Some Wembley Park power may not be restored until after 7pm

Households in the Wembley Park area  (HA9 9**) woke up (except for those who have electronic alarm clocks) to a power cut this morning which began just after 7am. There was a partial restoration just after 11am but UK Power Networks then said  some homes may not get power back until approximately 3.15pm. That has now been changed to 7pm as 'pinpointing the fault location is taking longer than anticipated'.

To get text updates text Power and your mobile number to 80876.

The fault is in an underground cable which seems to be a repeat of previous power cuts in the area. UK Power by mid-morning reported that the cable repair is 'more complex than we first anticiapted'.

UK Power ask customers to call them on 03332  022 021 if they have a vulnerable person at home and heating is off due to the power failure.

Teachers surge to the Greens as Tristram Hunt does it again

DfE: High Risk Michaela Free School will impact on Crest Academy Boys and Ark Elvin

The Department for Education has just published Impact Assessment for free schools in terms of their impact on neighbouring schools.

The full document is HERE. The assessment is for Copland before it became Ark Elvin. The Gateway Secondary Free School is also planned in the area and is recruiting pupils despite having no premises as yet.


Extract:

Michaela Community School will provide an equal chance admission to prospective applicants living within a 5 mile radius of the school through a lottery. The trust want to ensure that all local pupils have an equal chance of attending the school regardless of exactly how close to the school they live. However, it is thought that any impact on secondary schools beyond 2.5 miles from the school will be minimal and likely to be highly dispersed so the impact on individual schools is likely to be very small. The free school is therefore unlikely to affect the long term viability of any secondary school further than 2.5 miles from the free school’s site. 

Based on the assessment above, opening Michaela Community School has the potential to have a high impact on the following two secondary schools: 

Copland Community School  has a substantial surplus (99 surplus places from a capacity of 1,585). The school has a below average level of attainment and has an inadequate Ofsted rating. Given it is less than a mile from Michaela Community School, it is possible that a significant number of parents may be attracted to the new alternative provider. Lower pupil numbers would reduce the school’s income and may make it harder to secure improvements.

However, the growing level of basic need for secondary places in the area (basic need in Brent is expected to rise to a 986 place shortfall by 2018/19) makes it likely that the school will remain viable in the long term.

The Crest Boys’ Academy(sponsored by E-ACT) has a substantial surplus (78 surplus places from a capacity of 698). The school has a below average level of attainment and only has a satisfactory Ofsted rating. Given it is less than a two miles from Michaela Community School, it is possible that some may be attracted to the new alternative provider. However, this may be mitigated by the appeal of a single-sex education for boys which will be attractive for some parents. Lower pupil numbers would reduce the school’s income and may make it harder to secure improvements. However, the growing level of basic need for secondary places in the area makes it likely that the school will remain viable in the long term.

Blood on the carpet at Brent Civic Centre as senior management jobs slashed-but what about the new jobs created?

I am now able to publish the details of the senior management restructuring that Brent Council are about to consult on. The proposals are aimed at cutting £1.4m from the Council's budget.

In addition to to the posts in red, above the Head of Sports and Parks, Libraries and Heritage and Partnership and Engagement are proposed to be deleted along with the Head of Business Intelligence.

Unusually there are no authors cited on the report (which is available below) but the process will be managed by Interim Chief Executive Christina Gilbert and Human Resources Director Cara Davani.

One high profile casualty could be Fiona Ledden, Director of Legal and Procurement. Ben Spinks, Assistant Chief Executive, has only been in post a short time - since the last restructuring...

As well as the deletion of posts, new posts are to be created. Sharp-eyed insiders have pointed out that a new post of Chief Legal Officer has been ring-fenced to three Hay graded lawyers, which includes Cara Davani's partner, Andy Potts.

None of the other new posts have been ring-fenced. The two Operational Directors in Finance will have to compete for the remaining post.

The abolition of the Environment Department follows the privatisation of most of its service through the controversial  Veolia Public Realm contract.

Insiders suggest that a new job, Chief Operating Officer, at Hay 2 (the lower the number the higher the salary)will be extremely sought after - perhaps by Cara Davani herself.

Other jobs created are Operational Director (Strategic Commissioing), Head of Procurement, Operational Director (Community Services), Head of Performance and Programme Management, Chief Legal Officer (see above), Head of Partnerships and Transformation, Head of Culture, Head of Digital Services, Head of Brent Customer Services.

As readers will know one of the regular allegations made by Brent Council workers in comments on this blog  is that people are being eased out of their jobs by a variety of methods, often accompanied by gagging clauses, in order to make way for people who formerly worked at Ofsted and Tower Hamlets Council.

Some are asking if this is the most audacious move yet in that strategy.

Mahatma Gandhi House converted to flats?

Prior approval is being sought by IDM (Invest Develop Manage) East London  to convert Mahatma Gandhi House, formerly Brent Council's housing office, to flats. LINK
 

The proposal is for 83 apartments in a mix of unit sizes. The apartments will be all internal alterations to the existing building with no external alteration. 

The accommodation proposed is:

Ground floor 6 apartments

1st floor to 7^th floor  11 apartments each

Total 83 apartments with 33 off street parking spaces

There were rumours some time ago that the building had been ear-marked for the Gateway Free School but was turned down. 

Cheese defection to Labour no surprise

Barry Cheese (blue lapels) with Lib Dem comrades

I am not surprised by former Lib Dem councillor Barry Cheese's defection to Labour.

He was one of those, who also included former councillor Ann Hunter, who joined the Lib Dems in disgust at Blair's war-mongering and was impressed by the Lib Dem, and particularly Sarah Teather's opposition.

He still had many 'Old Labour' and trade unionist views and was vociferous on the closure of Central Middlesex A&E and the impact of the bedroom tax. He loudly applauded the SWP's Sarah Cox on the former and spoke out on the bedroom tax when speaking with a visiting group of Swedish councillors.

In June 2013 he surprised many by voting with Labour to give Christine Gilbert an extension as Chief Executive until after the May 2014 local elections, despite the opposition of the then Liberal Democrat leader. Paul Lorber's opposition to the extension. LINK

He was defeated in his ward in the May election and told me a few months ago he had left the Lib Dems.

I think he will find himself on the left of Brent Labour Party on many issues and I hope he will galvanise his new comrades to act on the current Human Resources scandal at Brent Council.

Brent Council CEO Christine Gilbert Announces ‘Whistle Blowing Hotline’

Christine Gilbert

 

 

                       Confidential hotline for concerned staff’ planned.

Guest Blog by 'Gilbert Harding'

Christine Gilbert, perpetual ‘interim’ CEO of Brent Council which, together with HR lead and interpersonal staff relations role-model Cara Davani, was recently found guilty of racial discrimination, victimisation and workplace bullying,  has announced her plans  to set up ‘a confidential whistle-blower hotline so that any staff who had serious concerns’ could communicate their worries to their bosses.

This would be a great relief to those many Brent Council employees who have, openly on this blog, privately to Martin Francis, and most recently and publicly to Private Eye, expressed their ‘serious concerns’ about bullying, victimisation, threats of dismissal, cronyism, gagging clauses  and corruption at Brent Council’s Civic Centre.  Such a move would be welcomed as an appropriate intervention by a leader wanting to find out what was really going on in her organisation with a view to turning a troubled situation round in an open and transparent way.  

Slightly disappointingly, however, Ms Gilbert made the whistle-blower announcement quoted above not recently but a whole 6 years ago on December 10^th 2008 to a Commons Select Committee and in relation to her then job as Head of Ofsted (the previous employer also of Cara Davani, Clive Heaphy and Ark Academies employee Dame Sally Morgan).    

(Details HERE )

Nevertheless, Brent Council staff will be feeling confident that Ms Gilbert’s passionate desire to let some light into the murkier corners of institutional malpractice will not have faded since her earlier statement and that her principles remain intact.

 Indeed, one hooded and masked Civic Centre employee was relaxed enough yesterday to tell me, in an unsigned encrypted  message smuggled out  past a cordon of G4S security personnel and hidden in a camouflage-pattern green and  brown envelope :  ‘I think I can speak for all my anonymous colleagues when I say that I believe Ms Gilbert’s earlier interest in openness and transparency and her very real and publicly declared desire to tap into the honest, uncensored and unintimidated experience of the people she leads, still burn as  brightly now in 2014 as they did in 2008.’

A statement from Ms Gilbert on plans for a new updated whistle-blower hotline is now expected. But perhaps not for another 6 years.

Alternatively, less patient Civic Centre whistle-blowers may find it more productive to communicate their serious concerns more urgently to Private Eye's 'Rotten Boroughs' contact here:

                                            tim.minogue@private-eye.co.uk.

(Ms Gilbert was unavailable for comment).

FA cap ticket sales for England Women's match at Wembley due to line closures

With ticket sales at 55,000 for England vs Germany on Sunday November 23rd the FA have stopped sales of tickets for what will be the highest attendance ever  for an England  women's football match in the UK, although more than 75,000 watched the Great Britain women's team during the 2012 Olympics.

The cap is a result of both the Metropolitan and Jubilee lines being closed on that weekend and their replacement by buses.

This normally results in confusion on normal weekends with tourists from Wembley's many hotels trying to lug multiple heavy suitcases on to the replacement buses.

Brent Council needs to ensure that TfL is publicising alternative public transport routes well ahead of the match.

One can't but think that the women's game fans are  getting second class treatment from TfL and the FA.