Brent Central candidates talking green at the Learie Constantine Centre

From Brent Friends of the Earth

Photo: Jonathan Goldberg      

Parliamentary candidates for Brent Central were questioned on their green credentials at Brent Friends of the Earth's Eco Hustings last Thursday in Willesden.

Green candidate Shahrar Ali, Labour’s Dawn Butler, Conservative Alan Mendoza and UKIP's Stephen Priestley, along with Ollie Hayes, Campaigner for Friends of the Earth, were on the panel. Friends of the Earth's Energy and Climate Change Campaigner, Rose Dickinson took the chair. The panel faced an audience of 60 local residents and party supporters at the Learie Constantine West Indian Association. John Boyle of TUSC, and the Liberal Democrats were also invited.

Climate change, fracking, fuel poverty, TTIP, industrial farming and air pollution were amongst the the issues discussed.

Viv Stein, Spokesperson for Brent Friends of the Earth says, “This election has come at a crucial time for our future. In order to avoid catastrophic climate change we need to leave 80% of fossil fuels in the ground, and invest in renewable energy instead. The current coalition promised to be 'the greenest Government ever' but have failed to live up to this. They've supported gas and oil companies with huge tax breaks, and have damaged investment in green energy in the UK by cutting incentives for renewables.”

“It was good to hear all the candidates talking green, but they and their parties will need to deliver robust, joined-up and sustainable policies to provide a secure future for us all.”

“We asked candidates to sign a pledge that they won't support fracking in Brent or elsewhere, but as yet only Labour,* the Green and UKIP candidates have signed up.”

You can check which candidates have signed the frack free pledge at HERE   Videos of the meeting available HERE

* Note from Martin Francis:  John Boyle, the TUSC candidiate has pointed out that Dawn Butler has NOT signed according to the  FOE website. He has signed on behalf of TUSC. In Brent North only Scott Bartle, the Green candidate, has signed.  LINK

More funding needed to pay London nursery workers a proper wage

 The following statement has been released by London Councils, the body representing 33 local authorities in London:

Pressures on London’s childcare system mean that almost 25,000 extra nursery places are necessary to meet a headline pledge by the Deputy Prime Minister, new research shows.

London Councils, the body which represents the capital’s 33 local authorities, commissioned Daycare Trust, a national charity which campaigns for affordable childcare, to look at how to make the entitlement for free part-time early years education for the poorest 20 per cent of two-year olds work in the capital.

The research reveals that a minimum of 24,100 new places are needed to meet the pledge. This will rise further to 31,700 places by September 2014.

Factors adversely affecting the capital, including higher levels of poverty, rising birth rates, migration and higher staff and property costs, mean that the costs of delivering the scheme will be significantly higher than elsewhere in the UK.

To meet this challenge, the report outlines how a number of boroughs are taking innovative approaches to deliver the offer. This includes augmenting early years education with home learning and parental support. This eases pressure on childcare providers and provides targeted and integrated support to deprived families. 

The report makes a number of recommendations to government about how best to make the programme work. As well as supporting combining early years education with targeted parental support, the government should provide sufficient funding to London Boroughs to allow providers to be paid £8 per hour. Based on government allocations, providers will receive a significantly lower average of £5.71 per hour if all revenue funding goes to providers.
Mayor Jules Pipe, Chair of London Councils, said:

“Today’s research shows that councils are thinking innovatively about how to create the places needed to deliver this new entitlement. However, London has more births, more poverty and more expensive childcare costs than elsewhere in the UK. The government needs to take this into account.”
Anand Shukla, Chief Executive of Daycare Trust, said:

“This policy has the potential to boost the life chances of the most deprived children in London but finding an additional 25,000 early education places for two year olds is proving a huge challenge for local authorities. A shortfall in day-to-day funding, for providers and for local authorities, risks compromising this ambitious policy. A small amount of extra funding would get the buy-in of providers and the essential local authority infrastructure needed to make this scheme a success.”