Central Middlesex closes its doors for the last time and the community loses yet another amenity

It was significant that last night on Twitter someone reacted with shock to the news that Central Middlesex A&E will be closed today saying 'but that's my local hospital. I've it used since I was a kid!'

The remark indicates both our failure to get the message out in time to more people and thus moblise them, and also the sense of ownership that local people have for what many call 'Park Royal'.

Photo Sarah Cox

Symbolic protests took place this morning at  Hammersmith and Cen tral Middlesex A&Es to mark their closure.

On Monday the Council called for the closure to be delayed until Northwick Park A&E was in a fit state to take over Central Middlesex's role.

Yesterday evening at the Brent Council Scrutiny Committee, Cllr Mary Daly tore into the 'men in suits' behind the closure accusing them of failing in their 'duty of candour'.

Today the Central Middlesex A&E is closed.

In truth Brent Council was very slow to recognise the negative impact of the closure and while Ealing Councl was leafleting residents and advertising on buses, it was left to Brent Fightback and other campaigners to get the word out in Brent  with street leafleting and public meetings.

Campaigners attended consultations and  repeatedly pointed out the degree of deprivation of the population that used Central Middlesex; the health statistics for the area; low car ownership and poor transport links to Northwick Park; the presence of the large industrial estate at Park Royal with a high risk of industrial accidents; Wembley Stadium and major railway lines with the potential for major incidents (remember the Harrow train crash of1952 which killed 85 people?) and the strain on the ambulance service when, with only an Urgent Care Centre on the Central Middlesex site, needy patients will have to be transferred to Northwick Park.

After months of consultations and meetings none of these issues have been satisfactorily addressed and the Care Quality Commission's (CQC) report on Northwick Park and Centrasl Midddlesex Hospitals has added further doubt. Northwick Park was given a 'requires improvement rating' and Central Middlesex A&E a 'good'.

The 'men in suits' quickly moved into PR mode following that report, and before the closure, with a 'feel good' story about the new Northwick Park A&E, faithfully carried by the Kilburn Times LINK.

In fact the new unit will not be ready until November at the earliest and full operational changes until 2015.  There are concerns about the intervening period and Scrutiny called for further reports from the Hospital Trust.  Meanwhile some members of the Clinical Commissioning Group, with interests in  out-sourced services, are keen to bad mouth the hospitals and claim that they can offer something better.

Unfortunately the privatisation of health means that doctors and other staff often have private interests in health provision and there were calls from the public gallery last night for these interests to be declared at such meetings. 

I agree. 

Hospital Trust officials claimed at Scrutiny that the CQC's concerns were being addressed and that 20 new beds at Northwick Park would come into use today and help clear the backlog at Northwick Park A&E.  It would improve bed capacity by 20%.  They claimed that a new clinical and medical leadership team was now in place and would result in improvement.

In remarks that were not fully explored Scrutiny were told that the Trust would improve capacity at Northwick Park for the winter by looking for additional beds outside the hospital on other sites. This raises the prospects of the elderly being sent further afield during the peak illness periods which coincide with severe weather.

Will the next Brent Cabinet be a walk in the park?

The next Brent Cabinet meeting will be held at a new venue - the Roundwood Youth Centre, next to Roundwood Park in Longstone Avenue, Willesden.

The meeting is on Monday September 15th at 2pm and has a crowded, and potentially controversial agenda, as can be seen below.

The full Reports Pack is available on the Council's website HERE

The Press and Public can attend this meeting. Requests for deputations should go to anne.reid@brent.gov.uk Tel 020 8937 1359.

'Divorced' Tory Groups bicker at Brent Council as Labour continues to subvert democracy

The importance of effective opposition and scrutiny when Labour has a huge majority on Brent Council has been stressed repeatedly on this blog. Following my gagging last night things took an even more ludiucrous turn with Labour using its majority to determine which of the two rival factions of Conservatives would be the 'official opposition'.

Deputy Labour Leader Michael Pavey said on Twitter that the Council had been trying to get the two groups to decide between themselves which of them would take that role for three months without success.

In the event it was the 'old timers' of Kenton who Labour chose much to the anger of John Warren 'leader' of the Brondesbury Park faction.  Warren had done most of the opposing during the meeting - including opposing the Kenton faction.

Warren spoke despairingly about what the Conservatives had been reduced to in Brent and denounced as 'woolly' a motion on the Garden Tax proposed by the Kenton Tories.

The Kenton Tories joined Labour in voting for the 25% allowance increase and the Brondesbury Tories and Helen Carr voted against.

A number of Labour councillors were absent and some of those absences may have been to avoid publicly voting against their party line on allowances. We will wait and see how many donate the increase to charities.

Brent, the 'Listening Council', refuses to let me speak but answers an unasked question

Just to keep readers up to date on Brent Council's refusal to let me speak as a deputation last night.

Seconds before the meeting Muhammed Butt, leader of the Council,  came over and took me aside to say he couldn't allow me to speak but he would address my 'question' in his report to the Council.

I had never asked a question but had requested a deputation:

I would like to speak to Full Council on September 8th on the subject of the appointment of a permanent Chief Executive.

There's a touch of Alice In Wonderland here when you are not allowed to speak but the Council decides what question is implied by your request to speak, and then proceeds to answer it.

In fact I would have spoken about the background to Christine Gilbert's Acting Chief executive position and sought assurances about the transparency of the appointments process and the involvement of parties other than Brent Officers and Brent Cabinet members  in that process.

In his report Muhammed Butt gave the statement that I reported here yesterday evening.

I have received no written reply to my non-question from Fiona Ledden or Muhammed Butt although other correspodents have been told that this would be done. The only correspondence has been Fiona Ledden's attempting to justify my not being allowed to speak.

In response to Councillor John Warren (Brondesbury Conservatives) who asked about my delegation being refused she said: 'The matter has been dealt with by correspondence between myself and Mr Francis'.

The implication appeared to be that the issue was closed. 

I received this from Fiona Ledden on September 5th while I was away at the Green Party Conference in Birmingham:

Dear Mr Francis

Thank you for your response.

I note your comments in relation to the tweet, I will ensure in future that the tweet alerts go out at least 2 weeks before a relevant council meeting I am sorry that did not occur on this occasion.

In relation to the calculation of working days within the definition section of the constitution it confirms that days mean full clear working days which would mean that the deputations need to be received on the Friday before Council on the following Monday.

I confirm again the leader will write answering the question that you have raised

Yours etc

FL

Following the Council Meeting I replied this morning:

 Dear Ms Ledden,

I would like to put on record that I am not satisfied with this response as Brent Council, on its official Twitter feed,  quite clearly gave a deadline of September 1st.  As no other deadline was readily available to the public and deputations were on the agenda for the meeting commonsense, natural justice and the public interest should have resulted in a decision to let me speak.

I do not accept, as you implied in answer to Cllr John Warren’s question at Full Council, that our correspondence on this matter concludes the matter.

I am now considering how to take this further.

Appointment of permanent Chief Executive delayed until new year

I was not allowed to speak to the Full Council about the appointment of a permanent Chief Executive of Brent Council that should have started straight after the May local elections.

Instead of allowing me to speak Cllr Butt, leader of the Council addressed the issue in his report at the beginning of the meeting. He said Christine Gilbert, Acting Chief Executive, would be busy over the next few months working on the Borough Plan.  However, he said the Council was now stable and a recruitment process would start in the new year and be completed by the AGM.

This will amount to another extension of some six months or more.

When the issue of the 'tweets in error' and subsequent speaking ban was raised  by John Warren of the Brondesbury Conservative Group, Fiona Ledden told him, 'The matter has been dealt with by correspondence between myself and Mr Francis'.

Full text of Northwick Park/Central Middlesex motion for tonight's Full Council

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Northwick Park Hospital

This Council places on record its deep concern about the findings from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection of Northwick Park Hospital – which is set to become the main A&E hub when the Central Middlesex unit closes.

This Council places on record its concern at the quality of health provision for the majority of Brent residents that depend on Northwick Park.

As a Council, we call on North West London Hospital Trust to delay the closure of its A&E facility at Central Middlesex until the performance of Northwick Park Hospital is vastly improved.

The Council demands urgent assurances from The North West London Hospital Trust that they will implement the recommendations as set out in the CQC report to improve Northwick Park Hospital as a matter of urgency or else delay the closure of the A&E unit.

Cllr Daly

Latest news on water supply in HA area

Affinity Water has made the following statement following the interruption water supplies in the HA0, HA4 and HA8 areas as a result of a burst main:

We have successfully repaired the burst water main and supplies were restored last night.Should you experience any discoloured or aerated water, which is not uncommon following a mains interruption, we recommend that you leave a mains fed tap running for approximately 5-10 minutes. Discolouration of the water is caused by small particles of iron which are within the mains and disturbed during interruptions. Cloudy water is caused by air that becomes trapped in the mains, neither of these are harmful to your health. 

Where it has been necessary to excavate the area we will continue to work with the local Highways Authority to return the road surface area to normal  and ensure that the road or footway is safe for all vehicle and pedestrian traffic. This may mean that we have to maintain the site and any necessary traffic management until this is the case. 

We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this incident and thank you for your patience today.

If you are still without water tweet Leanne at @AffinityWater with details. 

Brent Labour to discuss leadership election changes

Following controversy over Muhammed Butt's bid to restrict Labour leadership elections  to every four years, Brent Labour is to hold a special meeting on amendments to Standing Orders on Tuesday 16th September.

Among the proposals, which also includes elections/appointment by the leader to council positions, is this:

The group leadership is not proposing that leadership elections shouldn’t be held at AGMs other than the first of the council term if substantial number of members (a third or more) feel there is a need for this to occur- see paragraph 2 of this section, discussed below. Rather, the suggestion is that a leadership election shouldn’t be held rigidly every year if members see no need for one. Following the recent AGM, it is clear that a number of members wish for this matter to be reviewed, and a full report on it will follow in the coming weeks. 

2. ‘An election for the post of Leader may be called at any AGM if a third or more of the group’s members write to the group Secretary to request that this occur not less than seven days in advance of the meeting. Any election resulting from this trigger mechanism will be conducted by secret ballot. Under no circumstances will the Secretary reveal the name of any member requesting that a contest take place until the threshold of 50% is reached. If this occurs, the Secretary will verify with the Chairs of both the group and the LCF that an election should be called and proceed accordingly.’ 

This paragraph has been substantially altered from that included in the group standing orderscirculated prior to the recent AGM. It was inserted in order to compliment paragraph 1 of this section, ensuring that leadership elections at AGMs will go ahead if a sizable number of members feel this should occur, and that members will feel confident expressing their preference for such an election.

As  I read it, rather than the election of leader being routinely on the agenda of the AGM a group of members will have to ask for such an election. This could be a disincentive as it might be seen as disloyalty or splitting to make such a request.