Protesters demand rebuilding of the Carlton Tavern after its demolition by property speculators

Guest blog by Ella Downing

A successful protest was held today against the demolition of the Carlton Tavern. Around 75 men, women and children attended including local residents, councillors and activists.

The demolition was a act of sheer vandalism by property speculators only interested in profit, regardless of the cost to the local community, and with little or no regard for health and safety.

A further protest will be held outside Porchester Hall at 6:30pm on Wednesday the 29th of April where a council meeting will discuss the matter. Pressure must be put on Westminster to act, and we demand the rebuilding of the Carlton Tavern!

 

 

 

Housing for People NOT Profit: Greens at MIPIM Protest Today

There were plenty of people from Brent at the developers' MIPIM jamboree at Olympia  today, where deals are hatchd between councils and developers resulting in social cleansing on an epic scale.

Some Labour councils boycotted the fair and others, such as Hammermsith and Fulham, where a stall had been booked by the previous adminstration, used it to make the case for council housing.

Andy Donald from Brent usually takes part, and in fact has been feted by MIPIM.

This morning Gaynor Lloyd from Brent was one of those who spotted Boris Johnson slipping into the Exhibitions.  She emailed me to say

I got to shout at Boris! Saw him scuttling in at the back, being interviewed - appropriately - in a back passage and as he retreated with the odd minders I broke the habits of a lifetime. I shouted "Why didn't you go in at the front?" He looked a lot less puffed up than normal...

Protest Against MIPIM: Housing for People Not For Profit

Andy Donald, Brent's Director of Regeneration and Major projects, has been a delegate to MIPIM at its Cannes meetings where he shared his thinking about development and regeneration - we can see the results of that thinking in Brent today. LINK

This year MIPIM  is coming to London.

The description under this videa reads:

The world’s largest property fair, known as MIPIM, is coming to London for the first time in its 25-year history. Hundreds of property developers, financiers and politicians will be welcomed by the Mayor of London when they converge on Olympia to do deals that allow them to profit from our land and our neighbourhoods.

This is creating unaffordable, insecure housing and contributing to the corporate takeover of our community space and public services. It means big profits for the richest 1% whilst destroying our communities and keeping millions in poverty.

We don't need more luxury housing, office blocks and shopping centres. We don't want our neighbourhoods to be gentrified and entire communities evicted. We want quality genuinely affordable housing and public services for all.

Join affected communities, the Radical Housing Network, the European Action Coalition for the
Right to Housing and the City, trade unions, tenants groups and many others to say ‘Our communities are not for sale!’

London Mayor Boris Johnson will be giving an opening address welcoming the property developers and financiers who have come to profit from our communities.

Green Party Assembly Member for London, Darren Johnson, will be attending the demonstration at 9am.

#BlockBoris

Wednesday 15 October, 9am

Meet outside Kensington Olympia tube, Olympia Way, W14 0NE

Demonstrations on September 10th as A&E departments close

Barham Park tenants to protest Monday over 'premature' notices to quit

From Brent Housing Action

DEMONSTRATION: 

The Grange, Neasden Lane, NW10 1QB between 5pm and 6:15pm 

 Monday 11^th August 2014

 

 Tomorrow, Monday 11th August, marks the due date for the first tranche of households to leave the Barham Park Estate under the premature Notice to Quit orders issued by Brent Community Housing (BCH).

It also marks the two week anniversary of the initial meeting between Senior Council Officers and BCH to negotiate an extension of the tenancies for the 42 affected households which would comply with the Council’s regeneration plans.
 

Phase 2c of the Barham Park Estate regeneration last week. This is where the remaining council tenants are due to move in “early 2015″ prior to demolition of remaining properties.

In an email to a resident dated 4^th August, Cllr Margaret McLennan, Lead for Housing and Regeneration said:

As previously stated, our senior Officers are in discussion with BCH. They know the Members view on this and have stated our grave concerns at their unilateral action. Nothing will happen while we are in discussion or beyond this. I promised I would update you once I had firm confirmation, and I shall.

This is a very positive statement, and the residents of Barham Park gratefully acknowledge the efforts Cllr McLennan has put into resolving the situation.

Regrettably it does not allay the concerns of those who are due to move out: they have two primary issues:

1) That if they DO move out on the NTQ due date (s) they become “intentionally homeless”, and will lose any potential assistance from Brent’s Housing Options Team to find alternate accommodation;

2) If they DO NOT move out, and so engage in the legal eviction process to give them access to assistance from the Borough, under their current contracts BCH have no obligation to rehouse them.

The tenants have therefore sought clarification, asking if the NTQs have been suspended pending the outcome of the negotiations, and requesting “non-prejudicial” access to rehousing via BCH in this instance. This last point is particularly contentious as some of those involved in organising, and merely signing, the earlier petitions have reputedly been verbally informed they will not be rehoused. 

In fact to date none of the affected 42 households has been offered alternative accommodation.

It has been decided therefore to call a demonstration outside the BCH Offices to show the level of solidarity between the affected tenants, their neighbours and supporters with the intention of getting BCH to re-examine their current stance.

The demo will take place outside The Grange, Neasden Lane, NW10 1QB between 5pm and 6:15pm on Monday 11^th August 2014. The Grange is located on the central roundabout at the top of Dudden Hill Lane and Neasden Lane (google maps shows the wrong building!). Nearest tube is Neasden on the Jubilee Line, a three minute walk away, and all bus routes through Neasden Junction stop nearby (182, 297).

Please do try to attend, but if you can’t you may wish to contact BCH with your thoughts by calling 020 7624 3168 or emailing info@bchcoopha

Supporters back Caroline Lucas as she goes on anti-fracking trial today

Support for Caroline Lucas outside Brighton Magistrates Court this morning

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas goes on trial today, along with others, following her arrest at the anti-fracking protests at Balcombe. This is what she wrote about the trial on her blog:

The week ahead marks the start of my trial at Brighton Magistrates Court, following my arrest at Balcombe last August for taking part in a peaceful protest against fracking.  

Along with four others, I am charged with obstructing the highway and failing to follow police instructions to move to a specified protest area.

We are all pleading not guilty.

I have been touched by the good wishes of many constituents who have contacted me to let me know of their support for my actions.

And I want to assure all my constituents that they will be able to contact my office as usual.

I will be working around the hours of court proceedings to ensure that I continue to fulfil my parliamentary and constituency responsibilities, and continue to represent the residents of Brighton Pavilion.

Working to address the threat of climate change has been a priority for me throughout my political life.
I know too that this is very important to large numbers of my constituents, because so many of them have written to me about the environmental risks posed by fracking, and the urgency of tackling climate change.

As an MP, I’m in the privileged position of being able to make the case in Parliament. I’ve tabled motions, championed debates, put questions to Ministers, and spoken out in the media - and will continue to do so.

But the Government is ignoring the evidence, ignoring the climate science, and ignoring the enormous benefits of a secure and affordable energy system based on renewables and efficiency.

Instead they are offering the fossil fuel companies generous tax breaks as well as senior roles within Government itself.

Climate scientists and experts are clear that emissions from nations like the UK need to be reduced much faster than they are at the moment.

We need a rapid shift to a zero carbon economy, along with policies to keep the vast majority of known fossil fuels in the ground, if we are to avoid catastrophic climate change.

The window for action is closing fast.

As a result,  I decided to join the peaceful protest to send a clear message to the Government, as well as to support and join those people at the proposed fracking site in Balcombe who were standing up to be counted.

There is a proud tradition of non-violent direct action in this country, and I believe that using peaceful means to try to stop a process that could cause enormous harm is not only reasonable but also morally necessary.
I will not have recourse to any public funds in order to fight my case.

Demonstrate tomorrow to save Cricklewood's only green space from developers

Outside B&Q :

Unit 1, Broadway Retail Park Cricklewood Lane Cricklewood, London LONDON NW2 

11am Saturday 
November 16th

Brent X Coalition LINK

Confusion over Council's policy on rent rises

I live on a Brent Housing Partnership estate which has a mixture of flats, maisonettes, terraced houses and town houses. These are occupied by a mixture of 'right to buy' freehold owners (or purchasers from an original right to buy owner), leaseholders, BHP tenants, private tenants and probably some sub-lets.

Two bedroomed flats and houses are privately let for between £800 and £1,200 a month, social housing tenants pay much less.

Some of the privately owned homes have been fitted with double glazing while the BHP properties have not. Energy bills for the latter are therefore much higher.

There is considerable and much appreciated green space on the estate.

I give this as background to the Housing Assess Management Strategy Report that is going to the Brent Executive tomorrow.  The report contains a mixture of measures which involves  disposing of some properties and selling the freehold on some blocks.  It involves plans to build a small number of new units of existing estates, initially between 70 and 100, to cater for larger families and a long-term 7 year plan for 1,000 new 'affordable' homes.  Importantly there are plans for refurbishment of existing stock. Clearly new homes and refurbishment will be very welcome.

The plans will be financed by the sell-offs, some borrowing and controversially rent increases.The latter has caused concern amongst Labour Party members as well as tenants because the documents going to the Executive seem to indicate that existing tenants' rents will increase over the next 5 years to 'converge' at 80% of market rents, which by some definitions is an 'affordable rent' - a figure the Council has challenged in the past..  At the same time the new properties will be immediately let at an affordable rent with some caveats (see extract below).

The concern is that the convergence strategy will result in a likely doubling of rent for existing tenants over the next 5 years at a time when incomes are static but the cost of living is rising and benefits have been cut.

What I and others have been trying to work out from the documentation going before the Executive is whether that is what is really envisaged and hopefully, as a result of protests due to representations that will be made, it will become clearer. The figures quoted do not seem to equate to a doubling of rent.

Meanwhile here is an extract from the Appendices that readers

The extract below from the Appendices sets out the rent strategy and I leave readers to try and interpret wht it means concretely:

Rent Policy

Strategic Approach

For rents to continue to increase in line with the  rent convergence regime- a maximum annual increase in 2014 of RPI +0.5% plus £2 per week and from 2015 CPI+ 1% plus £2 per week for existing tenants - subject to any direction by Government

Following rent convergence for the annual increase  to be set at CPI+1%

For properties to be re-let at target rents

For consideration to be given annually to restraint in rent increases for 4-bedroom and larger properties in order to assure affordability under the overall benefits cap

For new-build and newly-acquired properties (except where required for decant) to be let at affordable rents in line with the thresholds set out within the Council’s Tenancy Strategy.

Context

Rents are the primary income to the HRA business plan and provide the funding to support stock investment and for new development.

In recent years the Council has increased rents in  line with the government’s rent convergence regime. The government has recently issued guidance

that rent convergence should end from 2015/16 at which point the majority of the HRA stock will not have achieved convergence. Currently the Council retains the discretion to not follow the recent guidance. Further clarification of the

position by Government is expected by early 2014 and account will need to be taken of this.

The government has also issued recent guidance that from 2015 rent increases will be linked to a different inflation index – and be based on CPI plus 1% rather than RPI plus 0.5% as previously.

Approach

In order to provide a secure basis for the funding of the Asset Management Strategy, a rent policy for the next five-year period will operate. The policy will be for rents for existing tenants to continue to rise in line with the principles of the government’s previous Rent Convergence regime unless government directs otherwise. For 4-bed and larger units rent increases may be constrained in order to assure affordability under the Overall Benefits Cap.

In order to support viability, new homes will be let at Affordable Rents. These will be limited to varying percentages of the market-rent depending on the size of the unit in order to assure affordability for those affected by the Overall Benefits Cap.

Source: http://democracy.brent.gov.uk/documents/s20059/rg-hra-app1.pdf

Protesters light Bonfire of Austerity on Westminster Bridge

In a demonstration organised by the People's Assembly Against Austerity several hundred people marched across Westminster Bridge this evening, stopping to light a symbolic bonfire, burning an effigy of David Cameron (or a Big 6 energy boss - it wasn't clear)  and dozens of  energy bills.

Let us Breathe!!! The Harlesden incinerator video

Whitehall blocked by Syria anti-war protesters - make it massive on Saturday

The crowd in Whitehall

Among the speakers were Jenny Jones Green Am and Diane Abbot MP

A group of Green Party members at the protest

At the gate of Downing Street

Protesters eventually blocked Whitehall

Britain France and the US are poised to attack Syria. Even ex-generals are warning that such an attack can have incalculable consequences. It risks terrible casualties, will intensify the desperate civil war and threatens to draw other regional powers in to the conflict.

As Stop the War's statement on Syria points out 'It seems that the Western governments have already made up their minds about this attack before it has even been reported on by UN weapons inspectors.' This underlines the fact that the intervention, far from being humanitarian, is part of a wider project of regime change.

While our politicians appear to have learnt nothing from the disasters of Afghanistan, Iraq most people in Britain oppose any attack. Only 9% support British troops getting involved and only 25% back missile strike.
 
Protests are taking place across the country today and tomorrow - please check here for details and phone us if you want to organise something in your area.

Make Saturday massive

Saturday's national demonstration is crucial. We need to be a real expression of mass public opinion. Please do everything possible to attend and promote as widely as you can.

The demonstration is now assembling at Temple Tube at midday on Saturday and marching via parliament and Downing Street to Trafalgar Square for a rally. Transport has already been organised from various towns and cities, please contact the office for more information.

Demonstrate - No attack on Syria, this Saturday 31 August. 12 midday,  Temple tube, Victoria Embankment.

No attack on Syria: Protest Wednesday, Demonstrate Saturday

No attack on Syria

- Protest tomorrow 5pm, Wednesday 28 August, Downing Street, London
- National Demonstration: Saturday 31 August, 12 noon, Embankment, London

Britain, France and the US are committing to another disastrous military intervention. Apart from the inevitable casualties, any attack on Syria can only inflame an already disastrous civil war and would risk pulling in regional powers further.

Most people in this country have learnt from the disasters of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. According to a Telegraph/YouGov poll on Sunday only 9% of the British public would support troops being sent to Syria, and only 16% support sending more arms to the region. Our politicians however have learnt nothing.

Take action:

• Please share Wednesday's event with your Facebook contacts
• Support our campaign by making a donation today (details below)
  

We need the maximum level of protests to stop them plunging us in to yet another catastrophic war.

No attack on Syria

- Protest tomorrow 5pm, Wednesday 28 August, Downing Street, London
- National Demonstration: Saturday 31 August, 12 noon, Embankment, London

The national demonstration on Saturday will gather at Embankment (near Embankment tube) and march via Parliament and Downing Street, ending in Central London for a political rally to say No attack on Syria.

Please do not hesitate to contact the office on 020 7561 4830 or email office@stopwar.org.uk

 http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php/get-involved/join-or-donate

Derek Wall speaking on economics and the environment at Balcombe

The video below was taken yesterday at the Reclaim the Power camp at Balcombe. Taken in a tent where another workshop was also in session on a hand-held camera the quality is not the best - but I think the quality of what is said is worth the effort of viewing.

Feeling the power at Balcombe

I spent a stimulating afternoon down at Balcombe today where the anti-fracking protest camp has been reinforced, a mile or so further down the road by the Reclaim the Power camp. It was noteworthy how many young people were present as well as many families.

Reclaim the Power state:

It's clear that if w want to change the way we power our lives, we need to change who has power over our lives. The two are so closely connected.

Reclaim the Power is about building the links between people and campaigns that can work together to stop the dash for gas and create a sustainable safe future where our common needs of not just energy but also health services, education, food, transport and freedom  of movement belongs to us and ar accountable to us and not profit and corporate greed,

Another power is possible, and we can all be part of creating it.

Certainly the positive and friendly atmosphere in both camps, and the willingness to engage in comradely discussion, made me think another power is possible.

Reclaim the Power camp plan

Workshop discussion

Impromptu concert

Workshop tent

Straw bale urinals

Portable solar panels

The 'Kids' Space'

Sign at the roadside protest camp

Roadside agitprop

A friendly welcome awaits locals at the Green Party tent

Police guard the entrance to the drilling site

Harlesden Incinerator: Action Tomorrow and Wednesday

Local residents are being urged to get down to Channel Gate Road in Park Royal LOCATION for 11am tomorrow (Saturday) morning when there is a visit to the proposed Harlesden Incinerator site by Ealing Planning Committee. Opponents of the incinerator want a massive turnout to show councillors the strength of feeling in the area.

This will be followed by a demonstration and lobby outside Ealing Town Hall LOCATION at 6.15pm on Wednesday August 14th before the Planning Committee meets to make its decision.

Details of the planning application Reference PP/2012/3267 can be found HERE

The campaign can be followed on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Green Party supports tomorrow's PCS strike

GREEN Party leader Natalie Bennett will tomorrow (Wednesday) morning be speaking at a PCS Union rally outside the Euston Tower in Central London in support of the union’s budget day protest, expressing support for PCS members on strike that day across the country.

Natalie said: “The union is rightly calling for decent pay for all civil servants this year, while pointing out to the government that this – and many other steps to reverse its austerity programme – could be paid for by serious action against wealthy tax dodgers.”

A union report has demonstrated that since the start of recession in 2008 the real value of wages has fallen by 7%, more than £50 billion a year. The report also found that median pay in the civil service is 4.4% lower than direct private sector comparators. In some grades, the gap was 10%. It is calling for a 5% rise in civil service pay this year to keep pace with inflation, and an end to reduction in pension rights.

The union represents, among others, customs, immigration, benefits and Jobcentre staff.
Natalie said: "Congratulations to the PCS for rightly identifying the importance of tackling tax evasion in rebalancing our economy. David Cameron has said he wants to act on the issue, but has failed to take any meaningful concrete steps.

“To save time, I’d point him to Green MP Caroline Lucas’s 2011 Tax and Financial Transparency Bill, which set out how the government could force companies to ‘publish what tax they pay’, requiring all companies filing accounts in the UK to include a statement on the turnover, pre-tax profit, tax charge and actual tax paid for each country in which they operate, without exception. He could simply move that as a government bill, and take a big stride towards collecting money the UK is owed.”

Natalie added that the PCS call for fair pay for all civil servants and for all contracts to be underpinned by the living wage, would be a small step towards rebalancing the UK economy, in which the wage share had fallen from around 60% to 55%, with a great increase in the inequality of the distribution of those wages.
“We need to make the minimum wage a living wage – that is an immediate step the government should take, but in the meantime, ensuring that government outsourcing meets this basic standard is an important step.”

Natalie added: “It is clear that we need to not only reverse George Osborne’s austerity agenda, and invest in the infrastructure we desperately need – including energy conservation, renewable energy, but also to move towards a living wage economy with jobs that workers can build a life on.”

The human cost of out-sourcing: Justice for the 33

Some of the 33 sacked workers outside Wembley Central today

A demonstration was held today outside Wembley Central station for 33 agency workers employed by Railpeople who were given notice of the termination of their contracts just before Christmas. The agency deployed them in the Wembley Central Group on various duties for London Underground.  The workers had achieved  7 100% consecutive Customer Service marks during the Olympics and now their Olympic 'legacy' is loss of their jobs.

They were turned down for alternative permanent jobs with London Underground (doing the same kind of thing they were doing on short-term, zero hours, no pension contracts). Instead they employed people who hadn't doen the jobs before.  HT apparently told them that although they were good enough to do the jobs as agency staff they weren't good enough to work directly for London Underground.

When London Underground took control of the stations north of Queens Park in 2008 that the casualisation of the job, particularly the use of agency workers, lead to a dispute as a result of which LU assured the RMT that the use of agency staff would be temporary, lasting a maximum of six months. Some of the workers have been with Trainpeople agency for five years!

The RMT has taken up their case and are demanding that all LU trained station staff working for Trainpeople agency should be transferred over to LU without having to apply for the job,

Bob Crow of the RMT made an impassioned speech putting the sackings in the context of privatisation and austerity, Navin Shah AM  cited equality (all the 33 are members of ethnic minorities) as the big issue and promised to take the case up with London Underground, TfL and the Major, and Councillor Nana Asante from Harrow pledged her support.

However the speech that stayed with me was from one of the workers who spoke movingly about the real impact on her and the sense of bewilderment she felt.

London teachers call protest over GCSE debacle and new exam proposals

London teacher associations have orgabised the following demonstration and meeting on the latest of Gove's wheezes:

Wednesday 24th October at 6:00pm in Central Hall, Westminster

Tell Gove: Justice for GCSE students: No to the EBC

Meeting and protest called by London NUT associations

Speakers include:
Chris Dunne (Headteacher, Langdon Park School, Tower Hamlets)
Jane Basset (Head of English)
Professor Sally Tomlinson (Goldsmiths University)
Kevin Courtney (National Union of Teachers Deputy General Secretary)

Come to protest  at the DfE before the meeting. Bring banners
From 5pm n Department for Education, Sanctuary Buildings,
Great Smith St, Westminster (only 2 mins from the meeting venue)