NHS Web Campaign Launched

38 Degrees has launched a web campaign to defend the NHS against cuts and privatisation. They say:

Money may be tight. But the government is still planning to find billions of pounds to fund new Trident nuclear submarines. These changes to the NHS are about ideology, not saving money. Some Tories have always wanted to trash the NHS.Last year, one MEP described the NHS as a "60-year-old mistake" and another MP said that the NHS "would not be out of place in Stalin's Russia".

But these hardliners have never managed to get their way, because the NHS is popular with voters.  People power has stopped them before, and it can stop them again.

We need to show that the NHS has the support of tens of thousands of people. Everyone has been touched in some way by the NHS. It's there at the start and end of most people's lives. Everyone who signs the pledge will be added to a map of the UK, so politicians can see for themselves how many thousands of people want to defend the health service from political attacks. Every MP will be able to see people in their own constituency who don't want the NHS to be destroyed. 

Add your name today - so politicians know how many of us are standing up for the NHS:

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/protect-the-NHS

Brent Greens on Brent's waste proposals

Brent Green Party has issued this initial response to Brent Council's proposals on waste management:

A genuinely sustainable approach to waste management would be to minimise the amount of waste by reducing packaging, encouraging the re-use of containers and increasing the amount of domestic composting. This could both reduce the number of collections and produce environmental benefits.

We welcome the strengthening of recycling through extending the scheme to flats but are very concerned that waste produced by businesses and commercial properties remains outside the scheme.We are pleased that cardboard is at last to be included in the 'dry' recycling box.

 We are aware that the organic collection will continue to be  weekly but are realistic in assuming that some organic matter will cling to material in recycling bins and that residual collection bins will still contain some organic material.  These will be left outside for a two weeks so it is essential that the council carry out a health and environmental assessment of the consequences of fortnightly collections.

Preston Manor to become all-through school?

Kate Ferguson of the Willesden and Brent Times was right and not in error as I had thought in this week's report on school places. The recent Primary Places report to the Council Executive does outline a two stage approach to Preston Manor High School expansion into primary provision.

The first proposal is a temporary classroom for two classes of Reception age (4+)  children on the secondary school site which would open in January 2011. The second is  permanent primary provision on the site from September 2011. This would eventually amount to 420 children as the school filled up over the years. The report says that further discussions need to take place with the governing body.  There would then be formal public consultation on the proposal. It will be interesting to see if the consultation will include residents' views on overall size of schools and the principle of all-though provision.

The school could exist as a separate primary school with a different name on the Preston Manor site or be the primary department of a new all-through 5-19 school.  The form of governance has not yet been decided. The school would be funded through Basic Need Safety Valve (BNSV) funding based on the expanding Brent population.

Such a proposal would mean two all through 5-19 schools within half a mile of each in Wembley (Preston Manor and ARK Academy) and primary classes at Chalkhill, Ark, Preston Manor, Park Lane, Wembley and Preston Park in the immediate area. There also remains the possibility of a primary school in Quintain's Wembley Stadium regeneration area. It is unclear from the Executive paper if this is where the need for primary places in Brent is greatest.

Declaration of interest: I am Chair of Governors at  Chalkhill Primary School which may be affected by the proposals

New Chalkhill Park 'Safe'

Shaun Faulkner, head of the Brent Parks Service has responded to my enquiries about the future of the new Chalkhill Park in the light of the government cuts and states: 'the removal of the Playbuilder grant will not affect the development of the new park in Chalkhill, and works are scheduled to comment this current financial year'.

Brent Campaign Against Cuts - Meeting August 25th 2010

 Gary Barker from Channel 4 competition

The extent of the cuts is clearly set out by the TUC in the post below. This is a message from Sarah Cox (Brent Trades Council) on a local meeting to organise against the cuts.

The first organising meeting of the Brent Campaign against the cuts launched from Brent Trades Council's July public meeting will be at 7.30 pm on Wednesday August 25th in Brent Trades Hall. This meeting is open to everyone who wants to organise against the cuts - Phil O'Reilly from Brent Unison told us that one in ten Council jobs will go, Brent Council is considering closing children's centres, moving to fortnightly rubbish collection, cutting school staff. Councillors and council officers will be spending another weekend at a country spa hotel to plan further cuts. The proposed cap on housing benefit will have devastating effects in the South of the borough where private rents are consistently higher than the cap. Families made homeless by these measures will have to be housed by the Council. The "Welfare to Work" disability assessments are harming people already. Please come to the meeting. The time to organise against the cuts is NOW.

The Trades Hall/Apollo Club is at 375 High Road, Willesden, NW10 2JR  (Dollis Hill tube - Jubilee line)

Coalition's 100 days: Poor and vulnerable hit by cuts, says TUC

Given the high number of unemployed people and the record number on the housing list Brent is going to be badly hit by the coalition cuts and benefit changes. The TUC has today set out the implications of decisions made in the Coalition's first 100 days:

Some of the UK's poorest families have been hit by more than 100 unfair spending cuts during the first 100 days of the new Government, a TUC analysis of departmental spending reveals today
.
The TUC research, published in advance of the 100 day anniversary of the coalition Government tomorrow (Thursday), shows that cuts which impact more on the poorest families in the UK have been made across the board in services including education, health, housing, welfare and social care.
Examples of cuts the TUC believes are unfair include:

• Free school meals - The cancelled measure would have extended entitlement to free school meals to about 500,000 families in work on low pay from September this year. Cost £125m.
• Every child a reader - This programme to provide early support to children with literacy difficulties (focussed on inner-city schools) will be cut by at least £5m and its future is not guaranteed.
• City Challenge Fund - This programme aimed to provide extra support to under-performing children in the most deprived areas, but has been cut by £8m this year.
• Building Schools for the Future - This scrapped programme was the biggest-ever school buildings investment plan. The aim was to rebuild or renew nearly every secondary school in England. Cost £7.5bn.
• Housing benefit - Nearly a million (936,960) households will lose around £624 a year as a result of changes to housing benefit. Londoners will be worst hit.
• Homes and Communities Agency - Cuts to programmes including Kickstart (for restarting stalled house building programmes), affordable housing, gypsy and traveller support and Housing Market Renewal (improvements to housing in deprived areas). Cost £450m.
• Young Person's Guarantee - £450m has been cut from the Guarantee, which will be abolished in April 2011. This Guarantee promised unemployed young people access to a job, training or work after six months of unemployment.
• Working Neighbourhood Fund - This fund, which aimed to help unemployed people in deprived areas to move into work, has been cut by £49.9m.
• Domestic Violence Protection Orders - Scheme to create two-week banning orders so that victims of domestic abuse can look for protection in the safety of their own house.

The TUC is calling on the Government to reconsider its plan of swingeing spending cuts to public services, and focus instead on other ways to reduce the deficit, such as a Robin Hood Tax on financial transactions that could raise up to £20bn a year.

The TUC is also a member of a coalition, which includes Barnardo's, Oxfam and Save the Children, who want the Government to guarantee that any future budget cuts will be put through rigorous fairness testing - or a Fairness Test - by the Treasury, to ensure that vulnerable people, low-paid workers, women and children are not left to bear the brunt of spending cuts.

It's YOUR Wembley - Have your YOUR say

Trees on the famous  processional Olympic Way may be removed

By the time I visited on the afternoon of the last day only 120-150 people had visited last month's exhibition about the next phase of the Wembley Regeneration. This is a very small number when you think that this is the most important regeneration project taking place in Wembley and one of the biggest and most expensive in whole of London. However it was enough for Quintain, the developers, to conclude that 'a good number of people visited the exhibition over the course of six days and that the overwhelming majority of people welcomed the plans'. They will be submitting a planning application to Brent Council later this summer.

Quintain have recovered from a shaky period in  2008 when they reduced their Wembley project staff from 28 to 13. They recently agreed the sale of Pier Walk, the Transport for London building on the Greenwich Peninsula for £97m.

The exhibition was full of the pastel/line drawing artist's impressions we have seen before and it was hard to really envisage what is intended.  However I did dig out a few facts:

• Section 106 (funds from the developer to Brent Council ) trigger points in the development have not yet been reached despite the fact that Wembley City is up and running
• £9m towards schools in Wembley is listed as a future commitment - with a school places shortage we need the money now . £3.5m for road and junction improvements, £2.5m for education and training and nearly £2m for improved bus services are also some time in the 'future'
• The mature trees along Olympic Way on the Curry's Superstore side will have to be removed as the new buildings will abut the roadway. Quintain said said they would be replaced by trees of similar size in Arena Square.
• There are plans to run buses along the currently mainly pedestrian Olympic Way for the first time
• Despite earlier emphasis on a relatively traffic free development there are plans for 800 parking spaces in a multi-storey car park for the new shopping street and another 500 for the new homes
• The much heralded 'London Designer Outlet' will, according to staff at the exhibition, specialise in end of range and end of season bargains - not quite the high quality shopping experience first mooted
• Quintain did not take into account, and appeared to know little about, the proposed North West London Light Railway  which suggest a link to Wembley Stadium

To be fair there are plans for affordable new homes and  they will be built to Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4. Completed commercial properties will be built to BREEAM Excellent standard and Combined Heat and Power is 'planned in linked clusters with the ability to link into a district wide energy centre in the future'. Policy on renewables even vaguer, 'Solar panels or other renewables could be included on some buildings and green and brown roofs will encourage diversity'. Quintain argue that local people will use Wembley shops in the new development and this will reduce car use as presently drive outside the area to shop. They claim that their designs will favour pedestrians over cars.

Throughout Quintain and Brent Council have argued that the redevelopment will bring benefits to local people and that the stadium area will become a local resources as well as something for visitors. The low numbers attending the exhibition doesn't suggest crowds of Brent citizens are leaping around with enthusiasm. So let's ask, "What's in it for Brent?'

Quintain would argue:

• 2,500 new jobs in the new hotels, shops and restaurants and 400 during construction
• Up to(my emphasis) 1,300 new private and affordable homes with a range of 1,2 and 3 bedroom apartments (we will need details of the proportion that will be 'affordable')
• A new Civic Centre (Brent Greens remain sceptical of its benefits)
• A new local open space around the Civic Centre 'green, accessible for all, and planted with trees..'
• A new shopping street with around 30 new shops with a large 'anchor' store
• A range of new cafes, coffee shops and restaurants
• Affordable work spaces, including some suitable for the creative industries
• Nine Screen cinema to be opened by September 2013
• A new community pool and leisure facility on the site of Dexion House

Quintain's planning  application to Brent Council will be an 'Outline' application which will establish uses, layouts, heights and access principles, with 'Reserved Matters' applications to follow with the detailed designs before construction begins. There will be consultation on this and it is important that residents respond.  Too often the public respond on general principles at the detail stage, only to be told 'that has already been dealt within the 'Outline' application'.

Quintain will be circulating 60,000 homes and businesses with a Newsletter about the scheme.You can see an on-line version of the exhibition and booklet HERE and you can e-mail your view to info@yourwembley.com or ring Quintain's Wembley team on 020 7478 9277

Brent may be losing its BRAIN but the community can still have one!

Brent Brain, to be closed down in September, is still advertised

above the O2 shop at the junction of Park Lane and Wembley High Road

The library service is still looking for expressions of interest from community organisations interested in training that will enable participants to set up the their own community websites when Brent Brain is closed down.

If you think that it is important that the community should continue to have a forum for information, mutual help, volunteering and discussion of local issues then register your interest by using this LINK for training sessions.