More academies and possibly a free school in Brent?

Following Claremont High School's decision to convert to academy status Kingsbury High School has decided to consult on a similar move. I also understand that a secondary special school, Woodfield Sports College in Kingsbury,  is also considering conversion following Michael Gove's decision to allow special schools to become academies. All these schools are in the north of Brent and would join the Ark Academy (also in the north) and Crest Boys, Crest Girls and City Academy in the list of academies in Brent. At present Brent Council, unlike their counterparts in Harrow, appear (at least publicly) to be making no effort to dissuade them.  There will be further pressure on other secondary schools to follow with subsequent impact on  primary schools. Academies get extra money which is taken from the overall Brent school budget meaning less money for the remaining community schools.

In addition Rivendale Education Limited, recently granted permission to open a free school in Shepherds Bush has expressed an interest in opening a school in Brent citing proximity to Brent, Brent's relative deprivation and the shortage of school places.  Rivendale says it wants to run on the lines of John Lewis but its website is worrying sparse for an organisation that wants to run schools. The link to FAQs reveals none at all and the page on admissions says these are still being fine tuned. The organisation is run from a private address in Shepherds Bush a few doors from where I used to live in the 60s. The more you delve the less substance there appears to be - judge for yourself: LINK

Meanwhile Brent Council is at last seeking views on how to address the shortage of school places in order to put together a 3 year strategy.  Unfortunately they have written to governing bodies asking for a response by Friday June 10th. This gives just 10 days, taking into account next week's half-term holiday and few if any governing body will have a meeting planned in time to formulate a considered response. I hope they will set a new deadline nearer the end of the Summer Term - this is too important an issue to be rushed.

Why is Fryent Way closed all day on Saturday?

This is the question I have been asked a dozen times over the weekend by local residents. The advance notice on display at either end of Fryent Way says that the closure is due to Champions League Final at Wembley Stadium. This has left many puzzled because it has never been closed before for major matches. It turns out that it will be used as a coach park

The Council website states:

One of the world's greatest football events comes to Wembley on Saturday 28 May. The UEFA Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United takes place at Wembley Stadium.

Over 20,000 Barcelona fans are expected to attend the evening match.

We were one of the partners in the successful bid in 2007 to bring the event to Wembley and we have an obligation to ensure that it is a successful, safe and enjoyable celebration.

Due to the timing of the event and the travel arrangements for supporters, it will be necessary to close Fryent Way to traffic on the day of the final.

This will be in addition to traffic management arrangements that are put in place in Wembley on event dates.

The road will be closed from 8am until around midnight to provide vital coach parking.

While the closure is in place the recommended, and signed, diversion route for traffic will be via Kingsbury Road, Church Lane, Tudor Gardens and Salmon Street (part) or Forty Lane.

Access for local residents from Fryent Way will be maintained up to the junction with Broadview from the north.

Fryent Country Park will remain open throughout the period of the road closure. 

I hope the Barcelona fans infect the local population with a touch of the revolutionary fervour we have seen in Spain in recent days!

Brent: Managerialism versus Democratic Accountability

Brent as seen by the Independent, 25th October 1986

A Labour councillor greeted me at the Green Fair on Saturday by asking if I was taking a "break from having a go at the Council", before reminding me that the Green Fair was funded by Ward  Working. I can see how councillors may feel under siege at the moment with their library closures under attack from local people, the national media and the government. This blog is small fry compared with all that but the remark does imply that the Council is not being given credit where it is due.  The reasons behind this negativity deserve some consideration.

Three interconnected factors serve to remove the council from true accountability. Firstly the cabinet system of government leaves the majority of councillors, both from the ruling group and from the opposition, relatively powerless. The Executive makes the real decisions and full council meetings, because of Labour's big majority, merely rubber stamp decisions. Cllr Ann John, Brent's own 'Iron Lady' keeps a firm grip on any dissent within the Labour group.  Overview and Scrutiny Committees are ineffective and used mainly for grandstanding by the opposition rather than meticulous scrutiny and informed debate. The Willesden and Brent Times this weeks highlights poor attendance at council meetings by Councillors Simon Green (Lib Dem), Hayley Matthews (Lib Dem), Chris Leaman (Lib Dem) and Bhiku Patel (Conservative). Matthews is particularly criticised for not attending three children and young people overview and scrutiny committee meetings since last December.  The WBT editorial argued that it has been residents who voted for these councillors who have ended up doing the councillor's work, airing concerns about controversial decisions at council meetings. The real decision making often occurs outside public scrutiny at pre-meetings and Labour group meetings.

Secondly since the mid-80s when a Labour led Brent Council was pilloried by the national media, led by the Daily Mail, Labour has shied away from overtly political leadership. Instead, influenced by New Labour, the approach has been managerial. The council's role is to manage services and resources efficiently. This sounds sensible but leads to the situation where Labour has implemented the government imposed cuts, arguing it is their duty to 'balance the budget' rather than mount a political campaign against the cuts  of the kind advocated by Labour Party member and former councillor, Graham Durham, in a letter to the WBT this week.

This managerialism contributes to the third factor which is the blurring of distinctions between councillors and council officers, particularly at the senior level.After the inconclusive borough elections in 2006 there was a long period when the political parties could not agree a coalition and instead the officers under the leadership of Gareth Daniel ran the council. This inevitably increased the power of the officers and they were further strengthened because subsequently they were dealing with what was at the time a very inexperienced group of Liberal Democrat councillors. At council meetings currently it often feels that councillor's are representing officer reports rather than putting forward a political case for particular policies. Activists in campaigns such as the libraries, often see the officers as targets as much as the councillors, and at area forums officers often have to come to the aid of the councillor chairs.  Recent moves by the council to delegate more decision making to officers on Regeneration and Major Projects, Planning and the Waste Strategy reinforces the trend.

All these factors serve erect a barrier between the council and residents with decision making increasingly opaque. The controversy around consultation is an example where the council sees it as merely explaining their decisions to local people and activists seeing it as a opportunity to change decisions. The managerial approach implies that managers make the decisions and impose them on those below. Unless a manager has a particularly collegiate philosophy they tend to resent opposition from below and see it as illegitimate. That appears to be behind the council's resentment at criticism from within their own ranks, from opposition parties, from local activists, and from the local media.

The ability to make these criticisms is essential to local democracy and we must all continue to hold the council to account.

Question your political representatives on green issues tomorrow

As well as all the fun of the stalls, Brent Green Fair tomorrow will offer you the chance to listen to what your political representatives have to say on green issues and ask them questions. Sarah Teather MP (Liberal Democrat, Brent Central) will speak at 1pm, followed by Barry Gardiner MP (Labour, Brent North) who will speak about the Energy Bill at 2pm. They will be followed by three local councillors at 3pm who want to hear your ideas about making Brent greener.

Make your voices heard on NHS - Consortium details here

Following the Save Brent NHS Meeting last week there has been interest in the consortia that have been set up in Brent and concern that they were already well on the way to commissioning services. It was suggested that the public concerned about changes in the NHS should contact their consortium to ask for a public meeting on the health reforms or to put their views forward. The Brent consortia have been granted 'pathfinder' status and the Wembley Consortium states that it will be" live on patient commissioning" by April 2013. This is a list of the consortia, all part of the Brent GP Federation, the surgeries that they include and contact details:

Harness GP Cooperative 10 Kingfisher Way, NW10 8TF lindsey.welsh@nhs.net
Church End Medical Centre, Acton Lane Surgery, Freuchen Medical Practice, Buckingham Road Surgery, Park Road Surgery, Brentfield Medical Centre, Oxgate Gardens Surgery, Stonebridge Surgery, Aksyr Medical Practice, Hilltop Surgery, Church Lane Surgery, Harrow Road Surgery, Chaplin Road Surgery, Harness Wembley Practice, Wembley Park Drive
Wembley Consortium1b Wyld Way, Wembley, HA9 6PW  ashwin.patel@nhs.net   jahan@nhs.net
Hazeldene Medical centre, The Surgery, The Beechcroft Medical centre, Kenton Medical Centre, Alperton Medical centre, The Sunflower Medical Centre, Lanfranc Medical Centre, Sudbury and Alperton Medical Centre, Premier Medical Centre, Sudbury Court Surgery, Preston Medical Centre, The Eagle Eye Surgery, Lancelot Medical Centre, Stanley Corner Medical Centre, SMS Medical Practice
Willesden Consortia no postal address given edward.coker@nhs.net
Burnley Practice, Crest Medical centre, Gladstone Medical Centre, Greenhill Park Medical Centre, Neasden Medical Centre, Roundwood Park Medical Centre, St Andrew's Medical Centre, St George's Medical Centre, Village Medical Centre, Willesden Medical Centre, Walm Lane Medical Centre
Kilburn Primary Care Cooperative Ltd 51 Staverton Road, NW2 5HA jenny.poole@nhs.net
Law Medical Group, Staverton Surgery, Willesden Green Surgery, Chamberlayne Surgery, Peel Precinct, Chichele Road Surgery, Sheldon Surgery, Blessing Medical Centre, Park House Medical Centre, Kilburn Park Medical Centre, Lever Medical Centre, Windmill Practice
Kingsbury 245 Stag Lane, London, NW9 0EF natasha.harnett@nhs.net
Forty Willows Surgery, Uxendon Crescent Surgery, Willow tree Family Doctors, Stag-Holly Road Practice, Ellis Practice, Chalkhill Family Practice, Fryent Way Surgery, Brampton Health Centre, Stag Lane Medical Centre, Preston Road Surgery, Primary Care Medical Centre, Girton Practice, Tudor House Medical Centre, Kings Edge Medical Centre, Fryent Medical Centre

Carbon Budget Deal "Flawed" says Lucas

Responding to the Energy and Climate Change Secretary's announcement that the Government has agreed a deal to set the fourth carbon budget, committing the UK to a 50 per cent cut in greenhouse gases - compared with 1990 levels - by 2025, Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion, said:

After weeks of dramatic politicking and bitter Cabinet clashes, I welcome this deal on the fourth carbon budget, setting the UK's long term climate targets in line with the recommendations of the independent Committee on Climate Change.

But the fact that this budget, which ironically will cost the Government nothing during this Parliamentary term, was ever in danger hints at the ferocity of anti-green resistance within the Coalition - especially in the Treasury, making a mockery of George Osborne's pre-general election claim that it would, under his Chancellorship, be "a green ally, not a foe".

Furthermore, this deal is seriously flawed thanks to the Government's failure to heed CCC advice on three crucial points. First, it has refused to toughen up the existing targets for 2013-2023, making the fourth budget harder and more costly to achieve.

Second, officials have slipped in a concessionary review clause which will allow the Government to backtrack on the fourth carbon budget in 2014 - reducing long term certainty on emissions reductions and potentially harming investor confidence in green technologies.

And finally, on the crucial issue of how we now meet the targets, the Government has shunned the CCC's recommendation that the budget should be met through domestic action alone. Allowing the use of trading mechanisms such as offsetting essentially means outsourcing our emission reduction responsibilities to other countries - thereby weakening the drive to achieve more green technologies and industries, with all the jobs those can bring, here in the UK.

A deepening unease

Village of the Damned (1957) adapted from John Wyndam's novel Midwich Cuckoos

We are all familiar with the science fiction technique of starting with apparent normality and then the developing sense of disquiet as it becomes apparent from small clues that things are far from normal.

I am finding that more and more people have that sense of unease about climate change. This Spring has felt rather like the beginning of a science fiction film with things gradually getter stranger: a hot spell in early Spring, the driest Spring on record and the absence of April showers in the south, cracked and fissured London clay out in the fields of Fryent Country Park and abnormally early flowering and fruiting of plants.

We associate English strawberries with Wimbledon which starts this year on June 20th and runs until the first week of July but strawberries are already ripening on my allotment in Birchen Grove, Kingsbury. Self-seeded tomatoes sprung up in my unheated greenhouse about three weeks ago and courgette plants started  flowering in outside beds a week ago.   Sweetcorn plants are flourishing at a time when we are usually only just thinking about putting them outside under fleece.

Corn and courgette plants at Birchen Grove allotment last week

I am well aware of the difference between weather and climate and that all this might be a one-off but the long term trend has been warmer so that as a gardener I am now able to grow tender plants such as chillies and aubergine outside with some success in most summers. Last year's cold Spring seems to be an exception to the overall trend (see Note). It appears that Spring 2011 may ell be over before the BBC's Springwatch is aired.

All this may seem moderately interesting but hardly world shattering. However I think it opens up a way of discussing climate change which isn't so extreme and apocalyptic that people run away and hide under the bedclothes. That sense of disquiet is something that a lot of people have felt but not voiced. Talking about it can start a dialogue leading to a deeper understanding and a recognition that action has to be taken.

Note:
The Woodland Trust publishes information on the latest UK Phenology surveys.  The findings suggest that by  2005 Spring was 11 days earlier for 80% of Spring events than it was in 1976 and that the trend has been accelerating in the last decades.
You can take part in monitoring Spring and Autumn events by registering at the website HERE

Kill the Bill!

Green Party activists joined the NHS demonstration at University College Hospital last night and there was a good turnout from Brent Fightback supporters.  The pressure is now really on the government with Nick Clegg wavering and the profiteering motives behind the Bill exposed..  The message from trades unionists, health workers and patients' groups is clear - a few minor revisions to the Bill is not enough. It must be completely withdrawn.

The Brent News Company TV report on the Brent Fightback Meeting on the NHS which took place last week in now available on their website HERE