Celebrate St Patrick's Day Monday afternoon at Preston Library Hub

Natalie Bennett: 'TTIP is a huge threat'

 John Hilary of War on Want explains TTIP at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation

As the General Election nears more people are asking about TTIP when we are leafleting although it is still shrouded in mystery for many. John Hilary of War on Want  tries to explain the issues in 10 minutes in the video above.

Speaking at the Green Party’s Spring Conference, Natalie Bennett attacked the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and its supporters for promoting a corporate agenda over the rights and interests of EU citizens. 

The controversial proposed free trade agreement between the European Union and United States, which could be agreed by the end of the year, aims to gradually remove all regulatory differences between the US and the EU. The European Commission has called it “the biggest trade deal in the world”. Yet many people are not aware of the proposals and the secretive decision making process behind them has been criticised as being wholly undemocratic. 

Bennett said:

“TTIP is a huge threat to hard-fought-standards for the quality and safety of our food, the sources of our energy and our privacy and risks undoing decades worth of EU progress on issues like worker’s rights.”

Bennett stated that the proposed deal threatened to “blow apart the power of our democratic decision making.” She raised the spectre of the Edward Snowden revelations to demonstrate that the US state was “profoundly untrustworthy”.

This is Natalie's full speech

It’s not surprising, really, when we hear Lib Dems trumpeting the proposed US-EU free trade deal as some kind of economic saviour. The Lib Dems are the lapdogs of corporate Europe, while the Tories are its war horses. In their support for the trade deal, the Lib Dems are reiterating the propaganda of multinational companies interested only in swallowing up new markets, consuming new societies whole. 

Let’s make no mistake, the proposed free trade deal is a huge threat to hard-fought-for standards for the quality and safety of our food, the sources of our energy, workers’ rights and our privacy. One of the great contributions of the EU is to set a foundation of these standards – not good enough, not high enough – but a start. The proposed free trade deal is a supertanker of dynamite that would blow those foundations apart.

And more, it would blow apart the power of our democratic decision making. The deal provides corporations with new rights to sue the Government for legislating in the public interest – that’s definitely not acting for the common good. 

The banking lobby is so happy with the financial services proposals it has said that the text could have come straight from its own brochure – that’s acting in the interests of the 1%, not the common good.

And there’s more. It’s a deal being proposed with a state that the bravery of Edward Snowden demonstrated is profoundly untrustworthy. Yet there’s no openness – no democracy – about the negotiations: the mandate that the EU Council gave to the Commission is still classified as ‘secret’.

A Global Day of Action Against TTIP is being planned for April 18th. LINK

Rebecca Johnson's policies for Hampstead and Kilburn in 3 minutes flat!

Rebecca Johnson - Green Candidate for H&K - An introduction. from GreenRebJohnson on Vimeo.

Half Marathon road closures on Sunday in Wembley and Kingsbury

These are the road closures in Wembley and Kingsbury on Sunday March 15th  for the half-marathon

King Eddies campaigners bowled over by all the support they have had

Guest blog 

On 4th March representatives from Friends of King Eddies Park LINK  and Wembley Champions LINK  went to Planning Committee to object to planning application number 14/4208 pertaining to King Edward VII Park.

This was for: Change of use of the bowling pavillion and adjoining land (Use class D2) into a primary school (Use class D1) also including the erection of a single storey classroom block, and part change of use of the land adjoining Collins Lodge (Use class C3) into parkland (Use class D2)

Speech:

Whilst the re-consultation has been carried out, the committee's request for an alternative land swap site selection in accordance with National Planning Policy and Sport England's comments has not been adhered to. 

Are the committee satisfied that you've seen a comprehensive spreadsheet of sites considered? Have you been given detailed information as to how the other sites were discounted? Has a detailed and robust assessment of alternative sites with fully justified reasons been presented? 

The proposed landswap is sloping, waterlogged on recent visits with restricted views across the park. Several trees beside the footpath obstruct the views across the park. The land is not functional and usable. No replacement building is proposed, there will be no indoor community space. Not only is it not a comparable land swap, it is actually an inferior replacement. 

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.

The park is afforded a level of protection under the Fields in Trust award should planning permission be forthcoming. Fields in Trust rejected the London Welsh School's [The Head of Planning, Steven Weeks, corrected this later. He said to the Chair, Cllr Sarah Marquis, that he believed it was Property Services [i.e. Brent Council] who applied to Fields in Trust] proposal in January. 

The community have come together to provide an enhanced bowls offer and community space. They have a willingness to secure complementary uses for the space for a robust community asset.

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

 Paolo Di Paolo's speech:

(Huge thanks Paolo for being our second resident speaker again) 

This proposal in effect takes away a community sporting facility from local residents and seeks change of use to replace it with a private business operating as the London Welsh School.

There is no parking provision within this application. Neither is there a travel plan. It's been mentioned that the school will use the car park. The lower car park is used by groups playing cricket who I've spoken to, who said they would oppose the proposal.
The idea of compensating for the loss of the open space adjacent to the pavilion with the steeply sloping bank next to Collin's Lodge is not comparable and unusable. Supporting documents propose that residents sit or lie down on what has been completely waterlogged grass on recent visits, beside the traffic fumes of the frequent tail backs of stationary vehicles on Park Lane whilst enjoying a beverage and the views. In fact this will make Collin's Lodge vulnerable to vandalisation and arson. As an attractive notable architectural feature of the park and the wider Wembley area this would be tragic. 

The Tree Officer's report has not been submitted with the documents. As no tree survey was provided, and, no reference is made in the committee report to the trees being felled, there is a real need for formal proof before the category B Monterey Cypress tree and 3 Irish Yew trees can be removed. Category B trees have the ability to contribute to the quality of an area for up to 20 years. Granting permission without such proof would be a travesty against nature. 

Child safeguarding is important. The location is too exposed to the public being in the middle of the park. Any CCTV & lighting would be subject to additional planning permission.

We urge our elected planning committee members not to permit the taking of parkland and a recreational facility from the people of Wembley and Brent. Please consider the limited evidence base, misguided supporting documents, limited re-consultation time, alongside the case officer committee report, to refuse this flawed proposal.

 Cllr Sam Stopp  has kindly noted my dedication to this campaign in his article "King Eddie’s is saved – now let’s make Wembley greener, cleaner and united. LINK

He states: "A brilliant campaign led by local resident, had gathered momentum in recent weeks to tip the balance decisively in favour of rejection. In the end, 6 members of the committee voted against the application, while one abstained. No members voted in favour."

The Local Press, Brent and Kilburn Times, published an article about the decision too LINK:

I would like to say massive thanks again to all of the team who have supported me throughout this process. You have each helped to protect King Eddie's Park for the people of Wembley and Brent.

We are all appreciative of the support of our Preston and Wembley Central Ward Councillors: Cllrs Matthew Bradley, Patricia Harrison, Jean Hossain, Krupa Sheth, Sam Stopp and Wilhelmina Mitchell-Murray.

We will continue to work in partnership with our ward councillors.

We love King Edward VII Park and the community has shown us that they too love their local park.

We are seeking permission from Brent Council to lease the Bowls Pavilion and both Bowls Greens to us.

We will do our best to make a reality of our vision of a Community Asset, and Wembley Bowls Club, that Wembley and Brent can be proud of.

Thank you too Wembley Matters Readers.

STOP Factory Farming the Education of Primary School Children

Guest blog by Kaye James

(Definition of Factory Farming: Intensive, factory - ‘Intensive’ because as many animals as possible are crammed together in the smallest possible space; ‘Factory’ because the philosophy of mass production is what lies behind it all.)

Are any parents watching ‘Britain’s Biggest Primary School’ on Channel 5 and stamping their feet with regret that they don’t live in the catchment area of this school?

Whilst applauding the amazing job that the Head Teacher and his staff are doing on a daily basis in terms of the logistics of handling such a “mammoth task of teaching, feeding and managing the welfare of 1,100 pupils”, should we not be questioning whether this set-up will provide a long term return-on-investment in the education of our next generation? 

Super-size, or Titan schools such as the one featured in the documentary are a quite recent invention here, and have rapidly been taking off across the UK as a ‘quick fix’ to cover the obvious lack of long-term planning and investment in primary schools over the past years. Due to the fact that the Titan school concept hasn’t been around for very long in this country there has been no research here. Is the education of the next generation really something so unimportant that it can be subjected to such a high risk, unproven strategy? 

However, we do know about the effects of Super-size schools from experience on the other side of the pond - where everything is bigger but does that mean better? Super-size schools have been a part of the public education system for a much longer period of time and in March 2009 a review of 57 separate studies concerning the size of schools in the United States of America and Canada was published in the American Educational Research Association Journal:

“This review examined 57 post-1990 empirical studies of school size effects on a variety of student and organizational outcomes. The weight of evidence provided by this research clearly favors smaller schools. Students who traditionally struggle at school and students from disadvantaged social and economic backgrounds are the major benefactors of smaller schools. Elementary schools with large proportions of such students should be limited in size to not more than about 300 students; those serving economically and socially heterogeneous or relatively advantaged students should be limited in size to about 500 students.”

A Review of Empirical Evidence About School Size Effects: A Policy Perspective” by Kenneth Leithwood and Doris Jantzi (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto).

David Cameron fought the previous General Election pledging to “close the attainment gap between the richest and poorest . . . to make opportunity more equal and address our declining social mobility. The 2010 Conservative election manifesto stated:  

“A Conservative government will give many more children access to the kind of education that is currently only available to the well-off: safe classrooms, talented and specialist teachers, access to the best curriculum and exams, and smaller schools with smaller class sizes with teachers who know the children’s names.”

In fact, the number of primary schools with more than 800 pupils rocketed by an unbelievable 381% between January 2010 and 2014. (figures, as yet, unavailable for January 2015)

It is, perhaps, no surprise that the Titan primaries are not springing up in ‘well-off’ areas.  If you have the wherewithal  to choose where your children are educated, you do not choose to place them in this type of school.

During an era where young people from deprived areas:

▪rioted in the streets in 2011,

▪spend more time in a virtual community

▪are finding it more and more difficult to find work

▪are being radicalised

▪are disaffected, disengaged and without aspiration, and 1 in 10 are now suffering from anxiety and depression.

Why are politicians scratching their heads and wondering why - while at the same time piling young children into ever-bigger, more anonymous schools?

With all this in mind it is therefore no surprise that the plans of Brent Council to almost double the current intake of Byron Court Primary School in Wembley are being met with strong objections from the majority of parents. The school is planning to increase the intake to 1100 (1050 plus 50 nursery pupils) - the same number as Gascoigne, the school featured in the Channel 5 show – on a site that is a quarter of the size.

Byron Court is located in a catchment area which doesn’t even show clear evidence of need for places - they will be shipped in from Alperton and Sudbury (up to 5km away). There is also a mega-school currently being constructed less than 10mins walk away at Wembley High, with pupils being shipped in from Stonebridge and Harlesden (up to 7km away).  Why not invest in schools where the places are actually needed, instead of putting all the ‘eggs’ in one or two very large ‘baskets’?

What do we have to do to get politicians to address this issue? And for Brent Council, and other similar Councils, to re-think this method of Factory Farming  the Education of our children.  

 SIGN THE PETITION:LINK

Taguri may face 'official' Liberal Democrat candidate in Brent Central following donation allegations

Taguri emphasised his 'independent' credential and distanced himself from some Lib Dem policies before the allegations broke - the sign on his  campaign office has no prominent Lib Dem 'brand'

Few would have thought from Ibrahim Taguri's confident and articulate performance at last night's Sufra election hustings that he was about to be engulfed in a media storm over allegations LINK that he had offered a fake businessman a way around declaring donations to the party.

Taguri has now resigned from the party and therefore as an official Liberal Democrat candidate while investigations take place.

In a statement to the BBC he said he would continue campaigning as an independent until his name is cleared and he is readmitted to the party. Lord Ashdown on BBC Radio 4's today programme this morning suggested that he might be opposed by an official Liberal Democrat candidate.

Clearly this would throw the Brent Central campaign wide open with the potential for a split Liberal Democrat vote producing a primary battle between Dawn Butler and the Green Party candidate Shahrar Ali.

Shahrar Ali  commenting this morning said:

This election is now even more widely open than ever imagined. At a meeting last night Dawn Butler spoke of the 'elephant in the room' which was the 'clearing of her name' regarding expenses.

Today we learn  Ibrahim Taguri is under investigation for potential impropriety over advice on electoral donations.

Standing as an independent will not help him. The people of Brent demand nothing less than confidence that their politicians know right from wrong before presuming to serve them.

We need politicians we can trust.

Gateway abandons plans to open free school in Brent

Johnny Kyriacou, Principal designate, of Gateway Free School, has announced that Gateway will 'not proceed' after failing for the third year to find a school site in Brent.  He says pupils should not suffer as they will still have school choices selected through the Brent Council admissions system.

Kyriacou claimed that there was still a looming secondary school places shortage and that if the 800 or so pupils who currently choose schools outside of Brent were instead to stay in-borough there would be an immediate crisis.

This is the letter sent to parents:

Dear Parents/Guardians

It is with great regret and a profound sadness to announce that Gateway Academy will no longer proceed, thereby ending our attempts to provide an outstanding education to the young people of Brent.

In a recent meeting with the DfE we were informed that a building could not be secured in time for opening in September 2015 and that there remains no realistic prospect of being able to secure one in the future. There are a number of challenges to securing a building in Brent and that includes rising land prices and competition against developers for all available land, which means the DfE are not able to compete financially. That is not to say it is impossible but it seems very unlikely. 

We came close on a number of occasions, significant bids were made for various bits of land and on two occasions a deal with a property developer came extremely close to being signed only for them to pull out in the last minute for one reason or another. The DfE, through the Education Funding Agency have tried their best but not been able to succeed.

The Trustees felt that to go on for another year and campaign to recruit students without a building would not be in the best interests of the local community by raising their hopes and then seeing the school possibly be deferred for opening yet again.

I would like to offer my thanks to all those parents and members of the local community who supported us and were looking forward to the opening of our school. This journey represented over two years from application to pre-opening and to fail at the last hurdle through no fault of our own is devastating. 

I wish you and your children all the best for the future. You really do deserve the best.