Cllr Moher at a loss over Oakington Manor/Furness academisation

At last night's Council Meeting Cllr Kelcher,  speaking on behalf of  Furness Primary School parents, asked Cllr Moher, Lead Member for Children and Families, what the Council had offered parents as they battled the headteacher's plans to turn Furness into an academy. Furness is in a federation with Oakington Manor Primary School with one headteacher and one governing body.

Kelcher said he had been approached by Furness parents  who could see no compelling reason for it to become an academy and could not see why the great progress the school has made should be put at risk.

They wanted to know if the Council would stand by them in their fight.

Ruth Moher said that it was difficult to know what the Council could do other than what they had done already. They had indicated to the governors that they would prefer the schools to remain community schools within the family of Brent schools.

Moher said she was happy to talk to parents to give them information about what was happening and how it had come about. However, the difficulty was that there had been consultation meetings which had not been particularly well attended and no alternative views were given.

Cllr Moher said that she understood the academy application from the governors had gone to the  government. Once that was done the school would become an academy unless the governors could be persuaded to withdraw the application.

She finished:

I don't actually know if there is anything that could be done unless there is a real groundswell of opinion from parents to make the governors think and change their mind but I've had no sense of that happening.

She offered to talk to Cllr Kelcher about the issue.

I would suggest that if the consultation meetings were small and alternative views were not given that the ward councillors, or the Council itself,  should hold a well publicised community meeting for parents and prospective parents to give information and debate the case for and against academisation. This would be followed by an independently administered ballot of parents.

Scrutiny Chair objected to fly-tipping edit in strongest terms

Cllr Matt Kelcher in his first report a Chair of Brent Scrutiny Committee at Full Council tonight  referred to the editing of the fly-tipping report LINK which had been raised in the blogosphere and subsequently mentioned to him by colleagues.

He said that he had objected in the strongest terms to the editing of the report in the CEO's paper for Cabinet, whilst also recognising that the full version of the report was also on the agenda.

He said that he hoped such a thing would not happen again without consultation.

The editing of the report had removed a statement critical of the previous Labour administration, a fact that did not escape Cllr John Warren's notice.  He launched a barbed side-swipe about 2013 at Cllr Muhammed Butt later in the meeting.

The webcast of the meeting is HERE

Marylebone Boys' Free School to continue wandering around North West London

The itinerant Marylebone Boys' Free School is moving again and further away from Marylebone. It is currently sharing a site in the former College of North West London building in Kilburn with Kilburn Grange Primary Free School and will now move to a second site in Brondesbury Park. It will eventually (possibly?) go on to its final site in 2018. Not that the planning application has been submitted and has not yet been approved.

We are delighted to announce that a planning application has been submitted for our second site which will be a brand new, purpose-built modular school building in Brondesbury Park. It’s on the site of the former Swiss Cottage Special School located on Brondesbury Park between The Avenue and Christchurch Avenue.



Although the location is not as close to our final site as we might have wished, we are delighted that it is on a plot which allows for modular construction (which is quick) and that there is good outside space on site and nearby.



There are good transport links via buses 98 (bus stop Christchurch) and 206 (bus stops N and S, Brondesbury Park/The Avenue), Queens Park station on the Bakerloo Line, and Brondesbury Park station on the London Overground.



This site has been planned so that if there are delays to our permanent site – which now looks certain not to be ready in time for September 2017 but will be completed during the school year 2017-18 – four year groups can be accommodated at Brondesbury Park.

Good turnout for show of solidarity with Heathrow 13 in Willesden today

There was a great spirit of comradeship, vitality and determination at the Plane Stupid solidarity demonstration this morning at Willesden Magistrates Court where the Heathrow 13 are currently appearing.

Independent local environmental campaigners

Green Party leader Natalie Bennett, deputy leader Shahrar Ali and other Green Party activists

After Paris Climate Rising meets to discuss individual, community and workplace action on Climate Change

From Friends of the Earth, PCS and This Changes Everything UK
 

Please join us on  January  30^th at Friends House, London for Climate Rising,  a day of workshops, inspirational speakers and updates from the Paris talks.

Find out how to take action individually, together in our communities and workplaces; and link up with others across the globe who are on the frontline facing the threat of climate change.

In the morning we’ll hear stories from the Paris talks, including insights from:

Jagoda Munic, Chairperson, Friends of the Earth International 

Daniel Macmillen Voskoboynik, Coordinator, This Changes Everything UK 

Shehroze Khan, Campaigns Manager, MADE

Chris Baugh, Assistant General Secretary, PCS 

Sheila Menon, Activist, Reclaim the Power

Caroline Lucas MP will then chair a panel discussion on the next steps for the climate movement. She’ll be joined by the likes of:

Alice Bows-Larkin, Professor of Climate Science & Energy Policy, Tyndall Centre 

Mark Serwotka, General Secretary, PCS 

Yeb Sano, Climate Change Activist

With more speakers to be announced.

Naomi Klein, renowned journalist and author of This Changes Everything, will join us by video link from Canada in the afternoon.

And a host of exciting worshops including:

Deregulating the planet: trade, big business and the climate

Art, Fossil Fuels & Colonialism

Working for a low carbon economy: One million climate jobs S

topping fracking – frontline battles

Climate, migration and refugees

And many many more...

Rounding off the day we will hear from:

Alana Dave, Education Officer, International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) 

Asad Rehman, International Climate Coordinator,

Friends of the Earth  Francesca Martinez, Activist and Comedian

Everyone is welcome. Whether you’re new to the climate movement or a seasoned campaigner you’ll leave feeling inspired, motivated and connected with the climate community.

Timings:

Registration: 09:15 - 10:00 Ends 18.00

Friends House - 173-177 Euston Road London NW1 2AX GB - View Map

Tickets on Eventbrite £7.27 and £4.13 (concessions) LINK

Powney is not alone as questions raised over Flytipping Report

'Am I alone in finding this change of wording interesting?' asks James Powney LINK , drawing attention to a discrepancy between a report  on the Scrutiny Task group on Flytipping from the Chief Executive going to Brent Cabinet on January 20th and the actual body of the Task Group's Report (which is also included in the Cabinet papers).

Spot the difference:

Chief Executive's Report LINK

The Task Group Report LINK

So 'Why the mysterious change in Scrutiny wording?' as James Powney asks. Could it be that someone (who?) has decided the critical second sentence in 22 should be deleted? Why and on what authority?

I quoted the whole section so that readers could see that the other points are identical so this is no simple editing of the entire report.

It could be argued that it makes no difference because the original report is also included in the Agenda but then the Cabinet is actually voting on, and adopting, the version in the Chief Executive's Report.

James Powney was  Lead Member for the Environment at the beginning of 2013 and was succeeded by Cllr Roxanne Mashari at the AGM. In 2014 Cllr Keith Perrin was elected to the position but resigned in September 2014. Cllr George Crane was appointed in his place after an interval in which there was no one in the post.  LINK  Cllr Eleanor Southwood is the current Lead Member.

It is not quite Stalin removing Trotsky from the photographic record but intriguing all the same. Is there someone at Brent Council who cannot tolerate criticism or is it just a harmless tidying up exercise?

Will Brent Labour Group bite back over last year's Council Tax decision?

I confess I am guilty of neglecting fellow blogger and ex-councillor James Powney's writings and I missed a posting last week  LINK on the likely Council Tax rise.

In his piece James Powney draws attention to the situation last year when the Executive over-ruled the vote of the Labour Group for an increase just below the referendum trigger.  He hints that this may affect Cllr Butt's leadership position at the AGM in May :

I hear that Brent Council is likely to go for a Council Tax rise this year.  This has seemed to me to be the only sensible course for some time.  The rise will still only make a modest contribution to protecting Council services but it is better than nothing.

It also helps to protect the longer term finances of the Council.  Each year the Council Tax has been frozen, the base revenue of the Council has been reduced not just in this year but for future years.  With the government talking about abolishing central government grant altogether, a continued freeze would simply run the Council into the ground.

One might ask why Cllr Butt has been so bitterly opposed to a rise for so long.  Even to the extent of ignoring the vote of the Labour Group altogether, which was such an undemocratic measure that I am sure no previous Labour Group would have stood it.  I wonder whether it will come back to bite him in May.

Certainly, his reasons can not have been to protect vulnerable residents, since he was fully behind the Council Tax Support Scheme which inevitably hits those least able to pay.  Indeed the rise for those residents in the first year was so large it would have been impossible to raise the Council Tax by that much across the tax base as a whole. 

See the powerful 'India's Daughter' at Preston Library on Sunday and discuss it with producer

India's Daughter from Leslee Udwin on Vimeo.

India's daughter will be shown at the Preston Community Hub (the old Preston Library) on Sunday evening. Doors open 7pm and the film starts at 7.30pm. Riddhi Jha associate producer  of this powerful and influential film will be present to talk about the film and answer questions.

INDIA’s DAUGHTER is the story of the short life, brutal gang rape and murder in Delhi in December 2012 of an exceptional and inspiring young woman. The rape of the 23 year old medical student by 6 men on a moving bus, and her death, sparked unprecedented protests and riot throughout India and led to the first glimmers of a change of mindset.

Interwoven into the story line are the lives, values and mindsets of the rapists whom the film makers have had exclusive and unprecedented access to interview before they hang. 

The film examines the culture of rape and violence against women that exists in India and throughout the world and makes an optimistic and impassioned plea for change.