Fo! about FoI to Brent Council results in no information held!

It is rather odd that a Brent Labour councillor has to resort to a Freedom of Information request to his own Council about their performance regarding Freedom of Information requests. This is what Cllr Dan Filson did on Thursday. He got a response the next day which is amazing, However he did get fobbed off like the rest of us often are:

I am still waiting for the answer to an FoI request made on November 28th 2014. I hasd heard that the maintenance of large trees had been left out of the Publc Realm contract in which Veolia took over parks maintenance. It had been suggested to me that this was an oversight that would result in additional expenditure.

This is the  response to my intial request:

 1. State who is responsible for safety checks, maintenance, felling and replacement
of trees in Brent's parks, open spaces and cemeteries.

The Contractor is only responsible for minor tree works which can be carried out
whilst working at ground level. The Council is responsible for major tree works.
Grounds maintenance staff from Veolia and the Council’s monitoring officers
(horticulture) would look at trees when they are working in the park or carrying out
monitoring visits. The Coucnil would then engage specialist contractors to carry out
the major works.

My follow-up which is still awaiting a response:

-->

1.     Is the cost of major tree works by a sub-contractor included in
the Public Realm budget out-sourced to Veolia?

2.    If not, what is the expected annual cost of this sub-contracted
work (recognising it might vary considerably due to major weather
events such as storms)?

BREAKING NEWS: Having posted this article at the weekend I got this answer about 9.30am this morning:

 1: No
2: The Council’s street trees maintenance contractor is Gristwood & Toms. The budget for street tree maintenance works was £500,000 in 2014/15, but this is expected to fall to £450,000 in 2015/16.


 

West Hendon Public Inquiry hears comprehensive account of mistreatment of tenants

Paulette Singer, former community organiser on the West Hendon Estate, got a warm round of applause for this statement that she read out at the Public Inquiry yesterday evening:

1) I am writing this letter in objection to the Compulsory Purchase Order as the former Community Organiser on the West Hendon estate and ongoing supporter of the residents group ‘Our West Hendon’.

2) I spent a year and a half working on the West Hendon estate up until November 2014. My role, paid for by central government as part of the Community Organisers Programme was ‘building relationships in communities to activate people and create social and political change through collective action’.

3) Part of my work involved taking on volunteers from within the community whose role was to assist with the door-to-door listening process. In March last year a group of these residents formed ‘Our West Hendon’ in a attempt to both campaign about the perceived unfair treatment residents were experiencing through the regeneration process and also in order for them to have a support group in place to deal with individual housing cases. Along with several volunteers I listened to over 300 people across the estate and in the local area.

Pavey Review not yet available but notes on Constitutional challenge released

The Agenda for Thuursday's meeting of the General Purposes Committee has now been published. The meeting is due to discuss the Pavey Review of Brent Human Resources but the report is not yet available on the Agenda web page.

I understand this is because there are some late additions being made. Instead of the report there is a placeholder:

Following the loss of an employment tribunal case in September, 2014, Councillor Pavey, Deputy Leader, who has Cabinet responsibility for Equalities and the Council’s role as employer, agreed to take stock of the Council’s policies and practice to see where improvements could be made.  Councillor Pavey has now completed his review and will present the findings to the General Purposes Committee.

Although the fullest possible report is obviously desirable, it is unfortunate that members of the committee, the press and the public won't have time to consider it in detail before the meeting.

The Annual Brent Diversity Profile LINK  has been published and this graphic tells its own story about racial equality (Sc3 is the lowest and Hay the highest). Overall % of council workers who are BME is 62%):

Meanwhile the indefatigible Philip Grant is now able to pass on notes of his meeting with Brent Council Leader Muhammed Butt following a resident's successful Freedom of Information request.

Philip asked for a meeting to raise his concerns over the Council's respect of its constitution.

Cllr. Butt had agreed that Mr Grant should take a note of their discussions, and that these should be sent to him for checking, with a view to producing an agreed accurate record of those discussions. It was Cllr. Butt's change of mind on that agreement which means that the Council now claims they are no more than Mr Grant's 'own personal recollection of the meeting'.

Regular readers of Wembley Matters will be able to put a name to the anonymised "AB", especially if they follow those initials in alphabetical order.

This is what working class community struggle looks like!

I joined West Hendon campaigners yesterday at their meeting and march to achieve justice in their fight against social cleansing and homelessness brought about by Barnet Council and Barratt Homes. Their social housing estate is being demolished to make way for luxury multi-storey homes on the edge of the Welsh Harp. The rehousing tenants are being offered is limited and the compensation leaseholders are offered is insufficient to get a new home.

Campaigners were joined by E15 Mothers and the New Era housing campaign as well a Unite Community.

The issue has been covered extensively on Wembley Matters and the Brent Greens and Brent Labour combined to oppose the development on social and environmental grounds. LINK

A Public Inquiry into the development is underway at Hendon Town Hall.

UPDATED Support Our West Hendon's challenge to social cleansing by Barnet Council and Barratt Homes

The Public Inquiry into the West Hendon development has started. The Guardian has carried an article outlining the arguments that Barnet Council are engaged in the social cleansing of the estate LINK

There will be a meeting at the Marsh Drive Community Centre on the estate at 2pm on Thursday afternoon and then a procession to Barnet Town Hall.

This is an update received from Barnet green party member Ben Samuel:

Now is the most crucial time to stop the West Hendon development since the "lake side" phase 2 Public Inquiry opened yesterday and will continue for 8 days.  We started with broad principles and the promoter's case.  Then objectors including myself will have the chance to read out their evidence and questions will be asked.  All the papers are on www.west-hendon.co.uk and the evening session we are told will go ahead between 6 and 9 p.m. this Thursday.

Please come to Thursday's afternoon of action starting with a guest talk at West Hendon's Marsh Drive Community Centre booked for 2 pm.  We'll then process to the Town Hall.

After the statement of case by the expensive QC Neil King, who characterised objectors as mere protesters not with a serious plan, we heard form Martin Cowie from Barnet Council, and his developer partner who seems to be his boss.  Cllr Adam clarified the Council's claim that there were no non-secure tenants in 2002 even though we'll hear next week that there were.

They cited s.13 1974 Misc provisions Act, 2004 circular on policy and Equality Act to create "an inclusive place for all sections of the community".

They explain the long delay in phase 3 as due to changes in market conditions but Adam made Barratts promise not to lower the % affordable from 25% which includes shared equity.

This is a message received later this afternoon about tomorrow's (Thursday) meeting and march:

JOIN US FOR AN AFTERNOON OF HOUSING ACTIVISM TOMORROW (THURSDAY) 2pm

Come and listen to the Focus E15 Mothers talk about their campaign 2 - 4 o clock
Marsh Drive Community Centre Marsh Dr NW9 7QE (Nearest station - Hendon Overground, on Thames Link )
15 min from kings cross
or
Hendon Central Tube - northern line then 83 bus to Hendon Broadway

buses 32, 83, 142, 183, 632, 642

- THEN

4 - 5 o clock
join us for some hot home made soup and rolls while we drop our ginormous banner

- AND THEN

5 o clock
March from the estate to the Public Inquiry at Hendon Town Hall

6 o clock
- outside Hendon Town Hall The Burroughs NW4 4AX - nearest station Hendon Central, Northern Line )
buses 143, 183, 362

we will be joined by the Women from The New Era campaign, speakers from the Our West Hendon Group, Radical Housing Network , Unite The Union and other estates in Barnet.;
where we will make a noise and voice our objections to the social cleansing of West Hendon and London wide.

Support the latest strikes of Your Choice Barnet Care Workers

From Barnet Unison
 

UNISON members working for Your Choice Barnet (YCB) have just announced their next strike dates as being 22^nd and 23^rd January. In addition the workers will be attending an event in the House of Commons 28^th January highlighting the conditions for workers in this sector. This will make a total of 6 days of strike action since the dispute began. This is in a bid to reverse the harsh 9.5% pay cut imposed on them by their employer. 

UNISON and YCB have had numerous meetings at ACAS and there has been no improved offer which has come close to being acceptable to the majority of our colleagues. The latest offer made in October 2014, was a 7.9% pay cut and this was resoundingly rejected in a ballot of the membership. The discussions have, however, revealed stark issues imposed on YCB by Barnet Council which make it difficult to see how YCB can survive financially into the future without our members constantly bailing it out through their financial sacrifice. The pensions deficit (an extra 9.8% payment) for the TUPE’d staff was transferred across to YCB, although this did not happen with other contracts in the private sector. Relieving YCB of the pensions’ deficit would restore our members’ pay at one stroke. Not allowing YCB to charge for unplanned “no-shows” (when service users are unable to attend the service at short notice) would potentially halve the pay cut to our members. However, Barnet Council refuses to participate in any of our discussions although ultimately the Council holds the purse strings.

Meanwhile our members tell us they are working harder than ever with increasing levels of stress and no prospect of a pay rise. They report the first day they have off from work is used simply to recover from the stressful week they have had. The pay cut has left many of our colleagues finding it particularly hard to make ends meet.  They have made it clear to us they want to see a substantial shift in any new proposals from YCB in order to end the dispute. 

UNISON Branch Secretary John Burgess said:

Our members held back from taking action before Christmas in order not to disrupt the service for service users and their carers at such a sensitive time of the year. This demonstrates again their professionalism and dedication but also their determination to stand up to attacks on their terms and conditions.

22nd January  & 23rd January Picket Line details 

1.Flower Lane Day Centre

41 Flower Lane
Barnet
London NW7 2JN

2. Rosa Morrison Day Centre

83 Gloucester Road
TotteridgeBarnet 

London EN5 1NA

Coming Soon Club takes over Wembley's Chesterfield House

The Coming Soon Club is taking over Chesterfield House, the previous Brent Children and Families Office, which is at the corner of Wembley High Road and Park Lane.

Ark Academy plan 6th Form building on Repton remnant

Bird's eye view of the area 

Rectangle marks the new building and red the trees to be removed (black dash is a tree protection boundary)

Ark Academy, Wembley, is applying for planning permission to build a Sixth Building on a site at the corner of Bridge Road and Forty Lane, that was retained when the original planning permission was given for the new school.

The site is thought to retain a rare portion of some of Repton's original landscape planting for the Page family at Wembley Park in the 1790s.  LINK

As well as the heritage argument campaigners also argued that this was a potential habitat for bats, hedgehogs and other animals as well as a patch of green in an area rapidly being concretised.

The Planning Application argues that most of the trees to be removed are due to their condition, rather than to make way for the building and that removal has been kept to the minimum. Some moving and replanting  of trees is proposed as well as new planting.

The application contains all sorts of ideas about the educational use of the protected area of trees and shrubs that will be left. However,  as someone who lives nearby and walks past almost daily, I have never seen it being used by pupils since the school opened in 2008 and the woodland looks quite neglected, with tin cans that have been tossed over the fence tangled in the undergrowth.

Habitat preservation and enhancement would be welcome but that should have been done anyway,

Preston Manor School is also seeking new build in order to expand its Sixth Form. The two schools are in competition with Preston Manor following the Ark by building a primary school on site and thus becoming an all-through school. It also converted to academy status. Ark plans to open its Sixth Form in September 2015 and is currently recruiting students.

The full plans can be seen HERE  The application will be decided no earlier than February 10th. Planning Officer  victoria.mcdonagh@brent.gov.uk