Barham Library talk Saturday June 14th 3.30pm: The Iceman cometh by Brian Johnson

 

Wembley road closures and diversions from 10.30am on Saturday June 7th

 

Road closures and bus diversions/curtailment on Friday and Sunday for stadium football events. No Jubilee or Met line trains at the weekend

 

Brent Council to lease out King Edward VII Park bowling green for 10 years. Representations to be made by June 5th.

 

The red star marks the bowling green

 Brent Council announced in the Brent and Kilburn Times that it is to grant a 10 year lease on a Brent public open space, the former bowling green in King Edward VII Park, Park Lane, Wembley. The green has not been used for more than a decade and the bowling green club pavilion has been occupied by property guardians.

Residents can make objections or representations no later than 12pm on June 5th.

I understand that the lease is for the use of a local community group that responded to a request for expressions of interest late last year. It includes the bowling green and the pavilion on the site - centre left in the image above (not the pavilion in the centre of the park ear-marked for development by Stonebridge Boxing Club - they are still seeking funding).

The name of the community group cannot be disclosed until the lease is signed.

 

 

St Raph's draws together in solidarity to pay tribute to the victims of the terrible fire that tore through two houses and left four dead

 The St Raphael's community along with others from Brent, including councillors, attended a vigil last night for the vicitims of the fire that has devasted the whole community.

With dignity and empathy, tribute was paid and prayers made. The community quietly drew together in solidarity in the face of tragedy, as the evening light gave way to darkness and the rain fell.

 

I was unable to attend due to a zoom meeting at the same time, so thank you Asif for the photographs of an event that really shows Brent at its best.
 

 

Brent Council apologises to tenants after Social Housing Regulator delivers judgement that the Council has 'serious failings' in ensuring tenants' health and safety

 

The Regulator of Social Housing has delivered its judgement on Brent Housing after the Council's self-referral. LINK

The have graded the council at C3 (see above) which means the council has serious failings in the delivery of consumer standards and significant improvement is needed.

Brent Council owns and manages around 8,800 homes in London. Most homes are under direct management by Brent and there are an additional 4,000 leasehold homes in blocks owned by them.

Summary of findings (my highlighting)

 

The Safety and Quality Standard requires landlords to identify and meet all legal requirements that relate to the health and safety of tenants in their homes and communal areas, and to ensure that all required actions arising from legally required health and safety assessments are completed within appropriate timescales. The standard also requires landlords to have an accurate, up to date and evidenced understanding of the condition of their homes that reliably informs the provision of good quality, well maintained and safe homes for tenants, and to ensure that their tenants’ homes meet the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard.

 

Through our responsive engagement with LB Brent, we have found serious failings in its ability to meet these requirements and that these failings have negatively affected service outcomes for tenants.

 

The self-referral received from LB Brent highlighted that within the last year, around 12,500 actions arising from fire risk assessments had been closed. Following a spot check, LB Brent identified that where actions had been closed, evidence of the completion of the actions was not available in all instances and that some actions had not been completed at all. Most actions are of a high and medium risk and are currently being treated as overdue until evidence to confirm their completion can be obtained.

 

A key component of effective health and safety management is data integrity. Our engagement with LB Brent has highlighted that the data for fire safety, smoke and carbon monoxide safety, asbestos management and water safety cannot be reconciled, and LB Brent is not able to determine which legally required checks and assessments have been completed. We also have concerns about the data validation process that took place prior to LB Brent implementing its new asset management system and will be reviewing its efficacy as part of our ongoing engagement.

 

In relation to the quality of homes, although LB Brent is reporting that it has 95% of its stock condition data, our engagement with LB Brent has highlighted that almost half of its homes have not had a recorded survey. As a result, it is unclear how LB Brent is assured of the condition of its homes. We will be exploring this further with LB Brent.

 

LB Brent has engaged positively with us since making its self-referral and has plans in place to understand the wider impact of its current position. Those actions include work to understand the root causes of the presenting issues, reviewing the completion of all closed fire safety remedial actions through a risk-based approach and working to develop a suitable action plan to resolve the issues.

 

We will continue to engage with LB Brent as it seeks to address the issues that have led to this judgement. This includes evidencing that it is taking reasonable steps to mitigate risks to tenants as it creates and delivers its improvement plan. We are not proposing to use our enforcement powers at this stage but will keep this under review as LB Brent seeks to resolve these issues.

 

Reacting to the judgement, Councillor Fleur Donnelly-Jackson, Brent Cabinet Member for Housing and Resident Services, said:

 

We take our responsibilities as a landlord very seriously and the council accepts that we have let tenants down in the areas outlined by the Regulator and for this we apologise unreservedly. In this instance, we have fallen short of our responsibilities as a landlord and failed to meet the expectations of our tenants.

The council is determined to improve the quality of council homes. We have made real progress in recent months – from launching a new damp and mould squad to action days where teams blitz through repairs that are needed on council estates - but we know there is still much more to do.

We will continue to work proactively, positively and in an open and transparent way with our residents and with the Regulator to fix the issues identified. Council tenants are at the heart of this improvement work through the new Housing Management Advisory Board. By listening to their experiences and ideas, we can make better decisions and build a housing service that residents can trust.

Reacting to Cllr Fleur Donnelly-Jackson's statement, Pete Firmin,  Chair of Alpha, Gorefield and Canterbury Tenants and Residents Association said:

The statement from the Cabinet member is a joke. I can't believe she wrote it without her tongue firmly in her cheek. We have been waiting months and even years for all sorts of repairs around just our 3 blocks. What does that say about Brent as a whole. And she writes "We will continue to work proactively, positively and in an open and transparent way with our residents." Continue? They never have done yet.

In what they have sent to tenants, Brent says ""While all required safety checks have been completed, there were weaknesses in how we recorded and followed up on these checks. This includes inconsistent record-keeping on things like fire safety, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, asbestos and water safety." This is complete nonsense, we know they have NEVER checked whether leaseholders flats have smoke etc alarms.

 

The emptying schools of Brent as families forced to move out due to high rents and lack of affordable housing

An article in the Guardian by Anna Minton entitled 'A new kind of gentrification is spreading through London – and emptying out schools' rang a bell with many in Brent over the weekend.

In one passage Minton says:

  …the decline is much starker in cities such as London, which are experiencing the most extreme gentrification: research showed that while the capital’s overall population is rising, the numbers between the age of 25–39, the typical age of housebuying and family formation, has recently dropped by 4%, with London Councils, the body representing the city’s 32 boroughs, attributing it to the shortage of family housing.

Brent Council has of course advised families on its waiting list to move out of London to housing that they can afford, despite the disruption this causes to schooling, family support and community cohesion. 

In the South Kilburn regeneration there is no overall increase in the amount of social housing planned and much of the social housing will be more at more expensive housing association rents, rather than council housing rent. 'Viablility' issues means that the single developer, soon to be appointed, will try and reduce the amount of 'affordable housing' in the schemes still to be built.

In Southwark the Harris Federation is seeking to sack teachers as school rolls reduce. LINK

In Brent some primary schools are over-subscribed (have more applications for Reception places than the PAN - Planned Admission Number) but others have plenty of empty spaces. Unfilled places result in budget reductions as schools are funded per pupil.

The figures for the first round of offers to parents reveal many schools that have only filled half or less of their places. They may recruit more pupils in subsequent rounds as those who failed to get their first choice apply elsewhere but the situation will remain serious. Brent Council is likely to press for further reductions in the PAN of some schools so that they  have fewer classes in each year group.

These are the schools that filled half or less of their places (offers/PAN) in the first round:

Brentfield 41/90

Carlton Vale 9/60 (soon to amalgamate with Kilburn Park in a new building)

Christchurch CofE  13/30

Elsley 50/120

Harris South Kenton 31/150 (previously Byron Court forced to academise)

Newfeld 20/60 

Preston Park 61/120

St Mary's CofE 18/45

St Mary's RC 14/30

Stonebridge 20/90

Some of these are schools that expanded with new build and classrooms when primary numbers rose before Brexit.  

The full list of oversubscribed and undersubscribed schools is below (hover over foot of table to enlarge):

June 7th-11th bus diversions for 92, 206 and 440 routes due to Fifth Way, Wembley Park, closure for crane operations

Due to the closure of Fifth Way, Wembley Park, for crane operations from 7th June at 00.01 until 11th June 23.45 buses will be diverted as follows: 

92 Drury Way will miss stops from Wembley Stadium Station to Ikea Brent Park

206 towards Kilburn Park Station will miss stops from Lycee International / Kings Drive to Hannah Close. 

440 will not serve stops between Olympic Way and First Way.