'Major Projects' becomes even more major with Charity project

A Windows on Willesden shop on St Patrick's Day

Brent Council will, if Executive approval is given, set up a new national charitable organisation, to help deal with the blight caused by empty properties in areas awaiting redevelopment or closed in the face of the economic down turn. LINK

The Director of  Regeneration and Major Projects, Andy Donald,  responsible for the Executive report, will be authorised to set up the Meanwhile Foundation with Locality and other partners and enter into a Framework agreement on behalf of Brent Council with the national Meanwhile Foundation to set up a Brent Meanwhile Partnership. The reports notes that the Director of Regeneration and Major Projects will most likely be the Council's representative on the Foundation Board.

Regeneration and Major Projects, already involved with the controversial Willesden Green Library Redevelopment and the Civic Centre and responsible for the upcoming massive school expansion programme, is already the most powerful Brent Council department.  The Meanwhile Project represents a further extension of this power.

Donald is keen on projects that, on the surface at least, are at  no or little cost to the Council, and that makes him popular with Labour councillors. Perhaps they should bear in mind the popular expression about free lunches.. The report states:

In partnership with Locality, Brent Council will jointly form the Meanwhile Foundation as a new national charity with Brent contributing the essential £5,000 start-up income and Locality providing development time and expertise in kind. The £5000 will be drawn from the New Initiatives budget.

The Brent Meanwhile Partnership will then contribute to the Meanwhile Foundation a sum of £10,000 per annum for 5 years. In the first two years, this sum will be paid from the council’s New Initiatives budget, but it is intended that from years 3 – 5, the contribution will be paid by surpluses generated from using assets on a temporary basis (it is these assets that the Foundation will carry the tenancies for). The council should keep under review its involvement beyond five years. The contributions will be used to meet the on-going administrative costs of the Foundation.

Clearly these are small sums in terms of initial funding but in the medium term funding is dependent on the generation surpluses from the temporary assets. However, the Foundation as well as being a charity will be a company limited by guarantee, and this will reduce their liabilities to a maximum of £1 if the company became insolvent.

The renting out of these premises would be subsidised by reductions in rates (Non Domestic Discretionary Rates - NNDR) but these are due to be replaced in April 2013 under the Localism Act 2011. The Council will have powers to reduce rates but the report notes that details are not yet available and warns that the impact on Council revenue needs to be taken into account.

Prospective tenants should be warned that a special 'meanwhile lease' will apply:

A particular characteristic of the lease is that it removes provisions in respect of security of tenure under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954. For tenants this means that they have no legal right to remain in the property at the end of the term and no legal right to apply to the landlord for a new lease. The tenant might request a new lease from the landlord but the landlord is not obliged to agree to this and it will be a matter for negotiation between the parties. In this respect, the lease protects landlords from occupants claiming ‘squatters’  rights’ …

It is anticipated that the tenancy model for this scenario would be that there is a head lease signed between the landlord and the council, and then a meanwhile tenancy between the council and the Foundation. This agreement will be tilted in favour of the council so that it is not exposed to tenancy risks

These are complex arrangements and it is to be hoped that councillors study them in complex detail before the Executive before  rubber stamping them.

Below you can find further explanation from the report going before the Executive. The paragraph in bold is particularly interesting in the light of the Council's arguments over the Willesden Bookshop.

The term “meanwhile” is used to describe the use of vacant premises or land while it is not being used – it is the pause in the development process between the old and the new. This pause can be a few months or a number of years. The use of vacant premises has become an issue high on political agendas as people see the impact of the recession at street level. Vacancy often suggests an area is in decline, and vacancy often leads to further vacancy.

Using vacant premises can have cumulative beneficial impacts on high streets within regeneration areas: the reduction in vacancy can lead to further business investment in an area that appears lively and animated; the spaces can be used for business start ups or community based projects; and they can reduce the incidence of vandalism.

Empty property is now readily available. Landlords are becoming wise to the benefits of letting their premises on a ‘meanwhile tenancy’ as this relieves them of empty premises business rates liabilities and security costs. As demonstrated in Willesden Green and Wembley, these premises can be secured on favourable terms.

In the last two years, the council has embarked on a series of successful meanwhile projects to assist with delivering regeneration within South Kilburn, Wembley and Willesden Green. The South Kilburn Studios project transformed a derelict portacabin site in the estate and, now within its second year, is providing workspace and valuable training opportunities to local people. In the Wembley Triangle section of the High Road and Wembley Hill Road, a long term vacant shop unit is being brought into use

to provide people with an opportunity to explore how they want to interact with Wembley and use the high number of empty spaces to develop ideas for business and community ideas and try them in a low cost and low risk arena.

In Wembley there are also swathes of vacant land that is not due for development for several years. This could be used to help deliver the council’s regenerative objectives in the area. In South Kilburn, the council has already delivered South Kilburn Studios in partnership with the South Kilburn Neighbourhood Trust and it is likely that further opportunities for projects will be presented as the regeneration programme rolls forward. In Willesden Green, the council has delivered an Outer London Fund project

on the high street taking on vacant units, providing design advice to existing traders, using space in the Willesden Green Library Centre and forming a local town team of interested stakeholders.

 Lessons learned from these projects include:

• there is significant inherent value in property that can lever regenerative benefits by extracting social benefits from physical assets;

• business rates liabilities can render meanwhile projects unviable;

• procuring a team that can deliver the quality of outcomes can be difficult when constrained by the existing procurement guidelines and financial regulations required by the council;

• projects that intend to use privately owned commercial premises can benefit from specialist meanwhile property expertise to secure tenancies;

• imported and curated project start ups can miss opportunities to develop and foster grassroots interest to the particular local neighbourhood; and

• projects without a sustainable business model can require an on-going subsidy, albeit these can be small sums that may be justified by the quality of outcomes from projects.

In consideration of the lessons learned, it has become apparent that existing and future projects could substantially benefit from a form of governance vehicle that can be “asset controlling”, “asset using” and “enabling” to strengthen the council’s ability to set up and maintain effective meanwhile projects, and in particular:

• help to relieve the council of tenancy risks that can arise from such projects;

• allow projects to benefit from business rates relief to enable projects to be financially viable;

• ensure the quality of outcomes for projects by streamlining procurement process and allowing the forward funding of projects; and

• secure the sustainability and proper governance of successful projects.

Hard work and imagination could produce a mini food growing revolution in Brent

Spring watering on my Birchen Grove allotment

 Over 90% of respondents agreed with the vision and main objectives of Brent Council's draft allotments and food growing strategy according to a report going before the Executive on August 20th. LINK

More than 500 alloment holders and people on the waiting list responded and there was a meeting attended by 430 people.

The main messages of the consultation were:

• That the tenancy agreement is no longer fit for purpose and needs to be reviewed and reissued to allotment plot holder and the role of Site Representatives and the election process require review

• Consideration should be given to giving waiting list preference to Brent residents over non-residents

• Larger plots should be reduced in size upon vacancy to increase the number of plots available and reduce waiting list times.

• The fees and charges structure should be reviewed with consideration given to the introduction of differential pricing for residents and non-residents and the revision of concession rates to include an element of means testing.

• Options should be explored with regard to extending the number of self-managed allotment sites.

• Work needs to be undertaken on increasing engagement from under represented sections of the community as identified in the Equalities Impact Assessment.

• There is huge scope for increased partnership working and the promotion of the wider benefits of food growing to schools, social housing, health providers and arts organisations to raise awareness, increase capacity and establish a network of advocates.

• Although options for new permanent allotment sites are currently limited, there will be significant opportunities for the provision of temporary food growing sites, particularly in the Wembley and South Kilburn areas as part of regeneration projects.

• Ward working funding may be available for allotment sites and food growing projects and there is potential for closer collaboration between the council and independent food growing schemes to build on the work of the Brent Sustainability Forum.

• Future potential for the provision of raised bed schemes in parks and open spaces should be explored in appropriate areas which are identified as currently having an inadequate number of allotment sites and alternative food spaces.

• Stronger emphasis should be placed on the benefits of organic gardening, sustainable food supplies, land use and biodiversity as outlined in the council’s Green Charter.

There is much to be welcomed here and with a little imagination and hard work we should see benefits quite quickly.  

One immediate action should be to speed up the reallocation of unworked plots - there are a considerable number at Birchen Grove which are covered in grass and brambles and are harder to reclaim and cultivate the longer they are left.

So what is the Olympic legacy for the people of Brent?

Harlesden street stall

One of many T shirt designs

Kingston

There was a fantastic atmosphere in Harlesden yesterday after Usain Bolt's performance in the Olympics. Along with the recent celebration of 50 years of Independence there was evidence of renewed pride in Jamaican heritage.  Jamaican colours were everywhere in shop windows, street stalls and especially on people,  young and old. Small children carried Jamaican flags and one woman proudly showed me matching green, yellow and black flip flops, t-short and beads.  A grandmother told me how she had let her grand-daughter  stay up to watch Bolt compete and another said that she had recorded everything so that her grandchildren could view the historic moments again and again.

Perhaps what was most impressive was that non-Jamaicans were also celebrating, somehow with Jamaicans such a vital part of Brent's community, we were suddenly all Jamaicans and sharing in the joy.

As last week the euphoria was accompanied by anger by militancy over the potential closure of Central Middlesex Accident and Emergency with many of those signing the petition people who have used the facility and a good few who were also workers at local hospitals.

Mohamed Farah

With daughter Rihanna

 Mohamed Farah's two gold medals are  likely to impact on the Somali community in Brent (putting aside disputes over rival claims from Somalia and Somaliland) and its status in Britain. Farah like many of his generation came to Britain  as a child (at the age of 8) and has built a successful life in London.  Children are likely to identify with his daughter Rihanna as she danced and ran around joyously after her father's victories. Mohamed's self-identification as a UK citizen of Somali origin has significance for the many Brent Somalis who have gained citizenship.

Greeting the Olympic Torch in Forty Lane

When children get back to school in September it will be interesting to see what impact the Olympics have made on them from the initial excitement over the Torch procession (above) through the opening ceremony to the actual events.  I was e-mailed by a German journalist a week or so ago asking about the 'Olympic legacy' in local schools. I am afraid I never replied but I guess the real answer is that it remains to be seen - it is not just the sporting legacy (which must include the success of women athletes) but something much more about children's motivation, how different groups feel about themselves and each other, and the nature of our diverse community.

It is good that these aspects, perhaps sign-posted in advance by the opening ceremony have far out-weighed the impact of the corporate sponsors.

In her poem for the Guardian, Carol Ann Duffy, went further to link the Olympics with broader political issues.

Translating the British 2012

A summer of rain, then a gap in the clouds
and The Queen jumped from the sky
to the cheering crowds.
               We speak Shakespeare here,
a hundred tongues, one-voiced; the moon bronze or silver,
sun gold, from Cardiff to Edinburgh
               by way of London Town,
on the Giant's Causeway;
we say we want to be who we truly are,
now, we roar it. Welcome to us.
We've had our pockets picked,
               the soft, white hands of bankers,
bold as brass, filching our gold, our silver;
we want it back.
We are Mo Farah lifting the 10,000 metres gold.
We want new running-tracks in his name.
For Jessica Ennis, the same; for the Brownlee brothers,
Rutherford, Ohuruogu, Whitlock, Tweddle,
for every medal earned,
we want school playing-fields returned.
Enough of the soundbite abstract nouns,
austerity, policy, legacy, of tightening metaphorical belts;
we got on our real bikes,
for we are Bradley Wiggins,
               side-burned, Mod, god;
we are Sir Chris Hoy,
Laura Trott, Victoria Pendleton, Kenny, Hindes,
Clancy, Burke, Kennaugh and Geraint Thomas,
               Olympian names.
We want more cycle lanes.
               Or we saddled our steed,
or we paddled our own canoe,
or we rowed in an eight or a four or a two;
our names, Glover and Stanning; Baillie and Stott;
Adlington, Ainslie, Wilson, Murray,
               Valegro (Dujardin's horse).
We saw what we did. We are Nicola Adams and Jade Jones,
bring on the fighting kids.
               We sense new weather.
We are on our marks. We are all in this together.

Ed, Dan and Mo and the tale of a library

From the Good Library Blog LINK

A hundred years ago, All Souls College in Oxford, who own land in the area of Willesden in North London, gave a part of it to Willesden Council for the purpose of a public library and reading room

The only condition of the free gift was that the building, which is in Kensal Rise, should remain used in that way.

If it stopped being used like that, then the ownership of building and land would 'revert' to All Souls. The deed which states all this is clear and still exists. The responsibilities that lay with Willesden council have since become responsibilities of the London Borough of Brent 

Earlier this year, in 2012, Brent Council decided - for some reason that is still not completely and properly explained- that it no longer wanted to use this 'Kensal Rise Library' and they removed, in the middle of the night, the council's assets, like books and furniture and art, thus making it, in their eyes, no longer a library.

And so, as the original deed had envisaged, the building 'reverted' to the ownership of All Souls College - who rather to their surprise and astonishment, find themselves with a large building in North London which is currently empty and unused. 

The local people of Kensal Rise in long running despair of the actions of their local council have tried every which way they can to prevent the closure of their library. Their efforts are noble, considerable and now world famous. They include the creation of a community library within the precinct of the building in an attempt to prevent the 'reverter' clause from acting. (the library cat is called Rusty)

One would have thought that the normal response of councillors and highly paid public officials in Brent, to the local people, would have been to be sympathetic, at least, and to explain their reasons and even, if it were possible, to bend their conclusions and plans to try to help meet the desires of the residents.

On the contrary, the constant response of Brent's Labour Council has been to sneer, to deride, to deceive, to dismiss and in the end to behave in the most disgraceful and even disgusting manner possible. The local people in response have only been articulate and polite in their argument for the importance of this and other community libraries.

The council's behaviour indeed, caused sufficient embarrassment in Labour Headquarters, which are not so far away that the waves of public derision passed them by, that both Ed Millband, the leader and Dan Jarvis, the spokesperson for public libraries, weighed in and tried to make it appear all right. They even tried to arrange for some dialogue where very little had taken place beforehand. 

But this has all proved to be water in the sunshine - they were unable to make any difference

To the list of evils for which one must blame all these Labour Politicians and dandies, one must add deep dishonour. 

Brent Council should have returned Kensal Rise Library, if it was going to do that, in at least as good a state of repair as they received it from All Souls 

All Souls are now faced with a repair bill of Five Hundred Thousand Pounds - which is the cost of putting right a building neglected by those people to whom it was given in good faith and trust. 

If Dan Jarvis is to persuade anyone that he is credible in his arguments - and particularly when he accuses others of failing in their responsibilities for public libraries, as he regularly does,- then he and Ed Millband, should tell the Labour Councillors of Brent that good honour and honest behaviour - to say nothing of normal practice in the use of other peoples' property- demands that they immediately make over Five Hundred Thousand Pounds for the renovation of the building that they dilapidated. 

If only all these people were just honest, simple and straightforward there would be no problem with public libraries. Oh I wish

More very large primary schools on their way in Brent

Map of phased developments

Apart from the decision to seek partnerships with free schools and academies (below), another controversial but undebated consequence of the School Review going before the Brent Executive REPORT is to increase the average size of Brent primary schools with some having more than 1,000 pupils (excluding nursery).

I continue with the view that 4-11 year olds need educating in a small and manageable learning community where staff are well-known to them and the geography of the building negotiable.  Such provision will now be rare in Brent with faith schools generally smaller than local authority schools.

There are plans to utilise closed down libraries to form annexes to existing schools, at some distance from the parent school. The Preston Library building will be removed from the Council disposal list to provide extra classes for Preston Park Primary and Kensal Rise Library will be reviewed for additional classes for Princess Frederica Primary.

Following the all-through schools at Ark and Preston Manor primary provision is being considered at Wembley High and Newman College.There is a proposal to co-locate Manor school for special needs pupils on the Braintcroft site where the Braintcroft building would be rebuilt.

The Report does not go into detail about the impact on playground and playing field space available to pupils when the schools are expanded but my Freedom of Information request earlier this year showed a reduction in space per pupil in the recent expansions LINK 

The following details are extracted from the report which includes notes and caveats on each proposal. My capacity figures do not include any temporary bulge classes or nursery classes.

 

Phase 1 by Sept 2013	Current capacity	Future capacity
Barham	630	840
Fryent	420	840
Mitchell Brook	420	630
St Robert Southwell	315	420
Phase 2 by Sept 2014
Wykeham	420	630
Uxendon	420	840
Preston Park	630	1050
Wembley High (new primary on site)	0	840
Vicar’s Green (Ealing)	315	420
Chalkhill	420	840
Harlesden	420	630
St Joseph Primary	420	630
Leopold	420	630
Northview	210	420
Princess Frederica	420	630
Phase 3 by September 2015
Mount Stewart Inf nd Jnr	630	840
Elsley	420	840
Stonebridge	420	630
Malorees Inf and Jnr	420	840
Braintcroft	630	1,050
Carlton Vale Inf and Kilburn Park Jnr	420	630
Oriental City (new primary school)	0	420
Kingsbury Green	630	1,050
Phase 4 between Sept 2016 and Sep 2018
St Joseph Inf and Jnr	420	630
Quintain site-Wembley new primary school	0	420
Our Lady of Lourdes RC	420	630
John Keble C of E	420	630
St Andrew and St Francis	520	630
Newman College (Sec) – new primary school on site	0	420

The report forecasts  a 'significant' shortage of secondary school places by September 2014 and a report on this sector will be tabled in December. This seems rather last minute as the number of pupils in our primary schools has obviously been known for some time.

Brent Council to 'vigorously' pursue free schools

The middle of August is often the time when controversial proposals are published and this August is no exception. The Brent Executive on August 20th will be discussing a major report arising from a comprehensive review of educational provision in the borough.

The issue of free schools has divided Brent Labour Party and the report attempts to satisfy both sides of the debate.

Officers recommend that the Council should 'vigorously pursue' partnerships with free school providers as well as academy providers and notes that any new schools arising from Section 106 agreements with Quintain in Wembley (Fulton Road) and in Oriental City, would, under the current national framework, have to be academies or free schools. Such schools will be necessary because expansion of existing schools is not sufficient to meet anticipated demand and in order to utilise this funding stream to remove the need for prudential borrowing. They say  that the Council would have to be 'extremely careful' about identifying preferred providers and propose the following partnership commitment from potential free school and academies providers:

Academies and free school providers working with the Council will be expected to demonstrate:

1. An absolute commitment to the ethos and values of inclusive education for all Brent’s children and recognition of the positive role schools should play in the wider community.

2. A commitment to a close working relationship with the local authority in order to maintain an appropriate focus on borough-wide priorities, including local authority nomination of a member of the governing body and a commitment to sharing performance information.

3. The ability to deliver school improvement in an urban context.

4. That the establishment of the proposed education provision would be supported by demonstrable parental demand and with a genuine commitment to providing school places for local children.

5. Appropriate staffing arrangements to ensure high quality teaching and learning from qualified staff and good employment practices, including in relation to support and contracted staff.

6. A commitment to meeting the needs of Brent’s diverse community.

7. A commitment to ensuring the future employability of young people (in particular in secondary and 16 to 19) through links with business, industry and higher education.

8. A commitment to community access and use of facilities through agreed extended opening and lettings policy.

9. A commitment to good pupil nutrition and healthy eating.

10. A commitment to inclusive practice and fair access to the school for all pupils as governed by the Admission Code of Practice and the Authority’s Fair Access Protocols.

The partnership commitment clearly addresses concerns over issues such as the employment of unqualified teachers,  working conditions, poor quality school meals and selection. However, Conservative academy and free school advocates are likely to see this as an attempt to get academy and free school funding for 'local authority schools in disguise' - lacking the 'freedoms' that such schools are supposed to enjoy.