Michaela's giant hoarding erected without planning permission

Following complaints from residents Brent Council confirmed this morning that the giant sign on Arena House had been erected without planning permission. Borough Planning Enforcement Officers are now investigating.

Suella Fernandes, vice chair of Michaela's governing body and daughter of a former Brent Conservative councillor, is a barrister specialising in planning law.

In 2008 a planning application for a similar sized hoarding to advertise Wembley events (ref 08/1287) was refused on the grounds that it would:

have an adverse impact on visual amenity (and would be) a souse of distraction for users of the highway and create an unacceptable risk to highway safety

I would add other safety concerns if the hoarding became dislodged in high winds and ended up on the road or the nearby Chiltern, Metropolitan and Jubilee railway lines. Has the security of the fixing to the building been checked and a risk assessment completed?

Bob Blackman hoisted with his own 'one man, one woman' petard

Bob Blackman former  Leader of Brent Conservatives and now MP for Harrow East gets front page treatment in today's Sunday Mirror .LINK Cllr Carol Shaw, now a Lib Dem councillor but previously a Conservative councillor alleges the two had an 11 year old affair behind Blackman's wife's back, while they were both Brent Tory councillors.

Normally I wouldn't be interested in this, and the article has 'too much information' for my taste but it is politically relevant because Blackman recently came out against gay marriage, insisting that 'marriage had to be between one man and one woman'.

In this case it is a question of the personal is political.

Whilst he was leader of Brent Conservatives disputes arose which led to the formation of a 'Democratic Conservatives' group.  The disputes weakened Brent Conservatives and they were reduced to a rump at the last local elections and Barry Gardiner strengthened his position at the General Election in a seat formerly held by right wing Tory Dr Rhodes Boyson.

Many would dispute the Mirror's description of Blackman as a 'Top Tory'. However, he has attracted a lot of controversy and years ago, Ken Livingstone, in a parliamentary speech, accused him of being a ' municipal Robert Maxwell' LINK

On the other hand I found him an ally in the battle against the Ark Academy in Wembley when we were among the speakers at a public meeting at the Torch Pub in Bridge Road and both members of  a delegation to the GLA which also included Barry Gardiner MP.

Teather 'terrified' of impact of benefit cap on Brent families

Sarah Teather, Liberal Democrat MP for Brent Central has spoken out today on the impact of the benefit cap on her constituents. LINK

This is an extract from the Observer's story:

In an outspoken interview with the Observer, the Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather, who was sacked from the government in September, says the policy will have devastating effects on many thousands of children whose lives will be disrupted as their parents are forced to uproot from their homes.

Teather predicts that there will be a "reverse Jarrow march" in the run up to next April, when the cap comes into force, as families head out of London in huge numbers, in search of new homes.
Accusing ministers of a deliberate attempt to denigrate those who cannot find work, Teather says she saw clear evidence while in government that the policy would not save money and that it would inflict immense social damage.

While accepting that the wider aim of encouraging people off benefits and into work is the right way forward, she says that imposing a cap on people who live in areas such as her own Brent Central constituency in north London, where rents are high, will have a "horrible" and "traumatic" impact. She also claims that the primary motive behind the policy, which has strong public support, was a desire to court popularity by unfairly demonising the poor.

"There are all sorts of things you have to do when times are tight that have negative consequences but you do them for good purposes. But to do something for negative purposes that also has negative consequences – that is immoral," says Teather. She praised Nick Clegg for showing "immense courage" in limiting some of the effects of welfare cuts and urged her party to fight as hard as it possibly could to prevent more. She said many people in her constituency, which is one of the most ethnically diverse and deprived in the country, did not realise what was about to hit them next April.

Middle-class families were also ignorant of the huge impact of the changes on those around them, particularly on children, because of the caricatures peddled by government and the rightwing press about those on benefits. She believes the effects may only sink in when children from "nice middle-class families who send their kids to the local primary school come home and say 'my friend has just disappeared'. I think then it might hit home and they might realise a whole set of children have disappeared from the class."

Teather added: "I am frankly terrified about what is going to happen. A lot of these families do not know what is going to happen to them … How good is the education system at working out where that child has moved to? How good is the child protection system going to be at working out where children have moved to? I don't feel confident of that."

The local council estimates that more than 2,000 people in Brent will end up losing at least £50 a week when the cap comes in. At the top end, 84 families will lose about £1,000 a week. Many will be driven out of the area, including thousands of children.

She accuses parts of government and the press of a deliberate campaign to "demonise" those on benefits and of failing to understand that those in need of state help are just as human as they are. With vivid outrage she describes the language and caricatures that have been peddled.

"Whenever there is any hint of opposition they wheel out a caricature of a family, usually a very large family, probably black, most likely recent immigrants, without much English, lots of children, apparently chaotic, living in a desirable neighbourhood that middle-class people would like to occupy. That is the caricature and of course it is a partial spinning of the truth and it allows the demonisation to take place.

"I would really urge particularly Conservative colleagues but people in all parties to be careful. I don't think we can afford to preside over a society where there is a gradual eroding of sympathy for people at the bottom end of the income spectrum and a rapid erosion of sympathy for people on benefits."