West Hendon Estate battles Barratts and Barnet

Cross-posting from Shahrar Ali's blog - edited version. Full version with more photographs and interview HERE

On Saturday 13 September, residents came out in force to assert their claim to be able to live in a peaceful, clean neighbourhood, without the noise and pollution impact of construction work on their doorstep. The neighbourhood was West Hendon estate on the bank of the Welsh Harp nature reserve. The contractor was Barratts Homes, determined to extend its real estate with prior permission of Barnet Council and with all the nods and winks that came before that.

Brent and Barnet Greens have been active on the campaign to preserve the habitat of Welsh Harp for several years, against the threat from over development on both sides of the council boundary and were visible at this protest. Discussion of the impact of this latest development on current tenants in social housing came to the fore last summer at a public meeting hosted at Brent Council (Brent Unites against Welsh Harp overdevelopment). Unfortunately, despite the approval from Barnet, Brent did not mount a judicial review and it was unlikely residents would be able to afford to do so.

I lent my megaphone to a resident who was driven around the estate to drum up a bit more people power. We began obstructing the main gate to the construction site, as dozens of contractors started to arrive. Our spirits were up as we sang, “Aint gonna do no work today”.  A couple of vehicles were mounted up against the hoarding at the critical entrance and banners and placards were mounted around.

Site managers came to speak to us and we entered into a conversation about the impact of their construction on the neighbours and the prospect of worse to come with the demolition of a tower block on the opposite side of the street, with residents still living a stone’s throw away. We conveyed our mission not to allow construction trucks into the site and the managers were turned back. Minutes later we were joined by police asking who was in charge. They entered into a diffuse conversation with our flat hierarchy, followed by a visit to the site office. They returned to announce that they “would allow” our presence there so long as we did not impede emergency vehicles.

Minutes later, came the highlight of the action – a concrete truck performed a U-turn mid-way up the road. The small crowd was jubilant and time to take a group picture.

Further actions are planned – please follow on facebook or @ourwesthendon #ourwesthendon

Wembley Matters is taking a break

Wembley Matters is taking an Easter break for  a couple of days

Its break will only be interrupted by major news such as Cllr Muhammed Butt joining the SWP, Francis Henry ousting Paul Lorber as leader of  Brent Liberal Democrats, Brent Conservative councillors becoming coherent, Brent Greens supporting Quintain's plans for a nuclear power station in the Civic Centre car park or Lorraine King organising a 'no shopping'  boycott of the London Designer Outlet.

The break will also provide a ceasefire in the Kensal Rise 'Comment Wars' taking place on this blog. Time for reflection and relaxation...

New blue bins: PR and PRoblems

The new blue topped dry recycling bins are being delivered around the borough but already there appear to be some teething problems. See Shahrar Ali's posting on  Brent Greens blog for details.

Brent Youth Stand Up For Their Rights - and their youth clubs

More than  80 Wembley young peopl crowded into the Town Hall tonight to meet with Ann John (Council Leader), Muhammed Butt (Deputy Leader) and Mary Arnold (Lead Member for Children and Families)  and passionately defended the Dennis Jackson Club and Wembley Youth Centre.  The meeting followed a commitment made by Ann John at the Wembley Area Consultation Forum when youth raised the issue of cuts in youth provision.

Ann John outlined the Council's financial difficulties and put the blame squarely on the Conservative led Coalition government.  She said that the Council was having to take controversial decisions including the closure of six libraries, reduced waste collection, closing day centres for the disabled and closing the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre.

She said, "I can't tell you how many e-mails and letters we have received on these and other measures. People feel passionately and there are difficult decisions coming up on Children's Centres. We will be taking a lot of other unpopular decisions."

She emphasised that no final decisions would be made until the budget setting meeting on February 28th.

Speakers from the floor politely but passionately made the following points among many others:

• It is more expensive to send young people to prison than to run youth clubs to keep them out of trouble
• I am a peer volunteer at a Youth Centre and as a performing arts student able to use the space to provide dance activities for others. Where can I do that when it closes?
• What are we doing for the youth? Not just dance and other activities but we need debates to make us think
• Cut back some of the activities rather than closing the centres
• Our  Muslim girls' group provides basketball, ice skating, bowling, first aid training and enables them to do more outgoing activities in the future
• The youth club kept me smiling and motivated me when I don't think any other place could have done that
• I was new to the country and didn't know much English but the club helped me learn English with projects like youth and drugs and preparing for interviews
• It is not just basketball and other sports, we do driving theory classes, first aid training and craft activities
• We are coming up to the 2010 Olympics but our facilities are being taken away
• We understand your difficulties, we want to work with you and what what we have already. Can we do some fund-raising?

One speaker said that he had attend his centre as a small child and now volunteered as a young adult on music activities:

"We want you to come and see what we are doing. I haven't seen any of the managers (councillors?) at the centre. We want you to come and see more and do more. The centre has been neglected by the council. You give us so little that cutting it is an insult. Are chicken shops going to become our youth centres?"

 What the councillors said:

• People are waking up to the fact that if you don't make provision now you have problems later
• This is the worse financial situation local government has ever faced
• We didn't come on the Council to stop doing things. It's painful. We don't like it.
• We need to think outside the box and look at staffing costs and get a breakdown of the hours
• The cuts in respite care were painful. Do we stop  meals on wheels, care at home?
• We promise to take on what you say, go away and talk to other councillors in the Labour group and look at the budget but we won't be able to spend extra money and other people will be hurt
• If we can do something, we promise we will. We'll try and do what we can.

At the end of the meeting Ann John told the audience that she had been impressed by the range of contribution and by the eloquence of the speakers.

Brent Green Party have always pressed for enhanced youth provision as a vital community resource and strongly back the participation of youth in the democratic process through school councils, youth councils and youth parliaments.  We welcome the mobilisation of Wembley youth over this issue and support their campaign. Their speeches last night were clear, confident and convincing and challenged many of the current stereotypes of young people.

Resist this dangerous ploy - people before cars!

Away from the publicity about his bicycle scheme, Boris Johnson has been pursuing his agenda of prioritising the motor car.  Not content with reversing attempts to restrict pollution by heavy trucks and cars, he has now published a lost of 145 crossings that he feels should be considered for removal.  Some of these are owned by local councils and some by Transport for London. In addition he is seeking to introduce a quicker crossing period at some sites and a countdown feature that would indicate seconds left to cross - presumably to make the pedestrians run for the last few feet. The message is clear: pedestrians are to be put firmly in their place and only allowed to delay motorists for a minimum amount of time. Living Streets has a petition against the introduction of countdown crossings in London.

Of course this will impact, as the image illustrates, on the very young, the elderly and those with disabilities. Think of the parent pushing a buggy, perhaps accompanied by a couple of under 5s trying to cross the road as the countdown increases in urgency.  As a former teacher, I know the difficulties and dangers of crossing London roads with a crocodile of children - especially when the group is split by rapid light changes.

If you add to this the decision by some local councils, with the loss of government subsidy, to do away with speed cameras, we are facing the prospect, after years of decline of an increase in the number of pedestrians killed and injured on the road.

Earlier this week Brent Green Party demonstrated at the Quainton Street. Braemar Avenue crossing on Neasden Lane  pointing out the dangers. MORE HERE  Pupils from two schools, Wykeham and St Margaret Clitherow, use these crossings which are close to bus stops.

Transport for London is consulting with local councils about the removal of crossing.  I hope Brent Council, whose crossings have often been funded by Transport for London itself as a safety measure, will resist any removals.

The Brent crossings on the list for possible removal are:

Willesden Lane - The Avenue - Cavendish Road
Brondesbury Park / Sidmouth Road
Brondesbury Park / The Avenue
Fleet water Business Centre (formerly Brentwater Estate)
Northbound
Brondesbury Park by Christchurch Avenue
Coles Green Road / Crest Road / Oxgate Lane

Neasden Lane/Quainton Street/Braemar Avenue

HAVE YOUR SAY ON CIVIC CENTRE AND ELIZABETH HOUSE REBUILD

The Civic Centre site

Brent Greens have previously asked searching questions about the lack of public consultation on whether the borough really requires a new Civic Centre.  The Council recently announced that they were consulting on the plans and a story in the local press and in the council's own Wembley Way told readers they could find details on www.brent.gov.uk/planning.  However this only takes one to the main portal and there is no direct link to the plans. You have to go through several menus and know the exact address or the case number to eventually get to the appropriate page.  The case number can only be found if you happen to have spotted it in the classified ads at the back of the local newspaper. Brent Greens have previously asked that important consultations should be linked from the Council's home page, or at least the planning portal.

Anyway we have decided to do the Council a favour and advertise the consultation, which officially closes on January 31st, although submissions can be made afterwards and may be taken into account if there is time to add them to papers before the Planning Committee. Follow this LINK to go to Civic Centre plans where you can also submit a response. The plans are likely to go to the Planning Committee at the end of February or mid-March. If you want to inspect the plans in details they are available at the Town Hall One Stop Shop, the Willesden Green Library and the planning department at Brent House. Case number 09/2450 and Planning Officer david.glover@brent.gov.uk

As the Council is itself the applicant in this case it is regrettable that the process has not been more accessible and the short time left to respond raises doubts about whether residents have been given a fair deal. You can't help feeling that the Council's decision to advertise for a contractor to finalise the design and build the Civic Centre withba closing date for tenders of February 10th 2010, before the Planning Committee considers the application, is jumping the gun somewhat. The Council hope to complete the building by the end of 2010.

One of the benefits the Council claims for a Civic Centre is that it will make it possible to dispense with their use of other buildings and we have asked at the Wembley Area Consultative Forum what they intend to do with the redundant buildings. We didn't get a very clear reply but this artist's impression gives a clue.  It comes from the documents submitted for the demolition and replacement of Elizabeth House in Wembley High Road (the offices and flats behind the petrol station next to St Joseph's church on Wembley Triangle and backing on to the grounds of St Joseph's School). The Civic Centre would free up other buildings in the area including Chesterfield House, Brent House and Mahatmi Gandhi House.

The plan is for a 13 storey building comprising 115 flats and a ground floor commercial unit. Follow this LINK to the planning documents. It is case number 09/2506 and is due to be decided no earlier than January 28th 2010. Planning Officer avani.raven@brent.gov.uk

RECLAIM OUR SCHOOLS

As the Wembley Park playing fields disappear beneath the ARK Academy building works there have been a number of developments on the academies front. The government has announced that private sponsors will no longer have to cough up £2m towards the cost of new academies and it turns out not many did so anyway. The government apparently believe this will squash claims that academies are a form of privatisation rather than create claims that our schools will now be given away to private companies. Giving away schools will no doubt mean that all sorts of strange private sponsors will emerge but the government promises a stringent procedure to vet them - let's wait and see.

The underlying assumption that private organisations, by their very nature, will be better at running schools has been challenged by the fate of Sheffield Park Academy. This Academy, run by United Learning Trust, took over from Walthe School which in 2004 was making 'satisfactory progress'according to Ofsted. Walthe was rebuilt at a cost of£8m in 1998 but in 2006 was replaced by the Academy which moved into new buildings costing £90m last year. The latest Ofsted inspection report on the Academy rates it as 'inadequate' in all categories and criticises its leadership and management -precisely the area which is supposed to give private sponsorship the edge. ULT is the largest academy sponsor with 17 schools.

To add to the confusion, arch-Tory Westminster City council has commissioned a report by Professor David Eastwood which recommends that local councils should have the power to take over failing academies. The commission warned that academies were refusing to cooperate with boroughs on developing coherent local plans for schools. The Evening Standard said that councillors feel 'politically vulnerable' because voters see them as responsible for education, despite them having no control over academies.'

The sooner the academies are brought back under the democratically accountable control of local authorities the better. Perhaps this could become an issue in the May 2010 local election so that the new school being built in Wembley Park belongs to us, the taxpayers and community charge payers, rather than a hedge fund millionaire.