Brent Full Council Meeting moved to December 8th

Following rumours that the Full Council Meeting due on Novembver 17th was being cancelled or delayed I emailed Democratic Serrvices this afternoon for confirmation and asked for the reason.  I had heard that it was connected with legal cases currently in process.

Peter Goss, Democratic Services Manager, sent this at 5.29pm:

Councillors have this afternoon been notified that the Full Council meeting on 17 November has been moved to 8 December in order that the outcome of the consultation on the borough plan can be considered as part of the 1st reading of the budget.  The web site has been amended to reflect this change.

Chalkhill families enjoy the sunshine in their very special park

I was lovely to see families out enjoy in the autumn sunshine in Chalkhill Park this afternoon. People were relaxed and happy at this unexpected bonus at the end of the half-term holiday.

More evidence of how important these social open spaces and play facilities are. Councillors may boast about the Civic Centre but I thibk this is, in the long run, a much more significant achievement.

Stonebridge: So much more than just a playground

United in the battle to save Stonebridge Adventure Playground

The Kilburn Times is playing a gteat role in publicising and supporting the fight to save Stonebridge Adventure Playground. Unfortunately they have not had a Letters Page for several weeks so I print below a letter I sent them:

 It has been gratifying to see the Brent & Kilburn Times getting behind the local community's fight to save Stonebridge Adventure Playground.

I recently attended the Wembley Connects forum where we were invited to shape a vision for the improvement of the borough. One strong theme that emerged was the need for social spaces where our diverse population could meet, share common interests and learn about each other. It was argued that this  would help produce community cohesion and solidarity.

Stonebridge Adventure Playground is such a space where generations of children and their parents and carers have mixed and shared each others company in an area of disadvantage.  It was noteworthy that Doug and Glynis Lee's MBE nomination for their work on the playground was from grown up children who had helped them build it back in the 1970s.

By concentrating on bricks and mortar Brent Council is in danger of ignoring the role that such places play, not just in the obvious provision of play opportunities but in the way the play workers know generations of people in the area who used the Adventure Playground as children. They are well known in the community, have its respect and contribute positively to its stability. They provide a safe place where through the opportunity to play children children can become confident, independent and sociable. This largely invisible contribution to children's development can make a massive impact on children's future lives.

A local teacher posted this comment on my blog:

I used the adventure playground as a child. I remember bonfire nights, tuck shop, arts and crafts, movies, pool, arcades, table tennis and camping trips. I was welcomed to work there as a volunteer into my late teens which helped focus me toward my career in teaching. Ive been back to visit a number of times and am blown away to see children from all backgrounds, special needs and mainstream all playing together. It's currently ahead of its time.

Its heart breaking to know that there is enough money out there to supplement the money that it already raises for itself, to keep it open.
Shortsightedness must not prevail. Keep Stonebridge Adventure Playground open!!

Replacing the Adventure Playground with an unstaffed kickabout area next to the main road is tokenistic and insulting to the children of Stonebridge and Harlesden.

We need housing and we need school places but not at the expense of destroying something so valuable.

Brent Council must think again and come up with a solution that recognises the value of Stonebridge Adventure Playground and its work.

Martin Francis
Trustee
Brent Play Association

Bonfire night fireworks for a Brent senior manager?

There is an intriguing item on Brent Council's General Purposes Committee agenda for November 5th:

Senior Manager Restructuring Proposals 

This report outlines proposals for a further restructuring with two aims: refocusing the Council’s senior management and corporate centre to meet the substantial challenges the organisation must manage over the next period and inevitable reduction in staffing; further streamlining to deliver a £1.4 million saving in senior management costs.

Clearly £1.4m is a substantial sum so the proposals could be far-reaching. They come only a little over 18 months since the last restructuring LINK.

Unfortunately the Council has decided that the proposal must remain concealed from the public by virtue of paragraph(s) 1, 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972. This protects proposals relating to an individual and which reveals the identity of the individual.

On the same agenda is a new policy on Learning and Development authored by Cara Davani. Cara Davani was the second respondent in the Employment Tribunal case against Rosemary Clarke, former head of Learning and Development.

The Watford Employment Tribunal found that Clarke had been racially discriminated against, victimised and constructively dismissed.

Brent Council is appealing the Employment Tribunal's judgment.

The new policy abolishes employees' access to funding to gain job related professional qualifications. It states:

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Key changes include a consistent approach to work experience and internships, the latter of which must be paid. Given the budgetary pressures the council is facing, the council is no longer able to support funding for professional qualifications, although paid time off may be available in accordance with the council’s Time Off policy.

Funding will still exist for specific initiatives, such as BAME Senior Management Development programmes

The proposed full policy document can be found HERE

Natalie Bennett: Abolish politicised Ofsted & replace with collaborative body

 

Cartoon: Rose Asquith, Education Guardian

Natalie Bennett's letter to the Guardian today

Your vox pop of senior education figures (The verdict on Ofsted? ‘requires improvement’, Education, 28 October) was damning. It is clear that all trust has been lost; Ofsted is regarded as a highly politicised, untrustworthy, damaging organisation. That’s one reason why the Green party is calling for its abolition and replacement with continuous collaborative assessment and a national council of educational excellence working closely with local authorities.

Of course we need more change than that. The state of Ofsted is a reflection of the state of a system that is vastly overfocused on exams, has lost local democratic accountability, and has left teachers overworked, disempowered and increasingly demoralised.

Natalie Bennett
Leader, Green party

Rotten Boroughs features Brent Council's HR & CMT Scandal

Brent Council: Trick or Cheat?

Brent Council’s ‘Big Three’ weigh their options to avoid giving Rosemarie Clarke  her Staff Achievement Award

Guest blog by Jack O. Lantern

 

                 Christine Gilbert, Cllr Butt and Cara Davani pictured yesterday

 

With only days to go before the nominations for Brent Staff Achievement Awards 2014  have to be announced, it’s decision time at the Civic Centre. Having used up  the 7 days breathing space which the hastily-announced deadline extension gave them, it’s now time to decide whether to try to

TRICK  the people of Brent by claiming that Rosemarie Clarke is not eligible (even though the Tribunal’s constructive dismissal judgement made it clear that the only reason Rosemarie is no longer a Brent employee is that she was illegally forced to resign by Davani), or to

CHEAT the people of Brent by somehow ‘losing’ the mountain of votes Rosemarie has obviously  received. (Aside from the transparent obviousness of such an attempt, a Freedom of Information request would surely follow).

No matter how  frightening  the choice appears to be for them, one option that definitely isn’t open to Davani, Butt and Gilbert is to attempt to further delay the expected anouncements while they  try to conjure up some other escape strategy.  There are now more than just local eyes on this whole grubby business and the sooner Cllr Butt decides to cut his losses the better.

             Decision time, Councillor:  Witch is it to be?

Stonebridge Adventure Playground Must Stay Forever!

Cllr Muhammed Butt received the petition

A group of children, young people and parents handed over a petition of more than 1,000 signatories to Brent Council leader Muhammed Butt at Brent Civic Centre today.Dawn Butler, Labour Party parliamentary candidate for Brent Central also attended.

The signatures had been collected over the last few weeks from door-to-door knocking,  Harlesden Town Centre, Tesco and Love Where You Live in a amazing effort to save the playground that has served the community since the 1970s.