Chaos as Gladstone Free School defers opening yet again. Time to call it a day?

Just the day after Year 6 children in Brent primary schools recieved their first offer of a secondary school place, the controversial Gladstone Free School has announced that for the second time it is deferring its opening as it has no school building or site.

This leaves the 120 11-12 year olds due to start Year 7 in September 2015 without a place. A writer on this blog last week unearthed some facts about the school and associated business interests, as well as the amount it has already received without educating a single child. LINK

The question now, surely,  must be should the DfE withdraw support for this school in ortder to safeguard public money as well as stop the confusion and disappointment suffered by Brent children as a consequence of this shambles,

This is the statement put up on the school's website today:

Gladstone School, the New Free School approved to open to serve NW2 and NW10, is today announcing that the Department for Education (DfE) has been unable to secure permanent premises in time for a September 2015 opening, and as a result the school has no alternative but to delay its opening for a second time.

Gladstone School Trust, the parent-led community group behind the school, are profoundly disappointed that the DfE have confirmed this position, and  that their hopes to secure a school site for their opening in September 2015 have been dashed. 

The school was previously forced to defer in June of 2014, disappointing nearly 100 pupil who had been offered provisional places at the school.

Plans for the new school, expected to take in 120 girls and boys, have been developed in detail since the approval for the school was granted in 2013. The Trust has been waiting ever since for news that the DfE and the Education Funding Agency, (EFA), have secure temporary and permanent sites for the school.

The DfE have been advising since August 2014 that certainty on a permanent site was imminent, but this afternoon admitted that negotiations to confirm a site in time for September 2015 had failed.

Paul Phillips, Principal Designate, said today, “This will be hugely disappointing news for pupils and parents hoping for places for this September. Governors have worked tirelessly for years now on plans for what promises to be a truly exceptional school. The DfE and Brent Council recognise the growing need for school places, and have already requested an increase in the size if Gladstone School for September 2016 to help ease the pressure in Brent. We will shortly be meeting as a Trust with the Department to agree what happens next”.

Chair of Governors and founder parent Maria Evans said: “This is heart-breaking news for us all. The loss of these 120 places will increase pressure on all Brent secondary schools to expand to accommodate the growing numbers. The fact is that spiralling London property prices are putting the needs of education beyond the reach of the public purse. We will of course continue to work with Brent Council and the EFA  to identify alternative premises to help relieve this problem and get this visionary school back on track for a September 2016 opening”.

I advise any parent offered this school yesterday to contact Brent Council Admisisons Service as soon as possible.

Further comments on Welsh School planning application to build in King Eddie's Park

Denise Cheong has submitted the following additional comments regarding the Planning Applciation to convert the Bowling Green Pavilion in King Edward VII Park Wembley to a classroom and build an additional classrook nearby. This will be used by the London Welsh School, displaced from Stonebridge, along with Stonebridge Adventure Playground, by the expansion of Stonebridge Primary School. The Adventure Playground has not been offered an alternative site  or any other help by Brent Council, indeed its Council  funding has been cut.

The below additional comments are in relation to planning application no. 14/4208:

The council has a duty of care to Brent residents when providing pre-application planning advice, during the planning process and when deciding on planning applications.

The historic value of this parkland is worthy of preservation: King Edward VII Park was bought by the council in 1913 (and opened in 1914) to compensate the residents of Wembley for the loss of Parkland at Wembley Park, which was being developed as a high class residential garden suburb.   
Cllr Stopp mentioned the possibility of a disconnect arising in his committee speech on 13th January. Now is the time for Brent planning officers and planning committee members to take serious note of the Brent residents this application will affect. The residents who actually are neighbours of King Edward VII Park (affectionately known as King Eddie's Park), the residents who actually use King Eddie's Park, residents who grew up in Brent and or actually live in Wembley and the London Borough of Brent.

The additional documents submitted fail to provide an area of land (for the proposed landswap) that is of equal or better quality as per paragraph 74 of the National Planning Policy Framework, as highlighted by Sport England. The documents propose that residents sit or lie down on what was completely waterlogged grass yesterday (18th January 2015), beside the traffic fumes of the frequent tail backs of stationary vehicles on Park Lane whilst enjoying a beverage and the views. I noted the predominant view from the steep bank yesterday as being of a couple of leafless trees. In addition, opening that land up to public use would put the striking London Borough of Brent landmark, that is the mock tudor Collins Lodge, in danger of vandalisation and arson.

The community have expressed a willingness to provide a community hub, which will truly enable the wider Wembley, Brent and a broad spectrum of the population to make use of it. Furthermore, they will re-open Wembley Bowls Club with the Council's permission and have 60+ happy to be fee paying members provisionally signed up to date.

Under these community proposals:
1. No park trees would be unneccesarily cut down. i.e. the 4 category B trees (a Monterey Cypress Tree and 3 Irish Yew Trees) proposed to be removed, which have the ability to contribute to the quality of an area for up to 20 years (and even if proved to be diseased through probe testing, rather than merely showing signs of disease, could live on for a many years),
2. No land within the bounds of our King Eddie's Park would be built on
3. No children would be put at risk through misguided planning advice and inexperience of actual life in the Wembley area

Whilst planning application number 14/4208 does not comply with paragraphs 74 and 123 of the National Planning Policy Framework, as well as CP18 of the core strategy and the All London Green Grid, our Community Business Proposal would comply with all the aforementioned planning policies.

Please acknowledge receipt by return reply. Thank you.

Pain and anger as news of Stonebridge Adventure Playground closure spreads

Audley Harrison and children fight for the playground

Following Brent Council's vote to close Stonebridge Adventure Playgroubnd after nearly 40 years of serving generations of children in one of London's poorest areas comments are pouring into the playground's Facebook page:

One of the most galling aspects of the campaign is the contempt that councillors have shown to campaigners not hesitating to lie when it suits them:

Six Green Brighton councillors vow to vote against cuts budget: enough is enough

After last night's  fizzling out of a Brent Labour rebellion over Council Tax (apparently Cllr Duffy saw little point in a rebellion of one and subsequent disciplinary action) attention turns to tonight's budget meeting of Brighton Council.

In contrast to the massive Labour majority in Brent the Green adminstration is a minority one. There has been fierce debate about the budget in the local party and the Green group of councillors.

Today six Green councillors issued the following press release:

Six Green cllrs today have vowed to continue to vote against any budget containing cuts at today’s reconvened budget council following failed attempts to agree a budget for 2015-16 last week.

Cllr Philips stated "With women facing 85% of the ConDem Government's cuts, and vulnerable groups, such as people with disabilities being disproportionately affected, it is time to say enough is enough and to refuse to implement further cuts coming down from central government".

Cllr Buckley said “Homelessness has risen 50% since Cameron has been prime minister, austerity has seen violence against women rise, suicides increase and parents having to face the stark choice to heat or eat at a time when corporations pay no tax. Many residents don’t agree with austerity measures and as such we are exercising our democratic mandate to say no to these savage cuts.”

Cllr Wakefield "As teacher for over 30 years, putting funding into provision for our next generation has to be the right forward-thinking approach. Cutting children and youth budgets is depriving our young people of much needed support, guidance and help'"

Cllr Jones added "Services provided by local government and the NHS are being undermined and dismantled by stealth because of the funding cuts and outsourcing favoured by this Conservative and Lib Dem Coalition government."

Cllr Mac Cafferty said "These cuts hurt the most vulnerable members of our society. As local Councillors we have a duty of care to our residents to reject further cuts to public service funding."

Butchery at the Civic Centre as Labour closes playground and approves £54m cuts

Demonstrators held these signs up at the meeting

No 'rebellion' emerged at tonight's meetiong of Full Council and the cuts were voted through by the Labour majority.

I spoke to Stonebridge Adventure Playground before the meeting and they told me that they would not be attending. They had thrown themselves into a campaign gaining massive support from the community that they have served for almost 40 years, had been lied about by Cllr Margaret McLellan and had passionately put their case to the Cabinet last Monday.

They said that attending tonight would have been like going to their own execution.

They were right.

Now they have to make staff redundant and break the news to the children.

There was a demonstration outside the Civic Centre before the meeting protesting both at the Coalition's cuts and Brent Council's implementation of them.

The only real sign of revolt came from Cllr John Duffy who initially protested at the lack of democracy in the allocation of time to councillors in the debate. The administration and opposition leaders got 15 minutes and back benchers only 3 minutes.  He said this was not enough to deal with the complex issues involved in the budget.

Labour leader Muhammed Butt and his Deputy Michael Pavey basically made the same 'dented shield' speeches they had made at Cabinet. Butt said his heart was with the demonstrators outside but they council had to obey the law. Pavey said that he respected those Labour members who wanted a rise in Council Tax and this might be something to consider next year.

Conservatives proposed a Council Tax reduction of 2.5% but at the same time wanted to save Stonebridge Playground. Labour challenged their 'sums' which seemed to be based on raiding the reserves. It was hard for me to judge as the detailed Conservative budget was not available to the public. Public scrutiny is meaningless in such circumstances. Cllr Warren said that the budget consultation was more about scaring the people of Brent than really getting their views.

Cllr Nerva (Labour) quoted the Conservative leader of Buckinghamshire County Council who had said that there was no more room for deeper cuts without damaging services and claimed, 'we can;t go on cutting year after year. We face difficult decisions about how to protect Brent residents.'

One 'difficult decision' may be to raise Council Tax. Cllr John Duffy claimed that his Labour colleagues  were making  £2m more cuts than Eric Pickles required. He was referring to the £1.7m that would be yielded over 2 years by a 1.99% rise in Council Tax which would have saved some of the services being cut tonight including the Adventure Playground, Energy Resources and the Welsh Harp. He said that the Council had lied to local people by claiming that the consultation would make a difference.

On Stonebridge Cllr Duffy said that the Council was behaving like a bad landlord by mixing funding cuts up with development proposals, throwing the Playground out of its site to make way for housing.

However Duffy, to the disappointment of the public gallery, then said that nonetheless he was staying with Labour and would 'fight from inside the tent'.

Veteran Councillor Janice Long (Labour) warned that the Council's Scrutiny was inadequate. Backbenchers hadn't known when the meetings were and had no access to the papers.  She said, 'If we don't scrutinise properly the cuts will go wrong and we'll end up having to cut even more.'

Certainly the report the chair of Scrutiny presented was a mere echo of what the leader and deputy leader had said.

She called on the Council to set an example by making councillors pay to park at the Civic Centre and ending the provision of food at meetings.

This all seemed small beer compared with  the cuts that were then voted through by the Labour group as demonstrators staged a silent protest holding up the 'Only Butchers Make Cuts' posters.

Muhammed Butt, who had been barracked through by former Labour Councillor Graham Durham for doing the Coalition's dirty work and putting vulnerable children at risk, finished by listing all the services that had been 'saved' some of which will be farmed out to the voluntary sector.

Certainly his claim that the council had 'listened't o residents and was protecting the vulnerable  rang hollow when they had ignored 3,000 people who had signed the petition to save Stonebridge Adventure Playground.

He did not mention that the original list of cuts put out to consultation amounted to £60m over two years and that actually 'only' a  £54m  cutwas required. As mentioned on this biog before, there was always £6m to play for that could then be used as PR to give the impression that the Council had listened and thus put a gloss on the massive £54m cuts that had actually been made.

On the Stonebridge Adventure Playground Facebook Page, Glynis Lee posted the following message tonight:

At tonight's Council meeting Brent (Labour) voted NOT to save Stonebridge Adventure Playground...they all turned their backs on Bridge.....and will go ahead and sell the land to property developers, and give even more to Stonebridge school.....

So we must close at the end of this month.

So very sorry...we fought hard and long, and had tremendous support especially from the local paper and from the local community. I don't think we could have done any more.
We nearly made 40 years and thats an achievement in itself...

Opposition amendments for tonight's Brent Full Council Meeting

A Council with a huge majority needs an opposition, even if it a Tory one. Tonight the Brondesbury Park Tories will move a budget amendment which would reduce the Council Tax by 2.5% and that they claim would also protect front-line services.

Further details of how they think they would achieve this should be available at Full Council.

They are also tabling an amendment to Item 8 on Pay Policy:

Key Strategic  Aims of HR Strategy for 2015/2019.......

To add  "adopting a zero  tolerance approach to bullying, intimidation and harrassment of staff by fellow staff members."

In addition Cllr John Warren has submitted the following to the Mayor:

 Mr.Mayor, 

              I have been approached by Brent residents who are unable to make a deputation
tonight, as that is not an agenda item.

        The urgent business is as follows......" To allow the Leader of the Council the opportunity to reply to two urgent questions raised by the recent high profile Industrial* Tribunal case....

1.How can staff have confidence in the latest round of job cuts when it is presided over by senior officers responsible for staff victimisation,racial discrimination and failing to follow the Council's HR procedures......as per.the same Industrial Tribunal judgement?

2.Why is Cllr.Butt still " protecting " the officers in this case? "

 *Should be Employment Tribunal (MF)

Withdrawn Labour Kenton by-election leaflet contained racist slur

From Kilburn Times website

The Kilburn Times LINK is now covering the story about the row between Tories and Labour in the Kenton by-election which I alerted readers to yesterday LINK.

The leaflet purported to contain a copy of a survey filled in by Michael Maurice the Conservative candidate.

It is clear from the leaflet above that as well as the claim that the candidate himself would not be voting Conservative that the leaflet attributed racist views to the candidate including the claim that the Coalition's immigration failure was 'rapidly leading the United Kingdom towards inevitable Armageddon and ultimate destruction.'

An independent handwriting expert employed by Michael Maurice proved it was not the candidate's handwriting and he is reported to be taking up the matter with the police.

Cllr Reg Colwill, Maurice's election agent,  warned that in the event of a close result the Conservatives would call for a re-election.

Protest against Brent budget cuts Monday 6.30pm Brent Civic Centre

Brent Fightback will be demonstrating outside the Civic Centre on Monday at 6.30pm as councillors prepare to vote on a budget that will see the closure of the Stonebridge Adventure Playground, the beginning of the likely end of Energy Solutions, the closure of the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre (unless Careys come up with the goods) and the shifting of the cost of school crossing patrols from the Council to individual schools (if the schools agree to spend their money on them).

Last weekend Brent Fightback presented an invoice to the Liberal Democrat and Conservative offices in Brent for the money taken from Brent Council since the Coalition took office.