Every Brent voter will have a chance to vote Green on May 22nd

The full list of candidates for the May 22nd local elections has now been published. There is a Green candidate standing in every ward in Brent with two in Willesden Green.

Brent Green Party firmly believe that every voter should be given the chance to vote Green.  This is particularly important now that the public are disenchanted with the three main parties and when there is, in reality, little difference in their policies.

The full list of candidates for each Brent ward is available HERE

What do Brent councillors think about deferral of Kensal Rise planning application?

A lively and at times passionate debate is taking place on these pages over the redevelopment of the Kensal Rise building.

The article has attracted more comments than  almost any other on this blog and I am posting this to invite readers who may have missed it to join in.

In particular I am inviting councillors and council election candidates to respond to what is clearly an important local matter.

One major theme is whether the planning application should be deferred until after police have completed their investigation into the alleged fraudulent emails submitted in support of the developer Andrew Gillick's previous planning application. LINK

Other matters include whether the space offered to the trustees of Friends of Kensal Rise Library for a community library is sufficient, and how robust that agreement is.

The original article by the trustees of the Friends of Kensal Rise Library and subsequent comments can be seen HERE

Since this was written responses have started coming in via Twitter. I will update here:

1. Martin Francis ‏@WembleyMatters 1h

   .@CllrButt What do you think? http://www.wembleymatters.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/what-do-brent-councillors-think-about.html …
2. Cllr. Muhammed Butt ‏@CllrButt 1h

   .@WembleyMatters we have a statutory responsibility to look at application. 1000's apps in Brent. Do we check the person or application

   
   

    Vicky Zentner ‏@vickyzentner 56m

   @WembleyMatters @CllrButt isn't ignoring the suspicion over fraudulent emails at very least morally wrong and at worst, collusion?
3. Meg Howarth ‏@howarthm 47m

   @CllrButt Both person& app.need flagging up.Planning cmtee statutorily independent&can vote to defer hearing>
4. Alex Colas ‏@AlexWG2014 18m
   

   .@WembleyMatters Planning cmtee should defer decision on this application until investigation into fraud allegations are completed.

@WembleyMatters 1/2 Strongly agree planning app should be deferred until outcome of investigation. Result might invalidate, for example. Alison Hopkins  @Hopkins_Alison   @WembleyMatters 2/2 FKRL know if space enough. I want VERY watertight legal guarantees. I've bad experiences with developers (Brent X!

Powney misses out on Mapesbury.

Labour's Mapesbury candidates with Dawn Butler

Cllr Colum Moloney has been selected to complete the list of  Labour  candidates for the Mapesbury ward in the forthcoming local elections. He currently represents the Stonebridge ward. Three male councillors, Moloney, James Powney and Abdi Aden  were amongst the four candidates fighting for the position

'Give us space to cycle' demand Brent Cyclists ahead of the election

Brent Cyclists, the local group of the London Cycling Campaign  launches its Space for Cycling campaign this Sunday (23 March) with a short ride round the borough, meeting at 10:30am at Gladstone Park railway bridge (at the foot of Parkside), and at 11:00am at the café in Roundwood Park, then riding through Willesden and Harlesden to the Grand Union Canal in Park Royal, and back again. Anyone with a working bike is welcome to join in.

The Space for Cycling campaign is timed to coincide with the run-up to the local elections in May, to bring home to local politicians the changes that need to be made to Brent’s roads to make them cycle-friendly. It is part of a London-wide Space for Cycling Campaign being run by the London Cycling Campaign.

Brent Cyclists coordinator David Arditti said: 

Brent has great potential as a cycling borough but is held back by the poor routes and infrastructure for cycling compared with other parts of London. We need a network of safe routes on minor roads and protected cycle tracks on bigger roads, which would allow everybody to make daily journeys by bike and especially allow children to cycle to school, but these can only come about if there are more restrictions placed on where motor traffic can go. 

We’ll be cycling along Park Avenue North, which is a road which, if it ceased to be a through-route for cars, would make an excellent way to access Gladstone Park by bike. In other places, to get a safe network, we need bikes to be excepted from one-way systems. This is what we would like built into the new design for Harlesden Town Centre, but Brent doesn’t seem to have considered this need. 

Our ride will draw attention to these measures that would make cycling in Brent so much better, in advance of the local elections, and we will be asking the candidates to pledge support for our specific demands, ward by ward.

Declaration of Interest: I am a member of the London Cycling Campaign.

Economic democracy motion highlights the Green Party's radicalism

Later this morning the results of the Green Party leadership ballot will be announced. Whoever wins the campaign has been a success, stimulating genuine debate and participation of rank and file members, and attracting coverage of the Green Party in mainstream media. Whatever the outcome the campaign of Romayne Phoenix and Will Duckworth has firmly put the battle against cuts and austerity and the necessity of working  with trade unions on the Green Party's agenda.

The results for the non-leadership positions have already been announced with the left of the Green Party well represented in the election of Derek Wall as International Co-ordinator and Howard Thorp as Campaigns Co-ordinator.

Howard has tabled a motion on Economic Democracy for the upcoming Conference which positions the Green Party firmly to the left of Labour on the economy:

Economic Democracy presents a package of resilient and community-based measures to help prevent a repeat of the financial crisis. Four key remedies will produce greater transparency, decentralisation of economic power, and accountability from corporations.

1.       Accountability will improve by requiring companies to include employee-elected directors and independent directors on to their management board. Not being drive by the profit-motive, they will act to ensure that company policies are taken with the interests of employees and consumers at heart.

2.       Decision making can be decentralised and democratised by giving employees a majority stake in the management of their companies pension funds.

3.       Create a Green National Investment Bank out of one or more of the currently ‘nationalised’ banks to aid funding investment in green technologies, renewable, and energy efficiency programmes.  A Green Bank would serve its customers and not its owners.

4.       Economic decision making can be further localised by granting employees the legal right to buy out their companies and turn them into workers co-operatives. Buy outs would be funded by the Green National Investment Bank.

For those interested in the detail of our elections it is worth noting that the Green Party ensures gender balance  in the leadership. Men and women must both be represented in the leadership team. If Peter Cranie wins the leadership, the deputy must be the top female candidate. If Natalie Bennett or Romayne Phoenix   win the leadership, then the deputy will be the top male candidate.

With voters at local and national elections often spoiling their papers with the equivalent of 'none of the above', readers may be interested to know that the Green Party also caters for them. Every internal election at national and local elections has a candidate called RON. RON stands for 'Re-open nominations' and is an important option, particularly when only one candidate stands for a post.

Brent Labour desperately seeking council candidates for 2014

Brent Labour Party is looking for people to stand as Labour councillors in 2014. They are possibly a little desperate so I thought I would give them a hand by publicising the invite. Note you do not have to be a member of the Labour Party to attend:

The Brent Labour Party will soon be starting its selection process for Brent Council elections in 2014. With this is mind, the Brent Labour Party is holding an event on the 4th of July for people interested in becoming a Labour Councillor.

If you are interested in putting yourself forward, this is a fantastic opportunity to come along, and learn a bit more about what being a councillor really entails, and how to go about applying.
The meeting starts at 7pm with presentations by current councillors talking about their experiences of getting started and what it’s like to be a councillor.

There will then be a chance to ask questions. This will last approximately 45 minutes – 1 hour. After the presentations you will be able to talk to the councillors informally.

If you know someone that might be interested in coming along but isn’t on this email list please pass this information on – everyone is welcome to attend, even if they’re not a Labour Party Member

The information for the evening is the following::

Wednesday the 4th of July 2012 – 7pm

The Stonebridge Hub, Hillside, NW10 8BN (10 minute walk from either Harlesden or Stonebridge stations)

Let us know if you would like to attend by emailing brentlabour@live.co.uk

I will be happy to publish any suggestions from readers about questions that could be asked after the presentation.