Tom Miller to succeed Michael Pavey as lead for Stronger Communities

I understand that Cllr Tom Miller is to succeed Michael Pavey as Lead Member for Stronger Communities.

The post covers two major controversial issues among others - Libraries, including Council relationships with volunteer libraries and the Prevent Strategy.

Pavey resigned over policy differences with Brent Council leader Muhammed Butt  over how the Council should deal with government cuts.

Miller is a councillor for Willesden Green and this is his first Cabinet post. I understand that his appointment was acceptable to both factions within the Labour Group on Brent Council and avoided a push for a potentially acrimonious election.

He himself is no stranger to controversy becoming a target of right-wing commentators LINK but he has carved out for himself a role as a 'thinker' of the Left as illustrated by this article which may or may not give us a clue to his approach to his new role in terms of ethics LINK

Miller, who in 2014 defeated Graham Durham for the Brent Central CLP Trade Union Liaison post attended the Grunwick Exhibition opening. He was a supporter of the campaign to save the Queensbury pub in Willesden Green from development. He is a former member of the Brent Scrutiny Committee.

Miller blogs, not very frequently, HERE.

Twitter: @TomMillerUK 

What to attend this Saturday? Refugees welcome, children's march for libraries, open garden, library opening...

This Saturday there are so many different things happening locally and in London that I for one will be very divided about what to attend. Here are some of the events:

Assemble at noon at Marble Arch for march to Downing Street where there will be a rally at 2pm.

Barnet Council is proposing to cut the five libraries with the greatest growth in kids' fiction borrowing. None of these libraries costs more than £150k to run each year and are vital to people of all ages but especially children who are using them more than ever with an average increase of 20% in children and teen fiction borrowing over the last five years. Come to the Children's March for Libraries with your kids and let your voices be heard that you need your local library! Church End to North Finchley with a brass band & big red bus! Paint a poster! Make a placard! Come in fancy dress! Tell those politicians why YOU NEED YOUR LIBRARY. Also write to the head of the Library Committee and remind him he needs to keep your local library for your sake and the sake of your children. Write to him at: Cllr.R.Thompstone@Barnet.gov.uk

Brent library privatisation hits the front page and two men named James disagree about what it means

The Kilburn Times (above) puts the possible privatisation of Brent libraries management on its front page.  Management would be handed over to a charitable trust although details are not clear.

The story was first covered on Wembley Matters on January 4th LINK (Will privatisation of Brent Council's  library management damage the service?)  and I published an extract from a blog by Alan Wylie, veteran library campaigner, who made these points about the leisure companies or trusts:

What a Leisure Trust means in practice:

• Leisure services are outsourced to a separate organisation/company. 
• The Council retains ownership of the facilities, which are leased to the Trust.
• Virtually all the savings come from rate reductions and VAT savings, which are much smaller initially because of the high set up costs. 
• Direct democratic control of the service will cease - elected member representation on a trust is limited to less than 20% of the board.
• Company law requires that Board members must put the interests of the leisure trust before those of the local authority. 
• After a year the Trust will usually cease to use council services and will be responsible its own procurement and contracting or corporate and other services.

The move, ostensibly, is to save £160,000 in rates (trusts get charged 80% rather than the 100% the Council will pay), although this is a loophole that may well be closed.

Margaret Bailey, chair of Friends of Kensal Rise Library, told the Kilburn Times that privatising services often ends up costing more:

Savings made on the 80% (rates) rebate will be minimal   and certainly not enough justification for privatising the service. I wish local authorities would fight these cuts together - and harness the support of their communities to do this.

 I agree.

Cllr James Denselow, now in charge of libraries under his Stronger Communities portfolio claims its a change in management structure, rather than privatisation and  'saves us a huge amount of money with rate changes'.  He recognised the sensitive nature of the changes and said the Council would do 'only if we find it's the right thing for us, for our libraries..and our communities.'

James Powney, whose blog has become a lot more interesting since he left the Council, wrote a article on the issue on Thursday morning LINK

Cllr Powney of course was the lead member when half of Brent's libraries were closed. He said that the wording of the officers' report ('established trust') suggests an existing body and the obvious one is that which currently runs Ealing and Harrow libraries:

The phrase "transfer management" suggests something more ambitious.  Not just founding a Trust but having the management taken over by a private company as in Greenwich or Hounslow.  This would be a lot more complicated.  A full procurement would need specification of a contract and a full tendering exercise for what would be a sizable contract.  In itself that would be a substantial one-off cost.  The Localism Act appears to have made this whole issue even more complicated than it was before.  The redundancy of senior management is likely to make the whole process even more difficult. 

This option was discussed when I was on the Executive, and rejected.  The business rate saving was largely a piece of accountancy smoke and mirrors (I understand that the rules may have been partly changed since then), and it seemed to me that all the things a private firm could do to cut costs could also be done by the Council.  Of course, having direct employees also gives you more control and we wanted to ensure the success of the Libraries Transformation Project by having hands on management.  Therefore we only went for the Sports Centre part of the project. 

The two James clearly have different perspectives and it will be interesting to see how this pans out. Meanwhile library staff are rightly concerned about what these vague proposals mean for them, their working conditions and their pensions.  The public should be concerned about what it will mean for the quality of their library service when the number of libraries has been halved and the council are proposing to cut the amount spent on book stock.

Will privatisation of Brent Council's Library Management damage the service?

There are so many proposals to cut and out-source services under consideration by Brent Council that it is all too easy to miss some important issues.

Labour Brent Council has closed six of the borough's 12 libraries. Now, as well as proposing to cut the amount spent on library stock the Council is also considering out-sourcing the management of the library service as a way of saving on rates. This is the proposal (ENS18) in the documentation that went to Cabinet last month LINK

To change the management of the library service to a trust arrangement. The exact arrangement will need to be determined. Within London, five authorities deliver their services in conjunction with other authorities, one delivers through a charitable trust established by the Council which also delivers other services such as leisure centres and seven have outsourced delivery to a social enterprise or a private sector provider. Elsewhere in the country, some library services have been outsourced to a staff-managed mutual or social enterprise, and larger library services have been commissioned to run smaller ones.  Charitable organisations are eligible for an 80% rebate on NNDR. Changes to rules on business rates in 2013 mean that 70% of the cost of this rebate is borne by Central Government with the remainder being covered by the local authority. Therefore the saving to the Council on business rates of transferring a library service to the charitable sector is 56% of the total rates bill - in Brent this amounts to a saving of approximately £160K. The exact level of savings would depend on the tenders received.

It will take approximately 12 months to complete this work and switch to a new management arrangement.

How would this affect users of this service?

• There would have to be public consultation and a full impact assessment before proceeding.

• There would be no direct impact on service users as there will be no reduction or significant change in service levels or quality.

The  last bullet point is likely to be challenged during the consultation. On his blog  LINK Public Libraries campaigner and member of Voices for the Library, Alan Wylie, explored the issue:

Only a year after being awarded the accolade of the 2017 'City of Culture' Hull City Council are proposing to set up a "leisure company" to take over the running of their leisure facilities, libraries, museums, park ranger and catering services. Now one thing strikes me straight away about this; why are libraries part of the bundle, after all they are statutory and they aren't in my opinion solely a leisure service? 

The answer to the above question probably lies in the fact that most councils place their library services in 'Culure & Leisure' directorates, that someone including the LGA has been perpetrating the myth that libraries are non-statutory, that we have a government and a Secretary of State who fail to intervene to stop library cuts and closures and that we have a chasm in the leadership and promotion of the national service. Libraries have become easy to offload.
So what is a 'leisure company' or 'leisure trust' and what are some of the issues with this model of privatisation?

"What a Leisure Trust means in practice:

• Leisure services are outsourced to a separate organisation/company. 
• The Council retains ownership of the facilities, which are leased to the Trust.
• Virtually all the savings come from rate reductions and VAT savings, which are much smaller initially because of the high set up costs. 
• Direct democratic control of the service will cease - elected member representation on a trust is limited to less than 20% of the board.
• Company law requires that Board members must put the interests of the leisure trust before those of the local authority. 
• After a year the Trust will usually cease to use council services and will be responsible its own procurement and contracting or corporate and other services."

LINK

Unison Scotland have also raised concerns;

"UNISON is concerned that large sections of public service delivery are being shifted off to arms length bodies with very little research into the effectiveness of such change."

LINK

Recently in Renfrewshire there have been protests against plans to pass the running of similar services to Renfrewshire Leisure Limited (RLL).

LINK

And there are similar plans being proposed by Angus Council and Unison have yet again raised concerns; LINK

 “Unison is not convinced that farming out leisure facilities to arm’s-length trusts improves the service for the public or the staff.

“They are not an alternative means of community ownership of public assets. In fact the policy tends to be used to save local authorities tax.

 
“Our experience so far is some trusts perform satisfactorily after the initial separation but the promised savings, extra funding and other benefits tend not to materialise. 
 
“There is no evidence the public see an improvement in the service nor will the trust see a higher rate of private donations, which are often the reasons put forward.”
 
For more on leisure trusts see LINK

I hope that the Scrutiny Committee and Unison will look at some of these issues in detail and make representations before the Council adopts a move that has the disadvantages outlined above.

How will Brent community library campaigns fare in 2015?

As the year draws near its end let's see what the state of play is with the various library campaigns in the borough. These were set up after Brent Council closed 6 of its 12 libraries.

Two libraries,  Neasden and Tokyngton, are now gone for good, but the four others are being supported by community campaigns. This is the current state of play (information from the campaigns' blogs, Facebook pages etc).

CRICKLEWOOD LINK

The campaign is optimistic that it will have a space in the new development but has a wary eye on events at Kensal Rise:

 On 12^th November Brent Planning Committee approved the application to demolish the building that has served as Cricklewood Library since the 1920s, and build a new mixed use development. The new four storey development will have a community space on the ground floor, sharing the building with six flats.

Friends of Cricklewood Library have been named as tenants of the community space, pending legal agreements, and we intend to run a library service, making the most of using the space by making sure it is adaptable and can be rented out to community groups for activities. We’ve got exciting plans/ideas, and a strong team – and there is a lot of talent and energy in the community to draw on.

A big thank you to everyone who has supported the campaign to keep our local library. There is a lot of work to do – but what wonderful chance to run a library/community centre and keep it right here. Please let us know if you would like to be involved – get in touch by email

 KENSAL RISE LINK

Regular readers will know about recent events which saw the building go up for auction and then fail to reach its reserve price. The update on the campaign blog states:

We understand that you may be confused and concerned by the latest turn of events – the auction of the library.

The library building may or may not have a new owner.

The focus of the Friends of Kensal Rise Library has always been, and will continue to be, to work for the establishment of a library in the Kensal Rise Library building. We remain focused on this intention and our resolve is strengthened by the on-going support of the Kensal Rise/Kensal Green community - we are gratified by the trust the community places in us and are heartened by the many messages of support we continue to receive.

We received a letter on the 16th December from All Souls College, who, by the terms of their sale to Andrew Gillick, retain control of the D1 community space, whoever is the owner of the building.

Any subsequent owner of the freehold of the library inherits this obligation regarding the D1 space.

PRESTON LIBRARY LINK

The campaign hopes to be able to run a community library from the old building when it is no longer needed as a temporary annex to Preston Park Primary School.  They hope this will be in Spring 2015 when building work at the school is completed.  During the May local elections Cllr Roxanne Mashari pledged the building at a peppercorn rent to any 'local community group who can provide a sustainable community library.':

We will not open to competitive tender in order to give preference to local groups if they can demonstrate health and safety sustainability etc. and we will offer help and assistance through Brent CVS the voluntary sector and continued support and networking through the Brent libraries forum which has proved successful for the likes of the Friends of Kensal Rise.

The campaign is now asking for more volunteers, donations from local business etc LINK
It has already been using the building out of school hours as a community hub.


BARHAM LIBRARY LINK
 

The Card Room, Barham Park

 This campaign has run temporary libraries in Wembley High Road and at Sudbury Town station. but wants to move back into Barham Park Card Room (above) that has remained empty for some time,
The Council in October 2013 had plans to turn it into a cafe on a similar basis to the one in Roundwood Park but nothing has happened since and the building, donated to the public by Titus Barham remains unused and subject to deterioration.

Friends of Barham Library have said that  they are willing to offer refreshments to the public using the park if they run a community library from the building.

Cllr Michael Pavey has now become Chair of the Barham Trust and there has been a further delay as they review the governance of the Trust.  In response to a letter from Francis Henry, Property Manager for Friends of Barham Library, he said: 

I reiterate what I have said previously: I have absolute biases (I suspect this should be 'no biases' MF) on this issue. I have not been involved in any of these campaigns. My sole interest is to try and use my role to ensure that future generations can enjoy a beautiful Barham Park.

Henry had written:

I think the time has now come for you and the other Trustees to stop deferring and make a decision on this issue.

As an Administration you have now announced plans to Cuts Services. The proposals to close Youth & Community and Sports Centres while massively cutting the budget for youth services confirms the need for the voluntary sector to pick up the pieces.
Friends of Barham Library and other Volunteer Library Groups in Brent have picked up the pieces and provided makeshift services, replacing services  lost after you and your colleagues closed 6 libraries. You will recall the arguments against closures including the loss of study spaces for young people, the loss of a local safe 'community facilities' where people could go and the fact that over half the active users of the closed libraries were young people under 19.

Friends of Barham Library can make effective use of the Card Room and other parts of the Barham Buildings still available for access and not let to ACAVA. We can provide a Volunteer Library, a meeting place, venue available for giving advice, study space etc etc we can even arrange to provide refreshments (not a full blown commercial Cafe which has no chance of success). In simple terms we can provide some of the activities lost as a result of a successive and ever worsening cuts in local community facilities and services.

We have a clear record of delivery, ability to source premises, materials, books and cash.

Our shop in Wembley High Road was let to us on a two week notice - we have been there since July 2012. Sudbury Town Underground Station is let to us on similar terms but we have been there and run our activities since September 2013.

To be able to run effective activities over extended hours and to be able to raise more cash from various charitable sources we need more permanent premises and a longer security of tenure. We also need to be in Barham Park.

I and our many supporters find it very odd that the Trustees of the Barham Park Charity were prepared to bring in an organisation such as ACAVA from a long way away, who provide a service which no one asked for, while denying a group of local people, providing activities that local people actually want, a right of access to a building which was gifted to local people for their use.

I am at a loss to understand what your role is. Is it to facilitate and support local people to run activities for the benefit of their local community or is your job to block them. At present all you actions suggest that it is the latter.

I am not one for platitudes and meaningless words. I prefer direct language and straight dealing. So no more dithering on your part (or unnecessary obstruction from your officers). It is time for decisive action on your part.

There is time for you to make a decisive statement before 31 December and a clear indication that you support what we wish to achieve. If you at long last say YES before the end of this year we will ensure that the building is ready to serve local people by 31 March 2015.

If however you have no intention to allow Friends of Barham Library back into the building then please have the decency to say so now. We will all then know where we stand.

It is a measure of the importance of libraries to local people that these campaigns have kept going through difficult times and branched out  imaginatively into other activities in support of their cause. Debate continues about the role of volunteers and the need for a well funded professional library service but there can be no doubt about the commitment and staying power of these campaigners.

The Seighart Independent Library Report for England noted LINK 

There are examples of volunteer only libraries being set up across the country though there is a tendency for these to be established in reasonably affluent areas and there are still  questions over their long term viability. The more disadvantaged localities often have the greater need for such a service but they don’t tend to have the resources, experience or confidence to take over the running of their library.

As they enter 2015 with varying degrees of confidence I wish all the campaigns success in 2015.

Brighton and Hove Council grapples with 'immoral' impact of Coalition cuts on the city

It is becoming clear that the continuing cuts in local government funding means that many councils will be unable to maintain basic services in the years ahead and some may face severe financial problems if not bankruptcy. Cuts in funding for adult social care to be announced by central government make the situation worse.

Against that background Brighton and Hove Council, a minority Green administration, released the statement below today. It is sure to spark a debate within the Green Party and the wider left about what a council should do in such circumstances:

Laying out the background to the budget, Councillor Ollie Sykes, Green lead member for finance, said: "The bulk of the council's general fund money each year comes from central government and over the past four years the coalition government has cut its funding to us by a frightening 32% in cash terms. After taking into account inflation and increasing demand, this means we have £70m less this year, for services, than when we came into office.

"And with council tax held down below inflation - which means it has fallen by 12% in real terms - the rest of the council's income cannot even begin to make up the shortfall.

"Other councils have also been cut, though historically Brighton & Hove has been cut hardest in the south east. And other councils are not coping: many have closed essential services, from libraries to welfare services, and the National Audit Office last week reported that more than half of councils in England are at of risk financial failure within the next five years. This week, Newcastle has warned of 'impossible cuts leading to social unrest'."

Councillor Sykes continued:

"Until now, Brighton & Hove has escaped what other cities are suffering. This Green administration has ensured that only a very small fraction of those cuts have so far been passed on to the front line of council services.

"We've done it by getting the basics right, managing resources, rooting out inefficiency, greening the council's building stock, and with great support and hard work from council staff. We've kept all libraries and children's centres open, imposed no compulsory redundancies on council employees, continued a fair proportion of financial support for the third sector and even increased spending for the city's most vulnerable. We've also brought in unprecedented external funding to for city improvements, such as The Level and Seven Dials.

"This year is different. The government cuts are so huge and there's nothing left to squeeze. It means that business will no longer be as usual. Unlike the past, some council services will have to shrink or go. There will be redundancies and there will be protests against those redundancies.

This is what coalition government cuts are now about to do to our city."

Turning to the Greens' response, Councillor Sykes says:

"This is not a budget we're proud to see before us. But we can't print money or ask officers to spend what we don't have. Despite everything, though, we are doing what we can as a minority administration.

"Over the coming weeks, we will be calling on the government to reinstate our full grant and examining all possible ways to put the pressure on. We hope our Labour and Conservative colleagues will join us, for the sake of the city. What the coalition is doing to our most vulnerable residents and our communities is frankly immoral.

"We are asking the city to approve our proposals for a general 5.9% rise in council tax. This will not solve the problem but it will raise more than £4m to help maintain crucial services and avoid the imposition of a much sharper tax rise for the most hard-up people in the city.

"And we are making a series of pledges to keep open such core council services as libraries, children's centres and public toilets, to protect the city's most vulnerable from the worst of the cuts and not to introduce anything that will contribute to the further transfer of wealth from the least well off to the wealthiest in this country."

Caroline Lucas MP for Brighton Pavilion has tabled an Early Day Motion on the cuts to try and initiate a debate in the House of Commons in December:

• This House believes, under the guise of austerity, central government is slowly but surely putting an end to local government as we know it;
• Notes that from 2010/11 to 2015/16, core central government funding to local authorities has been slashed by 40%, whilst local government responsibilities increase; further notes demand for council services is growing and people are suffering under Government policies harming the poorest and most disadvantaged such as the bedroom tax, cuts to tax credits and benefits and the increase in VAT;
• Further notes the National Audit Office report criticising the Government for failing to properly assess the effects of further cuts to funding of councils by central government and the cross-party Local Government Association warning over plans to stop funding Local Welfare Assistance Schemes that “If the government pulls the plug on funding, many local authorities will be unable to afford to make up the difference at a time when we are tackling the biggest cuts to council funding in living memory” which will cause three-quarters of councils to scale back or scrap their schemes;
• Therefore calls for the cuts to local Government funding to be reversed and for local government to be protected from further cuts to enable local authorities to provide cherished community services as well as vital social services such as support for looked-after children, care-leavers, users of adult social care, older people, homeless people, low-income families in crisis, disabled people, those with special educational needs and emergency help to survivors of domestic violence. 

Notes
Brighton and Hove singled-out for cuts: LINK
Laying out the background to the budget, Councillor Ollie Sykes, Green lead member for finance, said: "The bulk of the council's general fund money each year comes from central government and over the past four years the coalition government has cut its funding to us by a frightening 32% in cash terms. After taking into account inflation and increasing demand, this means we have £70m less this year, for services, than when we came into office.

"And with council tax held down below inflation - which means it has fallen by 12% in real terms - the rest of the council's income cannot even begin to make up the shortfall.

"Other councils have also been cut, though historically Brighton & Hove has been cut hardest in the south east. And other councils are not coping: many have closed essential services, from libraries to welfare services, and the National Audit Office last week reported that more than half of councils in England are at of risk financial failure within the next five years. This week, Newcastle has warned of 'impossible cuts leading to social unrest'."

Councillor Sykes continued:
"Until now, Brighton & Hove has escaped what other cities are suffering. This Green administration has ensured that only a very small fraction of those cuts have so far been passed on to the front line of council services.

"We've done it by getting the basics right, managing resources, rooting out inefficiency, greening the council's building stock, and with great support and hard work from council staff. We've kept all libraries and children's centres open, imposed no compulsory redundancies on council employees, continued a fair proportion of financial support for the third sector and even increased spending for the city's most vulnerable. We've also brought in unprecedented external funding to for city improvements, such as The Level and Seven Dials.

"This year is different. The government cuts are so huge and there's nothing left to squeeze. It means that business will no longer be as usual. Unlike the past, some council services will have to shrink or go. There will be redundancies and there will be protests against those redundancies.

This is what coalition government cuts are now about to do to our city."

Turning to the Greens' response, Councillor Sykes says:

"This is not a budget we're proud to see before us. But we can't print money or ask officers to spend what we don't have. Despite everything, though, we are doing what we can as a minority administration.

"Over the coming weeks, we will be calling on the government to reinstate our full grant and examining all possible ways to put the pressure on. We hope our Labour and Conservative colleagues will join us, for the sake of the city. What the coalition is doing to our most vulnerable residents and our communities is frankly immoral.

"We are asking the city to approve our proposals for a general 5.9% rise in council tax. This will not solve the problem but it will raise more than £4m to help maintain crucial services and avoid the imposition of a much sharper tax rise for the most hard-up people in the city.

"And we are making a series of pledges to keep open such core council services as libraries, children's centres and public toilets, to protect the city's most vulnerable from the worst of the cuts and not to introduce anything that will contribute to the further transfer of wealth from the least well off to the wealthiest in this country."

Caroline Lucas MP for Brighton Pavilion has tabled an Early Day Motion on the cuts to try and initiate a debate in the House of Commons in December:

• This House believes, under the guise of austerity, central government is slowly but surely putting an end to local government as we know it;
• Notes that from 2010/11 to 2015/16, core central government funding to local authorities has been slashed by 40%, whilst local government responsibilities increase; further notes demand for council services is growing and people are suffering under Government policies harming the poorest and most disadvantaged such as the bedroom tax, cuts to tax credits and benefits and the increase in VAT;
• Further notes the National Audit Office report criticising the Government for failing to properly assess the effects of further cuts to funding of councils by central government and the cross-party Local Government Association warning over plans to stop funding Local Welfare Assistance Schemes that “If the government pulls the plug on funding, many local authorities will be unable to afford to make up the difference at a time when we are tackling the biggest cuts to council funding in living memory” which will cause three-quarters of councils to scale back or scrap their schemes;
• Therefore calls for the cuts to local Government funding to be reversed and for local government to be protected from further cuts to enable local authorities to provide cherished community services as well as vital social services such as support for looked-after children, care-leavers, users of adult social care, older people, homeless people, low-income families in crisis, disabled people, those with special educational needs and emergency help to survivors of domestic violence. 

Notes
Brighton and Hove singled-out for cuts: LINK
Leader of Newcastle council decries impossible cuts and warns of social unrest: LINK

Brent Greens will fight for the restoration of local library provision

A member of the libraries campaign has suggested that I publish the speech I made at the Preston Library Campaign hustings last week. This is the gist of what I said:

I am speaking primarily as the Green Party spokesperson for children and families, because I am particularly concerned about the impact of the closures on young children. I did child care for a pupil of Preston Park Primary who used the library regularly, did her homework there and always felt secure with helpful staff available. But of course it is not just Preston Library but five others that have been closed.

 I have seen eager children arrive at Neasden Library, only to turn home crestfallen when they realised it was closed for good. Without internet access at home they were dependent on that library to use a computer for their homework.

 Libraries are important for book borrowing, homework and a social space but most importantly are  'local'  - where older children can visit independently, families drop in and elderly people access with ease.

Labour realised belatedly that t the closures were a mistake and this led to a change of leadership and recent attempts to recover lost ground. However the damage has been done and a 'fresh start' cannot make up for that.  We believe in publicly funded, properly staffed, local libraries and will fightfor the restoration of local library provision.

Greens care about the quality of life and not just the quantity of goods. This is important not just in terms of  libraries but in educational provision public spaces and housing where we intend to enhance everyone's quality of life rather than focus on acquisition of goods.

Greens have been consistent in their opposition to the library closures as can be seen from the videos we produced above and from this piece I wrote for 'Voices for the Library' back in January 2011 LINK:

I have been a member of a public library continuously since before I started school (in fact the old Kingsbury Library now replaced). When I move house joining the library is the first thing I do once the electricity and gas are connected and the furniture in. As one of a large family with parents unable to give me a lot of attention, the library was in a sense my home educator, and librarians actually quite important in encouraging me to widen my reading tastes. Without a library I think I would have not progressed much educationally.

Currently I see queues of young and older people outside the Town Hall Library, waiting for it to open, not all just to keep warm but somewhere they can advance their education. Library staff could probably tell you that young children use local libraries after school as a place to do their homework, but also an unofficial safe place to be picked up by their parents when they finish work.

A lot of the youngsters on the Chalkhill Estate use the library, encouraged by the school and by class visits, and there is also a high usage of the internet there, for learning but also for job seeking. This is essential if we are to tackle the gap between those who have access and those who do not. They are fortunate in being near a library not down for closure – although it will be less accessible when it is moved to the new Civic Centre.
However youngster who currently use Barham Park, Cricklewood, Neasden, Tokyngton, Kensal Rise and Preston libraries, all down for closure, will be less fortunate. The proposal for the remaining six libraries to be ‘community hubs’ with other council services located there does not replace the local accessibility of these small libraries.

Brent libraries are also the source of much cultural input including Black History Months events and other activities that bring a diverse community together including language and nationalist test classes. The Town Hall library is currently running a reading club for primary school children and others have homework clubs for children without access to books or computers at home. As the recession bites this will become even more important.

As Greens local libraries are important to because we believe in easily accessible community resources which do not involve car trips. A local library is a place where children of 10 and over can easily walk to on their own rather than rely on lifts from parents – this encourages one area of independence in a period where children are more and more dependent on adults with few opportunities for independent activity.
Libraries even save paper, and therefore trees, through multiple lending of one book rather than individual purchases of many books – and the authors get a steady source of income, albeit it small, from public lending rights.

Martin Francis
Brent Green Party spokesperson on Children and Families and school governor

Green Party policies for Brent - May 22nd 2014

Supine Brent Council accept NFA in alleged Kensal Rise fraud

Who would Miss Marple suspect?

Accusations of malpractice in planning application in Brent are not new.  There were suspicions about a last minute surge in support for the Willesden Green development LINK, an independent investigation was carried out over Paul Lorber's email interchange with the bidder for the Barham Park library site LINK and currently we have the issue of fake emails submitted for the Kensal Rise Library development. LINK

At the weekend Cllr Muhammed Butt revealed in a sharp email interchange with a Labour Party member that the fraud police had decided not to take their investigation further. A strange decision when such developments are worth millions of pounds.

One would think that Brent Council, as the guardian of council taxpayers' money and responsible for the fair conduct of planning applications, having had their attention drawn to the fake email by KR campaigners,  and finding enough evidence in their own investigation to pass the matter on to Action Fraud, would have established why the police had decided on no further action.

 I am sure Miss Marple would consider the question, 'Who stands to benefit from this fraud?' and then investigate accordingly.

Does the lack of a police investigation mean Brent Council just goes ahead with hearing the planning application as if nothing has happened. Do the residents who have clearly stated that their addresses were used without their permission, for a cause they did not support, just accept that no further action will be taken?

Instead of any such action Fiona Ledden, Head of Legal and Procurement at Brent Council, copied a complainant into this email, which is a masterpiece in conveying absolutely nothing in four paragraphs.

I am writing to inform you of the outcome of the police investigation into the potential fraudulent use of emails in respect of the planning application for the building of the former library at Kensal Rise.

The Police have now informed the Council that it is not taking further the investigation into potential fraudulent emails in respect of the planning application for the building of the former library at Kensal Rise.

The Council does want to continue to maintain the highest level of integrity with its planning process, since the Council continues to have statutory responsibilities to consider planning applications that are submitted.

I know you will be disappointed by this conclusion but in taking the action, the Council has already demonstrated their continuing concerns with regards to this matter.

If the planning application and committee hearing goes ahead, as if nothing has happened, it will be a strange way of  demonstrating 'continuing concerns' on this matter.

Loos, libraries, Humpty Dumpty and the fight against austerity

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/

As local people fight against cuts here in Brent  there is often much to be learnt from other parts of the country. In this Guest Blog (first published in 'Speakers Corner; in the Bristol Post, Green Party member Julie Boston writes about a creative campaign to save public lavatories. Not a glamorous topic but a practical one that affects the daily lives of parents, the pregnant and the elderly and one that links to the whole austerity agenda as Julie shows.

 On Saturday 21 December 2013, a group of us spent an hour in central Bristol asking people to sign a petition headed ‘Save Our City’.

The Save Our City’ campaign is supported by trade unionists and people on the Left. In case the words Left and Right are vague, here’s a fellow pensioner’s definition to her grand-daughter. “People on the Left think things should be fair. People on the Right think things should be unfair!

For the past 100 years people have tried to make their cities fair. Bristol can be proud of owning more Council housing than many cities. Bristol City Council (BCC) still owns green open spaces, allotments, twenty five branch libraries, part of the Central Library, the M Shed, museums, some Primary Schools, public toilets, cemeteries, the roads and endless car parks.

But what happened to the buildings which used to house Bristol Day Centres, Care Homes, swimming pools and Youth Centres? I remember visiting some of them before the last round of BCC cuts. They were attractive and the atmosphere calm but busy. Did their sale generate profit to fund current services?  Does anyone know? Once they are in private ownership, information is protected by ‘commercial confidentiality’.

I am not convinced that the Mayor of Bristol appreciates the culture of public ownership, the need for the public sector and the need for elected councillors. He certainly does not understand the concept of paid public sector workforce which brings a certain amount of security to the individual and commitment to the job.  The Save Our City’ campaign aims to reject £90m of council cuts and protect up to 1,000 Bristol City Council jobs.

As a pensioner with a lifetime’s experience, I can say ‘public service good, private service bad’. My husband’s family of 5 children lived in rented accommodation until their dream of a council house came true in 1948. Our children were educated under the auspices of London County Council. The many benefits included reasonably funded buildings, school dinners, no homework and no stress.

As a bus pass holder, I can travel free and attend BCC meetings and am increasingly alarmed. At the Neighbourhoods and Communities Scrutiny Commission on 20 November 2013, Councillor Peter Hammond pointed out that BCC Property Officer’s promotion for renting out two floors of Bristol Central Library sounded like a holiday brochure. The low rent from Bristol Cathedral Free School and the 125 year lease is an insult to Bristol.

At BCC cabinet meeting on 5 December, the 126 pages long executive summary on re-tendering of Home Care, was accepted in 4 minutes ! Anyone with any experience of working in the privatised ‘care’ sector knows the long hours, low pay, lack of tea breaks and the deathly long daily commute.

However people are moving. The Council meeting on 17th December was inspiring and chaired humanely.  St Paul’s Learning Centre, Felix Road Adventure Playground, the Anti Bedroom Tax campaign, the Iliminster Road School and Hengrove Play Park all made their case strongly. Hengrove youtube, supported by all local councillors, was especially inspiring. But we need to go back to basics.

You cannot cut you way out of a recession. Austerity does not work.Save Our City’ does not accept that government’s austerity programme is necessary. The banks and the major corporations should be taxed at a rate which can provide the necessary resources to provide for the public sector.

The Mayor’s hostility to Bristol City Council (BCC) is confirmed with the appointment of Max Wilde ‘who will join the council in February as Strategic Director for Business Change, tasked with overseeing back office services and working as part of the council’s push to become a more efficient and less costly organisation’. These efficiencies sound remarkably like Barnet Council which has outsourced most of its activities to one of Private Eye's regular incompetents, Crapita.

For the past three years I have supported National Libraries Day as branch libraries are vital and branch libraries everywhere are threatened. In preparation for National Libraries Day in February, I arranged to meet a couple of friends from Anti Poll Tax days in Hartcliffe library only to find that loos not libraries are even more crucial.

Deb Smith, a care worker and UNISON member texted this to me:

Humpty Dumpty needed the loo

Humpty Dumpty needed a poo

George Ferguson had shut all the loos down

So Humpty Dumpty turned his pants Brown.