Time to Save the Welsh Harp Environmental Centre yet again!

I don't really have to set out the case against the closure of the Welsh Harp Environmental Study Centre as Brent Council does it for me in the promotional video above.

The Centre has been threatened with closure on a number of occasions and each time schools, young people and former users, as well as environmentalists, have come to its defence. LINK

Thought to be in the 1980s

February 2011

The projected savings for closing the Centre are small £13,000 in 2015-16 and £14,000 in 2016-17. Current projected expenditure is £36,102 and projected income £23,000 (the Centre charges per head).

The Officer's report LINK suggests that Carey's, who currently fund one teaching post, might be interested in 'a greater role which could keep the centre open'. Carey's is the parent company of Seneca the waste materials reprocessing company sited between Wembley Park and Neasden.

Local Press on Council Cuts

Here is another round-up of the local press on cuts. Don't forget there is a demonstration against Brent Council cuts organised by Brent Fightback from 6pm on Monday February 28th outside the Town Hall. WWO is the Wembley and Willesden Observer and WBT the Willesden and Brent Times. These are only brief notes so do buy the papers for the full story.

CUTS     - CHILDREN
LIFELINE FOR SPECIAL NEEDS UNDER THREAT WWOp1  KIDS HIT BY LATEST CUTS WBTp1 Contrary to the Council's commitment to protect the front-line the portage service, which aims to give children with disabilities an equal chance in life is to be cut. A council spokeswoman admitted the service was important but said it was not legally required.
'RESTRUCTURING WON'T HARM CHILDREN'S SERVICES' WBTp2  PROMISE NOT TO CUT SURE START, BUT NO TO NEW CENTRES WWOp10  Despite cuts of £2.25m in children's centres, and not opening those at Sudbury, Cricklewood and Kingsbury. Denise Burke, Brent early years and childcare manager,  maintains that they will not affect the service and Cllr Mary Arnold says that young people are the victims of 'right-wing slash and burn attitudes to the welfare state' but expresses pride that 'we have found a way to protect all our centres'. However Sarah Teather MP, says that the government has put the same amount of money into the Sure Start pot but Brent Council has withdrawn £2.25m. She says children centres, services and staff are at risk.

CUTS - LIBRARIES
LIB DEMS: WE CAN SAVE LIBRARIES WBTp2, OPPOSITION'S ALTERNATIVE BUDGET TO SAVE LIBRARIES AND CENTRE WWOp11  Lib Dems propose an alternative budget to the one being voted on on Monday. They propose axing the regeneration budget and using £2.2m Labour were going to put into reserves. the would not replace the director of housing, reduce the administration costs of the neighbourhood working scheme and remove the London Weighting from Hay Grade salaries.  Cllr Muhammed Butt says that the £2.2m put into reserves is a one-off grant: "If we use it this year what do we do next year? This is not spare cash." The Lib Dems claim their budget would enable libraries to stay open for a year while alternative plans are formulated to keep them open, they'd reinstate green zones, cut £1m from the CPZ charges, save the Welsh Harp Centre and reverse the children centres cuts.
MP ATTACKS PLANS TO AXE HALF LIBRARIES IN BOROUGH WBTp4 'CUT SALARIES BEFORE YOU CLOSE LIBRARIES' WWOp5  Speaking at the Save Preston Library public meeting, Barry Gardiner MP attacks Cllr Powney over library closures and says libraries are essential to any civilised society. He questioned why there are 50 people in Brent Council who earn as much as Eric Pickles.
WE BACK THE LIBRARIES BATTLE WBTp17 Brent Arts Council backs the Save Our Libraries campaigns.
CLEAR SUPPORT FOR ESSENTIAL PUBLIC SERVICE WBTp17 A Queens Park residents calls on the Council to listen to residents and adapt their policy on libraries accordingly.

MP'S VIEWS ON LIBRARY POLICY QUITE RIGHT WBTp17 Richard Cross attacks Cllr Ann John for suggesting that libraries not so important now that books are available at supermarkets, second hand and from Amazon.
NEW TORY COUNCILLOR WILL FIGHT TO KEEP BRENT LIBRARIES OPEN WWOp10 Suresh Kansagra, who won the Kenton by-election. pledge to keep fighting against library closures.

CUTS - SPORTS FACILITIES
'USE IT OT LOSE IT' BID TO SAVE SPORTS CENTRE WBTp5 Simon Rogers of Brent Eleven Streets Residents Association seeks to save Charteris Sports Centre, the 'only community space' in the area and calls for the community to take it over. He says the worst scenario would be if the council gave them the centre without support 'but the most important thing for us is to keep the doors open'.
ANGER OVER THREAT TO LEGAL CENTRE WBTp7 After 'transformation project' as the word for library closures Brent Council has coined 'decommissioning' as the term for closing the Brent Law Centre. Former  Labour and Conservative councillors as well as current Lib Dems combine to criticise the move and say it will store up problems for the future. OUR VIEW WBTp17 Editorial making the case for the Law Centre and saying Monday's council meeting should not vote to cut it.

CUTS - PARK WARDENS
FEAR OF 'NO-GO AREAS' IF PARK WARDENS CUT WWOp13 PARC (Park Area Residents Campaign) are fighting to save the warden of Brent River Park (Tokyngton Rec. Monks Park) and fear that without the warden it will not be safe for families. Ten people will lose their jobs in park warden cuts and will be replaced by mobile teams.  Cllr Ann John campaigned for wardens eight years ago but says she has been forced to cut the funding and has no choice but to balance the books. She says if funding increases, wardens will be top of the list for reinstatement.

Primary teacher: Why we must retain the Welsh Harp and Gordon Brown Centres

Magic! The Welsh Harp at dusk

I think it's vital we maintain funding for both Welsh Harp and the Gordon Brown Centre. I've been taking groups to the Gordon Brown Centre for almost 20 years now. Every group has thoroughly loved the experience and learn much - it's simply an outdoor learning centre - learning in a fun way. ! Having taught year six for so many years every Science opportunity is brought out from the rings on tree trunks to the bees pollinating the flowers ( depending on the season) !

The same applies to the  the Welsh Harp. We have taken groups for geography over a number of years and our students attending the Shine programme have also used it in their programme on Saturdays for the past three years. We will also be using it for kayaking this summer as we have done before.

In all both are valuable as outdoor learning centres and it would be criminal for the little green space we have in Brent to be taken from us with the increasing number of flats being built. What lungs will we have left in Brent?

Mark Betts St Joseph's Junior  School,Wembley

Former Mayor backs Welsh Harp Campaign

The Willesden and Brent Times reports that Jim O'Sullivan, former Conservative Councillor for Barn Hill ward and a former Mayor of Brent has come out in support of the campaign to save the West Harp Environmental Education Centre.

He said, "It is a valuable asset for the schools in Brent and beyond. It should be saved in the interests of young people". Recalling past threats to the centre he said,  “There is a new generation of people who will hopefully have the same energy and determination to fight to keep the centre."

Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre - A History of Struggle

Previous demonstration in support of the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre (1980s?)

Willesden and Brent Times reporter Kate Ferguson managed to dig this photograph out of the archives after I mentioned there had been school pupil demonstrations in support the the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre in the past.  Along with the Gordon Brown Outdoor Education Centre, Brent's Hampshire residential field centre, it is non-statutory and is therefore threatened whenever cuts are needed.  Non-statutory does not of course mean 'not valuable' and Brent primary headteachers, governors and pupils have rushed to defend the Welsh Harp, deluging councillors with letters and e-mails.

Latest intelligence is that negotiations are going on with a private company that might fund the centre to some extent as a method of showing its green credentials and commitment to the community.  However, rather than just relying on this the campaign continues.

Viv Stein of Brent Friends of the Earth and Brent Campaign against Climate Change said, “Closing the Welsh Harp education centre will deprive Brent’s children of the unique opportunity to learn about our natural environment that this vital facility offers.  Teaching children about ecology and respecting nature is an invaluable life lesson that we all need to learn to protect our declining wildlife and precious natural habitats.

“This damaging decision is somewhat at odds with Brent’s responsibility to take a lead in improving green space projects and sustainability in schools, as part of the Council’s Climate Change Strategy.  It raises further questions about the credibility of the Labour administration’s supposedly “green” charter, and comes barely a year after cross-party groups successfully fought off a planning application that would have devastated the Welsh Harp nature reserve.”

Brent Youth Stand Up For Their Rights - and their youth clubs

More than  80 Wembley young peopl crowded into the Town Hall tonight to meet with Ann John (Council Leader), Muhammed Butt (Deputy Leader) and Mary Arnold (Lead Member for Children and Families)  and passionately defended the Dennis Jackson Club and Wembley Youth Centre.  The meeting followed a commitment made by Ann John at the Wembley Area Consultation Forum when youth raised the issue of cuts in youth provision.

Ann John outlined the Council's financial difficulties and put the blame squarely on the Conservative led Coalition government.  She said that the Council was having to take controversial decisions including the closure of six libraries, reduced waste collection, closing day centres for the disabled and closing the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre.

She said, "I can't tell you how many e-mails and letters we have received on these and other measures. People feel passionately and there are difficult decisions coming up on Children's Centres. We will be taking a lot of other unpopular decisions."

She emphasised that no final decisions would be made until the budget setting meeting on February 28th.

Speakers from the floor politely but passionately made the following points among many others:

• It is more expensive to send young people to prison than to run youth clubs to keep them out of trouble
• I am a peer volunteer at a Youth Centre and as a performing arts student able to use the space to provide dance activities for others. Where can I do that when it closes?
• What are we doing for the youth? Not just dance and other activities but we need debates to make us think
• Cut back some of the activities rather than closing the centres
• Our  Muslim girls' group provides basketball, ice skating, bowling, first aid training and enables them to do more outgoing activities in the future
• The youth club kept me smiling and motivated me when I don't think any other place could have done that
• I was new to the country and didn't know much English but the club helped me learn English with projects like youth and drugs and preparing for interviews
• It is not just basketball and other sports, we do driving theory classes, first aid training and craft activities
• We are coming up to the 2010 Olympics but our facilities are being taken away
• We understand your difficulties, we want to work with you and what what we have already. Can we do some fund-raising?

One speaker said that he had attend his centre as a small child and now volunteered as a young adult on music activities:

"We want you to come and see what we are doing. I haven't seen any of the managers (councillors?) at the centre. We want you to come and see more and do more. The centre has been neglected by the council. You give us so little that cutting it is an insult. Are chicken shops going to become our youth centres?"

 What the councillors said:

• People are waking up to the fact that if you don't make provision now you have problems later
• This is the worse financial situation local government has ever faced
• We didn't come on the Council to stop doing things. It's painful. We don't like it.
• We need to think outside the box and look at staffing costs and get a breakdown of the hours
• The cuts in respite care were painful. Do we stop  meals on wheels, care at home?
• We promise to take on what you say, go away and talk to other councillors in the Labour group and look at the budget but we won't be able to spend extra money and other people will be hurt
• If we can do something, we promise we will. We'll try and do what we can.

At the end of the meeting Ann John told the audience that she had been impressed by the range of contribution and by the eloquence of the speakers.

Brent Green Party have always pressed for enhanced youth provision as a vital community resource and strongly back the participation of youth in the democratic process through school councils, youth councils and youth parliaments.  We welcome the mobilisation of Wembley youth over this issue and support their campaign. Their speeches last night were clear, confident and convincing and challenged many of the current stereotypes of young people.

COULD THIS LET THE WELSH HARP 'REST IN PEACE'?

The peaceful churchyard at the 900 year old Old St Andrew's Church is only a few minutes away from the proposed housing development at the Welsh Harp.

There is a connection because it emerged this week that the site of the Birchen Grove allotments, the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre and the Greenhouse were areas set aside for a Kingsbury Lawn Cemetery last century. It was initially expected that the cemetery would be used for burials during the Second World War. However there were still arguments about it after the War and although a chapel was built (now an eco-energy centre near the Education Centre) alongside a shelter (still there on the Greenhouse access road) no cemetery was ever constructed.

In a paper delivered to the Nine Colloquiumon on Cemeteries at York University in 2008, entitled 'The Cemetery That Never Was', Brian Parsons said that the grounds had never been de-consecrated despite intentions to do so.

This clearly raises issues about building houses on the site. Additionally the issue of  chancel taxes, imposed by the Diocese of London arises. This is a tax raised by the Diocese for church repairs. Householders in the area close to Old St Andrew's are advised to take out a special insurance in case such a tax is levied. The land in question appears to come under the Archdeaconries of both Northolt and Hampstead.

I am advised that if the land is still consecrated this means that it is subject to 'faculty juridisction'. Any development or proposal that affects land or buildings that are under the faculty jurisdiction requires grant of faculty by the Chancellor of the Diocese following advice from the Diocesan Advisory Committee and the relevant Archdeacon. This would be in addition to any statutory planning approvals by the local authority or the Secretary of State.

This is a picture of the site in the 1930s,with  the 'new' St Andrew's in the background, which shows the extent of the area. A map in the document also indicates the land may have covered both the Brent and Barnet development sites.

WELSH HARP JCC OPPOSE GREENHOUSE DEVELOPMENT

The Welsh Harp JCC took the significant step of expressing its opposition to the Greenhouse application to build housing on its site at its meeting tonight. The development has been opposed by local councillors, residents and other organisations.

The application now goes to the Brent Planning Committee and representations can be made up to November 20th.  It is likely to be heard on December 16th.

PLEA TO BRENT COUNCILLORS ON WELSH HARP JCC

I wrote the following letter to Brent councillors who sit on the Welsh Harp Joint Consultative Committee  ahead of the meeting on November 11th. I wrote in my capacity as the organiser of  Brent School Without Walls which runs environmental education sessions for primary school pupils in Fryent Country Park. I also forwarded the letter to Natural England and the London Wildlife Trust who sit on the JCC.

Dear Brent Councillors,

I am writing to you ahead of this evening's JCC meeting to request that you do all you can to persuade the JCC to adopt a position of opposition to the proposed development of housing on the Greenhouse site. I know that the JCC does not make the final decision but I believe a strong stand on the issue, conveyed to the Planning Committee before their December 16th meeting, could be very influential.



Since the proposal was announced there has been a strong groundswell of local opinion against the plans. Two petitions opposing the development are currently circulating in the area and the 'Comments Book' at the exhibition at the Greenhouse itself contains many heart-felt, passionate pleas for the Welsh Harp to be defended. As local councillors I hope you will rise to that challenge.


As you know the proposed site is adjacent to the SSSI and MSINC and close to the Environmental Education Centre. The environmental report for the developer argues that a buffer zone of trees will be enough to mitigate the impact on the open space. I would strongly claim that this is not the case. The SSSI and MSINC need a much larger buffer zone to protect them. At present the limited opening hours of the garden centre and its large outside selling area, replete with plants, trees and shrubs, provide a buffer. This transition zone between housing and the open space will disappear and noise, traffic and light pollution; and loss of habitat, will have a direct impact on the wild life of the area. In addition the extension of Birchen Grove, across the open space, to provide access to the new estate will be a further loss of green field space. All these developments could have a detrimental impact on the diversity of the grounds of the Environmental Education Centre. Once housing has been developed on the Greenhouse site there will be inevitable pressure on the area between the development and Runbury Circle. This contains the Birchen Grove allotments, where I am an allotment holder, and the Environmental Centre whose work I strongly support.


Brent already has less green space than many other London boroughs and we must defend every inch of it. My mother played around the Welsh Harp as a child in the 1930s, and my brothers and sisters and I did the same in the 1950s when we visited our grandmother in Church Drive. I believe my life long interest in the environment stemmed from that experience and a similar one on Barn Hill. These are two gems of semi-wild areas that we have left in Brent and it is vital that we protect them and they are available to the next generation. London Heritage last year lamented the fact that Brent, unlike other London boroughs, had no official 'heritage champion' and suggested this explained the deterioration in Brent's conservation areas. In the absence of such a champion, councillors and residents should join together to be community heritage champions for the borough.

Martin Francis

WELSH HARP ENVIRONMENTAL CENTRE - A VALUABLE RESOURCE

The Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre is adjacent to the proposed housing development on the Greenhouse Garden Centre site.

The Centre is used by children from the boroughs of Brent and Barnet and wider afield and is an excellent and valued local resource,

Click HERE to see a video about the Centre's work.

FIGHT TO KEEP OUR DIMINISHING NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

Concern over the possibility of housing development on the Greenhouse Centre site at the Welsh Harp has increased in both Brent and Barnet since the Wembley Observer followed up the story first carried on this blog.

The development will be discussed by the  Welsh Harp Joint Consultative Committee at 7.30pm on Thursday 11th November in the Council Chamber at Brent Town Hall, Wembley. The JCC consists of councillors from Barnet and Brent, users of the Welsh Harp reservoir and open space, Natural England, London Wildlife Trust, Old St Andrews Residents' Associaiton, Woolmead Residents' Association and West Hendon Community Forum. 

The decision on planning applications will be made by the Planning Committees in each borough but the viewof the JCC will be important.  The public have a right to attend these meetings and it is important to hear what our representatives are saying about this threat to our dimishing local natural environment.

The JCC Agenda says that the consultation on the plans ends on November 11th. We have rung Brent Council to query this and have been told by the Planning Department that the Brent consultation actually ends on November 20th and the most likely date for Brent's Planning Committee to consider it is likely to be December 16th.

Meanwhile at least two petitions are circulating opposing the development of the site as housing and there is a possibility of a public meeting on the matter.

The JCC Agenda can be found here

WELSH HARP NATURE UNDER THREAT

Fresh from their 'trumph' in getting permission to build the Wembley City Academy on playing fields and adjacent to a SLINC (Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation), Brent Council are now poised to grant permission to build housing close to the the Welsh Harp Reservoir (an SSIS - Site of Special Scientific Interest)  and the Welsh Harp area (an SMINC - Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation).

What is important is that an area of peace, beauty and natural diversity will be threatened by the impact of housing, a new road, increased lighting and noise, and the loss of habitats.

The application has been made by the Greenhouse Garden Centre and is for 71 dwellings and hard-standing and access road on the Greenhouse site and the adjacent disused Woodfield Garden Centre site. The latter site had been ear-marked for possible Greenhouse expansion. 

A display about the proposed development is tucked away unadvertised at the back of the Greenhouse, rather than at the front, but nontheless has attracted many entries in the Comments Book - most of them extremely critical. Among them are heartfelt appeals to save this unique corner of Brent and vows to fight the development as fiercely as previous attempts to build on the land and close down the Education Centre have been fought.

The development will be close to the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre and its extensive grounds, and the Birchen Grove allotments.  In the manner of these things if the planning application is granted it may not be long before both these sites are under threat as the 'gaps' between blocks of housing are filled in. As the sites are owned by Brent Council,  I have a hunch that it may not be long before they will want to cash in on these assets.

This will of course give them an interest in supporting the application.

See the plans and comment on them HERE
Planning Application No. 09/3220 Planning Officer: victoria.mcdonagh@brent.gov.uk  0208937 5337
To be decided no earlier than 12th November 2009