Guest blog by Peter Murry
As a
disabled Brent resident, I was invited to the International Day For
People With Disabilities event held in Brent Civic Centre on 3rd
December 2015. Attending this event was my second visit to the Civic Centre
since its opening in June 2013.
The event
gave certain Brent Councillors, (Cllrs Butt, Hirani & Pavey), an
opportunity to grandstand Brent Council’s achievements for People with
Disabilities. Perhaps because many in the audience may not have understood some
of the speeches, or were attending as paid carers for other audience members, the
councillors were able to express their concerns for People with Disabilities
without anyone asking any awkward questions, like:
·
How will the London
Borough of Brent implement central government austerity policies without
harming People With Disabilities or other vulnerable Brent residents?
Or
·
Will Brent Council make
any effective attempt to resist these central government austerity policies or
even visibly protest against them, in view of the fact that these policies
are now forcing even more severe cuts than those that Brent has already
carried out?
We heard
a lot about ongoing improvements to Brent Civic Centre, which was apparently
still the ‘greenest public sector building in Europe’. It is indeed an
impressive edifice, but I suspect, most Brent residents use it even less
frequently than I have; still it’s nice to think about the council workers
having such a wonderful warm spacious atrium to sit and eat their lunches in,
instead of being outside on cold, wet, winter streets.
The
various stalls from a variety of organisations at the PwD event were quite
useful although the display table shared by Unison and the GMB, didn’t seem to
have many anti-cuts leaflets on it.
The Choir and Dance group, both featuring
performers with disabilities, were good and it’s nice for a diabetic like me to
get a few sweet biscuits once in a while; however once I’d had my free
cheese sandwich lunch, I’d had enough, so I never found out if the elephant in
the Civic Centre trumpeted and stomped on Councillor Pavey during his closing
address
1 comment:
Nice warm atrium. Not so. Do you know how cold is it in the winter, staff working downstairs are standing around in their coats hats and gloves to keep warm, luckily this winter is not cold so far. It's not the green building it's made out to be. Imagine having to sit in a building that constantly shaking when building work is going on outside.
Wanna bet there were cameras capturing the disability event.
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