Lorber calls for end to Brent Council infighting

Cllr Paul Lorber, Liberal Democrat and former leader of Brent Council has made the following statement on the current situation on the Council:

This is an extraordinary breakdown in relationships and poses a real risk to the effective running of Brent Council. I have had my differences with Gareth Daniel over the years but have always found it possible to maintain a professional relationship.

If Labour councillors are clumsily trying to ease Mr Daniel out of his position they are risking very large sums of public cash on redundancy and compensation payments, not to mention the damage to their and the council’s reputation.

It’s clear that the Labour group is split down the middle and Cllr Butt is being undermined even by his own Executive members. For the sake of Brent’s residents this infighting needs to end.

What future for education in Brent?

Education has been very much in the news recently from parental protests over the ending of hot meals at Our Lady of Grace Junior School hitting today's front page of the Wembley and Willesden Observer, to the failure of several free schools to open leaving children adrift and Michael Gove admitting the GCSE marking was 'unfair' but doing nothing about it.

In Brent the headteacher of Newman Catholic College (formerly Cardinal Hinsley High School) has admitted there is a danger of forced academy conversion after poor results and other schools are considering academy conversion or becoming cooperative federations. In nearby Harrow the biggest free school has just opened.

Brent Council has embarked on another round of school expansions creating primaries with more than 1,000 pupils and the possibility of more 'all through' schools. Headteachers are promoting a consortium public enterprise to replace Brent Council's School Support Service.

Sarah Teather has lost her job as an education minister but Michael Gove holds on to his position and will continue his 'reforms'.

So there couldn't be a better time (for the worse possible reasons!) to hold a debate about the future of education in Brent.

I hope as many people as possible make it to the debate that has been organised for September 20th at Copland High School. Details below:

Apology over new WLA bus service for special needs children

Monday's meeting of Brent Council will be debating the West London Alliance.  Ian Nichol, Chief Executive of the West London Alliance will speak on the progress being made on the work of the Alliance after which members will debate the issues arising. The WLA shares services across several boroughs (Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon and Hounslow) LINK  in order to save money through rationalisation, sharing of resources and reductions in backroom expenses. Last year the then Brent Council leader Cllr Ann John expressed mixed feelings about the WLA remarking that it moved services one step further away from direct local accountability.

Coincidentally Brent Council has had to issue an apology today to special needs children after problems with the new WLA Transport Service:

Many children with Special Education Needs (SEN) will have experienced difficulties in their school transport arrangements this week. 

We apologise for the inconvenience and upset that we know these problems will have caused to children and their families.

The new transport system operated by the WLA Transport Bureau has experienced some significant problems in these early days. 

We are reworking transport arrangements to ensure that they work more reliably from Monday 10 September and will ensure that parents and carers have written confirmation of the arrangements for their child over the weekend.

This confirmation may be hand delivered.

In the meantime, if you experience problems, please call the WLA Transport Bureau on 020 8583 5530 / 5531 / 5536 / 5537 and we will work with you to resolve them.

Duckworth: Greens can be attractive to working class voters

I am proud to have voted for Will Duckworth who was elected deputy leader of the Green Party on Monday.  Here is what he has to say for himself:

I am thrilled to have been elected as the new Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. I am very much looking forward to working with new Leader, Natalie Bennett, who has a clear, strong and exciting vision for our Party.

I will do my very best to run with the baton passed on to me by Adrian Ramsey, who has done an excellent job as our Deputy for the last four years. I am sure I speak for everyone in the Party when I say that Caroline Lucas cannot be thanked enough for the incredible hard work she put in as our first ever Leader.
The next two years will be crucial for us. With important local elections due in 2013 and a great opportunity to increase our number of MEPs the year after I am looking forward to lending my support and enthusing members and voters alike, wherever possible.

As this Government's disastrous economic policies continue to hit the least well-off the hardest we will show that we have not only viable, but attractive social and economic alternatives to the ConDem's cuts and Labour's slightly watered-down version. I intent to make the most of being in the position of being able to communicate this to an ever widening audience.

2012 has seen the wettest summer in England for 100 years, the USA's worst drought for half a century, as well as the Arctic sea ice shrinking to an historic low. I will enjoy spreading the word about how the Green Party is the only one that understands the urgent measures needed to tackle climate change, while making the world fairer at the same time.

It is sometimes said that our policies are only attractive to the middle classes in leafy suburbs. Nothing could be further from the truth. Earlier this year I became the Black Country's first Green Party Councillor in a working class Labour stronghold. To me, this clearly showed that people in all walks of life agree with our way of thinking and that can achieve greater electoral success.

Here in the West Midlands we have gone from having three councillors to thirteen in just two years. I will take particular pleasure in working with local and regional groups to replicate that success, build the membership and strengthen the Party at all levels.

These are exceptional times. There are unique challenges for people and for our Party. We will only meet them by working together. I am confident that we can succeed.