Further strike action planned as Copland staff fight ARK Academy takeover

Press release from union members at Copland Community School

Staff from the three teacher unions voted unanimously at a well attended meeting yesterday at Copland Community School to take further strike action over plans by the Interim Executive Board (IEB) to hand over the school to the ARK academy chain. The 'consultation' which they have announced including a public meeting is a sham.

Councillor Pavey, who was elected as lead member for Children and Families on the basis he was opposed to academies and free schools[1], has made it clear he supports ARK taking over Copland. He justifies this by saying that Copland 'is different' but cannot provide any supporting evidence for his decision regarding Copland. Redbridge Council which is Conservative has defended democratic, locally-run education and prevented Snaresbrook Primary being forced to be an academy

It is inflated hype about the academic ‘success’ of the Wembley Ark Academy. They have only just started their Year 10 intake. Copland is already improving as was shown by their exam results this summer.

Of course ARK will have the benefit of the new school building at Copland which has already been agreed. The spin doctors are trying to make it sound that ARK will be responsible for this.

Hank Roberts, Brent ATL Secretary said:

The consultation is a joke. They have already decided that the head of the ARK academy will be the joint headteacher of both schools and they have already decided it will be an ARK academy. They have offered no choice, and will seek to go ahead whatever the 'consultation' results. We are united in opposition to this. 

Tom Stone, Acting NASUWT said,:

It is quite scandalous how the pupils and staff are now being treated at Copland School. They have suffered enough. Their ex Head teacher is a convicted criminal and now their combined souls are being given over to an Academy chain that has no real interest in them, but is VERY interested in the future profit they can make from the school and their site.

Lesley Gouldbourne, Joint NUT Secretary said:

Brent Council and the IEB claim that converting to an academy will improve results. There is absolutely no evidence  for this and increasingly in fact the opposite. The tide is turning against academies. For example Sweden which used to be quoted by Gove is now dismantling them.

 As reported widely and in the Independent on 8/11/13:

More than 30 academies have been warned they must pull their socks up - or their sponsor could face the sack, the Government disclosed today.

[1]          Quote from Cllr Pavey on his blog 29.5.13 “I dislike the Academy system. There is no evidence that Academisation leads to improved educational outcomes. Academies fragment educational provision – when it should be based on local co-operation. And worst of all, Academisation is a step towards marketisation of education”.

Not:e The Chair of Ofsted (which condemned Copland to forced Academy status) is Dame Sally Morgan. Dame Sally Morgan is also an ‘Advisor’ to Ark Academies.

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Sabina Khan, 'a unique combination', sends confident message to Brent Labour Party members

As Labour's Brent Central selection committee begins the task of interviewing candidates, Sabina Khan has sent this confident message out to Labour Party members:

Dear friends and members in Brent Central,

Please accept my heartfelt thanks for your patience and support in considering me in your branch nominations recently.

Thanks to you I have been nominated in 5 out of 9 wards including the largest wards, as your preferred candidate and for giving me the most nominations out of all 38 candidates.

I am also grateful to have been nominated by the Co-operative Party and GMB Union and am truly honoured and humbled by members' support across Brent Central.
 
 A fresh start

I offer a unique combination of local roots, experience in business and family life coupled with strong Labour values and experience. I have knocked on thousands of doors in Brent over the years and as a mum and community activist have unrivalled understanding of local issues and know what it it takes to beat the Lib Dems.

Your support has shown that I am able to appeal to Labour members from all areas of the constituency and now, with your support, be the candidate who will appeal to the whole of Brent Central's electorate. 

If we want a different outcome from last time, we need to do things differently this time.

I am not fighting for any other seat nor seeking reselection to Parliament. Neither is it simply a stepping stone to Parliament but a desire to represent the community and area which formed me and where two generations of my family live.

As a local mum, campaigner, small business owner working with manufacturing industries and genuinely locally known politician I can win Brent Central back for Labour and keep it Labour.

I hope to meet you all in the coming weeks and am asking for your support and first preference in the upcoming candidate selection on 7th December.

Stop Barnet Council stealing Cricklewood's green space for developers

The Green Space (Green Isle)

The Coalition for a Sustainable Brent Cross Development has learned that under revised plans to go before Barnet planning committee in January 2014 the green space outside B&Q (known as the 'Green Isle') will be built over in Phase one.  Despite Cricklewood Town Team having popular plans to plant trees and utilise part of the space for a market in the short term, this green space has been parcelled up and sold for high density development as part of the Brent Cross Cricklewood development over a mile away.

The green space on Cricklewood Lane will be covered by a five storey building, right up to the pavement line. Phase one could begin within 3 years.

The view towards the bridge now

The view when the green space is built on

     

Lesley Turner, Barnet resident and BXC coalition member says:

This green space was given to Cricklewood community at the end of the eighties, as compensation or section 106 planning gain, when Food Giant (now B&Q) was built on the site. The Green does not belong to Barnet but to Cricklewood and we have asked Barnet to see the original 106 agreement. We will be challenging Barnet over the legality of the disposal or change of use of this land. 

Lia Colacicco, Mapesbury resident and member of the BXC coalition added:

Cricklewood Town Team identified that Cricklewood needs a landmark at its centre, and a town square.  The Green Isle is our only public space, used for the Silk Road festival and other community events and now it will be snatched from us.  This piece of land is totally unrelated to the BXC development a couple of miles away, but has been wrapped up with it to gain outline planning permission.  Barnet Councillors should be held to account for this stealthy disposal of green land. It is a generic piece of land to the developers, but means everything to us and needs to be unwrapped from BXC, or become the subject of a land swap. The site might not be pretty now, but look at how Mapesbury Dell has been transformed.

Once excavated it would be a real asset to the community as a plaza or other open space. 

Fiona Colgan from the Groves Community Action Group said:

My neighbours and I have written to our councillors and MP to strongly oppose the plan to build on our only local green space.  Cricklewood spans three boroughs - we are asking  Brent and Camden councils to call  Barnet to account.  

 Accommodation in the Groves is very high density and Cricklewood Lane gets very congested and polluted so this green space is particularly important to us but it's clear that everyone in Cricklewood would benefit if this land was retained as our 'town green’ at the heart of our community.  I think Barnet needs to explain why the green space in front of B&Q wasn’t included in its calculations of green space. Those of us who live in this part of the borough often feel overlooked by Barnet who do not seem to realise that we need green space as much as those who live in the wealthier, leafier parts of the borough to the North.

 The Coalition group urges people to attend the public consultation this week:

     

Consultation on Tuesday 12 and Wednesday 13 November from 11am to 8pm at Hendon Leisure Centre, Marble Drive, NW2 1XQ.

Comments need to be sent to nicola.capeli@barnet.gov.uk by 6th December

An on-line petition has been launched to save the Green Isle LINK

Further information on the Brent Cross Coalition website: LINK

ARK Academy: And the dismissal letters went out two by two...

Guest post by 'Ark Angel'

Full union meeting at Copland today as letters go out to those facing the chop next April in the next stage of the cull: only about 50 teachers  took ‘voluntary’ redundancy or otherwise bailed out in the summer. This was not good enough and Targets Must Be Met so some more will have to go. During and after the meeting a number of points were raised including:

·         The fact that the Chair of Ofsted  (which condemned Copland to forced Academy status) is Dame Sally Morgan. Dame Sally Morgan is also an ‘Advisor’ to Ark  Academies. Ark Academies is the business that Copland is being flogged off to*. (This kind of potential conflict of interest is one about which Private Eye magazine has been trying for some time without success to get a straight answer from Ofsted).

·         The reputation that Academies have of a very high staff turnover-rate as a result of poor conditions of service and a bullying management  culture. Reports of teachers on one year contracts only being told on the last day of summer term that their contract was terminated, with no chance even to say goodbye to their classes .

·         The inflated claims of the ‘success’ of the Wembley Ark Academy when they’ve only just got a third year of secondary students in. Even Ian Duncan Smith could manage that, (especially if his school had an ‘Advisor’ who was also Chair of Ofsted). 

·         The inability of Michael Pavey to provide any solid supporting evidence for his decisions regarding Copland other than ones which are inherently compromised by, for example, the historic exceptionalism of Copland’s mismanagement at school and local authority level; events at Crest;  the ability of even Tory Redbridge Council to defend democratic, locally-run education;  and the dubious integrity of an Ofsted organisation which is generally seen as an arm of Michael Gove’s DfE  (with some questionable links to Academy chains). 

·         The timing. The tide is turning against Academies. Sweden is no longer mentioned by Gove because they’ve gone off Academies. Finland never had them despite being praised by Gove. Only half the schools in this country are Academies and comparable countries to ours are dismantling them. Soon they’ll be seen as an historical aberration. Like Betamax. Or Simon Cowell’s trousers.

The mood of the meeting was resolute and determined. Action against the Ark plans and the axing of staff looks like being stepped up.

Next stage of the cull will be Management.

*For  Dame Sally’s inevitable expenses scandal details, see LINK

Projection of Brent Council rent increases

The table below shows the potential rent increases as proposed in Brent Council's rent strategy using the formula set out in the Appendix. The Retail Price Index (RPI) will be used for 2014-15 and I have set that at 3.5%. It will be replaced in the formula in 2015-16 by the Consumers Price Index (CPI) which is generally a little lower than the RPI and I have projected that at 3%.  Obviously this could change drastically depending on inflation and the economic situation so treat the figures with caution.

I have based the table on a current notional rent of £100 per week. (You can download a copy of this as an Excel spreadsheet and enter your own rent to see the projected increase for HERE)

Year	Rent (Weekly)	RPI/CPI	+0.5%	"+1%	Sub-Total	plus £2 per  week
2014-15	100.00	3.50	0.50		104.00	106.00
2015-16	106.00	3.18		1.06	110.24	112.24
2016-17	112.24	3.37		1.12	116.73	118.73
2017-18	118.73	3.56		1.19	123.48	125.48
2018-19	125.48	3.76		1.25	130.50	132.50
2019-20	132.50	3.97		1.32	137.80	139.80

Plea for community to rally to aid of elderly couple homeless after house fire

Guest blog from Cllr Alison Hopkins

Some may have seen reported in the local paper that a house in Review Road in my Dollis Hill ward was recently very badly damaged by fire. The occupants are an elderly couple and their son. The house is uninhabitable, so they're all homeless. And, they were uninsured, for reasons I won’t go into, so there's no help from that quarter. The son is finding himself accommodation and is employed part time, so will at least not be on the streets.

 

The parents, however, have far more serious problems. Their daughter lives in Ireland with her own family, and came straight to London as soon as she heard what had happened. She’s spent the past ten days trying to get help, initially from Brent Council, and then contacted both Sarah Teather and me.  She called me Friday, distraught, as she’s had really minimal help from Brent. Initially, they refused any help at all, as the parents “had an asset”, in the shape of a burnt out house! She persuaded them to accommodate both parents and son in a hostel till the 10th November, then spent all day Friday trying to persuade Brent Housing to extend this. Asking for ID and proof of the fire when everything has been lost was not the best reply she could have got.  Brent eventually agreed to extend the hostel until the 16th November, but this obviously isn't any kind of solution: the house will have to be sold, as is, as there’s no money to refurbish it. It’s uninhabitable, and the couple have nowhere to go.  A hostel is also not the best place for an elderly couple in poor health.

 

I’ve rounded up some help from our community: Ashford Place will be meeting the daughter tomorrow, I’ve asked if the local parish can help, contacted a local business to see if anything can be done, and Daniels have offered to give advice on the house sale issue. The father is ex RAF, so I’ve also suggested the RAF Benevolent Association and the British Legion as possible help, plus the Red Cross. There’s a lot of debris to clear, and I may have someone helping with that.

 

I did manage to get hold of Brent’s Regeneration Director late Friday night: his remit includes housing, and he’s promised to look into this urgently.  I will, as you may imagine, not let up on that.

 

In the meantime, though, HELP! The house needs a tarpaulin to stop more rain damage. It needs clearing and rubbish removed – as I say, I may have someone who can help on removal, but anything on that would be hugely appreciated. . The couple need somewhere to live for the time being, which I realise is a big ask, but can anyone help with that? Are there builders, or handymen willing to do any kind of patch up? Or more! I know we’ve got a very strong community here, and I think that we can work to help this couple.  In the longer term, they’ll need furniture and household goods, too.

 

Please contact me on cllr.alison.hopkins@brent.gov.uk if you can help and/or have sources, or other ideas for resources we can call on.

 

Confusion over Council's policy on rent rises

I live on a Brent Housing Partnership estate which has a mixture of flats, maisonettes, terraced houses and town houses. These are occupied by a mixture of 'right to buy' freehold owners (or purchasers from an original right to buy owner), leaseholders, BHP tenants, private tenants and probably some sub-lets.

Two bedroomed flats and houses are privately let for between £800 and £1,200 a month, social housing tenants pay much less.

Some of the privately owned homes have been fitted with double glazing while the BHP properties have not. Energy bills for the latter are therefore much higher.

There is considerable and much appreciated green space on the estate.

I give this as background to the Housing Assess Management Strategy Report that is going to the Brent Executive tomorrow.  The report contains a mixture of measures which involves  disposing of some properties and selling the freehold on some blocks.  It involves plans to build a small number of new units of existing estates, initially between 70 and 100, to cater for larger families and a long-term 7 year plan for 1,000 new 'affordable' homes.  Importantly there are plans for refurbishment of existing stock. Clearly new homes and refurbishment will be very welcome.

The plans will be financed by the sell-offs, some borrowing and controversially rent increases.The latter has caused concern amongst Labour Party members as well as tenants because the documents going to the Executive seem to indicate that existing tenants' rents will increase over the next 5 years to 'converge' at 80% of market rents, which by some definitions is an 'affordable rent' - a figure the Council has challenged in the past..  At the same time the new properties will be immediately let at an affordable rent with some caveats (see extract below).

The concern is that the convergence strategy will result in a likely doubling of rent for existing tenants over the next 5 years at a time when incomes are static but the cost of living is rising and benefits have been cut.

What I and others have been trying to work out from the documentation going before the Executive is whether that is what is really envisaged and hopefully, as a result of protests due to representations that will be made, it will become clearer. The figures quoted do not seem to equate to a doubling of rent.

Meanwhile here is an extract from the Appendices that readers

The extract below from the Appendices sets out the rent strategy and I leave readers to try and interpret wht it means concretely:

Rent Policy

Strategic Approach

For rents to continue to increase in line with the  rent convergence regime- a maximum annual increase in 2014 of RPI +0.5% plus £2 per week and from 2015 CPI+ 1% plus £2 per week for existing tenants - subject to any direction by Government

Following rent convergence for the annual increase  to be set at CPI+1%

For properties to be re-let at target rents

For consideration to be given annually to restraint in rent increases for 4-bedroom and larger properties in order to assure affordability under the overall benefits cap

For new-build and newly-acquired properties (except where required for decant) to be let at affordable rents in line with the thresholds set out within the Council’s Tenancy Strategy.

Context

Rents are the primary income to the HRA business plan and provide the funding to support stock investment and for new development.

In recent years the Council has increased rents in  line with the government’s rent convergence regime. The government has recently issued guidance

that rent convergence should end from 2015/16 at which point the majority of the HRA stock will not have achieved convergence. Currently the Council retains the discretion to not follow the recent guidance. Further clarification of the

position by Government is expected by early 2014 and account will need to be taken of this.

The government has also issued recent guidance that from 2015 rent increases will be linked to a different inflation index – and be based on CPI plus 1% rather than RPI plus 0.5% as previously.

Approach

In order to provide a secure basis for the funding of the Asset Management Strategy, a rent policy for the next five-year period will operate. The policy will be for rents for existing tenants to continue to rise in line with the principles of the government’s previous Rent Convergence regime unless government directs otherwise. For 4-bed and larger units rent increases may be constrained in order to assure affordability under the Overall Benefits Cap.

In order to support viability, new homes will be let at Affordable Rents. These will be limited to varying percentages of the market-rent depending on the size of the unit in order to assure affordability for those affected by the Overall Benefits Cap.

Source: http://democracy.brent.gov.uk/documents/s20059/rg-hra-app1.pdf

Brent Council's Cuts for 2014-15

The Brent Council Meeting on November 18th will be given a financial report for the 1st Reading of the 2014-15 Budget.

Below you will find the proposed savings/cuts for each Service Area:

The Budget gap that the  Council elected in May 2014 will have to deal with in the following year will be much worse after the October revision, despite the improved figures for 2014-15.