100 years on from Balfour: What now for Palestine and Israel?

100 years on from Balfour: What now for Palestine and Israel?

Joint Brent Stop the War/Brent Palestine Solidarity Campaign Public Meeting

                                       Monday, October 9^th  7.30pm

Brent Mencap, 379-381 Willesden High Rd, London NW10 2JR

Bernard Regan  (author of The Balfour Declaration: Empire, Mandate and Resistance in Palestine’& Executive member of Palestine Solidarity Campaign)

Sahbi Benzid  (Hertfordshire NUT Membership Secretary and a recent visitor to Palestine)

A hundred years after its signing, Bernard Regan recasts the history of the Balfour Declaration as one of the major events in the story of the Middle East, which have polarised the region and the entire world. How can we help bring peace and justice to Palestine?

Israel is the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes children in military courts – between 500 and 700 each year.

Sahbi Benzid will report back on his recent visit, during which he visited several schools in Palestine and saw first-hand the effects of Israeli policies.

http://www.brentpsc.blogspot.co.uk/

brent2harrowpsc@outlook.com

Brent Mencap:  https://brentmencap.org.uk/about-us/how-to-find-us

Brent council housing now back in-house

Brent council housing officially came back in house yesterday making the demise of the arms length organisation Brent Housing Partnership.

Brent Council yesterday published the following information for tenants and leaseholders:

The council housing management services, previously provided by Brent Housing Partnership (BHP), have transferred back to Brent Council today.

The move follows a 12 week consultation with tenants and leaseholders earlier this year and a raft of improvements to council housing are planned over the next year including:

• More investment in up-to-date technology, such as a new smartphone app for simple transactions
• More joined up approach between housing and other council services, to provide a better customer experience for tenants and leaseholders
• A more responsive and flexible repairs service
• More and better targeted investment in estates, blocks and houses
• Review of service standards, to ensure we are delivering what residents want
• Better engagement of residents in decision-making about their homes and estates.

Tenancies are already held by the council so residents do not need to do anything differently and will still receive all the services they had access to under BHP. However, council tenants and leaseholders will notice a change of branding back to Brent Council which will appear on all official items including estate signage, website, social media, letters and ID cards of staff and contractors.

Councillor Harbi Farah, Lead Member for Housing at Brent Council said: “Housing is one of our most important services so it’s great that we’ve been able to bring it back in-house. Our tenants and residents can be sure that we’re committed to building on BHP’s good work and will know that we’re determined to deliver an excellent service across the board.”

Anyone who would like to help shape the new housing service can get involved by:

1. Taking part in a survey – to help with the new Customer Strategy. Surveys can be completed via this link: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/HousingCustomerStrategy  
2. Attending a workshop – to ensure that information about Service Standards is clear, useful and complete
3. Taking part in some testing – of designs for a new smartphone app

Please visit the housing website for dates of workshops, app testing and further information.

October 18th deadline for comments on huge Cricklewood rail freight super hub

Reposted from  the NW2 Residents Association website LINK with their permission. Thank you.

Artist's impression of the proposed hub

Barnet Council plan to have a huge rail yard on the land behind Lidl, opposite the Cricklewood Bus Depot, at 400 Edgware Road. Planning permission has been applied for, and the public consultation ends on 18th October.

The land is owned by National Rail, and the freight company DB Cargo has a 125-year lease, due to expire in 2121. Their ambition is to make Cricklewood one of just three rail freight super-hubs in London, according to evidence given to a House of Lords transport select committee.

Freight trains will bring aggregate and other building materials to the yard at night. This will be offloaded and moved to storage areas. During the day lorries will deliver it to building sites all over London. The spoil from building sites will also be brought in by lorry and taken away by train.

The site footprint is approximately four times the size of Donoghues, and the application refers to an average of 452, rising to 800 HGVs per day. The site would operate Monday-Friday 7am to 7pm and on Saturday 7am to 2pm.

Local residents have raised enough environmental objections for the planning committee to delay a decision on a smaller temporary operation on the site; but the council posted the application for the permanent site the very next morning.

The main worries are:

• volume of traffic in an already congested and highly polluted area. Barnet has designated the A5 from Staples Corner to Cricklewood Lane as a focus area in need of air quality improvement. This will make it worse!
• effect of more HGVs on narrow roads such as Cricklewood Lane and Walm Lane, side roads and bus routes
• proximity of dirty industry to a conservation area, schools, the bus depot, supermarket, new flats at Fellows Square, housing in Brent
• pollution from irritant dust from the aggregate (aggregate is sand, gravel, crushed stone and rubble from demolitions, and so forth)
• noise of the operation and operating hours
• history of poor enforcement when regulations are broken
• possible effect on houses of vibration from heavy trains and lorries (the nearest houses are 19th-century, many others in the area are also 100 years old or more)
• possible effect on local water table
• general blight on residential areas.

The planning application is here; its reference number is 17/5761/EIA. You can add your comments and objections online there, or email the case officer Chloe.Thomson@barnet.gov.uk. The full site name is “Cricklewood Railway Yard, the land at rear of 400 Edgware Road NW2 6ND”. The deadline is 18 October 2017.

You could also copy local councillors in. Council elections are in May.
Barnet – Childs Hill ward
cllr.p.zinkin@barnet.gov.uk
cllr.j.cohen@barnet.gov.uk
cllr.c.ryde@barnet.gov.uk
Barnet – Golders Green ward
cllr.m.cohen@barnet.gov.uk
cllr.d.cohen@barnet.gov.uk
cllr.r.thompstone@barnet.gov.uk
Brent – Dollis Hill ward
cllr.parvez.ahmed@brent.gov.uk
cllr.liz.dixon@brent.gov.uk
cllr.arshad.mahmood@brent.gov.uk
Brent – Mapesbury ward
cllr.helen.carr@brent.gov.uk
cllr.lia.colacicco@brent.gov.uk
cllr.ahmad.shahzad@brent.gov.uk
Camden – Fortune Green ward
richard.olszewski@camden.gov.uk
flick.rea@camden.gov.uk
lorna.russell@camden.gov.uk

Film: The Night Cleaners - historic women's trade union struggle - Saturday 7th October Preston Library

OF – a little word makes a big difference.

Guest post by Philip Grant

A couple of months ago I was walking along Empire Way, for the first time in a while, when a new street name caught my eye: 

Palace Arts Way street name sign

Many people, new to the Wembley Park area, might wonder who or what “Palace Arts” is or was, and why a road should be called that. As someone with an interest in local history, I realised that the road is by the site of the former 1924 British Empire Exhibition Palace of Arts building, so why was the “OF” missing from its name?

I wrote a joint email to Quintain’s Wembley Park company and to Brent Council’s street names department, asking whether there was a mistake on the sign, and if not, why the “OF” was missing from the name. Brent replied promptly, saying that Quintain had submitted the naming application in 2015, and that all proposed names are subject to consultation with the emergency services (they sent me a copy of the London Fire Brigade guidelines on street names) before being approved. 

It was a couple of months before I received a full response from Quintain, but when I did it was clear that they had asked for the street to be called “Palace of Arts Way”. Brent had declined to accept that name, and they thought this was because “OF” was not permitted as a word in street names. Having checked the L.F.B. guidelines, there is no mention of “OF”, although it does say that new street names should not begin with “The”. It appears that the reason the name was shortened may be because the guidelines suggest that names of more than three syllables (before the suffix “Road”, “Street” or “Way” etc.) should be avoided.

Guidelines should be respected, but they are not strict rules. No doubt I am biased over this particular name, but surely common sense and respect for the heritage of Wembley Park should allow an extra, two-letter, syllable in this case? Just speak the names out loud. “Palace of Arts Way” has a soft flow to it, and would take no longer to say in a 999 call than “Palace Arts Way”, which has a hard sound between the first two words that forces you to take a short break in speaking them.

Why all this fuss over a little word? What is special about the Palace of Arts which means that it should be remembered in a street name? Let me share at bit more Wembley history with you.

As with much of Wembley Park’s story, it involves the British Empire Exhibition, which was held in 1924 and 1925. Like its larger neighbours, the Palaces of Industry and Engineering, the Palace of Arts (seen here in a postcard from the time) was one of the big reinforced concrete buildings showing off the best that Britain had to offer.

Palace of Arts 1924 postcard

A full range of arts and crafts were on show in the building’s many galleries, including paintings by leading British artists from the 18^th century onwards, and furniture in room settings from the same period up to the 1920’s. There was a sculpture gallery, and rooms displaying works by artists from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and Burma. Other exhibits showed the development of architecture, pottery, paper-making, printing and bookbinding. One room sold works by current artists and craftspeople, with nothing costing more than half a guinea (now 52.5 pence, but worth rather more then), showing that art could be affordable to the general public.

One of the main attractions was Queen Mary’s Dolls House, which visitors had to pay an extra 6d (2.5 pence) to see - more than 1.6 million did so in 1924, with all the money going to charities nominated by the Queen. The project to make this was begun in 1921, with the 8ft 6in x 5ft x 5ft high mansion designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. Hundreds of companies donated 1/12^th scale working models of their products (including piano-makers Broadwoods, who had a works in Kingsbury at the time). Leading artists created miniature paintings to decorate the rooms, and top authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Hardy and Rudyard Kipling hand-wrote short stories and poems in tiny books for the dolls house’s library.

Packing up Queen Mary's doll house 1920's

After the Exhibition, the Dolls House was moved to Windsor Castle (where it can be seen today), with money from visitors to see it still going to charity. Although some of the Exhibition’s buildings were demolished after it ended, the Palace of Arts survived. It was used mainly as storage space for Wembley Stadium, and especially for the Empire Pool / Wembley Arena after that was built across the road in 1934 (you need somewhere to put the sections of the banked timber track, that you use for your annual six-day cycle race, for the other 359 days!).

Palace of Arts as BBC Broadcasting Centre for 1948 Olympics

 The building got a new lease of life in 1948, when the facilities at Wembley were used to host the Olympic Games. The BBC took over the building to provide the broadcasting centre for radio presenters and journalists from around the world who came to cover the Games. It continued to be used as the main base for the BBC’s outside broadcast unit until the Television Centre in Shepherd’s Bush opened in the 1960’s. After that, the ageing structure began to fall into disrepair and, although it was a “listed building”, permission was given to demolish it in the early 2000’s. 

Palace of Arts awaiting demolition 2002

Basilica, Palace of Arts, November 2004

For a number of years the site remained derelict, and many local residents will remember the last, forlorn surviving part of the “Palace” alongside Empire Way. The Basilica had been a wing of the original building devoted to religious art. Before this part of the building was finally demolished, several beautiful mosaics were carefully removed, and one of these can now be seen in Brent Museum.

Cedar House, Emerald Gardens, on site of Palace of Arts

Quintain finally got round to developing this area of their Wembley Park estate around 2013. The blocks of apartments on the site are now called Emerald Gardens, fronting onto Engineers Way opposite the Arena. I admit that “Palace of Engineering Way” would have been too much of a mouthful, but I still think the little road along the back of Emerald Gardens should have been called “Palace OF Arts Way”.

Philip Grant

Grunwick40 unveil extraordinary murals marking the historic Grunwick strike

Two Grunwick40 murals were unveiled today. The first (above) outside Dollis Hill Station where the Grunwick factory gates were situated in Chapter Road, the second on the bridge on Dudden Hill Lane (below) where the mass picket in support of the Grunwick strikers took place.

The work of the Grunwick40 group and artist Anna Ferrie add something extraordinary to the streetscape of Willesden marking a historic struggle of women, Asians and the trade union movement.

HELP! Wembley Stadium has stolen our bus

Residents of the Pilgrims Way/Kings Drive Estate have been deprived of their local bus, the 206, on Wembley Staium events days which have increased since Tottenham Hotspur took over the stadium for their home games.

The 206 which starts and terminates at The Paddocks on the Salmon Street/Fryent Way roundabout is turned around at Brent Park Tesco on event days.

Residents are puzzled as to why it is necessary to curtail the service from 8am when events start at 2.30 or 3pm.

The estate has many elderly residents who rely on their local bus and their freedom of movement is now regularly restricted at weekends. Users of Fryent Country Park are often to be found vainly waiting for a bus at weekend at The Paddocks and have to be told that they are not running.

Some long-standing residents have told me that TfL received a subsidy for the 206's predecessor, the PR2, especially to serve the estate.

Transport for London have been contacted for a comment.

Queensbury pub redevelopment consultation today 4pm-8pm St Gabriel's Church Hall

Queensbury pub campaigners are rolling their sleeves up ready for another round in the campaign to save the Queensbury pub in Willesden Green.

Developers Fairview Homes lost an appeal against the refusal of permission to develop the site. Now it is the turn of Redbourne (Willesden) a subsidiary of the Winston Group to try and persuade the community and Brent Planning Committee to accept their plans for 48 flats and a pub with function room on the site.

The second day of an exhibition by the company's public relations company takes place today at St Gabriel's Church Hall, Chichele Road, NW2 3AQ 4pm-8pm.

UNMISSABLE! Grunwick Mural unveiling Saturday at noon

From Grunwick40
 

We're looking forward to welcoming you tomorrow and revealing not just one mural to commemorate the Grunwick strike but two! 

As you come out of Dollis Hill tube station at the Chapter Road exit you'll be greeted by dhol players and some of the former strikers, and it's here that we'll unveil the first mural just after 12pm. We'll be standing directly outside the former factory, on the same pavement that the strikers and their supporters stood on 40 years ago. 

They'll then lead us in a short procession up Dudden Hill Lane (a 5 minute walk) to the site of the second mural - which is a huuuuge 28 metres long! After this is revealed we'll take another 7 minute walk back down the hill to the offices of Brent Mencap (379-381 High Road, NW10 2JR) for a short reception.

The view from the pavement outside Grunwick 40 years ago

 

Now Duffy asks about missing councillor and 'jollies' from developers

This is part 2 of Cllr Duffy's correspondence with Cllr James Allie who will be chairing the Standards Committee tonight:

Dear James , 

Here is part two of my concerns please ensure the co-opted member are given a copy. Also if you are not the person or committee who deals with these issues please pass them on to the CEO with the questions as a FOI .

(A) Committee attendance 

James as a member of  the Labour group you are  probably aware that I have been left off committees for the past two years. You maybe also be aware that I won an election to be on scrutiny committee but was then removed and was not placed on any committee whatsoever this year. This is in-spite of the fact that attendance at committee meetings is very  low and the recommendation from the Penn report concerning the death of CIIr Oladapo (Tayo) said under 2.

What, if any, improvements the Council should implement"

(i)consideration should be given as to whether every member of the Council should sit on a sub- committee or committee as well as Full Council to improve the potential for attendance and thereby avoid the possibility of breaching the six months rule. This could also obviate the current practice of using the substitution arrangements to enable members to avoid breaching the six months rule". 

I know you have witnessed the exchange of emails between the Labour Party chief whip Cllr Kabir and myself about this issue of me being removed from all committees. Therefore you can imagine my surprise when just before full council meeting on  last Monday! Cllr  Kabir told me that she had put me on the Licensing committee replacing another councillor, without asking my permission or my availability .I informed Cllr Kabir that I would not stand as I believe it was just cover-up to hide the fact a councillor had moved out of Brent sometime previous  and she was not willing to attend any more meetings than the bare minimum. I also told Cllr Kabir I was not good enough  for the leadership to nominate me for any committee meetings in May,  therefore what had changed by September.

I was at the time and subsequently concerned that the Labour leadership are not being transparent to residents  that  I am being brought into a deception without my knowledge. Also in the Penn report it said "consideration should be given to the way in which ‘apologies for absence’ are managed. Currently there is no requirement for the member concerned to tender their apologies directly or personally as these can be tendered on their behalf by another member or an officer". 
I am concerned that the apologies are being managed by the Chief whip in a blanket fashion and do not relate absences due to illness or any other reason , just the unwillingness of a councillor  to travel to Brent.I  wonder if under standards you would be willing to start an investigation into 

(1) When did the councillor leave Brent?

(2) Was the CEO and the Head of Legal informed ?

(3) If not why not ?

(4) Did the CEO and HOL give any advice?

(B) Hospitality 

As you know there has been a  successful planning application for Tottenham Hotspurs to play at Wembley , many people suggested Tottenham got a good deal  and many local Cllrs objected to the conditions. I have been informed by  a member of the public  both the Leader of the council Cllr Butt and lead member for Regeneration and planning Cllr Tatler have received hospitality from Tottenham since the planning permission was granted. Whereas I have some understanding that we need to keep relations open with the Wembley and their tenant Tottenham,  However I  do not understand why the lead member for planning should participate in hospitality as this could seemingly bring  the planning system into disrepute , therefore I ask you to ensure both these councillors  and any others who have participated in Hospitality declare  the reasons why they were offered hospitality and did they check it with the CEO,before excepting also if you could enquire 

(1) How many tickets were received and value.

(2) Who attended the matches with them.

(3) Reason  for the hospitality ( sometimes its OK to look at an issue of say crowd control ,traffic management, or a new street cleansing practise. However  receiving hospitality should not just be for a "Jolly Boys outing@ for them and their family that is not acceptable)

(4) Can you also enquire whether any other Councillors , Officers or relative have received hospitally from Tottenham or Wembley stadium.

In my experience its best to keep clear of hospitality from developers as ' When you dance with a developer, its always to their tune". I hope you see that a declaration alone without reason is not enough, what we must consider is what the average man /women in the street would think, that is why I ask you to look at the issue.

Cllr Duffy asks Standards Committee to defer his item to allow independent input

Cllr John Duffy, subject of a report going to Standards Committee tonight LINK, has requested that members refer back the report to allow independent input into the matter.

This is his email to Cllr Allie, cahir of the committee.

Dear James , 

I was not informed of this meeting and only read about it on Wembley Matter on the 22^nd September. No doubt the CEO and the head of legal will say I was told six months ago this would be referred to the next meeting, however it is up to you to decide, whether it would be reasonable for CEO to inform me of the date of that meeting once it has been fixed.  

Anyway I am unable to attend tonight for personal reasons. Can you pass this email on to the co-oped members.

Let  me first point out there is no independent input into the report and I refused to accept that officers can come to a decision on selective emails and therefore I refuse to co-operate unless someone who was not on the officers “payroll” was involved.

Let me get things right and state why I believe the CEO was wrong  to leave Brent  to sit on operation Gold. I believe operation GOLD, was a complete waste of time,it's not my opinion it's the opinion of many  people.I strongly believe that quangos very seldom solve problems and I believe I have a right to voice that, as we live in a democracy.

In the aftermath of the disaster I believe the Ministers were wrong to set up a quangos of CEOs as many of the victims believed senior officers were responsible for not listening to them. What was needed were operation teams with hands on experience of logistics  and how to deal with problems that would arise from Re -Housing, Social Services , Bereavement counselling, Food distribution etc. CEO could play a role by nominating their best officers and put them into the field with resources.The ministers view that we need more Chiefs instead of Indians was proven wrong. 

The following day I went down to South Kilburn  and identified two blocks I believe were of concern, George and Swift House and raised it with the CEO during the next few days neither the CEO, the lead member for housing Cllr Harbi, the lead member for Regeneration Cllr Tatler appeared in South Kilburn, even though they were aware of SK  close proximity to Grenfell and the  fabric of the buildings was similar.

The officers on site did a sterling job on ensuring all survey were carried out.I also recognised that the Leader and Deputy Leader and the MP Tulip Siddiq (who chaired a very well received meeting) turned up to reassure residents.

However the CEO's decision not to support a emergency meeting was in my opinion wrong. It was clear the meeting may have been difficult as many resident needed to vent their  anger and frustration.

The CEO had a number of options of how to respond to the request from the 5 Councillors,Cllr Chan and Cllr Hector requested a meeting via all councillor email which included the Mayor.  

She could have supported the meeting and assist the members who were calling for a meeting to get passed, or to ignore those members of the council and use the bureaucratic tactics to ensure it did not take place. The CEO then compounded the issue saying a meeting would take place but the residents would be barred and the meeting would last no -longer than a ½ hour.I believe the later decision was  the worst decisionand an affront to the democratic process 

I believe the CEO was wrong so I am releasing some of the private emails LINK between the CEO and myself and other officers,which may explain what was going on at the time,means from the bottom-up.

I do have respect for the CEO and I believe she is very competent, however she is not infallible and on this occasion I believe she made a mistake on this occasion.

Overall I believe Brent officers did well following the Grenfell disaster. Therefore I think the CEO should concentrate on where we agree not where we disagree. 

I would ask committee members to refer the report back to allow independent input into the report.

I have other things I wish to raise with the standards  which I will send you later to today before the meeting .

The emails Cllr Duffy refers to can be found on his blog Kilburn Calling HERE

Join the Ecosocialist Network

Following my posting of the Naomi Klein speech at the Labour Conference I thought that some readers may be interested in this initiative.

Ecosocialist Network on Facebook LINK

Local Democracy Week events in Brent

From Anne Kittappa, Brent Local Democracy Week

This year, Local Democracy Week begins on Monday 09 October. The events that I think you might be particularly interested in are:

All About Brent Question Time

Wednesday 11 October, 7-9pm, Brent Civic Centre

This annual event follows the BBC Question Time format. Jonathan Carr-West from the Local Government Information Unit will return to chair. The panel will be comprised of:

·         The Leader of the Council 

·         Leader of the opposition

·         Dean Simon, a social media personality known as Rants n Bants and local resident

·         Yasmin Hai – Author, producer, and former resident with a strong local connection

If you would like to submit a question for this event, please email Localdemocracyweek@brent.gov.uk, or call me on 020 8937 6060, or tweet @Brent_Council using #qtbrent

To book your place, either book online: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/all-about-brent-question-time-tickets-37653433433

 

Or contact me directly.

Scrutiny Cafés

We are holding three cafes, one for each committee, to talk about topics which the scrutiny committees are going to look at in detail this year. Come and join us for a cup of tea and a chat.

Housing

Topics: rent setting for council housing, housing associations quality of service, reviewing how housing complaints are handled, and applying new rules on tackling homelessness.

Date: Wednesday 11 October

When: 3-5pm

Where: Willesden Green Library

Who: Cllr Janice Long

Community Wellbeing:

Topics: adult social care, children’s services, public health, cultural services and the work of the NHS in Brent

Date: Tuesday 10 October

When: 11-1pm

Where: Costa Coffee, Wembley Central Square

Who: Cllr Ketan Sheth

Public Realm and Resources:

Topics: Regeneration in South Kilburn and Wembley, welfare and benefits, what it’s like to contact and deal with the council, the council budget, recycling rates in Brent, employment support and closure of job centres in Kilburn and Willesden, crime and antisocial behaviour, and how the council engages with residents.

Date: Monday 09 October

When: 10-12noon

Where: St Laurence Larder - Christ Church, Christchurch Avenue, NW6 7BG

Who: Cllr Matt Kelcher

If you would like to book a place, please contact me by email, Localdemocracyweek@brent.gov.uk, or call me on 020 8937 6060

Other events taking place throughout the week, include, Be a Councillor event, the Great Youth debate, Councillors visits to schools, video poetry, and Brent Youth Parliament radio station takeover. For more information about these events, please visit our website, https://www.brent.gov.uk/ldw or email or call me.

Be a Councillor

Saturday 14 October 2017, 10:00am Brent Civic Centre
Are you passionate about your local area? Are there local issues that you feel need to be raised and addressed by the council? Why not consider becoming a councillor?

Most councillors are put forward for election by their political parties, but independent candidates are also just as eligible to stand for election to represent their local area.

This session is for anyone who may consider standing in the May 2018 council elections to find out what you need to do to get your name on the ballot paper, what being a councillor involves and what support is in place to help you carry out your duties once elected.

Book your place today!