Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity
Philip Grant has sent this email to Brent Council. He has been trying to get the General Purposes Committee returned to its proper status, as a mainly "backbench" committee independent of the ruling Cabinet, since 2016, as shown in his March 2026 guest post https://wembleymatters.blogspot.com/2026/03/proposed-stopping-up-order-near-olympic.html
This is an open email
Dear Mr Patel, Ms Nassr, Mr Kinsella and Ms Wright,
In looking at the agenda for the Annual Meeting, and item 11, I am writing to suggest that the timing for meetings of the General Purposes Committee in the Calendar of Meetings will have to be changed. 9.30am on a Monday morning is no longer appropriate, and it should now be at 6pm, and possibly on a different day.
The time of 9.30am, before a Cabinet meeting at 10am, only came about because the General Purposes Committee had effectively become a sub-committee of Brent's Cabinet. It should never have been that, as the General Purposes Committee makes decisions on matters which are not part of the Cabinet's remit, and there should be a clear "separation of powers".
I am including Ms Wright in this email as she chairs the Constitution Working Group, and copying it to the Leaders of the four Groups on the new Council, as I feel strongly that it is time that the General Purposes Committee was put back to its proper role as an independent, mainly "back bench" committee. I would suggest that the make-up of the committee in the Constitution, whether it has eight or six members, should be restricted to no more than two Cabinet members, and at least one member of each Group on the Council.
The downside of the way the previous "Cabinet" model of the GPC operated is that its members had only a maximum of 30 minutes to consider important decisions, and these could be based on detailed Reports, which they had to read in addition to even more Reports ready for their Cabinet meeting at 10am.
An example of how this had an adverse impact on Brent Council is the Section 116 Highways Act application, which I was involved in opposing earlier this year. The go-ahead for this application was given at a General Purposes Committee meeting in March 2022, which had six substantive items on its agenda, yet lasted only 19 minutes.
If the committee members had considered what they were recommended to approve more closely, they may have seen what was obvious to me immediately when I saw the plan and draft order for the first time last December. If they had then questioned what exactly was being proposed, it might have made the Officers involved reconsider whether the "generic" wording of a Section 116 Order was appropriate for the specific circumstances of the situation on the south side of Engineers Way.
As it was, it took many hours of Officer time, and a detailed hearing before a Magistrate, taking a whole afternoon of time for the barrister representing Brent Council, to get to a sensible solution, which gave the Council and Quintain the permission to swap maintenance responsibilities for small areas of pavement, but did not take away the legal right for people to pass across those areas:-
I trust that the timing of GPC meetings will be amended, and look forward to hearing that the Constitution will be changed to reflect the proper status of Brent's General Purposes Committee. Best wishes,
Philip Grant.
3 comments:
The Tories sold out to the highest bidder and handed all power to Mo Butt. He now controls not just the General Purposes Committee but also Planning Committee with his brother as Chair. With the patronage of handing out paid positions Mo Butt has the Tories in his back pocket paid for by Brent residents - the Tories were given paid positions of Deputy Mayor, Chairs of both Scrutiny Committees and two places on the Planning Committee - and as final joke despite voting with Labour and handing power to Mo Butt as a Thank You Councillor Kansagra, the Tory Leader will get the Main Opposition (what opposition have the Tories provided?) Leader allowance.
Please don't mention the "C" word!
FOR INFORMATION: There has been follow-up correspondence between Council Officers and myself, and in the interests of openness and transparency, I am posting the full texts of the emails here:
On the evening of 21 May I received this short response to my open email above from Brent's Deputy Director, Democratic & Corporate Governance:
'Dear Mr Grant
Thank you for your email and for setting out your concerns and suggestions.
Following the appointment of GPC members at yesterday’s Annual Council meeting, we will explore with the Committee the option of revising the day and/or time.
Kind regards,
Amira.'
I left it until after the Bank Holiday weekend before sending this reply first thing this morning:
'Dear Ms Nassr,
Thank you for your email of 21 May, saying that: 'we will explore with the Committee the option of revising the day and/or time' of General Purposes Committee meetings. I hope that you will give priority to the views of the half of the Committee members who do not have to be at the Civic Centre for a Cabinet meeting at 10am on a Monday morning.
Dear Ms Wright,
There was no response in Ms Nassr's email to my suggestions for what the Constitution Working Group should consider over the make-up of the General Purposes Committee. I would welcome a response from you on those points, please.
The need for the Committee to have sufficient time to deal with important decisions properly was one important point I made, but that is not the main constitutional point.
The changes I have highlighted would allow the separation of powers on some key issues, like licencing, the Council's pension investments and senior staff appointments, set out in Brent's Constitution, to be brought back, as they should always have been. The fact that these matters were usurped by Brent's Cabinet, so that the General Purposes Committee was chaired and controlled by the Council Leader, was part of his power-grab while he had a "temporary" Acting Chief Executive, not appointed by Full Council, as required by the Constitution, and kept in place for almost three years from November 2012.
Although Cllr. Butt has still retained the position of Council Leader, potentially until May 2030, he now leads a minority administration, and a Party which only received 30% of the votes cast in the 7 May Council elections. 70% of Brent's electorate who voted did so because they wanted to see a change in who controls the Council, yet Cllr. Butt, with half the seats on General Purposes Committee and its casting vote as Chair, has still been allowed the power to control matters which the Constitution specifically states should not be the responsibility of the Leader or Cabinet.
That is not right, and I am sure you can see why. The Constitution in respect of the General Purposes Committee should be discussed very soon at the Constitution Working Group, and hopefully be changed at the earliest opportunity, and no later than the Annual Meeting in May 2027.
I write this as a political independent with a strong belief in the need for integrity, fairness and transparency in our local government. You are welcome to share my views with the other members of the Constitution Working Group ahead of its meeting.
I look forward to receiving your reply. Thank you. Best wishes,
Philip Grant.'
Correspondence continues in Part 2
FOR INFORMATION - Part 2:
Less than an hour later, I received this email from Brent's Chief Executive:
'Dear Mr Grant
Thank you for your follow up email. We will be discussing the points you have made as part of our annual review of the constitution which is due to be reported back to the July Council meeting.
Many thanks as always for your input and interest.
Best wishes,
Kim.'
I sent this short reply:
'Dear Ms Wright,
Thank you. I look forward to seeing a positive result in the Report to the July Council meeting. Best wishes,
Philip Grant.'
There is a genuine chance to change Brent's General Purposes Committee for the better. It is up to the "Leader of the Opposition" and the Leaders of the Lib Dem and Green Groups, who I believe will all be members of the Chief Executive's Constitution Working Group, to press for the necessary amendments to Brent's Constitution to bring that change about.
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