Lycee confirmed for Brent Town Hall

The Kilburn Times LINK today confirms my story of December 21st 2012 that an independent French school has purchased Brent Town Hall.

Tanks at Brent Town Hall on Monday?

 

It is likely to be a busy and rather tense weekend in Brent Labour circles as final figures are totted up to see whether a potential plan to topple Muhammed Butt has enough support.

Action now would enable a new leader to take over before the final decisions are made on the 2013-14 budget with controversies remaining over the level of Council Tax, the London Living Wage and departmental budgets.

As I write it seems that the threat to Butt's has diminished slightly over the last few days but the arithmetic is very tight. He defeated Ann John by only one vote last May so in theory it only requires one vote to switch.

Rather than a left/right division it appears that this is almost a generation split with reports that the move has been spearheaded by a senior councillor and ex-member of the Executive who had a reputation as a left-winger in the 1980s.

During his period in office Muhammed Butt has promoted younger councillors such as Krupesh Hirani and Michael Pavey and built up a team of younger supporters whilst at the same time retaining the support of some Labour heavyweights.

As Brent Town Hall witnesses the last of its dramas (or will it all fizzle out?) the new Civic Centre awaits the triumphant entrance of the Leader.

Watch this space...

Meanwhile the battle for the Labour nomination for parliamentary candidate for Brent Central is hotting up with up to six names in the hat according to reliable sources.  Cllrs Val Kalwala, Choudry and Mashari have all been mentioned. The latter would benefit if Labour decides on an all-woman short-list and she would be pitted against Dawn Butler.

Brent Council Budget consultation dates announced

Brent Council Budget Consultation  dates were announced at Willesden Connect tonight. They are:

4th Feb 2.30-4.30 @ Brent Town Hall

7th Feb 7-9pm @ Paul Daisley Hall, Brent Town Hall

But Cllr Aslam Choudry said that there would not be much opportunity to influence the budget since it was pretty much a 'done deal'.

So that's okay then! 

Some questions I asked Brent Council at Wembley Connects last night

SOAPBOX QUESTIONS (Answers to be given at the next session)

1, With mattresses discarded on the street and increased fly-tipping as a consequence of short-term rental accommodation changing hands frequently, will the council consider producing leaflets on recycling and bulk collections (in appropriate languages) and require that landlords and letting agents give them to new tenants?

2. Can the Council give us an assessment of the impact on the Wembley Park area of an increase in school pupil numbers as a result of the Michaela Free School likely to move into Arena House (the ex-CNWL building) opposite Wembley Park station, an independent 1,500 place French School opening in  Brent Town Hall and Ark Academy numbers due to increase over the next few years as the school reaches full capacity? (Not to mention Preston Manor All-Through School just down the road.)

3. When are we likely to see the affordable family housing promised for the Quintain development in the Wembley Regeneration around Wembley Stadium? With 15,000 on the housing waiting list this is urgently needed. (Quintain is currently building a Designer Shopping Outlet, multi-screen cinema and private student accommodation)

4. Now that the Wembley Stadium car park is moving to the land  around the 'Green, public transport based' Civic Centre giving 1,350 parking places, will there be a parking charge for council workers, coucillors and visitors to the Civic Centre and the Library.

QUESTION TO CLLR KRUPESH HIRANI AFTER PRESENTATION ON ADULT SOCIAL CARE

1. Isn't there a tension between your statement that you will make saving on adult social care costs by 'squeezing providers' rather than change  eligibility criteriam and the Council's commitment to the London Living Wage?  Squeezed providers will save money by paying lower wages and thus reduce the quality of the service.

A. Cllr Hirani said that the London Living Wage Foundation has recognised the difficulties that councils had in paying the LLW to care workers - the cost would be millions. London boroughs were working with the Foundation to plan how to deal with the issue. He said some savings could be made by joint procurement with other boroughs.

'Green' Civic Centre to be surrounded by huge car park

Brent Council has been boasting about the controversial new Civic Centre's green credentials but one green credential - accessibility based on use of public transport - has been unpopular with councillors themselves and with many staff.

Anyone seeing the packed car park at Brent Town Hall for the recent full Council Meeting, and the overflow on King's Drive, could see that it might be hard to prise councillors out of their cars. Watching the area around the Civic Centre being levelled may have aroused suspicions amongst locals.

Muhammed Butt promised grumbling Labour councillors that he would see what he could do and 'Hey Presto!' the council has received a planning application for a temporary 1,350 space car park in the land surrounding the Civic Centre (the unnamed rectangle on Engineers Way below):

 The original plans for Quintain's redevelopment area did include 3,000 plus car parking spaces in the area although the Stadium was sold as a public transport destination. The nearby multi-storey car park is being demolished as part of the Designer Outlet development. The car park above would only be temporary while another parcel of Quintain land is developed and the developers argue that it does not increase the overall number of parking spaces.  Clearly the car park  will occupy a large and lucrative site that Quintain will eventually want to build on.

The plans will keep councillors quiet for a while but they will not be able to get too comfortable with their new parking facility.

Nearby businesses and schools currently make money from event day car parking and this income  is likely to be hit by the new car park which will be much more accessible. It remains to be seen how much councillors and council workers will have to pay for their parking and whether Quintain will offer them a reduction compared with the general public.

The application is dated 27.12.2012 and will be decided no earlier than 17.01.2013 Details: LINK

French parent voices doubts about Wembley Lycée

French parents in Central London have not been too impressed by the possibility of a  Lycée in Wembley.  A  French parent sent me this statement:

We were all surprised by the decision because it does not reconcile with Wembley regeneration plans with the creation of jobs for the Wembley local community nor the creation of school places for the local Wembley kids !! Basically it will be a rich kids school for parents living in Westminster and Chelsea. Although the last Brent Executive meeting suggested that they needed the money for the new Civic Centre (last Brent Executive minutes on the net).

Indeed a French school will provide jobs for builders for a while and a few 'dinner ladies'. The rest of the staff lives in Central London. The French children going to school in Wembley will be transient i.e. go into the borough for school and go back home to their Central London homes. Most French families live in the vicinity of the current schools. 

The French community is not happy with the choice of Wembley because they will be imposed Wembley for their children regardless of their home address in London. 

In France and in the UK, the school for your children is normally decided upon by your home address. This means that for those French parents who have three children at different school  locations (South Kensington, Kentish Town, Wembley) will be expected to do the school run between South Kensington,. Kentish Town and Wembley simultaneously for 09.00am by tube!!! 

When asked about this, the French Embassy dismissed the parents' concerns. with a 'take it or leave it' attitude.

Moreover French parents are very worried at letting their 10-11 years old children commute on their own from Central London to Wembley and back. The timings of the French school day is anything between 08.00 and 18.00 (unlike the UK). Furthermore, it appears that the children might have to walk 15 minutes or so, on their own, from Wembley Park station into a tunnel/motorway to reach Brent Town Hall. Again the Embassy does not seem to be concerned about the safety or welfare of kids nor about the time that these kids will need to spend in commuting  from their home in Central London to go to school and back.. The Embassy is treating children as though they were adults going to a new place of work.

Another problem? What will happen when there are no tubes to get from Central London to Wembley? bus? car? What time of the morning will these kids need to get up if taking a bus from South. Ken or Battersea to go to Wembley for 09.00!? Again the French Embassy did not seem to care too much.

French to storm Brent Town Hall?

Following my earlier posting on the mysterious bidder for Brent Town Hall I have received the following information.  It seems to make as much sense as any of the other rumours and we know that the French population of London is rising and Wembley Park has good communication links:

There are rumours that it might have been purchased by the French to open  a French secondary school just for their French children to carry on with  their French education over here in the UK. 

The French have a few French schools  in Central London but can no longer accommodate the growing demand for the

Certainly Brent Town Hall features in a document from the French Embassy on school places provision issued by the French Embassy in July. It appears to be among several possible sites in the suburbs  with a site in Queens Park also named.  All share the disadvantage that French parents are unlikely to want to see their children commute out of Central London. See section III

Secrecy surrounds Brent Town Hall bidder

Brent Town Hall this evening

The identity of the potential purchaser of Brent Town Hall is the subject of some speculation following the Council's decision to keep many documents secret at the recent Executive that approved sell-off plans.

The disposal of the site is not as straight-forward as first thought. The report to the Executive noted:

The Town Hall land is subject to a number of covenants including a covenant that no part of the land shall be used for any noisy noisome or offensive trade or for the erection of workmen’s dwellings or flats for the housing of the working classes other than such quarters or caretakers lodgings as are usual and necessary in connection with a Civic Centre.

There is the risk that the above covenant could be capable of being enforced by injunction thus preventing the construction and use of the site for a redevelopment consistent with the Town Hall Planning Brief. The appropriation and use of Section 237 powers is required with the object of removing this risk and to facilitate the carrying out of redevelopment scheme.

The application of Section 237 powers would ease the problems although there is still a risk of legal challenge. Another issue is that the site includes open space in the marriage garden that borders The Paddocks. I for one missed the following advertisment in the local press:

The Town Hall site includes a Grade II Listed Building and open space.Public notice of the proposed appropriation to planning purposes of the Town Hall site under Section 122 of the Local Government Act 1972 and disposal of the open space under Section 123 of the Local Government Act 1972 was advertised in the local press on 13th and 20th September 2012. No objections were received

The site concerned can be seen in the pan below and covers a considerable area:

There have been rumours in the past about the possibiolity that the site could be used as a school and the need to address the problem of  'noisome uses' and the inclusion of the public space might reinforce that. The need for getting maximum profit from the site and the proxomity of the Ark Academy  had seemed to make that unlikely but the report includes this intruiging passage - again we don't have sit eof the confidential item in question:

Comments on end user

Members are asked to note the confidential letter received at Appendix 3.

As the Executive is aware from the report considered at its August meeting, the Council is projecting a shortfall of school places and has developed plans to expand primary provision. In addition, proposals to increase secondary provision (where the demand is manifested in later years) will be brought to the Executive for consideration in January.

The Town Hall is not identified specifically as an education site and is not factored into any of these plans, firstly (in terms of secondary provision) because of its close proximity to Ark Academy and secondly because its sale at market value is required to enable the Council’s move to the Civic Centre.

Education uses outside the state-funded sector on this site might have some wider benefits for the local population but their impact would be mainly neutral in terms of their impact on local state education provision.

The last paragraph seems to suggest that there might be the possibility of use by a private school. The Swaminarayan may have decided not to apply for free school status at present but would they be interested in this site?  It is a long way from the Swaminarayan Mandir but is more central and closer to Harrow which supplies many of the pupils. The school told me last month:

The Swaminarayan School is considering applying for Free School status. Whilst we have not found a site, we would wish to locate to a site in the heart of the Hindu community. The excellent education that the school provides at present will be open to all.

Even if free school status is rejected, would they be interested in a prestigious site such as the Town Hall?  Is it 'in the heart of the Hindu community'?

This is pure speculation but I did report back in May 2009 LINK that the Swaminarayan were considering a move to the north of the borough. This would free the present site, which used to be that of Sladebrook High School, as a possible site for a much needed secondary school in the Harlesden area - with the added bonus of the neighbouring Centre for Staff Development becoming free when it moves to the Civic Centre in Summer 2013. As I said pure speculation....

Meanwhile the report approvingly notes that in the bidder's plans for the Grade II listed building::

The key ‘character spaces’ in the existing building are thoughtfully used with minimum design intervention, and the extensions are shown in locations that the brief identifies as being suitable for additional building/enlargement.

Brent Executive meets in private after Counihan protest

Following a protest by the Counihan Family Campaign in Committee Rooms 1-2 this evening, the Brent Executive adjourned to another room to meet in private. Although I had a public gallery ticket for the meeting I was not admitted.

Apologies to readers for the lack of a report on the important decisions due to be made tonight.

Brent Town Hall Customer Services to end Nov 12th

From Monday 12 November 2012 Brent Customer Services will no longer be at Brent Town Hall.

You can visit Brent Customer Services at Brent House, 349-357 High Road, Wembley, HA9 6BZ instead for information or advice about:

• housing and council tax benefits
• council tax
• school admissions
• recycling and waste
• planning
• social care
• general council services.

They are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm

The Olympic Torch in Wembley

See the BBC video here LINK

 Wembley High Road 10.49 Wembley Park station 11.46 Forty Lane 11.47 (Chalkhill banners)

End the Counihan family's stress. Demonstrate on Monday.

Message from campaigners for the Counihan family.  Their plight will be repeated many times across the borough as the Coalition's housing benefit cap hits more families.

 

 We are coming together to demand justice from Brent Council for the Counihan family, who have been victimised by the actions of our council support agencies. We will be demonstrating outside Brent Town Hall, Forty Lane, Wembley on Monday July 16th at 6pm ahead of the Brent Council Executive's Meeting. Your support will be appreciated.

Isabel and Anthony Counihan and their five children, Vinnie, Aidan, AJ, Orla and Sarah, have been shunted out of the Brent to temporary housing in Ealing where they have been left since April2011 waiting for the Council to even make a decision on their situation, let alone re-house them in Brent.

Their story is an extreme and devastating example of the way lives are being ruined by benefit cuts, and the refusal to build council housing and regulate the private housing sector.  We are living in times when the powers that be think they can get away with punishing working-class people for the fact of our being poor.

Across London poorer people, especially young people, are being pushed out of the city to make way for the better off. Glenda Jackson MP's response to the family's plight was “you can't afford to live in London”. This has been echoed by council officers: Brent Housing Advice advised the family “they could afford to live in Wales”.

We are saying to Brent Council that they must immediately find the family appropriate, secure and really affordable housing in the borough -and put an end to the unbearable stress and hardship that would have totally broken many people long before now.

The Counihans have nothing to justify -their need is clear and we support them unconditionally -but their story may help illustrate how the council is failing in their moral and legal responsibility to assist people in difficult circumstances, but instead mounting attack after attack to remove people from the area.

We ask you to join us in supporting the Counihans and invite other people facing similar injustices to come forward and challenge together the vicious policies and practices of the council.

For more information, to support the Counihan’s, or raise your own issue contact:

Lesley Ryan -London Irish Centre (personal capacity): 07894 348 610

Gerry Downing -Brent Trades Union Council and Brent Fightback: 07792 966 910

Clarence -Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group: 07752 574 943

Now rubbish lands on the Town Hall's doorstep

We are all becoming familiar with the mattresses that are left all over the borough, often it seems after short-term tenants move from a property (or are evicted).

One arrived on the Town Hall's doorstep at the weekend and was still there earlier this week.

Town Hall Hotel in Wembley?

From 'The Caterer and Hotel Keeper'

Conversion to a hotel is a possible option for the future of Brent Council's Town Hall, which is soon to be put up for sale.

The Grade II-listed 1930s building, which sites on a five-acre site with views over London, is to be sold as its life as a town hall will end with the opening of Brent's new Civic Centre in June 2013. It is hoped that a new owner, who will preserve the heritage of the building, will be found before the council leaves.

Property agent Colliers International has helped the council prepare a planning brief, in conjunction with a heritage report, which says the building could be converted to a hotel or be used as a residential, healthcare, leisure or retail development.

A precedent for the conversion of a Grade II-listed former town hall to a hotel was created with the £20m opening in Bethnal Green of the Town Hall Hotel and Apartments, in 2010. The hotel went on to win the RICS London Award for Building Conversion.

Major disruption on Forty Lane

Following a road accident outside Brent Town Hall Forty Lane has been closed off and traffic is being diverted via Kings Drive and The Paddocks.

Brent and Kilburn Times coverage LINK

Only a few days left to have your say on future of Brent Town Hall

Brent Council is consulting on a Supplementary Planning Document for the future use of the Brent Town Hall once the new Civic Centre is open.  The consultation closes on Monday January 16th. CONSULTATION LINK

The Town Hall is a Grade 2 listed building.

The Council state:

In 2013, Brent Council is moving to a new state of the art New Civic Centre which means that our grade II listed Town Hall on Forty Lane, will be retired from civic duties.  The Town Hall has been at the centre of local governance in Brent since 1940; but is now unable to provide the facilities that our residents and clients expect of an efficient up to date public service.  However, the Council is very keen to ensure that the Town Hall has a dignified, productive and useful new life and to ensure this happens has produced a development guide for prospective new owners of the building.

A draft Development and Planning Brief for Brent Town Hall has been produced to help with the marketing and sales campaign and will help guide the expectations and aspirations of potential buyers. It gives helpful planning and listed building advice on appropriate new uses, alteration of the existing building and the potential for extensions and new development within the site.

It is intended that the Brief will be adopted as a “Supplementary Planning Document”, which will help confirm it as a standard by which future applications for alterations and additions to the building and the site will be judged.  Before the guide is adopted, the Council is keen to hear your opinions on its contents and has set up this consultation exercise to ensure that all views are considered and reported to the Councils’ Executive at the adoption meeting in March.  The consultation will close at 12:00noon on the 16th January 2012.

Fury at Council Lock-Out on Cuts Decision Meeting

The Wembley Observer has posted this video of the anti-cuts protest at Brent Town Hall on Monday.

Some interesting (and rather depressing) comments from inside the Council Chamber on the Save Kensal Rise Library blog HERE

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.

Lobby against library closures Monday 6.30pm Town Hall

Let us have a say on the future of Brent Town Hall

After reneging on their election promise to reconsider the Civic Centre project, the new Labour administration is now looking at the future of Brent Town Hall. At last month's Members' Question Time, Ann John, leader of the Brent Council, said that the Local Development Framework recognised that the Town Hall is a statutory listed building and that therefore the 'existing building would substantially remain'. However, there would be scope to extend the building and develop the land to the rear. John  expected staff to be decanted to the new Civic Centre during 2013 and the site made available for disposal.

Cllr John stated that capital receipts for the disposal had been built into budget for the cost of the Civic Centre and that this had been risk adjusted to taking the current economic climate into account.

Brent Greens have argued that the Town Hall should be retained for community use and Ann John said that the Council had agreed a range or combination of potential uses which would also include residential, small scale retail, a hotel and offices.  She said that a more detailed planning brief would be prepared prior to the marketing and disposal of the site.

As there was very little public consultation on the Civic Centre proposal we hope that there will be full public consultation on these proposals so that the people of Brent have a say on the future of their town hall.