Showing posts with label James Powney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label James Powney. Show all posts

Thursday 12 January 2023

Brent Libraries - closure or 'transformation'? Putting the record straight


 

Mike Phipps reviews Transforming Brent Libraries, by James Powney, published by AuthorHouse, and sets the record straight on an important local struggle. Reprduced on Wembley Matters with the permission of the author. Furst published on Labour Hub.


Some years ago I was involved in a small way in the campaign to prevent the closure of a local library. Frustrated at the fact that the Chair of my Constituency Labour Party repeatedly and on specious grounds kept ruling out of order my branch’s motion opposing the Council’s cuts to local libraries – the CLP Chair was himself a Councillor, never a good idea – I gave an interview to the local paper.

I said there was real anger about the library closures and it was proving to be the most toxic issue for the Party locally since the war in Iraq. I added: “I think it is inevitable that James Powney will be held personally responsible for the way he has handled these closures.”

 

Naming this local Councillor, the lead member responsible for the closures, was not mischief-making on my part. It was intended to protect the local Party from a wrong, vote-losing policy, which was allowing local Lib Dem activists to grandstand over the issue – the same party in government that was cutting local authority grants which put councils in such a desperate financial plight. “The tragedy would be that the Liberal Democrats would benefit when it is their government pushing through these cuts,” I pointed out.

 

It must have been a quiet week in Brent, which is in northwest London, because the interview was put on the front page. It elicited a phone call from the Chair of the CLP, who had never contacted me before (or since), saying how much he admired all the work I did for the Party, etc., etc., but couldn’t I just drop this issue and move on?

 

That would have been difficult. The whole library closure programme felt like a great injustice locally, given that 82 per cent of residents who took part in the consultation said they didn’t want the libraries to close. In the interview, I said: “I don’t think the consultation was undertaken seriously and I don’t think that the process whereby local groups were invited to put their ideas forward to rescue the library was taken seriously either.”

 

The contempt with which campaigners’ alternative proposals were met by Councillors responsible now seems undeniable from the latest evidence – an account by the key perpetrator of the closure programme.

 

I didn’t know James Powney had written a book about all this until I saw a letter he wrote to the Guardian last December publicising it. Transforming Brent Libraries is mercifully short at 71 pages, and self-published, for good reason. It would be hard to see this making the best-seller list.

 

As Lead Member for Environment and Neighbourhood Services in the London Borough of Brent, Powney “oversaw the successful transformation of Brent Library service in raising both the total number of loans and visitors to become one of the most successful public library services in the UK,” trumpets the opening line of his biographical note.

 

But this doesn’t tell the full story. He also presided over the closure of half of the Borough’s libraries. The scale of protests – meetings, demonstrations, media activity, celebrity involvement – within and beyond Brent was immense. Powney later refers to protesters as a “baying mob”.

 

He claims the campaign was “principally led by a small number of single issue campaigners, many of whom were not from the area.” But the anger against the closures was very local and was reflected inside the local Labour Party where Powney was a Councillor.

 


 'Pop Up' Library outside the closed Kensal Rise Library

 

One of the most contested closures was that of Kensal Rise library, originally opened by Mark Twain over a century earlier. It was located in Kensal Green ward where I was Chair of the local Labour Party branch and which Powney represented as a Councillor. Meetings were poorly attended until the closures were announced. Then angry members began to turn up in droves. At the earliest opportunity, Party members voted to deselect him as their Council candidate.

 

In the Acknowledgements, Powney writes: “In writing this book, I should acknowledge some debts, possibly including the Friends of Kensal Rise Library (FKRL) who through sheer determination and litigiousness stretched the whole saga out to make enough material for a book.” This mocking, supercilious tone towards campaigners, invariably disparaged as “litigants”, becomes increasingly wearing as the book drags on. The unfortunate Powney finds he has do a lot of ‘explaining’ of how things work to the ignorant activists, a “continuous barrage” of whom had the cheek to turn up to his Councillor surgeries.

 

Equally ignorant, in this version of events, were the celebrities that campaigners sought to “drag in” to promote their cause. They are treated with some contempt here – apparently, celebrities care about libraries only because they remind them of their childhood.

 

Creative ideas to take over the running of libraries that the Council was seeking to shed from its remit are dismissed as the interference of a “lumpenproletariat”, hopelessly tainted by association with Cameronian notions of a “Big Society”.

 

At the end of this tedious rant, Powney attempts to draw some lessons from the whole sorry experience. The main one seem to be: what a pain pressure groups are, and how unscrupulously they are prepared to exploit their celebrity backing to “magnify the noise made without any interest in truthfulness.”

But happily, “After the decision is done, those who opposed it are surprisingly forgetful of the position they took.” That can’t be right – if it were, Powney would not have been deselected as a Kensal Green Councillor by his own Party.

 

It would be unfair to blames James Powney solely for this debacle. As he rightly says, all members of the Council Executive voted the libraries project though unanimously, despite what he concedes was a “massive petition” in opposition.

 


 

Arguably the campaign against library closures and the publicity it generated contributed to the ousting of the then leader of Brent Council in May 2012. By then the issue had been in the local newspaper virtually every week for eighteen months, taking up quite a few front pages, as on November 18th 2010, when the Willesden and Brent Times opened, under a banner headline “IT’S OUTRAGEOUS” with “Council chiefs spent more than £600,000 on refurbishing two libraries – just months before announcing plans to close them.”

 

Editor's note.  Many thanks to Mike Phipps for permission to republish this article. Search Wembley Matters for further coverage of the issue.

Wednesday 4 December 2019

Third Brent councillor resigns - now a Wembley Central by-election

Former Brent Labour Councillor James Powney has revealed on his blog that Cllr Luke Patterson has resigned.  This brings to three the number of Labour councillors who have resigned.

Brent Council has now posted this statement:

Councillor Luke Patterson, a local Councillor for the Wembley Central ward in the London Borough of Brent, has resigned today.

Councillor Patterson notified Carolyn Downs, Returning Officer and Chief Executive of Brent Council, of his decision to stand down with immediate effect. His resignation creates a vacancy for the office of Councillor for the Wembley Central ward. Two electors have contacted the Chief Executive to request a by-election which will take place on 23 January 2020.

The Notice of Election will be published on our website on 13 December 2019 and nominations will be accepted from 16 December to 24 December 2019.

Further information will be available after the General Election on 12 December 2019.
In the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact our Electoral Services team.

Thursday 24 May 2018

Tulip Siddiq's parliamentary assistant chosen to fight Willesden Green for Labour



Elliot Chappell, a parliamentary assistant to Tulip Siddiq MP (Hampstead and Kilburn) has been selected to be the third candidate on the Labour slate for the Willesden Green council election, following the death of Lesley Jones, whose funeral is on Tuesday next week.

Chappell, aged 26, who, despite appearances is not in a boy band, defeated Nyela Reid, Rajan Sellan, Iftekhar Ahmed, Conchita Varicak and James Powney who were also short-listed. He has previously worked on campaigns for David Lammy and Keir Starmer. His MSc (Democracy and Comparative Politics) thesis was on the 'European Union and the promotion of good governance'.

The election will be held on June 21st. Green candidates are Shaka Lish, who IS a singer, William Relton and Peter Murry.

Tuesday 1 August 2017

Is £17.8m spend on Wembley Stadium public realm a good use of CIL cash?



I am grateful to fellow blogger James Powney LINK for drawing attention to last week's Cabinet decision to spend £17.8m of Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) cash raised through the Quintain development on improving the Public Realm outside Brent Civic Centre and along Olympic Way.

Just in case we thought that there may be other areas of Wembley or Brent  that could do with an infrastucture uplift, Brent claim that there will be benefits for the borough as well as Quintain.  In particular they want a public square outside the Wembley Library and restrictions on Quintain's plans for site NW04 adjacent to the Civic Centre. They argue that this will support an 'education quarter'. The Council has told the College of North West London LINK that it wishes to acquire the College's Wembley Site and 'would not look favourably on planning permission for the required housing provision if the college proceeds with an alternative developer.'

 This is what the Officer's Report LINK had to say: 

To assist in achieving the vision for Wembley, a significant element in terms of place making is the provision of new and substantial steps to the stadium to replace the pedestrian way (‘pedway’) and works to the public realm between Wembley Park underground station and the National Stadium Wembley: Olympic Way. This will enhance the area, both from an aesthetic and functional requirement. 


Olympic Way as a piece of public realm is showing its age. It does not present the type of quality considered consistent with the environment necessary for a world renowned iconic venue and the wider Wembley Park development. In the context of other pressing infrastructure needs and other Council revenue spending requirements, a response might be that a significant Council funding contribution 
towards these changes should be a low priority. Nevertheless, this would be a simplistic and does not take account of all factors, including limitations associated with funding streams generated from development. CIL funding attained by the Council is specifically related to infrastructure and is not available to support Council general revenue spending. In addition this proposed change in public realm should be seen as part of a wider picture about what will be achieved in Wembley which will have far reaching positive impacts for Brent and its prospects.

Improved public realm has a key role in place-making. Such changes in their own right have the potential to totally transform the perception and function of an area. It can lead to enhanced social and economic value benefits that far outweigh the initial investment. Notable examples of the impacts of such transformational public realm changes are Regent’s Street, Granary Square at Kings Cross, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield and Liverpool city centres. Empirical evidence set out in valuing the Benefits of Regeneration published by CLG 2010 indicates a benefit cost ratio of 1.4 for public realm work. Specific evidence associated with Sheffield indicated that the £9.5 million invested in the Peace Gardens has generated £4.5 million visitor shopping/leisure spend per annum that otherwise would not have occurred. In addition it attracted commercial property investment and occupiers that otherwise would not have come, improving investment yields with the associated economic benefits of providing access to future investor funding. 


The transformational change of Wembley has and will continue to require strong partnership working between the Council, developers and key stakeholders. As part of providing certainty and support for investment, the Council has previously identified that it will use contributions generated by Quintain’s developments to support the new infrastructure. Key elements relate to where these contributions will be prioritised relate to the provision of new jobs and homes and improvements to the environment and public realm. As part of the shared vision for Wembley, the Council has worked closely with Quintain in identifying the quality of public space that both organisations consider is necessary to enhance the Wembley offer. 

Following a design competition, in which the council participated, Dixon Jones were selected as Architects and Gross Max as Landscape Architects for Olympic Way. Designs have been developed over a number of months that when implemented will: 

·                 Provide new hard and soft landscaping throughout 

·                 New coordinated crossing at Fulton Road 

·                 New Lighting columns with large banners and future digital screens 

·                 New Trees 

·                 Built in services to allow pop up and cultural events 

·                 Fast Wifi throughout 

·                 Containment for future digital screens 

·                 Wayfinding 

·                 Create a significant square outside Civic Centre 

·                 Remove of the Pedway and new substantial steps 

·                 Enhanced entrance to the stadium 

·                 New Retail / meeting point below new stadium steps 

·                 Removal of surplus ramps and steps adjacent to 1 Olympic Way 

·                 Cycle parking at Wembley Park station 

·                 Treatment to Bobby Moore Bridge 

·      Long term management arrangements through potential for designation as a ‘Area of special interest’ 

Powney, an ex-Labour councillor, comments:
I am not not reassured by the opacity of Quintain's relationship with the Council, or what often strike me as the perverse judgements of Cllr Muhammed Butt in planning matters, or the degree to which the Planning Committee is independent of the Council Leader's influence. 
Agreed.




Friday 21 April 2017

After closing half its libraries Brent Council agrees Memorandum of Understanding with volunteer libraries

The Brent Council Cabinet is set to approve a Memorandum of Understanding on Community Libraries at its meeting on Monday.  In 2011 the Council closed 6 of the borough's 12 libraries in what they called the Libraries Transformation Projects. Local residents launched campaigns to keep four of the libraries open: Preston, Kensal Rise, Cricklewood and Barham. Neasden and Tokyngton libraries, the former in a very needy area, appear to have gone for good.

The SOS (Save Our Six Libraries) campaign was faced with the dilemma of campaigning for the retention of securely financed, professionally staffed libraries or keeping a local facility going through a volunteer system and fundraising. Some campaigners thought that keeping some kind of service going temporarily would make it easier for a future administration to restore the library.

The Brent libraries issue became something of a national scandal and contributed to Cllr Muhammed Butt's overthrow of Cllr Ann John's Labour leadership. In the event Brent's closures were ahead of the field and other councils, of various political complexion, have since closed libraries  citing government cuts as the reason. Currently there is a militant campaign in Lambeth LINK.

Since then there have been attempts by various lead members to reach an agreement with the volunteer libraries with Preston and Barham facing particular difficulties because the Council is the landlord of their premises.

The Officers' report LINK sets out the current situation:


Brent’s community libraries receive no direct funding from Council library service budgets. They are wholly independent organisations. They are not included within the Council’s statutory service, and they have full flexibility to tailor their offer to local need and interest and are eligible for various funding streams as independent organisations.

 The four community library premises are:
·      Barham Library, 660 Harrow Road Wembley HA0 2HB (15 year lease)
·      Cricklewood Library, 152 Olive Road, London NW2 (999 year lease being finalised)
·      Kensal Rise Library, Bathurst Gardens, London NW10 5JA (999 year lease being finalised)
·      Preston Community Library, 2 Carlton Ave East, Wembley HA9 8PL (currently has a temporary lease arrangement).
The MoU (see below) sets out various ways the Council will support the community libraries without committing to any additional expenditure.

The case of Preston Community Library, where uncertainty remains over its premises as Brent Council seeks to redevelop the site, is addressed directly:
 
A temporary lease arrangement is in place until the end of the 2016/17 school year as a short term solution. Long term plans for the site are at the development stage.
 In September 2016 Cabinet agreed to redevelop Preston Park Annexe for new homes and D1 space appropriate for library use. Since then the Council has appointed 5Plus Architects to lead the design of the redevelopment proposals and undertaken workshops with Preston Community Library to understand their long term service delivery needs and spatial requirements. The next stage of the design process will be to translate the findings into a design solution that is supported by Preston Community Library. Further consultation will then be undertaken on design proposals before final decisions are made.



The development of the site will provide a potential long term solution for Preston Community Library. However at present the medium term options for the library are not clear. Officers will continue to work to address this with the library within the constraints of the Council’s property portfolio and market options.

 Council officers recognise the strong social value provided by Preston Community Library and are keen to support the group in continuing to provide a service throughout the transition process
In a curious post on his blog LINK, former councillor James Powney, lead member at the time of the Transformation Project, says:
In Barham, Paul Lorber appears to be trying to play the Council for either financial gain or as part of his political manoeuvrings prior to the 2018 elections.  In Preston, the existing group appears to be given an undue influence that does not sit easily with either the Council's financial obligations or the building's ACV status.  Such arrangements can lead to ugly rumours about the integrity of Council decision making even where there is no legally proven case against them. 
  This is the Memorandum of Understanding: