Do your bit for the NHS this afternooon in Harlesden and Willesden

Campaigners will be giving out postcards about the threat to our local NHS and the closure of the Central Middlesex A&E and collecting signatures on petitions this afternoon at Harlesden Methodist Church and outside Sainsbury's on Willesden High Road. (3pm-5pm)

Please come and help publicise the campaign and the march due to take place on September 15th from Harlesden to Central Middlesex Hospital.

The Guardian publicises Willesden Bookshop's plight - still time for Council to act

The plight of the Willesden Bookshop, facing closure this month as its notice expires, is reported in today's Guardian LINK

Helen Sensi, who has worked at the shop since it opened, said:

We've been inundated with people saying 'Why are you closing down?' I think people will feel a tremendous sense of loss. Independent shops have had a hard time, but Steve (Adams) has kept the shop going where others have fallen. He's managed to be a community service, even if the council doesn't recognise it.

Sensi said that the end of the Willesden store was:

... disaster for children in terms of literacy. To see children engrossed on the floor, from tiny tots reading cloth books to older children running towards a cover they recognise, is a delight. For me, that's where it begins.

Surely it is not too late for Brent Council  leader  Muhammed Butt to meet with campaigners and the bookshop to sort something out.  The bookshop is something of tremendous value that Brent Council is in danger of needlessly throwing on the scrap heap.

Kids bored already - will this help?

A little  girl stopped me on the Chalkhill Estate yesterday and rather forlornly asked me when school started again. She was bored and missed her teachers and friends and wanted to go back to school This was only day 4 of the 6 week summer holiday!

Ten years or more again, many Brent primary schools hosted summer play schemes, usually lasting for 4 weeks with activities, outings, and inter-playscheme competitions. Since then funds have dried up and the subsequent costs are too much for many families. The schemes were also affected by the amount of building work going on in the summer holiday in many schools which made them unavailable for hire.

Events for older children are available but have to be booked on-line and again entail charges. Details on: http://www.bmyvoice.org.uk/brentinsummer

Luckily Chalkhill Community Action have secured funding for 12 days activities connected with the Olympic Games for Chalkhill children aged 8-18: The Chalkhill Games. Tonight there will be a viewing of the Opening Ceremony at the Chalkhill Community Centre (Welford Centre, 113 Chalkhill Road)  from 8.30pm and Chalkhill's Own Show tomorrow from 3-6pm in the Large Hall.

Subsequently, from Monday there will be activities from 2-5pm including quizzes, traditional games, making French skipping ropes and paper gliders, athletics and team games. Saturday 11th August will be for Under 5s only.

The activities are FREE but parents are asked to be responsible for their children outside the stated times and make arrangements to bring them and pick them up.

Further information from Kath-Fraser Jackson Phone 020 8904 0976  07931 842 158

Willesden woodland cut down - not quite in its prime

The carved  'woodland' installation of trees, animals and birds outside the Willesden Green Library and Willesden Bookshop was torn down today and disappeared on the back of a lorry.

Locals, already bemused by the installation which appeared as if by magic overnight some time ago, are perplexed about its removal and concerned about its fate.

Was it robbery, vandalism, an art 'happening' - will it be sold as firewood, donated to a nursery, put in storage for a return to the proposed Cultural Centre, or be the centre piece of the Civic Centre atrium?

Who knows.....

How much did it cost....?

Drop me an e-mail

GLA planners torpedoed Old Willesden Library demolition application

GLA planners, advising the Mayor,  have acted before the bulldozers move in, at least as regards the Old Willesden Library.

It can now be revealed that Strategic Planners at the GLA  met with the Galliford Try application team twice during the 6 week consultation period during which the they considered whether the Willesden Green Redevelopment application  complied with the London Plan Policy.

According to Gemma Kendall, Case Officer,  in the meetings before the July 4th deadline, the planning officers:

...expressed serious concerns that the proposed scheme would not comply with the London Plan Policy 7.8 and 7.9 regarding heritage assets and heritage-led regeneration. The applicant subsequently chose to withdraw the application before it was reported to the Mayor on 4th July 2012.

Galliford Try, in what appeared to be a surprise move, withdrew their planning application for the Willesden Green Cultural Centre on July 4th.

It now appears that the combination of unprecedented local campaigning, massive public rejection of the plans,  the views of the GLA planning team and not least the Town Square application combined to force withdrawal.

Meanwhile, appearing to have learnt little, the application team have arranged a consultation day on the revised application in the middle of the August holidays!

And now for something completely different...Counter Olympics on Saturday

Whose Games? Whose City?
NO LIMOS! NO LOGOS! NO LAUNCHERS!
 
12 noon, Saturday 28 July
Assemble Mile End Park, East London.
March to Wennington Green (next to Victoria Park) for People's Games for All
A family-friendly protest. 

 Supported by London Green Party, Waltham Forest and Redbridge Green Party, Tower Hamlets Green Party.
 

The Counter Olympics Network (CON)announces a march and rally in London’s East End on Saturday 28 July, assembling in Mile End Park (near Mile End tube station) at 12 noon, and marching to Wennington Green (next to Victoria Park) for a family friendly People’s Games for All which will include speeches, entertainment, “alternative games”, and children’s events.

Already more than 30 organisations officially support the event, with more coming on board all the time. They include anti corporate campaigns, civil liberties groups, local trades councils, green groups, anti militarists, community groups, other anti Olympics campaigns, disability activists, and others. It will be an event which symbolically “reclaims” the Games, a party to which everyone is invited. It will present a truer and more optimistic vision of Britain than the officially promoted one of a militarised and austerity ridden country that is content to be hijacked by millionaire politicians and their corporate friends.

 The Counter Olympics Network links people and organisations critical of some or many aspects of the 2012 Games. Issues of concern include:
 * the corporate takeover of the Games (with sponsors that profit from sweatshops, poison local people, pollute the planet, and so much more);
 * the eviction of local people from their homes and businesses to make way for the Olympic sites, and prioritising the interests of global corporations at the expense of small businesses;
 * the privatisation of public space;
 * the introduction of repressive policing and surveillance in conjunction with the Games, and the use of the Games to promote acceptance of the militarisation of society (in particular – siting missile launchers on domestic roofs in East London, employing 42,000 private security staff on top of the vast police and military presence, increasing stop and search powers which target and alienate local young people, placing warships on the Thames and at Weymouth, and introducing preventive detention and ASBOs to intimidate peaceful anti-Olympics protesters);
 * the threat to both the lives and livelihoods of Londoners caused by the VIP Lanes for dignitaries on London roads;
 * the encouragement of nationalism, in contradiction to the supposed spirit of the Olympics;
 * the sanctioning of gender apartheid in Olympic teams;
 * the “body fascism” mentality in elite sport;
 * the hypocrisy of a Paralympics sponsor, ATOS, which is also responsible for wrongly removing welfare payments from tens of thousands of people with disabilities;
 * the multi-billion-pound expenditure, much of it on temporary facilities, and most of it unnecessary at a time of supposed austerity.

 CON helps to provide a co-ordinated voice for a wide range of groups which share the desire to provide a counterbalance to the overblown mainstream pro Olympics propaganda. CON is also concerned that the Orwellian security apparatus and regressive legislation put in place to protect brands, privilege, and privatised public space won’t all disappear after the Games.

 CON supporter Julian Cheyne said today, “The 2012 Olympics have turned into a corporate festival of world security, consuming billions of our money to increase private profits, while the elderly, disabled, sick, unemployed, young people and other groups are punished for a crisis caused by the finance industry. To stand by silently would imply we consent to this; and we do not. If you are as fed up with all of this as we are, come and join our Counter Olympics gathering on 28th July.”

The Olympic Torch in Wembley

See the BBC video here LINK

 Wembley High Road 10.49 Wembley Park station 11.46 Forty Lane 11.47 (Chalkhill banners)

Councillors back Asda petrol station despite local opposition

Pedestrian routes at Forty Lane/King's Drive/Asda junction

Brent Planning Committee last night unanimously approved plans for a new petrol station at Asda's Wembley Superstores despite objections from ward councillors, residents and the governing body of Chalkhill Primary School.

Planners admitted that the nearby road junction at Bridge Road/Forty Avenue/Forty Lane/Barn Hill was operating at full capacity but claimed that 100 yards down the road the Forty Lane/King's Drive/Asda junction (above) had spare capacity.

Cllr Shafique Choudhary (Labour -Barnhill) drew attention to the health hazards posed by petrol fueling stations to nearby residents and foodstuffs at the store, less thyan 100 metres from the proposed fueling station..He particularly focused on the carcinogenic properties of benzine. Steve Weeks of Brebt Planning said these dangers were known about but that the problem was being addressed nationally through redesign of petrol. Cllr Ann John remarked that many petrol stations had food stores and nearby flats without any problems.

Cllr Michael Pavey, the Labour winner of the recent Barnhill by-election, lambasted the planning officers'; report for being base don old data, lacking specific figures and being based on trip figures submitted by Asda and accepted by officers without an independent check. He said that the business model submitted by Asda which claimed that it would not be in 'aggressive' competition with other petrol providers lacked credibility - in fact Asda prides itself on low prices and will draw in additional customers. A check revealed that current Asda prices at their petrol stations were 3-5p cheaper that other local facilities and he could not see Asda charging higher prices in Wembley than it did elsewhere.   The 2009 traffic figures did not take into account school expansions in the area.  He concluded that the application should be rejected on the grounds that the officers' report was unsubstantial, unanalysed and untrustworthy.

Rachel McConnell for the planning department said that the trips data was based on national data as well as Asda's own experience of their other petrol stations. The peak flow was 2,300-2,400 cars and there would be only 43 extra trips caused by the petrol station, and this did not take into account trips that would be made to the store anyway.

Earlier I had made a presentation on behalf of the Chalkhill Primary School Governing body. I noted that we had not been formally consulted about the plans despite the school being close to the proposed site - we had only heard about the application through our community contacts.

As a governing body we are responsible for the safety of pupils both in school and on their way to school. In line with Brent Council policy, for environmental and health reasons, we encourage children to walk to school.  However, in the case of this development there appeared to be a conflict with our duty of care to keep children safe and implementation of the walking to school policy. If the petrol station were to be built increased traffic (at the 7 crossing points marked in blue - two not pedestrian controlled) would put children walking to school in more danger.  There were already problems with people avoiding the multiple blue crossing points by walking straight across Forty Lane from the Town Hall bus stop (red line on map) to the chestnut tree lined avenue leading to Chalkhill Estate and the school. There had been traffic accidents at the junction and injuries to pedestrians at the unofficial crossing.

I further contended that the planners' report did not take into account the increased vehicular and pedestrian traffic which would result from the expansion of schools places in the area. Ark Academy (secondary)  is due to add a further 540 secondary school places over the next 3 years, Ark Academy Primary 180, Preston Manor Primary 180 and if plans to be discussed by the Executive on August 20th go ahead a further 210 or 420 at Chalkhill Primary. This amounts to more than 1,000 extra journeys when planners admit that the morning peak is already higher than in 2009. Overall the report focused on vehicles and not on pedestrians.

In addition when Brent Town Hall is sold off next year, depending on its new use which could be retail or hotel, further journeys may be generated. Surely planners should take into account future pressures as well as the current situation?

The lone voice that spoke in favour of the proposal was that of former Independent Conservative Group councillor Robert Dunwell. Speaking on behalf of Ban Hill Residents Association (2004) he supported the application 'in principle' as being a good amenity for the store and for the surrounding community. He suggested that there could be a delay while the problem of capacity at the Bridge Road/Forty Avenue was dealt with.  Barn Hill Residents Association (without the 2004 in brackets!) has opposed the proposal on grounds of increased traffic.

I have to record that the points I raised were not addressed by planning committee councillors or officers. I remain seriously concerned about the safety of children walking to school from King's Drive and Pilgrims Way estates (bottom right of map) as well as those using the Town Hall bus stop.