 |
| Regeneration: The Peel Project on South Kilburn Estate |
John Duffy is standing against Labour and the other parties in Kilburn. On his blog Kilburn Calling he explains why. I reproduce what he has to say here. Publication on Wembley Matters does not imply agreement with what he says or endorsement by Brent Green Party.
Many Kilburn residents will never go the Civil Centre,
They just pay their rents and council tax and get ignored by an out of touch
administration who are seemingly unaware of the problems deprived areas like
Kilburn face. Like every other part of Brent, Kilburn is affected by the
failure of the council to develop and improve basic services.
However I will not stand back and say that Brent do
everything wrong as that is not the truth. I believe the council performs well
in many difficult areas like Adult Care, Housing Allocation and other stress
areas but over the last few years we have failed miserably in Environment
and Regeneration policy.
For some reason Environmental Improvements are not a high
priority and are never co-ordinated. Brent is second from bottom in West London
on recycling. The Labour cabinet wasted the last four years, failing to introduce
any School Environmental Education programme for schools concerning littering
/dumping rubbish/ recycling or other anti social behaviour. The cabinet
preferred to squander valuable resource on a private company who took them to
the cleaners.
They continue to increase environmental taxes on green
bins and bulky waste collections. Recently the Lead Member put up the cost of the permits
for NHS Health visitors from £140 PA to £330 PA, which is a
staggering increase of 137 % ,when inflation is 3% (The NHS has enough
financial problems without the Brent Labour Group putting the boot-in) at
the same time they allowed contractors a Brent style diplomatic immunity
parking permit allowing them to park on any road in Brent for £8 per week.
The
cabinet are also planning to put up daily visitors permits from £1-50 to £3 per
visit knowing this will isolate many vulnerable people particularly the
elderly. I often feel because of bad policy making by the Cabinet
Kilburn is the pothole and uneven pavement centre of London. On Friday I saw
Brent were putting speed bumps on Willesden Lane next to potholes as big as
footballs , without any attempt to repair them at the same time…… that’s what I
mean by no co-ordination.
However as much as I have concerns about environmental
policy, by far the worst policy being promote by the Labour Party is the
regeneration of South Kilburn. The Labour Party have used every piece of land
(some of it sold on the cheap) in South Kilburn, to build houses many for the
private sector, which are worth up to £1million pound each. Local residents
have given up green space, had to withstand thousands of lorries careering up
and down their roads with the obvious air and noise pollution, while they got
on with lives. The reward for putting up with these hardships was the promised
a Health Centre that has not appeared and community investment. Instead the
Labour Party in the Civic Centre tried to close the Granville and Carlton
Centre together with Granville Plus Nursery School to
build more private housing without any local consultation.
The residents have now been told that £1.2 million
Pounds the residents were promised from developers Via the Community
Infrastructure Levy
(CIL), will not be ringed fenced for Kilburn Ward instead will be used outside
of Kilburn. The money from the levy is legitimately owed to Kilburn for the
hardship they endured and should be ringed fenced for Kilburn. It is illegitimate for
the Labour Party to try and take it away from a deprived area to spend on less
deprived areas who have not suffer the hardship of Kilburn.
At the same time the local Kilburn Labour Party (at nearly
every meeting) are completely disconnected to residents everyday concerns.
They are busy either passing resolutions about expelling Israeli diplomats,
homeopathic medicine being on the NHS or paying women for housework. Many of
these issues can be important, but NOT at the cost of ignoring the residents of
Kilburn. That should have stood -up to the council.
Those who know Kilburn, know the legend that the famous
highwayman Dick Turpin used to drink in a local pub after robbing stagecoaches.
So Kilburn is well used of dealing with robbers. Of course the different
between “ Dick “ and Brent Council is at least “Dick” wore a mask.
I am standing (up) for Kilburn and hope people will
support me. I will be updating during the campaign on Kilburn -Calling
web-site.
-->
