Northwick Park A&E won't cope after reorganisation

If reorganisation proposals go ahead and Central Middlesex Hospital A&E closes, Northwick Park will be the nearest A&E for most Brent residents. It is clear that the hospital is not coping now, let alone after the closure of Central Middlesex A&E.

From the Harrow Times this week:

All Souls claim space earmarked for libraries in redevelopment proposals

All Souls College has now told the Brent and Kilburn Times LINK that their proposals put to developers of the Kensal Rise and Cricklewood library sites includes an allocated space for a library as well as flats.
 
Margaret Bailey, of Friends of Kensal Rise Library is quoted by the BKT as saying: :

Disappointingly and surprisingly the college has gone for a developer who wants to develop the building by putting in flats and would be willing to offer a small space to us.

We will meet with this developer next week to see if there is any room for negotiation. Once we know what is on offer we will be having a public meeting to share these details and find out how to proceed

All Souls College sells out to developers

The Brent and Kilburn Times reports that All Souls College are to sell the Cricklewood and Kensal Rise libraries to developers, despite the pleas of local library campaigners that they be handed over to the community. LINK

Friends of Kensal Rise Library had raised more than £70,000 to fund their proposal.

The land is now likely to be used to build flats.

All Souls College is a registered charity with assets of £264,000,000. Clearly in this case money talks.

My admiration and sympathy goes out to the campaigners who fought so hard for what in any worthwhile society should be a given: an accessible, free public library and public space.

Time to put the Climate Emergency back on the national and global agenda

Earlier this week I chaired a joint meeting of Brent Campaign Against Climate Change and Brent Friends of the Earth to hear a talk from Phil Thornhill, National Coordinator of the Campaign Against Climate Change.

He spoke about the recent evidence on the reduction in the volume of the polar icecap and its consequences in terms of severe weather events. Governments continue to ignore the extent of the climate crisis with potential cataclysmic events occurring much earlier than climate scientists have previously forecast. He went on to suggest that NGOs, alongside politicians, were bound to a 'softly, softly' approach, that failed to confront the public with the stark reality that the world population face. The food crisis is already upon us and will worsen with potential global conflicts and large population movements.

Brian Orr, chair of Brent Green Party, who works with the Arctic Methane Emergency Group(AMEG) spoke passionately about the impact of methane gas release as the melt continues. His conclusion that geoengineering was required to meet the threat, because emissions reduction would not have a rapid enough impact to avert catastrophe, led to some heated exchanges about the risks.

This is AMEG's position LINK:

AMEG is confident that the crisis can still be averted successfully provided that immediate action is taken to cool the Arctic. This will inevitably involve a degree of intervention known as geoengineering as we have no other options to achieve the necessary rate and intensity of cooling required to stabilise the sea ice and buy time. AMEG therefore calls for urgent further research into technologies to help cool the Arctic and for tests and preparations to start without delay in order to be ready for rapid deployment of some of the more effective (and safe) techniques that are currently available for regional cooling of the Arctic. We must avert further collapse of sea ice and subsequent climate catastrophe. AMEG warns there is a real risk of further (and theoretically even nearly total) ice collapse by summer 2013.

AMEG stresses that to effectively reduce the threat of catastrophic climate change governments around the world must commit to a comprehensive plan of action and that geoengineering methods to cool the Arctic are now required on at least a temporary basis. AMEG repeats that it is also imperative for governments to act to immediately start reducing emissions dramatically.

Climate change has taken a backseat recently as attention focuses on the economic crisis and campaigners face an uphill battle in getting it back on the agenda.  The Campaign Against Climate Change stresses the urgency of the issue and calls for massive support for December 1st:

This year has seen the passing of an awesome milestone in the accelerating escalation of the climate crisis. It has now reached the stage where it is altering the planet's basic geography with the all too plainly visible vanishing of summertime arctic sea ice. The  "tipping points" we have heard so much about are no longer just a talking point for the distant future - we have every appearance of being in the process of hitting one right now.

Yet even as the world is poised on the brink of a tragedy of unimaginable scale, none of our leaders seems to be so much as blinking an eyelid in response. Worse than that humanity is engaged in a madcap suicidal dash to unearth  yet more of what caused the problem in the first place - fossil fuels. Even as some fossil fuels are becoming more expensive to extract new types - of often more carbon intensive - fossil fuel are being discovered and exploited.

We believe it's time to "get fracktious" about the criminal insanity of the way we are responding to probably the biggest threat humanity has ever faced.

Please join us on 1st December to bear witness to the gravity of the crisis that's unfolding..... see more about the imminent disappearance of summertime arctic ice here and here. Download our leaflet about it here.  See how the disproportionately rapid warming of the arctic is effecting the jet stream and causing extreme  weather events that are already disrupting agriculture and  forcing up food prices, hitting the world's most vulnerable hardest  - here.

We will also be targeting the insanity of the drive towards exploiting more - and new types of - fossil fuel. We will be acting in solidarity with the many local campaigns around the country resisting the expansion into this country of the risky and destructive pratcice of 'hydraulic fracturing' or "fracking" for previously un-tappable "shale gas". This is a major prop for George Osborne's new "dash for gas" which threatens to expand the exploitation of this fossil fuel in a way that would effectively blow the (inadequate but hard fought for) Climate Act out of the water (see here).

How much autonomy should local councils have?

UNLOCK DEMOCRACY have sent this message:

The Political and Constitutional Reform Committee is currently exploring the possibility of putting the relationship between central and local government into writing. They’ve written a draft code for this, which covers a range of issues about the powers a local government should have.

They’re keen to find out what the public thinks about local government and what powers central government should have over local councils, and they’ve launched a public consultation. Unlock Democracy will be submitting evidence evidence to the consultation, and we’d like to best represent your views in what we say.

We’ve launched a web survey to gather your views on the relationship between local and central government. Do you have two minutes to participate?

Take the survey now!

It’s a simple yes/no questionnaire which will help us understand what our supporters think about powers that local and central government should have, and the level of autonomy for local councils. Your answers will form the basis of our submission to the Committee.

If you’d like to participate in the consultation yourself, you can find more information about it here, with a copy of the draft code. Make sure you’ve sent the Committee your responses by Monday 5th November.
However, we appreciate that many of you will not have the time to do this, which is exactly why we’ve set up the survey so we can help get your views across.

Please participate today.
Take the survey now!
Many thanks,
Peter Facey

Brent Town Hall Customer Services to end Nov 12th

From Monday 12 November 2012 Brent Customer Services will no longer be at Brent Town Hall.

You can visit Brent Customer Services at Brent House, 349-357 High Road, Wembley, HA9 6BZ instead for information or advice about:

• housing and council tax benefits
• council tax
• school admissions
• recycling and waste
• planning
• social care
• general council services.

They are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm

Four borough 'super-contract' reduced to three

The four borough 'public realm' procurement contract led by Brent Council has been reduced to three after the London Borough of Richmond dropped out. The contract would cover waste management, recycling, street cleansing, and parks maintenance and include Brent Housing Partnership. A report to the Brent Executive states:

Late last week the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames decided not to participate in the joint procurement because of the need to award a contract starting in April 2014 to meet Brent’s requirements. This would give Richmond a long period of time with an incumbent provider who might not win the contract, giving a risk of having to manage poor performance.

This leaves the boroughs of Hounslow and Barnet. Hounslow has recently awarded a 25 year street cleaning contract so that will not be included. A proposal for Brent and Hounslow to share a Director of Public Health was withdrawn from the agenda of the Brent Executive after it encountered oppositon from within the Brent Labour Group.

Meanwhile Barnet Council is in considerable disarray after its Chief Executive moved on. Cllr Brian Coleman, ex-GLA member, is facing  expulsion from the Conservative group on the council after being arrested and charged with common assault.

Despite the circumstances the Brent report remains upbeat.

The business case for the collaborative procurement with Barnet and Hounslow is still robust. Both councils are still committed to the project and are taking a report to their Cabinets in November 2012.

The slightly reduced scale of the contract helps to mitigate some of the procurement risks set out in paragraphs 3.4.4, 3.4.9 and 3.4.11 of the main report to the Executive:

a slightly smaller contract may encourage other companies to bid

subject to specification development, it will be easier to align services with just one borough where we share boundaries than across four.

The governance arrangements will be updated to reflect the withdrawal of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames