Brent Library Closures Fail the Evidence Test

Samantha Warrington of the Save Preston Library Campaign made an impressive speech to last week's Brent Executive setting out the areas in which the Council had failed to make an assessment of local needs in its 'Transformation' project involving the closure of half of Brent's libraries.

• No analysis or projection of the return on investment from the libraries transformation programme - so no measurable targets on which to assess the success of the project. We could just be throwing money into a bottomless pit.
  • No evidence that people want larger libraries and will travel to them
  • No projections of how many people will travel to alternative, more distant libraries
  • No environmental impact assessment
  • No assessment on the effects on literacy on the schoolchildren of Preston ward
  • No adequate plans for the children of Preston Park school to have access to a library
  • Equality impact assessment is still not complete
  • No assessment on the health and fitness of the people of Preston ward and beyond who walk to the neighbourhood facilities
  • No assessment of the effect on community cohesion
  • No assessment of the effect of closure on local business
  • No assessment of the effect on people who do not speak English as a first language
  • No adequate transport assessment
  • No accessibility impact assessment for people with mobility issues or disability
  • No assessment of Preston Library users alternative access to computers and the internet
  • No assessment of the impact on people with learning difficulties
  • No exploration of opportunities to co-locate additional services at Preston Library
  • No attempt to leverage private sector involvement to support the operation of Preston Library
  • No exploration of innovative property solutions such as sale-and-leasebacks to facilitate continuing library provision at the Preston Library site
  • No exploration of opportunities to leverage private sector funding and/or sponsorship at the £3m Wembley Stadium mega-library ("no time" said Sue Mackenzie)
  • No exploration of alternative revenue streams
  • No exploration of charitable donations or educational grants from the private sector to fund library facilities
  • No attempt to scale back the £100m Civic Centre and £3m mega-library
  • No analysis or projections of the uptake of computer-based ebooks which form the basis of the library provision in the future

Preston Manor Travel Plan Deficient

The Travel Plan for the proposed primary school  submitted to the Council by Preston Manor High School ahead of the Planning Committee to be held on Wednesday was given a 'FAIL' by the council officers. Apart from missing detail there is some uncertainty about the geographical source of pupils. If the majority of pupils come from the local area this may have a destabilising impact on existing local primary schools. If they come from further away increased car traffic and congestion may be involved.

The Travel Plan is very light on detailed information for the school (e.g. general

background, assessment of existing transport network, policy review, detailing of the Travel Plan Co-ordinator’s role and detail around the implementation of the Travel Plan, such as an Action Plan and details of how it will be secured and funded). It is also missing some key measures, such as the operation of breakfast and after-school clubs to assist in staggering arrivals and departures and an on-site car parking management system (such as giving priority to car sharers).

A further major issue that has not been addressed in the Travel Plan is the proposed catchment area for the school. The Transport Assessment alludes to the shortage of school places for children in the southeast of the Borough, which could result in a large proportion of the future school roll initially coming from areas some distance from the school. This would make implementation of a number of the key travel plan measures, such as promotion of walking, very difficult and would require consideration of alternative measures, such as dedicated school buses from key population centres.

The Travel Plan has been assessed by the Council’s Highway officers using TfL’s ATTRIBUTE  programme and has scored a “FAIL” (29/83).

The applicants consider that although initially there may be a higher than usual percentage of children travelling to the site, this will balance out over time as the school's criteria for attendance becomes applicable. The applicants have therefore not anticipated that a dedicated bus route is necessary.

What is a Green Job?

Fuming in the rain, just fuming in the rain...

Residents at the Preston Manor Primary School site

Brent Council hasn't covered itself in glory regarding the expansion plans for Preston Manor High School.

Initially it did not inform most of the residents of the plans, and then organised a consultation meeting at a time when most of them were still at work.  Its statutory notice documentation had to be revised three times due to inaccuracies and many of the planning documents on its website were so poorly scanned as to be illegible. Many questions raised by consultees were not answered in the expansion documentation that went to the Executive last week.

Damagingly the Council failed to make adequate searches ahead of the planning application and were taken by surprise when residents uncovered covenants that appeared to limit development of the site.  The Council fast-tracked the planning application so that it will be decided on Wednesday February 23rd ahead of a decision on the statutory application on Monday February 28th.

When residents queried why a site visit had not been organised by the Planning Committee a visit was hastily organised for Saturday morning.  However the committee turned up late on a rainy morning day and  did not possess the right keys for the site. This had also happened previously at the site meeting for the temporary primary school building in Ashley Gardens. According to one resident who attended, councillors began to drift off halfway through the proceedings and residents were left fuming when the chair cut off the discussion prematurely.

Perhaps not the best way to win hearts and minds?

Squalid Gateway to Wembley 2012

Wembley will be hosting football, gymnastics and badminton for the 2012 Olympics. Spectators using Wembley Central Station will be greeted by a dilapidated station where the new lifts have been installed but have never been commissioned, destination boards don't work and platforms are flooded. The facade of the station looks like an allotment shed amidst the gleaming new development. During the May election Barry Gardiner MP claimed the credit for a 'new' station but the truth is that it has never been finished after money ran out and quarrels about responsibility between the Council, Railtrack and Transport for London were never resolved. With only a year to go urgent action needs to be taken.

The 'allotment shed' entrance

 

Destination boards don't work

 

 

The flooded Bakerloo/Overground platform

 

 

Flooded platform on the Southern East Croydon-Milton Keynes line

The exit from the Southern platforms

Could a 'Needs Budget' unite us?

It was clear as I was chatting during the by-election count on Thursday evening that there is a great deal of disquiet amongst some Labour councillors about the Council's cuts programme.

 "Me! Closing libraries... I can't believe it!" was the comment from one Labour councillor, while a former Lib Dem councillor lamented the lack of political power of ruling group councillors who aren't on the Executive. He said that the new 'cabinet' form of local government sharply reduced the role of 'back-bench' councillors.  It is those Labour councillors, often newly elected, who stood last time in order to improve the quality of life of Brent residents, who will be faced with a stark choice on February 28th when the full Council meeting is due to vote on the budget.

The Labour leadership has undermined its own position to some extent because they have denied that the cuts they propose will have a detrimental impact on already disadvantaged local people. To make the cuts palatable they have sought to placate opposition by insisting that those most in need will be protected and that the quality of service, despite massive staff cuts, will be maintained.   Added to this they have sometimes echoed David Cameron's 'Big Society' smokescreen by calling for volunteers to run libraries and other services. The people of Brent aren't fools and can see through the spin.

The Labour leadership thus separates itself from local community activists, users' groups and trades unionists who seek to defend public services. Rank and file councillors find themselves at odds with erstwhile friends, colleagues and comrades and some are sickened by the position they find themselves in.

Rather than act as the Coalition's bailiff's, Labour could be taking the lead in fighting the Coalition's cuts imposed at local and national government level by constructing a 'needs-led' budget in collaboration with local activists.  Rather than deny that the cuts will hit the most vulnerable they would analyse what services local people need to survive the forthcoming period of  economic turn-down and social stress and cost them.  They would also look at what investment and job creation needs to be made locally order for Brent  to move out of recession.   Such a budget would, for example,  immediately show that cuts in children centres, youth provision and Brent Law Centre are counter to the needs of local people.

Armed with this budget, and the detailed analysis on which it is based,  the Council could fight a campaign, alongside organisations such as Brent Fightback, against the Coalition cuts and make the case for fair funding for Brent based on the needs of the population.   They could also unite with Labour councils elected across London at the last election in a London wide campaign publicising the irrevocable damage public service cuts will cause.

LINK to report on similar campaign in Portsmouth

Gardiner's attack on Brewnt library closures

Full story on Barry Gardiner's attack on Brent's library closures HERE. This is a key extract from his speech:

“But I remember Nye Bevan said that priorities are the song of socialism. These libraries are our priorities, and they should not be taken away. They should be expanded."

Speaking about the ‘genteel decline’ of the nation’s reading rooms, the former junior Northern Ireland minister added:

“It is a trick councils do up and down the country. They look at resources like libraries and they find that they are not as well used as they used to be.

“But instead of thinking they can improve the resources, they say ‘OK, let’s run it down’. They use it as a justification for taking that resource away."

Shambolic government policy making exposed

Caroline Lucas MP released the following statement yesterday on the Coalition's u-turn on forests:

On behalf of the many hundreds of my constituents who have written in to oppose the sell-off of our public forest estate, I welcome the Government's decision to ditch these reckless plans - and am encouraged by the commitment given to me by the Secretary of State that those people who led the inspirational grassroots movement against the sell off will be included in the new panel of experts set up to consider the future of the forests. Now it will be vital to ensure that the panel itself operates in public. This major u-turn exposes the shambolic nature of the Government's policy-making - and is the inevitable consequence of ministers blindly charging ahead with ideologically driven cuts.