Heron harbinger of Spring in Fryent Country Park

 

On of the first signs that frogs are returning to the Fryent Country Park ponds for spawning is the appearance of heron in the ponds.

My picture was taken this morning at Barn Hill pond.

Answers needed urgently on Kensal Rise fake emails

Guest post by Meg Howarth

Muhammed Butt's late-night sneering tweet to Michael Calderbank claiming that Brent Council had 'provided all the evidence and police not pursuing' the fake email business fails to inspire confidence in the council's, let alone the NFIB's, handling of this grubby affair.

An official statement from the council on the matter is needed urgently. Brent was contacted by the police on 21 January. Does it take 10 days - and the shameless destruction of the pop-up at the Kensal Rise Library site - before the release even of this snippet of information - and, then, in this personally antagonistic and entirely unsuitable fashion? Bad news burying even worse news? Michael Calderbank was simply asking about progress of the email investigation. 

Some immediate questions that demand public answers are:

- Why have the police decided not to pursue the matter?

- Has the council probed this decision? If not, why not?

- Was Andrew Gillick interviewed by the NFIB (National Fraud and Investigation Bureau)? If not, why not? 

- Was the NFIB told of the apparent sub-letting of Mr Gillick's St Mary Mansions Paddington flat at the time a comment using that address was posted on the Barham Library planning application site? Two comments using that address appeared a couple of months earlier on the Kensal Library planning site.

- Was any attempt made to try and trace the fake emails, as Margaret Smith asks above? If not, why not? As a computer expert confirms: 'it could be very easy if...no precautions [were taken], and difficult or impossible in other circumstances'. This is surely where the occupancy of Mr Gillick's Mary Mansions flat at the time of the three planning comments could help resolve matters?

The computer expert went on to say: 'It's not very clever of Brent to collect comments via a system that is this easy to spoof. They could easily take a few precautions, [otherwise] this kind of thing will only become more frequent'. Fortunately, it seems that the council has now beefed up its system of online comment in the wake of this nasty affair. But

the the police decision not to pursue the matter hardly clears it up and any new [planning] application will be heard in an atmosphere of suspicion' (Martin Francis). Precisely. 

It seems that a further planning application from Andrew Gillick is expected to be lodged shortly.

The council's lax system enabled the email scam. The very least it must now do is publicise the reasons for the police's decision not to proceed and prosecute. Planning matters around the Kensal Rise Library building can only become even messier without the utmost transparency by the council.

Footnote: 'hippy' references, as posted in comments on this blog. also featured in the online planning comments supporting Mr Gillick's application. It's unclear whether they were found by the council to be amongst the fake emails passed to the police.

Contacts to protest to over Pop Up Library destruction

A reader has helpfully sent in these links for anyone who wants to follow up the Kensal Rise Pop Up Library destruction:

The Bursar of All Souls, Thomas Seaman has administrated the sale of our Library: LINK
with the assistance of Richard Tufnell, Asset/Portfolio Manager at Cluttons LINK:
The developer is Andrew Gillick of Kensal Properties Ltd. Cricklewood Library Ltd. Platinum Revolver Ltd. and more: LINK and LINK

Councillors are via LINK  Brondesbury, Kensal Green and Queens Park wards are most relevant, aside from the leader LINK   and the Lead Member for Environment and Neighbourhoods LINK 

This is the response one reader got after contacting Thomas Seaman yesterday:

Thank you for your email.

 

The structures of the pop up library were dismantled today because the College required vacant possession of the building.

 

The Council had asked the College to do this in June of last year, saying the pop up library was in breach of planning control.  When we contacted the Friends of Kensal Rise Library regarding this matter, they denied any responsibility for, or control over, the pop up library.  The College then waited until the last possible moment to change the status quo.

 

Those books which were on the building’s curtilage have been moved to the pavement alongside the other books which are part of the pop up library.

 

As I am sure you know, all of this is being done so that the building can be refurbished, with the intention of creating space for a library which has been offered to the Friends of Kensal Rise Library to operate on a rent-free long-term lease.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Tom Seaman

Estates Bursar

(All Souls College)

 

 

Powney floats Brent council tax rise to address poverty

Cllr James Powney, an ex-member of the Brent Executive has had little reaction to a blog he wrote last month on the possibility of raising Council Tax to set up a Poverty Fund to protect the poorest Brent residents.LINK

Last month the possibility of a  a referendum on raising Council Tax was aired by Cllr Muhammed Butt at the Willesden Connects Forum who said that there was a rigorous debate about the issue in the Labour group. However the debate was quickly snuffed out by a tweet from Butt which said that Brent Council had no plans to increase Council Tax in as they had to protect residents' living standards.

Council Tax is frozen for 2014-15 but perhaps James Powney's idea will be considered for 2015-16 if Labour are returned to power at the local election in May.

This is what Cllr Powney wrote:

My own view is that we have to have a Poverty Fund in the way other Councils are doing.  It looks like Crisis Payments are being abolished by the Tory Government.  I think it sensible to try to pool various grants in one scheme to protect the poorest.  While that could make use of the residue of the crisis payment scheme, it would need some ongoing funding

I envisage such a source of funding being a rise in Council Tax.  Granted some people regard this as automatically beyond the Pale, but Brent has not had a Council Tax rise since 2010.

Whereas the previous Liberal Democrat administration promised to freeze the Council tax and in fact raised it. I don't think that had anything to do with their election defeat.  They were just unpopular for more general reasons.

I think a lot of ordinary voters would be quite sympathetic to a fund targeted to people in real need.

UPDATED: Recriminations, criminals and Kensal Rise library

Poster at yesterday's demonstration

Late last night, in a sarcastic rebuke to Brent Labour Party member Michael Calderbank. Labour leader Muhammed Butt revealed that the police are not pursing action over the fake emails submitted on the Kensal Rise planning application.

Brent Council had referred the matter, first revealed back in September, to the police although they appeared to take a considerable amount of time to give them all the information and open channels of communication. The emails, in favour of Andrew Gillick's redevelopment plans, used names and addresses of local residents without their permission. To add insult to injury those residents many of them were opposed to the plans.

I find it hard to understand why, in these circumstances, the police are not taking action. The developer stands to gain thousands of pounds if his development is given the go ahead, while elsewhere in the now infamous Iceland case the police were ready to prosecute people over removing discarded food from a skip.

Campaigners had argued that Gillick's revised planning application should not be heard until the matter of the fake emails had been cleared up. The police decision not to pursue the matter hardly clears it up and any new application will be heard in an atmosphere of suspicion.

Meanwhile, in another sub-plot, All Souls College, has claimed that it was Brent Council that forced them to take action to remove the Kensal Rise pop up library. The Kilburn Times LINK yesterday reported that All Souls College had been told to remove the pop up by Brent Council planning enforcement officers and that they had delayed until the last minute in the interests of the community. After the story had been published both Muhammed Butt and Cllr James Denselow tweeted that

"we decided not to take enforcement action...All Souls College initiated the removal of the pop up library" Brent Planning Head

To add to the general murk it appears that Brent Council had known for some time, and certainly before Butt's late night tweet, that the police were not pursuing the fake emails issue.

All Souls College yesterday told that student newspaper Cherwell that the 'hysterical twitosphere' LINK had misrepresented the incident. Their story contained a statement from Cluttons, the All Souls estate managers who organised the demolition of the pop up library:

Following an extensive examination of the various options put forward for the future of the former library building, the College considers that a sale to Kensal Properties, and their proposals for the property, provides a viable long term future for the building.

This proposal not only meets the College’s Charities Act obligations, but it also provides for a community library facility. In order to progress with these plans, and for health and safety and insurance reasons, the property has had to be cleared.

A passerby has contacted me to say that furniture was being removed from the library last night.

Commenting on the Cherwell story Stephanie Schonfield said:

As per last night's BBC Radio interview:

1.Why didn't the College post warning notices on the Pop-up or in the local press - a month, a week, or even a day before - advising residents to dismantle the structure or face the consequences? Instead, bullyboy All Souls sent in a bunch of heavies - in the middle of the night - to smash up this inner city community's initiative.
2. Half the Pop-Up Library didn't even stand on College land, yet All Souls destroyed that too. The smashed structure, lovingly built and maintained by locals, was chucked in a van and the books dumped on the roadside in the rain.
3. The Pop-Up had won the support of the Council's Lead Member for Libraries, Cllr Roxanne Mashari, who, alerted by distressed residents, visited the site just hours after the demolition. Ward Councillors also supported the Pop-Up, which became a site for poetry and book readings, children's storytelling and carol singing.

UPDATE: At lunchtime today Lorraine King, News Editor of the Kilburn Times tweeted:

 I've an email from All Souls College saying they removed the pop up library in Kensal Rise after they were contacted by Brent Council

The email was sent on Friday evening and Lorraine has said she will be following it up on Monday.

Video: Kensal Rise rises up to defend their library

Determined demonstrators defy wind and rain to defend their library

Local people turned out in the wind and rain this afternoon to protest against the demolition  of their pop up community library by agents of All Souls College. It was clear that this campaign still has the energy and determination to carry on the fight despite suffering dawn raids by both Brent Council and All Souls College and fraudulent emails supporting the developer.

The books, rescued by campaigners when security threw them on the pavement, under tarpaulin

Gladstone Free School may wthdraw plans for building on open space

The Harrow Observer's reporter Hannah Bewley has posted a web report LINK quoting a Gladstone Free School spokesperson as saying about residents' opposition to build on the William Gladstone Open Space , 'We will take on board the view expressed (at the public meeting)  but it looks as though we may have to withdraw our ideas before they see the light of day.'

This clearly is not a definitve statement but welcome all the same.