Council report confirms Brent streets are dirtier but landfill reduced

 A council report LINK confirms that despite improvements in recycling rates and the amount of waste going to landfill, that Brent streets are dirtier than a year ago.

In October last year the council made the following changes in street cleansing:

• Reduced frequency of sweeping from 2 to 1 weekly in zone 5
• Reduced frequency of sweeping from 3 times per day to twice in zone 2
• Reduced frequency of sweeping in industrial areas from 7 to 2 weekly
• Removal of weekend afternoon shift
• Reduced weekday morning mechanical sweeping
• Reduced weekend morning cleansing.

The report admits:

The cleansing reductions led to deterioration in some areas.

Compared to 2010/11:

• • The number of streets showing a less than acceptable level of litter increased by 5 percentage points.
• • The number of streets showing a less than acceptable level of detritus increased by 6 percentage points 

Although Brent Council has focused on leafleting as a potential cause of litter during the Olympics (the statutory notices for the licensing scheme are currently posted around the borough) it is clear that there is a residual problem as a consequence of the cuts and what seems to me an increase in fly-tipping and street corner depositing of surplus residential 'grey bin' waste.  At the same time the council has cut the Streetwatchers Scheme through which local residents informed Streetcare of fly-tipping and uncollected waste.

The report concludes:

The consequence of less frequent cleansing in some areas is that streets are less tidy. Officers have embarked on a programme of engagement with councillors and community groups to understand local concerns and to develop solutions.

Would one solution be the reintroduction of more frequent street cleaning and the reinstatement of the Streetwatchers scheme? It is important that the council gets this right before the waste services contract goes out to tender next year.

The news is better on recycling although it would be useful to know the post-process figures as well as those given on pick-up rates from the blue bins. How much of the material in blue bins is ultimately recycled and how much after sorting still goes into landfill as the result of contamination or the inclusion of non-recyclables in the blue bins?

The council puts forward plans to increase the amount of waste recycled or composted from the present 41% to 52%:

High – High Output (+8 percentage points)

1. Improve recycling of collected bulky waste.

2. Maximise output from food waste collections by providing caddy liners/replacement caddies.

3. Bid for funding to introduce food waste collections at flats

4. Replace/remove excess landfill bins.

5. Introduce alternate weekly collections at appropriate flats.

6. Extend recycling provision at flats above shops.

7. Review and improve resident engagement programme.

8. Advertise availability of additional blue-topped bins.

9. Comprehensive communications plan for 2012/13, with more frequent reissue of collection calendar and service information.

Medium – High Input, Less Output (+3 percentage points)

10. Review and improve bring bank network.

11. Identify options for recycling street cleansing waste.

12. Remove trade waste from street cleansing waste.

13. Install in-cab devices to report non-collection issues.

14. Re-use shops / third sector collections

Low – Low Output (+0.5 percentage points)

15. Recycle waste collected at events.

16. Enhanced waste reduction initiatives – real nappies, junk mail, home

composting.

17. Investigate a borough-wide recycling incentive scheme.

18. Collect food waste from schools.

19. Take advantage of pan-London textile framework.

20. Dedicated Olympic recycling programme for the games period in August.

21. Provide collection points for small electronic equipment.

22. Improve collection arrangements and range of materials at Re-use and Recycling centre.

Opposition as Wembley ASDA seeks to expand its empire

Forty Lane.Kings Drive and Asda access road last week

Strong opposition is building to plans by ASDA to built a four pump petrol station in its extsing car park in Wembley. (planning Ref 12/1268) The Walmart owned multinational withdrew a similar plan last year.(11/2679)

Local Labour councillor and chief whip, Shafique Choudhary, has called for the consultation period to be extended to six months rather than the present 'derisory' 14 days. (It was advertised on May 31st and will be decided no earlier than June 21st so the period was actually 21 days).

Residents are concerned about the dangers posed by the increased traffic at the junction that they feel will arise from the location of a petrol station there and have pointed out that other filling stations already exist in close proximity to ASDA. The junction has seen a number of collisions in recent times and there have been injuries to pedestrians as a result of crossing Forty Lane at the Town Hall bus stop.

Residents with flats overlooking ASDA are also concerned that the petrol station would already increase the significant light and noise nuisance from the store.

Lay out (petrol station lower right)

ASDA claim that the impact on traffic will be 'negligible' and that the majority of users will be existing customers using the car park.

Full details can be found on Brent Council website HERE

"Heard it in the playground, not enough space!"

Mindful of current concerns about child obesity and the lack of outdoor play opportunities for children, I have been interested in how the current school expansions affected the play space available to children when at school. Following a Freedom of Information request I now have the figures which are tabulated below.

These show an overall reduction in the space (expressed in square metres) available per child after expansion. I have left out those for Mugas (Multi-use games areas) as these are likely to be used per class or after school activity, rather than shared. Clearly however access will be less because more classes will have to be timetabled to use it within the confines of the school day.

The amount of playground space available at break times and lunch times is of major concern. Recent research has shown that children use more energy then than when they take part in PE activities. The reduction in play space can be addressed by staggering break times so that different phases or year groups use the playground at different times, but this then reduces the time for their use for class games activities.

Over crowded playgrounds restrict the amount of space for 'tearing about' and using up surplus energy as well as increasing the number of collisions, bumps and scrapes. Competition for space, unless well supervised, can lead to more playground fights.

Mitchell Brook Primary has the additional resource of Gibbons Recreation Ground which it backs onto, but the other schools are less fortunate.


PLAY SPACE IN SCHOOLS SCHEDULED FOR EXPANSION (square metres to nearest 0.5)

FRYENT	Existing (420 pupils)	Per pupil	Proposed (840 pupils)	Per pupil after expansion
Habitat	262		310
Hard Play/Games Courts	2447	6.0	3325	4.0
Pitches/Soft Play	6714	16.0	4974	6.0
Muga	360		360
BARHAM	Existing (630 pupils)		Proposed (840 pupils)
Habitat	Playing field edge		Playing field edge
Hard Play/Games Courts	2501	4.0	3254	4.0
Pitches/Soft Play	4748	7.5	3713	4.5
Muga	254		254
MITCHELL BROOK	Existing (420 pupils)		Proposed (630 pupils)
Hard Play/Games Courts	3773	9.0	2738	4.5

Read the comments on Zadie's 'North West London Blues'

The New York Review of Books posting of  Zadie Smith's commentary on the Willesden Green Library issue has generated many interesting comments. See them HERE