Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Friday 8 November 2013

This should get Chalkhill residents on their bikes!

The site plan
The BMX track
The scooter track
The planning application for a family cycling facility at St David's Close (Chalkhill Sports Ground) has now been posted on the Brent Council website LINK and it looks well thought out and very exciting. A lot of thought has been put into making the facility both safe and challenging and the noisiest track is well away from the houses next to the railway track.

 The initial deadline for comments is November 20th 2013 and the planning officer is Matthew Harvey: matthew.harvey@brent.gov.uk

Only two comments so far appear on the website. One is a simple objection while the other states:
Support: I currently live in a neighbouring borough and would be prepared to cycle 3 miles here to use this facility. I have grown up riding BMX in East London and moved to North London recently I have seen the benefits first hand of what places like this can do for local kids and communities. I've seen kids from all kids of backgrounds become friends, avoid turning to crime and help stay healthy because they had somewhere to go and something to do on the weekends.
I hope there will be similar positive comments from local residents including children.

This is a summary of the facilities from the Planning Application:


Family Cycle Trail

The Family cycle trail will be a ‘Green Grade Trail’ based on the International Mountain Bicycling Association’s (IMBA) grading of routes/trails. The difficulty level of the proposed trail equates to ‘Leisure and Easy’ and will be built to IMBA Standards for Green Grade Trails. 

The Family Trail (Green Trail) will snake its way around the Sports field as indicated on the design. Boulder stones will be placed to add features to the trail and help create a natural segregation from riders and pedestrians. Best possible use will be made of existing land forms and features onsite. All aspects of the trail will be integrated into the exiting land forms as much as possible for example elevations and deviations of the existing parkland.

BMX Track

The proposal relates to the creation of a BMX Track facility to The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA) and British Cycling standards. Further, a post installation inspection will be carried out before the facility is handed over to ensure it meets the standards and safety parameters set by British Cycling and ROSPA

The proposed design has been created to suit all abilities of riders from beginners to experts as all obstacles are to be 'rollable', meaning not so confident riders can roll over each obstacle and still carry sufficient speed for the next. The nature of the obstacles and angle of the berms will allow more experienced riders to carry further speed and negotiate the obstacles in a number of different ways. Each element of the track will be progressive and allow riders to increase their skill level during each visit.

The Start Hill has been positioned to be easily accessible from the entrance to the area. This helps to reduce conflict between riders as well as other users of the sport ground as the easiest way to the track
start it the most desired route. 

The position of the Start Hill also helps to reduce the possibility of riders crossing the track as the Start Hill is the area riders congregate and when positioned as close to the entrance as possible riders are magnetized towards the correct starting position before riding the track. The Track start slope is low to help control the speed of riders entering the first straight. This will give less skilled riders the confidence to try the track as they will not be entering th e obstacles at great speeds. The obstacles have also been designed low. This keeps the speed controlled by not allowing riders to gain lots of speed from long down slopes which high jumps would allow. 

Inexperienced riders can roll each obstacle safely whilst still carrying enough speed to negotiate the next. The track will also be of interest to more experienced riders as they can try to ride the track in different combinations and carry extra speed round the berms. 

Scooter Track

The Scooter Track will be placed at the end of the asphalted access path to the area to allow for ease of access by the users such as young children and families. 

These asphalted access paths will allow users of scooters and other small wheeled bikes ease of access to the Scooter track as they will be of a smooth finish.

The access path will cross over the start or return of the family cycle trail. this will be negotiated with the use of stone boulders to slow both riders on the family trail and users of the scooter track by means of a squeeze area. 

The Scooter Track itself will consist of small low obstacles linking from one to another. There will also be a low start hill to allow riders to gain sufficient speed to negotiate the obstacles along the Track. The entire Scooter Track will be finished in asphalt to allow a smooth finish for the small wheeled Scooters and Bikes. The smoother the finish the easier smaller wheels will be able to travel over the surface. 

Storage Container

The storage container will be supplied to provide a future cycling club valuable storage space for equipment such as bikes, helmets and other safety equipment.

Floodlighting is not proposed and the lack of this provision should minimise recreational noise during the hours of darkness.

Sunday 20 January 2013

Free Harlesden family history course begins on February 6th

Plaque in Hazeldene Road - find out about YOUR family history
Harlesden Routes is a free family history programme LINK which will run between January to March 2013 to support local people in taking the first steps in learning and researching their family history. We are looking for committed individuals who live, work and/ or have strong family connections with Harlesden. Participants must be willing to develop a case study based on interviews and or research of an aspect of their family history which can be shared with others locally.
Harlesden is a culturally diverse area with many untold stories and experiences of local history and migration which makes the area a positive and inclusive place to live and work. Every Generation mission is to promote the oral and family heritage of the lives and history of local communities.
The Harlesden Routes Course will start on February 6th with all activities taking place on a Wednesday evening at the Unity Centre LINK. In addition there also be a trip to Brent Museum and Archives and the ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ family history exhibition at Olympia.
The session will cover different aspects of family history using local records and online archives, using photographs, social history, creative writing, interviewing techniques and the importance of DNA.
Harlesden Routes is a partnership which involves Every Generation, Catalyst Gateway, and Brent Museum and Archives. The projected is funded by Harlesden Community First and LIFT.
Place are limited so please email patrick@everygeneration.co.uk for an application form or further details.

Tuesday 17 July 2012

Housing crisis arrives on Town Hall doorstep


The housing crisis came to the steps of Brent Town Hall yesterday evening when the Counihan family and their supporters demonstrated as the Brent Executive met to rubber stamp a series of far reaching decisions.

Their reception was mixed with some members of the Executive wanting to find out about the  family's plight while others told the family that  they had no choice but to move out of London in order to get affordable housing.

As the benefit income cap and housing benefit cap bite, along with changes in council tax benefits, more and more Brent families will be suffering the same fate. Although the demonstrators recognised that the changes have been brought about by Coalition Government policies they did expect more of a fightback on behalf of Brent residents from a Labour Council, rather than acquiescence in disastrous policies.

Friday 13 July 2012

End the Counihan family's stress. Demonstrate on Monday.


Message from campaigners for the Counihan family.  Their plight will be repeated many times across the borough as the Coalition's housing benefit cap hits more families.
 

 We are coming together to demand justice from Brent Council for the Counihan family, who have been victimised by the actions of our council support agencies. We will be demonstrating outside Brent Town Hall, Forty Lane, Wembley on Monday July 16th at 6pm ahead of the Brent Council Executive's Meeting. Your support will be appreciated.

Isabel and Anthony Counihan and their five children, Vinnie, Aidan, AJ, Orla and Sarah, have been shunted out of the Brent to temporary housing in Ealing where they have been left since April2011 waiting for the Council to even make a decision on their situation, let alone re-house them in Brent.

Their story is an extreme and devastating example of the way lives are being ruined by benefit cuts, and the refusal to build council housing and regulate the private housing sector.  We are living in times when the powers that be think they can get away with punishing working-class people for the fact of our being poor.
Across London poorer people, especially young people, are being pushed out of the city to make way for the better off. Glenda Jackson MP's response to the family's plight was “you can't afford to live in London”. This has been echoed by council officers: Brent Housing Advice advised the family “they could afford to live in Wales”.

We are saying to Brent Council that they must immediately find the family appropriate, secure and really affordable housing in the borough -and put an end to the unbearable stress and hardship that would have totally broken many people long before now.

The Counihans have nothing to justify -their need is clear and we support them unconditionally -but their story may help illustrate how the council is failing in their moral and legal responsibility to assist people in difficult circumstances, but instead mounting attack after attack to remove people from the area.

We ask you to join us in supporting the Counihans and invite other people facing similar injustices to come forward and challenge together the vicious policies and practices of the council.

For more information, to support the Counihan’s, or raise your own issue contact:

Lesley Ryan -London Irish Centre (personal capacity): 07894 348 610
Gerry Downing -Brent Trades Union Council and Brent Fightback: 07792 966 910
Clarence -Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group: 07752 574 943