Vote for the Ice Factor - forget the X Factor this weekend

If like me you are fed up with the priority given to cars after snow and ice - with roads gritted and cleared and pavements left for us to slip and slide on, then you may be interested in Living Streets' campaign on behalf of pedestrians.

Follow this LINK to take part in their 'Ice Factor' game (a totally different meaning to 'break a leg' than the X Factor)a fun way to bring the message home.

Living Streets are calling for local authorities to agree a winter contract with communities, committing to:

• Make sure that a severe weather plan is in place that sets out what the Council will do to reduce the impact of severe weather on all road users – including pedestrians
• Make sure that paths are gritted so that everyone, including older, younger and disabled people, is still able to walk to essential services
• Send staff and contractors to help clear pavements if they are unable to carry out their main job because of the severe weather
• Keep all grit bins filled so that grit can be used where it is needed
• Coordinate a list of volunteers who can be activated by email to help clear streets and alert the local public to help.

A sample contract can be downloaded from their website and sent to your council.

Blackman and Teather Renege on Election Promises

It wasn't just Sarah Teather who reneged on her election promise to oppose a rise in tuition fees. I shared a platform with Bob Blackman, former leader of Brent Conservatives, at a General Election hustings at Harrow College. He spoke against tuition fees and signed the NUS pledge.  Last night he voted for them as  MP for Harrow East and today attacked yesterday's demonstrations.

He stands exposed alongside Sarah Teather.  Both MPs have a large number of students living in their constituency and can expect retribution.

The Green Party continues to maintain its election commitment to oppose tuition fees.

Vodafone Appeal Brent Phone Mast decision

A similar mast at the Salmon Street/Pilgrims Way/Fryent Way roundabout erected July 2010

Vodafone have put in an appeal to Brent Council's refusal of a proposed phone mast at the junction of West Hill and the Avenue. Details of the original reasons for refusal are HERE and Brent Council documentation HERE.

The phone mast would be 13.6m tall with 3 antenna, plus equipment cabinets.

The case will be decided by  the Planning Inspectorate based in Bristol. You can find details on their website and eventually click through to a submission form HERE. The case reference number is 2141400.  The timetable for the appeal is as follows:

Stages and Dates

Start Date: 29th November 2010

Questionnaire and amplifications: 13th December 2010

Statements and interested parties comments: 10th January 2011

Final comments: 31st January 2011

Sarah Teather: Reasons for opposing tuition fees (2003)

I thought readers may be interested in Sarah Teather's maiden speech in the House of Commons, 27th November 2003 (Still on Brent Lib Dem website LINK)

The Liberal Democrats' newest MP Sarah Teather, today used her Maiden speech in the House of Commons to make an impassioned plea against tuition and top-up fees.

As the youngest of all 659 MPs in the House of Commons, Ms Teather used her own experience of student debt to highlight the fears of thousands of students facing the prospect of massive debts from huge university fees.

Sarah Teather said:

"There are many issues I intend to champion during my time here. Funding for local schools, the need for more police and GPs, campaigning to make the local council more responsive to local needs. But today, in this debate I want to raise an issue of great importance to my constituents - tuition and top-up fees.

"Although the Liberal Democrats are united in opposing these fees, there is great debate about the issue in the other parties too. I do not see it as a party-political matter.

"It is an issue that is particularly dear to my heart. As the youngest MP, I am almost certainly the only MP still paying off her student loan. I am aware that I was still very lucky in that when I went to university I received a full grant. I graduated before tuition fees were introduced.

"Students beginning GCSEs and hoping to go to university in the future could face extraordinary levels of debt - £33,000 according to Barclays Bank. That is more than my parents' mortgage.

"I feel intense frustration when we talk of widening participation, only then to debate introducing a policy which would deter the very students we hope to attract. Fear of debt is as real to many people as real debt.

"Top-up and tuition fees are serious issues of concern to my constituents. All the evidence suggests that fear of debt will deter those from lower income families and ethnic minority communities. This is particularly the case for Muslims - a large community in my constituency - where attitudes to debt are very different.

"Fundamentally, I believe that this is about whether we want to encourage a world class education system, or a class based education system where students choose universities according to their ability to pay, and universities are judged on the level of their fees.

"That is not a system I am comfortable with. It is an issue of great concern to my constituents, and many millions of people around this country. I hope honourable members will oppose the measures when the time comes."

Students at the end of their Teather

Westminster University students demonstrated outside Sarah Teather's Willesden Green office this morning over tuition fees. Full report on Willesden and Brent Times website

Brent Reserves the Lowest in London

Figures released last week show that Brent Council's reserves (as a proportion of revenue expenditure) are the lowest  in London, although Harrow's are only slightly higher. The reserves are used for contingencies and also put aside for major projects. They are a necessary part of good financial management. Brent will be in trouble if sudden unexpected expenditure is required but at the same time the Borough faces damaging cuts.

Eric Pickles, Communities Secretary, used the large reserves held by some councils as a stick with which to beat them while anti-cuts campaigner cited excessive reserves as a reason why some councils need not  make drastic reductions in services.

Brent's low reserves show why the council was trawling through the carry forwards of individual schools with a view to clawing back non-earmarked surpluses.

These are the figures for Brent and neighbouring councils.

Borough	Non-school reserves £m	Revenue Expenditure £m	Non-school reserves as % of revenue expenditure
Barnet	43.9	538.9	8.1
Brent	13.3	548.8	2.4
Camden	96.8	474.5	20.4
Ealing	53.4	589.9	9.1
Hammersmith & F	28.3	331.7	8.5
Harrow	10.5	359.1	2.9
Westminster	37.0	418.2	8.9

It's Teather's Turn Tomorrow

A MESSAGE FROM BRENT FIGHTBACK

Students who study at the Harrow Campus of Westminster University, many of whom live in Brent Central, plan to visit Sarah Teather's office TOMORROW, Tuesday morning at 11 am. People who had hoped to speak to her in her surgery last Friday and those who weren't able to come then might like to come too. 

As the students' Facebook page says:

The University of Westminster's Harrow Campus has many students who reside and vote in the Brent Central area where Lib Dem MP Minister for Children and Families, Sarah Teather, holds a seat.

She is keeping low on the radar and has not announced how she will vote on the 9th. This is good . She is clearly not confident to come out and say she will vote in favour.

We know that in the past, as the Lib Dem Shadow Minister for Education, she has voted strongly-against student top-up fees. let's hold her to account and make sure she follows this logic in the vote on the 9th.

She has also voted against the war in Iraq and the Trident nuclear programme. UWSU has a free education policy and believes that as well as taxing big business, these are two other areas where funding for education could be found. Let's push this message too!

So, this Tuesday we will have a demonstration outside Sarah Teather's constituency office where we will pass over a set of demands including 'a vote against rising tuition fees' and a warning (including signed petitions) that Brent students will not vote for her if she fails to deliver what we've asked.

It will be peaceful and lively demo complete with chanting, singing and a special prize for the most imaginative UWSU/student banner.

Meet outside her office at 11am or, meet at Harrow Campus on the street at 9:30am and we'll travel together.

Support the Biking Bishop!

Pete Broadbent, Bishop of Willesden, was asked to withdraw from public ministry after the Daily Mail publicised his Facebook comments about the forthcoming royal marriage. His remarks were pretty forthright in his typical fashion and reflected what many people thought when they heard the news. My personal view is that he deserves support. As a self-proclaimed Christian Socialist and anti-racist he quickly backed and circulated the unity declaration put together by Bent and Harrow Unite Against Fascism opposing the EDL's attempts to divide our community. Now it is our turn to support him.

The bishop, who rides a bike around the area or uses public transport, as any good greenie does, is a breath of fresh air. To support the Facebook campaign for him follow this LINK