As predicted the Labour Group with its
massive majority pushed through the reduction in Opposition time to speak on
the budget at last night's Full Council meeting.
The cut in Council Tax support was also
passed despite hitting the poorest most in the borough's most deprived wards. A
few councillors from those wards looked a little embarrassed but none abstained
on proposals that had been overwhelmingly rejected by residents in the
'consultation' and expert advice from Brent Citizens' Advice Bureau.
Similarly, the alternative budget proposals
by Conservative and Liberal Democrat groups were dismissed and voted down. The
'debate' on the budget was dominated by a 20 speech by Muhammed Butt and a long
commentary by Cllr Mili Patel, Cabinet Lead on Finance, about the Tory Prime
Ministers of the last decade or more with little additional budget information
of interest to Brent resident. They were followed by a troupe of Cabinet
Ministers reading speeches from their smart phones.
It was left to a four-minute exchange between
the Auditor and Cllr Paul Lorber (Lib Dem Group Leader) to inject something of
value into the 2 hours plus meeting.
I have preserved the exchange in the video
above (they have a time limited existence on the Council website) as it is of
interest in terms of transparency and accountability in the future.
The Auditor said that the issue of £4m loss
in the abandoned Stonebridge Altimira project had not been referred to him by
the Council. If the evidence was forwarded to the auditors, they would consider
if there were any audit actions required.
On the issue of councillors' declarations of
gifts and hospitality the Auditor said that they had remarked that they were
'light on detail' in the level of disclosure and that there was scope for more
detail to be provided in the more complex arrangements. Readers interested in
the fairground and sports and concert ticket giveaways will be pleased that
this is receiving attention.
Lastly, the Auditor said that they had not
been asked to consider the Barham Park Trust account but because the Trust was
associated with the Council, they could consider them if there were any
concerns
The new Wembley Manor School for 150 children with special needs and disabilities is taking shape at the end of London Road near the path and bridge to Lyon Park is rapidly taking shape. It is part of a project to offer 400 places across the borough.
The school consists of modules built off-site and transported as wide loads to Wembley - no mean feat given current road works etc on the High Road.
I am grateful for our Wembley Central stringer for the video and photographs:
Working age claimants of Council Tax Support bu ward
Earlier this month Wembley Matters wrote about Brent Council proposals on cuts to the Council Tax Support Scheme LINK. Although those changes, which demand that everyone pay something towards Council Tax despite low incomes and the Cost of Living Crisis, were rejected in the public consultation, the Labour Group will approve them at tonight's Full Council. Brent Citizens Advice Bureau tabled a paper that showed the poorest would be hit hardest and that is evidenced by the ward breakdown above,
The cuts amounts to £8m but a £1.5m hardship fund has been proposed. In their budget proposal Lib Dems will propose that this be doubled to £3m.
Cllr Lorber, Lib Dem leader, told Wembley Matters:
It will be interesting how the Councillors from these wards will react and vote.
The changes have of course been implemented in very short time. They could have started discussing this in April 2024. The consultation was pointless as they already decided what they were going to do and no views would be taken into account.
The result is that many residents will be charged Council Tax for the first time or will see a very high increase. The officers predict that many will not be able to pay and debts will simply rise - and many will need to be written off. In the meantime the individuals concerned will end up with more worry and more stress.
Councillors were presented with this far too late and needless to say when I went to Cabinet no one was listening.
The overall impact on the claimants is £8 million. They are setting up a £1.5 million hardship fund but this is not enough.
The key point is that the claimants have simply not been given enough time to rearrange their affairs. Finding jobs is hard and the extra charges (£600 a year for some) will hit many as a bombshell on 1 April 2025.
In our view the changes should have been introduced in a staggered way rather than the massive hit implemented immediately.
We are therefore proposing that the support is doubled this year to £3 million to provide some help to as many people as possible.
In the past rather than vote against the Budget and Council Tax motion, dissident Labour councillors have left the Council Chamber before the vote is taken, and returned once next business is underway. Tonight this might well be what happens when the Council Tax Support Scheme is discussed.
You can watch the meeting on Brent Live from 6pm HERE
A late change announced yesterday evening deprives Brent opposition parties of time to present their alternative budget proposals at tomorrow's Full Council Budget Setting Meeting. It also reduces the time allocated the the chair of the Scrutiny Budget Task Group.
The new order is set out below with previous timings set out on Monday February 26th in brackets:
Leader to introduce the main
budget report - up to 20 minutes. (15 mins)
Leader of the Conservative
Group (or their nominated representative) to respond and move their
alternative budget proposals –up to 10 minutes. (15 mins)
Leader of the Liberal
Democrats Group (or your nominated representative) to respond and move their alternative budget proposals – up to 5 minutes. (10 mins)
Deputy Leader & Cabinet
Member for Finance & Resources – up to 15 minutes to speak on the
budget and alternative proposals that have been moved. (10 mins)
Councillor Conneely (as
Chair of Scrutiny Budget Task Group) – up to 5 minutes to introduce the
main outcomes and recommendations within the Scrutiny Budget Task Group
report. (10 mins)
These timings will be subject to a Procedural Motion moved at the start
of the meeting by the Majority Group Whip. Once the debate on the budget
has concluded (for which any members wishing to speak will still have up to 3
minutes each to contribute) the Leader will then have up to 10 minutes (5 mins) to sum
up and close prior to the Mayor moving on to conduct separate roll call votes
on firstly the alternative budget proposals moved by the Conservative Group and
then the Liberal Democrat and then the final substantive budget
recommendations, which will all be taken en bloc.
Cllr Paul Lorber, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group said:
This is not acceptable to the Lib Dem Group.
This is total abuse of power and should have (but has not been) discussed at the Constitutional Working Group.
To increase the time allocated to Labour Leader and others and reduce the amount of speaking time for the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Leaders is a pathetic attempt to suppress democratic debate.
The result of the recent Alperton by election clearly shows how unpopular the Labour Party has become in Brent and this action by the Labour Leader is another example of his dictatorial abuse of power.
I trust that the Chief Executive will at long last intervene and to stop the nonsense which is turning Brent into a laughing stock.
Apparently not so 'Upcoming' as advertised, according to the Enquirer:
Shaft and headhouse sites at Adelaide Road and Canterbury Works
will remain on pause over the next two years while parts of the Euston
drive including the station cavern, crossover tunnels, portal and
scissor box are being rescheduled.
The Enquirer understands that suppliers and subcontractors were given the bad news by main contractor SCS JV on Friday. The Canterbury works will remain on pause for the next two years.
Two giant tunnelling machines have been assembled and are ready to
dig the HS2 tunnel between Old Oak Common and London Euston after
Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed funding for the project in last
year’s budget.
A spokesperson for HS2 said:
When HS2 opens, services will initially
run between Birmingham and Old Oak Common in west London and this
section of the railway remains the focus of our delivery.
Last autumn, the government confirmed that HS2 will be built to
Euston and we are now preparing for construction of the tunnel from Old
Oak Common. Construction on associated works including the tunnel
shafts, headhouses and station approaches will start at a later date.
We are currently reviewing the whole HS2 programme as part of a
major reset – making sure the building blocks of the scheme are in the
correct sequence.
(19:10) The main has been repaired and your water should return back to normal.
(17:10) Second repair team and mini digger have arrived on site, further excavation of the mains has commenced.
(15:25) Another repair team is on route with a mini
digger as the mains needs to be exposed some more to complete the
repairs, however, it is encased in concrete and hand dig team not able
to break through.
(14:45) The mains had to be throttled to allow for
repairs to take place, customers within this zone may experience low
pressure, please see streets affected above.
(12:40) We received a call to advise that a third
party has hit our mains during their works, a technician and dig team
have been requested and are on route.
Low pressure in Wembley
We’re really sorry you are experiencing low pressure. We’ve been made
aware of damages caused by a third party to one of our mains on High
Road which may be causing this.
Streets affected: Chatsworth Avenue, Harrow Road and High Road
What we’re doing
Our repair team have stayed on High Road and are continuing to repair
the damaged water main. As soon as we know how much longer this will
take, we’ll let you know.
We’re really sorry for the disruption. We’re working hard to get your water flowing again soon.
What you can do
Because it can cause problems, until we’ve sorted this, please avoid using your:
Washing machine
Dishwasher
Electrical appliances that use water
If you still have water, we recommend you put some in your kettle or
fridge for drinking in case your water needs switching off for the
repair. We’re really sorry about this, we’re working to get your water
back to normal as soon as possible.
We updated this message at 14:50 and we'll update it again after 18:50
Alas, not a radical student demonstration in these dark times, but a developer's revised plans for the Matalan site on Cricklewood Broadway.
An almost entirely new plan has been put forward for the site which in December 2023 was consented for 238 homes as C3 flats:
Previous consented scheme
The developercites new building regulations, including the post-Grenfell requirement for a secondary fire staircase, for their change of mind and presumably financial gains play a part.
The new scheme is for 826 student beds across 164 rooms and 82 clusters (662 beds) in two blocks. Block A 5-9 storeys and Block B 3-7 storeys. There will be commercial space on the ground floors.
New proposed scheme
So far there are no comments on the Brent Council Planning Portal and the developer claims favourable community responses from their consultations and a letter of support for the provision from Middlesex University.
The site in current context - bottom right building is Wickes
The Planning Reference is 25/0413 and details and link to make comments can be found HERE
Barham Park Trustees, consisting only of Brent Labour Cabinet members, approved the removal of the covenant protecting the park from development on the payment of £200,000 by developer and fairground owner George Irvin.
Cllr Mili Patel sought an assurance that agreement of the Charities Commission for the action would be sought 'in order to safeguard ourselves'. Chair of Trustees, Cllr Muhammed Butt, confirmed that this would be the case.
Cllr Butt confirmed that exempt papers (confidential papers not available for public perusal) had been considered.
He went on to say that representations from a local resident had been received and he had looked through them and concluded that they would add no value to what the Trustees were considering.
In fact they were detailed papers that picked apart the process and reasons for the covenant removal.
More generally Trustees were told of plans to expand the Trust's activities and continue the 'redevelopment journey'.
Readers of this blog will know that many questions have been raised about Cllr Muhammed Butt's refusal to allow any scrutiny of Trustees' actions over Barham Park.
Barham Park was gifted to the people of Wembley by Titus Barham (HISTORY HERE) but Butt gained control of the Trustees by making himself their Chair and other members of his Cabinet fellow Trustees. They claim that they represent the people of Wembley and refuse any other representation.
In his role as the all-powerful Chair, Cllr Butt has refused to let people speak at meetings of the Trustees to raise issues over the accounts, plans to redevelop and privately market park buildings, his relationship with the developer and fairground entrepeneur George Irvin, the sale of two workers' cottages in the park to Irvin, and Irvin's gifts of free fairground ride tickers to councillors (see links below).
There is a Trustees' meeting on Monday morning where a payment bu Irvin to the Trustees of £200,000 will allow a restrictive covenant protecting Barham Park to be removed, enabling Irvin to build four three storey houses inside the park on the site of the cottages. (CGI above). Irvin has already received planning permission for them from the Council pending settlement of the covenant issue. Observers reckon given the sale value of the proposed private houses, situated in a beautiful park with vehicle access and nearby rail connections, the payment is quite a bargain.
Unsurprisingly, local councillor Paul Lorber has asked to speak to the Trustees about the issues raised. Equally unsurprisingly Chair of Trustees and Leader of the Council, Cllr Muhammed Butt has refused:
The Brent Officer concerned responded:
As is usual practice I’ve consulted with the Chair and, as a result, can advise he is not currently minded to allow any requests to speak at Monday’s meeting. Whilst it will not, therefore, be possible for you to address the meeting in person you’ll obviously still be more than welcome to attend to observe proceedings. We’ll also be webcasting the meeting live, which you’ll be able to follow, as an alternative, via the following link:
A WW2 German Dornier DO-217-M bomber aircraft. (Image from the internet)
The distance from Wembley to Cambridge is around 50 miles (80 kilometres)
as the crow flies. This story links both places. I was contacted by someone who
knew the Cambridge half, and asked what I knew about the Wembley part. At the
time it was nothing, but after a little research in the local newspaper microfilms
at Brent Archives, I can now share a remarkable story with you.
The events in this article took place on the night of 23 February 1944.
The Second World War had already been going on for 4½ years, and it would be
another fifteen months before the country could celebrate VE Day, the end of the war in Europe. After several years with little or no
German bombing, London was in the middle of a “mini-blitz”. Just five nights
earlier, eight members of the Whitfield family and seven members of the
Metcalfe family had been killed when their semi-detached homes in Birchen
Close, Kingsbury, suffered a direct hit from a high explosive bomb. An air raid
warden, who’d been blown across the road by the blast, died in hospital two
days later.
The first report of the incident in Alperton was this short article in
“The Wembley News”:
The following week’s edition of the newspaper had more time for a full front-page
report of what had happened:
“Fireguards Arrest German Airmen”, headline from “The Wembley News”, 3
March 1944. (Brent Archives local newspaper microfilms)
Fireguards were ordinary local residents, not otherwise serving in the
Home Guard or as air raid wardens. After the widespread damage caused by German
incendiary (fire) bombs in the “blitz”, regulations were introduced in early
1941 that adults should spend 12 hours a week (often split into four-hour
shifts) on night-time fire watching duties. The Wardens in charge of Wembley’s
eighty A.R.P. posts had to organise firewatchers for every sector in their area.
25,000 Wembley civilians were given the necessary training, and supplied with bags
of sand, galvanised water buckets and stirrup pumps to use in putting out fires.
A WW2 fireguard bucket, stirrup pump and hose. (Source: Imperial War Museum)
The local newspaper report on 3 March included this eyewitness account,
from an Alperton man, of what he saw during an air raid on London by over 200
German bombers that night:
‘I was watching the barrage [of anti-aircraft
gunfire] when suddenly a plane could be seen caught by about eight
searchlights. The guns put up a terrific barrage and got him “boxed”, and then
closed in on him. It was obvious that no plane could stay up there long, and
all of a sudden there was a flash. They had got him. The next thing I saw was
two parachutes sailing down. They were picked up by the searchlights and
followed down.’
A WW2 photograph showing searchlights on a bomber, and anti-aircraft
gunfire. (Image from the internet)
Two firewatchers, Mr W. Hall of 47 Douglas Avenue and Mr F. Harrison of
1 Christchurch Green, were sheltering under the front porch of his house. They
had seen a parachute descending, and heard a bump as something hit the roof of
number 49. The newspaper report said:
‘A high hedge separates numbers 47 and 49. The
airman went one side and the parachute the other. After a discreet wait Messrs
Harrison and Hall, who thought it was a land mine, hurried over to
investigate.’
47 and 49 Douglas Avenue, Alperton, as it might have been at the time. (A Google Street View image, painted to restore the
wartime hedge!)
The firewatchers were right to be cautious. “Land mines”, as they were
commonly called, were 500kg German bombs
dropped by parachute, which drifted through the air until they hit a solid
structure, killing indiscriminately. On the same night in September 1940, two
such bombs had killed four people, women and young children in flats above
shops in Kingsbury Road, and four more (two married couples) in District Road,
Sudbury.
The newspaper report continued:
‘After releasing the Nazi from his complicated
harness, Mr Hall picked him up. He was thoroughly dazed, helmetless and dressed
in a blueish grey uniform. First-aid was rendered, he was given smelling salts
and asked if he was alright. He nodded his head, answering in the affirmative.’
‘By this time neighbours began to collect, and the
head fireguard of the sector, Mr W. Thornton, disarmed the Nazi by removing his
belt and revolver. He offered no resistance and was quite docile. When the
young airman had sufficiently recovered, he was taken to the wardens post in
Christchurch Green and the police were sent for and he was taken to Wembley
Police Station.’
Locations from the incident, marked on a map from 1939. (Extract from page 30 of the original A to Z Atlas
and Guide to London and the suburbs)
Mrs Hall, the wife of the fireguard at 47 Douglas Avenue, had also
spoken to the reporter:
‘The German airman proved to be a youth, aged about
20, fair haired and according to Mrs Hall “a good looking young boy”.’
The young German who landed in Douglas Avenue was lucky. In April 1943,
Ronald Francis, a 21-year old RAF airman who’d lived just along the road at 19
Douglas Avenue, was killed with the rest of the 7-man crew of a Lancaster aircraft
which crashed in The Netherlands, after being shot down while returning from a bombing mission over
Germany.
The newspaper mentioned two German airmen in Wembley’s streets. There
were brief details of the other one:
‘The second defeated raider landed in Wembley Park
Drive about the same time. He also was captured without any difficulty, and
after being taken to a nearby Army unit’s headquarters was handed over to the
police.’
But all four crew members of the Dornier bomber had baled out. The
airman captured in Wembley Park was described as being around 30 years old, so might
have been the pilot. I don’t know where the other two landed, but it may have
been earlier, just over the Wembley Borough boundary in Ealing. If you have any
information on this, please add a comment below!
The Dornier’s pilot must have thought that his aircraft would crash,
after being damaged by anti-aircraft “flak” shells. He locked his plane’s
controls so that it stayed level while he and his crewmen baled out. If it had
crashed, the plane and its load of 860 incendiary bombs would probably have
come down on a built-up area in Kingsbury or Edgware, causing massive damage
and potential death or injury to local residents. But the Dornier DO-217-M did
not crash. It flew on in a north north-easterly direction, over Hertfordshire
and beyond.
Later that night, a lady at 302 Milton Road in Cambridge heard a loud
noise behind her house. When she dared to look out, there was a German bomber
aircraft with its nose up against her back garden fence!
Two photographs of the Dornier bomber where it came to rest in Cambridge,
February 1944. (Screenshots from the “German Ghost Bomber” video)
The Dornier bomber had flown over fifty miles, without a pilot,
gradually getting lower. Miraculously, it had passed just east of the centre of
Cambridge, missing the University’s historic colleges, and the homes in its
northern suburb, and made a “wheels-up” landing across a large allotment site.
Although it left a trail of unexploded incendiary bombs behind it in the
vegetable plots, the remaining fuel in the aircraft’s tanks had not ignited. No
one was hurt.
The Cambridge end of this curious incident is told in an excellent 9-minute
video film from 2022 by Mark Felton, “German Ghost Bomber – The Mysterious Case
of the Cambridge Dornier”, which I will leave you to watch and enjoy!
Thank you, Mark Felton, for the video that led to the enquiry, and which
has enabled me to share the Wembley end of this story.
Philip Grant.
[With apologies to Mark Haddon, for borrowing from the title of his
award-winning book “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”. When
the idea flashed into my head, it fitted this story so well that I just had to
use it!]
There were 116 responses to Making The Leap's planning application Ref: 25/0041 on the Brent Planning Portal LINK110 objections, 5 in favour and 1 neutral). This is a fantastic achievement and brilliant community engagement!!!
We
now also have the support of Kensal Triangle Residents Association,
Kensal Rise Residents Association, Queens Park Residents Association,
The Victorian Society, SAVE Britain's Heritage and Willesden Local
History Society.
Making The Leap's planning application will now almost certainly be referred to the Brent Planning Committee and it's essential
that we email our local Councillors to urge them to lobby the committee
on our behalf and that we also email the members of the committee too,
and our MP Georgia Gould. The next meetings of the committee are 12
March and 9 April.
