Novotel, Olympic Way, mentioned in review of post-Grenfell cladding concerns

Novotel Olympic Way

The online magazine Inside Housing LINK mentioned the Novotel in Olympic Way, Wembley Park, as one of the buildings that still has aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding in a review of the issue on Friday.

Harvey Facades. the specialist cladding sub-contractor that installed cladding on Grenfell Tower also worked on the Novotel building which contains residences as well as hotel rooms.

The product used on the hotel cladding was Alcubond consisting of a Polyethylene and Aluminium construction. This is an extract from the Material Safety Data Sheet LINK:

From alcubond/com

Wembley Matters has contacted the Press Office at Accor, the parent company for the Novotel chain wrting:

Cladding on Novotel, Wembley Park, England

This is a sensitive issue as we are approaching the third anniversary of the Grenfell fire and attention is focused on the number of buildings that still contain similar material.

Could you let me know of your current assessment of any danger/risk posed by the ACM and measures taken to mitigate the risk as well as any plans to remove and replace the cladding.

No response has been received as yet.

Cladding on the adjacent Unite Student Accommmodation has been removed and replaced.

Go Green for Grenfell - live links to today's anniversary solidarity events

WEBSITE: GoGreenforGrenfell.com
6pm Multi-faith vigil youtube.com/grenfellunited
Afternoon and evening Instagram.com/grenfell_united/

'Skipping Katie' was NEVER a target for Black Lives Matters solidarity demonstration in Harrow

Today's Black Lives Matter solidarity demonstration in Harrow Town Centre (Graham Durham Facebook)

While rightwing thugs were fighting police in Central London, Harrow residents held a peaceful solidarity Black Lives Matter event in Harrow Town Centre this morning.

The organisers from Harrow Labour Left had arranged to meet at the statue of 'Skipping Katie' in the pedestrianised section of St Anne's Road - a well know local landmark dating from the 1980s LINK.

However, following recent events the Council boarded Katie up, giving rise to social media speculation over why Black Lives Matter were targeting her: 'What has she got to do with slavery?'

Laughable in a way but also illustrating how on edge people are at present.

Following calls on social media for Cllr Pamela Fitzpatrick, a Harrow Labour councillor who supported the event to resign, one of the organisers, Mizanur Rahman yesterday tried to clarify the matter:

My public statement regarding Harrow's Black Lives Matter demonstration tomorrow.

The below is my response to a post in a local Dacebook group that is spreading misinformation about the statue that we will be demonstrating around, fear, and calling one of our councillors to be sacked for supporting this BLM demonstration

"Hi Guys,

I am part of the organising team behind this.

Firstly, The statue will be safe because we are not protesting against this specific statue. This location was chosen as the place for the static, demonstration to take place because its in the middle of the town centre...Rest assured its nothing to do with the statue.

Secondly, there will be marshalls telling people to keep 2 metres apart as well as handing out masks and gloves.

Thirdly it was not Pamela's idea. There are people from BAME communities in Harrow who wanted to show public solidarity with Black Lives Matter and therefore it is they who are organising it & want this to go ahead.

Fourthly, if people feel so strongly about social distancing & mass gatherings then please also make a public call to close down all the parks, and join a national campaign to close down all the beaches. Because it seems to me that people will break social distancing rules when it comes to recreation, which the government will tolerate, but not when it comes to showing solidarity on issues affecting BAME communities or demanding political change.

We are not expecting masses of people to turn up and those that do will be reminded throughout the demo to keep 2 metres apart from everyone."

The comments on some social media continued often becoming quite ridiculous with some seemingly trying to stir things up. The video below should put an end to such comments and instead allow the focus to be Harrow residents gesture of solidarity with the boroughs Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic community.

Thanks to Hussain Akhtar and the Harrow Monitoring Group for the video below of the demonstration. LINK

The Wembley Park Story - Part 5

The fourth part of Philip Grant's series on the history of Wembley Park

Thank you for joining me again, on our journey through Wembley Park’s history. Part 4 is here, if you missed it. We are moving into times within the life of many of you, so please feel free to add your own memories to (or correct, if necessary!) anything that I write from now on.

1. Wembley Park, seen from above the station, late summer 1948. (Britain from Above image EAW018314)

After the Olympic Games, in the summer of 1948, Wembley Park returned to “business as usual”. The Palace of Industry was a warehouse for His (then Her) Majesty’s Stationery Office, storing stocks of its publications, from Acts of Parliament to the Highway Code, and millions of envelopes and paperclips for the Civil Service. A wide variety of businesses used other surviving buildings in the former (British Empire) Exhibition grounds.

2. Two adverts from the early 1950's for businesses at Wembley Park. (Brent Archives – local directories)

The Empire Pool’s swimming bath was never used again after the Olympics, and the arena became a year-round sports and entertainment venue. The Wembley Lions ice hockey team played there throughout the 1950s, but ice pantomimes also began here in 1950. Other regular annual fixtures from that year were the All-England Badminton Championships and the Harlem Globetrotters basketball matches. Six-day cycle races, and amateur and professional boxing, also featured in the programme, together with the Horse of the Year Show from 1959.

3. Harlem Globetrotters basketball and six-day cycling action at the Empire Pool, 1950s. (From old books)

In 1955, a second television channel was launched in Britain, funded by showing adverts. The ITV franchise for weekdays in the London area was awarded to Associated-Rediffusion, who bought the former film studios in Wembley Park Drive to use for making programmes. They soon had more ambitious plans, and built the largest TV studio in Europe, next door to their existing premises. Wembley Park’s Studio 5 opened in June 1960 with “An Arabian Night”, a spectacular 3-hour show which was broadcast live across the whole ITV network.

4. A cutting from the "Wembley Observer", about plans for the new studio. (From the late Richard Graham)

More building work was going on nearby, with several new office blocks appearing on either side of Olympic Way, close to Wembley Park Station. Apart from that, however, much of the former British Empire Exhibition site remained in drab industrial and commercial use, with firms such as Johnson Matthey & Co (metals) and Fisher Foils among them. Even the former Neverstop Railway station in North End Road was used, as a car repair workshop.

5. South Way, Wembley Park, looking towards the stadium, 1960. (Brent Archives online image 4841)

6. North End Road in the 1960s, with the old Neverstop Railway Station, and Danes Court flats beyond.
(Wembley History Society Collection - Brent Archives online image 9502)

My own first memory of Wembley is arriving on a chartered train, packed with boys from East Sussex, in April 1959. Schoolboy football international matches had begun at the stadium in 1950 (women’s hockey internationals, to attract groups of schoolgirls, started the following year), and I was one of the 95,000 who had come to watch England v. West Germany. We won 2-0, but I have fonder memories of another Wembley match between the two countries, seven years later, which I saw (in black and white) on a television set at home with my family!

7. A 1963 poster and 1966 programme for famous events at Wembley Stadium. (Internet / Terry Lomas)

Wembley Stadium had been fitted with a new roof in 1963, so that all spectators would be undercover. This did not apply to events where part of the crowd was “on the pitch”, such as the memorable boxing match in June that year. Henry Cooper, who lived in Wembley, knocked down Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammed Ali), but still lost the contest. The 1960s also saw a new sport come to Wembley Park, with the opening of a 24-lane ten pin bowling alley, the Wembley Bowl and Starlight Restaurant, between the arena and Empire Way. This was converted to a Squash Centre in 1974, and later to a bingo club.

8. Wembley Conference Centre, in Empire Way near Wembley Hill Road, c.1990s. (Image from the internet)

Sir Arthur Elvin had died in 1957, and by the 1970s his Wembley Stadium company had become a subsidiary of the British industrial conglomerate, BET. They set about adding to Wembley Park’s attractions, with a new hotel, large exhibition halls and the Conference Centre. This opened in 1977, just in time to stage the Eurovision Song Contest. It hosted many other major events including, from 1979, the Benson & Hedges Masters Snooker Tournament. From the 1970s, the stadium car parks were home to the popular Wembley Stadium Sunday Market.

9. Wembley Stadium Sunday Market, c.1990s. (Image from the internet)

Popular music shows at the Empire Pool had begun in 1959, with the first single act concert by The Monkees in July 1967. Wembley hosted its first Stadium concerts in the early 1970s, and within a few years had become one of the “must play” venues for top performers on their tours. In July 1985, it staged the Live Aid charity concert, raising funds for famine relief in Africa, watched on television by an estimated 1.9 billion people around the world. The “Free Nelson Mandela” 70^th birthday concert in 1988 helped to bring about his release from prison, and Brent’s Mayor was able to welcome him to Wembley for an anti-apartheid concert in 1990.

10. The logo for Live Aid in 1985, and the 1988 birthday concert for Nelson Mandela. (From the internet)

The former Palace of Engineering was demolished in the early 1980s, to make way for more modern commercial and retail buildings. Under the planning agreement for this development, Brent Council adopted Olympic Way (a private road, built by Wembley Stadium in 1947/48) as a public highway. In 1991, when Wembley was a key part of England’s bid for UEFA’s Euro ’96 football tournament, the Council decided to pedestrianize this main route to the stadium.

As part of this scheme, a wide subway was created under Bridge Road, to give people on foot a safer journey to Olympic Way from Wembley Park Station. The walls of the subway were decorated with specially designed ceramic tile murals, celebrating sports and entertainment events from the history of the stadium and arena. Named “The Bobby Moore Bridge”, the new structure was opened in September 1993, by the widow of England’s 1966 World Cup-winning captain, who had died from cancer a few months earlier.

11. Two of the tile mural scenes in the Bobby Moore Bridge subway. (Photos by Philip Grant, 2009)

Wembley Stadium had been made all-seated (following the report on the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy), so that when Euro ’96 was staged in June 1996 it had a capacity of 76,500. England played all three of their group-stage matches there, including a 2-0 victory over Scotland. Wembley also saw the host nation’s quarter and semi-final games, and the final, won 2-1 by the reunited Germany v. the Czech Republic, after beating England on penalties in the semis.

12. Fans heading up Olympic Way for the England v. Scotland match, June 1996. (Image from internet)

Even before Euro ’96, Wembley Stadium was showing its age, and with its cast reinforced concrete structure, it was difficult to make major improvements. In 1995, the Sports Council announced that it would hold a competition to decide where a new National Football Stadium should be built. The prize would be £120 million, of National Lottery funding, towards the cost of building the new venue.

As well as other English cities, a number of boroughs in London wanted the new stadium sited in their area. Luckily, they were persuaded that Wembley had the best chance of success for the capital, and the final competition shortlist was between bids from Birmingham, Manchester and London. In the end, it was the world-famous name of Wembley, and the heritage of “the Venue of Legends”, built up since 1923, which won the day!

Next weekend, in the final part of this series, we will reach the 21^st century, and see how the new stadium, and other developments, changed the face of Wembley Park. I hope you will join me then.

Please feel free to add your memories, questions or comments in the box below.

Philip Grant.

Brent Cycling Campaign: More detail & swifter Council action needed on Covid Transport Recovery Plan

From Brent Cycling Campaign LINK

Brent Cycling Campaign welcomes the publication of the Council’s Draft COVID-19 Transport Recovery Plan. On paper, this is an ambitious plan which, if implemented fully, will lead to positive and long lasting change that will benefit everyone in the borough, creating a safer and more inclusive environment.

We note that each intervention is listed against various criteria. We regret the lack of details over specific timing to deliver them. This plan, after all, has been prompted by the urgent need to protect people against the virus and to protect our roads and air from a surge of motor vehicles for every trip.
More needs to be done, both in terms of scale and time, to meet new statutory obligations on councils to provide space for distancing on the roads to enable people to cycle their journeys as they opt for alternatives to public transport, as strongly advised by the government.

Brent Cycling Campaign Coordinator and Cricklewood mother Sylvia Gauthereau said:

“We have seen other London boroughs take rapid action as Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has specifically instructed them to do, creating ‘pop-up’ cycle lanes using temporary barriers on important roads, and installing filters for motor traffic on minor roads to create low-traffic neighbourhoods.

Brent, however, hasn’t started anything practical so far to aid people wishing to use cycling as transport during the pandemic. It has been slow in responding to the new guidance. We know what political will looks like, as shown by other London boroughs where leadership decided earlier on to do something practical. Despite claims, Brent isn’t quite there yet.

This is critical because Brent residents have always been heavily dependent on public transport, which they are now being instructed to avoid, to slow the spread of the virus. More car journeys are unacceptable because of the effects on the environment and road danger. A high proportion of Brent residents, especially the less well-off, including key workers, have no access to a car.” 

We recognise that Brent has done an enormous amount of work with helping the care sector and has been swift with widening the pavement in some areas. Ensuring residents have space for distancing on the roads must be seen as part of the same effort. After all, the point is to prevent people getting ill.

We need to see changes on the roads immediately in Brent. We need continuous, protected cycle lanes on main roads, especially Harrow Road, Kilburn High Road and the rest of the A5 in Brent, Neasden Underpass and the rest of the A4088, Kingsbury Road and Kenton Road. We need to see smaller rat-run roads closed to through motor traffic now, to make cycling and walking safe on them and to free the roads for those who really do need their car for their specific mobility needs.

“We alerted the Council about the necessity to implement such measures as early as April 15. Active travel, including cycling, doesn’t just materialise out of thin air. It needs to be enabled. The government’s guidance explicitly demanded action within weeks, not months, and two months on from that guidance being issued, for Brent to have still made no changes on its roads for cycling, when many other London boroughs have already done so, is highly regrettable.”

The council will be judged on the swift and meaningful implementation of this plan and other necessary measures. The Department for Transport and Transport for London both explicitly said that this will be a crucial factor in deciding how to disperse the limited available funding.

Police issue new appeal on Fryent Country Park double murder as they identify new lines of inquiry

[Victims: Bibaa Henry (left) and Nicole Smallman]

From the Metropolitan Police (unedited)

A week on from the murder of two sisters in a Wembley park, detectives have identified significant new lines of enquiry and are urgently appealing to the public to help find their attacker.
 
Officers are now confident Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry were killed by someone who was a stranger to them.

Officers will be in Fryent Country Park NW9 and the surrounding area throughout Friday, 12 June handing out leaflets and engaging with members of the public in the hope of gathering information that could assist them with their investigation.

The bodies of Nicole and Bibaa were discovered at the park on Sunday, 7 June. Two days earlier, the sisters had been at the location celebrating Bibaa’s 46th birthday with a group of friends and family.
Following a number of extensive enquiries, detectives are asking the public to help them with information about two key points.

Detective Chief Inspector Simon Harding, Specialist Crime, said:

“This is an unthinkably harrowing and tragic incident and my first thoughts remain with Nicole and Bibaa’s close family and friends who are going through the most unimaginable pain and suffering.

“There have been a number of factors involved in both the incident and the aftermath which have required extra time and care in enabling us to create a clear picture of what has taken place. But what we can now say with some certainty is that Nicole and Bibaa were murdered by someone who was unknown to them.

“Enquiries continue at pace, and an ongoing extensive search of what is a significant crime scene – including a pond - continues to yield evidence. My officers are also currently trawling through hundreds of thousands of tonnes of rubbish from a local refuse depot in search of items of relevance to the investigation, which we believe were accidentally cleared from the scene when mistaken for rubbish.”

“Whilst we tirelessly work to identify the individual responsible I am asking the public for their help with two points:

“We believe the suspect received injuries during the incident which have caused significant bleeding. Do you know anyone who has been wounded in the last week who is unable to account for their injuries? Has someone returned home and perhaps acted suspiciously or tried to hide something from you?

“We also believe the suspect left the park via the Valley Drive entrance. Did you see anyone acting suspiciously in that vicinity during the evening of Friday into early hours of Saturday? You may have noticed someone who was injured.

“If you have information on either of these specific appeal points - no matter how insignificant it may seem - please contact us. At this stage we don’t know why this awful attack took place and any information we can gather will help us further put the pieces of the jigsaw together.”

Police were called to Fryent Country Park off Slough Lane at 13:08hrs on Sunday, 7 June to a report of two women found unresponsive.

Officers and the London Ambulance Service attended and they were pronounced dead at the scene.
They were sisters, Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, who lived in Harrow and Brent respectively.

Their family are being supported by specially trained officers.

A post-mortem examination conducted on Tuesday, 9 June gave the cause of death for both women as stab wounds.

Nicole and Bibaa were in a group of people who congregated in the park from around 19:40hrs on Friday, 5 June to celebrate Bibaa’s birthday.

Gradually people are believed to have left throughout the evening; by around 00.30hrs only Nicole and Bibaa remained. Officers believe they were murdered within the next couple of hours.

Both Nicole and Bibaa were reported as missing to police late on Saturday, 6 June when they did not return home; before they were discovered on Sunday.

Detectives from the Specialist Crime Command (Homicide) are investigating, with the assistance of officers from the North West Command Unit.

An extensive crime scene still remains in the park.

DCI Harding also appealed for anyone else in the area at the time to come forward. He said:

 “A number of people have come forward with information which has really assisted us with our enquiries, but I still need to hear from anyone who was in the park on the evening of Friday, 5 June, or early into Saturday, 6 June who has not yet spoken with police. The area the group were in is around a five minute walk from the Valley Drive entrance of the park, leading to a hill area.

“This is a well-known spot to sit and look over London. If you were in that area of the park from the evening of 5 June through to Sunday lunchtime, noticed the group, or saw anything or anyone suspicious, please contact us immediately.

“I also want to hear from people who regularly use the park, you may have seen a person acting suspiciously in the days leading up to the attack, you may not think your information is relevant, but it may be vital, so call and tell us what you know.

“You may also have stumbled upon items of property, but not realised the significance of them. If you did, you may well have information that could assist us hugely. No matter how insignificant it may seem, please contact us.” 

North West Borough Commander Roy Smith, said:

“My thoughts are with the family who have lost two loved ones in the most tragic of circumstances.

“I know the experienced investigation team are working around the clock to identify whoever is responsible as swiftly as possible and ensure they are brought to justice. We will leave no stone unturned. Extra resources have been brought in to help from across the Met including additional detectives.

“I understand how alarmed and concerned residents will be about this incident given the circumstances.

“I want to reassure them that officers have been carrying out extra patrols in the area since last Friday and local residents can expect to see this continue over coming days, but of course it’s timely to remind people to be vigilant, particularly after dark in parks and opens areas and report anything suspicious to us immediately.”

VIDEO APPEAL

+ On Wednesday, 10 June a 36-year-old man was arrested in south London on suspicion of murder.

He was taken into custody but subsequently released no further action with regards the murder.
Anyone with information regarding the incident is asked to call the incident room on 020 8721 4205, via 101 or tweet @MetCC quoting CAD 3160/7Jun.


Alternatively, you can provide information 100 per cent anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Cllr Butt: 'We need to feel uncomfortable' to bring about the necessary change in Black lives

Stonebridge Adventure Playground users protest against closure

Youth Centre users protest against closures

1,000 strong protest against Bridge Park sell-off

In a message to residents Cllr Muhammed Butt, Leader of Brent Council, said that in considering positive changes to Black lives 'we will need to feel uncomfortable.'  

The decision to close Stonebridge Adventure Playground, so important in the lives of many BAME young people over the last 40 years; a review of the cuts the Council has made in youth provision; and very much of the moment, the Council's ongoing high court fight with Black residents over the Bridge Park Complex are all Brent policy issues that in my opinion might make the Council 'uncomfortable' but need an honest review.

This is the relevant section of Cllr Butt's Newsletter:

Last week I told you that Brent Council stands with our Black residents, and the Black Lives Matter campaign, against all forms of prejudice and injustice. I now want to promise you that these were not empty words. We are fully committed to positive action to improve life for all our Black residents.

Yesterday (June 11) the Council’s Deputy Leader, Cllr Margaret McLennan, and I met with leaders and young people from Black communities across the borough. The council’s Chief Executive, senior council officers and the Police Borough Commander were also present. Despite the deep pain we all feel at the current situation, the talks were both constructive and productive and there was a willingness to turn our pain into positive action. It was clear that to bring the changes that are so vital and necessary, we will need to feel uncomfortable. Neither community leaders, role models nor the council can make the changes that are needed alone. We must all work together, and we will. Whatever happens internationally, nationally and at a London-wide level, discussions and action will continue in Brent, as we work in partnership to create an action plan to stamp out inequality in our borough in the short, medium and long term.

In his current Kilburn Times column Cllr Butt calls the community action in removing the  slave trader Colston's  statue 'Vigilantism':

Butt is following Keir Starmer's line in condemning the action but Brent Central MP Dawn Butler disagreed with Starmer's approach. She told ITV's Peston:

He did say that the activists were completely wrong, and I disagree, I don't think the activists were completely wrong. I think the activists in Bristol have been fighting for many years, probably over a decade to get the statue removed, and to get the statue put into a museum, and that didn't happen.And essentially they made it happen, and so I don't think that they were completely wrong.

NEU's 10 Point Recovery Plan for Education ticks lots of boxes

While the government bungles the National Education Union has put some thought into what needs to be done for a recovery of children's education in the Covid19 crisis.