Brent People's Revolt on three fronts

If Muhammed Butt thought that achieving 60 out of 63 seats on Brent Council at the local council election would mean a quiet life with no opposition to his one party rule, he has had a nasty surprise.

He is currently faced with three 'people's revolts', in Stonebridge, St Raphael's Estate and South Kilburn.  Not coincidentally these are three areas of Brent with, to use the jargon, 'disadvantaged' populations:  diverse, ethnic minority and working class.  They feel failed and marginalised by the Labour Council but are organising and fighting back.

Far from accepting Brent Council's back door attempt to remove the Bridge Park Complex from the community, Stonebridge residents have won the first round of a legal challenge in the High Court and mobilised mass support, most evident in the public meeting, covered by this blog, of more than 1,000 people. They have not just mobilised people but have raised funds and attracted professional support in their battle. At the heart of the campaign is  anger at the council's lack of consultation with the community and a disrespect for local people.

Across the North Circular residents on the St Raphael's Estate are also organising with two public meetings tonight on the council's proposals to demolish the estate and rebuild partly financed by private housing. Residents see the proposals as backdoor gentrification which would mean the destruction of the existing solid community and loss of green space. They instead favour a refurbishment of the existing buildings but  fear that this is not really an options as far as the council is concerned. They too have had over-flowing meetings of local residents and are distrustful of the consultation process. Their billing of the meeting as 'by the people, for the people' shows where they are coming from.

South Kilburn has long been a thorn in Councillor Butt's side and having seen off Cllr Duffy he might have thought he was in the driving seat on regeneration proposals. Not so. The crowded public gallery at last week's Scrutiny Committee on the Carlton-Granville proposals, the record number of speakers from the public, and the representation of the community's opposition by two ward councillors was a powerful demonstration of people power. They raised fundamental questions about the council's consultation strategy as well as the lack of democratic accountability of the South Kilburn Trust.

Carlton-Granville comes back to the Cabinet on Monday April 15th with a report on the Scrutiny Committee's recommendations (incidentally not yet available on the council's website).

Both the Bridge Park and Carlton-Granville campaigners have put together well-researched alternative proposals to the council's and St Raphael's residents are developing their own vision for the refurbishment of their estate.

As far as I know there are currently no formal links between the three campaigns but if they came together they would represent a formidable force. Watch out Uncle Mo!

Latest community news from Sufra Foodbank and Kitchen - get involved!

News from Sufra Foodbank

If you walk into Sufra over the next few weeks don’t be surprised to find groups of young people lounging in the foyer, raiding the fridge or hovering around the office.

This summer, we’ve truly embraced the hug a hoodie mantra - throngs of young people are volunteering for the charity in the office, warehouse and the garden. Although it does mean tolerating some questionable music blasting in the background (Hotline Bling is a particular favourite at the moment) there’s a real party atmosphere.

I’ve met some amazing young people in the last week. There’s 14-year-old Adam who knows how to code pretty much anything, 16-year-old Sami who can tell you everything about breeding quails and is insisting on setting up a chicken coop in the garden, 15-year-old Davina who taught herself Chinese (as you do) and 16-year-old Ibrahim (he’s the “runner” we spoke about last time) who turns out to be an amateur film-maker.

Summer BBQ on St. Raphael’s Estate
We’re opening up the party to the whole community!

This Saturday, 30 July, we’re throwing our third annual Summer BBQ for St. Raphael’s Estate. This year there will be no queues for burgers – Daniels Estate Agents have kindly donated a super industrial barbecue to mark the occasion. We just have to hope that Ahmed, Parminder and Iwona can cook 500 burgers in 3 hours!

Alongside the barbecue, Dina and Ros will be offering exclusive tours of St. Raphael’s Edible Garden, Brent Start will be running workshops on healthy eating, cake-decorating and puppet-making (which is what I’m looking forward to!). Ibrahim and Adam will be selling oreo and strawberry milkshakes.

Come along to savour our culinary delights and learn more about Sufra NW London.

Kew Gardens to Bournemouth

We’re really grateful to Brent Community Transport who sponsored two trips to Kew Gardens and Bournemouth for our food bank users, who would not normally be able to afford a holiday or a day out.

One very sweet lady was overjoyed after returning from Bournemouth. “It was great to have some time to forget about all the problems at home.” Very cute.

St. Raphael’s Edible Garden

If you haven’t been around to Sufra recently, you’ll be surprised to see how far the garden has come along! Yesterday I picked the first peach from our mini orchard – our first harvest. It was emotional. And rather bitter for my taste.

Over the next month we need some burly lads to dig out the pond. [Girls I think you can issue a challenge here MF] To be fair, it’s already been dug out. It just needs to be deeper. Come along on Sundays, between 10am and 2pm to help out. Sign up here.

Bottle Appeal

If you’re organising your own summer party, don’t forget to collect all your 2 litre soda bottles and drop them off to Sufra. So far we’ve collected over 100 bottles to build a greenhouse on St. Raphael’s Edible Garden, but we need over 1,500 to make sure the roof doesn’t leak!

Rui has been busy in the garden building the frame of the greenhouse, but the walls are looking rather bare. It’s a perfect excuse to overdose on sugary drinks.

Summer Academy

There are no spaces left (I did warn you to be quick), but if you want to sign up in advance for our Food Academy in September, download a Registration Form here.

Other Volunteering Opportunities:

This isn’t the most exciting role to be fair... We need some volunteers to do some data entry – there’s some with over 1,000 records to be input. I won’t try and sell it. Even I would struggle, despite all my talents. But if you want an invite to Nandos, drop me a line. You will have to work from the office, but we’re flexible on days/times.

If chicken isn’t your thing, or you’re vegetarian, you might want to sign up for our next supermarket collection.

It’s a bit early, but at least you can’t make the usual excuses of having planned a day out with friends. It’s Sat/Sun 3/4 September at Asda Park Royal. If you can flirt with customers, this is probably the right role for you. Sign up here.

And finally, I look forward to seeing you on Saturday.

Yours,


Mohammed S Mamdani
Director