Brent publishes a draft of its Covid19 Transport Recovery Plan

From Brent Council

COVID-19 has disrupted our daily travel habits. As lockdown restrictions are eased, we want to support and encourage people to adopt greener, more active forms of transport. We have developed a plan to introduce short, medium and longer-term improvements in the borough. The plan supports social distancing, walking and cycling, as well as a reduction in car use.

Draft measures include: new low traffic neighbourhoods, school streets, new pop up cycle lanes and bike parking, further pavement widening in town centres, and bus supporting measures. We have submitted an application for £100,000 of DfT funding and making bids to TfL for schemes under their £45m London Streetspace Programme. Schemes will commence shortly as funding becomes available. It will be periodically reviewed to include new interventions to address emerging priorities.

Please email highways&infrastructure@brent.gov.uk if you have any comments or suggestions.

We will be shortly launching an interactive platform to make it easier for residents to make suggestions and comment on our plans.

Draft Plan




For more information

• Transport Recovery Plan programme (.pdf, 1.49MB)
• Low traffic neighbourhood examples (.pdf, 1.07MB)

CLEAN AIR FOR BRENT launches tonight at Willesden Green Library 7-9pm

From Clean Air for Brent LINK
Clean Air for Brent (CAfB) is to launch THIS WEDNESDAY 11 October at 7pm at Willesden Library, 95 High Road, NW10 2SF. 

You’ll be welcome at the door, but to help get a sense of numbers you can RSVP to cafbrent@gmail.com.

Much has happened since the public meeting held in July and there is CAfB news and information on https://cleanairforbrent.wordp ress.com/ . 

On Wednesday, we will hear more, including an update from Cllr Ellie Southwood on Brent Council’s Air Quality Action Plan. As well as brief formalities, including appointing members of the volunteer steering group, this is an opportunity to consider bringing your skills and interests to the group too.

The evening will be a chance to share ideas on how we might all play a part in reducing the damage to health created by polluted air.

To kick off our discussion, here are some quite simple ways CAfB volunteers together might help create the positive differences needed: 

• Monitoring of key roads in parts of Brent not so far covered, e.g. Wembley High Road, Ealing Road, Neasden/Blackbird Hill
• Designing and producing a map of Brent, clearly showing pollution hotspots
• Short talks and presentations on air quality at schools, residents’ associations and community groups
• Campaigning to green public transport
• Informing choices of private cars and fleet vehicles
• Working on a low emission neighbourhood designation
• Investigating the impact of Underground and Overground trains on air quality
• Sharing information and campaigning via internet and social media. 
• Contributing to surveys and consultations

Wednesday evening will be a great chance to meet like-minded people and share ideas, so do join in.

We’ll look forward to seeing you

Clean Air for Brent

Transport planner critiques Planning Officer's report on Spur's application

From the comments on Brent Council Planning Portal made by a local resident:
 

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I am a local resident and am a transport planner/modeller by profession (hence the detailed questions).

I strongly oppose this application and appeal to all on the committee to consider the people they are representing. I went to the community engagement session with the FA & Wembley Stadium (which was very POORLY advertised just fyi) and met the officials. They were quite blunt and open with the fact that this was a purely commercial deal for them. They struggled to explain any benefits to the local community, didn't propose any reasonable solutions (apart from improved signage) and at that point in time, the application documents were not online for my scrutiny.

The documents are now available and here are some comments and questions from me to the applicant and their consultant;

With reference to the Environment Statement, Chapter D (Transport):

D5.23 - I note that the applicant says there will be a 'negligible' effect on the London Underground. I would like to challenge that.

D5.20 says that events will take place outside peak hours on a weekday. This is usually kickoff at 7:45pm according to my knowledge of football. Earlier on in the chapter, it was found that spectators "make their way to the event 2 hours before" - this means between 5:45pm and 7:45pm i.e. the PM peak hours. I have personally been travelling home from work in the city in the PM peak hour during a midweek THFC match and to say additional midweek matches will have a negligible impact on the tube is grossly incorrect. There is no data or modelling or criteria that I can see that defines this 'negligible effect' conclusion. Have any station crowding, egress, ingress models been developed? Have any general Railplan model's been run? If so I would like to see the results and the accompanying criteria.

(And to echo other comments from neighbours, the LU network just about copes in the AM & PM peaks on normal days let alone weekday PM peak event days! The Transport Chapter emphasises the push for people to use PT to get to the games...but this is inherently flawed as the PT network is already heaving).

D5.28 - I quote: "However, as the period of time where Olympic Way will be congested will likely be limited to one hour and 30 minutes for an average of three additional days per month, it is considered that this is a negligible effect." The ingress 1hour 30minutes of congestion has been ignored here. This brings the total congestion to 3 hours per event. When we spoke to the Wembley Stadium rep at the community engagement session, they said there would be measures in place to allow this north/south movement for residents and locals to be improved. I have personally be stuck several times trying to just get from Lidl to my home.

D6.36 - "To promote and support the use of measures which reduce the need for travel, like video-conferencing and flexible working" - what? This doesn't really apply to Wembley Stadium spectators (and probably 90% of staff who need to be there physically!)

D.39 - You need to get Google Maps and Waze on board because lots of people use their phone applications for navigation rather than TomTom these days. Getting TomTom on board simply isn't enough.

There are no numbers to quantify the delays to buses and the local baseline traffic. Has modelling been undertaken and can I see the results, please?

The metric used in the ES to identify minor/major/adverse/beneficial isn't clear. Please provide this. We also need to see the empirical modelling evidence.

With the Brent/Quintain regeneration plans, the numbers are probably far higher than when Wembley Stadium got approval many years ago. This needs to be taken into account before any cap is lifted.

As a local resident and a transport planner, I am abhorred by this application. We manage as residents with the current number of event days as they are sporadic (maybe twice a month?) and varied. Regular football matches will change this completely. I won't repeat in detail what others have said about anti-social behaviour, litter, drunkenness, transport pressures, safety, children, no 'home' affiliation etc but I echo those points as well.

There is no mention of Chelsea wanting the stadium for 2018/2019 in this application but rumours are already going around about this. Approving THFC this would set precedent and it would be a disaster for the up-and-coming regenerated Wembley Park/Brent.

I urge the council to reject this application and to apply pressures to Wembley Stadium & THFC to mitigate the 50,000 spectator matches that are likely to still be held.

Residents, locals and family need to come above corporations, money and commercial pressures.

I and many other will be attending the committee meeting.
In addition to my previous comments on the Transport Statement, I wanted to add that if their current/old stadium has a capacity of around 36,000 and their new one is "only" going to seat around 61,000 they can surely manage with the current limit of 50,000.

Pure profit for a few at the detriment of a whole community and area is unjustifiable.

I have already raised my concerns regarding this application and the Environmental Statement in a previous comment.

I am trying to get hold of the case officer to raise the issue that none of us at Danes and Empire Court have received letters about this application. Brent Planning told me on the phone that 20,000 letters have been sent out to neighbours. We have over 300 flats on North End Road, less than 5 minutes walk from the stadium and we have NOT received letters about this application. I found out about this through curiosity and some Google searching about why Spurs were playing here this season, because of all the grief it was causing us.

The neighbourhood consultation closes in less than ONE week, and it is unacceptable that we were excluded from being informed about it. I appreciate there is no restriction in making a comment on here, but how are my neighbours supposed to make their comments if they HAVEN'T been informed about the application in the first place?

Unacceptable.

I look forward to hearing from the case officer, and to receiving letters from the Council/Applicant very soon. The neighbourhood consultation will probably need to be extended to allow residents on North End Road to comment.

Brent and Harrow Transport Services to merge

Brent Cabinet will tonight consider a proposal to merge the Transport Services of the two brooughs that are used for children and adults with special needs to transport them to schools, colleges or day centres.

The overall aim is to make savings in both Councils' budgets. £1.13m will be saved between the two councils over 3 years and there may eventually be redundancies of drivers, escorts and front line operatives.  This will depend on attempts to market the service more widely.

Consultation in Brent produced different results from families with child users and adult users:

The report says that adult users will be reduced by changes to provision moving away from the use of day centres.

The report LINK states:

This merger of SEN transport services presents a business opportunity for both councils to gain the benefits of economies of scale in contractual arrangements, greater efficiencies in operational front line staffing (drivers and escorts), shared policies from cross working with seconded staff, route sharing and rationalisation and systems and processes. It also provides the opportunity for better utilisation of Harrow’s premises to reduce the operational costs of the combined service. 


 This merger will deliver cost reduction in the following areas:

·      Premises 


·      Route sharing and route reduction and the related front line operational 
costs 


·      Vehicles – greater economies of scale with vehicle contractor and reduced 
running costs 


·      Systems and processes 
 
·      Contractual arrangements – ( the current BTS taxi contract and the labour 
supply contract expires this year and must be renewed) and provides 
opportunities for better contractual terms given the larger value contracts


·      Business development and growth including hiring out spare capacity and 
further collaborations. 


In addition to the operational and contractual efficiencies, there is scope to achieve further savings from demand management activities. Achieving desired outcomes here would require actions to be taken by the commissioning directorates/departments, i.e. children and adult services in both councils and a shared approach being adopted. The implementation period would include the finalisation and agreement of a joint policy built on shared resources. 


The overarching proposal is that the SEN transport services for the two boroughs are merged and operate under the umbrella of Harrow and Brent Special Needs Transport Service (HB SNT). The service will be hosted by Harrow Council and run from Harrow’s Central Depot. The management of the business will sit with Harrow and will include the secondment of any relevant Brent staff to Harrow under a secondment agreement. 


The report recognises that changes may present initial problems for users:

Current users of BTS are likely to have a learning or physical disability and be elderly or young. Any changes to the current service will have an impact on them. The current service is not being withdrawn. It will stay, but as a service run in partnership with Harrow. From the users’ side, not all the changes that come with a shared service will be noticeable. 

What may noticeable is the bus, the driver and the escort and any variation in pick up and drop off times or other occupants on the bus. Routes will be looked at, so there may be more of a change for some users than others in regard to the above. Some users may find any initial change in driver, for example, unsettling for a while. Once the new service is underway, every effort will be made to ensure consistency in drivers and escorts, so users will hopefully soon become accustomed to the new service. The change should not be very noticeable because Harrow and Brent already share some routes, some Brent back office employees will still be in place as will the current drivers and escorts. 


NHS Consultation on patient transport services in NW London

Thursday 21^th January,  at 2pm to 4pm
Venue: Wembley Centre for Health & Care, 116 Chaplin Road, Wembley, HA0 4UZ

The NHS is reviewing patient transport across North West London. They are looking for the views of patients and carers to understand their experiences of using these services.

In January 2016 they would like to meet with people living in North West London that currently use or care for someone who uses patient transport services. They are holding workshops in Wembley and Hammersmith to share their initial findings and to hear your views on their proposed improvements.

More information is in the introductory letter and flyer – please circulate. If you are interested please contact by Tuesday 5^th January by email travel@nw.london.nhs.uk or phone 020 3350 4734.

Rugby World Cup disruption in Wembley on Sunday

New Zealand play Argentina in the Rugby World Cup on Sunday afternoon (k.o 16.45) and there will be some road closures in the Wembley Park area,  Full transport details HERE

Six reasons to vote Green tomorrow - for a real alternative to the neoliberal parties

As decision day approaches here are six short videos that support the case for voting Green tomorrow.

Disabled People's Week of Action - today's Westminster activities

From DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts)


Four themed ‘blocks’ will meet at 4 Government departments, central to the lives of disabled people. After handing over our demands, blocks will then move towards Parliament where we will formally launch the UK Disabled People’s Manifesto and present our demands to our elected representatives.

 Choose your ‘block’ and meet at 12.45pm at one of:

 Department for Education to oppose government attacks on inclusive education and a return to segregation

(SanctuaryBuildings, 20 Great Smith Street, London, SW1P 3BT)

 Department of Energy and Climate Change if you’re angry about the numbers of disabled people living in fuel poverty while the energy companies rake in ever growing profits

(3 Whitehall Pl, City of Westminster, SW1A 2AW)

 Department for Transport to challenge inaccessible transport, the opening of new inaccessible stations for Crossrail and proposed cuts to rail staff further reducing customer assistance

(Great Minster House, 33 Horseferry Rd, London SW1P 4DR)

 Department of Health to defend our NHS and demand our right to levels of social care support enabling choice, control, dignity and independence

(Richmond House, 79 Whitehall, London SW1A 2NS)

LOBBY OF PARLIAMENT:

5 – 6pm – launch of the UK Disabled People’s Manifesto

in Westminster.

 Four themed ‘blocks’ will meet at 4 Government departments, central to the lives of disabled people. After handing over our demands, blocks will then move towards Parliament where we will formally launch the UK Disabled People’s Manifesto and present our demands to our elected representatives.

 Choose your ‘block’ and meet at 12.45pm at one of:

 Department for Education to oppose government attacks on inclusive education and a return to segregation

(SanctuaryBuildings, 20 Great Smith Street, London, SW1P 3BT)

 Department of Energy and Climate Change if you’re angry about the numbers of disabled people living in fuel poverty while the energy companies rake in ever growing profits

(3 Whitehall Pl, City of Westminster, SW1A 2AW)

 Department for Transport to challenge inaccessible transport, the opening of new inaccessible stations for Crossrail and proposed cuts to rail staff further reducing customer assistance

(Great Minster House, 33 Horseferry Rd, London SW1P 4DR)

 Department of Health to defend our NHS and demand our right to levels of social care support enabling choice, control, dignity and independence

(Richmond House, 79 Whitehall, London SW1A 2NS)

LOBBY OF PARLIAMENT:

5 – 6pm – launch of the UK Disabled People’s Manifesto

- See more at: http://dpac.uk.net/2013/08/reclaiming-our-futures-freedom-drive-4th-september/#sthash.11I4Gr4y.dpuf

Greens: Bring railways back into public ownership

This week saw another price hike in rail fares. With the UK already having the highest rail fares in Europe, The Green Party calls for the British railway system to be come back into public ownership.  It has been approximated that “£1.2 billion of public money is lost each year as a direct result of privatisation and fragmentation”

The Green Party has condemned the rail fare rise of an average of 6.2% announced yesterday.

Alan Francis, Green Party Transport Speaker, said:

We need to make rail travel more affordable, not less. Many people have had their wages frozen for several years. These fare rises will hit them hard. This fares increase makes rail travel even more unaffordable each year and pushes people back into cars on our already congested roads. Instead of an RPI+3% formula we should have a RPI-X% formula so that fares are reduced in real terms each year.

Rail privatisation and fragmentation has been bad for the railways and for passengers and has significantly increased costs. These higher costs, as much as £1bn per year, are paid by both passengers and taxpayers. We favour the railways being brought back into the public sector and more integration. This would reduce costs and so allow lower fares. Consequently we believe that as each TOC franchise ends it should be retained in the public sector, initially operated by the government-owned Directly Operated Railways. There would be no cost to the taxpayer.