Upcoming Climate Events in Brent

 From Brent Council

July 2025 📣 Upcoming events for your diary you don't want to miss!  Church End and Roundwood Green Corridors Consultation If you live, work or study in Church End and Roundwood, we are seeking your feedback on proposed designs for Church Path and Longstone Avenue through a four-week consultation. 15 and 30 July Project Walkabouts (3pm-4:30pm) Give in-depth feedback while moving through the project area. Register your interest at: info@mpsmartertravel.co.uk Exhibition Events (4:30pm-7pm) Drop in to find out about the project and share your views at Roundwood Lodge Cafe. 29 July Accessibility Audit For those who consider themselves disabled to discuss the accessibility of the proposed designs. Register your interest at info@mpsmartertravel.co.uk Until 3rd August  Online Survey click the link below to complete the online survey.  If you require additional support to take part in the consultation, email: highwaysconsult@brent.gov.uk  or call 020 8937 5230 Complete the online survey Family Tree Walk 16 July, 3.45pm-5pm  Location: Longstone Avenue Open Space, Fry Rd, London NW10 3UB In Spring, Brent Council and Trees for Cities worked with local residents to plant 1100 trees in Longstone Avenue Open Space. This formed part of the Church End and Roundwood Green Neighbourhood and Green Corridors initiative.  Trees for Cities are now organising a Tree Walk to show residents where new trees were planted and why, how to spot their differences, and label the trees together for the benefit of others in the community. The walk will continue  road to Roundwood Park to see some more mature species. Sign up via the link below.  Sign Up North Brent Community Garden: Community Open Day North Brent Community Garden are inviting residents to come along to the growing space and explore opportunities to get involved. Please join a day of family fun, with activities suitable for all ages. This is a drop-in event.  19 July, 11.30am - 3.30pm Location: Wharton Close, NW10 2TG, opposite North Brent School, near Neasden Station. Kingsbury Repair Cafe  26 July at 11am Location: Shree Swaminarayan Mandir Kingsbury, 211 Kingsbury Road London NW9 8AQ Join us for a FREE residents’ event promoting repair and reuse in the community – hosted by the Shree Swaminarayan Mandir in Kingsbury. • Repair clothes with TRAID workshops • Fix your small electronic appliances with the Restart Project • Bike repairs with PeddleMyWheels • Bike Market - donate your unwanted bikes or purchase refurbished bikes This is a first come first served event. We cannot guarantee that everyone’s items will be seen. Book your ticket and get there early. Last entry 2.30pm. Sign up ‘This Ain’t Normal!’ - Youth Climate Film Project, Summer 2025  We are excited to invite your child(ren) to take part in ‘This Ain’t Normal!’, a youth-led creative climate film project happening this summer in Brent. Young people aged 8 to 21 who live in Brent are eligible to take part. The summer programme runs throughout August 2025, with twice-weekly sessions (Mondays and Wednesdays) from 10am–1pm, held at Brent Civic Centre, Engineers Way, Wembley, HA9 0FJ. Monthly follow-up sessions on the first Saturday of the month will continue from September 2025 to February 2026.  Sign up by contacting  climateemergency@brent.gov.uk via the link below.  Sign up Brent Civic Centre, Engineers Way, Wembley Park, Wembley, HA9 0FJ Manage subscription |  Unsubscribe |  Website

Plan a Growing Space in Church End Saturday 20th January

 

Today's local Black Lives Matter events - Kilburn Grange, Roundwood and Gladstone parks

Local events were organised at short notice for local people who could not attend the event in Central London. I have picked up these pictures via social media. Thanks to original posters,

Kilburn Grange Park (@Shelleb17)

Roundwood Park (@PukkahPunjabi)

Roundwood Park (Anita Whittaker)

Gladstone Park (via email)

Dawn Butler's speech at Roundwood Park  on Facebook LINK

Brent tells Youth Parliament, never mind the cuts - we've got a nice logo

Over the year Wembley Matters has catalogued the gradual disappearance of Brent's Youth Service. As concern over gangs and knife crime mounts the Council's answer to a question from the Youth Parliament seems incredibly complacent - they are basically told there are more cuts on the way and they must rely on the voluntary sector.

Question from Brent Youth Parliament to Councillor Mili Patel, Lead Member for Children’s Safeguarding, Early Help and Social Care:

What has the Council put in place for young people in response to the severe cuts to Youth Services?

Response:

Since 2015 the focus of services for young people has been in the voluntary sector through the Young Brent Foundation. However the Council continues to run regular universal youth activities from the Roundwood Youth Centre in Harlesden. Alongside this the site provides education, employment and training support for young people through Connexions services. 

To help enable all young people in Brent to connect with other providers of youth activities and services the Council has recently launched the ‘Brent Youth Zone’, a new, distinctive and mobile friendly website. A ‘search’ facility is a major feature of the website, together with information pages about health, ‘things to do’, personal safety, and employment advice. Many of the activities and services are inclusive, welcoming young people with SEND. Young people have been included in the development of the website. The logo was inspired by designs from a young person who entered a Brent-wide competition to brand the Brent Youth Zone. The website can be found at: www.brentyouthzone.org.uk

 

The Council as a whole must take further difficult decisions as part of the next phase of budget planning for the 2019/20 – 2020/21 financial years. In Children and Young People’s Services there are a limited number of services that could be considered for future savings and our continuing youth offer is an area therefore where consideration of resource savings need to be made. 

There are proposals to change the use of the Roundwood Youth Centre that will build on the current arrangements. If agreed, the site would be used during school term time for an Alternative Provision school setting, with evening and weekend youth activities being provided by the voluntary sector. This will help meet the need in the borough for local places and preventing permanent school exclusions. Currently a number of young people temporarily excluded from their secondary school setting attend alternative provision out of borough and this will be one solution to this issue. 

We are working with the voluntary sector through the Young Brent Foundation to make sure that services to young people continue from the Roundwood site and also that the broader Youth Offer across the borough is comprehensive, updated and secures charitable funding.

Risks involved in Brent Youth Service changes include £5m loss on Roundwood Youth Centre

The Cabinet on June 1st will consider a paper on the future of Brent Youth Service. LINK The Council has committed to cuts of 71%: £100k in 2016-17 and a massive £900k in 2016-17. This will result in a cut of  £1m compared to 2015 on net expenditure (£414,394 in 2016-17 compared with £1,414,34 in 2014-15).

They propose a 'third sector;' solution through the setting up of an independent organisation - 'The Young Brent Foundation' which would have charitable status. The Foundation would work with a range of voluntary organisations, social enterprises and charities and attempt to draw in support from grants and sponsorship.

The John Lyon Trust has told the Council it will welcome an application for a three grant of  £100k per annum to support core funding costs while the paper suggests running costs will be £177k per annum.

Although replete with vision and priorities based on the needs of the most vulnerable the paper does not disguise the risks inherent in the strategy.

The paper states that the running costs of the four youth centres (Granville, Poplar Grove, Roundwood and Wembley) cannot be met. They suggest a community asset transfer for Roundwood and activities by different providers under licenses or short-term occupation at the other centres.

They state: 'If no opportunities are identified for the Granville and Wembley youth centres, the Youth Service will have to consider vacating the premises as there will be no funding available within the budget envelope to pay for the running costs.'

Following discussion of the 'risks and delivery issues' associated with community asset transfers the report states:

In the case of the Roundwood Centre current restrictions on the hours and type of use will also limit commercial opportunities for any new provider. An obvious implication is that there is a risk that youth centre provision at Roundwood would cease from April 2016 if a transfer was not achieved.

...If the Council is not able to fund or secure an alternative provider to run youth provision at Roundwood, the Council could also be required to repay, in full or in part, the National Lottery grant of £4.997m which was used to support the development of the centre.

Readers will remember that the closure of Stonebridge Adventure Playground also involves a payback to the National Lottery.

The paper proposes the continuation of the Brent Youth Parliament at a cost of £60k per annum  because of its 'valuable role in within the Council's decision making process'  with its transfer to the corporate team in the Chief Operating Officer's department.

This is an interesting move as one would expect the Youth Parliament to be at the forefront of a campaign to save the youth service and thus assert its independence, while at the same time the proposals ensure the YP's own survival.

The Youth Parliament, if the Cabinet accepts the proposals, will be part of a consultation on the proposals that start this month and will culminate in the strategy for the future of the service to go to Cabinet in October 2015.  The paper notes that a Full Council decision may be required.

In the budget discussions earlier this year the Council managed to deflect concerns about the future of the youth service, which initially seemed to entail the total closure of the service, through this review. Although they will argue that this does not amount to total closure it clearly may eventually result in something very close to that.