Brent Performance Report reveals impact of cuts

Brent' Council's Performance Report for the third quarter of 2011-12 which is published as a supplement to the Performance and Finance Review gives an indication of how both Coalition policy and council cuts are beginning to hit services.

It uses a  RAG (Red, Amber, Green) traffic light system where Red indicates performance below target, Amber performance below expected levels but within tolerance of the target, and Green where performance is as expected and the target met or exceeded.

All the tables below are of services given a warning Red rating. Therese are the services where improvements need to be made. It is fair to point out that many services also achieve Green ratings and these are likely to be publicised in Brent press releases and the Brent Magazine.

The Environment and Neighbourhood Services department has suffered cuts and reorganisations so it is not surprising that out of 12 performance indicators half have a Red rating and 2 an Amber and only one Green. The others are black indicating that the Council thinks performance cannot be fairly measured against a target. In reading the table remember that there is another quarter to go.

Environment and Neighbourhood Services

Performance indicator	2010-11 end of year	2011-12 year to date	2011-12 current target
Volume of residual waste kg per  household	644	453	427
% of household waste sent for recycling	33	35	47
Tonnes of waste sent to landfill	80,000	59,000	53,000
Number of fly-tipping incidents	3882	4435	3000
Active library borrowers as % of population	18.6	13.81	16.4
% of streets below standard for litter	10.2%	11.7% Nov	9%

Despite the Council's claims made for the Library Transformation Project the target  for the percentage of Brent residents who are active borrowers was set below the 2010-11 level and performance is below that lower target. Next year with the closure of Willesden Green for redevelopment. the figure is likely to decline further. The number of library visits  per 100,000 population gets an Amber rating. The target was 4,834 compared with 6,660 in 2010-2011 and after the third quarter stood at 4,606.

The Council ridiculed the Green Party's claims that cuts to street cleansing would result in Brent becoming a dirtier borough but the figures justify our claim and the residual waste/recycling figures are also below  the Council's expectations.

Children and Families

Performance indicator	2010-11 end of year	2011-12 year to date	2011-12 current target
Net shortfall of places at Key Stage 1 (5-7 year olds)	n/a	-304	0
Percentage of 16 to 18 year olds not in education, employment or training	5%	4%	4%
Percentage of care leavers in  education, employment or training	71%	64%	80%
Number of looked after children with independent fostering agencies	112	100	89
Number of looked after children placed with in-house foster carers	103	109	127

 

The shortage of school places is a continuing problem which has been addressed by an ad hoc mixture of school expansions, temporary classrooms and bulge classes. Coalition policies giving priority to free schools and academies and providing them with disproportionate amounts of funding, makes it difficult for the Council to build the new schools that are needed.

At the other end of the age range the number of school leavers not in education, employment and training is likely to increase in the recession and the situation has been worsened by the abolition of the Education Maintenance Allowance. The plight of looked after children is highlighted by the number of care leavers who, as they enter adult life, are not in education, employment or training.

Regeneration and Major Projects

Performance indicator	2010-11 end of year	2011-12 year to date	2011-12 current target
% of major planning applications processed within 13 weeks	73	25	70
Gap between Brent and London for working people on out of work benefits	3	3.4	1.4
Number of households living in temporary accommodation	3,019	3.073	2,973
Proportion of residents with no qualifications (gap between Brent and London. Minus figure reflects higher than average gap)	n/a	-4.8	-2.0

The increase in the proportion of people on benefits compared with the London average and the increase in numbers of temporary accommodation are clearly the most worrying items ion the short term but the 'no qualifications' figures builds up problems for the long term.

Central Services

Performance indicator	2010-11 end of year	2011-12 year to date	2011-12 current target
Serious violent crime rate (per 1000 of population)	1.64	1.72	n/a
Serious acquisitive crime rate (serious thefts, burglaries per 1000 of population)	31.82	33.92	n/a
Serious knife crime rate per 1000 of population	2.05	2.09	n/a
Gun crime rate per 1000 of population	0.39	0.43	n/a
Time taken to process Benefit claims (average number of days)	9.77	8.33	8.0

 

Crime usually increases in a recession and although I am not suggesting a direct causal link, clearly delays in benefit payment do not help.

Adult Social Care

The Council is not meeting its target of 90% of Mental Health Social Care assessments completed within four weeks and the figure currently stands at 65%. Similarly the percentage of social care packages put in place within the recommended timelines following assessment is 65% against a target of 95%.

Financial Report

Adult Social Care is a major financial pressure  and although overspend has reduced compared with the second quarter the General Fund overspend stands at £292,000.  In Children and Families' General Fund there is as underspend on Achievement and Inclusion (School Improvement Service and Connexions which was cut) but an overspend on Social Care partly due to an increase in child protection cases following the baby Peter case.

Environment and Neighbourhood Services had no overall  under or overspend with savings from Neighbourhood Services (including libraries and transportation) offsetting an increase in Environment and Protection costs which receives a Red rating.

The Regeneration and Major Projects General Fund had a small underspend and there were underspends overall on Capital Budgets with that of the Civic Centre underspent as a result of 'adjusted profiled cash flow'. It was originally £51m and reduced to £29.5m.  Children and Families Capital Projects which this department has taken over gets a Red grading with an overspend of £5m.

The Department's main pressure is caused by the housing benefit cap with an increase of 27% in homeless applications and 42% in acceptances compared with last year. The total pressure is forecast at £750,000 for 2011-12.

Beneath all these figures are real people experiencing real hardship as a consequence of  the Government's cuts to national benefits and the  public sector, alongside cuts in local authority funding leading to cuts in Council Services.It all adds up to further evidence of the damage the Coalition's austerity measures are doing to people who are not to blame for the crisis.

Housing: The Brent crisis and Jenny Jones' solutions

As a result of rising rents, housing benefit cap and demographic pressures the crisis in housing is likely to deepen in Brent over the next year. Green Party Mayoral candidate Jenny Jones has launched a 'mini-manifesto' to address the issue across London.

At present the media private rent for a two bedroomed resident in Brent is £1,300 a month compared with £975 in Harrow and £1,100 in Ealing. As a proportion of the media of local  individual take home pay that is 74% in Brent, 49% in Harrow and 61% in Ealing. So Brent residents pay more in cash terms and as a proportion of income.

The proportion of the population claiming housing benefit is of obvious relevance to future pressure when the cap hits and this is 14% in Brent, 7% in Harrow and 10% in Ealing.

Brent has 2,370 empty homes which is 2.13% of the housing stock. 27% of these have been empty for more than 6 months. Of Brent's total 59 are owned by the council, 290 by housing associations, 24 by other public bodies and 1,997 are privately owned.

Jenny Jones has issued a mini-manifesto which seeks to address the roots of the problem:

LET’S MAKE HOUSING AFFORDABLEWe will build genuinely affordable housing and refurbish over one million homes to cut energy bills. We will push to give private tenants more security and stabilise rent levels. We want to change the housing market from a playground for speculative investment to a source of secure, affordable homes. (In Brent the proposed Willesden Green regeneration includes NO affordable housing in Galliford Try's development)

1. Build genuinely affordable homesBuild at least 15,000 affordable homes per year, of which 40% will be family sized. Calculate an annual London Affordable Rent for the average household and use public land to keep rents at or below that cap.

2. Build homes that are affordable to runEnsure all homes are actually built to high energy and water efficiency standards with enhanced building control checks, making them affordable to run as well as rent or buy.

3. End fuel poverty and cut carbon emissionsRoll out the RE:NEW home insulation scheme to over one million homes in London by 2015, helping people to install simple measures and to access the Green Deal, and work with councils and housing associations to bring all social housing up to an enhanced Decent Homes standard by 2016.

4. Help co-operatives build more housingEstablish the London Mutual Housing Company to help communities set-up Community Land Trusts, which will give them control over the design, development and management of permanently affordable homes.

5. Help co-ops restore empty homesSet-up a clearing house to make all suitable publicly owned empty homes available to be brought back into short-life or permanent use by self-help co-operatives, and encourage private owners to list their properties on the system.

6. Protect the rights of private tenantsLobby for comprehensive and smart reforms of the private rented sector to bring down rents, make tenants more secure in their homes with a default secure five year tenancy agreement, protect tenants from exploitative landlords and improve the condition of private rented housing. Guarantee these rights for homes built on public land and with public money.

7. Create an Ethical Lettings Agency Set-up an ethical lettings agency for private tenants and landlords, and a web site for tenants to post feedback on landlords and letting/managing agents.

8. Protect the rights of tenantsOppose all elements of the Government’s housing agenda that weaken security, raise rents for social tenants, and that reduces housing benefits for private and social tenants instead of reducing rents.

9. End rough sleepingBring all grants for pan-London homelessness services into the GLA to protect frontline services, and work closely with homelessness organisations to ensure nobody needs to spend a second night out sleeping rough on the street.

10. Campaign for root and branch reformUse our influence and new research to build momentum behind radical reforms such as land value taxation and a ban on foreign investors, solutions which could stabilise house prices. Our housing crisis will only deepen if we fail to fix the roots of the problem. 

Angry residents question Cllr Crane on Willesden Green Library plans

At a public meeting - called by the “Keep Willesden Green Campaign” - the Green Party candidate for Dollis Hill, Pete Murry, has called on Brent council to rethink its plans to demolish Willesden Green Library. The meeting, which was originally intended as a hustings for the by-election, saw a huge amount of anger directed at Councillor Crane; the Labour executive member for regeneration. The public demanded to know why the regeneration plan did not include any provisions for social housing. The audience also asked why there has been no proper consultation on the plans and why their  petition of 5700 names was being rejected by the council. 

Pete Murry, who is a long standing Brent resident and user of the library said:

It beggars belief that the petition submitted by Keep Willesden Green is being fobbed off on a technicality. We will continue to press for the petition to be accepted and for a full council debate to be had.

The Green Party do not agree with the demolition of the library in the first place and are fighting against it. If, however, the Labour plans do come to fruition it seems absurd that there will be no social housing built as part of the project; especially considering the fact that almost 15,000 Brent residents are on the housing  waiting list.

Centre for Staff Development to close in 2013 amidst uncertainty over future provision

The Centre for Staff Development (Gwenneth Rickus Building) which houses Brent's School Improvement Service and is the local authority's base for in-service education, will be closed in the Summer of 2013.

The building in Brentfield Road, close to the Swaminarayan Temple , was formerly part of Sladebrook Secondary School, which closed in the 1980s to be replaced by the fee-paying Swaminarayan Hindu all-through school.The school suffered some bomb damage during air raids in the second world war but is of a very solid build, characteristic of the period - in sharp contrast to some of our newer buildings!

The building has been much improved and has is  an exemplar of energy saving innovations with very low energy costs. It will be sold off by Brent Council and there is a possibility, because of the shortage of school places in the south of the borough, that there may be an approach by a free school provider - either alone or in partnership with the council (see previous posting on the internal Labour debate about this LINK).

When I worked on children's consultation in Brent this was a building that was considered as the possible site for a new secondary school. Controversially, the Wembley Park site was chosen instead.  More recently a group called Ma'at has formulated a bid for a secondary free school to serve the south of Brent. This was partly the result of the lack of secondary schools in the area compared with north of the North Circular and also the views of some black parents and teachers that black children were being failed by the school system - although the organisers denied that this would be a school for only black children. See my previous post on the issue HERE

Although the new  Civic Centre is due to house most of Brent Council staff from Summer 2013 this is more complicated in the case of the School Improvement Service as it may well not exist in its present form by then.

This morning John Simpson, now an independent consultant, but a former Brent Chief Executive and Director of Education, gave a presentation to school governors at the CSD on 'The Future of Services to Schools in Brent'.

Against the background of local authority cuts, the Coalition's wish for reduced local government, and schools converting to academies as well as  the setting up of free schools, he argued that the Council could no longer carry on as before. He set out a model whereby the council would continue to provide core statutory services but others would be traded services.

Options for the core services were:
1. Minimum interpretation of what the Council should provide.
2. Intervention support - intervening in schools which are in difficulty and support them in overcoming them
3. Prevention support - preventing schools getting into difficulty which would involve monitoring and visits.

Options for the traded services were:
1. The council withdrawing from the market completely - schools would buy-in from elsewhere
2. The council establishing a local authority traded services company in collaboration with schools
3. Schools establish an independent public service mutual organisation with the local authority as a minority partner - cooperative working between schools.

John said that at recent headteacher consultations he had been surprised that many heads had favoured Option 2 rather than 3. In a contribution I suggested that the danger was that headteachers would become business managers whose main job was procurement, leading to a neglect of the main job which is the improvement of the quality of teaching and children's learning.  I also expressed a fear that the uncertainty would lead to a loss of some key staff (68 people are employed in SIS) and thus a deterioration in the quality of the service schools were being asked to buy into.  This has already happened in the case of some other council departments.

Another speaker thought that Option 2 gave more democratic accountability and would be less of a distraction to headteachers.

Further questions are raised about overhead costs, particularly in the case of Option 3 but also possible with Option 2. In the case of the Willesden Green Cultural Centre we have been told that as this is a high quality, state of the art building, rents would be high. As the Civic Centre is probably an even higher specification building, positioned next to the Arena and the Stadium, how much would an independent traded services mutual organisation  have to pay for office space and meeting rooms so that they could provide in-service education?

There was a concern that the changes would lead to fragmentation:  reduced in-service education and training, and increased isolation of schools because of the lack of affordability of buying-in when council revenue and government funding are being reduced. Paying for services that were formerly free and increased charges for those that were subsidised, amounted to a cut in real terms to school budgets.

Discussion afterwards also speculated on practical issues of whether teachers from the south of the borough would find it easy to travel to Wembley for courses starting at 9am (i.e. rush hour) and the lack of parking spaces at the Civic Centre.

These changes need to be very carefully considered. The briefing will be repeated on the evening of Thursday March 22nd at the CSD and I urge all Brent governors who didn't come today to attend. The wrong decisions could have a devastating impact on the future education of our children and their life chances.

The Schools Forum recommendation on the issue is likely by December 2012 so it is important that governing bodies discuss the issue this term or early next.

Dollis Hill By-election hustings on Thursday

Pete Murry, Green Party candidate in Dollis Hill, will be attending this event:

Protests as Lib Dems dump paper mountain in Dollis Hill

I was out with Brent Green Party colleagues in Dollis Hill today enjoying a beautiful day, good company and meeting local people.

One seriously pissed of woman who was washing her car begged me not to put a London Green News  through her door. "Not another political leaflet! I'm fed up with all these political leaflets through my door every day.  Every day another leaflet. My place is covered in leaflets! No more leaflets!"

Clearly she is not the only one. We found one house where a bin was carefully placed beneath the letter box so the leaflets could drop straight in.  It takes a lot for political leaflets to replace pizza menus as the most hated junk mail.

So what is the cause of this?

The Lib Dem leaflets of course. Showing scant regard for the forests and even less for the feelings of local people they are now on about their 8th or 9th leaflet. A process could be called political fly-tipping on people's doormats.

What is worse,  as my previous posting showed, many of them are not immediately identifiable as Lib Dem leaflets. The latest have been printed in red to look, at a glance, like a Labour leaflet and today there was a blue one which was trying to mop up some Tory votes. Alison Hopkins name was prominent but the fact that she was a Lib Dem candidate hardly figured.

The problem with the Lib Dem's approach is that people's annoyance rubs off on all parties and the political literature which should be a vital part of deciding how to vote in a democratic system becomes discredited and therefore ignored.

Apart from LGN, which is a general Green newspaper for the whole of London, we will be distributing just one modest A5 Green by-election leaflet in the Dollis Hill by-election.

And the woman who was washing her car?

She allowed me to chat to her about the Green Party and why we need some independent Green councillors on Brent Council, while she continued to wash her car in the sunshine. Nothing for her to recycle except the air I breathed.

Demanding a voice at Willesden Green on Saturday

It was a great day down at Willesden Green on Saturday at the Brent Council-Galliford Try 'consultation' on the Cultural Centre project. The people presenting the proposals and  answering questions from the public seemed increasingly uncomfortable faced with well-informed and incisive questioning from local residents. Many of their answers were vague or shrugged off with 'that was before we got involved'. Clearly the developers have been dropped in a thicket of brambles and stinging nettles by Brent Council and are not very happy about it.

Outside the public were anxious to sign Keep Willesden Green's petitions and the campaign's yellow stickers were everywhere along the High Road.

This campaign means business!

'Who put the CON into Consultation?' asks Michael Rosen

After Keep Willesden Green had a successful morning outside the Brent Council - Galliford Try Consultation I came across this on Michael Rosen's blog. LINK  Michael is the children's poet and BBC broadcaster. It may ring bells for you!

In many streets, there is a scarcely visible process going on: developers eye up land and properties with a view to convincing councils that there is a place or space which they can make a profit out of. They don't call it that. They call it 'regeneration' and proceed to line up various agencies or authorities to back them: eg the local transport people, some 'business people', some kind of 'development agency' or ngo in the area and so on. They will also try to capture some key members of the council (elected or non-elected). Sometimes this process is initiated by a council committee as part of their own 'regeneration' scheme.

In fact, more often than not, it's a con. The 'affordable' housing that is sometimes promised at the outset, starts diminishing in numbers as the developer pleads economy and 'returns  on investment'. Quite often some kind of half-hidden subsidy is engineered by either the council or one of the ngos whereby the developer gets the land cheap or received some kind of suspension in the council tax etc. And when it comes to the 'retail units', more often than not, this is in fact an effort to bring in the multinational chains.

Prior to all this, the land or properties that the developers have been eyeing may well have been deliberately run down by the public authorities eg the council or transport authority. The 'dereliction' they talk about in their glossy brochures may well have been engineered, by refusing to let tenant holders, short-term occupiers or some such stay and develop their own property. Groups (eg council subsidised self-help groups, community organisations and the like) are often told that they can be moved out at any time. Another trick is for the council to have not updated and upgraded some properties they owned so that they are in effect falling down.

At this point the developer's plan is presented as the only viable alternative. The possibility of people on the ground developing their places and spaces has been eliminated by refusing to let them (!), some deal is on the cards whereby the developer is getting some kind of subsidy from us, the council tax payers, but which may well be hidden as a non-ask eg a very low payment for a slice of property, and the council and the developer produce some great big brochure of blather saying how this is all a marvellous retail opportunity, everything is going to look smart and nice, Marks and Spencer are going to be on your doorstep etc etc.

Now to the council meeting to see if they can get it through.

At this point, I'll break off the story...with this:

Just up the road from a historic defeat for the people, places and spaces of Dalston in Hackney, comes a historic victory:

http://opendalston.blogspot.com/2012/03/dalstons-voice-is-heard-hackney-reject.html

When is a Lib Dem leaflet not a Lib Dem leaflet - see for yourselves

In a previous post I mentioned Pete Murry's puzzlement at an anti-Labour leaflet that came through his door without any advocacy of another candidate or party. He eventually discovered after forensic analysis where it came from. Here is the evidence as requested by someone who commented on my earlier posting LINK

The leaflet distributed in the Dollis Hill by-election

Now here is a challenge. Can you find the imprint which is required by electoral law? Put on your specs or get out your magnifying glass. Still can't see it?

Okay, look carefully at the fold on the first page of the leaflet.... can you see what looks looks like an ant's footprints? Yes?

Well done - you have won the '2012 Spot the near anonymous Lib Dem leaflet imprint competition'.

How dodgy is that? If cigarette manufacturers tried the same trick with the 'Smoking Kills' warning they'd be hauled through the courts.

PAUSE, LISTEN AND REFLECT, Brent Council told

Keep Willesden Green have launched a new paper and e-petition on the Willesden Green Regeneration issue that encompasses the various concerns of the local community are by calling for Brent Council to Pause, Listen and Reflect before proceeding.

You can sign the E-Petition HERE

PETITION TEXT

We the undersigned petition the council to Pause the Willesden Green Library Centre regeneration plans to allow for full consultation with residents in order to ascertain their views on how the area should be developed and the amenities that should be provided or retained.

Brent Council is handing over public land worth £10.4 million to a property developer in exchange for rebuilding the Willesden Library Centre. The original 1894 library building on the High Road will be demolished, The Willesden Bookshop is likely to be driven out of business, the public car park will be reduced to 8 spaces and a children’s play area will be lost. Over 18 months, three five-storey blocks of 90+ luxury flats will be built behind the existing Library Centre.

We all want a thriving, welcoming and dynamic library and cultural centre, but the current deal has been sealed with virtually no public consultation and very little available information, ignoring the wishes of over a thousand local residents who have expressed opposition to these plans in two Brent e-petitions.

While the developers get a healthy profit from the sale of luxury flats and Brent councillors get some fancy new offices, the cultural and financial cost to rate-paying citizens is disproportionately high. It smacks of ‘profits before people’.

Borough residents need to have a say in the content and design of the library centre redevelopment, but we have not yet been given the chance to do so.

The Council says: Plans for the development of the library centre were raised at the executive committee in February 2011, and quickly followed by two public consultations to ‘test the market’. The council had to abide by commercial confidentiality, so no detailed plans could be made public until a deal was signed with the developer on 15 February 2012.

We say: Did you know about this in 2011? Not a single local resident or tradesperson we spoke to knew about the plans until Jan 2012, and only then through word of mouth. The Feb 2011 consultations were conducted with, respectively, 5 and then 7 people. One person present recounted that they were asked for their opinion, then shown plans for the centre that were drawn up before the meeting. This does not conform to the generally understood definition of a ‘consultation’

REMEMBER TO MAKE YOUR VIEWS KNOWN AT THE EXHIBITION ON SATURDAY 10AM-2PM, WILLESDEN GREEN LIBRARY. YOU WILL BE ABLE TO MEET KEEP WILLESDEN GREEN CAMPAIGNERS OUTSIDE AND SIGN THE PETITION.

Big push on Willesden Green tomorrow

The Keep Willesden Green campaign has had excellent coverage in the Brent and Kilburn Times this week. They will be out in force tomorrow for the Brent Council-Galliford Try Exhibition at Willesden Green Library.

Campaigners are pushing to get 5,000 signatures on the petition to save the historic Old Willesden Library building from demolition. Reaching 5,000 will mean that the issue has to be discussed at full council. E-petiton is HERE and the paper version will be outside the Library tomorrow morning and lunchtime.

The main issues are summarised in the video below:

Ann John challenged on free schools

 I hear that there was a right old ding dong at Labour's Brent Local Government Committee last night when they debated the Brent officers' recommendation that the Council should get involved in setting up a free school.

Nationally Stephen Twigg has failed to issue a clear policy and this has left local Labour parties in a quandary. When a new secondary school was required under the last Labour administration it was argued by Brent officers that there was no alternative to an academy because of the Labour government's policy that all new school should be academies. This opened the way for the ARK Academy and the subsequent conversion of other former local authority schools in Brent to academy status.

This  argument is now being repeated on free schools and the Coalition government policy. Andy Donald, Director of Regeneration, who seems to be directing education policy rather than Krutika Pau who is Director of Children and Families, told Brent Labour Group a week ago that in order to address the shortage of school places that there was no alternative to the Council setting up a free school in partnership with an outside body. I have argued before that the 'numbers' approach to school place shortage was leading to school expansions and bulge classes which paid little heed to the quality of education on offer. Putting builders rather than educationalists in charge is likely to have major repercussions in the future.

In my previous post on this issue I remarked that Brent officers' wouldn't have put forward a free schools strategy without the tacit agreement of Labour leader Ann John. This proved to be the case last night at an emergency meeting.  Ann John and Mary Arnold (lead member for children and families) supported by half a dozen others argued that although they didn't like free schools there was no alternative to supporting them because otherwise children would be denied a right to be educated.

Former Brent South MP Dawn Butler was joined by Cllr Moher (not a Trot as far as I know!)  and veteran Brent Labour activist Colin Adams in opposing the principle of free schools and only agreeing if further work by external consultants established that there was no alternative. Their motion was narrowly carried.

Ann John was not happy as she is used to being 'She who must be obeyed' and suddenly the cavalry arrived in the person of several more councillors who appeared to have been mysteriously summoned and a new motion was put. This opposed free schools in theory but stating that Brent Council should choose a free school partner to work with.

This motion was also carried so Labour now has two policies both opposed to free schools in principle with one seeking delay for further research and the other advocating an immediate partnership.

This debate need to move outside the Labour Party so that Brent teachers and parents have a say in the future of educational provision in the borough. Free schools do not have the democratic accountability of local authority schools, take a disproportionate amount of funding and open the way to experimental teaching and curricula with a potentially damaging impact on children. As with the ARK Academy the first free school in Brent will open the way for others to follow, producing an ad hoc competitive system where working class children may well lose out.

All Souls give Kensal Rise campaigners hope

The Friends of Kensal Rise Library have received good news from the Bursar of All Souls College.

 I am writing to confirm that All Souls College has contacted the council via its solicitors to inform them that the College would be happy to consider the library being kept open as proposed in the Business Plan prepared by the 'Friends of Kensal Rise Library, Ltd.

This puts the ball firmly into Brent Council's court. I await developments with interest.

Audacious Lib Dems attack Labour on cuts in near anonymous leaflet

Alison Hopkins hidden in the fold

My Green Party comrade Pete Murry, our candidate for the Dollis Hill by-election has posted an interesting piece on the Brent Greens blog LINK

What at first appeared to be an anti-cuts leaflet with no obvious party identification lambasted Labour over cuts and included quotes from trades unionists Bob Crow and Dave Prentice criticising Labour cuts. The leaflet is headlined: Who Can You Trust to STOP THE CUTS.  It was only after a meticulous search that Pete found, printed in a tiny font along the leaflet's fold, that it was printed on behalf of Alison Hopkins the Liberal Democrat candidate.

Pete Murry comments:

 This verges on a 'dirty trick'  Lib Dem bid for disillusioned Labour voters, whilst totally omitting any mention of Lib Dem involvement in coalition government cuts. I can at least say, as Green Party candidate in the Dollis Hill by-election, and Secretary of the Green Party Trade Union Group that the Green Party nationally opposes cuts and supports Trade Union opposition to them through its affiliation to the Coalition of Resistance and its support for the creation of at least one million jobs to build the infrastructure that the country needs for a low carbon economy that can help to combat climate change. What can the Lib Dem’s say?

That they are part of a coalition imposing swingeing cuts to public services and initiating privatisation programs that are making ordinary people pay for a crisis of international finance? That is the truth. So, no wonder they don’t wish to acknowledge it by pushing leaflets through voters’ doors that seem almost ashamed to ask people to vote Lib Dem

Will Brent Labour sell-out on free schools?

In January it appeared that Brent Labour was ready to gear up to defend community schools when they held an Education Conference for members and Labour governors on academies and free schools.  They decided to be more proactive in making the argument for schools to remain within the Brent 'family of schools' working with the local authority, rather than to convert to academy status. LINK

I welcomed this move but it appears that Brent Council officers have stepped in quickly to thwart any attempt at independent thinking. On Monday in a presentation to the Labour Group Brent Council officers recommended that Brent Council should collaborate with the Coalition's free school policy and actively seek partners to set up free schools.  It is unlikely that they would have been such a move without at least the tacit support of Ann John, Labour leader.  John was late for the Education Conference as she and Muhammed Butt were at an Area Consultative Forum making their presentation on the budget.

The suggestion provoked a lot of discussion at the Labour Group but no decisions were taken.  It will now go to the LGC on Thursday as an emergency item.  It will be interesting to see if Labour members let Brent Council officers dictate policy, or whether they take a stand on Michael Gove's  policy that undermines local authority school provision and commandeers  a disproportionate slice of the education budget.

Meanwhile Brent Council's provision of school improvement services will be discussed with governors at two meetings (Wednesday March 14th 10am-Noon, Thursday 22nd March 2012 7pm-9pm). Unfortunately the latter coincides with the Dollis Hill by-election which will rule attendance out for quite a few people.

The two issues are connected because one of the arguments for academy conversion or free schools is that local education authorities are now so weak that they cannot provide adequate services and they they do not represent good value.

Brent Council is proposing that in 2013-14 it only offers a core statutory service which will be provided free to schools. Everything else will be subject to 'self-funded trading arrangements' which means that schools will have to make their own arrangements and pay for them themselves.  Apart from amounting to an actual cut in the schools' budgets this also removes a major part of the argument for staying with the local authority.

Brent Council seems to be in the process of opting out of its education authority role unless urgent action is taken by those who support community schools and democratic accountability.

Temporary reception classes at Preston Library?

The scale of the shortage of primary school places in Brent is set out in another report to the Executive:

The expansion of four primary schools is suggested plus a variety of other short-term solutions that will be controversial. The issue of providing new schools remains a low priority and is undermined by Coalition requirements that new schools should be free schools or academies in the first instance.

The four expanded schools are Barham from 3 to 4 form entry, Mitchell Brook 2-3 FE, Fryent 2-4 FE and Furness 2-3 FE. All governing bodies have agreed except for Furness which awaits the appointment of a new headteacher.

It is suggested that the closed Preston Library could provide one or two 'bulge' classes of 30 depending on adaptations and the Stonebridge Centre in Twybridge Way 120 places through provision of temporary classrooms.

Temporary expansion of existing schools include St Andrew and St Francis (30 places), Ashley Gardens (Preston Manor) 60 places, Wembley High (using 6th form provision for primary) 60 places, St Josephs Catholic Primary 30 places, Vicar's Green (an Ealing school on Brent border) 30 places, Curzon Crescent Children's Centre 30 places. College Green Nursery 25 places and Riverbank Nursery (Brentfield) 30 places.

The full report is HERE

Changes ahead for Barham Park

The future of buildings in Barham Park and proposals on the open space are due for discussion at the Brent Executive on March 12th.  The buildings are falling into disrepair and proposals for leasing them to external organisations are included in the officers' report.  The issue is complicated by Trust restrictions on the use of the buildings which apply.

Present accommodation:

The report  LINK also includes options for the Barham Park open space. One proposal is for an 'Eco Park' and would involve:

• Continuation of the community woodland planting from the roadside to the railway
• Creation of meadow habitats and bulb planting
• Redesign and replanting of the maple garden and potentially the mature conifers
• Pond and boardwalk creation especially for educational use
• Bee hives and communal food growing areas
• Sensory garden possibly established in the silver jubilee garden and/or in the rose terrace
• Removal of fencing which currently segregates the park into two
• Re-landscape area to rear of war memorial by regrading and replanting with a community orchard
• Indigenous planting to encourage indigenous wildlife species

Early Spring in Fryent Country Park

Warm sunshine and a gentle breeze accompanied me on a walk in Fryent Country Park this afternoon. The sound of woodpeckers' tapping resounded across the woods and blue tits, green finches, great tits, robins and long tailed tits flitted busily and tunefully through the hedgerows.

A heron hunting frogs scolded me noisily when I disturbed it at one of the many ponds. The first blackthorns had burst into flower.

As I walked I overheard a woman remarking to her companion, "I just so love this park!"  Once again I gave silent thanks to those councillors from Wembley Borough and Middlesex County Council who preserved this wonderful place for future generations.

Blackthorn (sloes)

catkins

Blackthorn blossom

Frogs (spot their white throats) and frog spawn

Tell Willesden Green developers what you think on March 9th and 10th

Shop/house window poster

Keep Willesden Green is producing these posters for display in shop and house windows to get the message about the redevelopment out as widely as possible.

You can download your own A4 version as a PDF HERE

Keep Willesden Green are pressing the Council/Galliford Try to STOP, LISTEN  AND REFLECT to enable residents to say what they think of the proposals and what they want for their community. It is important that this message gets to them on the Exhibition/Feedback days to be held at the Willesden Green Library Centre on Martch 9th and 10th.

Keep Willesden Green do not accept that this development is a 'done deal'.

Make sure you get to vote in the Dollis Hill by-election

New applications to register to vote must reach the Electoral Registration Officer at Brent Town Hall by midnight on Wednesday 7 March 2012.

New applications to vote by post or applications to change existing postal vote details must reach the Electoral Registration Officer at Brent Town Hall by 5pm on Wednesday 7 March 2012.

New applications to vote by proxy must reach the Electoral Registration Officer by 5pm on Wednesday 14 March 2012. However if you are a postal voter and you wish to appoint a proxy you will need to cancel your postal vote by 5pm on Wednesday 7 March 2012.

New applications to vote by proxy on the grounds of medical emergency must reach the Electoral Registration Officer by 5pm on Thursday 22 March 2012.

• Vote by post / proxy
• Register to vote
• Contact Electoral Services

Brent Council passes second cuts budget

Brent Council tonight approved the 2012-13 cuts budget that had previously been passed by the Executive. In addition they approved an amendment in the name of Ann John that doubled the amount of money in Ward Working to £40,000 per ward. Cllr John justified this on the basis that this was an area where councillors could really make a difference. The move is likely to be controversial beyond the council as it was not included in the budget plans discussed at Area Forums. Cllr Kasagra, leader of the Conservatives. dismissed Ward Working  as a method of councillor self promotion.

In her budget speech Cllr John said that the council was faced with an ongoing and increasingly difficult process in dealing with the funding cuts imposed by the Coalition government. She said that government policies were 'hurting but not working'. In a wide ranging survey of the economic situation she said that the crisis had been caused by greedy bankers but that 'the greed of the minority was being paid for by austerity for the majority'.

John detailed how benefit changes and the housing benefit cap would impact on Brent's poorest families and added that the Localisation of Council Benefits would force the council to decide whose benefits should be cut.  However, she went on to claim that having a Labour Council could make a real difference and expressed pride in the administration and in staff who had experienced pay freezes, increased pension contributions and job losses but who 'knew the Civic Centre made sense and had responded magnificently. In Brent we are really working together'.

Ann John said that the council's new priority, faced with Brent's young people going straight from school or university into long-term unemployment,  would be to tackle the lack of social mobility in the borough.. The council will set up am independently chaired Commission on Social Mobility, set up a new employment agency and refocus the work of BACES to concentrate on employment and employability.

 John listed council 'successes' including freezing the council tax, increased recycling, green charter, fair trade status and protecting parks and open spaces (no mention of privatisation). She said that in future schools would be expected to contribute to the whole community: 'especially news schools with state of the art facilities'.

Cllr John and Cllr Muhammed Butt both continued to claim that the funding was horrendous but at the same time that they were somehow able to protect the vulnerable, despite the cuts they were being forced to make. This contradictory approach was even more apparent when Butt boasted that the council had been able to protect incomes of residents  by freezing the council tax and later condemning the Coalition's grant that enabled the tax to be frozen as a bribe and something that would undermine revenue in the future.

Cllr John's presentation was listened to in respectful near silence by the Opposition but Labour jeered at Paul Lober (Lib Dem leader) and other Opposition councillors when they spoke. When the Conservative leader rose to speak Ann John pointedly got up from her seat and toured the Labour benches, stopping for a chat here and there.

The Lib Dem amendment sought to restore funding for libraries, end cuts in school crossing patrols, merge the Festivals Unit in the Grants Unit, reinstate Green Zones , reinstate the graffiti clean up team restore funding cuts mad ein the Summer University and Duke of Edinburgh Scheme,; and deal  with litter 'hotspots'. £500,000 from the Icelandic bank 'windfall' would be used for essential priorities and another £500,000 for a parking scheme to encourage local shopping. Cllr Lorber said the Lib Dems would invest in local people, local services and the things local people value.

Cllr  Suresh Kansagra, leader of the Conservative group made a confused and confusing speech which also sought to reinstate library closures and opposed the increase in ward working money. The amendment seemed to be predicated on spending some of the council reserves,

Several Executive members read out prepared speeches and the debate descended into knock-about stuff with Cllr Zaffar Van Kalwala, to Opposition cries of 'Brent's Best Banker', making yet another barn-storming speech to fuel his bid to beat Dawn Butler for Labour's Brent Central parliamentary candidate nomination.

Cllr Rev David Clues (Lib Dem) brought a chastening tone to the proceedings by saying that the council did best when councillors worked together for the benefit of local people and acknowledged work Ann John had done with him on trafficking and the sex industry. In the context of the libraries he warned the council not to worsen economic poverty by lurching into cultural poverty.

Voting was on strict party lines with no divergence so the Opposition amendments were lost and the budget, with the ward working amendment, passed.

It was noteworthy that with Labour concentrating on government cuts and benefit changes and the Opposition restricting themselves to libraries and parking that there was no one challenging the council cuts that will impact on vulnerable children,  children with special educational needs, people with disabilities and those with mental health needs. With Brent Fightback barred from making representations to the council and the three main parties accepting the limits on spending set by the Coalition, no alternative strategy for council budget setting was put forward. A whole swathe of the population is unrepresented and silenced.

Tories select Harrow resident to fight Dollis Hill by-election

Despite recent controversies over two Brent councillors who have moved out of the borough, Brent Conservatives have selected a Harrow resident to as their candidate for the Dollis Hill by-election. All the other candidates live in NW2.

Samer Ahmedali lives in Palmerston Road, which is in Harrow's Marlborough ward. Ahmedali last stood in Welsh Harp ward achieving 6% of the vote. He is Deputy Chairman of Brent Central Conservative's Policy Forum according to their website.

"Don't do the Coalition's dirty work! Demonstrate Monday 27th February at Brent Town Hall

Lucas attacks the 3 main parties on privatisation

Pete Murry the REAL alternative in Dollis Hill

Pete Murry with the Green Party banner

Brent Green Party have selected Pete Murry as our candidate for the Dollis Hill by-election which takes place on March 22nd.

Pete, who lives in the ward, worked at the College of North West London for more than 20 years, and has deep routes in the borough. Pete although not as physically active as he would like to be, has involved himself in local issues including the early days of the Brent Cross Coalition and currently the Brent Campaign Against Climate Change and Brent Fightback's campaign against council cuts.

Pete's candidature is strengthened by his work in the Green Party Trade Union Group where he has been successful in getting the Green Party's policies on the economy and the creation of green jobs a hearing  in the trade union movement. These policies are particularly relevant at the moment when all three mainstream parties have accepted the austerity agenda which is deepening the recession and creating unemployment. Pete says, "Current Coalition policies are almost the exact opposite to what is needed which is a programme of investment and job creation focussed on building the infrastructure that the country needs to combat climate change."

Locally Pete is opposed to what he sees as the  wasteful plan to demolish the existing Willesden Green Library Centre.

With Labour doing the Coalition's dirty work locally by implementing their cuts in Brent, the Green Party is the real alternative for residents caught in the pincer movement of a Labour council and a ConDem government.