all over this past weekend, I consider appalling.

Please do what you can to have this disaster pulled back from the brink of a planning abyss.

Always on the lookout for ‘below the line’ reasons for Council policies I have checked with the Bookshop and they tell me that they have always paid the rent required by the Council and paid it on time – so that’s not the issue. It can’t be that you can’t cope with businesses on the site as you are planning a café here and the new Civic Centre has retail space -and anyway, shouldn’t the Council be championing successful small local businesses that add value to the community?

I call on the Brent Executive, at this early stage in the development of the Cultural Centre, to ensure that Willesden’s Wonderful Bookshop has a place there,

Loss of Willesden Bookshop would be a 'tragedy'

2012-01-16T21:42:00.000Z

Before tonight's meeting a Willesden Bookshop customer sent this message to Brent Executive members:

Dear Councillor,

As a member of the Executive who will be attending this evening's meeting I am writing to you to register my dismay at the proposed redevelopment plans for Willesden Green, which currently do not accommodate The Willesden Bookshop.

As a Brent resident for the last ten years I have valued this establishment and with each year I use it more and more.

I am not sure if you are aware of the invaluable resource that the bookshop provides, supplying stock to countless individuals and schools in the borough and beyond, cognizant of the diverse cultural community which it serves and reflecting those needs in the books that it sells. The depth of knowledge of the staff there is comprehensive impressive and provides a great service for those of us who prefer to browse and have a face to face conversation about a title or genre with someone whom we know will help us. It is efficient in ordering books for customers when they do not carry the titles on their own shelves, and are always courteous and helpful. My primary school aged children and secondary school aged son spend hours selecting books there and would be devastated not to be able to couple their visits to the library with one to the bookshop. There are numerous local authors whose work is regularly and prominently displayed. It's one of the few beacons of cultural success in Willesden Green and is a successful small business that we as individuals as well as local and central government should be championing.

The current cafe space in the Library Centre area has always been unsuccessful. This may be down to the fact that there is a great deal of competition when it comes to cafes in the High Road and yet the redevelopment has plans for one. Willesden doesn't need another cafe. It needs to keep its only general bookshop, and I would like the developers to explain to Brent residents how one can have a Cultural Centre without having a bookshop, reflecting the culture of the area and the needs of its residents, at the heart of it.

I would please ask you to reconsider the plans in order to accommodate the Willesden Bookshop. It would be a tragedy for it to be lost.

We may have let 'too many staff go to soon' - Cllr. Butt

2012-01-16T21:34:00.000Z

Muhammed Butt, deputy council leader, introducing the Audit Letter at tonight's Executive said that in hindsight the Council may have 'let too many staff go to early'. The Council had to pay an additional audit fee of £50,000 because they had, according to the auditor. 'struggled for complete compliance and timely completion'. This resulted in both council officers and the auditor having to undertake additional work.

There had been errors in the council's figures but these resulted in 'no signficant changes' in the reported out-turn figures. The auditor had been asked by the public to investigate Blue Badges and compliance with teachers' pay scales and she had found no issues that required her to use her powers,

She repeated her warnings about the councils responsibility to ensure there was an adequate level of reserves and this will doubtless make an impact on the forthcoming budget setting.

Caroline Lucas: Balls calls into question the very purpose of the Labour Party

2012-01-16T13:54:00.000Z

Caroline Lucas, Green MP, made this response to Ed Balls' retreat on cuts in the Guardian:

In his interview with your paper on Saturday, Ed Balls effectively holds up a white flag and admits that Labour has given up any attempt to set out an alternative economic agenda (Beyond the hair shirt: Labour party can give Britain the tough love it needs, insists Balls, 14 January).

His capitulation before the Tory-led coalition's definition of economic credibility as meaning ever more fiscal austerity, and his jaw-dropping statement that "we are going to have to keep all these cuts" calls into question the very purpose of the Labour party.

Moreover, the choice he poses between higher public sector pay or growing unemployment conveniently ignores the fact that many public sector workers are on very low incomes, and falsely suggests that we can't afford to fund both. It is investment in decently paid jobs that generates income, and thus the tax revenues to pay for credit or borrowed money, not the other way round. Instead of trying to outcompete the government in some kind of masochistic virility test to see who can threaten the greatest austerity, an opposition party worthy of the name would be making a far stronger case that austerity isn't working, and offering a genuine alternative.

A combination of more progressive taxation, a crack down on tax evasion and avoidance and, crucially, Green quantitative easing to deliver investment directly in the new jobs and infrastructure the UK urgently needs to make the transition to a more sustainable economy, would do far more to challenge the government than the Tory-lite policies set out by the shadow chancellor.

Lack of provision for Willesden Bookshop 'scandalous'

2012-01-16T13:28:00.001Z

I've just had this message from Nicolette McKenzie who has agreed I can share it with my readers.

Dear Martin Francis,
I am most concerned about the proposed redevelopment of the Willesden library. When six libraries were closed last year it was not made clear at all that the main library would be closed for two years. This is unacceptable.

Also, the lack of provision for the bookshop, a real local asset, is scandalous.

The lack of publicity about this, and the 'unfortunate' lack of access to the e-petition all over this past weekend, I consider appalling.

Please do what you can to have this disaster pulled back from the brink of a planning abyss.

Yours sincerely,
Nicolette McKenzie

Willesden Bookshop Petition available again

2012-01-16T12:29:00.000Z

The whole democracy section of the Council's website became inaccessible this weekend. I won't make any comment about the symbolism of this!

It is now up and running again and you can sign the Willesden Bookshop petiiton by following this LINK. The petition calls on the Council to allocate retail space to this well-used and much appreciated local bookshop in the new Cultural Centre which will replace the Willesden Green Library Centre. The Centre currently houses the bookshop which has been told to quit their premises by April 17th.

Audit Commission warns Brent Council of 'significant risks'

2012-01-16T08:30:00.000Z

A year ago I reported that Brent Council's reserves were the lowest of the London boroughs. LINK As the Council implemented cuts last year they also, controversially, began to build up the reserves. The Audit Commission's Annual Audit Letter 2010-11 on Brent Council's financial position, which is tabled for tonight's Executive, gives the Council only an amber rating based on their 'traffic light' system. The level of Council's reserves continues to give the Audit Commission cause for concern as well as the Council's capacity to deliver the planned savings. The Council is likely to use this Letter as justification for not using reserves to mitigate some of the most damaging cuts.

Andrea White, District Auditor. in a key passage states:

My overall conclusion is that the Council has adequate arrangements to secure, economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources.

My value for money conclusion is based on evidence that confirms the Council has sound financial planning and monitoring arrangements in place, and it has the leadership and governance structures to enable it to deliver its plans.

However, there are significant risks to achieving the scale of savings required. The Council's medium term financial strategy has identified the need for a further £65 million savings over the next three years. These substantial savings will have to be delivered against a background of increasing demand for council services and reduced management capacity. Clear focus on delivering operational and financial priorities will be needed to ensure financial plans are delivered and the effectiveness of services is maintained.

The Council’s general reserves are low and earmarked reserves are falling while pressure on the Council’s resources in the coming years is significant and unprecedented. The maintenance of strong financial control will be essential if the Council is to achieve its plans. When setting its budget for 2012/13, the Council must continue to have regard to the increasing level of risk in setting its reserves.

In unguarded moments councillors lament the 'almost impossible' position they have put in by the level of cuts demanded by the Coalition's reduction in their budget. They are now contemplating a massive reduction in the role of local government, and a consequent withdrawal from some service provision and the privatisation of others. As the Auditor says "These substantial savings will have to be delivered against a background of increasing demand for council services and reduced management capacity." Cuts in provision will occur as demand for provision is increasing.

In shrinking the role of the Council they are in a way contributing to their own demise. A very real question is now being asked about exactly how many people will be left to move into the Civic Centre in 2013.

Brent councillors disappear

2012-01-15T16:24:00.000Z

Someone else has contacted me regarding problems with Brent Council's website. They wanted to find their ward councillors' details and having clicked through were confronted with this:

None of it works. We are being represented by the 'undefined' and the unreachable. Call this participatory democracy?

The battle for Brent schools - which side is Labour on?

2012-01-15T12:38:00.001Z

The battle against academies and free schools has reached a tipping point, author and campaigner Melissa Benn told the AntiAcademies Alliance AGM yesterday. The battle being waged by teachers, parents and governors of Downsides Primary School against enforced conversion to an academy had exposed the contradiction between Michael Gove's rhetoric of freedom and autonomy and his actual use of coercion.

Benn said that the over-funding of 'good schools' converting to academies or of parents setting up free schools was the government 'empowering the affluent'. She said that there were three main element's in Gove's programme:

1. A fundamental change in the provision of state education with the academies' links to outside bodies separating them from the local community. Despite government denials the long-term aim, via the 'educational chains' such as E-ACT, ARK and Oasis was privatisation and profit-making. She said that there was no evidence that autonomy itself led to improvement. Where there was improvement it was probably due to increased funding, however that was drying up and the Financial Times recently revealed that the DfE had to bail out eight financially failing academies at the cost of £10m to the tax payer.

2. Gove wants to preserve and expand all forms of current non-LA provision including the expansion of grammar schools via 'satellite' schools and changes in the Admissions Code. This will increase selection and social class and religious segregation.

3. Fundamental changes in the learning culture of schools. She contrasted the broad and creative curriculum and relaxed learning culture of Eton and Wellington public schools which she had visited recently with the narrowing of the curriculum in academies (depth replacing breadth) and a coercive ethos producing a climate of fear. Academies had in effect 'captured' children for longer hours (often 8.30am until 5pm) and teachers, parents and pupils were often frightened of the management as the school pursued its aim of 'results at all costs'. Anyone arguing against this culture was told that they were supporting failure.

Melissa Benn advised the audience to keep an eye on the US Chartered Schools which served as a model for Gove. We need to argue that some of the most successful schools internationally are non-selective and make the case for increased government funding, small classes, time for teachers to prepare lessons and ongoing teacher assessment rather than SATs. Subsequent discussion focused on how Ofsted was being used as a political weapon against local authority schools with the appointment of ARK adviser Sir Michael Wilshaw as Chief Inspector.

A group of parents from Downside Primary School started by extolling the virtues of a school that did not just concentrate on SAT results but had a broad and enriching curriculum in a child-friendly atmosphere. The children had recently won a national art prize. They were shocked at the enforced academy move by Michael Gove based solely on SAT results but quickly organised, speaking personally to members of the different communities of the school, publicising the issue and using social media to spread the word, They have been lucky in that local MP David Lammy was an ex-pupil of the school and although pro-academy had been against enforcement and had spoken at their public meeting attended by more than 600 people LINK as well as raising the issue in the House of Commons. LINK The parents said that the under-funding of Haringey schools compared with neighbouring boroughs was of fundamental importance and a campaigning on the issue would appeal to parents. There will be a demonstration on Saturday 28th January at noon in support of Downside. I will post details when they are available. It seemed to me clear that primary schools with their strong parent links, good school gate communication opportunities and community ethos will be in a good position to fight academy conversion compared with the more isolated secondary schools.

In my contribution from the floor I drew the meeting's attention to the importance of making the link between cuts and academy conversions. Conversions took money away from the local authority while the cuts in services made by local authorities made arguing for the benefits of remaining a local authority school harder.In Brent the council in planning to set up a 'public enterprise' provider along the lines of the Cooperative Trust offer, was undermining its own existence.

Alasdair Smith, National Secretary of the AAA, said that Gove was pursuing a full 'for profit' agenda. The shortage of school places was being used as an argument for more 'energetic providers' (private chains) to move in. He felt Downshill was a turning point with Michael Gove worried about the slow down (perhaps because of forecasts that extra money was drying up) in conversions that had taken place since October 2011. He said that he had addressed 50 meetings on the issue over the lasy year but that we now needed a mass movement against Gove's policies. He praised the Green Party for its consistent anti-academies policy.

The last session was devoted to a discussion on the Labour Party and Academies. There was recognition of the divergence of local Labour group's attitudes with some fiercely for academies and some militantly against (The Brent Executive has both within its ranks). Stephen Twigg, the Labour shadow had avoided the issue by saying that he did not want to 'get into a hackneyed debate about structures' while Labour was not saying the same thing bout the NHS. Labour needed to live down its pro-academy history and think again, adopting a clear policy against academies and free schools. A Labour councillor said that we should beware of 'friends' such as the Cooperative Trust with their ethical cooperative claims when schools had always been cooperative institutions. Local authorities needed to come out and defend their role rather than be supine in the face of the Coalition's attacks.

Richard Hatcher (joint author of No country for the young: Education from new Labour to the Coalition- Tufnell Press) said that Labour needed to fight on both structure of education and content of education, support campaigns against academies and free schools , and debate what a Labour government would do with what it will inherit in 2015 if elected. One speaker from Unison said that she had joined the Labour Party in order to influence their education policy. Other speakers aid there was a need to focus on the huge salaries paid to academy headteachers and chief executives as well as the amount of public money being spent of academies and free schools as a whole.

All these issues are extremely pertinent as Brent Labour has organised a meeting for Labour nominated governors and anti-academy teachers on Wednesday, 7.30pm at the Stonebridge Hub which will be addressed by Melissa Benn.

Melissa Benn, School Wars-The Battle for Britain's Education, Verso

Emergency! Bookshop petition disappears

2012-01-14T18:08:00.001Z

I have received e-mails to tell me that the links to the Council's e-petition site do not work. Sure enough, when I checked via various routes I got either an error report or a page stating that there are no current petitions.

It may have crashed of course because hundreds of people were trying to sign my petition on the Willesden Bookshop and the site got overloaded, it may have been sabotaged by the Brent Council stasi , or most likely there is some weekend maintenance of the Council website that has messed it up.

I rang the Council's emergency weekend number and they had a look and came back to say that there was no one available to deal with it but, 'Someone may know about it and be trying to fix it so keep trying and it may come back.' Not quite up to the IT Crowd advice but on the way. When I said it was very frustrating and I was keen to get support for the Willesden Bookshop the emergency woman (you know what I mean) said, "This may be an emergency to you but...."

Keep persevering and do let me know if it starts working for you.

By the way Willesden Green Library campaigners, Cllr Powney says you have got it all wrong. POWNEY BLOG

Community Channel airs Brent Libraries report on Monday

2012-01-14T11:42:00.001Z

London 360 airs on Community Channel Monday 16th January - 7am, 12pm and 7pm.

The Community Channel will be airing a report on Brent Libraries on Monday just before the Council considers the Willesden Library Regeneration report. The Community Channel team of young volunteers were unable to interview Cllr Lesley Jones when they attended the demonstration at Willesden Green Library last week because she was 'too tired' after her morning surgery to talk to them.

Programme Notes: Libraries
There’s been some controversy around the state of local libraries all over London. With several under threat due to redevelopments and budget cuts. Christinah Adegasoye went down to the borough of Brent to investigate what impacts these cuts are having on local residents.

The Community Channel is available on Freeview Channel 87, Sky 539, Virgin 233 and BT Vision

Let's see Michael Gove teach this!

2012-01-14T10:48:00.000Z

There are certain topics in primary teaching that can leave both us and the children floundering in a morass of mutual incomprehension. Explaining the movement of the earth around the sun and its relationship with the seasons is one - another is telling the time (analogue). I often refer to Dave Allen's sketch about this when talking to teachers about the difficulties and pitfalls of primary teaching. Always watch out for the deceptively simple topic and even worse the deceptively simple question, "Why?" particularly when being observed by Ofsted!

This sketch still makes my head start aching after a couple of minutes as I relive some similar experiences.

Chalkhill kids let down yet again by park delay

2012-01-13T19:32:00.000Z

The park site - no 'New Dawn' here

Cllr Powney has accused me recently of being 'grumpy' but the latest news from Brent Council has transformed me into the full Victor Meldrew: 'I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! THE NEW CHALKHILL PARK HAS BEEN DELAYED YET AGAIN.'

In October 2011 I blogged LINKthat after a meeting with Cllr Powney (lead member for the environment)and Gerry Kiefer, head of Sports and Parks, we were assured that the delayed Chalkhill Park would be ready by May 2012. Earlier in the year children from Chalkhill School Council had lobbied ward councillors after repeated delays and this was taken up by the wider community of children and youth on the estate during the summer holiday. They were all angry that once again Chalkhill young people had been deprived of a park during the long summer holiday. They were determined that they would have a park by Summer 2012.

When I saw that no work had started after the forecast delay of 4-6 weeks I started nagging the ward councillor in my role as Chair of Governors of Chalkhill Primary School.

Chris Walker, head of planning wrote to all the interested parties yesterday to say that it had been anticipated that work would start in December 2011/January 2012 (more than 4-6 weeks behind) but that now the contract will be not be awarded until March 2012 with a six month contract to completion. On my reading this means that the park will not be completed until at least September 2012 leaving the local kids with no park for yet another summer.

Mr Walker explains that this is because all the tenders submitted in the autumn were unaffordable without reducing the park specification and that it became apparent that they did not fully comply with the Council's internal standing orders - so they are going out to tender again 'and hope that this time we will receive affordable and suitable tender submissions'. Even that sounds pretty uncertain...

Chris Walker says he realises the situation will be a big disappointment but says that the Council is doing all it can to minimise delays.

All sorts of questions are raised by this debacle, not least over whether the Parks Service itself, if it hadn't been drastically cut, could have got a park up and running but also what this means for the Council's current Parks Review which, amongst other options, is looking at the possibility of privatisation of the Service.

After last summer's events across the nation Brent Council had better takes positive steps to ensure it is not a long hot summer on Chalkhill. They could at least get the BMX track cleared at St. David's Close and fast-track plans for a possible skateboarding installation.

The councillors who represent Chalkhill (which is part of Barnhill Ward) can be contacted via their website BARNHILL-NEW DAWN (sic). No mention of this news there.

You can write direct to the councillors at their e-mails below:

cllr.abdifatah.aden@brent.gov.uk; cllr.judith.beckman@brent.gov.uk; cllr.shafique.choudhary@brent.gov.uk;

Teachers-inspire your kids on Martin Luther King Day with these songs

2012-01-13T18:23:00.002Z

Monday is Martin Luther King Day in the US. As a gift to all my primary teacher colleagues out there here is a great link which Nick Grant of the NUT drew to my attention.The Nation has uploaded songs (some with visuals) of the 10 Best Civil Rights Songs. Save yourself a bit of planning, load them up on your whiteboards and inspire the kids!

LINK

Brent IS London's Dirtiest Olympic Borough

2012-01-13T10:08:00.000Z

When street sweeping was cut I predicted the Brent could become 'London's Dirtiest Olympic Borough' and sadly my prediction appears to have come true. Alongside the litter there appears to have been an increase in the number of mattresses dumped on the street. I suspect that some of these may be the result of evictions from short-term property lets. All these images were taken recently.

Brent CAB appeals for Winter Warmth donations

2012-01-13T09:40:00.001Z

Brent Citizens Advice Bureau, in conjunction with the Tricycle Theatre and with the support of Joanna Lumley, is asking generous Brent pensioners to donate their winter fuel payments to the CAB’s Winter Warmth Fund.

This year, Brent pensioners aged over 80 will receive a winter fuel payment of £300, while those aged under 80 will receive £200. The payments are not means-tested, so go to all pensioners, irrespective of their wealth.

Brent CAB’s Winter Warmth Fund has been running since 2008 and helps vulnerable Brent CAB clients each year with by giving them a donation of up to £200 directly payable to their fuel supplier.

Over a period of three years the bureau has allocated a total of £7,300 to 38 families and individuals in need.

The beneficiaries are people who are affected by fuel poverty: in particular those with a long-term illness, elderly people and families with young children. Brent CAB assesses the impact the money will have on their financial difficulties before choosing a client to donate to.

Nationally, celebrities such as Sir Terry Wogan and Helen Mirren are supporting a similar campaign – the Surviving Winter appeal - which calls on those who do not need the money to donate it to a fund for those in greater need over the winter.

Fuel poverty (people spending 10% or more of their income in heating) is a growing concern in Brent. Every year 50 people die in Brent because of the cold weather. This is more than three times the national average. This is why Brent CAB has opened their Winter Warmth fund for a fourth year running and is urging Brent residents for donations.

You can donate by sending a cheque payable to “Brent Citizens’ Advice Bureau” to Winter Warmth Fund, Brent Citizens Advice Bureau, 270-272 High Road, Willesden, London, NW10 2EY. Alternatively you can contact Fernando Ruz on f.ruz@brentcab.co.uk or 0208 438 1214.

A Brent student with a young child who received a Winter Warmth donation last year said, “The grant was extremely helpful as I live on a ground floor flat with my child and it is very very cold. Without the money I would not have been able to pay my heating bills”.

Another recipient last year had been waiting 4 months for HMRC to pay her owed Child Benefit and Tax Credits and was in severe financial difficulties. She said, “I would like to thank you for helping me pay my gas bill, it is great that people in need can turn to you. I am very happy that I could pay for heating for me and my seven children.”

One recipient of the award last winter was a single parent working part-time supporting three young children including a baby. He had a fuel bill of £745 which he was finding very difficult to pay and was therefore very grateful for the grant. Another recipient had a 7 month old baby and had no money for her prepayment meter to heat her flat. So she was immensely grateful for the £200 grant, which was paid directly to the meter, as otherwise she would have had no heat.

Save Willesden Bookshop - sign this epetition

2012-01-12T18:45:00.001Z

Waiting for the bulldozers

Readers will be aware that Brent Council is planning to redevelop the Willesden Green Library Centre and has allocated no space in the new development for the Willesden Bookshop which is the gateway to the present site.

I will be speaking on the issue at the Brent Executive on Monday and have set up an epetition calling for Bookshop, who have been given notice to quit by April 17th, to be allocated pace in the new development.

Signing the petition is an easy process - just follow this LINK

We the undersigned petition the council to to include retail space for the Willesden Bookshop in the proposed Willesden Green Cultural Centre which is to replace the Willesden Green Library Centre.

Plans for the new centre make provision for a cafe so why should there be no space for a bookshop? Alongside any proposed café this would provide a similar mix on a smaller scale to that provided at the South Bank Centre.

The Willesden Bookshop is:

A successful small business with an excellent record in serving the needs of the local community and providing employment.
An invaluable resource and support to local schools with nationally recognised expertise in catering for a diverse pupil population
A positive cultural force in the borough through its encouragement of local authors and events such as Black History Month
Able to enrich activities at the Cultural Centre, linking its stock with particular events and reflecting the diversity of the local community.
An exemplary long-term tenant of Brent Council.

Started by: Martin Francis

This ePetition runs from 12/01/2012 to 21/02/2012.

Green Party Slams HS2 Decision

2012-01-12T15:00:00.002Z

John Whitelegg, Green Party spokesperson on sustainable development, has posted this on the Huffington Post:

The government has finally announced its decision to proceed with a new high speed railway line between London and Birmingham known as HS2. This is a brand new railway line that is designed to run at 250mph/400kph and because of the high speed which means the need for straight sections and avoidance of curves it is especially destructive of the countryside though which it passes. This remains the case in spite of additional tunnelling.

The whole project is characterised by overblown rhetoric about economic growth, reducing the north south divide and making the nation more prosperous. It is of course nothing like this at all. It is a very expensive, very environmentally damaging, very badly thought through transport project. It is one of the most expensive transport projects supported by any government over the last three to four decades and has the weakest justification, business case and rationale.

The project relies on the incredible notion that the time savings for high income passengers translate into huge economic gains and in some mysterious way propagate prosperity and happiness along the viaducts, through the tunnels and along the 75 metres swathe of concrete, overhead wires, access roads and electrical gear that race though Oxfordshire and Warwickshire.

Credibility levels are under more pressure still when it becomes clear that the monetary value of time savings amounts to such a big number because of the assumption that the time spent on these trains is non-productive time. In the parallel universe of high speed rail no one uses lap tops, mobile phones and other technology to get on with work. The forecasts of future demand levels for business travel take no account of the rapid spread of video-conferencing and other technologies that substitute electronic communication for physical travel.

The deeply offensive consultation on HS2 gives the game away. The most important things were not consulted on at all. The massive scale of the environmental damage caused by HS2 is the result of a design that specifies 250mph/400kph running. Faster running requires more engineering and straight lines than a lower design speed. We were not consulted on the route when there are other options that could be used e.g. following motorways. We were not consulted on more fundamental options e.g. if we want to create jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions then how does a complete electrification of the UK railways system stack up by comparison?

Supporters of HS2 have linked the project to a low carbon transport future and then revealed the true nature of the project which is simply about encouraging more long distant travel and more carbon emissions. HS2 sits alongside an assumption that long distance car travel will increase 44% by 2033 and air travel by 178% by the same year. The new line will produce an 8% shift away from air and the same away from car. This is just not good enough for such an expensive project and does not deliver climate change or sustainable development objectives.

The starting point for any large transport investment is how it sits within a vision of what kind of society and economy we are trying to shape. The Green Party is very clear on this and we want strong city regions with highly integrated transport systems as good as Zurich or Basle or Frankfurt stretching for at least 50kms around all our major cities. We want excellent inter-city linkages between places like Liverpool,Manchester and Leeds, Liverpool and Glasgow and Exeter, Bristol and Birmingham.

We want excellent rural public transport so that there is a real choice between the car and its alternatives. We want a transport system driven by social justice and fairness and providing high quality choices to all income groups and all localities. HS2 is a rich person's railway and the government knows that spending public money on something that simply will not be used by the bottom 50% of income bands is a reverse Robin Hood strategy. It is a socially regressive project.

At a time of massive cuts in public expenditure and a desperate need to upgrade our big city public transport systems so that they can stand comparison with Frankfurt, Zurich and Vienna the support given by labour, conservative and lib dem politicians to this large scale vanity project is obscene. I challenge all those politicians who support HS2 to go out onto the streets and ask real people to choose between spending £17 billion on reducing the journey time for wealthy rail passengers between London and Birmingham by 23 minutes and all the other things we could do for that pot of money.