Should Ann John participate in Willesden Green planning decision?

Shortly after being ousted as leader of Brent Council, Cllr Ann John joined the Planning Committee. The Committee will shortly be considering the planning application for the controversial redevelopment of Willesden Green Library Centre, which includes the demolition of the 1980s library and the Victorian library, loss of open space and the Willesden Bookshop's loss of premises, in exchange for a smaller library and the building of more than 90 luxury flats.

As leader and Executive member, Ann John was a keen supporter of the regeneration scheme.

Inevitably campaigners have seen a possible conflict of interest here as the Committee (rather like the infamous case Jeremy Hunt in the SkyB matter) exercises a statutorily independent duty.

In the Willesden and  Brent Times this week Ann John rounded on her critics:

This is a cheap shot from people who just want to have a go at me. I will of course approach any planning application with an open mind and take everything into account and following planning guidelines. Backing the scheme pre-planning is not the same as having a pre-conceived notion about it.  I will be looking from a planning point of view only, as will all the planning officers.

The penultimate sentence in her statement is clearly a matter of semantics but with far-reaching consequences. The Council's Constitution (Codes and Protocols)  LINK indicates that campaigners may have grounds for requesting that Cllr John absent herself from discussion of this particular planning application.

A general principle can be extracted from the guidelines on Scrutiny:

Prejudicial interests arising in relation to overview and scrutiny committees

11.

You also have a prejudicial interest in any business before an overview and scrutiny committee of your authority (or of a sub-committee of such a committee) where -

(a) that business relates to a decision made (whether implemented or not) or action taken by your authority's executive or another of your authority's committees, sub-committees, joint committees or joint sub-committees; and

(b) at the time the decision was made or action was taken, you were a member of the executive, committee, sub committee, joint committee or joint sub- committee mentioned in paragraph (a) and you were present when that decision was made or action was taken

Ann John was a member of the Brent Executive that took the decision top go ahead with the Willesden Green Redevelopment.

The guidelines for Planning Committee members state:

30. Members of the Planning Committee shall refrain from personal abuse and party political considerations shall play no part in their deliberations. Members of the Planning Committee shall be respectful to the Chair and to each other and to officers and members of the public including applicants, their agents and objectors and shall not bully any person. Members of the Planning Committee should not make up their mind before hearing and considering all relevant information at the meeting and should not declare in advance of the meeting, how they intend to vote on a particular application or other matter

The question for Ann John is,  to quote a phrase used in the Codes and Protocols,  whether her previous comments are such that  'a member of the public with  knowledge of the relevant facts would reasonably regard as so significant  that it is likely to prejudice your judgement of the public interest'.

I would argue that campaigners' concerns are not a 'cheap shot' as Ann John claims but a legitimate onjection that should be seriously considered by the Council's legal officers.

A new logo for Brent Council?

Brent Council has launched its new logo (below) which it says 'is more representative of the borough as it is today'.  The motto 'Forward Together' appears to have been dropped - which given recent events is probably inevitable.

However, I don't really think this is representative of the borough as it is today - I suggest the following would be more appropriate following the Council's closure of half our libraries

If you have any ideas for a new logo, please send a jpeg to mafran@globalnet.co.uk

All Souls 'distressed' by Kensal Rise raid

Extract from the Guardian website's coverage of Kensal Rise Library:

In an email sent to one campaigner following Tuesday's clearance, All Souls' estate bursar expressed regret at recent events. "The college became aware of what happened yesterday and we find it distressing," wrote Tom Seaman. "We had told the council that we would have been happy for them to have kept the library open, possibly through co-operation with the Friends of Kensal Rise Library, who had developed an interesting business plan. This was not to be, however."

Seaman pointed out that the reversion of the land was a purely legal process, adding: "This is not something we ever wanted to see happen, but because it is the law, is something we cannot change either.
"Any spin being put on this by others is unfortunate, but I hope you at least understand that the college is in no way responsible for the library's closure, nor what happened the other night."

A college official told the Guardian that All Souls had encouraged the Friends of Kensal Rise Library to talk to its agents about the possibility of renting or buying the building. He added that the building had always been intended to serve as a library.

"When we made the gift under the 1854 Literary and Scientific Institutions Act, it was a gift of the freehold to the local community and its democratically elected representatives," he said.

"We made that gift and there was only one condition: that it continued to be used as a library. Others, ie the democratically elected officials of the people of Brent, decided to close that library and therefore they triggered something – which is a law, which we have no control over; it's an act of parliament – and now it's reverted to our freehold."

The official also expressed his surprise at events that had resulted in the reversion. "We never thought that would happen. I am sure our predecessors in the early 20th century never thought this would happen: they gave it away."

Children raise their voices for their library

                             Photo: Lorraine Skinner

 BNCTV seemed to have stopped uploading their videos to YouTube so I cannot embed them here. They have posted a video showing Muhammed Butt talking to campaigners outside Kensal Rise Library earlier this week.  Follow the link to see what he has to say.

The film is notable for the militant primary school children spontaneously voicing their opinions about the library at the beginning of the clip.

Kilburn Times: Library night raid "shameful"

Following on the widespread condemnation by campaigners and authors the  Brent and Kilburn Times   LINK added its powerful voice yesterday to criticisms of Brent Council's clandestine raid on Kensal Rise Library:

In a hard-hitting editorial they state:

The night raid was a shameful episode, one that will win the council no friends, either within or without the borough. It is indeed difficult to imagine councillors and officers planning so nefarious an act: did they do so behind closed doors, at dead of light, speaking only in whispers as they plotted?

Focusing on the fact that the new leader of Brent Council, Muhammed Butt, claims he did not know about the raid they say:

His embarrassment must be profound, since just a few days earlier he had promised that the library's books would remain in place for the time being. Perhaps it is time for him to exert his newly-won authority and hold someone accountable for this brazen breach of trust, before he is made to look like a fool again.

HEAR! HEAR!

In a withering coda they conclude:

Sadly, it seems futile to add that the council's reputation has been damaged. When it comes to the borough's libraries, Brent seems content to behave in a way that leaves it with no reputation to preserve.

In it heartening to have a local newspaper which stands in solidarity with the community against a council that attacks those it was elected to serve.

All Souls: Our 20th century Fellows never imagined this would happen

Keep Willesden Green campaigner Susan Clark has received the following response from All Souls College to concerns she expressed about the situation at Kensal Rise Library after Brent Council's dawn raid:

The College has of course been made aware of the “dawn raid” to which you refer. 

It is indeed very sad that the Council has closed the library.  This is something we made clear to the Council would trigger a reverter, thereby resulting in the freehold coming back to the College, something our Fellows of the early 20^th century never imagined would have happened. 

We had hoped the Council might keep the library open, and encouraged them to discuss with the Friends of Kensal Rise Library that possibility.

At present, we have no “exact plans”.  On all property-related matters, however, we are advised by professional advisers.  Some time ago we advised the Friends of Kensal Rise Library to meet with these advisers to discuss what might happen if the site were to revert to our ownership, and I know that at least one meeting has taken place between them.

Yours faithfully,

Tom Seaman

Fellow and Estates Bursar

 

Authors round on Butt and Brent Council

The Guardian reports Muhammed Butt's comments at yesterday's meeting with Kensal Rise campaigners:

The leader of Brent council, Mohammed Butt, told campaigners he did not order the overnight removals and was not informed the clearance was happening until a couple of hours before council workers moved in.

"The decision to empty the building had been made before I took over the leadership and the go ahead was made by the police at that time on the basis of public safety concerns," he said. He added that his IT system had failed at home and that he had not found out about the removal until midnight last night.

But he stood by the decision to remove the items, saying they had been left in the building for months and would have begun to deteriorate had they remained.

He said the council's solicitors and those acting for All Souls College, Oxford, said the library building had now reverted to the college. He hoped All Souls would return the building to the use for which it was intended.

 Brent Council's action has been widely condemned:

Alan Gibbons, author said:

I grew up in an area where you didn’t vote Labour- you were Labour. As I became politically aware in the mid to late nineteen sixties, for all its flaws, we had an idea what Labour was about. It meant public service. It meant hospitals and schools that were free at the point of use. It meant libraries and swimming pools and municipal socialism.

Compare this hard-won, long-fashioned identity with the actions of Brent’s Labour council, skulking into Kensal Rise library in the early hours of the morning to strip it bare. I have written to Labour leader Ed Miliband asking him to condemn the council’s actions.

The shadow Culture Secretary Dan Jarvis was well received at the Speak up for Libraries rally in March for asking failed Culture Minister Ed Vaizey if he was a champion for libraries. That question will look like double standards if the Labour leadership fails to distance itself from this irresponsible act of cultural vandalism.

The removal was denounced as “wanton destruction” by the biographer Sir Michael Holroyd. And author Maggie Gee called the move “cowardice”. She said:

The philistinism of unscrewing the brass plaque remembering Mark Twain from its wall in the middle of the night, would horrify anyone who still recalls Labour’s founding mission to share education, knowledge and hope with the people. We will continue to fight for our library.

Fellow writer Michael Frayn said: 

The library is now an unlibrary, in the way that people became unpersons in the darkest days of the Soviet Union. I hope they took the titles of the books off as well. Removing unbooks from an unlibrary – who could possibly object?

Kensal Rise issue challenge to Cllr Butt

Kensal Rise community library campaigners have sent this message to Muhammed Butt:

Dear Cllr Butt,

Perhaps after the action early this morning you might like to join us this afternoon at 3.30 at the library?

You might like to explain to residents in this community the reasons for the action you have taken.

That is, if you are still serious about 'engaging' with us.

We are somewhat baffled about why you would choose to do what you have done.
Did you not say the tables and chairs and more importantly the murals that were painted specifically for our library could remain? Along with all the plaques and photos commemorating the opening of the library by Mark Twain.

Regards and hopefully see you at 3.30.