Willesden and Brent Times Stands Up for Our Rights

At a time when much of the local press is in decline, doing little more than copying and pasting council press releases, the Willesden and Brent Times is going through a strong period. In its previous incarnation as the Brent Chronicle, the paper was known locally, half affectionately, and half in exasperation,  as 'The Chronic'. That description no longer applies.

The WBT has managed to keep a team of reporters covering Brent while the Wembley and Willesden Observer has to make do with one extremely hard-working reporter, and as a result it is usually dominated by Harrow news from its parent paper. The WWO to its credit launched a campaign to save Brent libraries but the WBT's coverage of the cuts has been exemplary, going well beyond the Council's sanitised version of events.

This week the WBT had coverage of the cuts on page 1, page 2, page 4, page 6 and the letters page. It had a long editorial on the cuts, the conclusion of which is worth quoting:
 While the budget is bleak the community should be proud.

Proud that they have launched such vociferous and sophisticated campaigns to save their libraries, sports and youth centres, which have forced council chiefs to rethink their plans.
Proud to be part of a society which questions its councils and Government and challenges them when they think they have got it wrong.
And proud of their capacity to rally round and support each other to find a way through this crisis in public services. 

We are fortunate to have the WBT with us as this crucial time.

Claremont becoming an academy? What do parents think?

Education unions are holding a meeting for Claremont High School parents on Wednesday 9th March at 7pm  ahead of a governing body meeting on Thursday which may take the first steps to the school seeking academy status. Mr Malloy, the headteacher, tried to make the move last June but was thwarted. LINK

The unions claim that the outcome of a ballot of school staff (teaching and non-teaching), overseen by the Electoral Reform Society,  has not been notified to parents. They say this is wrong and that parents should be told what staff think and have notified parents of the ballot result - 70% of staff against conversion to an academy - in a leaflet given out at the school gate today.

The leaflet says that children have been told academy status is a 'good idea' but they have not been given both side of the argument. It goes on to claim that Mr Malloy, headteacher, has threatened staff with 20 redundancies if academy status does not go ahead.

The unions say that there should be proper consultation with parents and that they too should have a ballot on the issue. They believe that the governing body cannot make an informed decision until this has been done. There will be a lobby of the governing body at the school on Thursday at 7pm.

The meeting, at Kenton Methodist Church, Woodgrange Avenue, Kenton will be an open meeting and the headteacher and governors have been invited to attend. The unions promise that they will engage in open and factual debate.

The Claremont decision is vital as there is claimed to be an agreement amongst secondary headteachers in Brent that if one school goes for academy status, then they all will. They claim this will avoid competition and the decline of non-converting schools that happened in a previous era when some schools decided to go for grant-maintained status, achieving a degree of independence in management and admissions. This led to the destabilisation of Wembley High School and Willesden High School  which did not convert, with both receiving disproportionate numbers of refugee pupils and new arrivals. Willesden High School was declared a failing school and converted to a City Academy and Wembley struggled, eventually succeeding brilliantly, against the odds.

When schools become academies they get additional funding which would be taken away from Brent's main school budget. If all the secondary schools became academies Brent's funds would be drastically reduced impacting on primary school budgets and the central support services provided by the Council.  In addition all secondary schools in the borough would be out of local democratic control.

Note: The unions holding the meeting are ATL, GMB, NASUWT, NUT and UNISON.

Brent Library Consultation Figures Wrong, Admits Council

With a consultation that closed AFTER the Council had set its budget assuming library closures and Cllr Ann John, leader of the Council stating that six libraries will close BEFORE the results had of the consultation had been considered, you would think that Brent Council could make things much worse. Oh, yes they can!

Sue McKenzie, Head of Brent Library Service, has written to local save library campaigners admitting that the Libraries Consultation is riddled with errors. In a written response to Graham Durham of the Save Cricklewood Library campaign,  Ms McKenzie today admitted that the consultation figures for library visits per year were wrong.The consultation closed on 4th March but this error has only just been acknowledged.

Graham Durham commented:

Local campaigners have asked about the quoted figures for caller  numbers for over four weeks without receiving a reply from Ms McKenzie or Chief Executive,Gareth Daniel. It is appalling that the Council has only acknowledged their error today - after the public consultation has ended and the Leader of the Council,Ann John, has publicly stated that six libraries will be closed.

Campaigners noted that of the twelve library caller figures quoted in the Council consultation - one was an estimate (Harlesden) and two were rounded up to the nearest thousand (Kingsbury and Ealing Road). Now the Council has voted to close the libraries and closed the consultation it has agreed that the figure quoted for Kingsbury was wrong - although it still claims that Ealing Road receives exactly 261.000 callers - 'a remarkable coincidence' according to campaigners.

It is also clear that leading councillors are unclear about their own consultation and decision making. Defending the closure recently Councillor Butt, Deputy Leader, stated that 'the six libraries with the lowest caller numbers are being closed'. This is simply untrue based on the Council's own consultation as Neasden library, recently refurbished at a cost of £355,000,is proposed for  closure  despite being in the top six most used libraries.

Graham Durham added:

When leading councillors have not bothered to read their own two page consultation the library users of Brent have every reason to continue to campaign against these closures

All library campaigns have written jointly  to Councillor Powney, lead member on Libraries, on a range of matters including why a  saving of   £1.3 million is being put forward by the council - which is £293,000 more than the budget target and seeking clarity on the over £1 million management costs for running the library service

Campaign against Claremont becoming an academy

Anti-academy activists will be leafleting outside Claremont High School tomorrow (Monday) from 3pm until 3.20pm ahead of an emergency parents' meeting on the issue.  They will welcome anyone who can join them.

ADDRESS
Claremont Avenue,
Kenton,
Middlesex HA3 0UH

Cuts - where do we go from here?

There is an organising meeting of Brent Fightback tomorrow Monday March 7th, 7.30pm at the Trades Hall/Apollo Club, Willesden High Road and Brent Friends of the Earth have a meeting on 'The recession and its impact on the environment and the green agenda' at the Rising Sun, Harlesden Road,  7.30pm on Tuesday March 8th. Fightback will be assessing the effectiveness of the lobby of Monday's Council meeting and the current position regarding cuts, planning for the March 26th demonstration, and reviewing future strategy.

The upshot of the Council's decisions is that there were some concessions after community campaigning:  reprieves for the Wembley youth clubs (albeit with two merging), restoration of funding (with 12% cut) for the Law Centre, Citizen's Advice and Private Tenants Rights Groups; reprieve for the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre (with 50% private funding from a local builder).

There may be a temptation to attribute these successes to effective campaigning  but libraries, where campaigning was most vociferous and got national coverage, are still likely to close. Campaigners are rightly asking how the council can set a budget which assumes their closure before the consultation ended. Cllr Powney tries to answer that point HERE  There are also murmurs amongst some councillors that the reprieves are more to do with the Labour leader's 'pet projects' than pressure from rank and file Labour councillors.

Apart from the library campaigns feeling let down by the Council there is also unhappiness in the Charteris Sports Centre campaign where the Council led them to think there was a possibility of a 'Big Society' option (the Campaign was notably absent from the lobby on Monday)  but they have now been told them the Centre will close at the end of March. The issue of the Council stemming/diverting opposition by dangling 'Big Society' possibilities and then going ahead with closure is likely to rankle for some time. This goes alongside the short-term impact of the Council's barring of the public from  the budget meeting and the joking and bantering behaviour of some councillors during the meeting.

Only one Labour councillor abstained on the budget.  Other potential rebels, as I predicted, were brought into line by the concessions. We need to re-assess our future relationship with Labour councillors and the potential for joint campaigns after Monday's decisions.  In terms of the Labour Party generally there has been little lead from Ed Miliband, or the London-wide party, on fighting the cuts.

As far as school budgets go, in the two schools where I am a governor we have been looking at the budget for 2011-12. As predicted although the budget figures are stable they disguise the fact that more services will now have to be bought in at higher prices and there will also be inflation in the price of resource and utilities. In my schools, because of relatively high numbers of children on free school meals, there is some cushioning from the pupil premium, but schools with lower numbers of FSM will face budgetary constraints and may have to make staff redundant. These are likely to be classroom assistants, school meals supervisors etc. There will also be pressure to employ contractors for cleaning etc, who pay lower hourly rates than the Brent Council rates - without pension contributions and holiday pay.  At a broader level as central services provided by the Council are reduced, cut or charged at higher prices, there are likely to be more calls for schools to end their links with the local authority and apply for academy status.

So we are likely to see  libraries and the Sports Centre being closed at the end of March, some redundancies/non-renewal of contracts in schools from April, and the national measures (VAT increase, child benefit freeze, public sector wage freeze, cuts in childcare element of the Working Tax Credit) kicking in at the start of the new financial year.  The latter will see an increase in child poverty and problems for families in finding the cash to pay rent/mortgages (council rents are also going up). There will also of course be a rise in local unemployment as public sector job losses mount. The Housing Benefit cap does not now come into force until 2012 but already private landlords are serving eviction notices on tenants they anticipate will not be able to afford the  rent under the cap.


The Friends of the Earth meeting is relevant as it brings a wider perspective which raises the issue of the wider economy. There is now a developing consensus that the post-Big Bang domination of the economy by the financial sector must come to an end but the Coalition, with its anti-state intervention stance, has little to say about the necessary re-structuring. Ed Miliband in his speech to the Resolution (not Revolution!) Foundation on February 28th admitted that the Labour Party was wrong not to focus more on the type of economy they were building, the need to 'break out of the low-pay, low-skill cycle' and the need for high quality jobs. He also supported the introduction of a living wage.  We would go further in wanting to discuss the restructuring of the economy to gear it towards sustainability with the creation of skilled, socially worthwhile employment that both combats climate change and tackles inequality and poverty.

The question now is where does the anti-cuts campaign go from here?  What should be our objective/s? How can we be pro-active, putting forward alternatives, rather than be merely reactive?

Three Greens Compete for London Mayor Nomination

The Green Party in London will be selecting its candidate for Mayor over the next two weeks. Here are the candidates' statements (in alphabetical order):

Shahrar Ali
I'm standing for selection as the Greens' Mayoral candidate to provide voters with a strong, Green, alternative to business-as-usual politics. As a lifelong Londoner, I advocate radical, Green solutions to the everyday problems faced by us all. Elected Greens thrive on service to the people, whether by investing in public transport, holding the police to account, or realising sustainable jobs in renewable energy and waste - to promote quality of life for all without harming the planet. There's more to politics than a rerun of the Ken and Boris road show: we need Greens!

I want to get elected not for its own sake, but in order to pursue the Green Party's noble aims. I'm not afraid to take on government administrations, opposition politicians or big business, or to form alliances when strategically necessary.

Siân Berry, the Green Party's Mayoral candidate in 2008, says: "Running for Mayor is tough: it's an uphill battle competing for space and attention with the other candidates. I have no doubt that Shahrar's drive, personality and detailed knowledge of London's issues will do the job of standing out for the Greens and standing up for our values."

Farid Bakht
I want Greens to move beyond their comfort zone and build a coalition around students and young people, the one in three Londoners of foreign origin and over a hundred thousand small businesses starved of credit by banks.

My priority is to widen our appeal to people from all communities including the working class within London". Why is it that white working class people don't generally vote for us?

I want to demolish the myth that we are a white, middle class party interested only in a narrow agenda not in tune with people's everyday lives.

We need to demonstrate we are the real opposition to three very similar parties by playing a central role in the anti-cuts movement.

We need to attract Londoners with our message of environmental and social justice, our humane approach to immigration and our commitment to free education, health and council housing.

Half Basque, half Bengali, and born in Hackney, I was brought up in London. I am married with a nine-year old daughter and live in West London.

Jenny Jones
My vision for London is of a sustainable city with less inequality between rich and poor. To achieve sustainability, we must introduce measures to tame the traffic, create a planning system that enables small businesses to thrive and encourages green measures such as affordable zero carbon housing, develop a single waste authority that rejects incineration, and reduce total carbon emissions by 90% by 2050 with annual targets.

To lessen inequality we must commit to reducing poverty to a less shameful level through policies such as the London Living Wage for all companies, decreasing pay ratio differentials in regional and local government, and increasing affordable housing. This can be done through strong partnership working with the boroughs, and with campaign and community groups, and by lobbying the government to stop tax loopholes and guarantee that the richest pay their fair share of taxes.

Finally we must ensure the police are fully accountable to their communities as well as fully representative. The May 2012 election will be an opportunity for us to explain our alternative to the disastrous cuts programme of the coalition government and explain that going green creates jobs, saves money and protects the planet.

Dame Betty on a Mission

The 21st Anniversary in 2008

Dame Betty Asafu-Adjaye denounced the Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday after they refused to reconsider the case for closure of the Mission Dining Club in Harlesden which has served the community for 23 years. Dame Betty is a founder of the club that offers a social eating experience and other activities to the elderly, disabled and socially isolated of Harlesden.

The Council wants the land on which the Club is built in order to expand Newfield Primary School. The Club was supported by Brent Law Centre and other advocates.

The familiar objections were a failure to consult, failure to communicate, the lack of an Equalities Impact Assessment, and a failure to consider alternatives. This appears to be a developing pattern with Brent Council actions to which one can add the case of the libraries where Monday's Council Meeting appeared to confirm the closures before the consultation had finished on Friday.

There was also the usual Council confusion over its properties: whether the Mission Dining Club owed rent, the precise meaning of the original agreements with its clause about the right of the council to claim a commercial rent,  and a general vagueness.  The Council claimed that it had done an Equalities Impact Assessment but councillors couldn't agree on whether they had seen it or not and it certainly hadn't been seen by Dame Betty.

There was discussion about whether the very small footprint building could be re-sited on a section of  the green open space next to the school. Officers claimed that there would be protests from residents about the loss of open space and Councillor Crane suggested Brent Green Party would object. In fact when I lived in  Harlesden and used to collect a child from Newfield, I remember the green space as being virtually unusable because of the amount of dog excrement on it. It may have changed over the past 10 years of course, but anyway the building's footprint is very small.

The Planning Committee had deferred hearing the application because of the lack of consultation. Surely it cannot be beyond the wit of the Council to come up with a solution in the meanwhile - perhaps incorporating space in the new school building for the Dining Club which would have multi-generational advantages. The space could be used by the school when not being used by the Club.

Preston Manor Expansion Call-In Fails

The Executive's decision to approve the  Preston Manor school expansion into primary provision was discussed at Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday March 2nd after a call-in by Councillor Harsh Patel.  I made a presentation on the educational and equality issues involved and residents spoke about poor consultation, traffic, planning issues, impact on neighbouring schools and covenants on the land.

Krutica Pau poured out a torrent of statistics in attempt to prove there was demand for a new primary school in the area including a 30% rose in Brent's birthrate, 89 additional births in Planning Area 2 (where Preston Manor is situated) between 2006 and 2009 and other primary schools in the area being currently full. Curiously she claimed that the current temporary school in Ashley Gardens had been designed to accommodate 40 children and was full, when throughout it was always said to be for two receptions classes (60 children). Reliable sources inform me that even 40 is an over estimate for number currently in the school.

My argument is that the imbalance between the number of schools in the north and south has an impact on the ease of access to secondary schools for pupils from the south as priority is given, after special needs, looked after children, and sibling connection,  to applicants who live nearest the school.

Unfortunately the councillor scrutineers  just don't have enough knowledge to ask the right questions and provide sufficient challenge to officers.  Krutica Pau said that she was committed to having an educational debate on the merits of all-through schools but that couldn't take place now because of the urgency of the situation and she and councillors were completely silent on the issue of equality between the south and the north of the borough which I had raised..

The south has four schools open to all pupils (counting Crest as two) while there are seven in the north, three of which wish to expand into primary. I reminded councillors of the 1980s Two Kingdoms Report into Brent secondary schools by Jocelyn Barrow.  This was an investigation into parental perceptions of inequality between the then largely Black south and White/Asian north. Although the boundary and ethnic make up may have shifted a little there is still a residual issue.  I  twice written to the local press trying to raise this issue as the council has failed to respond but my letters have not been published. I am not sure if this is because the issue is felt to be too irrelevant, too complex  or too dangerous.  

No mention was made of the existence of an Equalities Impact Assessment which I would argue should have been carried out. EqIAs look at the following.:

• identify the needs of each equality target group
• identify gaps in our knowledge
• identify the positive impacts
• identify the negative impacts
• identify what needs to be done to reduce negative impacts and add to positive ones
• amend what is being done accordingly.

As Preston Manor will give priority to pupils from its primary school who are likely to be recruited locally pupils from further afield will have less chance of getting into the school. Preston Manor intents to reduce the number of secondary places available to pupils from  other primary schools by 60. If they are followed by other secondary schools wishing to open primary schools (currently Alperton and Wembley High) then access will be further reduced for pupils from the south.

Councillor Helga Gladbaum agreed on the  necessity for an educational debate about the merits of all through schools but because of the urgent need for the Authority to fulfil statutory responses to provide places said that the Preston Manor expansion should go ahead. From personal experience she did however support my criticisms of Watts the builders who have been given the lion's share of the contract overseeing the primary expansion at Preston Manor and other schools. The Executive had taken the decision to employ them without putting the work out to tender. Watts had project managed a simple re-roofing project at Chalkhill Primary School where I am chair of governors. Governors had eventually declared lack of confidence in Watts and the contractor Breyer after 15 incidents of flooding resulted in damage to classrooms, pupils' work and teachers' equipment. The school has still not had adequate compensation and making good of the damage.

The equality of access issue will come up again when Preston Manor seeks to amend its admissions criteria to take into account the adjoining primary school. There seems to be a potentially good case for the involvement of the independent Schools Adjudicator.

After questions about the covenants that have been found which forbid building other than housing on the school site the public and press were excluded while the Committee was briefed. The Council has to appeal to the Upper Tribunal to get the covenants nullified or modified but appear confident of success. Residents, however, are considering legal action on the issue.

Eventually only Cllr Harsh Patel voted for the Executive to reconsider its decision.  It was hard to see how many abstentions there were as a number of councillors seemed intent on scrambling around their documents and searching under their chairs while the vote took place.