Brent want Welsh Harp kept open as Environmental Education Centre

Brent Council has responded to my message regarding the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre. Although they have not answered all my questions they did state:

The Centre is required to be subject to a formal Community Asset Transfer process, which must be an open marketing of the facility. Please see the council’s statement on the matter below -

Councillor Eleanor Southwood, Lead Member for Environment at Brent Council said:

“Although the Centre was due to close following Council budget savings, we have been making strong efforts to ensure that it can continue as a community facility.

“To allow this to happen, we must go through a formal process which involves marketing the facility in an open and transparent way.

“We are committed to helping keep the Centre open as an environmental education centre and we will favour bids which show that they can do this.”

Brent Council: Never mind the cuts we're spending more on PR

Unconfirmed rumours reach me that Cheryl Curling, head of communications has been summarily escorted from Brent Civic Centre. Two days ago PR Weekly LINK  carried the story that she had been made redundant as part of the council's restructuring that will increase staff from 9 to 11 and with a new head on a higher pay grade than Curling. PR Weekly noted that Cheryl had not responded to a request for a comment at the time of going to press.

PR Weekly stated:

Curling’s role as ‎head of comms and marketing is set to be replaced by the wider ranging and higher salaried role of head of media and external relations, with the post currently being advertised.

Brent Council’s interim senior comms adviser Richard Stokoe, hired last year as part of the review, said the restructure would see a shift in focus towards making the council’s 2,500 staff its spokespeople.

"The most trusted form of comms is verbal, and the most trusted form of verbal comms is from friends and relatives, so this is about getting staff out there. If you have each member of staff talking to five people about the council and what it's doing, you can start to bring about big behaviour change."

Alongside a change in the top role, the comms officer roles will be changed to media officers, while new corporate comms officers will oversee longer-term strategy and the training of staff as spokespeople.

Not very good public relations really...