Ark Elvin: Butt accused of misrepresenting residents' views

 

Satellite view of the Ark Elvin site

In an exchange of emails a Wembley resident has accused Brent Council leader Muhammed Butt of misrepresenting their views on the Ark Elvin Academy planning application due to be heard at tonight's Planning Committee.

The allegations concern a meeting between Butt and residents on the site at the weekend.  In an emollient letter Butt said:

At the meeting I was glad to hear from yourself and all the people present  that you were not against the development of the school and that you understood that the new school will benefit the local area in helping to shape the demand for school places, so that children will not have to travel far from their homes. The current school building is in a poor state of repair and the new proposals will deliver a high quality facility that will enhance the learning environment for the students and in conjunction with the new management team at Ark Elvin under the leadership of the Head Annabel Bates, we will improve the life chances for those students.

Butt is on the governing body of Ark Elvin.

Responding Chetan Patel wrote:

I'm surprised and concerned with regards to your email reply, which is wholly inaccurate, untruthful and misleading. 

I would like to record, I didn't say I was in support of the planning application. This is very well documented in my numerous correspondence, which you have also been copied into. Please confirm if you want me to resend all my correspondence opposing the planning application to yourself.

You also stated all the residents at the meeting were in support of the scheme. This statement also completely wrong. The residents only agreed the school required modernisation. None of residents at the meeting agreed with the proposed Planning Application, which adopts Jesmond Avenue for construction access traffic.

I can also confirm the residents have never been invited by Kier (the developer) or the council to participate in two discussions with regards to mitigation of construction impact. We have only ever been told what will be imposed upon us. It feels more like a dictatorship.

If you feel my record of this meeting is still incorrect, we can have this debate again at the Planning Committee meeting on the 22nd October 2015.

I'm very disappointed in your email and I hope the Planning Committee are not unduly influenced by Muhammed Butt's poor recollection of this meeting.

Patel, who is due to make a delegation to the Planning Committee this evening, has also been involved in an exchange with Fiona Alderman. Referring to his claim that the Planning Application was not valid because it did not deal with the issue of a Public Right of Way across the playing fields Alderman wrote:

The assessment of such claimed cannot be carried out by the Planning Committee and must instead be dealt with by a separate process by Transport Department. My view is that there is no impediment to the Planning Committee considering and determining the application.

 Chetan Patel replied:

There are legal procedures which apply when rights of way are affected by development. Development is defined in the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 as “the carrying out of building, engineering, mining or other operations in, on, over or under land, or the making of any material change in the use of any buildings or other land”. The Act says that, with certain exceptions, planning permission must be obtained before development is carried out.

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has guidance (refer to section 48.d, attached) for local authorities on the validation of planning applications. The guidance states that applications for full planning permission should be accompanied by a plan of the proposed development showing all rights of way crossing or adjoining the site. I believe the claimed ‘Public Right of Way’ by myself any other residents by way of the 20 year easement period, should be shown on the Planning Application, but is missing from the Planning Application ref 15/3161.

If an application for planning permission affects a right of way (claimed Pubic Right of Way) then a special rule applies and the application must be advertised at the proposed site and in a local paper. This is an materially important so residents can make comments about them.

This means that, while the existence of a right of way across the site of a proposed development won’t automatically mean an application is rejected, the fact that it is there must be taken into account by the officer or committee which decides the application.

 The Planning Committee is at 7pm this evening at Brent Civic Centre.

Nicky Morgan slammed for attack on anti-academy parents and communities

 

Campaigners against the forced academisation of Gladstone Park Primary School

From Anti-Academies Alliance LINK
 

Commenting on Nicky Morgan’s attack on those in their community who campaign against academisation, including forced academisation, Kevin Courtney, Deputy General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers’ union, said; 

“The Department for Education’s press release has been timed to coincide with the passage of the Education and Adoption Bill through the Lords. If passed without amendment, this Bill could result in thousands more schools being forced into sponsored academy arrangements against the wishes of local communities. This is despite the absence of evidence that academy status results in improved standards. Even the Schools Minister, Nick Gibb, has been forced to concede that the Government ‘does not believe that all academies and free schools are necessarily better than maintained schools.’ 

“Crucially the Bill removes the consultation rights for parents, teachers and governors who in future would have no say over whether their school should become an academy, or the sponsor who would take it over. Nor would they be entitled to any information on the relative performance of the proposed sponsors compared with their local authority. It is therefore the undemocratic and illiberal Education and Adoption Bill which is underhand and intimidating, not the parents, grandparents and supporters of campaigns against forced academisation.

“The unsubstantiated attacks by the DfE on parents and local communities whose only crime has been to defend their school against the Government’s strong-arm-route tactics to force schools into academy status, including deploying bullying academy brokers, is utterly shameful. Under Nicky Morgan’s watch, the Department has plumbed new depths.

“Furthermore some of the ‘success’ claimed by academy heads, as cited in the press release, was occurring before these schools became academies. For example, results of SATs tests taken in May 2012 at Downhills, four months before the school was taken over by Harris,  show progress in English exceeded the national average (89%) by two percentage points (91%); while progress in Maths was just one percentage point (86%) below the national average (87%). It is not possible to make a direct comparison with the Key Stage 2 performance score for reading and maths prior to Downhills becoming an academy because from 2013 the reading national curriculum test and writing teacher assessment results were no longer combined to produce an overall English level. Instead, reading and writing results were reported on separately. This is yet another example of shoddy statistics emanating from the Department for Education.

“The Government’s assault on parents is a far cry from its claims that its academy and free school programme would give parents more ‘choice’ and a greater say in their child’s education. It is quite clear with this latest pronouncement from Nicky Morgan that the Government will stop at nothing to railroad schools, parents and communities into being forced to accept a school system that is neither wanted nor needed and for which there is no evidence base.

“Nicky Morgan should be concentrating on the real problems faced by schools such as a growing teacher recruitment and retention crisis and huge pressure on budgets and growing pupil populations. It is ridiculous that these issues are being ignored while the Government fixates on pushing through yet more privatisation.”

Ark Elvin 'land grab' to be decided at Planning Committee on Thursday

From the planning application

The redevelopment of the Ark Elvin school site (formerly Copland) is coming up at Brent Planning Committee on Thursday October 22nd (7pm Brent Civic Centre) LINK

Residents have been up in arms about what they see as a 'land grab' of the school playing fields to which they have had access for decades. The issue has been covered on Wembley Matters in the past LINK and there is an update on the Kilburn Times website LINK

Local resident Chetan Patel is claiming that the plans are a breach of the 'Public Right of Way':

With respect to planning application (ref 13/3161) for the redevelopment of ARK Elvin Academy formally known as Copland, I believe the proposal breaches the community's 'Public Right Of Way' to access the park in accordance to Highways Act 1980 Section 130A.

The proposed re-development removes all general public access to the park. The community has had access to the entire park without any objections from ARK or from the previous management of Copland Community School for many decades now. The Planning Application removes this general public access to the park.

The school have claimed anyone entering the park are trespassers, and the public don't have authorised access to park. However, the law assumes that if the public use a path/park without interference for some period of time set by statute at 20 years, then the owner (London Borough of Brent) had intended to dedicate it as a right of way. Therefore it is a 'Public Right of Way' by way of 'easement by prescription'.

 Residents appealed to Muhammed Butt, Brent Council leader when he visited the site on Saturday. However Butt is both a member of the governing body of Ark Elvin (representing the local authority), which put the proposal forward and a member of the Cabinet who gave the nod to the plans.

The Planning Committee is statutorily independent of the Council and under Sarah Marquis' has shown some independence.

The issue does of course raise the much wider issue of the handing over of public assets to academy chains.

At the same meeting the planning application for the Kensal Rise Library building is also under consideration. LINK

Barry Gardiner wins parents' meeting with minister over Byron Court school expansion

Nicky Morgan, the Secretary of State for Education, yesterday agreed to try and arrange a meeting with parents from Byron Court Primary School either with her or the Minister for Schools to discuss their concerns over expansion of the school.

She was responding to the following question in the House of Commons from Barry Gardiner, Labour MP for Brent North:

The Secretary of State said that her policy is that all “good and outstanding schools” should be able to expand to meet “the needs of parents” in their local areas. Byron Court primary school in my constituency is being forced to expand against the needs and wishes of parents in the local area. I shall not go into the details now, but will the Secretary of State meet me, parents and local residents who are desperately concerned about the state of this school’s expansion programme?

Brent Council has backed the expansion despite the parents' objections and a letter to the Cabinet from Barry Gardiner representing the parents' and residents' concerns. LINK

It became an issue during the General Election campaign. LINK

Brent youth service cut savagely with barely a whimper

The out-sourcing of the remnants of Brent's  youth services which will be left after savage cuts was approved by the Brent Cabinet tonight with barely a murmur of opposition.  It was in stark contrast to the fightback by youth in the last major round of cuts in 2011 LINK

Cllr Wilhemina Mitchell Murray from the public gallery asked why a solution had not been found similar to that for the Children's Centres which would have preserved the jobs of Brent's skilled youth workers. Cllr Butt made a rambling and incoherent response.

Cllr Roxanne Mashari hoped that the youth workers might make proposals during the procurement process.

Cllr Pavey feared for the future of the Poplar Grove Youth Centre in Chalkhill (it is in his ward) and said that he had been impressed by the high regard in which it was held by local youth.  He also praised the Brent Youth Parliament which has been spared the axe while at least two centres and possibly three are to be closed. BYP officers were present but did not contribute to the discussion, although they had attended a Scrutiny Committee discussion.

Following on from the closure and demolition of the Stonebridge Adventure Playground, whatever the gloss the Council PR team try and put on it, the decision marks a new low point for the youth of the borough.

They deserve better.

Save the Wildlife Garden at the Natural History Museum

Prospect ('The Union for Professionals'*) has launched a petition to save th wildlife garden at the Natural History Museum in London.

The petition can be found HERE

This was the briefing Prpespect published in August 

As the Natural History Museum’s unique urban wildlife garden celebrates its 20th anniversary it faces seeing more than half of its dozen or so individual habitats lost or uprooted under plans for a multi-million pound revamp of the institution’s grounds.

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Prospect, which represents specialists at the museum, welcomes plans to transform the “sterile” lawn frontage to recreate historic British habitats, including a Jurassic area, which will see the return of the much-loved “Dippy” dinosaur cast.
However, the architect-led plans for the compact one-acre wildlife garden on the west side of the building propose what amounts to a metres-wide driveway arcing right through the middle, where visitors currently enjoy its iconic central pond, associated wetlands and other threatened habitats including heathland and meadow.

Established by scientists

Responding to the plans, Prospect negotiator Mike Weiler said: “The wildlife garden was established by a team of scientists and ecologists 20 years ago, to illustrate the diversity of lowland habitat in the UK, many of which people – especially city dwellers – will never have seen. Many of the life scientists are still very much involved with the garden, which is managed by ecologists and a group of 30 dedicated volunteers.

“The plans that we have seen seem to be all about efficiently channelling large numbers of people through the garden towards the Darwin Centre and the other museum buildings, rather than enhancing the wildlife or encouraging any interaction. They could be easily modified to utilise the existing bricked pathways that run around the perimeter, to minimise disruption.
“In their existing form the plans will see the large pond filled in and replaced with a circular pool.

One small pond will be destroyed while another will remain. The museum’s answer to many of our current concerns seems to be ‘translocation’, to use the technical term – in other words digging up habitats and moving them. The academic literature gives a mixed review at best on the success of this process.

Educational role

“The Wildlife Garden has evolved over two decades. It can’t be replaced overnight. It has taken many years to build up the 2,600 species of plant and animal life that can now be found there and careful management and dedication is required to maintain each distinct habitat.”

The garden was established in part with a £50,000 grant from English Nature (now part of Natural England), the largest ever made by the agency at the time. It is the only area of the grounds that currently nurtures natural history and plays a vital role in both education and research. It attracts thousands of school children annually, many of whom attend museum-led workshops, as well as charting local climate change impacts by recording the annual variations in flowering times of plants.

Despite all this the museum complains of low visitor numbers, though a gate linking the lawn and garden is now permanently locked and the only way to access it is by passing through the busiest parts of the museum building. Even then, there is a complete absence of signage inside the museum.
Journalist Kate Bradbury recently toured the garden and was enchanted. In an article for the Telegraph to mark the garden’s 20th anniversary, she described it as a “Narnia...bursting with adventure.”

Mike Weiler added: “The simple fact is that if the garden was better advertised it would be a magnet for visitors seeking a calm oasis of nature just a stone’s throw from the hustle and bustle of Cromwell Road.”

Embracing positive change

Despite its concerns about the museum’s ill-considered plans, the Prospect branch at the NHM is keen to embrace change for the better and is floating the idea of a raised walkway to attract greater visitor numbers without disrupting the garden.

“Those who run the gardens have always been keen to embrace new ideas and technology to improve the visitor experience. The use of webcams to reveal the secret life of bees, birds and bats has been a recent example of this and there is considerable scope to make use of advances in camera technology,” said Weiler.

A recent “town hall”-style staff meeting at the museum showed high levels of opposition to the current plans and Prospect is now seeking urgent, meaningful talks ahead of any attempt to seek planning permission.

* Declaration of interest. I am a member of Prospect in my role at Brent School Without Walls which provides nature walks for primary children in Fryent Country Park.

Brent Central Labour reject Trident in boost for Corbynistas

After an address by Kate Hudson of CND and a debate, Brent Central Constituency Labour Party overwhelmingly voted against the renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system.

This brings them into alliance with Jeremy Corbyn (and the Green Party).  The recent Labour Party Conference decided not to discuss the issue.

'The Invisible Woman' tonight at Preston Library. Children's show tomorrow

Tonight's film at Preston Library, is The Invisible Woman, about the secret love affair between Charles Dickens and Nelly Ternan. Doors open at 7.15, and the film will start promptly at 7.30. Our films are free to members of the library, and you can join at the door. We will be collecting donations towards the work of the library.

 "This is an engrossing drama, with excellent performances." Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian