Celebrating Harlesden's place in Black Music History at the Reggae Tree and Harlesden Library

 Beneath the Reggae Tree outside Hawkeye Records, Craven Park, Harlesden

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Yesterday's International Reggae Day celebration in Harlesden took on an international dimension as well as delving deep into the local history of Black Music on this corner of Brent, 'Harlesbridge', combining Harlesden and Stonebridge.

Linking the struggle against South African apartheid with Jamaica, Ghana and the diaspora in England, Kwaku claimed that reggae helped give South Africans the energy to fight for equality (You can hear the great Reggae Mandela album HERE) while Ghana has linked with Jamaica and the UK through their joint concern for the environment through planting of a symbolic Reggae Tree in Accra.:

The Reggae Tree is a symbolic nod to International Reggae Day's Tree Planting Challenge, which is endorsed by Eco-Conscious Citizens. The environmental group's partner organisation, BBM/BMC, planted The Reggae Tree in London in 2018. It's sited in Harlesden, the north-west London area that is the capital of reggae in Britain. IRD2024 celebrates the 30th anniversary of the election of Nelson Mandela in 1994, highlights the importance of reggae to the fight against apartheid in South Africa and the unbreakable bond between Jamaica and South Africa, which is mirrored by the unbreakable bond between International Reggae Day and its original inspiration - South Africa’s Mama Winnie Mandela. During the event, Eco-Conscious Citizens will also launch a plastic bottle recycle bank to raise awareness of Plastic Free July, which is a global movement that encourages individuals to reduce their single-use plastic consumption for the month of July. The group is asking stores to give their customers the choice of buying non-plastic reusable bags, instead of the free, throw-away single-use plastic bags.

Sonny Roberts with his daughter Cleon

Speaking against the background of a huge and noisy Craven Park traffic jam, the Cleon Roberts, daughter of Jamaican record producer Sonny Roberts LINK   Reggae Ambassador, Diane Shrouder-Johnson, spoke of the importance of Harlesden as the capital of  reggae and Black Music, developed during the 50s, 60s and 70s to the present with record shops, selling of records from the backs of cars,  and studios tucked away amidst a spirit of creativity and entrepreneurship.

 

 

Yesterday also saw a special exhibition at Harlesden Library of the Brent Reggae Albums Covers Exhibition which is on until October with curator talks on Monday 12th August, Monday 2nd September and Monday 14th October. 

Kwaku gave a well-informed and humourous commentary on the  album covers and the music, artists and producers involved.

 

 

 

 Towards the end of the talk Kwaku asked the audience whether this was all in the past or continued. Amid the cries from the audience he unveiled a hidden display featuring the the Big Zeeks album cover and the artist himself stepped up from the audience to talk about how much he loved Harlesden and Brent and wanted to give back to the community.

 

 

Big Zeeks pointed out how the album cover features many aspects of Harlesden. Can you spot them all?

 

The history continues.

 

 

Brent Council accused of 'hypocritical stance' on planning guidance

 This guest post byMarc Etukudo is based on an email he sent to Brent Council yesterday:

I would like to draw your attention to an article I read this morning in the Harrowonline (Harrow Times) about Brent Council's new guidelines for developers operating within the borough. The only problem is that Brent Council does not practice what it preaches......

 

 

 Brent Council has introduced new guidelines for developers operating within the borough.

 (Source - Harrowonline - Harrow Times)

 

 

The council’s Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs) aim to enhance the quality of life for local communities while creating a greener and healthier environment.

The first SPD, titled ‘Residential Amenity Space and Place Quality’, focuses on making Brent a vibrant, inclusive, and thriving community.

Cllr Shama Tatler, the Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Planning, and Growth at Brent Council expressed her pride in Brent’s pioneering efforts to tackle pressing issues such as the climate crisis and health inequalities.

She stressed that well-designed and sustainable development plays a crucial role in enriching the lives of residents.

Our residents deserve great places to live, and well-designed, sustainable development is a key factor in enriching people’s quality of life.”

 

This is yet another example of Brent Council's hypocritical stance. On one hand they say one thing, set down laws for others to follow but yet on the other hand they break every law set down by themselves for others to follow and totally ignore it for themselves when it suits them. 

The proposal planned for Newland Court is one example of Brent Council’s hypocritical stance. They are ignoring all the laws that they set out in their planning guidance to push this proposal through. In Cllr Shama Tatler’s statement she says:-

‘The council’s Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs) aim to enhance the quality of life for local communities while creating a greener and healthier environment.’

‘She expressed her pride in Brent’s pioneering efforts to tackle pressing issues such as the climate crisis and health inequalities.’

‘Our residents deserve great places to live, and well-designed, sustainable development is a key factor in enriching people’s quality of life.’

How is destroying healthy mature trees that house many wildlife including many species of birds and 3 species of bats and reducing our urban green space creating a greener and healthier environment? How is this tackling the climate crisis and health inequalities in the community?

This is actually doing the opposite. Destroying all the greenery around Newland Court is going to have a detrimental effect on the mental wellbeing of existing residents who, as you already know, have been treated with systemic discrimination since this proposal started and of which, are all against this proposal.

Then building crammed tiny houses with little or inadequate amenity spaces, under what’s left of the trees that omit sticky residue and will need constant pruning. Initially, anyone offered a 3-4 bedroomed home would be glad if they are moving in from temporary dwellings. But this will also eventually affect the mental wellbeing of the new tenants after a few months of moving in.

Brent Council has not once taken the thoughts or feelings of the existing residents at Newland Court into consideration. Instead they want to turn a great place where we live, and destroy the quality of life we enjoy to build a concrete jungle on a site that just isn’t viable to build on. So much for tackling the climate crisis, health inequalities and enriching people's quality of life.

Brent Council plans to move the pavement and parking spaces to the right from where the grass starts taking away a quarter of our green space and also want to build a children’s play area which will only encourage ASB including drug users, pushers and alcohol consumption. None of us want a play area and residents who have lived here for 20, 30, 40, 50 and beyond whose kids grew up and have left home never had it. Obviously it's for the new families that Brent  wants to move into the tiny cramped new homes.   

 

All the trees you see are by the fences in the back gardens of residents at Grendon Gardens which is in Barn Rise conservation area. As you can see, all the tree canopies are overhanging by a few metres across  and over the garages that Brent wants to replace with 3-4 bed roomed houses. This means that all the trees will have to be cut back to the fences and if that doesn’t kill them and all the wildlife including 3 species of bats. Then maybe constant pruning and digging through their roots to lay down foundations for the 3-4 bedroom homes during construction will.

 

 

Trees benefit the environment

 

Trees absorb carbon dioxide as they grow and the carbon that they store in their wood helps slow the rate of global warming. They reduce wind speeds and cool the air as they lose moisture and reflect heat upwards from their leaves. It’s estimated that trees can reduce the temperature in a city by up to 7°C. Trees also help prevent flooding and soil erosion, absorbing thousands of litres of storm water.

 

 

Trees boost wildlife

 

Trees host complex microhabitats. When young, they offer habitation and food to amazing communities of birds, insects, lichen and fungi. When ancient, their trunks also provide the hollow cover needed by species such as bats, wood boring beetles, tawny owls and woodpeckers.

 

WhatsApp TikTok: #TheEnvironment Monday June 5th 6.30pm on zoom

 

WhatsApp TikTok: #TheEnvironment2

Monday June 5 2023, 6.30-8.30pm BST

Zoom
Click here to book
Environment-focused WhatsApp & Tik Tok videos curated by Kwaku. Nana Asante moderates discussion on what we can or should learn from them.

BTWSC/AHR, BBM/BMC, TAOBQ in association with Eco-Conscious Citizens mark World Environment Day on Monday June 5 2023 - theme: “Invest in Our Planet.”

No long thing - just some nice vibes for you, family and friends to sit through one session, watch and discuss some of the videos that came to us over the last year or so via WhatsApp or Tik Tok, which speak to various global and Ghanaian environmental issues.

Curated and led by Kwaku BBM and moderated by community & environment activist Sis Nana Asante.

A family-friendly event organised by BTWSC/African Histories Revisited, BBM/BMC (BritishBlackMusicMusic.com/Black Music Congress) and TAOBQ (The African Or Black Question) in association with Eco-Conscious Citizens.

Hopeful signs for survival of the much valued Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre

 

Back in August I wrote an article on Wembley Matters with the headline :

We need to firm up proposals for the future of the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre or it will be our children's loss  LINK

Yesterday the above tweet indicated that local groups have risen to the challenge with a positive meeting of various groups interested in using the Centre, perhaps as a consortium LINK , or as sub-leasers under  present lease-holders Thames 21.

The road to survival?

There is a long way to go before the future of the Centre is secured with work to be done on the financial side as well on the collaboration agreements between the groups. The initiative shows that the Centre is valued and its survival, when nature itself is under threat from climate change, is recognised as vital to bring children and adults closer to their environment and engaged in its protection.

Brent Council is the owner of the site and will need to be convinced of the long-term viability of any proposals put forward.

 

 

Council of Europe calls on member states to recognise the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right

Strasbourg, 27.09.2022 – In a Recommendation on human rights and the protection of the environment adopted today, the Council of Europe calls on its 46 member states to actively consider recognising, at national level, the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, as a human right.

Considering that measures to address the triple planetary crisis of climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution are essential to the better enjoyment of human rights, the Committee of Ministers underlines the increased recognition of some form of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment in international legal instruments (including regional human rights instruments) and national constitutions, legislation and policies.

In the implementation of this Recommendation, member states should ensure respect for a number of principles, according to the Committee: general principles of international environmental law, such as the no harm principle, the principle of prevention, the principle of precaution and the polluter pays principle; the need for intergenerational equity; the no discrimination principle; access without discrimination to information and justice in environmental matters, participation in environmental decision-making and environmental education.

The Committee also expresses concern about the disproportionate effect environmental degradation may have and calls on member states to take adequate measures to protect the rights of those who are most vulnerable to, or at particular risk from, environmental harm.

In addition, the Recommendation stresses the importance for governments to co-operate with sub-national entities, civil society, national human rights institutions, regional institutions for the protection and promotion of human rights, environmental human rights defenders, economic stakeholders, indigenous peoples and local communities, cities and regions.

Finally, member states are encouraged to require business enterprises to act in compliance with their human rights responsibilities related to the environment.

 

Background

 
The United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution 48/13 of 8 October 2021 recognised the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right.

The Council of Europe’s long-standing commitment to environmental protection has resulted in the adoption of the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (“Bern Convention”), the Convention on Civil Liability for Damage resulting from Activities Dangerous to the Environment, the Convention on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law and the Landscape Convention.

The Council of Europe’s Manual on Human Rights and the Environment contains principles emerging from the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and decisions and conclusions of the European Committee of Social Rights.

The environmental projects that won Brent's first' Participatory Budgeting' 'You Decide' event

Press Release from Brent Council (unedited)

 

Brent residents have cast their votes to choose which projects should share a £500,000 funding pot that aims to reduce carbon emissions in the borough by at least 100 tonnes.

Voting from residents took place on Saturday 29 January. This is the first time that Brent has used this bold new Participatory Budgeting programme. The ‘You Decide’ programme has put the community in the driving seat from the start; the resident-led Planning Group (CO2GO) designed the funding criteria and powers were handed to residents to say which projects should be funded.

A diverse range of almost 250 residents attended the ‘Decision Day’ event, which was open to any Brent resident, and voted on the green projects that they felt would make a difference in their communities. The residents’ choices are subject to formal ratification from the council’s Cabinet.

The first pot of £400k was awarded to homes that will install energy efficiency measures to reduce their carbon emissions. The winning bids included a total of 37 flats, maisonettes and houses that will undergo sustainability works to reduce their carbon footprint. These properties have combined as a cluster to maximise the benefits of green measures. Two community buildings in Willesden were also selected for energy saving makeovers.

The second pot of £100k was awarded to community groups who will run educational projects to help residents reduce carbon emissions, save money, and make positive and healthier lifestyle changes.

The winning projects for pot two, all based in Brent, included: Brookway Biodiversity Project, Advice for Renters, Ultra Education CIC, Hill Top Circle, Diffusion Elite Security, Clube dos Brasileirinhos, Mums for Lungs and Young Brent Foundations.

These exciting community-based initiatives include:

•           Planting fruit trees and extending wildflower meadows

•           An Energy Advice Bus

•           Teaching young entrepreneurs to think sustainably

•           CO2 awareness sessions with Brent, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities

•           Children’s art workshop to create single-use shopping bags

•           A mural project with schools and educating children about air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions

•           Training for youth workers on creating engaging sustainability projects with young people

 

Councillor Muhammed Butt, Leader of Brent Council said: 

“It was amazing to see so many people coming people coming forward for the first resident-led Decision Day in Brent. The quantity and quality of the submissions was brilliant; local people, local ideas for local change. Thank you to everyone who submitted a bid and congratulations to the winning projects. Our ambition is to support more activities that give residents the power to decide on local projects for their communities! Watch out for more community decision days and we want to see more amazing projects coming forward.”

LETTER: Natural Grass Playing Field Conversions to 3G

 This is the first Letter to the Editor to be published. Send your letters to wembleymatters@virginmedia.com with your name (tell me if you do not want you name  published). Maximum 1000 words - shorter preferred). I reserve the right to edit the letter and not to publish if I deem it unsuitable for publication.

Dear Editor,

This month Brent Council is again tasked with considering a planning application for a commercial 3G artificial grass floodlit football pitch development. But will this finally be the last of its kind?

We have seen these applications several times before, and they almost read the same. This time it is by Queens Park Community School (QPCS) in Brondesbury (Ref 20/1411) [1]. Like its predecessors, QPCS wants to replace its natural grass playing fields with artificial 3G rubber surfaces, complete with state-of-the-art floodlights and commercial football hiring until 9 pm. As is the case with many other schools in London, QPCS is located in the midst of a quiet residential area.

The arguments remain the same. 3G rubber crumbs are invariably bad for the environment and players' health. 3G pitches are banned in parts of the EU as a result. These operations tend to be very noisy. And, the commercial hiring aspect routinely draws in large numbers of visitors from further afield that will be using private transport because the site is not well connected to the public transport network.

On the other end, the school is citing the desperate need for an all-year football pitch because the grass surface becomes difficult to play on during the winter months.

The Head of QPCS recently took her cause to the Brent & Kilburn Times stating that 'QPCS has produced "outstanding top-flight footballers"' before naming a few [2]. This is, undoubtedly, a remarkable record, but it also begs the question that if QPCS can 'produce outstanding top-flight footballers' on its natural grass playing fields, then why does it even need to replace Nature with artificial grass with all the dire consequences this development would bring?

But there is another question. How much should we be focussing on producing more professional football players? Only a tiny fraction of players will ever make it to a level where they can support themselves following this elusive dream. And, it is often a rather short dream due to the immense physical strain players are under. For some, it is over as quickly as a flight into suborbital space.

As a nation, we are under immense pressure to solve the many complex problems we are faced with today. We are battling a global pandemic. We are battling Climate Change. We are battling social injustice, an ageing community and a looming care crisis.

 
We are in desperate need of healthcare professionals, doctors, engineers, scientists and leaders that can help us get through these challenges. Our Government has failed to attract a single applicant to its fast track Global Talent visa scheme.
Therefore, should our schools in Brent not be focussing on producing the skills and expertise that we so desperately need? Should our role models not include Sir David Attenborough, Jane Goodall, or the many unsung heroes of our time who develop vaccines against Covid or work to solve our growing need for renewable energies?

This particular planning application is additionally facing serious ecological challenges. There is anecdotal evidence of there being colonies of bats at the site which is adjacent to Tiverton Green. Yet, when QPCS presented its initial plans in 2020 and when it resubmitted these plans in 2021 it did not commission or present a single bat survey as would be customary in these situations. This has taken many observers by surprise. However, due to the efforts of the Brondesbury Park Residents Association who privately commissioned a professional 'Bat Activity Survey', we finally have clarity on this point. There are indeed two species of roosting and foraging bats in the immediate vicinity of the site.

 
This 'Bat Activity Survey' was uploaded to the Brent Planning Portal only hours before the end of the consultation. Unfortunately, this has meant that the public, including pupils, their parents, neighbours, and everyone who has commented on this application, did not have the benefit of this important evidence and information.

 
I suspect that further bat surveys will now be required covering all of the proposed site and its surroundings. This would need to be done before this application could possibly be resubmitted in the form of a revised application if this should even still be deemed viable.

 
I feel that QPCS and its management has let down the public and its supporters by resisting to undertake professional bat surveys right from the start. It would also seem inconceivable that anyone would be tempted to continue pursuing a planning application when it stands to contravene the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) and the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations (2017).

Moreover, there appears to be an important lesson for all when it comes to schools wanting to replace their natural grass playing fields with artificial materials such as 3G rubber surfaces.

As the many detailed responses to these planning applications repeatedly show, the impacts these have on the natural environment stand in no comparison to the perceived incremental benefits these might offer.

If we are to learn from past mistakes, we need to change how we go about our natural resources. If COP26 in Glasgow has taught us anything then we need to change now. We cannot afford to further destroy our local natural habitats and let a commercial undertaking benefit from its demise.

If Brent Council and its Members are serious about the Climate and Ecology Emergency it had called in 2019, and if they are serious about the Brent Climate & Ecological Emergency Strategy 2021-2030, they must act firmly and call time on these ill-conceived developments that harm our fragile biodiversity.

Brent Council should also make it clear that these types of developments will no longer be considered in future.

Daniel Hulsmann
Brent Resident

[1] https://pa.brent.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=DCAPR_149939

[2] https://www.kilburntimes.co.uk/news/queens-park-community-school-3g-pitch-8472588