Help decide how Brent's £500,000 Carbon Offset Fund is spent locally by participaing and voting on Saturday

 

This Saturday (29 January 2022) Brent will be undertaking its first Participatory Budgeting Decision Day for local residents...and it's climate change themed! For this Decision Day, we are encouraging all residents who wish to participate in the local decision making process to take part and help decide how Brent's £500,000 Carbon Offset Fund is spent locally.  There is still time to register and take part in this exciting brand new initiative and to make your vote count.  The You Decide programme put the community in the driving seat from the start - the funding criteria was designed by the resident-led Planning Group (CO2GO) - and now voting powers are being handed over to residents. From 10am-1pm we will hear from residents who applied for Pot 1 of the fund and put forward exciting applications to reduce carbon through retrofitting domestic properties or local community buildings. From 2pm-4.30pm, we will hear from residents and organisations who have applied for Pot 2 of the fund and put forward applications to deliver an inspiring educational initiative or project to reduce the carbon footprint or communities in Brent. Please register to attend this event using the links below to participate in the decision making process. We would love for as many of you as possible to be involved!  REGISTER HERE - Pot 1 Voting Session (29 January - 10am until 1pm) REGISTER HERE - Pot 2 Voting Session (29 January - 2pm until 4.30pm)

Brent Council urges residents to register to vote

Residents in Brent are being urged to get themselves onto the electoral register in time for the general election and consider whether they will have their say by post, proxy or in person at the polls.

With just over four weeks to go until polling day, Brent Council is calling upon residents who are eligible to vote to ensure they are on the electoral register by the deadline of 11:59pm, on Monday 22 May - two weeks away.

Anyone who is registered to vote, but unable to make it to a polling station on 8 June, can apply for a postal vote, or a proxy vote and allow a nominated person to vote on their behalf.

Carolyn Downs, Acting Returning Officer for Brent, said:

As well as being a democratic right, it is our civic duty to hold elected politicians to account and to take part in the process of choosing those who will govern us for the next five years.

You can have your say by post, proxy or in person on polling day but of course, in order to vote you must first be registered. 

A full list of candidates standing in all three of Brent's parliamentary constituencies will be published as soon as possible after the deadline for nomination papers passes, on Thursday 11 May.

To register to vote, apply for a postal or proxy vote, or for more information, visit www.brent.gov.uk/elections2017

STAND UP FOR GOOD IDEAS: Vote Sian Berry & Green on orange today

And another good reason to vote Green from Barnet Greens in yesterday's Evening Standard

Do your bit for rodent control - register today to vote on May 5th

This is the last day to register to vote in the Mayoral, GLA and Kilburn By-elections on May 5th.

To register CLICK HERE

Green vote share triples in London

 Fom the London Green Party

* Under a proportional system, London could have woken up this morning to 3 or 4 Green Members of Parliament

* Greens achieve record result in capital, tripling their 2010 vote share

Greens are today celebrating a "bitter-sweet" result in the capital, after the first-past-the-post system failed to deliver voters a Green MP for London despite a tripling of the Green vote share [1}.



Green Party Leader, Natalie Bennett, polled third in Holborn and St. Pancras, representing a vote share increase of 10%

The Greens saw large gains in their vote share in Holborn and St. Pancras, where Green Party leader Natalie Bennett polled in third place with a 10% swing to her party. Large vote share increases were also seen in Hackney North and Stoke Newington, where candidate Heather Finlay also saw a 10% swing take the Greens to third place.

Deputy Leader Amelia Womack's Camberwell and Peckham constituency also voted the Greens into third place, as did voters in a further 12 constituencies. {2] Greens also saved a record 22 deposits across the capital, with their vote share increasing in all of London's 73 constituencies.

Despite strong showings bringing cause for celebration in the Green camp, under a proportional system the party could have expected to secure 3 or 4 seats in London. The party has joined with other campaigns including the Electoral Reform Society and 38 Degrees in demanding that reforming the electoral system and introducing a more proportional system [3] be an immediate priority for the next government.

Tom Chance, Co-Chair of the London Green Party and their candidate in the election for Lewisham West and Penge said:

In an election votes should mean seats. But, because of the way our outdated electoral system works, millions of people across the country are disenfranchised - they’ve voted Green in their droves and yet have only one MP representing their views in parliament. Not only is this grossly unfair. It also serves to entrench the business-as-usual politics of the "traditional" parties.

That’s why the Greens, along with other parties and campaigns, are calling for a complete overhaul of our unjust electoral system. We want to see a more proportional system introduced, as is used across Europe and in our own London Assembly elections, to ensure that the next time voters go to the polls, parliament reflects the will of the people instead of robbing them of their democratic rights. 

Across the country the Green Party polled its highest ever result in a general election securing 3.8% of the public's vote. Due to our current current electoral system Greens were still only able to elect one MP – the historic reelection of Caroline Lucas in Brighton Pavilion - rather than the 24 it would have secured under a more proportional system.

Notes
1. 4.8%, up from 1.6% in 2010. Results can be found here: http://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/general-election-results-2015
2. Hackney South and Shoreditch, Bethnal Green and Bow, Islington North, Tottenham, Lewisham West and Penge, Vauxhall,   Leyton and Wanstead, Lewisham Deptford, Walthamstow, Ealing Southall and Tooting.
3. The Green Party supports the introduction of the Additional Member System, a version of proportional representation currently used for elections to the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly, and the London Assembly, or the Single Transferable Vote System favoured by the Electoral Reform Society: http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/pa.html http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/single-transferable-voteV

Brent Central Hustings Tuesday April 21st 7-9pm

There have been fewer hustings in Brent Central than in Hampstead and Kilburn constituency so this is a chance to meet and question your candidates before polling day. The church is near the corner of All Souls Avenue and Bathurst Gardens,

REGISTER TO VOTE BY MIDNIGHT TONIGHT

REGISTER HERE BY MIDNIGHT MONDAY

Breakfast time queues of Romanians at Brent Civic Centre to vote in Presidential election

There were queues from 8am this morning as Romanians now resident locally queued to vote in the second round of the Romanian presidential elections.

Traffic slowed to a crawl between Wembley Park and Wembley Central during the morning as the election queue coincided with the new Wembley Market and the opening of the ice rink.

Turnout was reported to be up to twice as high as in the first round of the election.

If only Brent residents were so keen on voting!

Romanians protest at denial of democratic right to vote in Romanian election at Wembley polling station

Post by Ion Holban.

4th Copland teachers' strike against Ark Academy takeover

'Santas' support the last Copland strike

Copland Community School will be closed again tomorrow (Tuesday 17th December) as staff take their fourth day of strike action to oppose the attempt to force them to become an ARK academy. Staff who met today at lunchtime voted absolutely overwhelmingly for the strike to go ahead as the management had obviously not taken the attempts by the Union to come to a negotiated settlement, which could have avoided the strike. (See guest post below). This shows the staff's resolve not to be manipulated and to stand up against the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove's drive to privatisation, not even allowing any proper consultation.

Barking and Dagenham councillors have voted unanimously to ballot the parents of any school that is consulting on whether or not to become an academy – through choice or by direction. This is a direct challenge to attempts by Gove to force schools to become academies. It's a shame that Brent Council have not followed their example. They should now do so.

There will be a picket outside the school from 7.30 am tomorrow.