Brent Labour Group submit amendment to today's Healthy Neighbourhoods motion to be debated at 3.30pm this afternoon

 An amendment has been submitted in the name of the Labour Group on Brent Council to the original motion submitted by the 7 members who called for the Extraordinary Council Meeting on Healthy Neighbourhoods. You can watch the debate HERE

Extraordinary Council Meeting – 16 October 2020

Amendment submitted by the Labour Group to the motion for the Extraordinary Council meeting

Healthy Neighbourhoods Scheme (add) and their part in addressing air quality and climate change

TO ADD AT THE START:

That this Council:

•   embraces its obligations to ensure that every possible intervention against climate change is considered and explored;

•   recognises that air quality in this borough falls well below the standards that should be expected, not least in relation its impact on the physical health and wellbeing of its residents;

•   endorses the intention underpinning Brent’s experimental ‘Healthy Neighbourhoods’;

•   acknowledges the unorthodox conditions attached to conditional government funding necessitating public consultation and engagement within the six-month period of these low traffic trials and not prior to them as might more commonly be expected;

•   welcomes the many lessons that have been, are being, and will continue to be learned throughout this programme with regards to the initiative itself and the manner in which the organisation interacts with the communities it serves;

•   highlights the progress already made through planned and promoted public meetings, thanks each and every participant for their invaluable contributions thus far;

•   thanks those responsible within the organisation for their efforts to date, and commits itself – in light of the importance of these measures as a first tangible foray against climate change set in the context of the new behaviours and habits that they are designed to encourage – to continue providing comprehensive updates to the appropriate forums and committees, this one included, at the earliest opportunity, covering, but not limited to, the following:

  TO THEN AMEND THE WORDING OF THE ORIGINAL MOTION AS FOLLOWS:  

  Replace:

  To instruct the Lead Member for Regeneration, Property & Planning to provide a comprehensive rational for the introduction of the temporary Heathy Neighbourhoods in the various areas.

With:

- Clarity of the rationale for the introduction of these temporary measures in the various areas;

Breakdown and replace the remaining list as follows:

This to provide details about how these areas have been chosen;

- Details about how these areas are chosen;
how it impact targets; mitigations, if any; viability of the monitoring of the scheme;

- How we anticipate that they will impact on the council’s active travel, clean air, and climate change targets;

what prior public and stakeholder engagement has taken plac;

- What stakeholder engagement is involved;
the equity of the trade-off between loser residential streets and gainers;

- Comment on how the relative real or perceived pros and cons of these schemes will be weighted and proposed mitigations for addressing concerns of those residents that might feel that others’ ‘gains’ are their ‘losses’;

the risk of increased congestion on certain residential roads and implications on emissions;

- Consideration of the risk that some measures may increase congestion elsewhere and the implications that may have on emissions;

the methodology to be used to evaluate the outcome, notably the goal of lower overall traffic volumes; and the measurements in place to secure adequate baseline data for ALL streets affected (including the connector roads).

- An explanation of overall methodology – including ensuring an adequate baseline for evaluating outcomes, including the goal of lower overall traffic how these schemes will be monitored, and how their viability will be assessed

Councillor Fleur Donnelly Jackson Willesden Green Ward 

THIS IS THE ORIGINAL MOTION

Motion submitted by members who have requisitioned the Extraordinary Council meeting

Healthy Neighbourhood Scheme

To instruct the Lead Member for Regeneration, Property & Planning to provide a comprehensive rational for the introduction of the temporary Healthy Neighbourhoods in the various areas.

This to provide details about how these areas have been chosen; how it impact targets; mitigations, if any; viability of the monitoring of the scheme; what prior public and stakeholder engagement has taken place; the equity of the trade-off between loser  residential streets and gainers; the risk of increased congestion on certain residential roads and implications on emissions; the methodology to be used to evaluate the outcome, notably the goal of lower overall traffic volumes; and the measurements in place to secure adequate baseline data for ALL streets affected (including the connector roads).