Academy staff vote to strike against proposed redundancies

Staff at Crest Girls Academy in Brent were shocked to hear that 21 staff redundancies were being proposed. At an emergency joint unions meeting last Thursday, 79 staff (with 3 against) voted for strike action in the event that the current "business plan", which basically means the redundancy of 21 staff members, goes ahead.

Crest Girls is run by the academy group E-ACT and last year Crest Boys took successful strike action to prevent any compulsory redundancies at their academy.

A group from Crest Girls joined by other anti academy campaigners and ATL, NASUWT and NUT union officers from Redbridge who face E-ACT academies there, had a demonstration outside E-ACT's HQ in London. E-ACT were left in no doubt the strength of feeling felt at Crest Girls and particularly in the circumstances where their Director General (!) Sir Bruce Liddington earns over £265,000 plus bonuses per year.
 

Residents fight for park wardens

Local community rally to keep their park warden

Park Area Residents Campaign (PARC) has been formed to fight for the retention of a full-time park warden in Brent River Park. The Park covers Tokyngton Recreations Ground (Monks Park), St Raphael Open Space and the wild area around the Stadium Trading Estate.

PARC are a  broad  non-political alliance who fear that the area will degenerate and become unsafe if the warden is removed.

To find out more and to support the campaign go to their website HERE

Brent Parks consult on dog control orders

Brent Council Parks Department is currently running a consultation on Dog Control Orders. They are seeking to balance the  protection of children with the need of dog owners to have areas where their dogs can run free. One major measure is a restriction on the number of dogs being walked by one person at a time to 6. Professional dog walkers currently often have more than 10 dogs at a time. The proposals follow similar measures on Hampstead Heath. They also list areas where dogs will be completely excluded and where dogs must be kept on a lead.

The consultation ends on February 28th and the document is available HERE

Ken Livingstone Tells Stories

Latest news from the Save Cricklewood Library Campaign:

Confronting the Council

Yes local resident and former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone,will be telling stories at the Cricklewood Library  Fun Day and  Read - In on Saturday 26 February 10.30 am - 2pm.

This is part of the campaign to stop Brent Council closing Cricklewood and six other Brent Libraries as proposed by the Council.The full Council meets on 28 February to decide the libraries fate.

Ken said ' I shall be dashing from my Saturday morning radio show on LBC  to read to local children in support of the library. The proposed closure of libraries across the country is wrong '

Brent Council has admitted that Cricklewood Library receives over 1,000 visitors a week and that Brent libraries received an astonishing 1.85 million visits in 2009/2010.

Graham Durham ,Secretary of Save Cricklewood Library Campaign, said

"Whilst everyone knows that 27% cuts are being forced on all councils by the Tory/Lib Dem coalition it is wrong for Labour councils to meekly slash library and other services at the behest of government. Barry Gardiner, Labour MP for Brent North and Ken Livingstone  are the two most respected figures in the Labour Party in Brent and oppose these closures..This week it was revealed that if Barclay's Bank alone paid corporation tax at  the average rate for developed countries then all 521 libraries threatened across the country could be fully funded for the next 50 years."

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?