Free Laptop Health Checks & potential fixing with Dr. Laptop Abbey Road Recycling Centre Saturday September 3rd

 

The last Dr Laptop session at Wembley Library in August had the best turnout yet with full attendance and 50% of the laptops repaired on the spot.

The September session is at the West London Waste Recycling Centre.  These are the details:

We are delighted to invite you to our monthly Fixing Factory event! Come and get your laptop health-checked FREE with our IT specialists.

About this event Saturday September 3rd from 10.30am

If you're having problems with your device and don't know what's wrong, our friendly IT experts are on hand to help answer all your questions. Don't despair - choose repair!

We've opened the UK's FIRST EVER Fixing Factory at Abbey Road Recycling Centre in Brent to tackle the major problem of discarded tech.

Last year, west Londoners threw out 116,000 tonnes of electrical items – that’s over 68 Wembley arches worth of stuff! We're fixing our relationship with tech by:

- Saving laptops & tablets from waste by refurbishing and repairing them

- Teaching FREE repair skills to local people in the process

- Empowering local communities by giving FREE fixed devices to those without access

 

Book a slot to come down and receive a free diagnostics check and repair advice on your laptop or tablet. Our expert volunteers will need the full hour so don’t be late! We fix over 50% of devices on the spot.

BOOK HERE

Location: Abbey Road Reuse and Recycling Centre, Brent, London NW10 7TJ

#GetFixed #MakeItLast #FixingFactory

How to get here:

Stonebridge Park (Overground) - 10 min walk

Hanger Lane (Central Line) - 20 min walk

By bus: 440 or 224 to Tudor Estate, or 112 to Abbey Road

If arriving on foot please stick to marked crossings and footpaths.

If arriving by bicycle, there are secure storage racks next to the Fixing Factory

If arriving by car, the car park is the first on your left as you drive in

(You must be over 18 to attend - please note that anyone under the age of 18, including accompanied minors, cannot attend due to site health and safety policy)

PLEASE NOTE: if you cannot attend your time slot for any reason, cancel it using this LINK.

Or email hello@fixingfactory.org to say you can't make it. This gives someone else a chance to use the service.

Asbestos Meeting Tonight: Duffy asks for public to a have a vote on whether a public inquiry is necessary

The waste transfer note from Carpender's Park 17.08.15

Cllr John Duffy has written to Carolyn Downs, Chief Executive of Brent Council asking that residents attending tonight's public meeting in Kilburn Square be given  an opprtunity to vote on whether there should be an independent inquiry into the asbestos waste issue:

As you know there is a meeting tonight and its very important the two undisclosed consignment notes for the asbestos found on the mound are available. 

Hopefully they will go some way to establishing how much asbestos was delivered to Paddington Cemetery from Carpender's Park in August 2015. That will also go some way to answering the question of how much contamination was present before the two discoveries on May 9th and 18th*  and since the asbestos transported in August 2015.

I believe the council is being disingenuous by mixing up the Eton report, and then the Delta Simons specialist  reports, with the initial test notes. Both the Eaton and Delta Simons report  were taken after the Asbestos was removed, therefore thankfully they only show a trace in most parts of the mound. I  do welcome their  finding  that the level of asbestos risk is now  low since  the Asbestos has been removed. However  because they engaged after the Asbestos was removed, they do not answer the three most important  questions of how the Asbestos got there, how much Asbestos was found in May 2017 and did the council put anyone at risk by the way the council handle the first  discovery of  asbestos bound for Section 3D in Paddington Cemetery from August 2015?

I am therefore suggesting  the Agenda for tonight's meeting is in three parts. One being the present situation, which will reassure residents that the mound and the cemetery in generally free of asbestos and safe to use. The second being  the past situation of how the asbestos got to Paddington Cemetery and did the actions of the council put anyone at risk. This part could also involve discussion on why the council took such extreme measures to ensure the residents (meeting where the press and public were excluded) were kept in the dark about how the  the asbestos arrived at Paddington Cemetery? Thirdly after  the residents have heard from both Delta Simons ( Part 1)  and the council (Part 2).  The third part should be a vote by residents on if they believe a independent investigation  is necessary to find out all circumstances around the discovery of the asbestos in Paddington Cemetery and whether the council put residents and the workforce at risk.

CEO Will  you  please confirm the agenda will be in the three parts and  you will personally  ensure officers take a democratic vote of the residents.The vote will see if  they believe an independent open investigation by health and safety expert which ail explore all the facts .If you are unwilling for the  vote to take place ,can we have a statement from you explaining why , you do not think it is unnecessary .

Regards 

* I mistakenly said the 19th of May in previous emails, i have now checked the email from the CEO and it was on on the 18th May the second "find " on the mound took place

Carolyn Downs replied that Amar Dave, who had been copied into Duffy's email, would be running tonight's meeting.

 7pm at Kilburn Housing Co-operative, Kilburn Square,

 Victoria Road, Kilburn, NW6 6PT

Dicing with death to recycle in Brent

Entrance

Dangerous bend

Bend on exiting

I took some small redundant electrical items to the Brent Re-use and Recycling Centre this morning, the sort of job you can catch up on in the dead days between Christmas and the New Year. Such items cannot be put in the blue bins or general waste.

Little did I realise that by doing so I was taking my life in my hands. The entrance to the depot is along along a bendy road with no footway for 200 yards.  The road is used by large trucks and vans as well as cars, and pedestrians are at risk, particularly on an icy morning as it was today.

If West London Waste Authority and Brent Council are serious about encouraging recycling then a safe pedestrian entrance for residents arriving by public transport is surely essential.  The Centre is easily accessible from Stonebridge Park station or the 112 bus.

As I left the entrance road, a couple with several bags of recycling arrived, hesitated, and then decided not to risk the trip to the Centre.

I wonder how many others have done that?

Decision on Harlesden Incinerator deferred

Outside Ealing Town Hall this evening

The Ealing Planning Committee tonight deferred a decision on the proposd Harlesden Incinerator after councillors expressed concern that they did not have full enough information to make a decision. This was particularly the case with the Council's expert on  some of the chemistry involved in emissions and air quality being on leave.

Councillors were particularly concerned that the Regulatory Officers from Ealing, Brent and Hammrsmith and Fulham had all expressed, to different degrees, opposition to the plans.

Planning Officers had argued that because the plans would be reviewed by both the London Mayor and the Secretary of State that they did not sufficient grounds to recommend rejection although they recognised that it was a contentious application which raised serious health and safety issues.

Councillors gave short shrift to officers' argument that the impact of the existing Power Day facility close to the site could not be taken into consideration, and questioned why the site had been chosen when the survey carried out by the West London Waste Authority for suitable waste processing sites had failed to shortlist the Harlesden/Willesden site because there were 'ample' more suitable alternatives available.

It became very clear that councillors were determined to get cast iron guarantees on the facility's safety and pollution caused by lorry movements and were not satisfied with the reassurances they had received.

The decision will now go to a further committee meeting by which time further and better information should be available which both sides will be able to deploy.

Veolia knocked out of WLWA multi-million contract

Human Rights campaigners in West London were celebrating today following the news that controversial multinational Veolia had failed to be short-listed for the lucrative 25 years residual waste management contract covering the boroughs of Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Ealing, Richmond and Brent.

More than 600 residents had written to the West London Waste Authority  requesting that Veolia be excluded on the grounds of racist practices in recruitment and grave misconduct through its active participation in violations of international and humanitarian laws and norms in the illegally occupied territories of Palestine. Last month Brent and Harrow Palestine Solidarity Campaign held a well-attended public meeting on the issue at Willesden Green Library.

Although, as is usual in these cases,  Veolia's failure to be short-listed cannot be directly attributed to the campaign, the WLWA joins a growing list of unsuccessful contract bids by Veolia.

The ground now shifts to environmental issues with the WLWA's consideration of 'solutions' submitted by the remaining 4 bidders to dealing with West London's waste.These will include possible new processing sites and environmentalists will be watching closely to see if any incinerators are planned,

Here is the statement from the WLWA website released yesterday:

The West London Waste Authority (WLWA) has short-listed four bidders for a long term West London Residual Waste Services contract covering the boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, and Richmond upon Thames.

Cory Environmental Ltd, E.ON Energy from Waste leading a consortium with Tata Chemicals Europe Limited with significant sub-contractor Grundon Waste Management Limited, SITA UK Ltd and Viridor Waste Management Ltd will now be invited to develop detailed solutions as the next stage in the competitive dialogue process that is being employed.

The contract involves treating up to 300,000 tonnes of residual waste per year generated by a population of 1.4 million people, and covers all aspects of treatment including any necessary transport, the operation of transfer stations, and contracts for outputs such as energy, refuse-derived fuel, recyclates etc.

Bids were invited from “single entity” companies, consortia, or joint ventures. The WLWA has offered its three waste transfer stations at Brentford, South Ruislip and Park Royal as part of the procurement but also welcomed proposals involving sites within bidders’ control or which they intend to acquire.

The next stage of the tender process will be the submission of detailed solutions by the short listed bidders in spring 2012. Two final bidders will then be selected to submit final tenders in autumn 2012. The preferred bidder will be selected in spring 2013. The new services will start in April 2015, but WLWA is exploring with bidders the opportunity for an earlier start to begin diversion from landfill as soon as possible.

West London already recycles or composts almost 40% of its household waste, more than any other sub region of London. The new contract will allow continued flexibility to increase recycling up to at least 50% by 2020 and WLWA will focus even more on waste minimisation schemes in the future.

Veolia's contract with the London Borough of Brent ends in 2014.

Plans for new waste sites in Brent dropped

The draft West London Waste  Plan in October 2010 proposed 4 new possible sites in Brent for redevelopment for processing residual waste, as well as two existing ones . The revised list, following consultation, only includes the two existing sites: Twyford Waste Transfer Station and Veolia Transfer Station, Marsh Road. The site in Hannah Close.Great Central Way is now occupied and so is no longer proposed. Careys. the waste management company, who are contributing to the running of the Welsh Harp Outdoor Education Centre, now have an MRF (Materials Recovery Facility) in Hannah Close.  Brent Council says that the other three sites are now 'for one reason or another, considered too difficult to deliver'.  The sites were at Asia Sky, Abbey Road; rail sidings, Premier Park Road, and Alperton Lane industrial area, Marsh Road.

This will be a relief for Brent residents but Ealing does not fare so well and some of their sites are close to the Brent border.   Three existing sites are listed including one at Quattro in Victoria Road, Park Royal as well as two new ones in Park Royal (see below).

The Brent Executive will be asked to approved a revised WLWP for publication at its meeting on December 12th. Once the document has been approved by all 6 WLWA boroughs it will be made available for a further six weeks consultation in February 2012. Authority will then be sought from each borough to submit the Plan to the Secretary of State for Examination in Public. This is likely to take place in late 2012 and the plan adopted in early 2012.

In tandem with this the WLWA will be completing the selection of the new contractor for the multi-million 25 year residual waste contract. As posted previously this includes controversial Veolia who run the Marsh Road Transfer Station in Brent.

No technology has yet been put forward for the new sites, this will be done at the planning station, and environmental groups will be monitoring for any incineration or other potentially harmful processes.

Veolia under scrutiny on human rights

Brent councillors will shortly be receiving a letter (LINK) signed by 302 borough residents setting out the case for Veolia, the French multi-national, to be removed from the list of potential  contractors for the new 25 year, multi-million contract for the West London Waste Authority. A similar letter has been signed by residents in the other five boroughs that constitute the WLWA.

The case is based on the premise that in its activities in the illegally occupied territories:

a) Veolia has demonstrated racist practices in its recruitment policies; and

b) Veolia has been guilty of grave misconduct through its active participation in violations of international and humanitarian laws and norms

Veolia is one of the company's on the current 'long-list' from which the WLWA will be making a short-list soon.

Brent and Harrow Palestine Solidarity Campaign is holding a meeting on Tuesday November 22nd at 7pm at Willesden Green Library to discuss the issues concerned (see notice below):

Human Rights Activists Call for Veolia Exclusion from Major Waste Contract

Human Rights campaigners in six London boroughs, including Brent and Harrow, are seeking support for their efforts to get Veolia excluded from the current bidding process for the multi-million West London Waste Management Contract. The contract covers Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond.

The campaign is based on allegations that Veolia, a French multi-national, has demonstrated racist practices in its recruitment policies and has been guilty of grave misconduct through its active participation in violations of international and humanitarian laws and norms.

Campaigners are asking residents of the six boroughs to sign a letter to the West London Waste Authority which sets out the case LINK

If you would like to sign the letter please send your name, borough and postcode to:
nernier@gmail.com

Proposed Park Royal Waste Sites Under Attack

The West London Waste Authority has published the results of its consultation on the West London Waste Plan. Perhaps the most important thing to note is the low number of responses: 374. This for a Plan covering six West London boroughs including Brent with a combined  population of one and a half million. In addition a petition against Park Royal waste management sites was signed by  193 people and 2237 signed one against the Tavistock Road site in West Drayton.

Click on image to enlarge

 The main issues in the Park Royal objections were: the unfairness of locating so many sites in the area; the cumulative impact of new sites when added to existing waste and industrial facilities; proximity to housing; increased traffic; air pollution and the health impacts of pollution.

The WLWA says that these comments will be taken into consideration when considering the Park Royal sites. of the existing sites they say these are safeguarded by the London Plan for  waste management use 'but the deliverability assessment will consider whether they will be highlighted in the final Plan, as having potential for redevelopment'.

Wembley residents should note that no objections or comments were received about the site in Hannah Close, Great Central Way, Wembley, where Careys recently opened a new waste management plant. LINK This plant adds to other industrial sites on the Neasden/Wembley border which have given rise to community concerns about pollution and poor air quality. St Margaret Clitherow Primary School is just across the Metropolitan and Jubilee railway tracks from Hannah Close.

Ealing Civic Society object to expansion of  Veolia's Marsh Road, Alperton site on the grounds that the River Brent already suffers from pollution and because access is limited by congestion. The powerful Park Royal Partnership objects to the same site on the grounds of loss of employment land and existing business premises.

The consultation report includes a key submission on the thinking behind the plan:

 and another states:

All the comments will be considered during the next stage of the Plan which will be published later this year with a revised list of sites. Meanwhile the procurement process to select the company to implement the Plan through a new 25 year contract is continuing.

PDF of the full report is available HERE

There's money in muck

With landfill sites rapidly being filled and the tax on landfill rising to £72 per tonne in 2013 local authorities are desperately looking for solutions. Rather than action on reducing waste in the first place, which many local authorities see as the responsibility of government, the emphasis is instead on recycling which is where big business enters the picture. There is a central contradiction here because the more that can be recycled the more money the waste contractors makes, while the more the overall amount of residual waste can be reduced the less they will make.

Presently the West London Waste Authority, covering Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond is in the process of awarding a 25 year contract for waste management which could be worth up to £485m (the estimated cost of continuing landfill at present rate). The bidding process is under way and the preferred bidder will be selected in 2013.  There has been controversy over because during public consultation potential waste processing sites were selected, many in Park Royal, without any details of the processes that would take place, raising fears about possible pollution from incinerators. There have been public protest meetings in Ealing about this issue but little action in Brent.  Cllr James Powney is our borough representative on the WLWA.

A similar process for long-term contracts has taken place in South London and North London Waste Authority selected the following bidders in April 2011:

• FCC Skanska (Formento de Construcciones y Contratas SA and Skanska Infrastructure Development UK Ltd) (consortium)
• SITA/ Lend Lease (SITA UK Ltd and Catalyst Lend Lease) (consortium)
• Veolia ES Aurora Ltd. 

The North London proposals have run into  trouble over a proposed plant at Pinkham Way in Haringey, on the border with Barnet and Enfield, with residents concerned about noise, congestion and pollution as well as the building itself. LINK  In South London, Croydon Green Party has been involved in a campaign against a proposed plant which they believe is really an incinerator:


In Brent itself the waste management contract with Veolia has been amended with some difficulty ahead of the new waste management strategy that starts in October 2011. Brent Council's contract with Veolia ends in 2014 and there will be a new bidding process to ensure best value. This process will be overseen by Cllr James Powney.

Veolia, a likely bidder for both contracts, is French multinational with a wide spread of interests including water (in north Brent it previously went under the names of Three Valleys Water), waste management and transport. It has been embroiled in controversy over its activities in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel which include a light rail system and waste management. Campaigners argue that Veolia is complicit in human rights violations. LINK

Despite this Veolia is seen to be in a favourable position for both contracts because of its possession of a depot in Alperton and a potential site for waste processing.  However,  Careys, a local company, set up an 'environmental solutions' company in February and named it after the Roman philosopher, Seneca, who is famous as a Stoic. The company newsletter even quotes Seneca: 'Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end'. Brent Council granted Careys planning permission for a 'super materials recycling facility' at Hannah Close in Neasden (below) in October 2010 with very little publicity and no response from environmental groups including the Green Party. The plant will process 1.1m tonnes of construction and demolition, business and household waste each year. By 2013 an energy producing 'wood biomass facility' will be operational which clearly raises issues over potential pollution.

The Seneca (Careys) plant in Neasden

In March 2011 Careys secured a public relations coup by agreeing to save the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre which had been threatened with closure due to local government cuts. They will pay half the revenue costs for the next two years which I understand is about £50,000. Brent Council leader Cllr Ann John took part in a photocall with John Carey at the Centre. LINK

Further information on these issues:
West London Waste Monitor
 UK Without Incineration Network
Brent Friends of the Earth

Will New Waste Sites Will Make A Bad Situation Worse?

The consultation on the West London Waste Strategy which will see new waste facilities in West London ended on Friday.  This is Brent Green Party's submission:

1. The consultation suffers from a major weakness in that it  concentrates on selection of sites and not on the processes that will  take place on them. We submit that the type of process is a major aspect of the choice of sites, especially if some form of incineration is planned. We are being sold a pig in a poke.
2. A further weakness is the separation of the process of site selection  from the SA Objective to 'minimise the production of waste and increase  reuse, recycling, composting and recovery rates' . Urgent action on this
objective as a priority must surely have an impact on the need for sites and the type of processes that will take place on them.
3. There is already a concentration of waste facilities in the Park Royal (Ealing/Brent) area and the new sites suggested will increase this concentration and associated traffic.
4. The Sustainability Assessment shows that Brent is already the most densely populated West London borough (6,278 people per square kilometre against the London average of 4,779 and Hillingdon's 2,161) - yet new waste facilities are to be sited in the borough or on its borders. The SA states,  rather obviously,  that 'In general terms it can be expected that the greater the population density, the more people that are likely
to be affected by the waste facility'.  We are against choosing sites that will have a potentially detrimental impact on larger numbers of people.
5. Brent is ranked as the most deprived borough in West London and is in the 20% of the most deprived boroughs in England. Will the quality of life of its inhabitants be improved by more waste facilities, and will the trade-off of increased employment opportunities be sufficient to make up for the negative impact on health and the local environment?
6. Brent has the lowest average age of all the West London boroughs and has a growing child population as demonstrated by the increased demand for school places. Young bodies are much more susceptible to damage caused by pollutants and poor air-quality. There is a danger that more waste sites with increased levels of heavy traffic, alongside as yet unknown emissions from as yet undecided processes, could severely damage young people's health.
7.  In conclusion although the  Sustainability Appraisal report admits, 'Waste facilities have the potential to negatively impact on human health through increased noise or worsened air quality'  the proposed sites are in an area of high population density with large numbers of young people, and with a population already suffering from the poor health and other problems associated with economic deprivation. Siting the facilities here has the potential to make what is already bad, worse.

Park Royal: West London's Waste Land

Consultation closes on Friday on the draft Waste London Waste Plan. The consultation has hardly caused a ripple in Brent with only a handful of members of the public, as distinct from potential contractors, turning up at the consultation at Bridge Park.  However the Plan may have big consequences for Brent with unknown new processes taking place in the borough and a potential increase in heavy lorries transporting waste through the borough from the other boroughs as you can see from the map above.

Brent already has waste sites at Abbey Road and Veolia's transfer station in Marsh Road but additional sites are being considered in Park Royal in both the Brent and Ealing sectors. Additional facilities in Marsh Road seemed to be a favoured option in conversation with officials at the consultation meeting.

The most troubling aspect of the plan is that the choosing of sites has been separated from the processes that will take place on them.  The processes will form part of later planning applications so we are being asked to comment about sites without knowing the repercussions in terms of emissions, health and safety and traffic.

A member of Richmond Green Party comments:

When I asked the consultants about a missing table, describing possible waste technologies that could be deployed at the sites in question (a lot around Park Royal and none in Richmond, in fact) they repeated the mantra about the consultation being technology neutral, and have removed the reference to the table altogether in the online version now.

But they didn't deny that incineration could be deployed at these sites.

In contrast with Brent there was a well attended meeting in Ealing (Park Royal) where residents were horrified by the concentration of sites in the area.  Some residents were already upset about the 'stink' on the border with Hammersmith and Fulham from the Powerday facility.

Consultation ends on Friday March 25th at 5pm: To comment follow this LINK
Follow this LINK for an independent blog about the West London Waste Authority

Brent: Waste Capital of West London?

The West London Waste Authority, covering the boroughs of Brent, Harrow, Hillingdon, Ealing, Hounslow and  Richmond, is seeking to process and dispose of more of the rubbish in its area, in order to meet targets in the 2009 London Plan. It is suggested an extra 20 hectares of processing will be required on top of the existing 17 hectares in the WLWA area.

This will require new sites or the expansion of existing sites so that they process rather than merely transport rubbish. The Harrow Observer recently revealed the lists of sites being considered for this 'intensification'. Four are in Brent and another five in Park Royal, close to Ealing's border with Brent. That covers 9 of the 14 possibilities  (The others are one in Harrow, 3  in Hillingdon and one in Hounslow. There are none proposed in Richmond).

SITES

BRENT: Abbey Road, Park Royal; Rail Sidings, Premier Park Road, PR; Alperton Lane Industrial Area, Marsh Road; Hannah Close, Great Central Way, Wembley. 

EALING: Park Royal 8, Coronation Road; Park Royal 9, Coronation Road; Park Royal 2, Chase Road; Park Royal 1, Victoria Road; Atlas Road, Park Royal.

These proposals are for designating land and no details of the processing involved will be available at this stage in the consultation.  Therefore residents will not have access information on the possible health hazards of the processes involved when the sites are given planning approval. Brent sites are favoured because it is claimed they are not close to housing. It is like designating an area for a power station and not syai9ng whether it is coal, oil or nuclear.

Brent councillors were unhappy about the repercussions for Brent when the proposals were discussed. There are concerns that Brent will be handling waste from more affluent boroughs who will avoid any prcessing depots in their borough, increased lorry traffic and pollution. Brent, as the poorest of the boroughs will be dealing with the waste of the richer boroughs - without any financial compensation. It appears that the Alperton depot, owned by Veolia (controversial because of its pro-illegal settler activities in Palestine LINK), is likely to be a favoured option. It won the Camden waste contract largely because of the Alperton depot - Camden had sold off its own.

It is interesting that Brent is the most easterly of the WLWA boroughs. The east side of London was always the site of polluting processes historically because smoke and smells were taken away on the prevailing winds and did not affect the west of the city.

The West London Waste Plan  is behind schedule but key milestones for the contractors are:

March 2011 - Publication of the WLWP document and sustainability proposal

April-May 2001 - pre-qualification of bidders

May-June 2011 - WLWP examination in public

December 2011 - WLWP adopted

January 2012 - short-listing of bidders

June 2012 - possible further short-listing of bidders

September 2012 - final tenders

October 2012 - preferred bidder/tender award

2012-14 Planning

2014-16 Construction of new plants

2015-16 Plants operational

Brent councillors will have to have their wits about them if they are to fight for the rights of Brent residents in this process. We must not be bought off by promises of extra jobs if this is to the detriment of the long-term health and quality of life of Brent residents.

An independent blog-site has been set up to monitor the activities of the West London Waste Authority LINK