Windrush Day 75 events with Brent Council - first starting soon at Brent Civic Centre with more to come

From Brent Council

This year marks the 75th anniversary of HMT Empire Windrush arriving in Britain with more than 800 passengers from the Caribbean, ready to embark on their new lives.

Brent Council is proud to celebrate Windrush 75 with a host of events around the borough this summer.

Kicking off the celebrations, on Thursday 22 June, Brent Civic Centre will come alive with a free flagship Market Place to celebrate the legacy and contribution of the African-Caribbean community with music, live performances, and food stalls.

There will also be a Windrush exhibition, charting what it was like to settle in a new country from those who experienced this firsthand and what it meant to be British. The event is set to attract hundreds of visitors throughout the day so mark it in your diaries – there is no need to book in advance.

This will be followed by a Tea Party in Gladstone Park on 24 June to celebrate the elderly survivors of the Windrush generation. There will be live performance with a reggae choir, and the opportunity to learn from the wisdom of elders in the community as they share more about their lives. Get your tickets from Eventbrite.

Councillor Mili Patel, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, Resources and Reform, said:

Celebrating seventy-five years of Windrush is a hugely significant and special way to honour our African-Caribbean community.

Time goes by very quickly, but a lifetime of memories, service and contribution is never forgotten. It is a privilege to celebrate and acknowledge the work, sacrifice, and achievements of the Windrush seniors.

Councillor Muhammed Butt, Leader of Brent Council said: “The Windrush Generation holds a significant place in Britain and Brent’s history and must becelebrated and respected for their vast contribution to society.

The legacy of the Windrush community will continue for many more years to come through the many talented Brent residents who are direct descendants of Windrush pioneers.

This is what sets us apart from so many other London boroughs and I am incredibly grateful to all those who came to Brent and continue to call this borough their home.

Windrush Workshops
Englan' Voice: Celebrating Windrush Generation Artists
Thursday 22 June
Kilburn Library
10:30am to 12noon
Harlesden Library
1pm to 2:30pm

Discover the work of three Windrush-era artists painter Tam Joseph, writer Beryl Gilroy and musician Aldwyn Roberts and their influence on British culture.

Harlesden Library Coffee Morning

 
‘You called, we responded’: Celebrating 75 years of Windrush and the NHS
 

Thursday 6 July
11am to 12noon
2023 marks both the 75th anniversaries of the arrival of the Empire Windrush and the start of the NHS. Join local Dr Joan St John to explore some of the impacts of that shared history.

Windrush 75 – Family Craft
2.30 to 4.30pm
Wembley Library – Wednesday 16 August
Kilburn Library – Friday 18 August
Age 3+. Drop in.

For more information: brent.gov.uk/libraries

Brondesbury residents protest as Council about to start work to replacing pavements with asphalt

 

Brondesbury residents protested this morning as work was about to start on replacing paving with asphalt.  This is the latest of several protests over Brent Council policy which  the council claim is environmentally superior to replacing paving and safer for pedestrians.

 The counter-arguments to the policy were published HERE

 

Help from Brent Council for those hit financially by Covid19

From Brent Council

Resident’s Support Fund

If you are a Brent resident and have been impacted financially or personally by Covid-19, you could be eligible for financial support. We have funding that allows us to help residents that need additional help due to Covid-19.

The Resident’s Support Fund provides additional help in the form of an interest-free loan, grant or both.

We recognise that residents have been impacted in many ways by Covid-19 and we are committed to doing all we can to support our resident’s at this difficult time.

Who can apply

You can apply for a grant or loan if you:

• are a Brent resident
• aged 18 or over
• have been impacted by Coronavirus
• and do not have more than £6,000 in savings at the time of the application

You must be willing to provide any reasonable supporting information that is needed by us to make a decision and take any reasonable steps we may suggest.

What the grant or loan can be used for:

• Rent or mortgage arrears, even if you are already getting Housing Benefit
• Council Tax arrears
• Housing Benefit overpayment arrears
• Household expenditure (food, utility bills and fuel)
• Paying off debts e.g. credit card loans
• Counselling and mental health services
• Skills training and further education to support employment
• Getting access to the internet, a laptop or both

How to apply

If you are in need of financial support, and meet the above criteria, apply online. HERE

You can also retrieve and continue with an application you have already started.  To retrieve an existing application, you will need the application reference number that was emailed to you.  HERE

When you can expect to hear

We aim to assess your application within 10 working days. You will receive confirmation from us in writing to confirm the decision we have made.

If you have requested help towards your rent, Housing Benefit overpayments or Council Tax, we may pay any funds awarded directly into the associated account.

If your grant is unsuccessful, we may be able to refer you to a credit union to help you with an interest free loan.

Controversial Veolia Public Realm decision to be made at October Executive

Tomorrow the petition against Veolia being given the £250m plus Brent Public Realm contract will be presented to the Executive at the Civic Centre. The Bin Veolia campaign will be given 5 minutes to speak to the petition at the beginning of the meeting and there will be a demonstration of supporters outside the Civic Centre from 6.30pm.

Overnight the Council released  information that the Executive will make their decision at their October 14th meeting:

ITEM
To award the contract for public realm services including waste, recycling, street cleaning, winter gritting and grounds maintenance for Brent Council land and Brent Housing Partnership parks and open spaces and approve any consequential recommendations.

The campaign for Veolia's exclusion is based on the claim that their activities in the Occupied Territories of Palestine provide infrastructural support for the illegal settlements and that this amounts to 'grave misconduct'.

In June an Israeli court fined TMM Integrated Recycling Industries, owned by Veolia, NIS 1.5m for burying waste after finding inconsistencies between the company's reports on the amount of waste it had handled - and for which it had to pay a fee - and the actual amounts disposed of.

Th judge said it was amazing how the company was able to transform large qualities of waste into 'sorting remnants' in a single day without any additional manpower, overtime hours or additional shifts - and amazingly it happened as soon as the landfill fee was  instituted.
Source: Haaretz 13.6.13

The Executive report on the contract will not contain full information: LINK

The report will contain an appendix wih confidential information as specified in Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, namely: information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding the information); confidential information in respect of which a claim to legal professional privilege could be maintained in legal proceedings.

Brent Council has been playing cat and mouse with Brent and Harrow Palestine Solidarity Campaign over legal issues to do with the procurement process. The withholding of information by the Council has led some experienced legal advisers to suggest that there could be grounds for a Judicial Review in the future.

The exchanges over an FOI request can be found HERE

Lively consultation on Willesden Green leaves unanswered questions

I started out feeling sorry for Beth Kay from the Brent Council Regeneration Team today as she was once again the council's 'messenger' under fire from many quarters at the latest Willesden Green redevelopment  'consultation'. .This sympathy was reduced somewhat when I heard the presentation and some of her answers to questions.. The Q&A would have gone much better if there had been a neutral chair to keep order and make sure that full answers were provided.

The main feature was the exhibition showing a possible scheme incorporating the 1894 Library. More pictures (above) - more on the Keep Willesden Green blog HERE However Beth gave mixed messages about this. At one stage she had been talkling about dialogue with the community being frustrated by the issue of the the Victorian library and said, "Now the Old Library has been saved we can have conversations about what we want in the new library". However later she said that the retention of the Old Library compromised the scheme, presented challenges and made her nervous in planning terms.

In presenting the results of the top  consultation concerns (Loss of Old Library 45%, Loss of Wiilesden Bookshop 22%, Inadequate parking 18%, Renovation rather than redevelopment 17%, Dislike of design 16%, Insufficient consultation 16%, New building too small 14%, Loss of public space at front of building 14%) she referred to three petitions.  However for the 'Retaining Bookshop' petition and the 'Pause, Listen and Reflect' here presentation only gave the figures for the e-petition, rather than the much larger (sometimes 10 times larger) paper petitions. For the 'Oppose Demolition of the Old Library' petition  the presentation gave both the e-petition and paper petition figures.

I protested that this seriously misrepresented the number of people supporting the first two petitions and she undertook to amend the presentation.

Another conflict arose over the Willesden Bookshop. Beth claimed once again that the bookshop's rent had been subsidised (despite the owner Steve's denial on this blog) and that all bookshops were in crisis. She further claimed that the Bookshop itself had admitted it was not viable. However she said that (yet another) consultant had been appointed to look into the viability of a combined cafe/bookshop.

When it was pointed out that the Willesden Bookshop had now closed despite her presentation stating that the Council was trying to continue non-core services in the interim, she said that the Council was trying to find them premises on the High Road.

Challenged by another member of the audience on the total amount of  money that had been spent on consultants she was unable to provide an answer but implied that Galliford Try was footing the bill.

Questioned about why the planning application had been pulled Beth said this was due to the widespread opposition to the demolition of the Old Library. She did not mention that GLA planners had raised concerns that the proposals did not meet London Heritage policies in meetings with Brent Council officers. With a straight face she stated, "By withdrawing the planning application we have shown it is not a 'done deal' ".

During discussion about why refurbishment of the 1989 hadn't been considered, and when the audience laughed when someone asked 'Who built it if it's no good?" and was answered, to laughter "Brent Council!", Beth claimed that the Chalkhill Estate had been rebuilt and that was the same age as the current library. In fact the old Chalkhill Estate was built in several phases between 1966-70, 20 years earlier than the library.

I did not receive a satisfactory answer to a question about possible conflict over Brent Council's role as instigator of the project, joint partner with the developer, conductor of post partnership public consultation, and decision maker on the planning application. I pointed out that our objections were not just limited to the retention of the Old Library but also concerned the loss of open space, the fact that the housing was unaffordable, loss of bookshop and the provision of council offices, none of which were to be consulted on. Keep Willesden Green had wanted the Council to start again from scratch and involve local people from the start. Beth angrily stated that the provision of council offices was a matter for the council and nothing to do the public, only the Council  knew what they needed.

In the light of the above I asked that Keep Willesden Green be given the space to make their case to the public in the interests of openness and democracy.  To rumbles of disagreement she said that she did not think KWG was representative but added that it had been added to the list of special interest  groups to be consulted in September.   She responded more positively to a suggestion that there should be an ongoing  group to work on the proposals, possibly as part of the Willesden Town Team, or as a separate group.

Round 1 to Keep Willesden Green campaigners as developers withdraw planning applications

Galliford Try, the developers of the controversial housing development (with Cultural Centre attached) has withdrawn its two planning application for the site.

Galliford Try and Brent Council say that this is to extend the consultation period for the redevelopment and use the summer to seek local people's views.

The planning applications have received an overwhelming thumbs down from local residents with the planning department unable to keep up with the enormous flood of objections.

Cllr George Crane, lead member for Regeneration and Major Projects insisted that 'this redevelopment has never been a foregone conclusion as some people have claimed and this extra time for discussion demontrates that' but went on to state that the development 'needs to be at no capital costs and result in a quality development - these principles remain unchanged'.

Martin Redston, joint chair of Keep Willesden Green, said that he was overjoyed at the decision but that the campaign would not put its guard down: 'We will be looking for genuine consultation leading to community engagement at all levels'.

Details about consultation events and the time line will be publicised shortly. The further consultation will include the design of the new cultural centre and the activities that people want to see in the building once it's complete.  I understand that the original architects are now working on designs that will include keeping the historic Old Willesden Library.

The shows what a well-informed and determined community based campaign can do. Congratulations to all  all concerned.

Have your say on Brent council budget starting next week

Brent Area Consultative Forums start again next week. Council leaders will be presenting their budget proposals which will inevitably involve more cuts. It will be a chance to ask questions or make suggestions and you can also do a Soap Box presentation at the beginning of the session - get there early to fill in a form or do so on line. You will have a maximum of 3 minutes to present your case. Soapbox details and forms HERE .

The first Forum is in Harlesden on Tuesday 10th January.

Full details HERE