Vote for clean air for our children

With the North Circular streaming fumes across the borough, the dust and emissions around the waste hanbdling and processing sites of Neasden and Park Royal, and the number of children and adults suffering from respiratory illnesses, we in Brent are very much aware of issues around air quality. Things will get worse if there is any further airport expansion.

The Green Party is making air quality a major issue in the GLA elections:

Libraries will survive!

Many thanks to Linda Green for this link. Great fun...

Narrow win for Lib Dems in Dollis Hill

Alison Hopkins, the Liberal Democrat candidate, beat Parvez Ahmed (Labour) by only 37 votes in the Dollis Hill by-election.

RESULT (2010 local election total for each party  in brackets)

Alison Hopkins (Lib Dem) 1205  46.49% (41%)
Ahmed Parvez (Labour)     1168 45.06% (39%)
Samer Ahmedali (Conservative) 140 5.40% (17%)
Pete Murry (Green) 79 3.05% (3%)

Rejected papers: 21

Turnout: 29.8% 

Lib Dems to win Dollis Hill by-election?

With only minutes to go until the polling stations close I will hazard a prediction on the Dollis Hill by-election front.

Despite the irritation of many at the deluge of leaflets that have gone through letter boxes this week and last,  I expect Alison Hopkins of the Lib Dems to win. Not many will have taken in the fact that many of the red and blue leaflets were not from Labour or the Tories in the  few seconds it takes to consign them to the recycling bin. If you look hard at my photograph you can even see the Liberal Democrats symbol on the small (but long) yellow leaflet.  W poor old Greens were not even honoured with a Lib Dem leaflet in our colours!

Lib Dems  have been out in force with Paul Lorber and Bob Wharton toiling away but I saw much less of the Labour Party and nothing of the Tories. The Lib Dems are likely to pick up some of the Tory votes. Alison Hopkins does have a local reputation at the Ox and Gate end of the ward for her community activism and that will add some votes to her advantage in standing in a ward that the Lib Dems held previously and the sympathy vote for her predecessor who was well and fondly regarded. One left-wing activist told me that he was voting for her on the basis of her community politics despite rejecting the Lib Dem's Coalition policies.

My colleague Pete Murry fought a straightforward and honest campaign on policy issues and I hope to see him get a decent vote in this closely contested Lib Dem-Labour battle.

Fund school places not free schools, Twigg urges

The following news report from the BBC should be of interest to Brent Labour Councillors and the local Labour Party who are currently debating whether the Council should go into partnership to promote a free school:

The government should tackle the growing crisis in primary school places rather than building more free schools, says shadow education secretary Stephen Twigg. The equivalent of 2,000 primary schools' worth of children - some 450,000 - need to be found places in England's schools by 2015, he says. Cash should be allocated where it is needed the most, he added.

 The government says it will spend £4bn on easing the pressure. This sum includes £1.9bn already announced for 2011-12 and an extra £600m announced in the autumn. It also includes a further £800m for the coming two years, which the Department for Education is expecting to be allocated. Mr Twigg accuses the government of "ignoring" what he says is a growing crisis. He highlights the fact that much of the money promised for new places has been ear-marked for free schools - the majority of which are secondaries where pupil numbers are falling.

 As free schools are parent-promoted they do not necessarily emerge where the population pressure points are. Mr Twigg says it would make more sense to spend the money on tackling the shortfall in primary school places, but that this could include some free schools. He says: "Across England we need nearly half a million more primary places - the equivalent of building an extra 2,000 primary schools between now and the general election.

"At the moment, the government has only promised an extra 100 new free schools, many of which will be secondaries. The government seems oblivious to the problem, preferring to focus on pet projects rather than real need. If we are to improve the number and quality of our primary schools, the government needs to start rolling up its sleeves."

 Mr Twigg is not saying that 2,000 primary schools need to be built, and readily acknowledges that many of the children could be accommodated in expanded primaries. But he urged ministers to address the issue head-on in the Budget, "allocating all its education capital to meeting real need, not salami slicing some off for pet projects".

He added that if the government did not address the real need the effect on pupils' education would be dramatic, with many "squeezed into temporary bulge classrooms in Portakabins".

The problem is particularly acute in London with 100,000 places required by 2015. Extreme measures are being taken to tackle the problem. In Barking and Dagenham, where an extra 8,000 places are needed, the council are proposing to rent out an empty Woolworths and an empty MFI store. And in Sutton, the council leader has asked for permission to end the infant class size limit of 30. In Brighton, where 2,000 more places are required, there are plans to teach children in a football stadium, a bingo hall and redundant churches. And in Lancashire alone a whopping extra 14,000 places are needed and predictions show 11,000 places are needed in Birmingham, Leeds, Hertfordshire and Hampshire.

 Hannah Richardson BBC New March 20th

Brent teachers to strike over pensions on March 28th

 

Teachers in Brent schools will be coming out on strike again on Wednesday March 28th in further action over the pensions issue.  They will be distributing a leaflet to parents and carers setting out their case:

 

Why are teachers going on strike?

A message to all parents and carers in Brent

Teachers across Brent will be taking strike action on Wednesday 28^th March.

We know this may be inconvenient for you but we hope you will understand why we are doing this and that you will support us.

Teachers do not like taking strike action but we believe we have been given no choice by the government.

We are striking because the government won’t listen to us and insist on making unnecessary changes to our pensions. We believe these changes will be damaging for teachers and for education.

Below we list some of the facts about our pensions we think you should know. For more information please talk to teachers at your school.

FACT ONE

Teachers, and other public sector workers, are being asked to pay 50% more for their pensions, work longer and get a smaller pension when they retire.

FACT TWO

Teaching is an all consuming and tiring job and can be stressful. We do not believe it is reasonable to expect all teachers to work until 68 to get a pension.

FACT THREE

The government says our pensions are unaffordable but their own figures show that this isn’t true.

FACT FOUR

Many private sector workers have no proper pension scheme. The government should do something about this, not cut the public sector pensions.

FACT FIVE

Cutting public sector pensions will just make more pensioners poorer and put the cost of supporting them on to the State and taxpayers.

Town Hall Hotel in Wembley?

From 'The Caterer and Hotel Keeper'

Conversion to a hotel is a possible option for the future of Brent Council's Town Hall, which is soon to be put up for sale.

The Grade II-listed 1930s building, which sites on a five-acre site with views over London, is to be sold as its life as a town hall will end with the opening of Brent's new Civic Centre in June 2013. It is hoped that a new owner, who will preserve the heritage of the building, will be found before the council leaves.

Property agent Colliers International has helped the council prepare a planning brief, in conjunction with a heritage report, which says the building could be converted to a hotel or be used as a residential, healthcare, leisure or retail development.

A precedent for the conversion of a Grade II-listed former town hall to a hotel was created with the £20m opening in Bethnal Green of the Town Hall Hotel and Apartments, in 2010. The hotel went on to win the RICS London Award for Building Conversion.

Barn Hill by-election on May 3rd

The offiicial notice announcing a by-election in the Barn Hill ward has been posted on the council website. The by-election follows Cllr Judith Beckman's resignation following her move out of London.