Jubilee and Metropolitan lines closed for Easter weekend

From Transport for London

Jubilee line On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, there will be no service between Waterloo and Wembley Park while we replace the tunnel lining at Bond Street, replace points at Neasden and track at Finchley Road. On Monday, the closure extends to Stanmore.

Metropolitan line Trains will not run between Aldgate and Northwood/Uxbridge all Easter weekend to allow for points work at Harrow and Neasden and track replacement work at Finchley Road. Additional Piccadilly line services will run between Uxbridge and Rayners Lane.

Brent Central candidates talking green at the Learie Constantine Centre

From Brent Friends of the Earth

Photo: Jonathan Goldberg      

Parliamentary candidates for Brent Central were questioned on their green credentials at Brent Friends of the Earth's Eco Hustings last Thursday in Willesden.

Green candidate Shahrar Ali, Labour’s Dawn Butler, Conservative Alan Mendoza and UKIP's Stephen Priestley, along with Ollie Hayes, Campaigner for Friends of the Earth, were on the panel. Friends of the Earth's Energy and Climate Change Campaigner, Rose Dickinson took the chair. The panel faced an audience of 60 local residents and party supporters at the Learie Constantine West Indian Association. John Boyle of TUSC, and the Liberal Democrats were also invited.

Climate change, fracking, fuel poverty, TTIP, industrial farming and air pollution were amongst the the issues discussed.

Viv Stein, Spokesperson for Brent Friends of the Earth says, “This election has come at a crucial time for our future. In order to avoid catastrophic climate change we need to leave 80% of fossil fuels in the ground, and invest in renewable energy instead. The current coalition promised to be 'the greenest Government ever' but have failed to live up to this. They've supported gas and oil companies with huge tax breaks, and have damaged investment in green energy in the UK by cutting incentives for renewables.”

“It was good to hear all the candidates talking green, but they and their parties will need to deliver robust, joined-up and sustainable policies to provide a secure future for us all.”

“We asked candidates to sign a pledge that they won't support fracking in Brent or elsewhere, but as yet only Labour,* the Green and UKIP candidates have signed up.”

You can check which candidates have signed the frack free pledge at HERE   Videos of the meeting available HERE

* Note from Martin Francis:  John Boyle, the TUSC candidiate has pointed out that Dawn Butler has NOT signed according to the  FOE website. He has signed on behalf of TUSC. In Brent North only Scott Bartle, the Green candidate, has signed.  LINK

Brent install 24 hour security as they take over the Stonebridge Adventure Playground buildings and land which they intend to destroy

Brent Play Association handed over the keys of Stonebridge Adventure Playground to Brent Council this morning, but not before they had secured the Head of Assets signature on the handover document.

The BPA were told that Brent Council were installing 24 security cover in the playground. I wonder how much that will cost - and what are they afraid of? 

Protecting something they will destroy seems to be the ultimate irony...

Wembley Crime Preventer Jeremy Zeid steps down after advocating Obama kidnap

Jeremy Zeid with Nigel Farage

Jeremy Zeid, UKIP candidate for Hendon has stood down following publicity over his Facebook statement that Israel should kidnap President Obama and put him on trial. LINK

He said:

“Once Obama is out of office the Israelis should move to extradite the bastard or ‘do an Eichmann’ on him and lock him up for leaking state secrets.”

“Just kidnap the bugger, like they did to Eichmann,” he added in a comment, referring to the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, who was captured in Argentina in 1960 and put on trial in Israel.

 This advocate of kidnapping is a member of Wembley Crime Prevention LINK

NB This is not an April 1st joke.

Brent Labour Council should hang its head in shame as Stonebridge Adventure Playground closes

I visited Stonebridge Adventure Playground  yesterday for their last major children's event - an Easter Egg Hunt. Caught up in the excitement of the hunt children soon forgot about the imminent closure - indeed many children had thought that the playground was already closed on this the first day of the school Easter holiday.

The adults present were all too aware that this was the end of an era.  Salvageable equipment had been transported  from the playground building into safe storage. The outdoor play equipmentcannot be moved as the legs, embedded in concrete, would have to be cut off at ground level.

Brent Council served the playground a double whammy:  1) closure to allow Stonebridge Primary School to be expanded and housing built on the school's present annexe. The land sale will pay for the school expansion. 2) stop funding of the playground so even if the application to expand the school failed the playground would still not survive.

To add insult to injury the Coucil asked the playground workers to carry on working for nothing during the Easter and Summer holidays.

The consultation on the school expansion ends on Thursday March 2nd, two days after the playground funding stops. To comment go to LINK

The playground serves the children of Stonebridge and Harlesden, some of the most disadvantaged in Brent. The children in the new developments being built in the area will not only need school places but a safe, supervised place to play. The Council has deprived them and the present population of that.

Median income of Brent wards 2014

 Stonebridge ethnicity compared with Brent (2011 census)

Age and gender compared wit Brent (2011 census)

The 2011 census results showed that 32.1% of the Stonebridge population were under 18 compared with 22.6% of the whole borough.

The Stonebridge School Annexe. This will be demolished and the children moved into the expanded main school. The net increase in capacity of Stonebridge School as a whole will be incraesed by only 30 pupils. Houses will be built on the Annexe site.  Substantial investment has been made to make the Annexe suitable for educating children.

New housing is going up opposite Stonebridge School and the adventure playground, eventually making a continuous run of housing on both sides of the road.  The green space below and the trees are threatened by the new development. They originally provided screening from the busy main road for the school.

The empty interior of the playground building, soon to be bulldozed

Children left their signatures and messages on the piano as a farewell to the playground

On a personal note I'd like to pay tribute to Doug and Glynis Lee, the amazing playworkers and all those who fought so hard to keep Stonebridge Adventure Playground open. You are an example to all who care about their community.

 

Bob Blackman's record on environmental issues under scrutiny

Bob Blackman, former MP for Harrow East (he is now just a candidate) had his record put under scrutiny publicly last week  near St Anne's Shopping Centre, Harrow on the Hill, when a constituent erected a board displaying his responses to her letters on various environmental issues as well as the Robin Hood tax and TTIP.

It was a novel way to inform voters of his complacency in the face of residents' concerns.

Bob Blackman is a former leader of Brent Conservatives.

Ibrahim Taguri confirms he will not stand as an Independent in Brent Central

As Brent Green Party was meeting across the road, the signage at Ibrahim Taguri's temporary campaign office in Walm Lane was being taken down last night. Earlier Ibrahim had confirmed to me that he would not be standing as an Independent in the General Election. He had anticipated a quick resolution of the allegations about donations made in the Daily Telegraph but this has not happened.

Lauren Keith was last week selected as the Liberal Democrat candidiate for Brent Central.

On March 26th the Electoral Commission made the following statement:

The Electoral Commission has today (26 March 2015) provided an update on its consideration of two separate allegations regarding donations to the Liberal Democrat Party.

Daily Telegraph allegations

Following the allegations that appeared recently on The Telegraph online (11 March) and subsequently in the newspaper regarding Ibrahim Taguri and donations to the Liberal Democrats, the Electoral Commission requested information from the newspaper, the party and Mr Taguri to help it establish the facts in the case.

Based on the information that the Commission has seen, one alleged offence centres on the potential evasion of restrictions on donations in contravention of section 61 of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA). Offences under this part of PPERA are ultimately a criminal matter and fall outside of the Commission’s civil sanctioning powers.

The Electoral Commission has therefore passed the information that it has received to the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). The MPS have confirmed to the Commission that they are also aware of the allegations and that they are considering them.

Channel 4’s ‘Dispatches’ 

Following the allegations that appeared as part of Channel 4’s Dispatches programme (23 March), the Electoral Commission requested further information from the programme to help it establish the facts in the case.

Based on the information that the Commission has seen, the alleged offence in this case centres on the potential evasion of restrictions on donations in contravention of section 61 of PPERA and is ultimately a criminal matter. As a result, the Commission has also passed the information that it has received to MPS who are aware of the allegations and are considering them.

Donations received in the course of both cases

In both of these cases, the Liberal Democrat Party received a number of donations.

One donation in the Telegraph case, a cheque for £7,650 was delivered to the party. However, it had not been banked and the funds had not cleared and as a result no offence was committed under the donation rules set out in PPERA.

The other donations included one of £1,450 made by the undercover reporter in the Telegraph case that was received and accepted by the party; and another of £10,000 received from the ‘step father’ of the undercover donor in the Dispatches case, Mr Paul Wilmott. The Commission is in contact with the Liberal Democrats about the actual source of these donations and will provide a separate statement about this matter once these further facts have been established.

Next steps

Any decisions about what further steps to take at this stage in relation to potential evasion of restrictions on donations in either case rest with the Metropolitan Police Service.

Should further facts emerge in relation to The Telegraph allegations or Channel 4’s Dispatches, which could lead the Electoral Commission to consider any other potential breaches of PPERA, the Commission will do so in line with its enforcement policy.

TTIP: the threat to local authorities and public services

As the perils of TTIP are still not widely known and only a few organisations. including the Barnet Alliance and the Green Party seem to be ringing the alarm bells, I am reposting this long piece first published on the Barnet Alliance website LINK.

The EU and the US have been negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) Agreement since July 2013. The consequences of this treaty could have a profound effect on EU member states at regional and local levels.TTIP would affect many sectors which are the responsibilities of local and regional authorities.

 The broad scope and myriad responsibilities of German Federal States, regional governments and local authorities across the EU would have justified involving them in the decision-making process as stakeholders. However, this has not happened. Representatives of regional and local governments as well as the public are puzzling over the content, the scope and the possible consequences of this treaty. It is therefore the aim of this short briefing to shine a light on possible consequences of this treaty for local and regional government. However, as negotiations are still ongoing, and owing to the restricted access to documentation, we can only present a rough estimation as to what TTIP will entail.

TTIP will have a profound effect on many areas under the remit of regional and local authorities and is examined in more detail here under in order to allow for a realistic assessment of risks. The source for this analysis are a series of leaked documents such as the text of the negotiating mandate of the EU Commission and drafts texts of various chapters and appendices.

As TTIP negotiations cover a very broad spectrum of topics, only those which are of relevance to local and regional authorities are considered for this briefing:

They include the planned Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) of arbitration, and issues relating to the status of public services, grants, subsidies and public tendering.

The Effects of TTIP on Local and Regional Governments.

by Thomas Fritz

Translation by Phil Fletcher

Arbitration tribunals: Local authorities and international courts.

When the Lisbon Treaty came into force in 2009, the European Commission was given the exclusive authority over direct foreign investments. This allows it to include into trade agreements far reaching provisions for investor protection, provisions which had already been included in a multitude of bilateral treaties. The mandate to negotiate on TTIP, which the European Council granted the European Commission, also provides for investor protection including ISDS, albeit on condition of an overall “satisfactory” result of the negotiations for the EU.