Shedding light on MUGA proposal

 Click on image to enlarge

Plans have now been published for what appears on Brent's website as a 'hockey pitch' but according to the plans is a MUGA (multi-use games area) at Preston Manor Primary School. It is clearly an excellent resource for the children but may well encounter opposition from nearby residents.

The plans include six 14.5 metre high floodlights and a three metre high fence surrounding the pitch. The application, made by Brent Council's Major Projects and Regeneration Department, states that the hours of operation of the facility are currently unknown.

Full details available HERE

Get down to Kingsbury High School Tonight to Oppose Academy

Following on my warning in last week's Willesden and Brent Times of a last minute Summer term rush to academy status I have received the following message from a local parent:

This evening, at the Upper School Site, Princes Avenue (6th Form Building, Block D)  the Kingsbury High School governors will vote on whether to turn KHS into an academy.

Parents and public have been invited to attend as observers. Unfortunately some of us cannot attend as the meeting clashes with an important event at Oliver Goldsmith School.

Please could as many of you as possible attend this meeting so that governors can see how strongly people feel about this issue.

Staff have been balloted and the result is being kept from staff and parents until the meeting. Staff were also unhappy about the way in which the ballot was conducted and have very deep concerns. We understand that during the meeting, a pupil petition will be passed to governors along with minutes of the parents' meetings and results of the staff ballot. Plus any parent email responses to the proposal. The presence of parents at the meeting will ensure that we are fully informed about exactly what information is given to governors before they vote.

If governors vote "yes" tonight, it will almost certainly lead to divisions in the school, including possible strike action from staff. If they vote "no" or to postpone the decision, we can welcome this as an opportunity to have a more thorough consultation with parents, including a ballot.

Please do your very best to be there!

Anne Gray, Green Activist, Returns Home after Israel Incarceration

Many thanks to Haringey Greens for this blog

Veteran peace and Green party activist Anne Gray , one of twelve Britons arrested and jailed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport, Tel Aviv last Friday 8th July, was released late last night and placed on a deportation flight from Tel Aviv after spending five gruelling days of incarceration in a filthy cramped cell. Six other British activists were also aboard the flight which landed at Luton airport around midnight last night.

Ms Gray, who is well known in Haringey for her tireless community activism and campaigning as the Green Party parliamentary election candidate for Tottenham last year, had planned to stay in Palestine until July 16th, as part of an international 'Welcome to Palestine' initiative, working with Palestinian NGOs to support and improve the daily lives of local people.
Gray,
Just hours after arriving back in London, Anne Gray said:
“As soon as we said we were visiting Palestine, the airport authorities branded us, and several hundred other travellers, as troublemakers intent on demonstrating and disrupting the airport. We were given no chance of explaining who we were and the purpose of our trip.

“Our mission was entirely peaceful. We simply wanted to study and work with Palestinian NGOs, listening and observing and lending support with things like negotiating checkpoints and taking children to school through areas with hostile settlers. The organisations we were planning to visit do cultural activities like dance, theatre, and education in human rights law, drawing youth away from stone throwing into other forms of political expression.

“I’m furious at the way we have been treated. We were denied entry to Palestine for no good reason at all – it was all stereotyping, a total smear campaign by the Israeli government and media.”

Deputy Leader of the Wales Green Party, Pippa Bartolotti, is still being detained in Israel with three other women from Wales after refusing to be deported. The British consul in Tel Aviv was speaking with them in the jail when Anne Gray and others were taken to the airport yesterday.

So, at least for Anne and the majority of British activists, their ordeal is over. They have succeeded in publicising the plight of the Palestinian people and the belligerent attitude of the Israeli authorities to peaceful protests.

" Israel's contempt for human rights" - Green Party Trade Union Group:

The Green Party Trade Union Group fully supports the recent statements of Caroline Lucas , Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales (letter to William Hague), calling for the release of the international campaigners arrested and unjustly imprisoned by the Israeli government. We also want ALL these campaigners to be released and for them to be able to proceed to Palestine as they had intended, but we would like especially to send our solidarity and support to , Pippa Bartolotti, Deputy Leader of the Wales Green Party, and to Ann Gray of Haringey Green Party a supporter of GPTU and a member of Green Left.

Unjustified arrest is relatively mild by the standards of many of the actions that Israel has taken against Palestine, nonetheless it shows the contempt which the Israeli government seems to show for the human rights of Palestinians and their supporters, Pippa and Ann are quite right to take part in a protest against this and in no way deserve any unlawful punishment for doing so.

The People of Tower Hamlets Speak Out on Cuts

Choke traffic - not people, join Jenny tomorrow

The Green Party’s London Mayoral candidate, Jenny Jones is set to take part in a new campaign by UK environmental group, Climate Rush, on Wednesday July 13th which could see some central London roads being temporarily disrupted in order to highlight the severity of the capital’s air pollution problem.

Jenny will make a keynote speech ahead of the Roadblockprotest in which a group of cyclists will hit London’s streets and stage a ‘die-in’ at an unspecified location, holding the space for up to 29 minutes, symbolic of the 29,000 premature deaths attributed to poor air quality in the UK – nearly 5% of all annual UK deaths. Doctors and nurses will check the pulses of the protesters and mark the position of their bodies with chalk.

At the end of the 29 minutes the protesters aim to get up and walk away.

Jenny Jones, along with London Assembly colleague, Darren Johnson, has fought an ongoing battle with Boris Johnson to reduce London’s deadly pollution levels. 

Jenny says:

Getting clean air is rapidly emerging as the number one environmental and public health issue for Londoners. This is hardly surprising when both the government and Mayor have done so little about the pollution which is killing the equivalent of an estimated 4,300 Londoners every year.  

Young, energetic campaigners like Climate Rush will ensure that clean air is a big priority during the Mayoral elections. The real test for Mayoral candidates is whether they can agree to take real action to reduce traffic,lower fares and create a very low emission zone which only allows the cleanest of vehicles to enter central London.

Immigration Advisory Service Closure 'A tragedy"

In response to the news that the Immigration Advisory Service, one of the UK's leading asylum charities, has gone into administration with some 200 jobs at risk, Jean Lambert, London's Green MEP since 1999, has said:

"It is an absolute tragedy that the Immigration Advisory Service is to close.
 
"For almost twenty years, the IAS has provided vital free advice and representations to people faced with real immigration and asylum difficulties - people who often have had nowhere else to turn for support.

"Whilst the reasons behind the closure remain unclear, cuts to the legal aid budget are sure to have played a contributing factor - further proof that the Government's draconian spending cuts are disproportionately hitting the most vulnerable.

"With cut backs in legal aid, and increased financial pressure on local authorities and other advice agencies, the pool of experienced and knowledgeable immigration advisors is getting smaller by the day."

IAS statement HERE